Go ahead and cry, little boy
written for ‘Fool’ | wc: 454 | rated: T | cw: none, I don't think | Tags: T for slight swearing, pre-steddie, no upside down AU, mentions of children abandonment, recreational drug use, hurt/comfort wannabe.
@steddiemicrofic
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Eddie watches how Steve Harrington gets saddled with a child that isn't his.
The entire town knows what happened.
Steve Harrington dated Nancy Wheeler for a year, back in high school, until she made a fool out of him with Jonathan Byers.
And yet, here they were, seven years after the fact, with the eyes of the town on Wheeler dropping her firstborn onto her ex before fucking off to wherever she lived now.
So Eddie watched.
Harrington going to the store with the kid, buying groceries and looking like a fool while trying to buy baby shit he found on the aisle.
Harrington speaking with every mother in Hawkins, looking for advice from the fools who've done it before.
Harrington looking exhausted (and still as beautiful as ever), on his dead end job at family video, where he had raised into a management position.
Harrington on his door one afternoon, foolishly asking if he still sold drugs.
"I do. But don't you have a child now? Where are they?"
Harrington sighed, dragging a hand across his face.
"I asked Karen and the kids to babysit her, I- look, I'm tired. And I just wanted some weed, if you can't sell me that I'll just leave"
Eddie watched him while he spoke. Harrington DID look exhausted, like he'll kneel over the second he lets go, the second he leaves the tension drain of his body.
And Eddie wants to see that, he suddenly realizes, he wants to see Harrington at his most relaxed, without the stress he always seems to carry around, so he makes a choice.
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Eddie watches Harring- Steve (he'd asked Eddie to call him that) relax on his bed, all loose limbs and hazy eyes, looking the most calm and pretty Eddie has ever seen him.
"I don't think I'm ready for this. Aileen deserves better than a twenty-something fool taking care of her instead of her mom"
Eddie startles, they've been quiet this whole time, but Steve talks, undeterred, about his kid.
"But Nancy didn't want her, you know? So she called me, because she remembered some dumb shit I told her the last time we met and gave her to me."
Stevie is crying now, still beautiful, looking entirely like the fool he is while his haze is stuck on the ceiling and the words keep slipping out.
"And I wasn't ready, but I just couldn't leave her, I didn't want her to be like me"
Eddie reaches out, sweeping the tears out of Stevie's face.
"It was hard, wasn't it? It's okay sweetheart, I've got you"
Those big, beautiful sad eyes stare at him.
"You promise?"
"I promise"
Stevie is a fool, yet Eddie still finds him lovely.
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