#robin buckly

[dreamsteddie]

Nancy knows what people think when they see her and Steve together these days. People mostly include Robin Buckley who, despite what they both say, Nancy doesn't completely believe isn't carrying some kind of torch for the man.

They aren't dating, but it's obvious to anyone who knows them that's what Nancy is angling for. She's not subtle, and she's not trying to be. Doesn't see any reason why she should be. But she knows what it looks like. Nancy Wheeler, fresh off an amicable but heartbreaking end to her relationship with Johnathan Byers has turned tail for a rebound with former boyfriend Steve Harrington. She's using him. She's leading him on. She's going to break his heart, again.

The truth is that Nancy has always liked Steve, was in love with Steve for a fleeting moment when they were both young and stupid and full of mistakes waiting to be made and in the end they had hurt each other, misunderstood each other, too many times to last through their tumultuous teenage years.

The Nancy and Steve of 1984 couldn't have loved each other right, but Nancy knows in her heart that the Nancy and Steve of 1987 could make something beautiful.

Steve is so different from who he used to be. There's a steadiness in him that he always tried to emulate but never fully embodied until the summer of 1985. He always knew how to make her laugh, how to get her to tap into that adventurous spirit within her and live life, but now he also makes her feel safe.

She wants to hold him the way he used to hold her. Wants to whisk him away to New York and build a life perfectly balanced between her ambition and his steadfastness. So she's putting everything she has into rekindling those embers that have always smoldered between them into a steady fire.

She just has to convince Robin that she's in it for the long haul this time.

------

Robin thinks that before she met Steve Harrington her life was never so much like a soap opera.

Her best friend seems to attract danger, betrayal, and romance to him like the world is full of moths and he's the only flame for miles. It would be funnier if it wasn't so god damn annoying sometimes.

Steve doesn't know it, despite how much he insists on being some kind of love expert, but he's got two very eligible bachelors vying for his hand at the moment. She's pretty sure they both see themselves as tragic heroes in this tale of romance, but from her vantage point, it's more like two ornery cats fighting for the prized spot of their owner's lap.

Nancy and Eddie have made themselves both near-permanent fixtures at the Family Video. Ostensibly, they come in because Hawkins is still in the process of rebuilding and there isn't much to do at the moment outside of wandering the woods, loitering at the convenience store, and watching movies at home. In actuality they're both trying to monopolize as much of Steve's time as possible, each trying to lock down his weekend plans before the other.

The first couple of weeks it was funny just to watch, now the only enjoyment she gets out of the whole circus is ruining their plans. She relishes the pissed-off-priss look she gets from Nancy when she asks Steve to go to the drive-in the next town over and Robin turns it into a group outing instead. It's equally funny to watch Eddie's puffed-up shoulders droop when he can't figure out a way to say no to Robin enthusiastically asking if she can join them at the trailer to smoke up on a Saturday night.

In truth, as much as she enjoys messing with them, Robin knows who she wants to win this war. She knows too much about Steve and Nancy's past and all the ways they weren't good for each other to trust her deceptively fragile best friend in Nancy's capable hands.

Eddie, on the other hand...well she's still going to make him work for it before she throws him a bone.

------

Eddie's never been one to fall in love.

He's had crushes, shared a few kisses with girls and boys alike, and lost his virginity in the same fumbling but meaningful way most teens do.

But love? He's never had that before, wasn't sure what it would even feel like.

It turns out that for Eddie, being in love feels a lot like being an overgrown house plant that's finally been moved into suitably a larger pot.

You see, Eddie knows a lot about growing up on his own. Raising himself and finding ways to survive, if not thrive, with a distinct lack of nurturing. He knows how to grow under someone, to grow under the clumsy guidance of his uncle Wayne who never intended to become a parent. And most of all he knows a hell of a lot about growing despite. Growing under the harsh boot forever trying to push him back into the hard dirt he came from.

It's something else entirely to grow with someone in the way he's been growing with Steve.

Steve who was there when he woke up, almost equally as injured as Eddie himself after a second, world saving round with Vecna. Steve who let Eddie lean on him in the difficult month of physical and emotional recovery that came next. Who helped Eddie come to terms with the new reality he was living under the way Steve wished someone had been there for him after his first encounter with the Upsidedown. Steve, who on paper should have been one of the people pushing him down, always gave Eddie the space to be himself and never tried to force either of them into a box they didn't fit.

Eddie knows he's not The Girl. He's not the one who got away, he's not the stalwart princess in one of his campaigns who saves the day herself but still gets the guy. He's not Nancy Wheeler.

But he's also not a quitter, and even if everything about the world and the narrative arc of their lives says that Steve will never end up with him, Eddie knows he would regret it for the rest of his life if he didn't put his hat in the ring for the hand of the fair Sir Steve.

------

Steve's not stupid.

He knows that there's something happening between Nancy, Eddie, and himself. Knows that if he chooses to look a little closer, to examine why exactly all his weekends are suddenly booked up and Robin has taken to stealing the Recese's Pieces off the shelf whenever either one of them comes into the store like she's settling in for a show, he would come to the conclusion that two of his best friends are essentially courting him in competition with each other.

But Steve isn't looking closer.

His mom always said that he was just like his father, too stubborn for his own good.

Robin says he's a control freak, pushing non-life-threatening problems off until he knows how to deal with them on his own terms.

The truth is Steve already knows how this will end, and he knows how this should end.

Because in the eyes of society, in the arc of the narrative, Steve and Nancy should already be making plans to move out to New York and start a life together. Steve should be looking at apartments while Nancy finalizes her class schedule. He should be looking into getting a job at his dad's New York office to support his future wife through her college education where they both know she'll breeze through her classes and move onto the world-changing career she was always meant to have, while Steve stays home with their children like a perfect little modern family.

And the thing is, if the story had gone like it was supposed to, if the world had been saved the fourth time around and Eddie Munson had died on the cold, hard ground of the Upsidown, that's probably exactly the future that would have happened and Steve would have never known to not be content with it. But Eddie did make it, and while Steve mourns the future he could have had, he knows it's not the one he's going to choose in the end.

Even though Steve knows exactly what will happen when he allows himself to face the ever-mounting tension between the three of them, it's scary to take that plunge.

Everything about Steve's world up until Robin has told him that what he's going to choose will damn him forever, and even if he's never put much stock into God and the church, he knows that the future in front of them will never be easy. There's a part of him that wants to take the easy way out. He's never been attracted to a man before Eddie, never had to imagine himself loving someone discreetly, and the thought of it makes his heart hurt prematurely. It would be simpler, he knows, to choose the path most taken.

But Steve has always thought more with his heart than his brain, and he knows that after everything they've been through, after all the time they've spent healing together and growing as one that he could never choose anyone but Eddie.

The time is coming for him to make his final decision, he can feel it, but for now he'll let them sit in this liminal space a little longer.

[stevieschrodinger]

"Robs I've got to stop staring. Make me look away."

"Errr...no. I'm staring too."

"But why?"

"Trying to work out what the fascination is. He looks like the love child of Ozzy Osbourne and an Ann Rice vampire."

Steve sips his drink, "he's not even that good looking," he says, distressed, "I just can't look away...there's just...something."

"Is it how pathetic he is?"

"He does walk like a baby deer on ice." And it's true, the guy is so uncoordinated. He clearly doesn't know how long his arms are, and keeps nearly taking people out by accident. There's just something... fascinating about it. "Oh my god Rob, make me look away, I'm being a creeper. This is so inappropriate, he must be about twelve years old."

"Steve. He's holding a beer, so even if he is just 21, that actually means there's only ten years between you."

"Only," Steve snorts with derision, "only she says. Who is he anyway."

"Wayne Munson's plus one."

"Wayne Munson the engineer guy?"

"Yeah."

"Didn't know he swung that way-"

Robin hits him with her purse, "it's his nephew you fucking dingus. Didn't you pay any attention?"

"No. Not really, you know I hate this shit."

"You can get through one company BBQ Steve, you won't die. Maybe you'll get introduced to him."

Steve makes a noise. A noise he really shouldn't make and definitely not in public. Because he wants to do mean, awful, terrible things to that boy. He wants to make him come until it hurts. Until he's sore and red and begging and trying to cry but he can't because there's nothing left because Steve has removed every drop of moisture from the boys body via his dick and he has got to stop staring.

"Robin, walk me to the bar. Walk me to the bathroom. Walk me to my car. Walk me to the ornamental fucking fountain so I can ornamentally fucking drown myself but please I am begging you. I have got to stop staring."

"Okay," Robin grabs him by his arm and turns them fully in a circle, and then starts marching him across the lawn towards the Munson's.

"Robin. Please. No."

"Shut up you big baby. Besides, he needs help, there might be things living in his hair."

"I can definitely fix him."

"That's the spirit."

Part Two

Read what happened next on AO3

[stevieschrodinger]

Everyone is stoned. Just. So stoned. Eddie brought over the good stuff. The TV's been stuck on static for like, forty minutes, but no one can be bothered to move.

"You shut up Steven, you've practically dated everyone in the room."

"Robs. Robs. We never. Not even prac-ti-cly."

"Yeap, yeap, you asked me-"

Steve huffs, "we were drugged and in a bathroom, and doesn't count. Said no."

"But I nearly said yes. So you've nearly dated everyone," Robin tells him confidently.

Steve's vaguely aware of either Nancy or Eddie making a noise at that revelation, but he's not looking at where they're lying on the floor, so he doesn't know which of them it was.

And for a split second, Steve's back there. Drugged, confused, sitting in a bathroom and absolutely certain that he's in love with Robin, "you never told me that."

She shrugs, she shrugs like it's nothing, like she hasn't just turned Steve upside down a little bit, "I only figured it for a second, but I thought, if there was someone I could...fake it with. It would be you."

And there's just so many things she's not saying there. That don't need to be said. About the world and why she would consider that. Too many things for Steve to process. And Steve's crying, he doesn't even know why really, just big feelings that he can't define. A life they nearly had that would have been a lie, but still a forever with Robin. He's got a lapful of Rob now, and he holds her so tight, so so tight. And he knows Eddie is there, rubbing his back, and Nancy is doing the same for Robin.

And he kind of thinks that things do just work out.

[stevieschrodinger]

Because of the law changing Eddie/Steve and Robin/Nancy get married on the same day.

The news breaks that it's official, and all four of them look at each other and they just know. They hardly even speak as they're all pilling into Steve's car, heading to find out what they need, what paperwork there is, when the next available appointments are at the courthouse.

Because of this, it's an ongoing thing that if it ever comes up in conversation, just a casual, 'oh, how long have you been married?' Eddie will always, always, look at Nancy and say, "when did we get married?"

And every single time, without fail, Nancy will explain, "oh, I'm not married to him we just got married on the same day."

To which Eddie will always get so so offended, " why are you so quick to point that out, huh? What would be so bad about being married to me? Steven! Defend my honor!"

And they fight about it every time, and Robin and Steve love it.

[dreamsteddie]

Childhood friends Steddie this, childhood friends Steddie that!

When will we see childhood friends Stobin!?

They meet at Headstart because the Harringtons want to give their child as much of a leg up on his peers as possible and the Buckleys know that their daughter is incredibly bright, and with the preschool, she could probably start kindergarten a year early.

On day one Steve shows off the lunch his nanny made him, a PB&J cut up into a star shape, a mandarin fruit cup, and a homemade cookie. Robin is insanely jealous of the cookie and starts trying to convince Steve that he should give it to her, only she's already showing signs of becoming a rambler later in life so she trips over the words and it all comes out as a garbled mess that Steve can't make out.

Still, Steve is a kind boy and this girl looks like she's getting really frustrated and maybe even like she's going to cry and Jill, his nanny, packed him a second cookie in another bag for him to give to he first friend he makes on his first day of preschool. He doesn't know if he wants to be friends with this girl, but she seems upset and cookies make everything better.

The cookie does, in fact, make everything better.

Steve and Robin spend the whole day sitting side by side holding hands and running around. The adults around them coo and say weird things about young love that Steve doesn't really pay attention to and Robin crinkles her nose up at. She thinks boys have cooties, but Steve is ok because he's her friend and he's not as gross as the other boys.

By the time Jill and the Buckleys come to pick up their charges, Robin and Steve are wearing matching, wonky friendship bracelets they spent all of craft time on. Robin's is made of blue poney beads because she told Steve that was her favorite color and it had little plastic charms of a bluebird, an ice cream cone, a lime green dinosaur, and a bead with the letter 'S' on it. Steve's is yellow with lots of star beads, an orange dinosaur, a charm that looks like a banana, and a bead with the letter "R" on it.

They head home wearing big smiles, ready for another day of preschool with their best friend.

------

Edit: Companion piece unlocked!

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One Two Three

Robin sucks on her drink through her straw, “why, exactly, are we here?”

Steve sighs into his own drink.

Robin looks around the yard from her perch on a lawn chair, “I can’t help but notice, Steven, that we are very clearly the oldest people here.”

Steve watches Eddie balefully. He’s trying and failing to light the grill. It’s almost embarrassing to watch; Steve can’t seem to look away.

“Steven, I am drinking something that was mixed together in bowl. I’m drinking it out of a red solo cup. I haven’t touched one of these in a decade. I require an explanation.”

“I don’t have one.”

“That is a lie. Your pants will catch fire and then you can use them to help that moron to light the grill.”

They watch for a little longer.

“Fucks sake Steve just go and do it for him. This tastes like paint thinner; I’ll need to eat some bread at some point or I’ll go into kidney failure.”

Steve gets up and lights the grill for Eddie. He’s wearing another butchered tee shirt and some black board shorts. He’s so pale, and all of his bony bits are on show. Elbows. Wrists. Ankles.

His hair is gathered up into a messy bun on top of his head.

He still has a smear of make up on one eyelid where it hasn’t washed off properly.

Steve knows exactly what he sounds like when he comes.

“Thanks man,” Eddie’s blushing. He’s rubbing the back of his neck. It reveals Eddie’s pale ribs. His dark hairy armpit-

Steve runs away before he does something stupid.

“Okay, so, step by step, no gory details please, what exactly happened last night, because I know damn well you didn’t spend the entire forty five minutes I was waiting hanging around in a gross bathroom.”

Steve sighs, rubs his forehead, then goes and gets them both refills.

“Coward,” Robin calls after his retreating back.

He’s refilling their cups with an honest to fucking god soup ladle out of the kitchen – avoiding the fly that has met it’s sticky end in what is, no doubt, highly toxic punch – when it happens.

“Hey man,” Steve is being addressed by an actual pimply teenager.

“Hey.”

“Nice car,” he sounds weirdly angry about it.

“Uhhh...thanks,” because Steve doesn’t know what the fuck else to say to a dude wearing a dungeons and dragons tee shirt over flaming basketball shorts. He has nothing on his feet. Outside. Steve represses a shudder.

“Look, you clearly have money, or whatever, and probably a fancy job and you’re like, forty-”

“Hey-”

“- or whatever, but this thing with Eddie, can you make it fast please? Dragging it out isn’t fair on him.”

Steve blinks. He’s getting a shovel talk from someone who probably doesn’t know what a VHS is.

Steve can remember playing video games with no save; if you were going to do it, you had to play the whole damn thing in one go. Steve didn’t have a mobile phone until he was fifteen. Steve is not going to take this.

“This ‘thing’ I have with Eddie is none of your business. Eddie can speak for himself-”

“No Eddie cannot speak for himself, because Eddie is the nicest guy I know and Eddie already thinks he’s in love. Don’t think I don’t see what this is for you, Eddie’s just another thing to play with until you get bored. Look at this place, look at us. Now look at you and you’re fancy friend over there,” the kid gestures and, yeah, alright, the difference is pretty obvious, “you wouldn’t be caught dead here, slumming it, if you weren't getting something out of it. Now hurry it along, Eddie only writes good stuff when he’s heartbroken. Which is a lot, by the way. We all know how this goes.”

“What’s wrong with your face?”

“I just got a shovel talk from a kid who probably shouldn’t even be drinking yet.”

“Ouch,” Robin takes her drink back, “how does that feel?”

Steve shrugs, “not sure, actually.”

Across the yard, Steve watches as Eddie gesticulates wildly and hisses angrily at the pimply face DnDer. He catches Steve watching. Eddie grabs the kid by the arm and drags him away.

“The burgers are burning,” Robin idly points out.

Steve sighs, he loves this polo, grease stains are a bastard, and the chances of finding an apron in this place are none existent.

At least Robin comes with him. She half unwraps some cheese and generally pretends to busy herself, slicing buns and stacking paper plates.

“So, last night?”

“Right,” Steve sighs through his nose, shuffling some onions around on the flat plate. “So I was just going to you know, get him.”

“Get your man tiger,” Robin purrs.

It shouldn’t be funny, but it kind of is. Steve laughs.

“But he just...grabbed my hand. And he said ‘Steve! Come and meet the guys!’ So I...did.”

“He introduced you to his friends,” Robin raises that lethal eyebrow.

“Yeah.”

“And you went along with it?”

“Well I kind of...he didn’t let go of my hand so I kind of…”

Both of Robins eyebrows are now in the stratosphere. She appears to spend a few minutes digesting that, “and then you got invited to...this.”

Steve’s already dug half a hole, and he still apparently has the shovel in his hand, so he keeps going, “he was just so happy to see me,” Steve admits, quietly.

“Who is that?”

“Who?”

Robin grabs Steve by the hair and forcibly turns his whole head, “that.”

There’s a blonde girl talking to Eddie. She’s wearing a white tank top and daisy dukes, “no idea.”

“Come on, high time you introduced me.”

Steve really tries, but he cant hide the fact that he is delighted by this turn of events, “why, Robin Buckley! Oh how the tables have turned-”

“Shut the fuck up. I’m going to make her cry.”

Part Five

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One Two Three Four

Steve sits with his head pressed against the steering wheel.

In the passenger seat, Robin’s doing her make up.

“What are we doing here, Rob?”

“You mean like, in the cosmic soul searching sense, or here specifically?”

“Here. Specifically.”

“Well, your beautiful brunette boyfriend-”

“You don’t score points for alliteration. And he’s not my boyfriend.”

“All right then, the man who is under the distinct impression that he’s your boyfriend, suggested we all hang out together. So we are here. At the place I suggested.”

“Because you know I hate it here.”

Robin makes a non committal noise, Steve looks, she’s pulling the horrendous mascara face. He goes back to resting his forehead on the steering wheel.

Steve does hate it here. Reminds him of...fucking work brunches with his father and Sunday lunches with his mother and he just. Hates it.

Steve sighs like a Victorian maid who’s betrothed has not yet returned from sea. He’s certain he’ll die from consumption at any minute.

“Shut up you big baby,” Robin tells him as she fluffs her hair, “all I want is to finger bang this chick in the bathroom and then rub my cunt on her face, is that too much to ask?”

And Robin has been wholly supportive of Steve so far, so, “no, I suppose-what the fuck Robin? Did you choose this place because-”

“I like the bathrooms-”

“-the bathrooms are nice-”

“What?-”

“Oh you fucking-”

“They’re romantic kinda’.”

“They’re bathrooms, Robin!”

“The lighting is good. I like the vibe.”

“Oh my god.”

Steve’s stares mournfully after his best friend. She’s at the bar with Chrissy, because Chrissy wanted to watch the guy make their cocktails, look he does tricks with the thing, like in that old movie with Tom Cruise.

Steve could physically feel himself ageing as she spoke.

“It’s so cool they’re dating.” Steve does not point out that whatever Robin's about to do to Chrissy, it will be a four letter word, but that four letter word is not ‘date’.

“You think?”

Eddie smiles big. The dimples come out. Huge happy brown fucking cow eyes. He’s not attractive Steve reminds himself viciously. He’s playing with his cutlery because he can’t sit still and...his chins too pointy. Or something. “Well yeah. It’d be so cool if they get married.”

Steve nearly chokes on his drink.

“Hey man, you okay?”

“Fine, fine,” Steve’s nose is burning from the bubbles going up there, “what makes you think they’ll get married?”

“Well...why would you date someone if you can’t see it going somewhere?” Steve hopes this is going somewhere; like to a bed, specifically, “so there’s a chance, right? I can tell Chris really likes her. I hope it’s like, a long term thing.”

Steve feels himself slow blink. He doesn’t explain to Eddie that you date someone because you want to stick your penis in them. Eddie turns to watch the girls again, they laugh, and Eddie grins at them, all happy and fond.

Steve sighs.

“You okay?”

“Sorry?”

“You just...you don’t seem so happy to be here man. Kind of tense.”

Steve has no idea how Eddie even noticed, usually people don’t notice. Or usually people don’t care, but it amounts to the same thing because coming to somewhere like this is just the step you take before you step into a bedroom.

“I...I actually don’t really like it here much.”

Eddie looks at him, leans close. He’s ready to really listen. He...cares. About Steve. Steve wonders if he’s going to come up in a rash; it feels like the sort of thing he should be allergic too. He wonders vaguely if there’s antihistamines in the glove box.

“Why?”

“Well...I.” Steve pulls a face. He doesn’t talk about...meaningful things, but he figures it can’t hurt this once, he can be vague. Especially if it increases the chance of doing the no pants dance with Eddie, “I don’t have the best relationship with my parents. I mean, they’re good parents, I had really good nannies growing up, had a great education, the best boarding school, they funded my degree, gave me a solid start at work, so they are great...we just don’t exactly get on all the time. We used to come here for pretty much every family meal.”

Eddie’s frown deepens the more Steve talks, “how often were the...family meals?”

“I don’t know,” Steve hums, “holidays I guess, when I was away, and then...maybe fortnightly? We don’t do it now, obviously.”

“Oh. Me and uncle Wayne had one meal a day together, at least, when I lived there. It was like, a house rule.”

“Oh that’s...you’re close?” To Steve that already sounds like something out of the fucking Brady Bunch.

“Yeah. Speaking of which, he’s invited you to dinner.”

“Dinner?” Steve asks weakly.

“Yeah, since you’re courting that boy, he said.” Eddie puts his hands up to do the air quotes. And then he grins. That big stupid grin. He looks so happy. So genuinely happy to see Steve. So happy about the prospect of just...seeing him again.

Steve does not point out that a blow job at a garden party, humping each other in a public bathroom, and one co ed BBQ does not courting make.

“Right.”

“Awesome, I’ll let you know when,” Eddie drums two forks on the edge of the table. Steve stares at his bony wrists. His mind suggests phrases like, ‘slender’ and ‘delicate’ and Steve ignores those and thinks about how he could very easily hold both of those wrists in one hand. “listen, do you want to get out of here?”

“Sorry?”

“Well, the girls won’t care,” and he’s probably right there, “and you don’t like it here, and I don’t care where I am as long as it’s with you.”

Steve riffles through his internal Rolodex and comes up blank; no one has ever said anything that sincere to him in his life. And Eddie means it too; he means everything he says in a completely unguarded way Steve has literally never encountered before. It’s like meeting an alien. Steve wants to put him under a microscope.

“I just want you to have a nice time, you know. I want you to be happy.”

Eddie reaches out and takes Steve’s hand.

Steve lets him.

Part Six

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One

“I need you to find out everything you can about him.”

“Well hello to you too.”

“I brought coffee,” Steve pushes the coffee cup across the desk at her.

“What happened to ‘one and done. Got it out of my system. Eddie Munson? Never even heard of him-’” Robin mimics in what is, unfortunately, quite an accurate caricature of Steve.

“Robin,” Steve hisses, “for the love of fucking god shut up and tell me you will help me find him.”

Robin looks at him, Eyebrows raised, her best 'who the fuck do you think you're speaking too’ look on her face.

“Fine, sorry, don’t shut the fuck up obviously-”

“Oh well, thank you so very much-” the sarcasm is actually palpable in the air.

“- just please!”

“Tell me why.”

“I can’t. I really can’t. I have no logical or meaningful or emotional or reasonable or ideological or – fucking – astrological reason for this.”

Robin sighs, Rubbing at the bridge of her nose, “thought you fucked him in the pool house?”

“I- I did.”

“What was that,” she points right in Steve’s face.

“What.”

“That,” she waves her hand, indicating Steve’s face. “Something happened.”

“Robin, please don’t make me.”

She just stares at him. For ages. For a millennia. Steve feels like his flesh melts of and he turns to bones and then to dust, just like the guy with the wrong cup out of the Indiana Jones movie.

“Okay, so I sucked him off and then jerked off into his mouth but after we…talked.”

“Talked?” Robin raises an eyebrow that could devastate universes.

“And cuddled,” Steve mumbles behind his coffee cup.

The second eyebrow lifts to join the first, “and you...liked it?”

“God no,” Steve snorts, “he’s got like one percent body fat, it was like cuddling a sack of small power tools.”

“Right...so you want to do it again because..?”

“I don’t know I just...I think it was a fluke. Lets go again. I’m sure I’ll hate it the second time.”

“What did you even talk about?”

“Dumb shit. He’s a dumb kid. Nothing worth repeating, now, Robin, please, for fucks sake-”

“He’s in a band, they’re playing on Friday at some dive bar-”

“How the fuck do you already know this-”

“Someone!” Robin cuts across him, clearly pissed off, “had to entertain Wayne Munson while you were off giving Eddie a ‘tour of the grounds’ with your dick.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry, Robbie. Uhm-”

“Tell me I’m the greatest thing that’s ever happened to you and buy me all my drinks on Friday night and I might consider calling us even.”

Part Three

[stevieschrodinger]

Everything is going slowly foggy. The fear is fading. Eddie's vaguely aware that it's probably because he's dying. What was terrifying a couple of minutes ago, is only vaguely of interest now. An ephemeral pressure on the back of his brain. Present, yet easy to ignore.

All he can taste is his own blood, but it's not so bad. At least he can tell Dustin how much he loves him. And Steve's there. Steve Harrington. Who knew he would turn out to be such a great guy? So, yeah. It all feels alright.

Eddie feels sleepy, vaguely aware that he's, actually, probably dying.

He closes his eyes.

There's a strange sense of vertigo, strange enough that Eddie notices he's standing up before he notices that someone's kissing him. It's a soft press of lips. It's wonderful.

Eddie blinks his eyes open, and from an inch away, he's looking at Steve Harrington.

He's standing in a kitchen. it's nice. Eddie's clean; he's wearing sweats and a tee. Barefoot. The kitchen smells like coffee, and sun is shining in through the window.

Somewhere in the house, a child sequels; Eddie startles. "Steve?" He asks, carefully. "I mean...not that it isn't-"

The child comes barreling into the room. It's a little girl. She's wearing the smallest Dio shirt Eddie's ever seen. She throws herself at Eddie's legs, screaming "Papa!"

Eddie has no idea what his face is doing as he looks down at this little girl, but Steve is taking his hand, tugging it, Eddie looks up, "it happened again, didn't it? You forgot again?"

"I...what?"

Steve scoops up the little girl, throwing her over his shoulder, she squeals again, laughing like this is the best thing ever, "come on pumpkin patch, Papa's not feeling so hot today and auntie Robin's going to be here in two whole minutes."

He looks back to Eddie, mouthing 'just wait, okay?'

Eddie, at a loss, just nods.

He creeps to the doorway, watching, fascinated, as Steve Harrington fixes the little girls hair into pig tails. Helps her get her socks straight. Helps her tie the laces on her sneakers. Gets her back pack on her, "eat your carrot sticks today, okay Ronnie?"

'Ronnie,' Eddie mouths to himself.

Watches as Steve puts her little hand into Robin's, standing on the front porch. Robin looks different. Older. She's smartly dressed.

Steve whispers something to her, and she looks at Eddie. Smiles a sad smile. They leave.

Steve stands there for a moment, waves them off, then closes the door. He seems to steal himself, and then he turns and comes back to Eddie, "I have to go to work, but, come on, let me show you something."

Eddie follows Steve into an office, there's shit everywhere, "I don't come in here often, your mess drives me fucking batshit," Steve digs into a desk drawer, brings out a notebook. "I have no idea what's in here, I've never read it. Something about...what happened. You did die. You were oxygen deprived long enough to cause a brain injury, so sometimes you...forget everything. After the second time it happened, you started writing letters to yourself. So, yeah...you call it your instruction manual, I get it for you when this happens."

It takes Eddie what feels like a really fucking long time to process this, and he can't help but notice that Steve's eyes are wet, Eddie feels crushingly guilty about it.

"Okay so what do I...do?"

Steve shrugs, "read it, I guess. You add to it whenever anything important happens...Eddie...just, the bats, they did a number on you...when you, when you look at the scars, the first time, just, brace yourself, okay and...don't forget that I love you, no matter what, I love you."

And Steve just...leaves the house. Leaves Eddie in this absolute disaster of an office. Leaves him holding a notebook that's ratty and untidy and feels like it's bursting at the seams.

Eddie reads.

So, I'm going to try and keep this simple, but I'm you, from the past, and our dumb ass has fucking brain damage...

You're not going to fucking believe this...we bagged Steve Harrington...

Hold on to your hat big boy, but we got fucking published! And if you're reading this, then you are in for a treat, because it means you get to read our genius for the first time all over again...

Okay, so this one was a bad one, we initially, didn't react so well, so, here's what I was worried about, and I'll talk you through it...

So, I need you to not fuck this up for us, okay? So, this is the Steve Harrington play book. The man is romantic, buy flowers, do nice shit. I cannot stress this enough - just pick up your crap man, he hates it when the place is messy. Now, we have to get it right so here's everything I know, I'll start at the top and work down. He loves having his hair played with, and tugged, but not too hard, gentle but firm, there's a sweet spot. The neck, the whole thing is an erogenous zone, I really can't downplay the importance of the neck...

We bought a fucking house! Look at it! Just look at it! And Eddie does, because there's a Polaroid stuck to the page.

So, this might sound dumb, and I probably should have written to you sooner, but...Steve jizzed in a cup for Robs, and Nancy turkey basted it, you know. Anyway, the point is...Rob's pregnant. With our baby. And then me and Nance got drunk, like, to celebrate, and she got all sad that her and Robin weren't having a baby, stay with me, I know this is mad as shit, but Nancy wanted our kid and their kid to grow up together....

Look, I don't know if it's the stress of like, imminent fatherhood, but we've been forgetting a lot lately, so, here's the plan for when Rob's in labor, and everything you've talked to Steve about when it comes to being the stay at home parent, okay...

The next page is just a Polaroid, a little scrunched up face. A little pink potato swaddled in blankets, and underneath it says 'Ronnie Jamie Harrington'...

And the next page, another Polaroid, another scrunched up face, another little pink potato swaddled in blankets, and underneath it says 'Stephanie Edwina Wheeler'...

Steve comes home. He looks exhausted. Like, drained. And, worried and scared and pale and lots of other things Eddie can't even begin to imagine. Eddie holds his arms out and Steve practically throws himself into them, "how long does it take, for me to get back to normal?"

Steve shrugs, "it's different every time, but it's a good sign you're still here, sometimes you run. Those times are the worst ones."

Six weeks later, Eddie writes to himself, "do not, under any circumstances, run away..."

Eddie thinks he's seeing things. Thinks maybe he's going senile. But he hasn't forgotten for...well, it's been years now. At least seven or eight. And yeah, Ronnie might be about to finish high school and Steve might be stressed to fuck over her college applications, but...Eddie's glad. He's glad she's spreading her wings. He's glad they managed to produce a stand up human being.

He's really glad her and Steph are trying for the same colleges, they're always going to have each other.

But yea...he's worried his mind is kind of...slipping. Hasn't told Steve. Doesn't want to worry him. They're both sprouting a few gray hairs, no need to add to those.

But sometimes. Sometimes when Eddie looks out of the window, he thinks, for a moment, that the sky is dark and...it looks like snow?

And sometimes, Eddie catches himself in the mirror, and he's sure he's dirty. A mess. Covered in blood but...no. He walks back a step, checks again. Everything is fine.

Sometimes he's sees movement out of the corner of his eye.

Sometimes, in the beat of the music or the rumble of the car engine, he swears he hears things. Sometimes a voice. Sometimes it sounds like they're yelling.

Sometimes it sounds like Steve.

And once, he blinked awake, Steve bringing him a coffee. But it wasn't Steve, for the time between startled, half asleep blinks, it was Vecna.

It gets worse.

Something isn't right. The house is empty, and it shouldn't be.

He can hear Steve, but he can't find him. And that's silly because the house isn't that big. He searches and searches, growing more frantic. He calls back to Steve, but Steve...doesn't seem to hear him.

There's something dim about the light, but the light has always been that way, hasn't it? Something...dusty, in the air. Eddie feels like he's dreaming. He has to be dreaming; there's a crack in the living room wall. A crack that spreads and lengthens until the whole house is crumbling and Eddie can see clearly now that the sky here flashes red.

That it's always been flashing red.

How did he not see before? The dust on every surface? The pages of his notebook are blank. Eddie knows. He's always known.

Steve.

Steve is here. He's hanging from Eddie's fist, bruised and bloodied and begging Eddie. Begging Eddie to stop this, to hear him, to see him. It's Steve.

It's Eddie's Steve.

Next to him, Vecna says, "finish it."

Eddie has something in his hand, the hilt of something he's sure of, long and sharp and dependable.

Eddie doesn't think, he just moves.

He drops Steve.

He doesn't need to look. Eddie turns, and he swings.

Part Two

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One TwentySeven

Chrissy has her hands over her mouth. Her eyes are wide and suspiciously wet looking, and Steve cannot read her expression at all, “you let him eat your toes?” She mumbles through her fingers.

“Yeah,” and Steve’s geared up to...something. Defend himself maybe? Defend Eddie? He doesn’t know, but she cuts him off anyway.

“I think that’s the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” she sighs.

“It...is?”

“Steve, you literally sacrificed a part of yourself to save your one true love,” Chrissy sighs again, one hand supporting her chin now as she stares at them, “Jason wouldn’t even miss a TV football game,” she frowns.

“Steaming turd,” Eddie say solemnly, and then they share a look, and both of them start laughing.

Steve looks between them, frowning, “yeah, well-”

“Oh! Is that why he won’t let me do anything with his hair?”

“I-” Steve starts, then stalls, “what?”

“Well, in school your hair was like...ninety percent of your personality-”

“What-?”

“And, genetically, this makes Eddie part you, right?”

Steve frowns, that thought had never actually occurred to him, “I...guess?”

“And he really doesn’t like being different-” Chrissy gestures vaguely.

“Not different,” Eddie scowls, “little different,” he then immediately concedes.

“I know, I don’t mean it in a bad way honey, you know that right? You’re really cool different, really good different,” Chrissy reassures Eddie immediately, “but in school, Steve’s one job was like...being king of fitting in. Fitting in and having good hair was like, all he had-”

“Hey!”

“Sorry,” she shrugs, “kind of true though. And now Eddie like, has a big thing about both of those things so do you think he like, inherited them from you?”

“No!” Steve crosses his arms, “no I do not think that at all.” Except, now that she’s said it, Steve’s kind of thinking it a little bit. “He just wants to fit in, that’s to be expected considering what he’s been through, don’t you think? Plus, when he came out of the pool all his hair was gone so it’s totally understandable-”

There’s a knocking on the front door, but Steve hears it open before he can get up and Joyce calls, “hello,” through the house. Hopper follows her into the lounge, “we thought better to bring my car than Hoppers truck in case someone is watching,” she shrugs, “don’t want to spook them if they think the laws involved,” she tells them in a conspiratorial whisper.

Hopper rolls his eyes, “she thinks she’s Jessica Fletcher. Kid, you got any beers?”

Steve says, “in the fridge,” at the same time as Eddie says, “no.”

Hopper goes and helps himself, and next to Steve, Eddie grumbles under his breath.

Steve nudges him, “Hopper’s helping us, and we can always get more beer. You only ever drink one at a time anyway.”

Eddie nods, but looks grumpy about it, making Chrissy giggle.

“So, new kid, you all caught up?” Hopper comes back in, bottle in hand.

“There’s an alternate dimension filled with monsters you can reach by opening gates, that’s where Will Byers went missing – that’s your son?” Joyce nods, “but he’s fine now?” Joyce nods again, “okay, good. And your daughter is from a secret government science experiment that was hidden in Hawkins, and she can move stuff with her mind. Eddie is from the upside down and used to be a mermaid.”

Hopper sighs, “close enough, now, what can you tell me about this guy?”

“Uhm...well, he was white. An older guy? Maybe in his sixties, so grey hair?”

“That really narrows it down for me kid.”

Joyce elbows him, “Hop.”

“Did he have an accent?” Steve asks, “like, a Russian accent?”

“Oh, oh no not at all. He was American.”

“Huh.”

“He...all the time wear a shirt, most time a tie and...sometimes…” Eddie mimes doing buttons up the front.

“A coat?”

“No, not coat. Make like Christmas sweater.”

“Oh, a cardigan.”

Eddie nods, “yes.”

Hopper sighs, “an old white guy in a cardigan. How hard could it be,” Joyce elbows him again, “woman!”

“Well...wouldn’t it be safer for Eddie to go away for a little bit?” Joyce suggests.

“No,” Eddie says, frowning and grabbing on to Steve’s elbow, “not the cabin.”

“Oh...oh no honey. I meant further than that, and with Steve. Like a...like a little holiday.”

“Yeah, I don’t want Steve coming back and forth to the cabin, this guy could easily be looking El too,” Hopper adds.

“So where do you-” the front door crashes open, interrupting Steve.

Robin stumbles into the lounge, pink, sweaty, and gasping for breath, “I got here. As fast. As I. Could.”

“Jesus Birdie, did you just ride your bike the whole way here?”

“Yeah,” she caves in, bending to rest her hands on her knees, chest heaving.

Eddie nods, eyeing the state of Robin, “bikes are dangerous,” he points out sagely.

Steve shakes his head, watching as Robin regains her composure enough to share a quick smile with Chrissy. They do an awkward little finger wave at each other across the four feet of lounge they’re separated by. Steve’s going to have to grill her at some point.

“How did you even know?” Steve asks her.

“Oh, well El was there when you called Hopper, and she walkied Max-”

“Right. Right. Never mind I get it,” Steve stops her before she relays the entire chain of events.

Robin slides onto the couch, a very proper foot of space between her and Chrissy. Steve raises an eyebrow. Well? Robin glares at him. Fuck off.

“How about Ray’s place?” Joyce asks.

“Yeah, yeah,” Hopper agrees, like he was already considering it, “I’ll go call him.”

Hopper shuffles into the hall, “fishing Buddy,” Joyce elaborates, “Hopper uses his cabin all the time, it’s right on a lake.”

“It is not ‘all the time’,” Hopper grumbles from out in the hall.

“Feels like it,” Joyce whispers.

“You going into hiding?” Robin asks, excited.

“Yeah...I mean...maybe?” Steve hedges.

“On holiday,” Eddie adds, before frowning, “Chrissy? Can I have holiday? From work?”

Chrissy snorts a laugh, but then very seriously adds, “I think under the circumstances I can excuse the short notice.”

“I could help!” Robin starts eagerly, before she dials down her excitement, “I mean. I could help out, with the flowers, as long as I’m not at Family Video. Oh! Maybe the guy will come in and-!”

“And you could nothing,” Steve tells her, “Robs, seriously, leave it to Hopper, please?”

“Fine,” Robin grumbles.

“I’ll be really glad of your help though,” Chrissy smiles at her, which seems to perk Robin right back up again.

“Oh shit.” Steve sighs, “Keith.”

“Well, you know that elderly aunt you’re really close to? She was super sick over Christmas and you had to help her out?”

“Sure..?” Steve answers vaguely.

“I think she finally just died,” Robin grins.

“Great.”

Eddie has his nose practically pressed to the window glass, “cows!”

“Yeah,” Steve smiles, “yep. Real life cows.”

“Different colors?”

“Yeah, you get chocolate milk from the brown ones.”

Eddie’s head snaps round so fast Steve’s surprised he didn’t hear his neck crack, “really?? The cows in my book are black and white.”

“Yeap, black and white ones make regular milk,” and Steve almost, almost pulls it off, but Eddie starts to frown as he thinks about it, and Steve can’t hide his smile any more.

“Lie,” Eddie says, grinning happily before he goes back to looking out of the window, “funny lie Stevie.”

The town is pretty much exactly as Hopper described; a little touristy, a little kitschy. Bigger than Hawkins. There’s a good will and a record store, and Hopper said that there’s a library in town somewhere. They drive past a busy looking diner and a fair sized grocery store. The gas station is exactly where Hopper said it would be.

It’s busy enough, but clearly filled with a lot of visitors; there’s three outdoor supply stores pretty much on the same block, which figures considering what Hopper said about people passing through, visiting the lakes or going hiking. There’s one store that seems to cater exclusively to merchandise for tourists if the rack of hats and shirts outside is anything to go by.

Once out the far side of town, Steve figures then they’ve driven the mile and a half Hopper directed before finding the turning, and then another mile later finding the over grown, rutted drive that leads up to the cabin. It’s real quiet, the road clearly not used often, and there’s plenty of ‘Private Road – No Entry’ signs at the turning of the lane.

The cabin is nestled amongst the trees, a long, squat thing with a shingled roof and peeling white window frames. There’s a screen door set in the middle and not much else to look at on this side. Steve can already see the little lean too built on the end though, just poking out; it has it’s own vents and chimney and houses the generator. There’s another, open sided shelter next to that, stacked with firewood. Steve figures they won’t need to light the fire much, unless it gets chilly in the evenings. It might, he figures, this close to the water.

Eddie hops out immediately, heading to the cabin and opening the squeaky screen door before letting himself in with the key Hopper gave them.

‘Keep the cans for the generator topped up, if you use anything from the pantry replace it, and for the love of god take your own bedding and towels. Trust me. There’s a coffee can on top of the fridge, I usually shove a few dollars in there as a thank you, oh, and you'll have to go into town if you need to do laundry.’ They were pretty much the only other instructions Hopper had given, but so far everything seems to be exactly as Hopper said it would be.

Steve’s gathering things from the car when Eddie comes back out again to help, “hows the inside?”

Eddie wrinkles his nose, “dusty.”

“Well...we can soon fix that.”

They get unpacked. Eddie dusts and packs things away while Steve tops off the generator and gets it started. He puts the now empty gas can in the trunk, ready for when they go into town. He goes inside the check the fridge is running, then raids the pantry. Some of the cans in there don’t even have labels on, a few even rusting a little, and Steve doesn’t really feel like pot luck or food poisoning for dinner, “want to get groceries?”

“Yeah. I can’t find the vacuum.”

“Oh…” Steve comes and looks, checking in all the likely places, before he finds a little rotary carpet sweeper, showing Eddie how to use it.

Eddie does the whole cabin in less than ten minutes, carefully knocking the dust outside after, “trash bags?” he asks on his way past, and Steve adds them to the grocery list.

The cabin is comfortable inside, if a little lived in. All the furniture looks, at the very least, older than Steve.

Some of it might give Hopper a run for his money.

But, yeah, it’s a tidy little space, and the couch in front of the fire is nice. “Listen later?” Eddie asks when he dusts off the record collection.

“Sure, ready to go now? The fridge should be cold enough by the time we get back.”

Eddie nods, retrieving his jar of cash and shoving some in his wallet, “ready.”

They squeeze into the phone box together; there’s no phone line at the cabin, and Hopper did warn them about that.

Eddie huddles close, Steve holding the receiver so they can both hear it ring, loose change in his pocket at the ready. Steve speaks to Robin’s mother very briefly, and then Robin and Chrissy are both on the line. Steve can imagine it in his head, cord stretched at it’s max to reach inside the door of Robins room, both of them standing close so they can hear, the same as Steve as Eddie are now.

“What’s it like?” Chrissy asks.

“Nice,” Eddie tells her, “I cleaned the dust.”

“Good job, and is the lake pretty?”

“Yeah. Lots of trees.”

“Steve,” Robin cuts across, “is it like, actually alright?”

“Yeah,” Steve reassures her, “it’s pretty good actually, the couch is comfy and the dock looks nice. Generator started up fine. We’ll be okay. Just gonna’ go get some groceries and settle in for the night. Eddie found a record player and there’s a bunch of movies.”

“Library?” Eddie asks.

“Sure, we can find that tomorrow maybe.”

The last thing they did as they were leaving Hawkins was to return Eddie’s books, he was worried they would overrun if they were gone too long.

They wrap up their short check in, the girls promising to let everyone else they arrived fine. Steve also makes Robin promise not to do anything stupid, which, she does promise, but Steve is absolutely certain she has her fingers crossed as she says it.

They carry a bag each into the cabin, Eddie immediately opening the fridge and declaring it cold inside. The groceries get unpacked, and Steve finishes unpacking and making up the bed while Eddie unpacks his pencils and notebooks.

With that done, Steve makes them both coffee, “come on, lets go and look at the lake.”

Hopper warned them there was no outdoor furniture and he always brings his own folding chair, but Steve and Eddie are content to sit on the planks of the short dock and watch the water, “the sun set is so pretty.” And it is, dusky oranges and pinks reflected on the water, the sky going dark at the edges.

It’s kind of romantic, sitting here. There’s just the very quiet lap of the water to listen to, the occasional soft sound of the breeze through the trees. It’s...quiet. Soothing. Steve lets go of the breath he’s been half holding since Chrissy and Eddie piled through the front door yesterday afternoon. There’s no mystery old dude here. Whoever is looking for Eddie, he won’t have a clue where they’ve gone.

Eddie’s safe again, right now. Steve’s fairly confident Hopper will find the guy, Hawkins isn’t that big, and if he’s brazen enough to outright be asking questions about Starcourt, surely he will be easy enough to turn up.

Steve hopes so, anyway.

They’ve finished their coffees, the sun slowly setting. The temperature has dropped a little, while they’ve been sitting watching the colors on the water, and Eddie snuggles into Steve’s side, resting his head on Steve’s shoulder, absently dragging his nails lightly on the material of Steve’s jeans.

He’s always fiddling with something, Steve thinks vaguely. He wonders absently if it’s just because everything is still so new, Eddie always chasing sensations. Steve can't blame him for wanting to try things, for wanting to try everything.

“Dark here, at night?” Eddie asks, shaking Steve from his thoughts.

“Yeah. Really dark I think. No lights from other houses or street lights or anything.”

Eddie hums, “see the stars?”

“Oh...oh yeah, they’re going to be super bright here. You...I don’t suppose you ever saw them, in the Upside Down?”

“No...first time here,” Eddie lifts a hand, flashing his fingers open and closed at the sky, “many pretty.”

It’s not fair of Steve to deny Eddie anything, especially not because of his own hang ups. And he promised himself he would be better about all this.

And it is romantic, sitting here on the deck, the sun just a hint of light on the horizon now, mostly hidden by the forest.

Eddie hugs his mug to his chest, perking up when the breeze rustles the trees, louder now, “the trees are different.”

Steve looks around, “yeah, I guess. They’re...older than at home. Wild. Kind of.” They are closer together, and a lot bigger than the ones at home. It highlights that the trees at the bottom of the yard were probably carefully curated and deliberately planted at some point. Comparatively the trees here are...huge. Much more established.

A bird screeches, and Eddie startles, leaning more firmly into Steve’s side. Steve puts an arm around him. “Called?”

“Oh...it was just a bird. Probably different to the kind we get at home, that’s all. You want to go in and listen to a record?” Eddie nods, “and maybe...we could try me giving you a blowjob?”

Part TwentyNine

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One TwentyNine

Steve strokes Eddie’s back slowly, firmly, trying to work out the last of his shivers. He’d downed the hot milk pretty much in one go and then clambered straight onto Steve to snuggle on the couch. The first record off the stack is playing, Led Zeppelin.

By the time the final strains of Stairway to Heaven fade out, Eddie feels much more settled under Steve’s hands, his breathing slow and even, his body more relaxed, “want me to flip it?”

Eddie shakes his head, hair tickling Steve’s chin, “no, again?”

“You like that huh?”

Eddie nods, shifting so Steve can stand and swing the needle back out to start the record again.

“You want to talk about it?” Steve asks as they're getting into bed. He’s pretty sure Eddie now knows all the words to Stairway to Heaven.

“The shower?” Steve nods, “I was...in the tank. For little bit. I don’t know,” Eddie shrugs, like that’s all there is to it.

“And you feel okay again now?”

“Yeah...just...tired,” Eddie gives Steve a smile, but it looks kind of sad to Steve.

The turbulent grey sky flashes red, but there’s no thunder. It’s silent here, but for the creak of wood under Steve’s feet. He lets them carry him forward, the mirror reflection on the lake almost blending with the sky in the distance, the horizon a confusion of swirling clouds.

The dock ends, Steve’s toes wriggling on the edge, he stares at his left foot; lets all five toes curl over the edge of the rough wood. His eyes are drawn to movement, emerging from the reflection of the sky, coalescing from the swirls and flashes of red; a face. Eddie’s pale face.

It takes a moment for him to break the surface tension of the water, it clings for a second, like a film before it breaks and flows away. Steve doesn’t startle, it’s just Eddie. He looks...more Eddie though, somehow. His eyes bigger, darker, like they take up half his face. Cheekbones too sharp, black hair slicked back by the water, accenting the...odd shape of his head.

Long pale fingers break the surface of the water, black curved claws trail across the top of Steve’s foot, the cold wet grip tightening on Steve’s ankle.

Steve takes a deep slow breath, unable to look away from Eddie’s eyes and the red flashes reflected in their dark depths.

Steve’s ready when Eddie yanks.

Steve thrashes when he wakes up, just for a second. He never hit the water in his dream, but he drags in a deep desperate breath anyway. He feels for Eddie, but finds nothing. Stretching further, he confirms the bed is empty. Empty and cold.

Steve gets up, socked feet quiet on the floor boards. He walks through the cabin, flicking on a couple of lights as he goes. There’s not exactly much to look at, the cabin only really has the bedroom, the bathroom, and the lounge and kitchen open together. Eddie isn’t anywhere obvious. Steve tries the door; it’s locked, and the key still dangles there, confirming Eddie must still be inside somewhere.

“Eddie?” Nothing.

Steve walks back through, this time really looking, checking the other side of the couch, behind the counter, inside of the shower cubicle. The only place left is the little coat cupboard where he found the rotary sweeper.

Eddie is there, curled up as small as he can. He’s twisted into an odd position, like he’s trying to do something he used to do when he had a tail. He full body twitches as the door opens, “Eddie?”

Big eyes blink up at Steve as he crouches, half crawling into the cupboard on his hands and knees, he rubs Eddie’s shoulder, “you okay?”

Eddie nods then, untangling himself and throwing himself into Steve’s lap. Steve goes with it, sitting back on his haunches. Eddie’s breath comes in a huge shudder, his chest hitching under Steve’s hands. Steve’s pretty sure he’s crying, “it’s okay, it’s okay,” Steve comforts him, “I had a bad dream, did you? You want to come back to bed?”

They stand together, Eddie saying “I dreamed about the Upside Down,” as he sniffles and wipes his snotty nose with his wrist.

“Oh. Is that why you were hiding?”

“Yes,” Eddie’s frowning in the lamplight as he climbs back into bed, “got...confused. I was still there.”

“Well, you’re not, you’re here with me, okay?”

“I know I...dreamed about the tank. I think I remember something. Something about the man.”

“The man who’s looking for you?” Steve’s heart feels like it’s creeping up his throat with the horror of it all.

Eddie nods slowly, “yes I think...I think he touched me.”

“Touched you...how?” Steve tries to stay calm, forcing himself not to just to any conclusions about what Eddie means, unable to completely extinguish the possibilities of the...pain Eddie had been put through. They never talk about this, Steve’s never asked and Eddie’s never tried to speak about it. Steve has always kind of assumed that Eddie never dwells on it, and maybe that’s wrong.

Steve’s asked before about other things, if Eddie misses his tail or if Eddie ever thinks much about The Upside Down, but Eddie’s never responded with anything much more than a shrug and a smile, telling Steve he doesn’t think about it very much. That along with the fact that El has told Steve that Eddie’s thoughts are very immediate and in the present...well, Steve’s always figured it isn’t a worry.

Maybe it is.

Eddie frowns, thinking, before slowly lifting a hand and rubbing gently at the top of Steve’s arm to demonstrate.

“That’s all he did?”

Eddie nods, “the other’s...I was...stuck, on a table.” Eddie holds his own wrist tight to demonstrate, “the other people...needles. Take blood, I think.”

“Oh.”

“I think...I think he tell me ‘sorry?”

Eddie looks up at Steve again, a question in his eyes, but Steve has no idea what to make of it.

“Trex,” Eddie sounds out carefully, frowning.

“T Rex,” Steve corrects.

It makes Eddie’s frown deepen, “no small letters?”

Steve holds the record, “yeah, it’s...a stylistic choice, I guess.”

“Good record?”

Steve frowns at the track list on the back, “I mean, ‘Ride a White Swan’ is pretty cool?”

“I like it,” he takes the record back, turning it to hold it up to show Steve the picture on the front, “me and you,” he grins.

“Oh, so you get to be Marc Bolan and I’m...whoever that dude is.”

“This is my hair,” Eddie points and, yeah, alright, Steve hasn’t got an argument because Eddie is right, Steve shakes his head as Eddie puts the record under his arm, along with his new Led Zep record; he was insistent on getting his own copy of ‘Four Symbols’ to take home with them, “all done.”

Eddie kind of has his mouth open a little as he approaches the register, and Steve has to nudge him so that he stops staring up at the girls very pointy, very green, Mohawk. She’s got a fair few piercings, and her arms are littered with tattoos.

“Cool choice,” the girl behind the counter tells Eddie, bringing his attention back down, “you into Lord of the rings?”

“Lord of the rings?” Eddie asks, carefully counting out the right notes, Steve half watching to make sure he’s okay.

“Yeah, it’s a book. Both of these records were influenced by it, kind of. I think the guy who wrote it actually spoke to Led Zep guys and like, encouraged them or whatever. Kind of long though, maybe start with The Hobbit?”

“The Hobbit at the library?”

She shrugs, “I don’t know man, probably?”

“Nice...hair,” Eddie frowns back up at it, but he’s also smiling a little. He’s kind of wide eyed, and it reminds Steve of when he was trying to parse out the tree-in-the-house conundrum at Christmas. Confused awe.

But that also reminds Steve of Eddie getting sick, and sicker, and then everything that came after.

“Thanks man, love your nails. They’re metal.”

“Metal,” Eddie nods.

“You in town long?”

Eddie shrugs, “maybe?”

“No plans huh? That’s cool. A free spirit,” she leans on the counter, resting her chin on her hand and blinking up at Eddie, “well, you should definitely stop by the bar on Friday, it’s the only one in town, you can’t miss it. There’s live music, we could get a drink?”

“Beer?” Eddie asks, and Steve knows that tone.

She smiles at him, “sure thing sweetheart, whatever you like-”

“So, Eddie, lets go to the library?” Steve cuts her off, moving forward to stand just a little too close to Eddie. She looks between them, standing straight again, she frowns but doesn’t say anything when Eddie easily ignores her for Steve, “don’t forget your records.”

“Stevie love?” Eddie asks on their way to find the library.

The town’s bigger than Hawkins, but everything is pretty well signposted, Steve figures because of all the tourists. “Yeah?”

“She had...things.”

Steve looks over real fast, then back at the road, to see Eddie kind of playing with the middle bit of his nose, “yeah, piercings. They’re made of metal, they do it with a big needle.”

“And the pictures? On her arms?”

“Tattoos. They do that with a needle too, and ink. They’re permanent, they stay forever.”

Eddie nods, humming, then frowning, “do I like it?”

Steve laughs, “I don’t know, do you?”

“Do you?”

“Maybe, on other people? I mean, yeah, you see some really cool tattoos and...I did kind of think about getting my ear pierced maybe, but I never did it. Don’t think I want to.”

“Ear?” Eddie questions, tugging on his own, “ohhh,” he says, clearly putting something together, “like Birdie and Nancy? But...more bigger?”

“Yup.”

Eddie nods, “maybe.”

Steve smiles again, “sure, whatever you want. It’ll hurt though.”

Eddie shrugs, “it goes away.”

They’re silent for a short time, Steve following the signs to the library, “Stevie, she was going to...tell something? But you...not?”

Eddie doesn’t quite have the words, “I interrupted her yeah I was...well, I was rude. On purpose.”

“Why?”

“She was flirting with you Eds, she was going to ask you out.”

“I...oh,” then he grins big, “she likes me? I’m her sweetheart.”

“Yeah, I mean, probably.”

“Not like Stevie likes me.”

“No, but she would have, given half the chance.”

Eddie’s frowning again now, “you mean...sex?”

“Yeah.”

Eddie cogitates on this while Steve parks the car up outside the library. He’s frowning his working something out frown.

“If not tell people about us...then why...why tell no?”

“Well...you mean how do you say no, if someone asks you out?”

“Yes. How. How to say no?”

“Well...I mean. You could just say no, you know? Thank you, but no. Or you could say you’re...flattered?”

“Flattered called?”

“Oh it’s...it’s like…Okay, so you know I like you?” Eddie nods, “do you like that, that I like you?”

Eddie grins big, “yeah. That the best.”

Steve grins back, “right...so...if someone else likes you, that’s flattering, you know? They think you’re cool or you look hot or whatever.”

“So I can say...no thank you. Flattered. But no thank you?”

“Yeah. You can.”

Eddies goes to get out of the car, but then turns back, “you...say that? Thank you, but no thank you?”

“Yeah, yeah baby, of course. It’s just me and you, yeah?”

“Me and you,” Eddie repeats, nodding.

Eddie goes to get out of the car again, but Steve stops him, grabbing his arm. “Eddie...if you’re ever...not happy. You have to tell me, right? I mean we kind of live together already and you can’t really tell people about...you know, you. It would be kind of hard for you to date anyone else-”

“Not want anyone else-”

“No. No I know, but that’s what I mean...if something is ever, ever wrong, you have to tell me, understand? If I ever do anything to upset you, you have to promise to tell me okay?”

“Okay,” Eddie says, and then, very suspiciously, looks at his own knees for a moment, frowning, before he goes to get out of the car.

Steve’s heart sinks so low, guilt ready to consume him. He’s already doing something to upset Eddie, “wait. Wait wait wait. What was that?”

“Stevie...sometimes with the gum.”

“Gum?” Steve asks, perplexed.

Eddie nods. “Pop. Pop pop. All the time. Pop.”

“Oh,” Steve sits back again, relieved, “kind of thought it might be something more serious than that. Anything else?”

“No,” Eddie grins big, then frowns, “yes. The milk, very small, but back in the fridge. Why?”

“Okay I’ll...not pop gum so much. And I’ll...not do that with the milk. Anything else?”

“No,” Eddie says, smiling, “pretty sure.”

“Ow,” Steve says, pulling his leg back to rub at it, “jeez your toe nails are long.”

Eddie wriggles around, lifting his leg. He quickly realizes he can’t lift his leg far enough to look at his foot with the comforter in the way, so Steve sits up, reaching under the covers for Eddie’s toes, “long?”

“Yeah...we haven’t cut them yet, right? Why have they suddenly started growing?” The sun is up enough to shine through the blinds, so Steve figures it’s not too early.

“Stevie...do I have stubble?”

Steve lies down again, reaching to rub Eddie’s cheek, “huh, yeah, a little.”

“Rough,” Eddie tells him with a disgruntled wrinkle of his nose.

“Well...I guess we can teach you to shave today, hows that? I wonder why this is all starting up now.”

“I can do it, I see you do it many times now,” Eddie tells him, taking the can of shaving foam, “I know it tastes horrible, so not in mouth.”

“How...how do you know it tastes horrible?” Steve watches as Eddie does a pretty good job of spreading the shaving foam over his face.

“I...do,” Eddie answers vague and evasive.

“Eddie...did you try and eat the shaving foam?”

“No. Maybe.” Eddie unsheathes the razor, “carefully, sharp,” he tells himself quietly.

“Why…?”

“Think like whizzy cream,” Eddie admits sheepishly.

Steve snorts a laugh, “okay, go with the grain so like...downwards, yeah?”

Eddie nods, leaning close to the mirror.

“Okay, don’t cut them too short, just take off a little bit at a time.”

“Little,” Eddie is sitting on the toilet lid, one knee bent, thigh against his chest as he squints down at the clippers and his toes.

He startles when a slither of nail flies off.

“It’s okay, we can get the sweeper after.”

Part ThirtyOne

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One ThirtyNine

prompt from @mugloversonly @after-the-end-times @spectrum-spectre

It’s a little odd having a birthday banner hanging across the Christmas Tree, but everyone was pretty determined that this is Eddie’s birthday, and that’s a totally different thing to Christmas Eve. So everyone is here; Joyce even baked a proper birthday cake, and now they’re doing the thing where they bring out the cake and everyone sings.

It feels bittersweet to Steve; Eddie’s first birthday. It was a year ago today that Steve pulled Eddie out of the pool. A year ago today Eddie came back to him. He remembers vividly struggling to get Eddie up the stairs. Cleaning all the filth off him. How he’d looked, with no hair at all, all skin and bones, wobbling his way down the stairs. The noise he’d made the first time he ever tried bacon; the startled look on his face the first time he’d ever hiccuped.

Eddie stays where he’s been put, sitting at the head of dining room table, proudly wearing a Birthday party hat. Eddie’s been to a couple of birthdays this year, mainly for the kids, so he knows what’s coming. He looks fucking delighted at the sight of the cake, but he still checks, “I can blow out the candles?”

“Yeap,” Steve tells him.

“Make a wish first!” Joyce calls.

“I wish-”

“Nooooooo!” probably half a dozen people yell, “keep it a secret or it won’t come true,” Robin adds. Eddie stares hard at the candles for a long second, and then he looks up, finding Steve. Steve can see the moment Eddie settles on his wish.

He’s still staring at Steve when he blows them out.

“So...things with Eddie are good then?”

It’s a little uncomfortable, but all the stuff that happened feels like it was a long time ago now. Nancy has definitely been making an effort to build a fresh friendship, and Steve can’t fault her for it, not really. Steve finds Eddie, he can see him through the doorway into the kitchen, making something with Robin and Chrissy, “yeah everything is...great. Like really great.”

“I was...a little surprised, you know?”

“Yeah that’s...understandable,” and it is. Eddie is literally a creature from The Upside Down; he didn’t even look remotely human to begin with, half of him was literally a fish. Plus Steve’s never really been interested in guys before, but he guesses there must have always been a little something there for him to take to it so easily. Granted the circumstances forced his hand a little, and he’s still had a couple of things to work through but...he feels pretty good about it. Besides, Eddie still isn’t even really human, so it probably doesn’t exactly count. Not with his lack of nipples and his downstairs situation anyway; you can’t exactly try to stick Eddie into a category...he’s Eddie, a unique and perfect thing all his own.

In the kitchen, Robin spills something, Chrissy shrieks and Eddie manically dashes for a cloth, cackling. The chaos of it makes Steve smile at them; everyone is at least a few drinks deep, Steve’s sure.

“You really care about him though?” She presses a little. Nancy’s never been able to just let it go, especially if she doesn’t understand it. She always needs to know, Steve’s pretty sure it’s not a nosiness thing; more an understanding thing.

“Yeah, yeah I love him,” Steve tells her unabashed, it is the truth, “he loves me too.”

“You’re sure it’s not just...I mean you did rescue him, plus, where would he even go if you weren't together-”

“Are you suggesting Eddie has some sort of-of-of Stockholm syndrome?” Steve can’t help but laugh, a little incredulous at the suggestion.

“Well no, I just. Think you should both be sure-”

“How are you and Jon then?” Steve cuts her off. He chooses to lean into the spirit of Christmas and assume that Nancy’s concerns all come from a good place. Even so, it’s not a good intention Steve has to tolerate if he doesn’t want to. He raises his eyebrows at her, waiting.

Nancy draws breath, like she’s not done, but then clearly rethinks it and chooses her battle, Steve can see the moment when she decides not to pursue it, sipping her drink before she replies, “yeah, really good,” over her shoulder, Eddie, Chrissy, and Robs have their heads together, the conversation clearly turned serious.

“That’s good Nance,” Steve chooses to be the bigger man, “I’m just really glad you’re both happy,” he tells her pointedly. In the kitchen, Eddie’s turned to find Steve, watching him back. Steve can’t quite decipher the look on his face, but Robin’s clutching his arm, on her toes, speaking urgently to Eddie. She looks kind of panicked, which immediately worries Steve.

“Well, I mean, obviously I want you to be happy, I mean I’m glad, really glad it all worked out for you.”

Eddie has a look on his face that Steve’s pretty certain he’s never seen before. He can’t quite work out what it means other than...Eddie’s pissed. Like, really fucking angry. And he’s marching closer, shaking off both Robin and Chrissy in the process.

Steve has no clue what’s happening as Eddie approaches, pushing Steve away from Nancy to press him against the wall and then...kisses him. Steve has his eyes open, not sure what to make of Eddie’s rage, but he soon lets them slide closed. He melts against the wall. Eddie’s kissing him like he’s got something to prove. He’s almost bitey as he sucks at Steve’s lips, leaving little scrapes that don’t quite break the skin. The passion is surprising, but so fucking hot Steve leans into it fast, matching Eddie’s energy and he sucks on Eddie’s tongue, curling his fingers around Eddie’s hips to pull him closer, no longer wanting to stop to question Eddie’s motives.

Eddie pulls back, pink and flushed, an inch of space between them, panting for breath Eddie asks, “you and Nancy used to be together?”

“I-” Steve can’t help his gaze flicking side wards to Nancy, and then back to Eddie, Eddie’s eyes narrowing at the sight, something flashing in the depths, “yeah?” Steve confirms weakly.

Eddie presses closer, his claws pricking Steve’s skin through his clothes; Eddie’s never been possessive like this before, and Steve is...well they’ve had a lot of sex, and Eddie pressing himself against Steve like this, kissing him like that...Steve’s body is only reacting the way it always does, which is a little mortifying in a room full of people.

Eddie leans his face closer again, his hair brushing Steve’s forehead, his breath warm as he growls, “you had sex with her?”

“Eddie!” Steve splutters, but apparently even that is too much, Eddie has him by the wrist, not quite painful, but very harsh compared to Eddie’s usually gentle nature. Eddie turns, pulling Steve along and he...bares his teeth at Nancy, actually hissing at her on the way past.

“Eddie!” Steve starts again, shocked, this time a reprimand, “be nice!” That’s no way to behave, and Nancy is unnerved enough that she takes a big step back. Steve is dragged along behind Eddie, ending up locked into the downstairs bathroom together. Eddie pins him against the door with his body, kissing Steve soundly.

“Baby,” Steve starts, his words broken by kisses, “what’s gotten into you?”

Eddie just growls. It’s not a sound Steve’s ever heard before, and he can feel it, rumbling in Eddie’s body where their chests are pressed together, “need you.”

Eddie starts nipping at Steve’s throat, stinging kisses that makes Steve’s hips roll, looking for friction against Eddie’s thigh. His brain feels like it’s going a little mushy, Eddie’s being unusually forceful, and Steve’s vaguely aware that everyone is still out there and, probably, are now very aware that they’re shut in here together but...as Eddie’s questing fingers find the button on Steve’s jeans, he’s struggling to care about that stuff.

“We’ve got to be quiet,” Steve breathes out, a final token protest, giving in to what's about to happen. Eddie huffs dismissively, tugging down Steve’s jeans and underwear together, Steve angling his hips away from the door to help. Eddie abandons them there, bunched around Steve’s thighs, surging up for another possessive kiss. Eddie grabs Steve’s bare ass with both hands, his claws digging into the meat a little as he squeezes, pulling Steve against him.

“She not touch you again,” Eddie growls against Steve’s mouth, words choppy, “promise.”

“I...I promise baby, of course,” Eddie stares into Steve’s face, their warm breaths mingling as Eddie inspects him from inches away, like he’s searching for any hint of a lie, “no one else ever again, I swear it.”

Eddie nods once, sharply, before spitting into his palm and grabbing Steve's now, very hard cock. He had no idea he’d be into this, but possessive, bossy Eddie is lighting him up in a way he didn’t know he’d like, his brain turning to mush a little as Eddie touches him. He feels too warm, flushed and sweaty already, the world narrowed down to Eddie’s touch on him, hard and fast, intent on getting him off.

“And you,” Steve’s mouth is insisting before his brain catches up, he needs it, needs to make Eddie feel good too. Eddie doesn’t stop jerking him, but he does slow it down, leaning back a tiny bit, giving Steve space to reach past the bend of Eddie’s own arm to get to the button on his jeans.

Steve sees the fabric move. He can see Eddie’s cock desperately wriggling for freedom beneath his zipper. Eddie’s told him before that it gets real uncomfortable real fast, and Steve tuts quietly, “baby.”

Eddie’s cock forces it's way free before Steve even has the zipper half down, already having found it’s way through the slit in Eddie’s boxers, it rushes into Steve’s fingers, greeting him eagerly and tangling itself firmly there. Eddie groans, shuffling close again. The head of Eddie’s cock opens, setting sucking kisses on every part of Steve’s hand and fingers it can reach. They arrange themselves as Eddie’s hand speeds up again, “fuck, baby, yeah.” Steve’s cock is leaking, making Eddie’s hand slick, but Eddie still stops to spit again, landing the glob on the exposed head of Steve’s cock. It’s red already, and Eddie squeezes, forcing Steve’s foreskin up to roll back up and partially cover the swollen head.

Steve’s guts are tight already, the muscles in his ass and legs tensing, he can’t stop the shift of his own hips as he works his thumb in circles across the head of Eddie’s own cock. Eddie jacks him again, slow and so firm, forcing a massive dribble of pre come out of the head of Steve’s cock. Steve groans again, “baby, I’m gonna’-”

“Wait,” Eddie uses his free hand to push Steve’s hand off himself, letting his cock to wriggle free between them. It stands tall, searching, the black petals rippling.

Eddie angles Steve’s cock out, pulling the head down and towards himself, and Steve instantly knows what Eddies planning, “oh fuck baby, yes, yes please.” They’ve never done this before, but just the idea of it makes Steve hips shift, his balls going tight, the orgasm bubbling at the base of his cock, “please, now,” Steve vaguely aware that he’s whining, loud and desperate.

People can hear; he doesn’t give a fuck. He wants this.

Eddie’s cock latches to the head of Steve’s, the black petals stark against the dark pink spongy head. The fit is perfect, the slit of Steve’s cock, the head, being suckled and gently rubbed by all those little bumps, the sucking pulse feels like a mouth, the texture incredible. Eddie drags his hand upward, forcing Steve’s skin up again, his foreskin sliding over top of the petals. Eddie makes a choked noise, his free hand scrabbling again at the meat of Steve’s ass. Steve desperately locks his knees to stop himself from falling. The pulsing, sucking, pulling sensation is relentless.

Eddie moves his hand again, dragging Steve's foreskin back down, revealing the filthy sight of those jet black petals cupping the head of Steve's cock, the body of Eddie's cock writhing. Steve’s head thumps back against the door, his hips wriggling now, unable to stop himself moving in tiny little thrusts, “fuck, fuck, fuck,” Steve groans, “baby-”

Eddie leans up for a kiss. It’s messy, uncoordinated, both of them groaning and panting into each others mouths, and Steve cries out against Eddie’s lips as he comes. The pull is sharp, the stimulation on the head of his cock turning frantic as, just like with Steve’s spit on his cock, Steve’s come works to push Eddie into his own orgasm. Eddie accidentally catches Steve’s lip with his teeth, and the sting is delicious. His orgasm seems to go on forever, Eddie's cock suckling fiercely, and Eddie’s hand working him so perfectly.

Eventually, Eddie slumps forward onto Steve, Steve using his back to the door to keep them both up. “That was…” Steve starts, but doesn’t know where to go. He doesn’t know how to describe what just happened. It was maybe the best orgasm of Steve’s life.

“Yeah,” Eddie agrees, muffled where his face is smushed into Steve’s shoulder. The head of Steve’s dick is suddenly cold, and he figures Eddie’s dick has gone back in. They stand there for a few minutes, Steve rubbing Eddie’s back, gathering themselves. Eddie clears his throat, lifting his head so he can look Steve in the eye, “I’m sorry.”

Steve frowns, brain still a little flooded with happy chemicals, “what?”

“For before. I just...I found out about you and Nancy and I got...I got so angry. It,” Eddie makes a motion between them, a churning of his insides that he can’t express, “I’ve never felt like that before it was...like I hated her. And I needed you and I don’t understand-”

“You were jealous, baby?”

“I...yeah, it was horrible. And stupid- I didn’t – there’s no-” Eddie huffs, struggling for the words.

“How you feel doesn’t always make sense. There’s no...rules, you know.” Steve frowns, remembering, “should probably say sorry to Nancy though, you like, hissed at her which, kind of funny but still.”

Eddie looks a cross between horrified and mortified, “I don’t even remember.”

“Wow,” Steve can’t help being smug, “got it bad for me, huh?”

Eddie limply slaps at Steve’s chest, sighing through his nose, “shut up.”

Steve hums, “uh huh. We should get cleaned up.”

“Probably.”

They peel themselves apart, Steve leaning to grab for some tissue off the roll as Eddie starts to pull his pants down a little, but as Steve investigates, his finds his cock dry, “huh, where did it go?” He wipes up a little, the skin tacky with spit and precome, but otherwise everything is clean and dry, “uh...is my come on you? I can’t, uhm, find it?” He tucks himself away, pulling everything up so he can help Eddie.

“I don’ t think so?” Eddie replies, touching himself, his slit, the crease of his thighs, when Steve goes to wipe at him with the tissue, since Eddie usually makes a lot of come, there’s nothing, “I’m clean,” Eddie tells him.

Steve frowns, “did you come?”

“Yeah,” Eddie huffs, “I definitely, definitely did. That was…”

“Yeah,” Steve agrees, “but you’re dry?”

“Yeah,” Eddie scissors his thighs together, something he normally does when he’s spreading all the jelly like come about, “nothing there.”

“This is weird, where'd it all go? And why haven’t you, you know?” Steve feels for himself, running two fingers gently along Eddie’s slit, pushing in to part him the tiniest bit, Eddie makes a breathy little noise as Steve pulls away, “you sure you came?”

“Steve,” Eddie replies flatly, pulling his pants up and buttoning them.

“Right right it’s just...weird, right?”

Eddie shrugs, “makes it easy?”

“Yeah...don’t look a gift horse in the mouth I guess, considering we now have to go out there and face everyone.”

Eddie grins, “I like that they know.”

“Of course you do,” Steve sighs, fixes his hair in the mirror, and opens the door.

It’s after midnight; Eddie’s birthday is officially over. All the kids have gone home with Hopper and Joyce, and before everyone else heads home, since it’s Christmas, they’re going to exchange gifts now.

Steve had been, mildly mortified after they came out of the bathroom, not really wanting to face Joyce's raised eyebrows or the girls giggling...Eddie however, has been strutting around like a proud peacock, so Steve hasn't been feeling too ashamed about the whole thing. He is however, glad of the distraction of the gifts.

All the gifts are stacked under the tree, and Steve has been voted to distribute. A lot of the labels have been made from cut up magazine letters so that the hand writing won’t be recognized; to Steve they vaguely look like ransom threats.

They go around the room, opening their gifts one at a time, trying to guess who got them. They mostly work it out. Steve isn’t that interested in his own; he’s more interested in what Eddie got. The box is actually kind of heavy, and it’s pretty big.

Eddie opens it happily, pulling out a record that Steve knows he’s wanted for ages. And then...a denim jacket with no sleeves that Steve knows he was eyeing at the thrift store. Steve watches with mounting suspicion as Eddie pulls out a book he's talked about. The box, now Steve’s thinking about it, is wrapped with very familiar wrapping paper.

“Eddie, you got loads, they definitely didn’t stay on budget. Who got Eddie? Steve, was it you?”

“No, no it wasn’t me,” Steve quietly chuckles to himself. He half listens as Robin goes around the room, and every single person denies getting Eddie.

“Whoever pulled your name must know you pretty well, huh Baby? They got you exactly what you wanted.”

“Yup,” Eddie grins happily.

“Steve, come on, it must have been you, it wasn’t any of us.”

Steve just shakes his head in denial before turning back to Eddie, “baby...it’s kind of against the rules to pull your own name.”

Eddie frowns, “no it isn’t,” the whole room erupts into laughter around them.

Steve tries to clear up some of the aftermath, but it’s nearly two in the morning and he can’t be fucked really. He collapses on the couch, finishing his now warm flat soda. He can hear Eddie pottering, “we should go to bed!” Steve calls. He’s not loud, not much above speaking volume really, but he knows Eddie will hear him.

“Can we do our gifts now?” Eddie asks from the doorway.

“Sure Baby, if you want to. We’re going to be out most of the day tomorrow anyway,” they’re spending Christmas with the Hopper-Byers brigade, and Steve is kind of looking forward to it. Eddie’s second ever Christmas.

Steve heads off to his hiding place in one of the spare rooms to get Eddie’s gifts, Eddie does the same; Steve knows his are stashed out in the utility.

He’s been pretending not to know.

“Okay, me first,” Eddie says, sitting and pulling out what Steve knows is the record. Steve eyes the gift he has from Eddie; just the one, but it’s fairly big looking. Square. Steve has no idea what it could be.

Eddie likes the record; he absolutely loves the book of Metallica tabs and almost leaves to get his guitar right there and then, but Steve stops him, “tomorrow baby. We really need to sleep after this.”

Eddie laughs at himself and his own excitement, agreeing. When he opens his final gift, the guitar pick necklace, he puts it on immediately and swears he loves it so much he’s never going to take if off. Steve’s glad to hear it, even if it makes him feel, momentarily, a little weirdly possessive.

“Okay, this first,” Eddie pulls over the box, “Chrissy helped me,” he admits as Steve unwraps it, carefully pulling out the frame inside. It’s wrapped in soft packing paper, and Steve pulls that away to reveal his crown. It’s been artfully arranged behind the glass, all dried now, the tufts of grasses stand tall, still twined up with all the little flowers that Eddie had included. Clearly someone spent a very long time carefully setting it out, and it looks beautiful. Steve had carefully stored it away in a shoebox, so he hadn't even noticed it was gone. He’s...touched, by the memory of them in the woods around Hopper’s cabin. Eddie had told Steve he loved him for the first time not long after.

“Thank you...it’s so thoughtful. Thank you. I can hang this up and remember it forever, I love it.” Eddie smiles, slipping off the couch to kneel in front of Steve. Steve sets the frame down.

Eddie pulls a little velvet box out of his pocket, “I didn’t understand what it meant,” he starts slowly, “when you put this on me,” he lifts his left hand, rubbing at the ring with his thumb. “I didn’t know what being engaged was, or weddings or...any of it. I didn’t know, but you loved me anyway, and I’ve never taken it off,” Steve swallows thickly, he knows, he knows in his bones where this is going, but he lets Eddie speak. If Eddie’s saying so may words in one go, it means he’s really thought about, and Steve won’t interrupt him. “But I know now. I understand all of it, and I know I’m a guy, and...we can’t get married, but I...wanted to show you that I know. I know now, and I love you too.”

Eddie opens the box, it’s a simple silver band, thicker than Eddie’s but still, it matches. Steve isn’t sure he’d be able to speak, his eyes already feel wet, so he silently holds his hand out for Eddie to slide the ring on; it fits perfectly.

Steve feels like he’ll crack open if he tries to talk about what he feels right now, it’s too big, too much, “you measured my finger didn’t you. Before the mall? So sneaky.”

Eddie nods, his own eyes looking suspiciously misty, smiling and biting at his lip, clearly nervous, “do you like it?”

“Yeah. Yeah, I love it, thank you. I love you.”

Eddie smiles, sitting up for a kiss, “love you, too.”

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One ThirtyThree

Prompt from @bookworm0690 and @after-the-end-times

“Stevie love!”

“Yeah?”

“It’s snowing!”

The phone starts to ring as Steve heads to the window, so Steve diverts to answer it. “Steve! It’s snowing!”

“Hey Robs, and yeah, Eddie just told me.”

“Do you think it’ll be bad? The forecast says it’ll come down heavy. Do you think we will get a snow day tomorrow?”

“I think Keith would expect us to open even if we had to find a sled and a team of dogs to get us there.”

“Poop.”

“Yeap. But I’ll see how the roads are in the morning, if it’s bad then fuck it, I’m not risking the beemer. Who’s going to want to rent a movie anyway?”

“Okay, call me in the morning? Chrissy already said she’s not bothering to open the shop if it’s bad, who goes out in the snow to buy flowers?”

“I don’t know, the same people who go out in the snow to rent movies, probably. But, yeah, she’s probably right.”

“Okay, bye dingus, love you.”

“Love you too Robs.”

Eddie practically has his face smushed against the window, “cold water,” he informs Steve.

“Yeah, yeah that’s right,” Steve watches the snow start to gather in patches on the lawn with dawning apprehension that he can’t place. There’s no reason for it, really. They’re safe and warm inside, and Steve knows without looking that they have a good weeks worth of groceries in the house. The main roads will probably be plowed before lunch time tomorrow at the latest, so none of that is what's worrying him.

It really starts coming down, thick heavy flakes that start to blanket everything, and as the snow banks, Steve thinks more about last year. Was it around now that Eddie was getting sick? Steve can’t quite place the time line, but he remembers how cold he’d been, sitting outside next to the pool, his missing toes throb with phantom pain, and Steve shivers. Eddie was getting sicker as the snow fell, and Steve remembers holding him, bundled in a blanket at the back door, so he could see the snow, “I’m going to make us hot chocolate,” Steve says to distract himself.

“Whizzy cream?” Eddie asks absently.

“Sure baby.”

The next day, the world is clean and white and quiet. The gray sky is bright where the sun shines through the clouds, reflecting off the snow; it makes the whole world hard to look at.

“Stevie can we go out?”

“Out in the snow?”

“I want to walk on it.”

“Leave footprints everywhere?” Eddie nods enthusiastically. “We could make snow angels. And snow men.”

Eddie turns to look at Steve, “snow men? Snow angels?”

“Oh man, you’re gonna’ love this.”

Eddie’s frizzy curls are sticking out from under his woolen hat, and his jeans are tucked into a pair of Steve’s boots. He had managed all of thirty seconds outside before he wanted his sunglasses, so he’s wearing those too. Steve gets it, it is bright out here, what with all the white, and Eddie’s eyes are, even now, very sensitive to the light.

Eddie’s licking a snowball. Under normal circumstances, Steve might stop him, but the snow out here in the yard is fresh and clean, so Steve lets it go.

Steve flops onto his back, Eddie letting out a surprised laugh at the sight, and then he comes closer, watching as Steve moves his arms and legs, getting up again to reveal the shape he’s left behind, “see, snow angels.”

“Huh,” Eddie says, not seeming that impressed by it.

“We could build a snow man?”

“Which man is it?”

Steve snorts a laugh, “uhm...no. It can be anyone I guess, but usually it’s like a generic snow...person. We can give him a carrot for a nose and, like, maybe a scarf?”

Eddie frowns, “what, in case he gets cold?” he looks bemused by the idea.

“Come on, I’ll show you...and I really think we need to get around to watching some Christmas movies.”

The moment Eddie grasps the idea of what Steve’s showing him, he’s away. He digs up twigs and rocks and things from under the lighter snow banked between the trees, happily giving his creations arms and eyes and mouths and...eyebrows.

“No no,” he directs Steve, “that one is Lucas, so the Max one should be smaller.” Eddie rams in twigs for their arms, angling them so that ‘Lucas’ and ‘Max’ are holding hands.

Steve stands back, frowning, “so who is that one again?”

“Argyle, and that’s Hopper," Eddie replies, like it's obvious.

“Right, right. So we just have...Joyce left?”

“Yeah, we have to make Joyce the best one.”

Steve smiles to himself; he’s not entirely sure how good Eddie’s memory is when it comes to those first few days after he came out of the pool, freshly bald and newly legged, but Eddie definitely remembers the Christmas food. He also seems to remember how, in those first few months, Joyce was Steve’s go to for advice on Eddie care.

Not to mention how kind Joyce has always been; how she’s always gone out of her way to treat Eddie with the same kindness and inclusion as everyone else.

“You know what, you’re right, you build Joyce, I’ll be right back.”

Steve knocks the snow off his shoes at the back door, before heading upstairs to raid his parents wardrobes. He comes back with a small armful of stuff, and Eddie gleefully distributes clothing amongst his family of creations. Joyce ends up stylishly dressed in a cashmere shawl that Steve has no doubt is probably worth at least a months wages. He doesn’t give a shit though, and clearly neither do his parents; they haven’t been back at all this year.

Eddie stands back after, surveying his creations, “a little family,” he grins at Steve.

“Yeah,” Steve can’t help but agree, “now lets go in and warm up.”

“Yup,” Eddie grabs Steve’s face, smushing a chilly wet kiss to Steve’s nose on the way past.

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One ThirtyTwo

Prompt from @janie-bean

Eddie’s been working a lot of extra hours since Thanksgiving.

Like a lot.

He’s been doing some hours pretty much every day the store has been open, and to Steve he’s starting to look a little frazzled by it. He forgot his lunch this morning, so Steve has an excuse to stop by and check on him at least. Eddie insists that he’s fine, just that the store is small and they’ve had a lot of customers lately.

Although Steve is pretty sure Eddie thrives on interaction, on new experiences, on just...life, in general, since it’s all still shiny and new to him...he also senses Eddie has creeping uncertainties around his feelings about The General Public.

There’s a distinct possibility they might be starting to get to him, especially when they’re rude. Eddie has made it clear he does not like it when people are rude, asking Steve one evening, “why can’t they just be nice? I’m nice.”

And although Steve totally agreed with Eddie, he couldn’t really give a satisfactory explanation as to why some people just seem to be perpetually dicks.

According to Chrissy, everyone likes their home to look nice for Thanksgiving and Christmas, so that means a lot of fresh flower arrangements to put together, and Eddie has been working the register and maintaining the store front a lot of the time, an arrangement that gives Eddie a lot of exposure to The General Public.

Not to mention all the gifts on the run up to Christmas; Eddie said a man came in yesterday and put in an order for twelve matching arrangements for the end of this week. Eddie haltingly explained that all of his staff, ‘the girls’ were getting flowers and wine as a Christmas gift from the boss. Apparently it ‘keeps them sweet’, which was actually the phrase Eddie was seeking clarification on.

He was relieved to hear the man wasn’t actually a cannibal of some sort.

Eddie’s also, clearly, worried about Chrissy. She accepted the order for the arrangements, but Eddie was vocally unimpressed by the short notice; having him explain things to Steve is kind of novel, it’s been the other way around since Steve rescued Eddie from Starcourt. Now he has Eddie explaining to him about how long ordering flowers takes and how long they last in the shop. Eddie’s also clearly spent enough time with Chrissy to pick up the language; he talks about all the flowers with confidence, and the pride that wells up inside Steve seems to fill him like a warm balloon. He’s pretty sure he could listen to Eddie talk all day, which is lucky, because unless he’s engrossed in something, Eddie likes to talk a lot.

Chrissy isn’t there when Steve heads in, but Eddie is behind the counter rolling some flowers in some paper, producing a neat bunch held together with some ribbon. His hair is different from when he left the house this morning; it had been in a sloppy bun, but it’s much neater now. Steve can see where Chrissy has put it in a tight braid and tidied some of Eddie’s flyaway curls with bobby pins, there’s a little red tinsel on the stubby end of the braid; it’s cute.

He’s wearing a black tee shirt under his apron, some rock band thing, and Steve waits as Eddie deftly works the register and then hands the lady her change.

“See you again soon,” he calls to the woman as she bustles out of the store, Steve holding the door for her.

There’s already someone else at the register, but Eddie gives Steve a quick smile before he disappears out the back. He’s holding a massive bouquet when he comes back, so Steve just lingers, looking at all the loose flowers while Eddie finds a receipt book and an order and charges the customer the remaining balance after deducting their deposit.

He does the whole thing smoothly, completely competent. Steve is so fucking proud of him.

“Hey, you forgot your lunch.”

“Thank you, sorry you needed to drive here.”

Steve shrugs, “that’s okay, busy again today?”

Eddie nods, pulling the sandwich from the sack and getting it half unwrapped so he can shove it in his mouth, “forgot breakfast.”

Steve had been showering this morning when Eddie had headed down; he hadn’t even noticed Eddie hadn’t eaten, “I’ll make us a big dinner? What do you want?”

Eddie shrugs, shoving the sandwich in for another bite. The store goes quiet, the background music stopping, and Eddie desperately chews and swallows, “Chrissy!” He calls, “not again?”

“Yes again!” And then the music starts. Bing Crosby, White Christmas, or whatever it’s called. Eddie groans, his whole body sagging.

“Not enjoying the Christmas tunes?”

“They were okay the first ten times.” Eddie says, deadpan. The bell tinkles behind Steve, and Eddie wraps his lunch up quick, stashing it under the counter, “morning,” he tells the customer, who then asks Eddie a question about flowers that Steve doesn’t understand.

Steve shifts himself out of the way a little, lingering while Eddie deals with yet another customer. There’s a tugging on his pant leg, and Steve looks down to find a little girl, toddler age, pointing at a flower she can’t reach.

Steve has absolutely no idea what it is, but it has a soft stem; no hard bits or thorns or anything, so he crouches down to give it over.

She’s cute, a yellow woolen dress over fluffy tights and tiny little boots. She has her hair gathered up in a bun, mumbling something that sounds like, “princess hair,” before tilting her head so Steve can put the stem of the flower through her bun.

“I’m so sorry, Grace, come on, don’t bother the poor man,” her mother takes her hand, bouquet grasped in the other.

“Oh, no problem, she’s fine.”

The bell tinkles as they leave, and Steve turns to find he’s being watched by Chrissy and a chewing Eddie, “well that was adorable.”

Steve shrugs, “she was cute.”

“Uh hu, can just see you with like, a soccer team of munchkins.”

“Can’t say I’ve given it much thought,” which is true, just lately. He had always thought he’d like a few kids, but now there’s Eddie, and Steve guesses things just don’t work out that way sometimes.

“Uh hu, pretty sure Eddie would make the best dad,” Chrissy bumps shoulders with him playfully, but Steve catches the fleeting frown on Eddie's face. “You still seeing Owens later?” Chrissy changes tack.

“Yeah, he’s got me and Eddie filling out a dream diary thing.”

“Yeah, Eddie said, last night he dreamed he was a gift and Santa dropped him off at the wrong house.”

“Shhh!” Steve tells her, “we’re not supposed to talk about it in case we like, muddy the results or whatever, subconsciously.”

“Uh hu. So what did you dream last night?” Chrissy asks; she blatantly doesn’t care for Owens’ scientific method.

Steve sighs. Today is the last day of the diary thing, so it probably doesn’t make any difference, “Santa left a gift by accident, and I had to get it to the kid it was meant for so I...dreamt I broke into the post office. It made sense at the time.”

“Steve...come on, you can’t deny the link there, it’s not exactly subtle. Maybe Eddie has powers, like El?”

“Yeah, and maybe we should burn the stupid diaries...I don’t want to give Owens any excuse to experiment-”

The bell over the door tinkles, Chrissy plastering on her customer service smile and Eddie stashing the crumpled paper bag beneath the counter again.

Eddie sits with a headband of little devices strapped around his head. He seems fine about it, but Steve’s not going to take his eyes off him. Or Owens.

“Your friend could be right Eddie, your readings are not that dissimilar to El’s just...greatly reduced. Much weaker.”

“So I won’t be moving things around with my mind?”

“I...doubt it.”

Eddie humphs, which despite Steve continuing to be deeply unimpressed with Owens, he can’t help but be amused by. “So what about the dreams?”

“There could be...multiple explanations. From the readings we have from Eddie, and other...examples,” Owens says the word very carefully. Steve knows Eddie was not the only ‘specimen’ brought back from the upside down, but he’s the only one Owens is saying survived Starcourt. Some were even dissected there, a thought that makes Steve feel physically cold with the horror of it.

“There is a possibility that Eddie, at that point in his development, had access to a kind of...low level hive mind. And now that Eddie no longer has access to that, it’s seeking out the nearest thing to join up with. Of course that is just speculation; I don’t know how your DNA being in the mix could effect that? It could simply be that you and Eddie became somehow...linked due to your contribution to the transformation. If you would consent to me taking a blood sample-”

Steve huffs, and something on Eddie’s monitor beeps, “what was that?”

Owens shrugs, “it would take a lot more study. That could simply be Eddie responding to visible irritation from you, or it could be that there is a genuine link and he felt it too.”

They’ve had this conversation so many times now, and every time Owens brings it up, Steve wants to punch him. He just cannot bring himself to tolerate Owens, knowing his methods and what he’s done. Unfortunately he seems to the be only one; Hopper seems disgruntled but willing to go along with it. That doesn’t seem to mean much though, Hopper is disgruntled by everything and constantly seems to be just going along with it anyway.

Eddie likes Owens, and has outright told Steve so. El seems fine with him, too. So it’s just Steve, digging his feet in stubbornly. “Would it help Eddie? My blood?”

“Obviously there are no guarantees but...I have samples of the before and after with Eddie...so to have a better view of the catalyst from the transformation…simply put, I would be able to see what parts of Eddie are you, Steve, and what parts developed organically. To have a better understanding of this now would be helpful in the future should there be a problem.”

“Stevie? You don’t have to.”

Steve sighs, “I know I just...just do it then,” he sits in the seat Owens indicates, “and what about this mental link thing?”

“That would require a lot of testing,” Owens answers vaguely.

Steve sighs, “after Christmas. And only if Eddie wants to.”

Part ThirtyFour

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One TwentyFive

“What is that?” Eddie asks, leaning forward in his seat, trying to see where the noise is coming from.

“Oh, it’s an ambulance, probably.”

“Am-bu-lance,” Eddie sounds out carefully, “like on TV. Why?”

“Oh they’re...if someone is sick, or has an emergency, and they need to get the hospital really fast, you can call an ambulance on the phone and they come and save you.”

“Oh. People be okay?”

“Uhm. I don’t know, but I hope they’re okay.”

“I hope they’re okay,” Eddie repeats absently, then Eddie’s mouth pops open a little as he stares out of the window, “Stevie love?” he asks, pointing.

“Oh, that’s a florists, you want to go and look?” Steve figures that the weather is finally warm enough to display flowers outside again.

Steve pulls in when he can, and they walk the half block back to where the buckets of brightly colored flowers are in a neat line outside the store front; Steve has a dollar in change loose in his pocket, and he can see that the individual flowers start at a few cents, “here, you want to get something?”

Eddie takes the money, but then grips Steve’s arm, carefully he sounds out the, “help wan-ted,” sign displayed in the window, “work?” he asks quizzically.

“I-” and Steve really has run out of reasons to protest. Eddie never goes anywhere without Steve. The most he ever does is get to go to the grocery store and, sometimes, Hopper and Joyce’s places. Plus he sits in Family Video for some of Steve’s shifts and it just...Steve knows it isn’t fair. Eddie’s getting bored, Steve can tell. Eddie does more than his fair share of the housework now, simply because he gets left alone at home so much. His driving is getting way better, and he’s mastered a lot of kitchen skills and can produce some simple meals.

Steve can’t keep him caged up forever. Besides, Eddie probably wouldn’t even get the job, so there’s no harm in just asking, “okay. Lets try, at least.”

The little bell tinkles cheerily over the door as they go in, making Eddie smile up at it.

It smells almost sickly sweet inside the store, but there are a lot of flowers packed into the small space. And holy shit, Steve actually recognizes the girl behind the counter from school, “Chrissy?”

“Oh. Oh hey Steve,” she isn’t cold, but she’s not exactly warm either, “can I help?”

“I can help,” Eddie butts in, pointing at the sign in the window.

“Oh, well. Do you have any experience working in a florist?” She eyes Eddie not unkindly, but definitely a little bit dubiously.

Eddie looks at Steve, unsure, “no, he doesn’t. And English isn’t his first language, he’s over here learning so…”

“Oh. Right. Well I mean, it’s only a few hours a week on delivery days, or when there's something on...I just need an extra pair of hands.”

“Pair of hands,” Eddie holds his up to show her.

Chrissy laughs, and Steve can already tell she’s softening to Eddie, he really does seem to have that effect on people. And Steve figures...it’s just a few hours. He knows that Chrissy is good people, or at least, he’s pretty sure she’s nice; she was always kind at school. If Eddie’s going to start somewhere…Steve comes to a decision, “how about he comes and tries it one time, his English isn’t perfect yet, but honestly he picks stuff up really fast, you’ll only have to show him once.”

“Uhm...you know, okay, lets do a trial. I haven’t had any other interest any ways, just a couple hours at a time on random days is inconvenient for people I guess, but unpacking everything can get tricky if you also get customers, you know?”

Steve nods, he can see that, “sure.”

“Sure,” Eddie parrots.

“So…do you want to stay for a couple of hours now? I can show you the ropes.”

“It’s an expression, there’s no actual rope,” Steve tells Eddie before he even has a chance to be confused over that, “you want to try?”

Eddie nods, “I’ll try.”

Steve has to stop himself from taking a deep fortifying breath, because that would be weird, “okay, Eddie come and get your jacket from the car.”

“But-”

Steve shuffles Eddie out of the store before he can protest any further, smiling at Chrissy, even as she frowns at him.

Once safely inside the car, Steve checks, “okay, what’s your secret?”

“Must not tell about The Upside Down. Must not tell that I’m different. Keep hidden my not belly button and not nipples. Definitely keep my pants pulled up.”

“Okay, why?”

“People will...take me away. Lock me in tank, like Starcourt. I maybe get El in trouble.”

“And what’s our secret?”

“Not boyfriend. Good friend. People don’t like two boys...they think it wrong. But it not wrong.”

“Okay...okay. You’re sure about this?”

“I’ll try,” Eddie nods.

“Okay, so, I’ll come back around three?” Steve confirms, before leaving his phone number just in case.

And then he...leaves. He leaves Eddie with Chrissy Cunningham. Which is just...weird. Eddie. Alone, kind of, and out in public. And Steve...well. He holds it together pretty well, he thinks. Or at least, he tries too. It’s just...weird. And unexpected.

Going home to an empty house is even stranger, but realistically he can’t just sit in the car outside. As much as he would have rather done that, it is a bit weird and...well. Chrissy can’t exactly phone him if he’s not there to answer the phone.

Steve forces himself to be normal about this, even if on the inside he isn’t being at all normal. Not at all. Not even remotely. He spends two hours coming up with increasingly ridiculous and increasingly catastrophic scenarios that Eddie could be involved in, right this second.

By the time Steve can legitimately leave, he’s still going to be early, and the house is way cleaner and there’s a lasagna on the side, ready to go in the oven later.

Steve fully expects there to be ambulance, fire and police vehicles clustered around the florist. The army maybe. Navy seals. News crews with helicopters circling overhead. Steve has no idea, but he is incredibly relieved when there are none of those things.

He hops out of the beemer and heads in, only to find Chrissy behind the register, a customer just finishing up and paying, and in amongst the buckets of blooms, is Eddie, holding a broom. He looks up at the sign of the bell, smiling when he sees it’s Steve. He’s wearing a green apron with the store branding on the middle of the chest, “hello Stevie.”

Eddie finishes what he’s doing, carefully nudging a bucket into place with his toe and sweeping his little pile of leaves and dust to the doorway out to the back, where he gets it up with a little pan and brush. Steve holds the door for the customer, an older lady, and after she’s gone he asks, “how did that go?”

Eddie looks to Chrissy to answer, “yeah. Yeah he did really good, Eddie, you want to come back on Friday?” Eddie nods, “okay, go hang your apron where I showed you.”

Eddie disappears out the back, “really? All okay?” Steve checks.

“Yeah,” Chrissy smiles brightly, “I think he’s a good fit. Eddie says that you’re his ride, so Friday, midday would be ideal until… lets say three again?”

“Yeah. Yeah, no problem. I’m working a close so he can walk down to Family Video after.”

Before they leave, Chrissy pays Eddie seven dollars straight from the register, and Eddie holds it tight, like it’s precious cargo.

The second the car door closes Eddie is like an unleashed ball of energy, “Stevie? People in the moon?? The moon in the sky? People! In rock-ets!”

Steve snorts a laugh, “yeah, yeah that’s right. People have been to the moon. I think a dog and monkeys and stuff have been to space.”

“Space,” Eddie echoes, quietly astounded.

“We could get a book about it.”

“Yes. Book about it...that’s good.”

“Okay. I probably should have done this ages ago, but lets go get you a library card.”

Eddie stands next to Steve at the desk, and Steve has to nudge him to get him to shut his mouth. Eddie’s eyes are huge, and he stares around the room like he’s just found all the treasures of the world, hiding all along in Hawkins Public Library. “Right, sir,” says the very sensibly cardiganed and bespectacled lady from behind the desk, “there’s your identification back, and your library card. No more than six books at a time, and three weeks per book or you’ll incur a charge, okay?”

“Okay. Thank you,” Eddie says, taking his card and peering at where the lady has written his name out.

“Come on then, you want to get some books?”

It’s not long before they have an issue. Eddie’s first two slots are filled with books about NASA and space from the kids non fiction section. Three and four very quickly go to sciency looking books about animals that came from a shelf near the space bit, but then Eddie can’t seem to choose, overwhelmed with all the books.

“Okay...it’s not far to the library, just take those four, and then when you’ve read them, we can get more okay?”

Eddie frowns, mouth scrunching a little, but he agrees.

He watches carefully over the counter as the lady stamps the borrow date inside the covers, reminding Eddie of when they’re due back, “I’ll write on the calendar,” he tells her. Steve suppresses a smile.

Eddie gets into the car holding a bunch of flowers; he immediately presents them to Steve. They’re held together with a bit of twine, and they’re all varying shades of red and orange, “Chrissy says it’s too late to sell them. All open too long. Ger-be-ra.”

“I-oh. For me?”

“Yes.”

“I-thank you. No one’s ever got me flowers before.”

Eddie beams hugely, and then holds them for Steve while he’s driving, “practice later?”

“Yeah, want to go to the mall lot? You're really close, but you have to get this reversing thing down before you go on the road.”

Eddie nods, “I try.”

“I will try. I’ll try,” Steve reminds him gently; Eddie does know, he just forgets when he gets all excited.

“I’ll try.”

When they get home, Eddie stashes his crumpled dollar bills in a jar that he keeps on the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard.

“Here’s another one,” Steve calls. They’re just, well, saplings, Steve guesses. Glorified twigs with a couple of leaves on, but some of them come up as far as Steve’s knee. They only found one, at first, but the further they went, the easier it became to spot them. And then suddenly...Steve was finding them everywhere.

Eddie comes over to inspect it, clearly pleased, “small pear tree.”

“Yeah, how many does that make?”

“Twenty two,” Eddie says proudly.

Steve looks around, “we’re going to find loads aren’t we?”

Eddie nods, “tent now?”

Steve snorts a laugh, “you horn dog, but, yeah, sure, we can get that set back up, you done tree hunting?” Eddie nods again, “do you ever miss it?” Steve asks as they walk back through the trees and to the yard, “having a tail, I mean? Being in the pool?”

“No,” Eddie starts slow, “I don’t...think on tail? Very few time I remember.”

“Oh right,” Steve thinks for a second, about what El said, about Eddie living so much in the moment. It must still apply.

“Maybe...maybe little,” Eddie puts his finger and thumb close together, for little, “more good than The Upside Down, and found Stee,” Eddie grins.

“Yeah. Yeah you did.”

Eddie appears in the doorway of Family Video five minutes before Steve’s shift is due to finish. Steve is not at all surprised to note that Keith is not here yet. “Hello Stevie. Hello Robin.”

“Hey, Eddie,” they both chorus.

Eddie comes up to the counter, giving Steve the little bouquet of blue and white flowers he’s holding, “awwwwww,” Robin sinks to her elbows on the counter, “that’s so sweet. You two are sickening, really.”

Eddie frowns at her, so Steve tells him, “ignore her, I like them.”

Eddie nods, “I tell Chrissy you like them. She said,” Eddie looks around the store, clearly checking for people. He goes up on his toes to see over the shelves, “she definitely, definitely knows we not boyfriends. She promises. Also, she likes my en-gage-ment ring.”

Steve just stares at Eddie, blinking slowly as he processes that. Next to him, Robin Starts braying like a donkey. Eddie grins big, pleased with himself. “She said...she definitely knows that we’re not boyfriends?” Steve repeats slowly.

“Yeah. She say she definitely knows we’re not boyfriends. She promises, she said she definitely doesn’t like girls, too.” Eddie speaks in that slow, sure way he does when he’s repeating something exactly.

“Right.” Steve says, “right. Okay. Did she say anything...else?”

“She think you are a prick, before.” Robin had just about regained her composure, only to completely loose it again, folding to the ground, crying with laughter, “but now she say you’re nice,” Eddie frowns, looking at the ceiling for a second as he concentrates, “Chrissy...think you have good taste in not boyfriends.”

“Oh.” Steve sighs, “okay. At least there’s that.”

“I can’t believe Chrissy Cunnigham likes girls,” Robin sighs from somewhere down on the floor.

“No,” Eddie corrects, “she doesn’t. She said she doesn’t.”

Steve can, vaguely, feel a headache forming, “no. Eddie she says she doesn’t like girls. The way that you don’t like guys.”

“But I don’t like guys, I like Stevie- ooooohhhhh,” Eddie’s face dawns with understanding, “secret lie?”

“Secret lie,” Steve confirms.

“Do you think she’s single?” Robin asks weakly from behind the counter.

“Single?” Eddie asks.

“Does she have a girlfriend? Is she with someone, like we are?”

Eddie shakes his head, “no girlfriend. Chrissy says that she a bit sad...but better than Tommy. Steaming turd.”

Robin cackles.

“Stevie, what is ‘steaming turd’?”

Steve rubs his forehead, breathing deeply though his nose.

From the floor Robin asks, “I wonder if she still has the cheerleader outfit?”

“Eddie, do not repeat that to Chrissy.”

Eddie frowns, “why? Chrissy says it’s girl talk?” Eddie asks, clearly uncertain over the concept of ‘girl talk.’

“Since when are you a girl?” Robin finally clambers back up with the rest of them.

“Chrissy say I hon-or-rary girl. I bagged King Steve.”

Steve’s never been happier to see Keith walk into the store.

Part TwentySeven

[stevieschrodinger]

Part One ThirtyOne

Throwback bits that didn't make the cut - I just needed to do something cute and fluffy I guess, so this is set when Eddie still had a tail

“Hey, no come on, it’s fine.” Eddie frowns, pouting a little, but he stops trying to rub the cream off.

“Why?”

“We’ve been over this, I’m worried about your skin. I know you’re not going brown or anything, but what if you like, can’t? And you’re just being damaged by the sun.”

“Sun not hurt,” Eddie tells him firmly.

“No, I know, but just...just let me do this, okay? Take your shades off, let me get your face.”

Eddie does as he’s asked, leaving his glasses on the lounger next to Steve, Steve rubbing a little more cream on his hands before carefully getting Eddie’s cheeks and nose. Eddie’s big brown eyes watch Steve’s face closely. They’re too big for his face, really, something a little unnatural in the way they catch the sunlight. Steve traces his sharp cheekbones, shifting Eddie’s thick thatch of hair to smear some over his forehead. Eddie pulls a face, exposing the sharp points of his teeth, but says nothing.

He doesn’t bother with Eddie’s tail, he figures the skin there is thick and kind of rubbery. He also figures Eddie isn’t going to tolerate it.

“Touch bad,” Eddie says, rubbing at the lotion on his arms again.

“No it isn’t. I’ve done all the kids and Birdie, now it’s your turn.” Eddie huffs out out his nose, but turns, sitting on his tail between Steve's knees as Steve applies the lotion all over his pale back, “okay, you want your hair up or not?”

Eddie thinks for second before saying, “up.”

He more often than not says no, but they are all out in the garden today and it’s kind of breezy, so maybe he wants it out of his face. Steve uses one of Robin’s scrunchies to gather it all up into a haphazard bun on top of his head. “Okay, you’re free to go.”

“Stee?”

“Yeah buddy?”

Eddie frowns, “Stee,” and takes the bottle from Steve, unclicking it and moving to squeeze some out onto his hand.

“Oh no,” Steve takes it back, “I’m fine, I’m pretty tanned, see?”

“The kids. Birdidie. Eddidie. Stee. The sun hot ow,” Eddie gestures at the sky, frowning, like ‘it’s the fucking sun’.

“I...okay,” Steve realizes pretty quickly he can’t actually argue Eddie’s point. It would be more than a little hypocritical of him, “sure.” Steve holds his arms out, allowing Eddie to apply the cream. Eddie lifts Steve's legs by the ankle, one at a time, creaming Steve's calves and shins before making sure to get the tops of his bare feet.

He has to hold in his smile when Eddie is ever so careful with Steve’s cheeks and nose, applying the lotion with a single fingertip, careful of his claws, Eddie's frown of concentration, his slightly parted lips, the focus in his big eyes. “Well, thank you.”

Eddie heads off to his tent, bringing out notebooks and pencils before he lies out on the grass, away from where the kids are playing.

“It’s called a Frisbee,” Steve holds it out so Eddie can take it, tapping the colorful plastic with his claws. He’d been watching the thing with fascination, but hadn’t been brave enough to come closer.

“Is-bee,” Eddie mangles the word pretty badly, but he really struggles with any words staring with an ‘f’ sound, so Steve just lets it go.

“Yeah, you want to throw it to me?” Steve mimes flicking his wrist for the throw, back off a dozen big paces.

The throw is low and kind of slanted, but not too bad at all, and Steve manages to catch it by diving for it. He throws it back gently, managing to get it close enough that Eddie can catch it; Eddie might be able to move fast considering his tail, but not that fast. Plus he needs his hands to move which feels like an unreasonable disadvantage if you’re playing catch.

Eddie grins big when he’s successful, and when Steve celebrates with a cheer and both arms flung into the air, Eddie mimics him, “more try?”

“Go for it buddy.”

Eddie’s ass is right in the air, chest and chin pressed into the grass. Steve can’t see what he’s following, but it’s probably a grasshopper or a cricket or something. Steve can’t see the bug, but he can tell it’s movements by Eddie’s focus. Eddie uses his tail to slide himself forward through the grass, lying flat before he drags his tail forward again, ass back in the air, doing the worm across the lawn.

Eddie shuffles his cupped hands forward carefully, clearly trying to capture whatever it is.

He lifts his hands carefully, sitting up again on the curve of his tail; Steve watches as Eddie opens his cupped hands, peering inside. His confusion when there’s nothing there is palpable, and Eddie looks around, finding his target some distance forward in the grass.

He goes back to his stalking.

Steve watches a little longer before heading over, hanging back far enough to see what it is, “it’s a grasshopper.”

“Grasshopper,” Eddie repeats, “little guy.”

Steve snorts a laugh, “yeah, just a little guy. Maybe we should leave him alone now, huh?”

“Eddidie not hurt grasshopper.”

“No I know, but to him, you’re probably really big and scary, right? And you haven’t eaten yet, you need to come and have some lunch.”

“Pears?” Eddie follows, loosing interest in the bug pretty fast.

“And a beer, if you want.”

The weight is very pink; one of the smaller free weights from a set his mom bought when she was going through a video fitness phase. Steve tosses it into the pool, Eddie racing to retrieve it. It feels like he’s back in seconds, his tail a black streak under the water, “you’re so goddamn fast.”

Steve throws it again, feet dangling into the water from the edge of the pool. Eddie retrieves it; he seems content to keep going, and Steve would be worried about all the energy he’s burning, but he’s been steadily putting on weight since he got here so he’s not that worried. Steve figures the exercise has to be good for Eddie’s muscles, or whatever. It’s probably a good sign that Eddie has so much energy.

The weight breaks the water with a splash, Eddie retrieving it and putting it next to Steve’s thigh. He floats in the water, waiting patiently for Steve to throw it again. “More?”

Eddie shrugs, they have been doing this for a while, but Eddie seems to enjoy pretty much any form of engagement.

“Stee in?” He asks, tapping the surface of the water.

Steve figures it’s a little chilly, but not that cold, “sure, I guess. Let me go and get changed and grab a towel and stuff.”

Steve’s never been in the water with Eddie before. Eddie might not be the fastest on land, but in water he’s a streak of lightning. He swims rings around Steve, popping up with his wet hair flat to his head. They play a half hearted game that’s half tag half keep away in the pool, but Steve doesn’t stand a chance. He takes an opportunity to splash Eddie one time when he pops up, making Eddie laugh uproariously.

Unfortunately Steve is totally outgunned, he quickly regrets introducing Eddie to a new game when he's immediately sent sprawling under the water when Eddie hits him with a tail made wave Steve could never hope to compete with. When Steve emerges, Robin is nearly crying with laughter.

“Stee read?” Eddie asks quietly

“Uhm, I mean I can, but it’s just sports stats-”

Eddie climbs up onto the lounger, Steve grunting and trying to compensate when Eddie accidentally digs his bony bits in. He settles half on Steve’s chest, tail trailing down to rest between Steve’s legs and off the end of the chair.

“Cute,” Robin says from next to them, sipping her drink.

Eddie ignores her, twisting to tap the page, “words that wait.”

“I...I guess they do hang around, yeah,” and Steve proceeds to read scores and match stats from his magazine until Robin interrupts them again.

“Is he asleep?”

Steve stops, looking down. Eddie’s half on his side, back to Robin, but his face is restful, eyes closed, and he doesn’t react when Steve abruptly stops reading.

“Yeah, I think he is.”

“He must feel really safe with you Steve.”

“Yeah...I guess he does.”

Part ThirtyThree