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“See you tonight?” Eddie leaned down into the car window to kiss Steve goodbye again.
“Yeah, want me to pick you up?” Steve smirked as he leaned in for a fourth (fifth?) kiss since he announced he had to leave for his shift.
“Only if you promise not to bring me back tonight.”
Steve laughed, his excitement at the idea of Eddie spending the night with him winning over the more logical side of his brain.
“I promise.”
“Good,” Eddie said as he pulled away from the car.
“Love you,” Steve yelled through the window as he backed out of the yard.
“Love you, too!” Eddie yelled back, blowing a kiss and dramatically falling to his knees. He clutched his chest as he pretended to cry. “I don’t know how I’ll go on with my love off to war!”
Steve kept driving, but Eddie knew he was laughing.
That’s why he did what he did: to keep Steve laughing.
He got up when he could no longer see Steve’s car, brushing off his jeans as his smile started to slowly fade.
He looked up to see Max standing on her porch, watching him.
“Hey Maximus! You bored?”
Her eyes got wide when she realized he caught her watching, but she didn’t look away or run inside.
He walked across the road to her trailer with a smile. He hadn’t seen her in a few days, mostly spending time with Steve at his house lately.
“Max? I asked if you were bored.”
Max was blushing, but he knew better than to think it was because of him.
What could Max possibly be blushing about?
“Nope. Just waiting for Mrs. Byers to drop El off so we can have a sleepover.”
“Uh huh. And that’s why you were watching me and Steve?”
“I wasn’t watching you and Steve.”
He gave her a look that said he knew she was lying, but Joyce pulled in right as he opened his mouth to speak.
Max ran off the porch and to the car, and Eddie didn’t really need to stick around, so he went to say a quick hi to El before heading back to his home.
“Eddie!” El yelled as she sprinted up to meet him halfway.
El and Eddie got pretty close while he was in the hospital, while Max was still in a coma and no one understood what it did to El.
When Mike and El broke up shortly after, El explained to him that sometimes she loved Max the way she thought she’d loved Mike. Eddie, of course, told her about how he loved a man (he couldn’t out Steve, but a part of him thought maybe El caught onto it quickly), and how it was okay to feel how she felt about anyone.
She hugged him and then looked at Max.
Max was still bright red, like she’d been caught by El the same way Eddie had caught her.
“Was Steve here?” El asked him with an unreadable look.
“He was at my house, but not here. Why?”
El looked over at Max again, who was rolling her eyes and crossing her arms.
“Because Max gets funny when Steve is around. Dustin said it is because she likes him.”
Eddie snorted, but Max wasn’t amused. Joyce was shaking her head at them all and waving goodbye, probably trying to get out before it turned into an argument or a conversation with El that she didn’t have time for.
“I don’t like him,” Max huffed.
“You think he is cute,” El suggested instead.
“I-”
“It’s fine, Red. He is cute. You think I don’t know that?”
Max was turning away and mumbling under her breath, clearly trying to be done with this conversation.
“What?” El yelled, trying to catch up as she walked back up to her porch.
“I said, at least I’m not like Will who told Mike that if he was Steve’s age, he would have pined over him instead of Mike and Mike agreed.”
Eddie let out such a loud laugh, it made Max stop in her tracks and turn.
“Why are you laughing?”
“It’s hilarious,” Eddie got out between laughs, breathing in large gasps of air. “If he knew how many of you kids had crushes on him, he would be distraught. He would need to hide for months before he could show his face again.”
“But it is just a crush. I have had many crushes. Only one of them turned into love. You said it is okay to feel love for anyone. Is it not okay to have crushes on anyone?”
Eddie sobered quickly. El had a way of saying things that really made him pause and think before he spoke, which wasn’t something he did often.
“No, El, that isn’t why I’m laughing or why Steve would be, um, upset? I guess not, upset, just kind of shocked. I guess anytime you hear that someone finds you attractive, and has a crush on you, you feel a little weird about it.”
“Why is it weird?”
Bless El. Truly, Eddie was not ready for this. Steve would handle this so much better. Well, maybe not this specific topic, but most difficult conversations with the kids.
“It’s weird because Steve is like our babysitter, right? So the fact that half of us have a crush on him would make him feel like he can’t be around us until the crush fades or whatever,” Max explained patiently, always so patient with El where she would snap at anyone else.
“But it is okay for me to have a crush on you?” El asked Max, who was somehow looking even more red.
Really earning the nickname right now, actually.
“Yeah, it’s. It’s good.”
“It is?” El asked.
Eddie started to back away slowly, torn between wanting to see what happened and needing to not intrude on this moment.
“You really have a crush on me? You’re not using it as an example to understand or something?” Max asked hesitantly.
“Yes, I do. I told Eddie about it months ago if you do not believe me. But friends do not lie,” El said nervously, suddenly seeming to realize what was happening.
“El.” Max was smiling now. Eddie couldn’t look away even though he was barely in her yard anymore. “I like you. A lot. Like a crush, but more than that. Is that okay?”
“Oh.” El suddenly turned to Eddie. “If Max has a crush on me too, does that mean it is not a crush anymore?”
“I think that means you two can go on a date,” Eddie said as he finally turned back to his house.
He looked back when he reached his front door and saw Max and El hugging, a smile spreading across his face.
—--------------------------------
When Max and El were caught holding hands at movie night, Steve told everyone to stop teasing them or they’d get sent home.
“It is okay, Steve. And we talked about Max’s crush on you and it will not hurt my feelings that she still has a little one,” El patted his shoulder before turning her attention back to the movie.
Everyone else was staring at Steve though, mouths open.
Steve looked…well, he didn’t look like he was taking this news well.
Eddie patted his cheek and smiled softly at him.
“It’s alright, love. Mike and Will have crushes on you, too, and you didn’t even realize! Nothing has to be different.”
Oh. Oops. He shouldn’t have said that.
Steve’s eyes widened further as Mike and Will started yelling from their spot on the armchair.
“Hey, who told you that?”
“We do not!”
Steve stood up from the couch and walked out of the room, in the direction of the stairs, probably to hide in his bedroom and attempt to process this.
Eddie quickly apologized to Mike and Will before running after Steve, not wanting him to sit with anything alone.
When he got into Steve’s bedroom, he was laying flat out on his bed, starfished across it on his back, staring at the ceiling.
Eddie sat in the available space at his side, placing a hand on his thigh and smiling down at him.
“Is this really surprising for you?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I mean, everyone always had crushes on you in school. You have to be used to it by now.”
“That was different.”
“I guess, but it’s still gotta be a little flattering.”
“I’m practically their mother! How is that flattering?”
Eddie couldn’t help it, he had to laugh.
“Sweetheart, they’re teenagers. You’re hot. You’re shirtless around them pretty often. You’re older, but in a ‘my friend’s older brother way’ not a ‘you could be my dad’ way. I’m pretty sure the only reason Dustin doesn’t have a crush on you is because he actually does consider you his dad.”
“Ew.”
Eddie moved so he was straddling Steve’s hips, Steve’s hands automatically coming to rest on his sides.
“Listen. I know it’s maybe a little weird. But it’s harmless. Mike and Will are in love and probably barely ever even think about their crush on you. And Max has El now, so her crush will fade soon enough. My crush is what you should be worried about.”
“Oh?” Steve was smirking up at him.
“Mhm. It’s getting out of hand. I might actually never get over it.”
“It’s a good thing I won’t get over the crush I have on you, then.”
Eddie leaned down to kiss him slowly, lips moving against his with practiced ease.
“So you gonna be able to look at them or should I say you went to bed?”
“Nah, I’ll go back out. But we aren’t having any more pool parties until I’m sure they’re over it. My chest is for your eyes only for the next year as far as I’m concerned.”
“You won’t hear any complaints from me,” Eddie said as he leaned down to place a kiss on Steve's chest. “But you may hear some from them.”
He did hear complaints from them.
But by next summer, Mike and Will barely had eyes for anyone other than each other, and Max had realized that she was actually only into Steve because she thought that’s what she should like and got over the crush completely.
Eddie turned to him while they sat shirtless by the pool and smiled.
“You miss being everyone’s crush?”
“As long as I’m yours, I don’t need anyone else.”
“Sap.”
“You’re the one with the crush on me,” Steve smirked at him as he closed his eyes and sunbathed next to the crush of his life.