Chapter Text
[To forever always]
[November 20th, 2013]
Steve is sweeping the dust from the TV table when they announce it.
He can’t fucking believe it. He can’t believe it’s actually happening, it seems fucking impossible.
He picks up the phone immediately, dropping the broom right where he was standing, scrambling to select Eddie’s contact. Stupid technology, his hands are fucking shaking, slippery with sweat.
(Considering he walks into fires for a living, he should really be better at handling stress.)
Eddie doesn’t pick up.
(Leave it to him to ignore Steve the day gay marriage gets legalized.)
He tries again, and again receives no answer. So he calls Robin, and he can practically hear her screaming from where she lives on the literally the other side of the street with her long-term girlfriend.
“Did you-
“Oh my god, Steve-
“Did Natalie-
“Is Eddie-
“Robin, let me fucking talk-
“ You let me talk, dingus!” She shrieks back, but he can hear the tears in her voice, the smile on her face. “I’m gonna propose to Natalie as soon as she gets home, I have- I have the fucking- where the fuck-
“Did you lose the fucking ring, Robin?”
“No! No way! No way, I’m sure- it’s just somewhere around here, oh my God, I can’t believe this, I can’t-
“I know, I’m- it’s fucking surreal.”
He replies, and Robin is blabbering about the ring she didn’t lose, dingus, it’s around here, where the door to his and Eddie’s apartment swings open.
“Steve! Stevie, where the fuck are you, man?”
Steve drops the phone on the couch, and turns around the corner, where Eddie is standing, dripping water everywhere from the rain outside. Steve doesn’t waste one second before throwing his arms around Eddie’s neck.
(He still smells the same, even after all these years.)
(Of tobacco and leather and weed.)
(Home.)
“Eddie, fuck.”
Eddie hugs him back, fingers digging in Steve’s back, holding him so tight he can’t quite breathe, but he couldn’t give less of a fuck.
“I know, sweetheart, I- I’m-
fuck,
okay, here goes nothing.”
“What?”
Eddie pulls back, huge grin splitting his face and tears welled up in his eyes, and then he drops to one knee.
“Oh God.”
(He’s going to fucking pass out.)
“Oh my God, Eds.” He says, his own eyes burning with tears already, and Eddie laughs, and his hands are shaking when he lifts a small, black, velvet box between them.
“I ran all the way here as soon as I heard. Didn’t even close the store.”
“You’re gonna get robbed.” Steve replies, nonesensically, and he can’t
believe
it.
(After all this time-
“I had- fuck, sweetheart, I had like a whole- a whole speech prepared, but now I can’t remember anything of what I wrote down, but- but- I just- I- you’re everything to me, Stevie. You’re my entire world, my goddamn sun and stars. I love you- I love you so much it makes me feel crazy, like I sometimes still can’t believe I bagged the Steve Harrington, you know?”
“ Eddie!”
Eddie smiles, eyes glinting in the light of their apartment, and Steve is definitely crying now. He doesn’t care.
(He hasn’t cared in a long time.)
“So, what do you think, sweetheart? Will you marry me?”
“You fuckin’ idiot.” Steve half-growls, pulling him up to his feet and pressing their lips together. He’s laughing, and crying, and Eddie is too, and their kiss is messy, wet, barely a kiss at all, Eddie’s arms tightly wrapped around his waist.
“Is that a yes?”
"Seriously?"
“I really need you to say it, Stevie.” Eddie replies, and Steve smiles, lifting a hand to cup Eddie’s cheek, brushing a curl behind his ear. There are gray hairs among Eddie’s dark curls now.
(There are gray hairs on his head too, but he’ll die before admitting that.)
Eddie’s forehead is wrinkled, and there are smile lines around his mouth, around his eyes.
A lot of things have changed, but a lot of things are the same too.
Eddie’s eyes are the same, deep and brown and huge, they still hold galaxies inside them, like they did when they were kids. Eddie’s hands are calloused from a life spent playing guitar, and he still has the same guitar pick around his neck, the same rings on his fingers.
(He still tastes the same.)
(He still touches Steve reverently, adoringly.)
Steve leans his forehead against Eddie’s, feels warm breath ghosting over his lips.
(He never thought they’d get here.)
“Yeah.” He says, and his voice cracks and his heart is racing, and he’s never been so happy . “Yeah, of course I’ll marry you, Eds.”
(And when Eddie smiles at him next, Steve knows he’d do it all over again to get here.)