Steve Eddie - Tumblr Posts
Thought of the day:
AU short-fic; where eddie comes back as a vampire and meet the party, after they left him you-know-where searching for revenge because of what vecna told him and now Steve will also have to stop him before the collapse of their house (also while trying to bring back the one he fell in love while being kind of a idiot).
Murray looking at Eddie and Steve while they shamelessly flirt: Jesus Christ another one
Nancy : Why is Dustin crying?
Steve : I am having Max be mean to him.
Nancy: What?? Why??
Steve: He got a D in Spanish and then cheated.
Nancy : Well, you can't use Max for that, discipline your child yourself.
Robin : Nance, max got straight A's , she needs to be rewarded too.
Eddie : it's a win-win.
Steve was flipping through a magazine on Eddie’s bed when the thought came to him.
He looked over at Eddie where he was sitting cross-legged on the floor playing around on his guitar. He’d been working out some part of a song while Steve half-listened. He said Steve “helped him think,” whatever that meant.
Steve had realized he didn’t know Eddie’s name. Or at least, what it was short for. He’d become quite close with the older boy since the spring, since he carried his lifeless body out of the upside down, since El closed the gate and burned Vecna and the entire second world to the ground.
Steve didn’t quite understand how he felt about Eddie yet. He knew he really liked him, felt drawn to him, enjoyed his presence, his personality, his appearance.
Okay so maybe Steve knew more than he was willing to admit to himself.
Eddie’s guitar made an unsatisfactory noise and Eddie shook his head, rubbed his forehead in frustration, and looked up at Steve. He smirked when he saw Steve already looking back, and raised an eyebrow. “Can I help you?”
Steve rolled his eyes, letting the snark roll off his back. “Yeah, actually. I’ve been wondering something.”
Eddie raised both eyebrows this time. “Oh? I never pegged you as the curious type.”
“Alright, keep the sass to yourself, Munson.”
Eddie threw his head back and laughed, his curls falling behind his shoulders to expose his long neck.
Focus, Steve.
“What’s Eddie short for?”
Eddie’s light smile turned into a wolfish grin. “Trying to fill out the marriage license?”
Steve groaned and threw the magazine at Eddie, hitting him on the knee.
“Whoa whoa Steve, watch the baby.”
“See you’re clearly already married to that stupid guitar.”
Eddie gasped theatrically, folding himself around the guitar as if to protect it from harm. “He doesn’t mean that dear, you’re a very smart guitar.”
“Booooooo”
Eddie almost fell backwards with laughter. Steve couldn’t help but giggle a bit himself, charmed by Eddie being so proud of his own joke.
“Eddie.”
“Steve.”
“You avoided the question.”
Eddie chuckled, resting his forearms on the guitar. “Clever boy.”
Steve would be lying if he said his breath didn’t catch, if his heartbeat didn’t quicken, his entire body didn’t feel a bit warmer.
Yes, Steve would continue lying for today.
He shook his head. “Eddie. Just tell me. Is it embarrassing?”
Eddie smiled up at Steve, revealing nothing. “Absolutely not.”
“Then why won’t you tell me?”
“Now where is the mystery in that?”
Steve groaned again and fell back on the bed. “You’re so difficult. You know that?”
Eddie threw the magazine back at Steve. “I’ve been told a few times.”
—
Movie night at Steve’s, waiting for Robin to return with her popcorn:
“Edward?”
Eddie let out a sharp laugh. “No.”
—
Family Video, rewinding tapes while Eddie sewed a W.A.S.P. patch onto his new, non-blood-stained battle vest:
“Edison?”
Eddie recoiled. “What? Oh. No.”
—
Picking up the rugrats from Hellfire, leaning on Eddie’s van:
“Edmund?”
“Steve. Gross. No.”
—
Laying on the hood of Steve’s car at Lover’s Lake, stoned and looking up at the stars:
“Edwise?”
“What?”
“Edwise? Edwise Gamgee?”
Eddie cackled out into the night sky, echoes of his joy calling back at them from the trees. “Okay, who gave you access to Lord of the Rings?”
Steve shrugged. “I had to call in backup.”
Eddie rolled onto his side to face Steve, propping up his head on his hand. “You asked the kids what my name was?”
“Yeah.”
“And the best thing those little geniuses could come up with was goddamn Edwise Gamgee???”
Steve giggled. “They’re such nerds.”
“Absolute fucking losers, Harrington.”
They both laughed until they were out of breath, panting out steam in the fall Indiana night.
“No but seriously, Eddie? What is it?”
Eddie sighed, straining a smile as he stared up at the night sky. “It’s pretty fucking lame.”
“Lamer than Edwise Gamgee??”
That made Eddie giggle again. “No, I guess not.”
They sat in silence a moment, Steve patiently waiting, and Eddie gathering courage.
“It’s just Eddie.”
Steve turned to look at Eddie’s profile. He was beautiful in the cool near-darkness, the moon hitting his face at just the right angle to sharpen his features.
“Just Eddie?”
Eddie nodded. “Just Eddie. Nothing special or interesting or exciting. It’s just plain, boring old Eddie.”
Steve blinked.
Steve blinked again.
And before Steve knew it, he was taking Eddie’s hand in his own.
Eddie’s breath caught and he continued to look up at the sky, too afraid to meet Steve’s eyes.
“Eddie. I hate to break this to you, but I am pretty sure you are physically incapable of being boring.”
Eddie snickered and stopped himself.
“I mean it. You might be the craziest person I’ve ever met. You refuse to fit in to a box you’ve outgrown. You’re too goddamn stubborn to do what people expect of you. You stand up for yourself and people who need you. You’re kind and gentle with the people you love.”
Steve took Eddie’s cheek with the hand not holding his and turned Eddie to face him. “You are the most exciting, interesting, and special person I’ve ever met.”
And with that, Eddie had heard enough.
Eddie kissed Steve.
And Eddie did not stop kissing Steve until he was bent over him, knees straddling his waist and hands in his hair.
Steve gripped Eddie’s hips and pushed him back, pausing to catch his breath. Eddie panted above him and laughed down at him, his lips reddened and his eyes blown wide. He looked absolutely insane. Absolutely gorgeous.
“Hey Eds?”
“Yeah, Steve?”
“You never asked me what Steve was short for.”
Eddie’s eyes narrowed. “What is Steve short for?”
Steve panted a light laugh. “It’s just Steve.”
Eddie paused.
And Eddie laughed.
And Eddie couldn’t stop laughing for a very long time.
—
The next year, Eddie signed a Valentine card “To: Just Steve.” and “Love: Just Eddie.”
—
That winter, Steve arranged restaurant reservations under the name of “Just Eddie”
—
The following summer, Eddie got down on one knee and asked “Just Steve” to marry him, and when Steve asked “What about the law?” Eddie said “it’s Just the law.”
—
The spring after, Steve read his vows in front of his entire chosen family. His voice faltered as he said “You’re Just Eddie the way the sun is Just a star. The way the moon is Just a rock. The way the earth is Just a planet. You are my home. You are where I belong.”
Three years after Steve carried Eddie out of the Upside Down, Eddie carried Steve across the threshold of their tiny apartment in Indianapolis.
After the world finally stops threatening to end, sometime in late 1989, Steve quietly gets a tattoo across his ribs. It’s something personal and private, something he just needs etched into his skin because to not have it there would feel like a lie. He feels disconnected from himself, he feels alone, he feels like bullshit. Going into Indianapolis for the weekend and shoving the handwritten line at a tattoo artist is the most human Steve has felt in forever. The sharp pain of the needle followed by the dull ache of the healing process finally grounds him.
No one but Robin hears about this, though. And turns out outside of saving the world, now that he doesn’t swim as much, Steve doesn’t have that many excuses to take his shirt off anymore. So, the tattoo is a secret by omission, and Steve is fine with that. It’s his thing, and it doesn’t have to be exposed for it to mean as much as it does.
And it does mean a lot. It’s a mark of a new beginning, something physical to prove to Steve he is still around and kicking.Â
And after that, life feels livable again. He has his friends, his only real family. He is managing Family Video now, after the owner had moved out of town due to world-almost-ending experiences. He is finally settling into being someone he actually wants to be.
Most importantly, Steve keeps in touch with Eddie as much as he can. They’re hanging out on and off all the time, falling into an easy routine without either of them meaning to. And by 1990, before either of them knows what hits them, they’re fumbling in the backroom at Family Video, making out against a shelf, VHS tapes raining down on them like falling in love: fast, hard, unexpected.
It’s all a blur of finally expressing things they had been keeping hidden for too long. Sharing secrets at midnight, back and forth with the pass of a joint or two or five. And after they start, they couldn’t stop even if they had wanted to. They need this good thing. And they both know too well how fast the shit hits the fan around them. So, they don’t care for taking things slow, not after years of dancing around each other. All this to say, it doesn’t take long at all for Eddie to find himself in Steve Harrington’s bedroom.
He’s sitting against the headboard, watching as Steve gets rid of his clothes. He had been expecting an almost childish awkwardness from Steve, because Eddie knows he hadn’t done this before, not with a man. Not that Eddie has that much experience to speak of himself, but he had come to terms with it way earlier. It doesn’t matter what he had expected though, because in truth Steve is smooth, sexy even. He removes his clothes with purpose and devastating eye contact. He gets rid of his pants, and then his shirt is coming off – finally, finally messing up that amazing head of hair of his.
Eddie almost gets too distracted by Steve’s intensity to notice the tattoo. When he comes closer, though, Eddie places his hand over his ribs. Instinctively, he just has to look and see what his skin looks like against Steve’s skin. And there it is, right by his fingers. Pitch black ink, already healed over, already fully Steve. The words are stark against his pale skin. I want to be adored. Eddie has the air knocked out of him.
Steve looks down, confused for a moment. “Wha-?” he starts to ask, but then his brain catches on. Steve feels self-conscious, kisses Eddie to distract him from what he’d found. He hadn’t known this is how he would feel, had never felt ashamed or embarrassed of much about his appearance before. And this isn’t quite shame. But this is Steve, bared, naked, in ways that go above a state of undress.
Eddie breaks the kiss, hand splayed over Steve’s chest. “Fuck, Steve. When did you get that?”
“A while back. It’s nothing.” It is everything. It means so much to Steve, he’d never have the words.
Eddie’s eyes soften, skimming the words again and again. The smile that graces his lips is tiny, a kind little thing Steve usually only sees on his face whenever he is around the nuggets, Max or Dustin usually.
“I can make that happen,” Eddie says, honesty dripping from his words. It isn’t his usual, larger than life rambling. This is Eddie seeing him, really seeing him.
“What?” Steve asks, to diffuse the tension. A self-sabotaging little jab at their clear connection, because he actually thinks he knows exactly what Eddie means.
“I can adore you, big boy,” Eddie says, and his playful spark was back. He winks, pulling Steve close by the shoulders. He gets both of them on Steve’s bed. Steve’s chest aches.
“Shut up,” he says, because he doesn’t know how to accept something like this. Doesn’t know how to process that anyone would care, that anyone would pay attention.
Eddie rolls his eyes at him, flips them on the bed so he can straddle Steve’s hips. Eddie traces the ink on his skin like it is precious. He kisses Steve hard, kisses his love into his lips, pushes it into his mouth like he does his tongue.
“I do adore you,” Eddie says later, after they’re both tired and spent and sated. After sex has made things fuzzier. It feels so simple now. It is so true.
“Eddie,” Steve starts, ready to tell Eddie about all the ways in which he, Steve, is fucked up. Instead: “Thank you.”
“Hey, I got you.”
And Eddie does, he really does.