Archive of Our Own ^beta

Steve wakes up with the usual body aches, he sits up from the hospital chair. He stretches, his back popping, he stretches a little too far, wincing as the movement stretches the tight skin on his stomach. It’s been four weeks since Vecna, his stomach wounds have just started to scab. Steve spends 90% of his time at the hospital, alternating nights in Max and Eddie’s rooms. Eddie had been put into a medically induced coma due to the blood loss. 

Eddie woke up yesterday, his neck wound just barely healed, his stomach is still stitched together and the wound on his shoulder has just started to scab, so he’s itchy, but ultimately alive. Steve watches him sleep for a while before he jerks awake.

“Jesus H. Christ.” Eddie holds his chest, his heart monitor beeping fast.

“Nightmare?” Steve readjusts in his chair.

Eddie nods, “How long have you been here?”

“I, uh-” Steve rubs the back of his head, “I never left.”

“You slept here?” Eddie can’t help but laugh, “Did you just watch me sleep?”

“What? No! I visited Max first!” A lie, they both know this.

“Oh my god you were watching me sleep!” Eddie laughs again, he holds his stomach, “Careful there, Harrington, I might think you have a crush on me.” He wiggles his eyebrows.

“Har har.” Steve deadpans, “How was seeing Wayne yesterday?”

Eddie smiles, “Good. I missed the old geezer.” 

Steve smiles, “I’m sorry I missed him.”

“I’m not, you’re not ready to meet him.” Eddie finger combs his hair.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steve feigns offense.

“I’m just saying your whole,” Eddie gestures to Steve, “prep thing? Not really his speed.”

“Okay, rude.” Steve crosses his arms, “Where’s he staying?” 

“He told me he was couch surfing ‘til I got out.” Eddie shuffles, “Not sure he wants to stay in Hawkins.”

“Do you?” Steve frowns at the thought of Eddie leaving.

Eddie shrugs, “It’s not like I have many options, it’s either go with Wayne or be homeless.”

“You could always stay with me.” Steve leans back in his chair, “If you want.” 

“You really want this in your house?” Eddie gestures to himself.

“I mean, want is a strong word.” Steve smiles.

“So you really don’t want me in your house.” Eddie smirks.

Steve rolls his eyes, “You’re part of the group now. You’re stuck with us.”

______________________________

“Jesus I forgot how big your house was.” Eddie stands in the foyer.

Steve cocks a brow, “You’ve been here?”

“Okay, rude.” Eddie looks at Steve, “I’ve been to, like, four of your parties.”

“Oh.” Steve starts walking, “Not like they lasted long, Hop really had my number back then.” He chuckles awkwardly, “Well, want an official tour?”

“Such a prep. Sure, Harrington, give me a tour .” Eddie grins as he adjusts his duffel on his shoulder. He doesn’t have much, his trailer was destroyed in the earthquake, so he just has some clothes Wayne had bought for him from various thrift stores, they’re not his usual style, but they’re dark colors so he’ll wear ‘em.

Steve walks around the house, showing Eddie various rooms, they make their way upstairs, “This is my room,” he gestures to his room, “and your room is next to mine.” He gesture’s to Eddie’s room, turning to the room furthest from them, “That’s my parent’s room.”

“Where are your parents?” Eddie blurts out before he can stop himself.

Steve’s face droops, “I think they’re in one of the Carolinas.” He scratches the back of his head, “I’m not sure.”

“They’re not gonna care about the town freak you’ve let move in?” Eddie cocks a brow.

“They called after the quake.” Steve says like that explains everything, Eddie looks confused, so he keeps talking, “They told me they had no interest in coming back.” He shrugs, walking into Eddie’s room. Eddie follows, dropping his duffel onto the floor by the door.

Eddie’s jaw drops, “You saved her!” He grabs his guitar from where it was leaning against an empty bookcase.

“Technically Nance saved her.” Steve counters, “Dustin tried to get as much of the upside down off of it, but ya know.”

“Right, right.” Eddie runs a thumb over the strings, smiling at the low hum of the sound it makes.

“Get a room.” Steve chuckles.

“I’m in my room.” Eddie laughs, Steve goes to leave, “I don’t think I ever thanked you.”

“No need, Munson.” Steve stops, leaning on the door frame, “I’d like to think you’d carried me out of there if the tables were turned.”

“I would’ve tried, that’s for sure.” Eddie sets the guitar back down, “Wanna get high?” Eddie pulls a joint out of his pocket.

“Depends, where were you hiding that?” Steve laughs, “Have you had that the whole time?”

“Nah, I asked Argyle for it.” Eddie sits the joint between two fingers, “Tried to pay him for it, but he wouldn’t take it. That dude is the coolest.”

“Roof?” Steve points to the window in the room.

Eddie nods, opening the window and awkwardly crawling through, he hits his stitches, “ Ah, fuck .”

“You good?” Steve smirks as he follows. Eddie sits on the roof, Steve plopping down to Eddie’s left.

“Yeah, just-” He gestures to his side. Steve nods, after a few minutes of quiet, “How do you move on?”

“From what?” Steve leans back on his hands, squinting at the skyline of the town.

“From everything,” Eddie lights the joint, taking two hits before he passes it to Steve, “the fact that we saved the world and no one even knows .”

“You move on cause you have too.” Steve takes a hit, “To be honest, I think I’m still hung up on the first time I stumbled into it.” He takes another puff, then holds it out to Eddie.

“Do the nightmares get better?” Eddie takes it and takes a hit.

“I wish I could tell you yes, but I have a different nightmare every night.” Steve frowns.

“Damn. Do I at least get to know all the gorey details now that I’m part of the secret club?” While he wiggles his eyebrows at Steve.

“I can tell you if you really want, but I’m not sure it’d help you much.” Steve shrugs before laying back to look at the darkening sky.

“Maybe I just want to hear the heroics, Stevie boy.” Eddie lays down too, taking another hit. He holds it over Steve’s eyes.

Steve takes it, he takes a hit, “Okay, but you have to keep in mind that I’ve had like, five concussions, so some of the details are fuzzy.” He takes another hit, offering it back to Eddie.

Eddie takes the joint and finishes it off, “Can do, sweetheart.”

Steve’s stomach flips, “Okay. So y’know how Will went missing in ‘83?” Eddie nods, “He was actually taken to the upside down by a demogorgon. He managed to hide in there for a full week. Anyway, while he was still missing, I had a pool party with Tommy H., Carol, Nance and Barb.”

“Barb?”

“Barbara Holland? She was Nance’s best friend. Nance and I- Well we got distracted and Barb had cut herself earlier that night trying to shotgun. The demogorgon took her too. But it killed her.” Eddie watches as Steve works his way through the story, “Anyway the next day this girl who worked on the school paper brought me these photos she said Jonathan took. They were perv shots of Nancy undressing that night.” 

“Wait, what? That is not cool.” Eddie interrupts.

“That’s what I said! Anyway, I broke his camera for it.” Steve frowns, “Probably a bit overboard, but it made my skin crawl, ‘cause that was my half naked girlfriend, and I was half naked too, which whatever. It was still weird, y’know?” Eddie nods, “Nance started pulling away from me, I tried to see her that night? Maybe the night after, I’m not sure, but I found Jonathan in her room with her and they were lookin’ real buddy buddy.”

“Wait, did she cheat on you?”

“Technically, but not that night, I didn’t know it at the time but that night, Nancy had found a tiny, tiny gate. She climbed through it and was chased by a demogorgon. Jonathan pulled her out.”

“Metal.” Eddie thinks about what he would’ve done in that situation. He doesn’t think he would’ve been nearly that brave.

“Anyway, I didn’t know that, so me and Tommy did some fucked up shit.” Steve sighs, “Spray painted stuff about Nancy, I called Jonathan all kinds of things, a screw up and a queer .” Steve grimaces, Eddie tenses, “I absolutely deserved the beat down Jonathan gave me for that. Which is where we get concussion number 1. It sucked, my ears kept ringing.”

“Do-” Eddie clenches his fists by his sides, “Do you have a problem with queers ?”

“No.” Steve pauses, “I was jealous, and not that this is an excuse, but I had Tommy around back then and he did. Have a problem, that is.” Steve sits up, “I actually went to Jonathan’s that night to apologize, which is when shit really hit the fan.”

Eddie sits up, listening intently, “Yeah?”

“Yeah, Nancy had answered the door and I don’t really remember why I forced my way in, but I did. Nancy tried to get me to leave by pointing a gun at me.”

“Sounds like Wheeler.”

“Then the lights started flickering.” Eddie sees Steve tense, he grabs Steve’s hand to ground him, “A demogorgon tore its way through the ceiling. We ran into one of their bedrooms, trying to get it into a trap they had set up. It didn’t work at first. I ran out.”

“No you didn’t.”

“I did! I ran back in when the lights started flickering again. It’s a good thing too cause Jon was on the ground coughing, Nancy had run out of bullets and it was so close to her. So I grabbed Jon’s bat, y’know the one with the nails?” Eddie nods, rubbing his thumb on Steve’s hand, “I hit it. I kept hitting it until it backed into the trap. Jon lit it on fire and then it was gone. I’m still not sure what happened there. Nance said something afterwards about El, but I think it went through one ear and out the other.” Steve lays back down, bringing Eddie’s hand with him, “We had a little less than a year before the second incident. Nance had been struggling, no one knew what happened to Barb, she was still missing and Nance blamed us.”

“It wasn’t your fault though.” 

Steve shrugs, “I could’ve made sure she made it to her car, anyway. Not the point. We went to this stupid Halloween party.” Steve shakes his head as Eddie lays down, “Nancy got wasted. The drunkest I’ve ever seen her. She spilled punch her shirt.”

“Oh no.”

“Oh yes. We went to the bathroom where she ripped into me. I know I wasn’t the best boyfriend,but I did love her.” He takes a deep breath, “She said we killed Barb, called me bullshit. Said our love was bullshit.” He pulls his hand away to scrub at his face, “I left her there.” 

“I would’ve done the same thing.”

Steve shrugs, “Next day, I went to school, Max’s older brother was being a shit. But Nancy came to find me. I don't really remember the fight, I know I said something mean about her and Jon told her about the bullshit comments, and asked her to tell me she loved me. She didn’t, we didn’t technically break up. The next day I went to apologize and found Dustin at the Wheeler house. He asked if I still had my bat, which obviously.”

“Obviously.” Eddie chuckles.

“He told me he had found this slug thing, it grew into a demodog and ate his cat. He had trapped it in his storm cellar. I went down, found some slimy shit.”

“Where was the demodog?”

“It dug through the concrete in the storm cellar. It was gone. So Dustin came up with this plan to lure him to the junkyard with raw meat.” Steve grimaces.

“Wait, so many questions . It dug through the concrete? Why raw meat?”

“Oh, all the demo-things are drawn to blood. Anyway Lucas had finally responded to Dustin’s code red. He brought Max.” Steve smiles, “Then we waited in this bus we fortified, it got dark, a demodog came, but didn’t take the bait.”

“Oh no.”

“So I left the bus, which was a shit idea, cause there were like, three other demodogs. They came from everywhere, I had to run and swing the bat at the same time. Then one was on top of the bus, Max was terrified, it opened its weird flower mouth and then stopped .”

“Why?”

“Remember the hive mind?” Eddie nods, “Will had called it away, Mike, Joyce, Hop and Will were at Hawkin’s Lab and the mindflayer had possessed Will. We followed the dogs, we met up with Nance and Jon outside the lab. They had barely made it out of the lab, Joyce’s boyfriend died in there. We regrouped at the Byers’ house. We figured out that Will was still in there, he told us we had to close the gate. But he figured out where we were. So demodog attack number 2. I met El for the first time, she had killed a demodog and thrown it through the window.” Steve chuckles, smiling like a proud mom, “They came up with a plan. We gathered blankets, heaters, anything that could be warm, this is when me and Nance broke up. We were split into three groups: Hop and El went to the lab so El could close the gate, Joyce, Jon, and Nance took Will to a cabin to burn the mindflayer out of Will. The rest of us were left to wait at the Byers.”

“I thought you said Nance cheated?”

“She did. After fighting outside school, she and Jon went to this guy, Murray? I think. They slept together there.” 

“Shit, dude.”

“Eh. The writing was on the wall. Anyway, Mike came up with this stupid plan to help. The demodogs were apparently everywhere in the lab, so he suggested taking advantage of the hive mind, to light a fire away from the lab in these tunnels the mindflayer had been carving underneath Hawkins.” Steve looks at Eddie, “But we were interrupted.” Eddie cocks a brow, “Billy had been looking for Max the whole night. I told them to stay down, I told him I didn’t know where she was but-”

“They didn’t stay down.”

“They didn’t stay down.” Steve says with a sigh, “Billy knocked me down. Took me a minute to get up, but when I got back inside he had Lucas thrown against a wall. He said he’d kill him. So I pulled him off and punched him.”

“Concussion 2?”

“Oh yeah with even more ear ringing and bonus eyesight issues.” Steve huffs a laugh, “I got a few punches in, but then the asshole smashed a plate over my head. He threw me down and just-” He sighs, tightly, “Punched until I was out.”

“Jesus H. Christ, Stevie.”

“I’m not done. I woke up in the backseat of his car. Max was driving.”

“Fuckin’ zoomer.” Eddie chuckles.

“Sure, whatever that means. Anyway, Dustin convinced me to go into the tunnels, and we lit them on fire.” Steve grabs Eddie’s hand, “Most of the group made it out. I was trying to lift Dustin up when the tunnels started to shake. I don’t know how many demodogs there were but I thought we were for sure dead, but they ran past us. We got out of there. Then the gate was closed and Will was freed.”

“Who punches harder?”

Steve snorts a laugh, “Jonathan. But Billy punches more.”

Eddie snorts, “Quality over quantity.”

They both laugh, “We had less than a year after that, but I think I’ll save the Scoops story for later, feeling way too high for that.” Steve smiles, he looks down at their conjoined hands, he lets go, “Sorry.”

“No problem.” Eddie shrugs, internally missing the warmth.

“I think I should go to bed.” Steve smiles.

“Me too.” They crawl back through the window, Steve heads to his room. They both go to bed. Eddie is woken up by screaming.

“I WORK AT SCOOPS AHOY!” Steve is shouting over and over, his body flailing on his bed. Eddie would be confused if he wasn’t trying to figure out what to do. He leans onto the bed, hanging over Steve as he shakes Steve awake gently.

“Steve! You okay, you’re home!” He squeezes Steve’s shoulders.

Steve’s eyes shoot open and he flips the two of them, his arm pushing into Eddie’s throat, he realizes what he’s done and jumps back, falling off the mattress. Eddie coughs, feeling pain in his side, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Steve keeps repeating while crawling backwards, further away from the bed.

“Steve, it’s okay.” Eddie croaks out, he rubs his throat softly, thankful that that wound had healed before he left the hospital.

Steve’s face is scrunched up, his hands clutching the back of his head, “No, it’s not.”

“Talk to me.”

“It’s nothing.” Steve grimaces, putting his middle finger in his left ear and wiggling his hand up and down.

“Steve.” Eddie does his best to imitate Steve’s mom voice.

It works, “I can’t hear out of my left ear.” Steve confesses quietly.

“Shit, what do we do?” Eddie slides out of Steve’s bed, kneeling in front of Steve.

“What? No. I can never hear out of my left ear.” Steve corrects, “It just hurts when I have the nightmares.”

“How did I not know this? Why didn’t Dustin tell me?” Eddie leans back into the bed.

“He doesn’t know and he’s not gonna find out.” Steve glares at Eddie, “Got it?”

“He should-”

“Got it?” Steve asks louder. Eddie nods smally.

“Is there anything we can do for the night?” Eddie asks, still wanting to help.

Steve shrugs, “I don’t know, I probably won’t be able to fall back asleep tonight.”

“Would company help?” Eddie thumps his head into the mattress behind him, closing his eyes.

Steve blushes, “Uh, I don’t know.”

“Wanna try it?”

Steve takes a minute, “Sure.” They both crawl into bed facing each other. Eddie dozes off first, the adrenaline from how he woke up is wearing off. It takes Steve a little longer, but after tossing and turning for a while, he eventually dozes off too. Steve wakes up to his alarm, he swats it, blinking away sleep. He feels weight around his waist, he remembers the events of the night before wiggling out of Eddie’s arms. Eddie is snoring softly, not even moving at the alarm. Steve watches him for a few seconds before he gets ready for work in the bathroom and takes off before Eddie wakes up.

“You’re. Late.” Robin crosses her arms.

“If I had a good excuse could we avoid the rant?”

“Depends, what’s the excuse?” Robin drops her arms.

Steve pulls his vest on, “So I had a nightmare last night. The Scoops one,” Robin shivers and nods in understanding, “and Eddie woke me up, I might’ve, maybe, choked him a little.”

Robin’s jaw drops, “Steve!” 

“I was caught off guard! I thought he was a Russian, but that’s not the excuse.”

Robin raises a brow, “Okay, what happened next?”

“We talked, then he slept in my bed with me,” Robin smiles, Steve stumbles over his words, “I woke up with him spooning me.” Robin’s smile grows into a huge grin.

“Oh. My. God.” Robin looks around the empty store before whispering, “Do you like him?”

“I don’t know!” Steve throws his hands up, “It’s been weird.”

“What does that mean??” Robin is back to crossing her arms.

Steve sighs, slotting a tape into the rewinder, “Well, he asked me about my experiences with the upside down stuff.” Robin cocks a brow, “I told him about half of it and he held my hand for like, a third of it. Then he called me sweetheart.” Steve adds, he rewinds the tape.

“You totally like him.”

“I don’t know, I think maybe I’m just lonely.” Steve shrugs.

“No, don’t do that.” Robin frowns, “I think you like him and y’know why?”

“Why?”

“Because I haven’t even heard all of your dealings with the upside down.” She grabs a box of tapes, “You always panic when you try to tell me about it.”

Steve’s eyes go wide in realization, “I didn’t panic while telling Eddie those stories.”

“So either, Eddie is your true platonic soulmate, which ouch. Or you like him.” Robin starts shelving tapes, Steve walks around the counter.

“You’re my platonic soulmate though.” Steve grabs a tape from the box

“I think you’re close to figuring it out there, dingus. Keep going.” Robin shelves another tape.

“Robin.” Steve’s eyes are still wide, “I think I like Eddie.” He whispers.

“There we go.” Robin smiles, “Welcome to the gay club, sucks doesn’t it?”

“But-” Steve looks around, “I’m not gay, Robin.”

Robin sighs, “Steve, do you know what the word spectrum means?”

“Is that the thing used when a lady needs her va-”

“No, Steve!” Robin interrupts him, she pinches between her brows, “That’s a speculum. Spectrum is like a scale used to classify things.”

“Like colors?”

“Yes. There is a color spectrum where the colors blend into each other, yes?” Steve nods slowly, “Sexuality is like that.”

“So, like women on one end and men on the other?”

“Exactly! I’m all the way on the women end.” Robin shoves the box of tapes into Steve’s arms. She rushes behind the counter, grabbing a magazine from a few months before and bringing it back with her. She shows it to Steve, on the cover is a man with his makeup done and his hair teased. The logline reads: BOY GEORGE: MY STORY Showing off his new look, he finally talks straight about (surprise!) his normal sex life.

He looks at it, “And he’s all the way on the men end. Meaning?”

“He doesn’t like boobies?” Robin nods.

“So if I’m on one end and he’s on the other..?” Robin can see the gears turning in Steve’s head.

“I’m somewhere in the middle?” He puts a tape on the shelf.

“Exactly.” Robin nods.

“Is there a name for it or is it just like, half gay or half straight?” Steve takes the empty box back behind the counter.

“Bisexual.” Robin nods, “That’s what it’s called.” 

Steve seems oddly calm, “Huh.” His face almost frozen as he thinks about it.

“Steve?” Robin pokes his cheek, he flinches at the touch, “Sorry, you were so still.”

“Sorry. Just thinking.”

“I’ll be honest, I was expecting more panic.” Robin takes the tape Steve had started rewinding out, replacing it with another.

“Why? It makes sense.” Steve breaks the empty box down, “Plus, after being tortured by Russians? Questioning my sexuality just doesn’t seem as scary.”

“Fair.”

______________________________

“Stevie?” Eddie rushes to Steve, grabbing his shoulders.

“What?” Steve responds, ignoring the butterflies in his stomach at the other man grabbing him.

“Jesus, dude. You can’t just stare at me. You looked so much like-” Eddie takes a deep breath.

“Shit, I’m sorry.” Steve scrubs a hand over his face, “I had a sort of revelation yesterday and I guess it’s still…” Steve pauses, “Sinking in?”

“Do I even want to know?” Eddie lets go of Steve’s arms.

“Maybe in the future.” Steve shrugs.

“Hmm, you okay there big boy?” Eddie looks at Steve.

Steve nods, blushing at the nickname, “Yeah, guess I’m just tired.”

“Wanna get high?” Eddie smiles.

Steve laughs, “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?” Eddie raises a brow.

“I have a secret.” Steve admits, “One, I’m not sure I’m ready to share.”

“Is it the rest of your upside down stories? We don’t have to talk about them.” Eddie smiles.

“How about I sit with you on the roof, but I stay sober?” Steve suggests.

“So you do want to hang out with me?” Eddie teases.

“Yeah? Why wouldn’t I?” Steve smiles back, Eddie shrugs. They head up to the roof, it’s still light out, Eddie lights a joint and takes a hit.

“What do you want to talk about Stevie boy?” Eddie speaks as the smoke spills out.

“Up to you, I can continue the story, we could sit in silence, you could talk, doesn’t matter to me.” Steve lays back.

Eddie lays down with him, “Do you think Family Video would hire me?” 

“Dude, Robin’s literally the manager.”

“What happened to Keith?” Eddie screechs.

“He left after the earthquake?” Steve laughs as Eddie hits his face.

“Oh my god, maybe you should finish your story. How did I not know that?” Eddie moves his hand, taking another puff from the joint.

“Maybe cause you were in a coma when he left? Also, Robin would definitely hire you. I can tell the story if you want.” Steve moves his hand a little closer to Eddie’s.

“Please continue your story, I cannot handle coming up with conversation right now.” Eddie chuckles.

“Alright then.” Steve looks over at Eddie, but has to quickly look away overwhelmed by the sudden urge to kiss him.

“Tell your story.” He watches as Steve gets more comfortable.

“Fine, but this one was probably the scariest for me compared to the other situations. It’s also a longer story. I almost died.” Steve looks at Eddie, who gives him a reassuring nod. He takes a deep breath, “My first job, Scoops Ahoy. This is where I met Robin.” Eddie nods, “For me, this upside down related incident started when Dustin came back from Camp…” He thinks for a minute, “I don’t remember the name of the camp. Anyway he was bummed that the other kids ditched him, which yeah, dick move. But he told me he uncovered a secret Russian code while trying to talk to Suzie.”

“Suzie?” Eddie asks and then snaps his fingers, “I thought she was fake!” 

“Not fake, I think, unless the singing was a concussion fueled dream.” Eddie cocks a brow, which Steve ignores, “Anyway, we were trying to figure out what the code meant, which is where Robin comes in. To be honest with you, the only thing on the recording I heard was the music, the words were blurred together too much for me to even try. Robin translates the code, but it’s like, a double code, cause it still makes no sense. But I remember where I recognize the music from. It was from one of those horse ride things, ya know? Where you put in change and it bounces back and forth?” 

Eddie nods,  “Like a carousel but not?”

Steve nods, “Anyway, we figure out the Russians are somewhere in the mall.” Steve moves both hands to his stomach, clasping them together, “The next day, Robin figures out the code again . She figures out that the Russians are using the mall’s delivery dock to bring in something. So we decide we’re going to investigate. The dock was guarded by these big dudes with guns. So we decided to get into the room through the vents, but the vent we were going to climb through was too small, so Henderson brought in Erica. She negotiated free ice cream for life from Scoops, which is funny, cause it was destroyed, I still buy her ice cream every time. I’m getting off track.” 

Eddie laughs, “Only you would make good on a deal that blew up .”

“Anyway Erica lets us in when the coast is clear. We shut the door so we didn’t get caught, and then they wouldn’t open again. Dustin kept hitting the buttons, but they weren’t doing anything, and then,” Steve pauses, Eddie can hear him take shaky breaths so he grabs one of his hands from his stomach, “the room drops.”

“What does that mean?” Eddie watched as Steve thought about his answer.

“The room was an elevator. We dropped down what felt like six miles in 30 seconds. I’m sure Dustin would disagree with my math, but the little shit isn’t here so I’m right.” Eddie chuckles, Steve smiles, “We still couldn’t open the doors, we were trapped in that room overnight. We found these tubes of neon green goop.” Steve makes a disgusted face.

“Green goop?” Eddie echoes.

“Yeah. Dustin and Erica slept while me and Robin tried to figure out a way to get back up the elevator shaft. Robin figured out that the elevator would only work if we had a keycard. Then me and Dustin tried to radio the group, but the door opened, we decided to go deeper into the base, maybe find a keycard laying around.”

“You think they’d be that careless? Just leaving a keycard around?” Eddie teases.

“Listen, I’m not saying it  was a good plan .” Steve smiles smally, “So I used one of the tubes to hold the door open while we slid under. I barely got through before the tube shattered, then the green goop burned a hole in the floor.”

“Eugh.” Eddie scrunches his face in disgust.

“Exactly. At this point Dustin and I thought some upside down shit was at play, cause melty green goop felt like a red flag. His walkie connected to the surface again, which for some reason was enough reason to find their radio room. So we snuck past some Russians into the radio room. I knocked a Russian out with a phone.”

“Hot.”

Steve can’t help but smile. “First fight I ever won too. Dustin stole his keycard. But then Robin found the reason for the Russian base.” Steve clenches his eyes shut, taking a breath, “They were trying to open a gate to the upside down. To make things worse, while we were looking at their machine thing, the Russian I knocked out woke up and called for backup.”

“Oh shit.”

“Me and Robin held the door shut so Dustin and Erica could get out, maybe bring help.” Steve’s breathing is more shaky.

“ Oh shit. ” Eddie squeezes his hand, Steve takes a deep breath, they sit in silence for a minute, “You can stop if you want.”

“I’m okay, I’m not there anymore. It’s just-” Steve sits up, still holding Eddie’s hand, “You asked who hit harder Jon or Billy, the answer is the Russians.” Eddie sits up, “They tied us up, took us to different rooms.” Steve clenches his eyes shut, “I don’t know how long they tortured me for, Robin told me when they dragged her in I was unconscious on the floor, covered in blood and barely breathing. I’m pretty sure I had a few broken ribs.”

Eddie pulls him closer, “You should take a hit.” Steve nods, Eddie lights another joint, Steve doesn’t move, his eyes still clenched shut. Eddie holds the joint to Steve’s lips, his fingers brushing against Steve’s lips. He takes a long drag.

He blows the smoke out, his shoulders relax a bit, “I woke up to Robin screaming for help, I knew I had a concussion, the usual migraine was there. This is when I lost pretty much all of my hearing in my left ear. My vision was pretty fucked too. We tried to get to a table at the edge of the room, but the chairs we were tied to tipped and we were stuck, this is where Robin and I really started to bond, we talked until they came back.”

Eddie smiles, “Is that why you two are so close?”

“Partly, I love the whole group, but Robin knows what the Russians did to me.”

“Makes sense.”

“Anyway, they injected us with this weird drug. It made us loopy and giggly and honest , really honest. They started to pull off one of my fingernails when Robin told them we heard the code. I gave them Dustin’s full name.” Steve closes his eyes, swallowing the disappointment, “I should’ve done better.” Eddie puts the joint in his mouth again, he takes a hit.

“It’s not like you had a choice, you were on some comic book type truth serum.” Eddie shrugs, pulling away the joint as Steve blows out the smoke.

“They were going to pull off the nail again when an alarm started going off. This is when the memories get real fuzzy . I’m like 90% sure Dustin killed the Russian doctor who was torturing me, cattle prod to the chest. Don’t know where he got a cattle prod, but-” Steve shrugs, not knowing how to finish that sentence.

“Shit, dude.” Eddie offers the joint again, Steve shakes his head. Eddie finishes it, “I hope he doesn’t think about that.”

“Me too.” Eddie lays back, bringing Steve with him, “I don’t really remember how we got out of the bunker, I vaguely remember Dustin asking if we were on drugs, but I also remember surfing, so.” He shrugged, “We couldn’t get out of the mall, there were guards at every exit. We hid in the movies, but me and Robin were thirsty.”

“Makes sense, you were in a bunker for god knows how long without food or water.” Steve nods, “And you were on drugs, so.”

“Anyways, we went to the water fountain, but then we drank too much water, so we both threw up. This is when Robin became my best friend, I told her I liked her, she rejected me and told me who she liked. I vaguely remember making fun of her crush.” Steve smiles to himself.

“Where were Dustin and Erica?” Eddie cocks a brow.

“We had separated, I think Dustin was trying to radio the group again. Anyways, Dustin found us afterwards, the mall was closing, so we tried to sneak out with the crowd leaving the movie, but they caught us, so we ran and hid in the food court.” Steve starts rubbing Eddie’s hand with his thumb, he pauses.

“We can stop anytime.” Eddie takes advantage of Steve’s silence.

“I’m good.” Steve smiles at Eddie, “Then El and the rest of the group found and saved us. El killed the guys who had found us. The rest of the group explained some other upside down shit was happening, but again, it’s still fuzzy, I wasn’t as high, but it was still hard to keep track of. El collapsed, she had some part of the new monster in her leg. She pulled it out, and then Hop, Joyce and Murray, y’know the guy who pushed Nance and Jon together? Yeah him, they showed up. He was talking about some guy named Alexei.”

“Who’s Alexei?”

Steve shrugs, “No one told me. He had given Murray plans for the bunker we were in, so they came up with a new plan. My job was to drive Dustin, Erica and Robin to Dustin’s weird radio tower thing, but when we got there?” Steve lets out a big breath.

“What happened when you got there?” Eddie squeezes Steve’s hand.

“We could see the lights in the mall start flickering. We tried to radio them, but we only heard growling. Me and Robin went to save them while Dustin and Erica gave Murray directions for the vents. When we got there Billy, who I’ve since learned was possessed by the mindflayer, was about to hit Nancy, Jon, Lucas, and Will with his car. So I T-boned him with the car Hop had given me. We got in the car with them as the big monster started to chase us.”

“Wait, where were Mike, Max, and El?”

“They were still in the mall.” Steve shifts closer to Eddie, “I was, I think sober at that point when Dustin and Suzie sang that song, Never Ending Story?”

“I’d pay good money to hear Dustin sing that.”

“I’m not entirely sure it was real, I was very concussed.” Steve snorts, “After the song, the flesh monster or Billy noticed El wasn’t in the car, so the monster stopped chasing us to go after them. We followed the monster, and Lucas finally explained why they had a shit-ton of fireworks on top of the car. We got there and started lighting, then throwing them at the monster and it bought El enough time to break through to Billy.”

“Sounds metal.” Eddie smiles, “Sinclair doesn’t get enough credit.”

“Correct. And as someone who was there, it was pretty metal .” Steve is practically laying on top of Eddie at this point, “Anyway we ran out of fireworks, and Billy sacrificed himself to save El. I finally got medical attention. They told me the only thing I could do for my ear is wear a hearing aid. Told me I should wear glasses too.” Steve clamps his hand over his mouth.

“You need glasses too?” Eddie almost shouts, “And why don’t you wear the hearing aid ?”

“Well, I don’t-”

“Lemme stop you there, if the statement ‘I don’t like the way it makes me look.’ comes out of your mouth, I will drag you to get them right now, Harrington.” Steve closes his mouth, “Did you ever actually get the hearing aid or the glasses?”

“Yes.” Steve responds with a pout.

“Go get them.” Eddie glares at him.

Steve huffs, “Fine. But I don’t wanna hear any comments about my appearance.”

“Even if it’s nice?” Eddie raises a brow. Steve glares back at Eddie before crawling through the window to get his hearing aid and glasses. He comes back out with both on. Eddie grins.

Eddie opens his mouth to say something, but Steve covers his mouth with his hand, “I don’t want to hear it.” Steve sounds tired.

Eddie peels Steve’s hand away, holding it with both hands, “I think you look like Steve.”

Steve rolls his eyes, “I hope not, they make me feel weak.”

“Au contraire,” Eddie smiles, “I think they show how much you’ve been through. They show how strong you had to be.”

Steve blushes, pushing Eddie away, “I gotta say, this is the first time I’ve really worn the hearing aid.”

“And?”

“It’s weird.” Steve scrunches his face, “It sounds… Like metally?”

“Huh.” Eddie smiles, Steve looks at him, really looks at him, taking full advantage of his glasses, “How’re the glasses?”

“Well, I can see. So.” Steve smiles, he’s still staring.

“You good there Harrington?” Eddie chortles.

“Yeah, I’ve just never seen you so clearly.” Steve shrugs, “It’s nice. I forgot what it was like to see without the effort of squinting.”

“You do realize you’re still staring, right?” Eddie asks, Steve looks away.

“Sorry.” Steve looks down at his hands.

“No need for that.” Eddie scoots closer, “Do you want to talk about what’s on your mind?”

“Nothing’s on my mind.”

“Steve, c’mon.” Eddie’s knee brushes against Steve’s thigh. Steve relaxes at the touch, “Is it about everything you’ve told me?” 

“No, actually.” Steve wrings his hands together.

“Is this about your revelation from earlier?” Eddie talks over him.

He nods, “Yeah, I don’t know how to talk about it.”

“Okay, should I be worried?” Eddie furrows his brows.

“No, it’s nothing like that.” Steve frowns, “Just gimme a second to pile words together.” Eddie laughs at Steve’s phrasing, but gives him a minute, “Ok, do you remember how I told you I called Jonathan a queer?” Eddie nods, “And you asked if I had a problem with that.” Eddie nods again, “I said no, because I don’t thenRobin helped me figure out that I actually am one.” Steve looks at Eddie.

“One what?” Eddie cocks a brow, already knowing the answer, but needing the clarification.

“A queer.” Steve frowns at the word, “She told me the word, hold on.” He scratches his head, “It’s bi-something.”

“Bisexual?” Eddie offers, Steve nods.

“That’s it!” Steve smiles, “I’m bisexual.”

Eddie looks deep in thought, “Huh.”

“What?” Steve pushes his glasses up with the knuckle of his pointer finger.

Eddie thinks for a minute, Steve starts to get nervous, “Why are you telling me this?” Eddie asks more curiosity in his tone than anything.

Steve shrugs, “You asked.”

“Uh huh.” Eddie stares at him, that same look of contemplation on his face.

“And I trust you.” Steve shrugs again, “More than I trust most people actually.”

“I think I’m following.” Steve turns to look at Eddie, who’s closer now.

“Following what?” Steve furrows his brows.

“Am I misreading things?” Eddie lifts Steve’s chin with his pointer finger. Steve swallows and shakes his head no, “Can I-?” Steve nods and Eddie closes the distance, kissing Steve firmly. His hand moves to cup Steve’s face, the other hand wraps around Steve’s ribcage. Steve throws his arms around Eddie, knocking their lips together again clumsily, his tongue brushes against Eddie’s lip. Steve pulls away panting.

“We. We should go inside.” Steve gets out, Eddie nods, chest heaving. They both rush inside. Eddie grabs Steve as soon as Steve closes the curtains, he kisses him roughly. “Wait.” Steve pulls away, Eddie freezes. Steve’s glasses sit crooked, “As much as I’m, um, enjoying this, is this-” He looks down, then back at Eddie, “Is this real?”

“What are you asking me?” Eddie smiles.

“Like, are you making out with me because I’m into dudes or do you like me ?” Steve fixes his glasses.

Eddie chuckles, “Pretty boy, I have liked you since your senior year.” 

“Oh.” Steve smiles, he grabs Eddie, kissing him sweetly.

______________________________

“Oh. My. God. Steve, I have so many questions.” Robin stares as she adds a tape to the pile of tapes she’s rewound.

“You get three.” Steve knows what he looks like, he’s got hickies all over his neck and shoulders, he had scowled at Eddie as he got dressed for work that morning.

“What is on your face?” Robin points to his glasses, openly ignores the customer that walked in.

“Are you talking about the glasses or the hearing aid?” Steve had forgotten about those.

“Both. Why are you wearing them?” She furrows her brow.

“Turns out four years worth of concussions has consequences. I’m only wearing them now because Eddie forced me to.” He shrugs, she squeals.

“Oh my god.” She walks away, helps the customer, then flips the sign to closed as he leaves, “What happened with Eddie?” 

“Well, I-” He stops, “We made out a lot?”

“You don’t sound sure.” Robin crosses her arms.

“He said he’s liked me since my senior year.” Steve smiles.

“That’s so cute, stop.” Robin hops in excitement.

“I think I’m in love with him. Is that stupid? We just got so close while he was in the hospital.” Robin’s eyes go wide and Steve follows her gaze. Eddie stands, frozen in front of the door, his jaw dropped. Steve’s jaw drops, “Fuck. Shit. I didn’t know you were here.” Steve shoves his hands under his glasses to hide his eyes, “That was so dumb for me to say, I’m sorry.” 

Eddie pulls Steve’s hands away from his face, leaving a bit of distance between them so it looks just barely platonic, “Steve.” Eddie looks at Steve.

“Sorry.” Steve grimaces at the absurdity of the situation, “I thought Robin would’ve locked the door .”

“Sorry!” Robin covers her face with a tape, “As a sorry I will cover the rest of your shit, go talk and stuff.” Robin punches Steve out as Eddie drags him into his van. Eddie closes the van door, Steve sits in the back of the van with Eddie nervously.

Steve is tense, the silence feeling uncomfortable, it fades when he looks at Eddie, who’s staring at him with a smile on his face, “You totally said you were in love with me.” Eddie grins.

“What about it Munson?” Steve starts to relax.

“Nothing, I just,” Eddie scoots closer, “think you should know,” Eddie is inches from Steve, Steve closes his eyes, surrounded by Eddie, his smell, his voice, “I’m in love with you too.”

“You gonna do something about it?” Steve tilts his head up, he can feel Eddie’s breath on his face.

“So demanding.” Eddie responds, but there’s no bite to it, he sounds just as breathless as Steve feels.

“Fine, I’ll do it myself.” Steve grabs Eddie by the front of his shirt, crashing their lips together. Eddie cups Steve’s face, the two of them now laying over the backseat. Eddie grins against Steve’s mouth, kissing him once more before pulling away.

Steve whines at the absence, “Steve, we’re in public.” Eddie chuckles breathlessly, “We can do this and more at home.”

“More?” Steve swallows.

“If you want.” Eddie pulls them up so they’re sitting.

“I’ve never-” Steve bites his lip, “I’ve never done anything more with a guy than what we’ve done.” 

“I figured. That’s okay.” Eddie smiles, setting his hand on Steve’s knee, “We can go slow. I’m in no rush.”

“Are you sure?” Steve runs his fingers along Eddie’s knuckles, “I know I like you that way.”

“Stevie.” Eddie says firmly, he grabs his hand, “Just because the feelings are there, doesn’t mean you’re ready.”

“I know.” Steve readjusts, his knee sliding off of Eddie’s thigh.

“There’s a couple conversations we should have before we do anything more anyways. They’re both serious.” Eddie rests his chin on the backrest.

“Oh?” Steve leans forward, “We can have them now, if you want.”

“Someone’s eager.” Eddie teases.

“Can you blame me? I’m excited and you’re hot.” Steve laughs.

Eddie grins, “Such a charmer.”

Steve rolls his eyes, “What’s the first conversation we need to have?”

“Steve, have you heard about HIV or AIDS?” Eddie nibbles the inside of his cheek.

“I know gay people get it.” Steve’s eyes go wide, “Oh that’s a concern for us now.”

Eddie huffs a laugh, “Yeah, I get tested every few months, if I’ve been active. If we’re gonna be monogamous, we only really have to get tested once.”

“You planning on sleeping with other people, Munson?” Steve cocks a brow.

“Okay to be blunt, out of the two of us, you’re the slut.” Eddie teases, holding his hands up in defense, “I only want you.”

“Ok first of all, I haven’t gotten laid in months . Second, I only want you too.” Steve and Eddie smile at each other.

“Good.” Eddie sits up, “But if you ever cheat on me-”

“I won’t!” Steve cuts him off.

“No, Steve, if you ever cheat on me, just tell me.” Eddie sounds defeated, “So we can both get tested.”

Steve raises a brow, “You wouldn’t dump me if I cheated?”

“I would.” Eddie clarifies, “I’d be heartbroken, but I mostly want us to be safe .”

Steve nods, “Got it.” He looks at Eddie, “I’d never cheat though.”

“I believe you.” Eddie nods, “I wouldn’t either.”

“I know.” Steve grabs Eddie’s hand, “What was the second conversation?”

Eddie blushes, “Oh, so we’re just diving straight in.” He laughs to himself, Steve nods, confused, “Do you know what flagging is?”

“Like colorguard?” Steve tilts his head.

Eddie belly laughs, “No, Steve.” He laughs again, “Flagging is a system gay people use to find other gay people. Usually it’s used to find someone to hook up with.”

“How does that work?” Steve looks even more confused, which just makes Eddie more smitten.

He pulls the bandana out of his pocket, “Y’know how I always wear this in my left pocket?” Steve nods, “This is the hanky code. The pocket placement and color matter here.”

“Okay, what do they mean?” Steve looks genuinely intrigued.

“So, if you wear it in the left pocket, it means you like to top.” Steve nods, “And the color, in my case it’s black, means I enjoy being mean to my partner.” 

“Mean?”

“It’s called sadomasichism. I’m not as rough as some people, but I’m not as gentle either.” Eddie holds a breath, “It’s okay if it’s not your thing.”

“I’ll try anything once.” Steve shrugs, “Except piss, I went out with this girl once and she was into some weird shit. It was a very uncomfortable 45 minutes.” They both chuckle, “So I’d be on the receiving end of-” Steve makes eye contact with Eddie’s groin.

Eddie laughs, “Crass.” He nods, “But yes.” He nibbles his lip, “There are systems to make sure it doesn’t go too far too. Safe words and stuff like that.”

Steve nods, “Gotta say, kinda curious.” 

“Ask me.” Eddie smiles, “These kinds of things work better if you ask questions. It only works if we’re both honest about our interests and our hard limits.”

“Okay.” Steve thinks for a minute, “What are you into specifically? I know you said sado whatever- but what exactly does that look like?”

“Oh god, you want, like, a list?” Eddie chuckles nervously, Steve nods, “Oh. I like biting, pulling hair, choking, edging my partner, bondage, and sometimes humiliating them does it for me.” Eddie shrugs, “I also like spitting.” He tacks on.

Steve’s eyes are wide, “This only adds to my questions, spitting?”

“Yeah,” Eddie chuckles, “I like to spit, usually into my partner’s mouth.”

Steve swallows, despite his mouth being dry, “Oh. That’s-”

“Again, it’s not like we have to do any of it.” Eddie interrupts.

“No, that sounds hot .” Steve croaks out, it startles a chuckle out of Eddie, “What’s edging?”

“It’s getting them close to cumming, but not letting them. Could go for hours.” Eddie looks at Steve, whose face is bright red.

“The thought of being choked or tied up scares me a little.” Steve admits, “I don’t know how’d we do that without me panicking.”

“That’s okay, we don’t have to do it, or if you want to try it, there are different tools we could use, to make sure if you do panic, you can get out of what’s making you panic.” Eddie squeezes Steve’s hand, “Remember, the goal is to have fun.”

“What tools?”

“Well, for choking, it’s just a matter of where the pressure is.” Eddie puts his free hand over his own throat, “In a fight, choking is crushing the windpipe,” Steve grabs Eddie’s hand and puts it on his throat as to say show me , “But in a scene, you never touch the windpipe,” Steve keeps his hand on Eddie’s wrist. Eddie puts a small amount of pressure on Steve’s carotid artery, he holds it for a few seconds before pulling his hand away.

“That wasn’t too bad,” Steve whispers, “I think I could be okay with that.”

Eddie nods, “And if you aren’t, you use the tap system.”

“Tap system?” Steve cocks a brow.

“Yeah, sometimes in a scene, if you can’t talk but you want to stop,” Eddie taps three times on Steve’s thigh, “you tap three times to get your partner to stop. Two taps,” He taps twice, “Means slow down. One tap means we’re good, keep going.” Eddie taps once, “And in our case, I’d be the one to check in to make sure we’re still good to go.”

Steve nods, “What about the tools in bondage?”

“There are a few options there.” Eddie thinks for a second, “I can always hold you down, but there are also handcuffs with safety releases, so if you panic you can free yourself.” Eddie looks at Steve, who’s staring, “Are you okay? You’re being very calm about this.”

Steve lets out a deep breath, “I usually would be freaking out, but the thought of doing anything with you?” Steve bites his lip, “Eddie, I’m very turned on.”

Eddie chuckles, “I won’t lie to you, our first time won’t have any of that.”

Steve frowns, “Why not?”

“Our first time should be us getting to know each other, figuring out the basics.” Eddie laughs, “That said, we’ve spent a long time talking about my kinks, and none about yours.”

Steve blushes, “I’ll tell you what I like while we drive home?”

“Horndog.” Eddie laughs, climbing up to the driver’s seat, Steve climbs up to the passenger’s seat.

“I’ve never had anyone ask me what I like.” Steve admits, he looks out the window as Eddie starts driving.

“That’s a shame.” Eddie says genuinely, grabbing Steve’s hand with his.

“I don’t know what I like.” Steve realizes, “I usually just do what the girl wants.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Steve can hear the smile on Eddie’s face, “Is there anything that your past hookups have done that made it more fun for you?”

Steve covers his face with his free hand, leaving a handprint on his glasses, “How did you talk about this so openly? This is so awkward.” 

“It’s not!” Eddie chuckles, “Just do it.” 

“Okay.” Steve thinks for a minute, “I liked when they scratched my back?” Eddie nods, “I like when they pulled my hair and bit me, so we match there. I dunno.” He shrugs, “I liked when they told me I was doing a good job. God, this is so embarrassing.”

“It’s not!” Eddie turns down a backroad, “Now we know where we match.”

“I guess.” Steve pulls his hand away to clean his glasses with his shirt, he puts them back on and grabs Eddie’s hand again, “I think I liked everything as long as I was being touched to be honest.”

“Stevie, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you’re supposed to be touched during sex.” Eddie laughs.

“No, I mean like, at all, like when they grabbed my arms or waist.” Steve looks at Eddie, then their conjoined hands, then back at Eddie.

“Makes sense.” Eddie pulls into the driveway, parking the van before they get out of the van and into the house.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steve pushes Eddie away playfully. 

Eddie pulls him into a hug, “How often did your parents hug you?”

Steve pulls away, “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Not a lot, huh?” Eddie goes to sit in the living room.

Steve flops on the couch next to him, “I think the only time my dad has ever touched me was to hit me.” 

Eddie jerks his head to look at Steve, “He hit you?”

“Did I not tell you that?” Steve meets Eddie’s eyes.

“What about your mom? Did she ever hug you?”

Steve thinks for a minute, “I think she held my hand after my dad broke my nose once.”

“Jesus H. Christ, Stevie c’mere.” Eddie pulls Steve into arms, Steve tenses.

“It’s not that big of a deal, Eds.” Steve shrugs, trying to wiggle out of Eddie’s arms.

“Isn’t it? How you grow up affects the kind of person you become.” Eddie lets go of Steve, who pulls himself away.

“Okay, well how did you grow up then?” Steve crosses his arms, feeling weirdly defensive over his childhood. He knows it’s ridiculous, he knows his childhood was lonely. He often spent his nights hugging himself while crying himself to sleep, he never had to worry about crying too loud, his parents were never home to hear it.

Eddie freezes, “I’m not trying to be an ass, Steve.”

Steve softens, “I know.” His arms drop into his lap, “I know my childhood wasn’t great, but I was taken care of in the ways that matter. I had a roof over my head, I never went hungry, and I always had clothes that fit. That’s got to count for something, right?” Steve isn’t asking, he’s pleading.

“That stuff is important, but so are your emotional needs. Who did you talk to when you had a nightmare?” Eddie crosses his arms.

“No one?” Steve thinks over his childhood, “I used to write about my nightmares but my dad found my journal and beat me with it, so.” Steve shrugs, “I stopped writing about them.”

Eddie mutters to himself, “Jesus.”

“Okay, could you get off your high horse please?” Steve huffs, “I thought we were gonna do fun things tonight. Instead I’m feeling like a frog in the middle of being dissected.”

“I’m sorry.” Eddie drops his arms to his sides, “The information you just gave me is a lot and you’re acting like it isn’t. That worries me, Steve.”

“I know it’s a lot, but every time I start to acknowledge that, something happens. My parents come home, or something almost ends the world, or someone else needs me. I’ve never been able to just-” Steve talks with his hands, “sit with it.”

“You can now.” Eddie scoots closer, he holds out his hand, “I’m here if you need a shoulder to cry on.”

Steve takes it, “Not much of a cryer anymore.” He rests his head on Eddie’s shoulder, “But thank you.”

Eddie kisses the top of Steve’s head, “I do know what you’re going through though. Maybe not exactly, but my dad hit me too.”

“‘M sorry to hear that.” Steve tilts his head to kiss the hinge of Eddie’s jaw, “You can talk about it if you want.”

“I’ve worked through most of it, Wayne helped.” Eddie maneuvers the two of them so they can lay back on the couch, “My dad was a drunk and a criminal, beat me and my mom.”

Steve rubs one of Eddie’s arms with his free hand, “I’m glad Wayne helped.”

“My mom was sweet. She taught me how to play guitar, y’know?” Eddie smiles, “The last time I saw her I was nine. She told me she’d come find me.” He scoffs, a bitter laugh escapes his lips.

“She never came?” Steve looks up at Eddie’s face.

“No. I was left with my dad until I was eleven. I had started to grow my hair out like Steven Tyler’s.” Eddie grabs Steve’s arm, “He broke my collarbone when he found me kissing a boy. He cut my hair and called me every slur he could think of.”

“Jesus.” Steve runs his middle finger over Eddie’s collarbones, Eddie shivers at the touch.

“I ran away that night, found Wayne.” Eddie looks down at Steve, “I had to get surgery on my collarbone because it went for a few days without being set or anything. Wayne ended up buzzing the rest of my hair off so it’d grow back evenly.”

“Where’s your dad now?” Steve runs his middle finger up Eddie’s neck, tucking a piece of hair behind Eddie’s ear.

“Jail, probably. Or dead.” Eddie shrugs, “Wayne never let me look, not that I wanted to find him.”

“I’m sorry, Eds.”

“It’s fine. I’ve worked through most of it, which is how I can tell you’ve been bottled up for too long.” Eddie squeezes Steve, “I’m not saying you have to work through it right now, but if you don’t soon, it will explode. And it will hurt. And you might hurt the people around you too, which will only make you feel worse.” 

Steve sighs and whispers, “I know.” 

“Wanna make out and watch a movie?” Eddie smiles.

Steve laughs, “Let me get this straight.”

“Ha.”

“We talked about our shitty childhoods and now you want to watch a movie and makeout?” Eddie nods, “You’re a weird guy, y’know that, Munson?”

“Are you saying you don’t want to make out? Cause I can read inst-”

“I never said that.” Steve interjects.

______________________________

“I’m sorry, are we all going to ignore the fact that Steve is wearing glasses?” Mike scoffs. Steve is hosting a pool party, though he has no intention of swimming in the pool Barb died in . Dustin had been bugging him to throw one since it started getting hot and well, Steve’s kind of a push over when it comes to Dustin. The entire group is there, including some quiet Russian guy Steve has never met before, he makes him nervous, Hop tells him his name is Dimitri.

“Mike, shut up.” Dustin rolls his eyes, then looks at Steve, “What’s on your ear?”

Steve glares at Eddie as an: I told you so , “It’s a hearing aid.” Steve crosses his arms. The whole group erupts into questions.

Joyce breaks through the chaos, “Steve, honey, since when have you needed a hearing aid and glasses?” Steve glares again at Eddie, who can’t contain his giggles. Eddie had been making Steve wear his glasses and hearing aid everywhere and while it cuts his migraines in half, people staring at him almost didn’t make it worth it.

Steve sighs, “I’m gonna say this, then we’re moving on. Yes?” The entire group nods, minus Dustin.

“I can’t agree to that. What if I have questions?” He crosses his arms.

“Keep ‘em to yourself.” Hop answers before Steve gets a chance to, “Floor’s yours kid.”

Steve nods, looking at Eddie, who nods his reassurance, “I’ve needed the glasses since,” he pauses, “I fought with Billy in ‘84. The hearing aid is more complicated. That same fight left my ear ringing, but it mostly worked, but I essentially lost all my hearing,” he looks at Dimitri, then at Robin, “In the bunker.” Robin flinches.

Dimitri whispers something to Hopper, who only shrugs in response, “Why haven’t we ever seen them before?” Dustin crosses his arms.

“Because,” Eddie stands, the room's eyes all on him, “as his roommate, I’m making him wear them.”

“Can we swim now?” Max rolls her eyes, “As cool as it is to have someone else with glasses, Lucas bought me a floatie so I can actually get in the water.” She gestures to the wheelchair.

“Yes. Please.” Steve gestures to the back door, he waits as everyone files out into the backyard, he turns to find Dimitri waiting with Hopper.

“Kid, why do you keep starin’ at Enzo here like he’s a demogorgon?” Hopper’s seated on the arm of the couch

“I thought his name was Dimitri?” Steve dodges the question.

“Inside joke, why are you dodging the question?” Hopper crosses his arm. Steve opens his mouth to say something, but the words don’t come out, “Why did you look at him before you mentioned the bunker?”

Steve takes a shaky breath, “Hop, this is a bad idea.” He crosses his arms, “The Russian bunker? The one where you didn’t die?” Hopper nods, Dimitri seems to connect the dots, “Look, I’m glad you can trust someone who worked for the Russian government , but this?” He points to his hearing aid, “Is because of his old coworkers.” He points at Dimitri.

“You do realize he committed treason to help us, right? LIke, he had to leave his son and wife behind.” Hop says calmly, “I get why you’re jumpy around him, but he’s not the bad guy here.”

“You do realize that I get that on some level, seeing as he’s currently in my house right now, right?” Hopper nods, “Does he have anything to say?” Steve looks at Dimitri.

“I didn’t realize you’d been tortured too.” Dimitri says simply, like that makes it better. Steve scoffs, “I’m sorry.”

Steve looks back at Hopper with a sigh, “I can’t promise trust.” Hopper nods, he looks at Dimitri, “But I can try.” Dimitri nods and the two men go out to the pool, leaving Steve inside. He takes off his hearing aid, just in case the little shits decide to splash him. Steve walks out, sitting on the chair next to Eddie’s left with a shaky exhale. He sees Nancy sitting far from the pool talking with a very animated Robin.

“What was that?” Eddie raises a brow.

“Later.” Steve closes his eyes.

“Ok.” Eddie shrugs then holds out a beer for Steve, he takes it, “You gonna swim?”

“Fuck no.” Steve sips his beer.

“Then why’d you take off the hearing aid?” Eddie asks and, as if on cue, El creates a massive wave of water with her powers in an effort to get Dustin back for splashing her. Steve gestures to El, “Got it, makes sense.”

Steve closes his eyes, setting his glasses on the table with his beer, “I’m going to do my best to relax .” Steve hears Eddie snicker, he flips him off in response.

“I’m gonna go hotbox with Jon and Argyle, you good here?” Eddie asks, Steve only responds with a thumbs up. He gets a few minutes of relaxing in his chair when he hears snickering from behind him. Right as he opens his eyes to say something, he feels a collection of hands grab and lift him from the chair, carrying him to the pool. He doesn’t make it easy, he flails. 

“PUT ME DOWN LITTLE SHITS” His voice comes out as a mix of panic and pissed. Nancy rushes over but before she can say anything, the group of teens throw him into the deep end of the pool. The cool water surrounds him, it’d feel nice if the panic didn’t set in. He starts flailing, the cool water feeling like ice shards as it fills his lungs. He feels someone’s arms around his waist as he’s pulled out. He crawls away as fast as he can, coughing up water. 

He feels a warm hand on his back, Dimitri, who was not dressed for the pool, is drenched, “Are you okay?” 

Steve coughs again, he nods, “Thank you.” He can hear Nancy yelling at the boys, can see the faint outline of Robin and Eddie running to his side. Dimitri fades back with Hopper and Joyce, who are scolding the boys with Nancy.

“Holy shit, are you okay?” Eddie grabs the back of Steve’s neck and touches their foreheads together. 

“Very glad I took my hearing aid off.” Steve huffs a laugh.

______________________________

“I’m sorry, what did you just say?” Robin flops onto Steve’s couch. 

“I’m saying Little Shop of Horrors is objectively better than Grease.” Eddie crosses his arms. It’s been two months since Steve and Eddie’s day of deep conversations and they still haven’t slept together, not for lack of trying, they’re just always interrupted. Tonight’s interruption comes in the form of a movie night with Robin, if they can ever agree on a movie.

“Steve, you better get your man or we’re gonna have serious problems.” Robin scoffs, “Grease is so much better.”

“I’m staying out of this, I like ‘em both.” Steve shrugs as he cuddles into Eddie’s side.

“Typical.” Robin jokes.

“I’m sorry but can we go back to you saying Grease is objectively better? Little Shop has-” Steve turns off his hearing aid, his good ear is nuzzled into Eddie’s torso. The debate goes on for another hour . Eddie taps him and he lifts his head, “Babe, did you turn off your hearing aid?”

“What? No!” Steve is clearly lying, Eddie knows, Steve knows that Eddie knows.

“Wow, are we really that boring?” Robin crosses one leg over the other.

“I just don’t see the point in arguing about two equally good movies.” Steve turns his hearing aid back on.

“We haven’t talked about the movies for like, 20 minutes.” Eddie chuckles.

“I went to order pizza, dingus.” Robin laughs.

“Oh.” Steve smiles, “My bad.”

“You’re lucky you’re cute.” Eddie kisses his forehead.

“Ew.” Robin puts on Grease and about 10 minutes in, the pizza gets here. Steve tips the driver, taking the pizza and closing the door. The trio sit, eating their pizza while watching Grease as the credits roll, there’s a panicked knock on the door.

“Are we expecting anyone else?” Steve looks at Robin and Eddie in confusion, they both shake their heads no, “Huh.” 

He opens the door a crack before Mike Wheeler is pushing his way in, “I need your help, no questions asked. Can you do it?”

Steve raises his brows, “Mike, what are you-”

“Can you do it?” Mike shouts.

“Yeah, what do you need?” Steve stands, his hands on his hips.

“Great, I need you to drive me somewhere.” Mike heads for the door.

“What? Now?” Steve looks at the confused faces on Robin and Eddie as he shoves his shoes on. He chases after Mike.

“Obviously.” Mike gets in the passenger seat of Steve’s car. Steve gets in on the driver’s side, “I need you to drive me to the mall.”

“Uh, Mike, the mall is-”

“Yes. I know the mall is destroyed, Steve.” Mike snaps, “Just drive.”

“No.” Steve crosses his arms, “You either ask nicely or explain why it’s so important we go right this minute to a building where we almost died.”

Mike opens his mouth to say something, he snaps it shut, then opens it again, “I have to figure something out.”

“Mike, you understand how that’s even more cryptic, right?” Steve turns so he’s facing Mike.

“I can’t explain more than that.” Mike shrugs. Steve sighs as he turns on the car, pulling out of the driveway, “You’re taking me?”

“Well, yeah. If I come, I can protect you from anything around.” Steve gestures to the back, Mike looks in the backseat to see the infamous nail bat.

“Nothing’s gonna happen.” Mike says quietly after a minute or two of quiet.

“Am I allowed to ask questions now?”

“I guess.” Mike says with a sigh, “I can’t believe I’m doing this with Steve Harrington .”

“What do you need to figure out?” Steve turns down a back road.

“Y’know how El broke up with me?”

“What? No.” Steve turns into the Starcourt parking lot, “When?”

“A couple days after Max got out of the hospital. It made sense honestly. But this isn’t about that.” Mike gets out of the car and starts kicking Starcourt rubble around the parking lot.

“Okay, Mike, why are we here at 2am?”

“How do you feel about,” Mike pauses, “ gay people ?” This startles a laugh out of Steve, Mike tenses.

Mike glares at him, “I’m not laughing at you.” Steve laughs again, “Mike, I’m dating a man right now.” Mike relaxes, “Mike, what’s going on?”

“I thought you liked girls?”

“I like both men and women.” Steve explains, “I figured it out a little under two months ago.”

“I didn’t realize that was a thing.” Mike talks with his hands shoved into his pockets, “Liking both.”

“It’s called bisexual.” Steve nods.

“How do you know all this?” Mike kicks a rock into an empty big gulp cup.

“I can know things, Michael.” Steve crosses his arms. They fall into a weirdly comfortable silence.

“I think I like Will.” Mike breaks it, he looks at Steve with panic in his eyes.

“That’s okay.” Steve nods.

“Does that make me gay?”

“I can’t answer that for you.” Steve leans against the beemer.

“But I liked El.” Mike is pacing back and forth now, “But I think I like Will more.”

“Just a reminder, it is a thing to like both.” Steve interjects.

“Right. Bisexual.” Mike nods, “I think I’m bisexual too.”

“Good for you man.” Mike stops pacing, “Can I drive you home now?”

Mike nods and they both get into the car, “Thanks for talking me through this.”

“I didn’t do much talking.” Steve starts driving to Mike’s. 

“You did enough.” And that simple statement shakes Steve to his core, but Mike keeps talking, “What do I do about Will?”

“You could talk to him?” Steve puts a pin in the spiral for later.

“Oh, absolutely not.” Mike crosses his arms.

“Why not?” Steve stops at a stop light.

“Because he’d hate me?” Mike says this as if it’s obvious.

It’s not to Steve, “What about anything Will has ever done tells you he’d hate you for this?” The light turns green, Steve starts driving again, “You don’t have to tell him you like him or whatever. You can start by telling him you’re bisexual.”

“Like that’d work.” Mike deflates.

“Worked for me.” Steve shrugs, “That’s how me and my boyfriend got together.” He pulls into the Wheeler driveway, “Get some sleep, Wheeler and call me if you need to talk more.

Mike sits for a minute, “Thanks, Steve.” He opens the door, he turns to walk away, but turns back, “I’m sorry I’ve been such an ass to you.”

Mike gets out, “No problem.” Steve calls out. Mike closes the door then heads back into the house. Steve drives home.

Eddie and Robin are sitting on the couch when Steve comes in, “I’m home!” 

“What was that about?!” Robin shouts.

“I can’t tell you.” Steve strolls past Eddie and Robin, flopping onto the couch tiredly.

“You can’t even tell your boyfriend?” Eddie flutters his eyes, leaning inches away from Steve’s face, trying to coax the information out of Steve.

Steve closes the distance, giving Eddie a peck, “No. It’s none of my business.”

“He dragged you out of your house and it’s none of your business ?” Robin crosses her arms.

Steve shrugs, “I think he needed someone to talk to. Someone who wouldn’t try to,” Steve thinks for a second, “throw logic at him.” He shrugs.

______________________________

Eddie is sitting on the counter while Steve cooks, it’s been a few days since his talk with Mike and he has yet to have any updates. Eddie has been trying to squeeze information out of him, but Steve refuses to tell him, “I’m just sayin’ we would rent more horror if we had the horror movies by the-” Eddie is interrupted by the phone ringing.

Steve answers, pinning the phone between his good ear and his shoulder, “Munson/Harringto-”

“I KISSED HIM!” Mike shouts over the phone, Steve nearly drops the phone at the volume.

“Well hello to you too Mike, you wanna try that at a normal volume level?” Steve smiles at Eddie, who is clearly fighting the urge to come listen.

“Steve!” Mike sounds panicked, “I told him what we talked about.”

“Okay.” Steve lets Mike continue to rant.

“And then he told me he was gay and-”

“Whoa! Wheeler!” Steve shouts over what Mike says next.

“What?”

“You can’t tell people that. Even if you know they’re,” He pauses, Eddie is watching him, “ya know.”

“Why are you talking like you’re being watched?”

“Maybe because Eddie is watching me?” Steve crosses his arms.

“Oh, he can know, I don’t care.”

“Okay, still gonna be mindful, just because you’re okay with it-”

“Doesn’t mean Will is, I get it.” Mike interrupts.

“You were saying?” Steve leans against the wall, gesturing at Eddie to stir the sauce.

“So he told me, the thing, and then we kissed and then I,” He can hear Mike thump his head against the wall, “I panicked and ran away?”

“Mike! Go apologize right now.” Steve shouts, his mom voice full force.

“I panicked!” 

“Okay, just think about how he feels!” Steve gestures to an imaginary Will, as if Mike can see him, “Imagine that happening to you! How would you feel?”

“Oh my god.” Mike hangs up and Steve laughs.

“Okay, now I’m really confused.” Eddie laughs, “can I get the basics?”

“Mike is the dumbest smart person I know.” Steve rolls his eyes and continues making dinner, “Anyways, I was thinking tonight could be maybe, a date night? Maybe we could finally-”

“Harrington, are you propositioning me?” Eddie smiles, Steve nods, “My goodness, what would the children say?”

“I’m finding it very hard to care.” Steve kisses Eddie softly, then goes to grab bowls for their dinner.

“If this is the Signature Harrington Charm, I’m worried for the girls that slept with you.” Eddie chuckles as Steve swats his arm.

“I’m not even trying, Munson.” Steve serves them dinner, then sits at the table.

“Oh, I wanna see you try.” Eddie stabs his fork into the spaghetti and twists it. They flirt back and forth while eating, Steve takes the two bowls to the sink, starting to scrub the cheese off. Eddie slides in behind him, he whispers, “Leave them for tomorrow.”

Steve nods, twisting in Eddie’s grip so they’re facing each other, Steve wraps his arms around Eddie’s neck. He kisses him softly, but the kiss turns needy faster than either of them can stop it. Not that they want to, Eddie twists the two of them, pushing Steve into the counter next to the sink, his hands roaming the expanse that is Steve’s body. Steve groans into his mouth as Eddie lifts him onto the counter, “Oh my-” Steve pants, Eddie cuts him off with another kiss, “God, we need-” 

Another kiss, “What do you need, pretty boy?” Eddie pulls away breathless, he starts trailing kisses down Steve’s neck, Steve’s glasses sitting askew.

Eddie feels Steve hard in his jeans, “Room, the room.” Steve kisses him again, “And keep calling me that.” Steve groans as Eddie sucks a mark into his neck.

“As you wish, pretty boy.” Eddie pulls Steve off the counter, holding him up so he can carry him. Steve has to catch his glasses as they slip off his nose.

The next morning, they’re both naked in Steve’s bed, Steve is cuddled into Eddie’s arms. Eddie is drawing random shapes on Steve’s back while Steve lazily kisses Eddie’s collarbone, “So?” Eddie kisses the top of Steve’s head.

Steve thinks for a minute, he squints, both in thought and because his glasses are sitting on his nightstand, “8/10” Steve smiles at Eddie.

“You little shit.” Eddie whisper-growls in Steve’s ear as he pushes Steve onto his back, “How do I get a 10?” He holds himself above Steve.

“I wanna see some of the,” He pauses, “Hanky Code stuff.”

Eddie grins, “Anything in particular there, pretty boy?” Before Steve can answer, Eddie kisses him, biting his lip softly.

Steve groans, Eddie lets his lip go, “Oh, that was hot.”

Eddie snorts, “So easy to please.”

“I’m down to try the biting, and maybe the hair pulling.” Steve thinks for a minute, “I think I want you to hold me down.” He says after a minute of deliberation.

“You don’t have too.” Eddie kisses the hinge of Steve’s jaw, making his way down Steve’s neck.

“I-” He moans as Eddie sucks another mark into his neck, “ Fuck , I want it, Eds.” 

“God, you’re so perfect.” Eddie whispers as he softly bites Steve’s neck, “Gorgeous boy.” 

Steve moans, “ Eddie .” He weaves his hands through Eddie’s hair and lightly tugs. Eddie gasps and bites him harder, “How are we ever supposed to stop now?” Steve asks, half kidding, fully breathless.

______________________________

“Oh my god!” Dustin screams as he stares at Steve.

“What?” Steve looks at Dustin.

“Your neck! Steve! When did you get a girlfriend?” Dustin goes to poke one, Steve slaps his hand away, “And why is she so kinky?”

“Well, she’s a he. So.” Steve starts driving.

“WHAT.” Dustin screams so loud, Steve swerves the car.

“Jesus, Henderson, inside voice.” Steve fiddles with the radio. Dustin stares for a minute, both to calm down and gather his thoughts.

“Steve, are you gay?” Is his first question.

“No,” Steve decides to fuck with him, “Are you?”

“Steve!” Dustin half-shouts, “C’mon talk to me!”

“I’m bisexual, it’s where you like men and women.” Steve stops at a red light, “Is that a problem for you?”

“No.” Dustin says simply, “Since saving the world, who people want to sleep with seems like a silly concern for me to have.” Steve slouches in relief, “Who knows?”

“Robin, obviously, my boyfriend knows, and don’t be mad at me for this, Mike.” Steve drives when the light turns green, he grips the wheel tightly.

“MIKE KNOWS BEFORE ME?” Dustin loses his cool, “I’d get it if it were Max or Lucas or maybe even Erica but Mike!” 

“He happened upon it! You know I would’ve told you first, it was new and to be honest I was having fun sneaking around.”

“Does anyone know who your boyfriend is?” Dustin cocks a brow.

“Robin, but that’s it.” Steve turns into the arcade’s parking lot.

“It’s Eddie, isn’t it?” Dustin looks at Steve.

Steve splutters, “What, no!” 

“Steve, c’mon, you’re a shit liar.” Dustin shoves him, “I’m happy for you two.”

Steve smiles, “Thanks. It means a lot.”

“Tell Eddie to slow down, you look like a leopard.” Dustin gets out of the car, “We’re done at 5.” 

Steve rolls his eyes, “I’ll be next door with Robin.” Dustin rolls his eyes and shuts the door. Steve goes into the Family Video.

“Oh my god, and I thought Eddie was marked.” Robin laughs, eyes glued to Steve’s neck.

“Alright, alright.” Steve rolls his eyes, “Eddie on his break?” Robin nods, Steve goes into the break room.

“Why hello pretty boy.” Eddie barely glances up from his notebook. He writes something aggressively, then turns the page to finish his thought. He’s wearing a Megadeth tshirt, his usual ripped jeans and the god awful Family Video vest. 

Most notably, he’s thrown his hair in a bun, Steve laughs, “Are you showing off your hickies?”

“Obviously?” Eddie grins, closing the notebook.

Steve shakes his head, “Dustin knows, by the way.”

“I would say I’m surprised, but that kid is the smartest kid I know.” Eddie shrugs, “He okay with it?”

“Yeah.” Steve sits on the couch with Eddie, grabbing his hand, “What if we told our little group?”

Eddie smiles, “Do you want to tell our group?” He leans closer.

Steve leans in, kissing him once, “I do.”

“As a group or one on one?” Eddie rests his head on Steve’s shoulder.

“I think as a group, there are a few people I want to tell one on one, Max, Hop and Joyce.” Steve thinks, resting his head on top of Eddie’s, “Is that okay?”

“I get to be with you, so yeah.” Eddie kisses Steve’s shoulder.

“Sap.” Eddie pushes his thumb into one of Steve’s hickies in response, Steve hisses, “Sadist.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of the point.” Eddie kisses the hickie he poked, he gets up, “My break was technically over five minutes ago.”

______________________________

“You’re what?” Max adjusts her glasses.

“Dating Eddie.” Steve repeats.

“No the other thing.” Max gestures as if she couldn’t care less about Eddie.

“Oh, bisexual?” Steve looks at Eddie, who’s just standing awkwardly behind Steve.

“What is that?” She cocks a brow.

“I like both men and women.” Steve pushes his glasses up.

“Oh. Me too.” Max starts to roll back inside her hush money house the government had bought for her.

“Wait!” Steve follows, “That’s all you have to say?”

“What do you want me to say?” Max swings her wheelchair around to look at him.

“I don’t know.” Steve shrugs.

“I could pretend I’m surprised.” Max offers.

“Pretend?” Steve cocks a brow.

Max laughs, “Yeah, you guys aren’t subtle.”

“Oh.” Eddie laughs, “Sorry, Red.”

She shrugs, “I don’t mind. It’s nice to see you two happy.” She narrows her eyes at Eddie, “If you hurt him, I will murder you.”

“Max!” Steve crosses his arms.

“No! I’m not done.” Max leans back in her chair, she turns to Steve, “If you hurt him, I will murder you.”

Eddie laughs, “Sounds about right.”

______________________________

“Joyce, Hop can we talk?” Steve gestures to him and Eddie.

“Sure, what’s up honey?” Joyce sits up, setting her coffee on the coffee table in her living room. Jonathan had gone out with Argyle and Nancy, El had gone out with Max and Lucas, while Will and Mike were hanging out in Will’s room.

Steve and Eddie sit on the couch opposite Joyce and Hopper, “I don’t know how you guys feel about stuff like this, but we wanted you to know,” Steve looks at Eddie, who smiles at him, “me and Eddie are together. Like dating.”

“Lovely!” Joyce smiles, while Hopper just nods his approval. Joyce stands, pulling Steve into a hug, she whispers into his ear, “I’m so proud of you.”

Steve takes a sharp inhale, he feels himself melt into Joyce’s arms, “That means a lot.” He squeezes her tighter.

“Alright, alright.” Hopper pulls them apart before dragging Steve into a hug of their own, “My turn.” He’s taller than Steve still, he lifts his chin to rest on Steve’s head, “We gotchya kid.” Hopper squeezes him.

“Thanks, Hop.” He whispers and wipes the tears from his eyes. He pulls away, “Was not expecting that.” He huffs a laugh.

Joyce smiles and turns her focus to Eddie, her face serious now, “You hurt my boy?” She points to Steve, “I will murder you.”

“I’ll help her hide the body.” Hopper crosses his arms across his chest.

Eddie nods nervously, “I don’t plan on it.” He looks at Steve with so much love, Steve doesn’t know what to do with it.

Joyce smiles again, “How long have you been dating? So who knows?”

Steve perks up, “It’s been a while.” He grabs Eddie’s hand excitedly, “The L word has been used.” Joyce chuckles, “As for who knows, Robin found out first, Mike knows I’m dating a man, but not who, Dustin figured it out, we just told Max yesterday.”

“We want to tell the group at the barbeque tomorrow if that’s okay.” Eddie adds.

Hopper nods, “Let me know if anyone says anything,” he cracks his knuckles, “I’ll have a chat with ‘em.”

Joyce rolls her eyes, “Like anyone’s gonna have a problem with it.”

“I’m lookin’ at Mike.” Hopper huffs and Steve can’t help but laugh, everyone looks at him.

“Sorry.” He darts his eyes over to Eddie.

Eddie figures it out, his eyes go wide, “I KNEW IT!” 

“You can’t tell anyone!” Steve shouts at Eddie. Joyce and Hopper exchange confused looks, “Sorry. It’s a whole thing.”

The next day Steve nervous bakes extra cookies in addition to the pasta salad he told Joyce he’d make, Eddie is sat on the counter watching. Steve smirks, “Enjoying the view?”

Eddie leans forward, almost falling off the counter, and kisses the back of Steve’s neck, “Very much so.”Eddie wraps his arms around Steve’s waist, resting his head on Steve’s right shoulder.

Steve rolls his eyes, “We’re gonna be late if you keep this up.” He turns his head and kisses Eddie’s forehead before pulling away.

“Buzzkill.” Eddie pulls away to sit on the couch, shoves his feet into his shoes, and as he stands, Steve shoves two plates of cookies into his hands.

Steve grabs the huge bowl of pasta salad and then head to Robin’s to pick her up first, then Dustin’s, then they grab Max. They’re listening to a tape Eddie made Steve a week or two ago, the two men holding hands without worry as everyone in the van knows they’re dating. Eddie is performing Killer Queen by Queen while driving and Steve hasn’t stopped staring since Eddie started. They get to the Hopper-Byers’ house in no time.

“Come in, come in!” Joyce ushers in the group, hugging everyone as they come in. Steve and Eddie take the pasta salad and cookies to the table. Nancy is there setting out sodas and red solo cups, she had picked up Lucas and Erica, Lucas joining Max when he sees her. El joins the two of them. Dimitri is standing in the corner, an unopened bottle of beer in his hand. Murray comes a little later, he brings an ungodly amount of vodka considering there are very few people who will drink it with him. Argyle and Jonathan come inside from smoking, he’s stopped trying to hide it from Joyce at this point. Mike and Will come out of Will’s room.

They all mingle for a bit in the backyard, splintered into different conversations when Hopper calls everyone in to eat. While everyone is shoveling food on their plates, Steve looks nervously at Hopper, who nods his approval, then Joyce who does the same. He looks at Eddie, a smile flashes across his face and suddenly Steve isn’t nervous anymore, “I have news.” He announces to the group as he scoops mac and cheese onto his plate.

Eddie clears his throat, “ We have news.”

“Right.” Steve rolls his eyes with a fond smile, “Eddie and I are dating.” Eddie grabs Steve’s hand. The group has differing reactions, the ones who knew are grinning, El looks vaguely confused until Max whispers something in her ear, then she looks giddy. Lucas smiles at them. Will looks shocked, while Mike nods in understanding. Nancy has a reserved expression, one Steve knows to be approval, so he’s not too stressed about it. Jonathan has a dopey smiley while Argyle nods as if Steve asked him a question.

“I told you.” Erica crosses her arms, glaring at Lucas. Steve looks at Dimitri and Murray, the two he considers the only wild cards. Dimitri looks like he couldn’t care less, opting to take advantage of the distraction to get more potato salad. Murray looks like he’s trying to figure out a puzzle.

“Does anyone have a problem with this?” Eddie looks at their hands. Everyone mutters various: no, we love you- s. Steve visibly slumps in relief. Eddie leans and whispers in his ear, “Told you.”

Steve pushes against him, “Shut up.” Steve looks up to catch Mike staring at them, he makes a mental note to talk to him later, but right now he’s surrounded by family. A family that’s seen his flaws and accepts and loves him anyways. He pushes his glasses up with the knuckle of his pointer finger. He smiles.

After a few hours, Steve has relaxed almost entirely, leaning into Eddie in a big lawn chair. He catches Hopper staring, then he gestures for Steve to ‘c’mere’ with his head. Steve slides out of Eddie’s grip, “What’s up?”

“Let’s go for a walk.” Hopper smiles.

“That’s not ominous at all, Hop.” Steve smirks, but starts walking anyway.

“Don’t worry, just want to talk without so many ears around.” Hopper smiles, a sight Steve thinks he’s seen maybe three times before.

“I get it.” Steve stuffs his hands into his pockets. They walk in silence for a few minutes.

“Did you know before I moved here, I had a daughter?” Hopper breaks the silence.

“No, I didn’t know much about you at all. Still don’t if I’m honest.” They both chuckle.

“She died before I moved here, I was broken for a long time, still am.” Hopper hooks his thumbs in his pockets, “It was my third week on the job and we got this call.” Steve has an idea as to where this is going, “This woman had found this little boy, walking to the grocery store by himself.”

Steve rubs the back of his head, “To be fair I was out of bananas and milk.”

“Let me finish.” Steve holds his hands up in surrender, “I drove out and picked you up, asked what you were doing and you told me.” Hopper scratches his elbow, unsure of what to do with his hands, “I don’t know if you remember, but your left eye was swollen shut.” Steve shakes his head no, “Anyway. We got you your bananas and milk and I took you home. I asked where your parents were-”

Steve chuckles, “I said they were doing life changing work.” He puts his hands back in his pockets.

“I remember being so mad and confused, you couldn’t have been more than 9. You were all alone.” Hopper steps over a tree branch.

“I was 8.” Steve corrects.

“It made me think of Sarah. How scared she was before she died. I saw that same fear in you.” Hopper sighs, “So I kept my eye on you.”

“Oh, I remember .” Steve chuckles, “I don’t know why I kept trying to throw parties, you always killed them in an hour.” 

Hopper laughs, “Anyway, back then I still saw that same fear in your eye.” Hopper’s smile fades, “It only got worse with all the-” He gestures to the house, “ stuff. And I saw that fear get worse.” Steve is listening intently, “I think this is the first time I’ve seen you without fear.” Steve stops walking, Hopper turns to face him, “I’m not good, at the whole, talking thing or feelings.” He’s looking at Steve’s shoes, he looks up to meet Steve’s eyes, “I’m so proud of you.”

Steve’s eyes are watering now, he goes to say something, “I-”

Hopper talks before he can figure out what to say, “I know your parents were kind of shitbags.” Steve snorts, a tear falling, “I probably wasn’t as helpful as I wanted to be. I noticed the bruises, and I tried to get you out of that house, I did.” Hopper’s eyes are watering now too and this is a new experience for Steve.

“Hop, you don’t have to-” Steve takes off his glasses to wipe his face, he tucks them into his pocket, knowing he’ll cry more.

“I do.” Hopper nods, scrubbing a hand down his face, “You were the first kid I could stomach to be around after Sarah, you made it okay for me to,” he pauses, looking for the right word, “care. At all, for another person.” Steve is fully crying now, “I know we’re not the closest, but I love you like my own. Okay?” Steve nods, unable to respond. Hopper pulls him into a bone-crushing hug.

“I love you too, Hop.” Steve cries for the first time in years.

“ Dad .” Hopper corrects him, squeezing him tighter.

Steve cries harder, squeezing Hopper as if he’ll disappear if he lets him go, “Dad.”

“Lemme know if Munson misbehaves.” Steve laughs, he pulls away, wiping his eyes with his sweater sleeves.

“You made me cry.” He points out, like Hopper could’ve missed it, “Dick move, man.”

Hopper laughs, “I just had to tell you what you mean to me.” Hopper looks back towards the house, “I don’t do that enough.”

“I’m not very good at that either.” They start walking back to the house.

“Like father, like son.” They both laugh again, walking back into the backyard.

Eddie sees the red-rimmed eyes and rushes to Steve, “What happened?” 

Steve laughs wetly, “The bottle has been opened.” 

It takes a minute for Eddie to figure out what that means, he looks at Hopper, “I owe that man a beer.”

______________________________

“So you and Eddie.” Mike corners him after Hellfire a week after the barbecue, “You could’ve told me!” Eddie holds his hands up, backing out of the room to drive Dustin home.

“I told you about me,” Steve points out, “I refuse to out anyone who’s not me.”

“What’s it like?” Mike sits on the table as Steve starts cleaning up.

“What’s what like?” Steve pushes the chairs around the table in.

“Being out to everyone?” Mike is nervously picking at the skin surrounding his thumb.

“It’s probably the best decision I’ve ever made.” Steve answers honestly.

“Yeah?”

“It brought me closer to everyone because now, I don’t have to hide this huge part of me. I get to share my love with my family.” Steve shrugs, “It’s freeing, I have cried more this week than I have since I was 14.” 

“Really? Why?” Mike looks genuinely curious.

So Steve answers honestly, “My parents weren’t the best, they put me through some shit.” He leans against the table, “I didn’t really deal with it, I just kind of coasted.” He shrugs, “Eddie had told me if I didn’t stop bottling it up, the bottle would explode. It took Hop saying something for the bottle to open.” 

“So now?” Mike smiles.

“I’m still working through it, but for the first time I feel,” he thinks for a second, “loved.”

Mike scrunches his face, “That was so corny.”

Steve shrugs, “It’s true.”

______________________________

Steve and Eddie are cuddled up in their bed, Steve sits up to put his glasses on, he stares at Eddie, “What?” 

Steve smiles, “Just wanted to see you.” Eddie smiles sleepily, stretching out dramatically, posing as he stops.

Steve laughs, “You’re an insufferable sap.” Eddie sits up, kissing Steve softly.

“You love it.” Steve mutters, his lips still brushing against Eddie’s.

“What do you want to do today, pretty boy?” Eddie leans into Steve’s space.

“We should get high and watch movies.” Steve kisses the top of Eddie’s head.

“Oh my god you’re perfect.” Eddie laughs, Steve smiles as they clamor onto the roof, “Back where we started.” 

“But this time, when I want to kiss you, I can.” Steve leans into Eddie’s space, kissing him softly, “I love you.”

Eddie kisses him again, “I love you.”