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tonight’s steddie thought: being with eddie brings back king steve (but only the good parts)

the thing is, steve feels safe with eddie. being with eddie is easy. what they have is just good. with eddie, steve doesn’t feel like he has to prove himself or play a role other people want him to play. he never has to doubt what they have; he never lays awake at night wondering if it’s bullshit. they can just exist together, living their lives side by side with nothing to prove. in the munsons’ trailer and in steve’s bedroom, whenever steve and eddie are alone, he doesn’t have to worry.

he hasn’t felt like that in years. since 1983, he’s been worried about hawkins ripping in half and hellspawn crawling out the cracks. add russians and getting kidnapped and tortured to that since 1985. his life has been nonstop worry for the past three years, but with eddie, that slowly starts to ease away. when he’s with eddie, he’s not a babysitter or a mother hen. he can just exist. he can be young and dumb and in love, like he hasn’t been since he was seventeen. slowly but surely, little bits of king steve come back. not the bad parts, he’s over that—just the good stuff.

eddie is not prepared.

because the good stuff looks like steve finding his confidence again. getting almost cocky. flirting with eddie even though they’ve been dating for months. it looks like:

after a couple days not seeing each other because of work, steve shows up at the trailer to hang out, and as soon as the door closes behind them he picks eddie up with his arms around eddie’s waist and spins him. when he puts him down, eddie’s confused, maybe a little flustered, and asks why steve did that. and steve just says, “‘cause I missed you and I’m excited to see you, that’s why.”

or steve sprawling on eddie’s couch, his feet in eddie’s lap while eddie writes lyrics or fiddles with his guitar, and he catches steve staring from where his head is propped up on the arm rest. eddie shifts, asks, “do I have something on my face? what are you staring at?” and steve just smiles and said “just lookin’ at you,” all casual, like that doesn’t make eddie blush like crazy.

a little bit of king steve is back, and he’s opening doors for eddie, insisting on paying for both their movie tickets, cooking dinner for eddie and not letting him help. he’s putting the moves on eddie because he likes it, because it’s fun, and because steve knows it’ll work. they’ve been dating for six months and steve still gets giddy when he manages to make eddie turn red with a flirtatious line or leaning over to whisper in his ear in a crowd of people. it’s the high school romance eddie never had and it damn near kills him every time.

and it carries over into other dumb shit, not always related to eddie, like at pool parties, when he tackles dustin or eddie into the pool and laughs his ass off when they splash him back; getting high with jonathan and argyle even though they all have work in the morning; letting max and el braid his hair; singing loud when his favorite songs play on the radio in the car; driving with the windows down and his arm propped in the open window. it’s the kind of stuff that he should’ve been able to do for the last couple years, and he’s making up for now.

(the change eventually becomes noticeable, which finally prompts dustin to ask if steve got another concussion or something.)

(he didn’t. the concussion is just eddie.)

she calls them babygirl

i'm not into ronance but perhaps i could be persuaded into reading a fic that actually let steve have realistically complex feelings about his best friend dating the girl who broke his heart and let him and robin talk about it. like that would be neat. but so far most of what i've seen is just like "and steve is happy for them :)" which like sure that's nice but where's the drama where's the emotion where are the complex character dynamics. where is steve feeling hurt that robin could so easily fall for someone who hurt him so much. where is steve worrying that robin could get her heart crushed like he did. where is robin feeling weird and guilty about being into her best friend's first love. where is robin being afraid that what happened to steve might happen to her too. like sorry but that is the only thing about robin and nancy being romantically involved that's actually interesting to me!!

You, Nancy Wheeler, have guns, plural, in your bedroom?

🧎🏻‍♀️🧎🏻‍♀️