Chapter Text
“How’s that for a first kiss?” Steve grinned as they slowly pulled apart. His lips twisted into a lopsided smile as he watched Eddie’s dark brown eyes stare at him with so much intimacy, so much love, it felt surreal. The look was all too familiar, and with a sharp intake of his breath Steve realised that Eddie had always looked at him like this.
Oh, how foolish they both had been.
“I guess it was alright,” Eddie teased, still a little breathless as his face split into a wide grin. “So, when’s the wedding, sweetheart?”
Steve laughed at the barely concealed eagerness of Eddie's tone, as it was hard to tell if he was kidding or not. Either way, Steve would totally drop down on one knee right now if Eddie asked.
Instead of answering verbally, Steve planted a quick kiss in the corner of the metalhead’s mouth and then proceeded to watch as the man’s ears coloured into a furious shade of red.
“You’re evil. And they say I’m the devil.” Eddie smiled as the taller man repeated the action again. He wasn’t sure if he could ever stop, now that Eddie was his, and he was Eddie’s.
The curly haired man let out a series of giggles as Steve continued to cover him with butterfly kisses, a sound that was like music to Steve’s ears.
The two of them remained there for who knows how long, hands wrapped together while simply enjoying each other’s embrace as they silently perceived their newfound intimacy. Eddie let out a contented sigh as his fingers traced patterns on the back of Steve’s hand, and Steve felt his heart flutter uncontrollably at the sensation. To be honest, he still couldn’t quite believe that Eddie, the man who turned Steve into a thoughtless being with every smile he offered, was now in his arms.
“Wait, what about the others? Are we just gonna leave them in the dark or–?”
The question was so out of the blue that it took Steve a couple embarrassingly long seconds to catch up on what Eddie was referring to.
“I think they’ll manage without us.” He shrugged after his mind finally registered the question. “At least I hope so. As long as they don’t set my pool on fire. Fuck knows what they and their combined braincells are capable of.” Eddie huffed out a laugh, eyes twinkling as he did.
“Oh God. How do we tell my uncle, though?” He gasped, a worrisome look taking over his face. “I mean, honestly, I don’t think he’d mind all that much, but I’d rather not have him corner you and scare you off with one of his classic shovel talks. That would suck.”
“Should I be offended that you think I get easily scared-”
“You literally dove right into a bush when you saw Wayne’s car pulling up the other day.”
“That was a completely different situation, he was looking extra murderous that day, I swear- ahem, anyways, I don’t get that easily scared by some shovel talk, but even if so, it would be worth it.
“Besides, I think your uncle already gave me shovel talk. Something about skinning me alive.” Steve continued before Eddie could interrupt him, adding overdramatic shivers to the last part to show how shaken he still was.
Eddie, as expected, went slack jawed for a very few seconds before bursting out in a million different questions, demanding for answers.
“When the fuck did he do that? Why? How come I only just found out?”
“Like, an hour ago, just before I left. Though I think he had that speech prepared for weeks beforehand. You know, I think he was onto me right from the beginning. He never seemed to like me all that much, but I believe we’ve finally reached the first name basis stage now.”
Eddie seemed to deflate for a moment, clearly both touched and slightly disturbed that Wayne had indeed cornered Steve and threatened him with his wrath in case he ever tried to pull some stupid stunt.
“What the hell.” Was all he could say, still paralyzed from astonishment.
“Don’t worry too much about it, sweetheart. ” He said as he planted a kiss on Eddie’s forehead.
“Coming to think of it, we could still go for that ice cream if you want. Just the two of us.” Steve added gently.
“I’d love that,” Eddie started, a soft smile appearing on his lips. “But to be honest, I’m perfectly fine like this right now. And by the way, I wasn’t lying when I said I spent multiple sleepless nights thinking about you. I think I might actually conk out if I don’t get three shots of black coffee right now.”
Looking down at the man curled up besides him, Steve did take notice of the evident eyebags that accompanied Eddie’s weary but contented smile. To be fair, this whole rollercoaster of emotions had been quite exhausting, even for Steve.
“You’re right,” He agreed in a hushed tone. “We’re in no rush. I just want to be with you, nothing else. But like hell I’m letting you give yourself a heart attack from a caffeine overdose. What you need is maybe a glass of water and at least eight hours of sleep. Preferably in a bed.”
“If you say so, mom.” Eddie mockingly rolled his eyes, then smirked, and with absolutely zero hesitance added, "Care to join me then, darling?”
Steve’s face flushed, and he was sure that by now he had a permanent blush set on his face, given that Eddie was no longer holding back on the flirty jokes anymore.
“Of course, I’ll be there. As long as I can hold you close. I don’t want to miss one smile and I don’t want to miss one kiss. I just want to be with you.”
Now it was Eddie’s turn to redden, his cheeks colouring into an adorable crimson shade of red. Steve was starting to love that look on him. “Ugh, you’re such a sap. Stop it.”
“I can’t believe you’d said that. Words can hurt, you know?” Steve quipped, though his words held no real heat.
“And I can’t believe you just quoted Aerosmith on me, you cheesy bastard. Didn’t know you were into that kind of music, Harrington.”
Steve paused, though his expression quickly shifted from warriness to sheepishness once the awareness of his own- subconsciously- spoken words hit. Barely resisting the urge to face palm, he mentally prepared himself for dealing with the hysterical and mocking children interrogating him once the word was spread, somehow. He hadn’t even realised that he was reciting a goddamn love song to Eddie.
“Huh, guess I really am a lovesick dummy,” He muttered mostly to himself, but loud enough for Eddie to hear. Steve felt himself grinning when Eddie frowned at him in confusion, brows knitted together in the adorable way they always did whenever Eddie was working his brain’s ass off when trying to understand something.
“Where the hell did that come from?” The metalhead laughed albeit confused, the sound so sweet that Steve couldn’t keep his eyes off his blinding smile.
“Robin called it.”