#teeeeeechnically this is how the s4 part of gseb ends but you didn't hear that from me 👀

[puppy-steve]

steddie week day 4 - hurt/comfort [read on ao3] @steddie-week

eddie wakes up four weeks after the fault lines open up and threaten to drag all of hawkins into the pits of hell.

steve isn't in the room for it, because that's just his luck, isn't it? but eddie isn't alone. wayne's been staying permanently and helping the nurses care for him where he can. helping them bathe him, washing his hair and keeping his face shaved.

three visitors per room, a nurse had told them once eddie was wheeled into recovery thirteen hours after he'd been rushed through the o.r's double doors.

they'd moved him to a permanent room on the west wing of the surgical unit once he was stable enough and it's where he's been ever since. they've spruced the place up a bit over the past couple weeks; flowers and cards line the window and balloons fill one corner of the room. wayne's coffee mug sits on the table beside eddie's bed and his duffel bag stays by the pull out chair he sleeps on.

the kids visit every day, traveling between eddie's room and max's a few doors down the hall, but steve's the only one that's been constant. he brings wayne a change of clothes every other day and takes his dirty laundry home to wash them. he can't do much for either of them in the current moment, but it'll do for now. he keeps wayne company and holds eddie's hand when it's just the two of them in the room.

but when eddie wakes up, it's only wayne by his side.

they tell him later that he wasn't gone long before he did, but steve still feels like he was hours too late, even though he was only two floors down in the cafeteria.

when he comes back into the room, they both turn to look at him and it feels like the wind's been knocked out of his chest, leaving him gasping for air. his hands go numb but before he can even think of dropping the two coffee's he's carrying, wayne takes them while muttering about giving them privacy and shuts the door behind him.

"hey, big boy."

eddie gives him a tired smile that's a touch too dopey from the morphine he's got coursing through him and tries to reach his hand out, but his arm just flops onto the bed.

it's a mere second of movement that tells steve that eddie is alive and breathing. he stumbles forward, hovering his hands over eddie's body like he's too afraid to touch.

eddie blinks slowly up at him, smile still in place. his eyes are glassy and unfocused– exactly like someone on a good high. but they still hold the same intensity that originally drew steve in. like eddie's seeing into his very soul. it was unnerving at first, in the beginning, but now there's a comfort in it.

"i'm okay, stevie," eddie whispers. "ya ain't gonna break me."

steve's face crumples and he gasps out a sob, collapsing at eddie's bedside and burying his face in the front of his hospital gown, staining it with tears and snot.

eddie comforts him with a weak hand in his hair and quiet reassurances but he can't do much from his spot in the bed.

"come up here, stevie," he says.

eyes bloodshot and his cheeks wet, steve sniffs and shakes his head. "i'll hurt you."

"you won't hurt me, baby," eddie says. he winces as he shuffles over in the bed, not by much, but enough that steve won't roll onto the floor. he makes grabby hands. "c'mere, need my favorite boy."

"i'm your only boy," steve giggles, but he carefully moves to tuck himself into eddie's side as gently as possible. he buries his face in eddie's neck and clings to his gown, as if eddie's liable to disappear at any second.

eddie snorts. "don't let henderson hear you say that. i'll never hear the end of it."

steve hums and presses a kiss to the side of eddie's neck, where the skin is unblemished and unmarred. eddie's hand in back in his hair and carefully brushing his fingers through the strands, and steve rests his over eddie's heart, the beat of it steady against his palm.

a kiss is placed on top of his head and steve can feel his eyes getting droopy.

"rest, sweetheart," eddie whispers, lips brushing his forehead. "i'll be here when you wake up, i promise."

wayne comes back a while later to both boys sound asleep, curled around each other in a way that'll have eddie whining about the ache in his sides later as steve rolls his eyes and scolds him. wayne can already see the exaggerated pout on his nephew's face as he breaks out the puppy eyes they both know steve is immune to.

chuckling to himself, wayne settles into the pull out chair and sips his coffee. he'll let steve call everybody over in the morning; no doubt eddie will want to know about the mayfield girl, but for now, they can rest.

after what wayne's been filled in on (by steve, the chief, and some government suits) his boys are gonna be in for a hell of a fight.