Chapter Text
Steve woke up in bed, huh? How did he get here? Last thing he remembered was Eddie reading to him, something about dwarves and a dragon and a burglar… A sturdy shoulder under his head, he could feel the vibrations of Eddie’s voice like that. He must’ve drifted off. But that was in the study not in his bed. Did Eddie…?
Steve sat up in bed and spotted Eddie awake on his mattress on the floor, reading The Hobbit, he looks to be about half way through already. He was chewing on the sharp nail of his thumb with his fang. Steve stared at the way his lips wrapped around his thumb until Eddie noticed that he had woken up.
“Good morning, princess. How’d you sleep?” He asked, putting a scrap of paper into the book to mark his page and closing it, settling his attention on Steve.
Steve stared at Eddie before narrowing his eyes, “Did you… carry me to bed..?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah. I didn’t want you hurting your neck anymore than it already…” Eddie cleared his throat, “And to be clear! I tried to wake you up but you refused to budge!” Steve could see the tips of his pointed ears turn pink.
“Oh…” So he did. He knew first hand Eddie gained quite a bit of strength, but… wow… Steve didn’t think he’d ever get carried to bed again, not since he was a kid, or more like a toddler. Actually he can’t remember if he had ever been carried to bed before. But Eddie just…
“Stevie?” Eddie looked at him curiously.
“Um, thanks, I guess.” Steve had to look away from those big brown eyes, he could feel his cheeks heating up. Was he embarrassed? It should be embarrassment making him feel this way but that didn’t seem to be it.
“Anytime! And I think you almost made it all the way through chapter 1.” Eddie said, patting the book.
“I’m not sure how much I remember though, I was pretty exhausted…” Steve said, stretching and untangling himself from his blanket.
“That’s fine, I’ll just pick back up from what you last remember next time.” Eddie smiled.
Steve got up, “You don’t have to. You’re already way ahead.” he pointed at the book.
“Don’t worry about that, I think I’ve read this bad boy like 6 times already, it’s you who has no choice in this, Stevie.” Eddie scrambled out of bed as well.
“I will fall asleep again.” Steve threw on a sweater over his pajamas.
“And I’ll just start wherever you drifted off the next time.” Eddie shrugged, really not giving him any choice in this.
Steve sighed, but he actually didn’t mind at all. “I’m gonna eat breakfast, but… well… you know…”
“Ah.” Eddie looked a bit pained, “Yeah, I know. I’ll still join you though.”
Steve nodded and started walking out of the room but paused, “The offer on my blood still stands… if you want.”
Eddie took a sharp inhale, “I don’t… I can’t do that, Steve.”
“Again, I could draw it myself, no teeth need to be involved.” Steve tried.
“Steve.” Eddie warned
“Look, we just got you back alive now I wanna make sure you stay alive, okay?” Steve tried to keep his voice steady.
“I’m fine, Steve.” Eddie stated, Steve wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince him or himself.
Steve stared at him, he could tell he wasn’t fine at all, he could tell he was hungry. Hell, the man said it himself just yesterday. He really wants Eddie to eat something, especially since they said they were gonna test out vampire stuff today. But forcing him now probably won’t do them any good.
“Alright… I’ll let you off the hook for now. But I want you to eat something tonight, so I will be feeding you my blood unless you figure something else out before then.” Steve stated.
“Steve…” Eddie looked defeated.
“We can start with just a shot glass, if you want.” This is the only compromise he’ll make, he was nervous too. Drawing a large amount of blood himself without the proper tools sounds like a terrible idea anyway.
“I can’t stop you, can I?” Eddie asked.
“Nope. I’ll shove it down your throat if I have to.” And with that Steve left to go downstairs. He heard Eddie sigh and saw him soundlessly follow him from the corner of his eye. Was this new sneakiness a vampire thing? They’ll have to add it to the list.
Steve ate a spoonful of his cereal as he tapped a notebook with a pen, at the top of the page he had written “Vampire Shit”.
“Okay so all we have right now is… can’t eat and drink any normal stuff besides water, right?” Steve asked.
“Yup, and the obvious physical changes I suppose.” Eddie shrugged.
“Right… Fangs, claws, elf ears… super strength…” Steve noted down.
Eddie sighed and shook his head, “Always found myself more of a dwarf…”
Steve tilted his head, looking the man before him up and down, “You really don’t look the part.”
“No like… elves are all ethereal and dreamy and shit, dwarfs are tough and… cool… it’s a vibe, okay?” Eddie waved his hand dismissively.
Steve thought both descriptions fit him. That’s a weird thing to think, let’s ignore that.
“Oh right, do you also have super speed?” Steve asked, remembering how fast he was when he… that’s not important anymore. He really should find time to check how the wound is healing, though.
“Hmm, I was really fast when I… you know.” Eddie dragged a hand down his face, “I haven’t done that since, though… How do we even test that?”
“You… try moving fast?” Steve held his hands up in question.
“Would it be that simple? That’s kinda lame.”
“I’m assuming you carrying me didn’t take anything special.” Steve shrugged.
“I… guess…” Eddie got up, “Here goes nothing?” He took a deep breath before doing the most pathetic little jog to the kitchen counter.
Steve snorted, “Dude, what was that?” He laughed.
“What? Sorry, was my form bad?” Eddie hit a runner pose.
“Were you even trying?” Steve was still laughing.
“I prefer as little exertion as possible.” Eddie held up a finger.
Steve caught his breath, he turned his chair to face him, “Are we testing vampire shit or not, man?”
Eddie sighed, “Fine.” And he took another deep breath.
And then before Steve could even react, Eddie was in his face, his arms on either side of his head, leaning on the backrest of his chair. Eddie looked as shocked as Steve felt. But neither moved. Steve let his eyes wander over Eddie’s face, landing on his lips once again. Why was he constantly staring at his mouth? Was it a fear response from getting bit? His heart was going crazy.
He looked into Eddie’s eyes again only to find him staring at his lips… Eddie met his gaze, Steve watched as his cheeks turned pink and he took a shaky breath. Wait, isn’t this…
The phone rang, startling both of them.
“Erp-!” Eddie took a clumsy step back, “Sorry!”
Steve coughed, “It’s okay.” he avoided eye contact as he quickly got up and made his way to the phone.
Steve picked up the phone, “Hello?”, he felt out of breath for some reason.
“Oh, thank god! You aren’t dead!” Dustin yelled through the receiver.
“Why the hell would I be dead now?” Steve leaned against the wall, he watched Eddie awkwardly sway, still in the same spot in the kitchen.
“You weren’t responding on the walkie talkie, dude!” Dustin exclaimed.
“Oh, sorry I forgot it upstairs.” Steve sighed, he usually kept it nearby while he was home. He never wants to make the kids worry.
“It’s fine now that I know you’re alive. You must’ve been preoccupied with Eddie, huh? Soon you two’ll be best friends and forget all about me…” Dustin lamented dramatically.
“Now you know that’ll never happen. But yes, we were busy looking into the vampire shit so-”
“You’re testing vampire shit without me?!” Dustin interrupted, voice cracking.
“Uhm…” Steve should’ve known to keep his mouth shut on that.
“You are forgetting about me! I swear to god I’m about to jump on my bike and come over.”
“No, Dustin…” Steve didn’t know what he could use as an excuse to keep him away… Did he need to keep him away? Steve sighed and waved Eddie over, who immediately jogged over pathetically.
“What’s up?” Eddie asked.
“Eddie? You two are testing vampire shit without me?!” Dustin yelled, Steve had to hold the receiver away from his ear.
“Oooooh…” Eddie stepped in closer to be able to speak into the phone, “Yep, sure are, buddy.”
Steve positioned the phone so they could both hear and speak into it, Steve thought it was nice having someone in his space.
“Why?! There’s so much I wanna try out!” Dustin whined.
“Hmm… Look, you may be too young to understand this, but there comes a point in your life when your body starts going through changes, and sometimes during those changes you’d rather be alone.” Eddie nodded like he just imparted some great wisdom.
“Dude…” Steve shook his head.
“What the fuck, Eddie? Did you seriously just compare coming back from the dead as a probably-vampire to puberty?” Dustin asked, “And, ew, you’re making it sound like you wanna jerk off with Steve there.”
Steve watched Eddie turn very red very quickly. That’s… interesting.
“What! No! It’s vampirism, not actual puberty!” Eddie defended.
“Sure, sure, just having a fun vampiric jerk off with your new best friend Steve Harrington.” Dustin joked.
Steve snorted.
“Dustin…” Eddie began, seriously now, “I do mean it, these changes are scary… so I just… I wanna figure shit out first, okay?”
“Then why is Steve allowed to help?” Dustin asked quietly.
“Because he…” Eddie looked at Steve, seemingly at a loss for words.
“Because I can handle getting tossed around and bitten. Plus I live here, dude.” Steve said plainly.
“Are you tossing and biting Steve?!” Dustin exclaimed.
“No! I mean, I did just almost concuss him, testing out my super speed…” Eddie trailed off.
“Super speed! I’m so jealous. But don’t concuss Steve, he'll get even stupider.” Dustin said.
“Hey! Talk like that and you’re never allowed foot in here again, young man.” Steve said.
“Ok, ok, sorry. But I get what you mean. You’d rather beat the shit out of Steve than me.”
“That’s… one way to put it. Sure.” Eddie agreed.
“I don’t think there’s any vampire abilities we need to test like that…” Steve mumbled.
“Alright… I just miss you two.” Dustin said.
“I miss you too, dude.” Eddie said.
“Yeah, you’ll see us as soon as well… you know.” Steve wasn’t quite sure when it’d be.
“As soon as I’m confident I won’t turn into a flesh eating monster and kill my friends.” Eddie said darkly.
“Yeah… I’d appreciate that. But you have to keep me updated on all the vampire discoveries, okay?” Dustin asked, “Unless it involves jerking off, I don’t need to hear about that.”
Eddie laughed, “Of course, we’ll keep in touch.”
“Yeah, you’re gonna check if I got eaten every morning anyway, aren’t you?” Steve asked
“Sure am! But I’ll let you get back to it then… Don’t have too much fun without me!” Dustin said and abruptly hung up.
Steve chuckled as he put the phone back on the hook.
Eddie sighed and leaned his head on Steve’s shoulder, “I’m pooped.”
Steve tensed a little at the sudden touch, he felt nervous for some reason. Had he actually become scared of Eddie? He thinks logically he should be a little scared but he wasn’t at all. Maybe it’s his body making up for his brain being too stupid to recognize possible danger.
“Already? Wait, did you even sleep?” Steve asked.
Eddie nodded, his head still on his shoulder, “Only a little bit, but I slept all day yesterday didn’t I?”
“Yeah but… what about the testing shit out?” Steve realized something, “Wait, are you becoming nocturnal?”
“What?”
“Sleep all day, awake during the night…” Steve summarized.
“I know what nocturnal means, Steve!” Eddie picked his head up to stare at him.
Steve wished he’d lay his head on his shoulder again.
“Well it seems pretty vampy to me.” He shrugged.
“You’ve got a point…” Eddie thought for a second, “But for now let’s just say it’s a messed up sleep schedule. I’ll stay awake and test vampire stuff.”
Steve nodded, “Alright, so what do you wanna try first?”
“Let’s start simple and work our way up, you got any crucifixes?” Eddie grinned.
And so they started working their way through whatever vampiric lore they could remember. Crucifixes didn’t do anything, Neither did garlic, unless presumably if he were to eat it, but Eddie refused. He didn’t have a compulsion to count strewn about grains of rice (Steve had never heard of this one). They couldn’t agree about whether silver was for vampires or werewolves but they tried it anyway, it did nothing. Steve dug out some holy water his parents once got on a trip to vatican city, should be the strongest stuff, right? It didn’t do anything.
Then they checked for invulnerability, Eddie made a small cut on his hand, so knives can pierce him. He barely bled and the wound was gone within 10 minutes. So he has super healing… explains the bat bites. This however left no scar so that’s interesting. Was it because the bats were before he was turned or is it a severity level thing? That was something they weren’t about to test out. Fire was basically the same, though it hurt more and took about an hour to heal.
They ran out of ideas besides the big one… sunlight.
“I think this one might fuck me up, Steve.” Eddie said, bouncing nervously next to one of the blinds covered windows.
“I’m right here, I’ll close it immediately if it’s bad.” Steve was weighing the odds in his mind, so far he didn’t have all that many vampiric traits but things from the upside down weren’t particularly fond of sunlight. So Steve held hope. “Are you ready?”
“No, but let’s do it anyway.” Eddie said, full of dread.
Steve made a small gap in the blinds, letting in just a small beam of sunlight.
Eddie took a deep breath and slowly inched his hand towards the light. The moment he touched it he gasped and took it back quickly. Steve immediately closed the blinds and stared at him waiting for him to say something.
“It’s hot.” Eddie said, opening and closing his hand.
“It’s hot?”
“Like a hot pan… or maybe slightly less hot than that… I don’t know…” He shook his hand, there was no visible injury.
“Did it hurt?” Steve asked.
“Maybe, I was mostly surprised and scared, I think.” Eddie breathed, “I’ll try again.”
“Are you sure?” Steve worried.
“Yes.”
So Steve hesitantly opened the gap again and Eddie held his hand in, longer this time.
For about 5 seconds until he pulled it back and shook it like he actually touched a hot pan this time, “Motherfucker! Okay, yeah, it’s bad.”
Steve immediately closed the blinds again and carefully grabbed his hand to look at it, it looked somewhere between a severe sunburn and a first degree burn. “Does it hurt? How bad is it?”
“Felt like getting burned. Not great. Not great at all.” Eddie said, tears welling up in his eyes.
“Do you wanna ice it?” Steve asked. God, this sucked, he can’t even imagine how Eddie might feel right now. He’ll never be able to be in the sun again. Unless they can reverse it… They need to figure out if there’s a way to undo this. To make Eddie human again. Without killing Eddie of course.
“That sounds nice, yes.” Tears were now quietly rolling down his cheeks.
Steve grabbed him by the wrist and led him back to the kitchen, where he shortly let him go to grab an ice pack and wrap it in a dish towel. Eddie leaned against the counter, holding himself with his uninjured arm, quietly crying. Steve gently grabbed his injured hand and carefully held the ice pack to it.
“How’s that?” He quietly asked, almost a whisper.
Eddie nodded, he sniffled, “It helps.” he sighed and rested his head on Steve’s shoulder again. Quietly sobbing into his neck.
Steve had no free hands left to hold the crying man, so he rested his head against his.
“Maybe we can figure this out… Find a way to undo this… Maybe if we kill Vecna or something…” Steve pondered.
“Yeah, about that…” Eddie said quietly.
“Hm?”
“Wasn’t the whole thing with the upside down that everything’s connected? What if killing him means killing me?” Eddie whispered, clutching his free hand into the back of Steve’s sweater. Steve could feel his breath and tears against his neck.
“That… But Jane said you weren’t connected to Vecna anymore, right?” Steve tried, he didn’t even want to consider it a possibility.
“Mentally I think, yeah. But what about physically? Didn’t hurting one demo-whatever, hurt all of them?” Eddie asked.
“I… I don’t… I think it was like that with the dogs, yes. Those bats didn’t seem to care much when one got killed, though… I don’t know. Fuck.” Steve slumped. Things were just looking up with Eddie’s return. Were they gonna have to lose him a second time?
They stayed quietly like that for a while, until Eddie spoke up again.
“I’m tired.” Eddie said, nuzzling closer and running his hand up Steve’s back.
Steve shivered at the touch, “It is pretty late…”
“I’m ready to pass out for another 2 weeks.” Eddie said dryly.
“It’s fine if you want to go to bed, but you’re not getting out of me feeding you. You probably need it now even more than before.” Steve gently squeezed his injured hand.
“Damn it.” Eddie sighed. He took a deep breath in Steve’s neck and then slowly stood up straight again, he wiped his eyes with his free hand.
Steve smiled at him sadly, “Sorry.”, he removed the ice pack and checked out his hand. It hadn’t changed much, it might’ve gotten a little less red but Steve couldn’t be sure. He hopes it heals like the other wounds did. He gave his hand a final squeeze and then let go to put the ice pack and dish towel back.
He then turned to the knife drawer and grabbed what he knew to be the sharpest one, the cleaner the cut the easier the heal.
“Woah just like that, huh?” Eddie asked, “Can’t give a guy time to mentally prepare?”
“You wanted to sleep, didn’t you?” Steve opened the glasses cabinet, “So what’ll it be? Just a shot?”
“A single drop is plenty. No need for such a big knife, really.” Eddie held up his hands in surrender.
Steve shook his head and grabbed a shot glass. He went over to the cabinet that held a first aid kit and grabbed the rubbing alcohol and disinfected the knife.
Eddie bounced nervously, “You really don’t need to do this.”
“I want to.” Steve stated, disinfecting his thumb. He once cut it before and it bled like a motherfucker but healed easy enough. Seems like a good spot, probably less risky than a wrist or something.
“Okay… weirdo.” Eddie mumbled.
Steve looked at the old pale scar on the pad on his thumb, “Why are you so against it when I’m fine with it?”
Eddie looked at him like he was stupid, “I’m scared it’ll awaken something in me or something, man. That I’ll lose control and hurt you again.”
“Didn’t you get a taste already when you bit me, though?” Steve asked.
“Yes, and it was delicious! Steve, I was salivating when I was dressing your wound. Whenever I’m close to you, you smell…” Eddie shut his mouth, “I should shut up.”
Steve swallowed, alright, maybe he underestimated the blood thirst a little. But he still can’t let him starve.
“And what would be the alternative? You die of starvation?” Steve asked.
“We don’t know if that would kill me.” Eddie stated.
“Well I don’t want to find out.” Steve said as he cut open his thumb, he held it above the shot glass and watched as blood started to drip in. Maybe he cut too shallow, this was going to take longer than he had aimed for, he squeezed his thumb to try and help it along.
“Steve…” Eddie pleaded, taking a step back.
“If you back out now it’s just a waste of perfectly fine blood.” Steve said.
“I mean, yeah. I have no choice, you’ve made that clear. But you better stab the shit out of me if I jump you.” Eddie held himself.
“Sure thing, Eddie.” Steve said, the shot glass had filled up so Steve grabbed some gauze and applied pressure to his thumb, “Alright… bon appetit.” He said, stepping aside.
“Right…” Eddie approached the shot glass like it was dangerous, he carefully picked it up, hesitating the whole way. He bit his lip and looked at Steve. Steve nodded. Eddie sighed and took a little sip.
Steve had honestly expected him to just shoot it back to get it over with, but he didn’t mind getting to watch Eddie lick his blood from his lips like it was something worth savoring. Seriously, what was up with this fixation on Eddie’s mouth and why were his cheeks heating up again?
“So… How is it…?” Steve tried to distract himself with conversation.
“Compliments to the chef.” Eddie said quietly before taking a bigger sip, that tongue slipping out again to lick his lips afterwards.
Steve was not distracted by the conversation, “...Thanks, made it all myself.”
Eddie shot the last of the blood back and looked at the empty glass mournfully. “Would it… I mean yes it would, everything about this is already weird… would it be weird if I licked the glass clean…?”
Steve swallowed, “...Go ahead.”
Eddie looked at him and then back at the glass, Steve watched intently as he licked the shot glass clean. He felt like he wasn’t getting enough air. Was hypnosis a vampire power? Why couldn’t he look away? Steve snapped out of it when Eddie placed the glass back on the counter.
“...How do you feel?” Steve asked.
Eddie rubbed his face with both hands, “A little better, but…” Eddie spoke through the hands on his face.
“But…?” Steve asked.
Eddie hunched over in shame, “...It wasn’t enough.”
“Oh…” Steve looked at the cut on his thumb, if he squeezed it hard enough it would probably bleed again, it’d take even longer to fill up even that tiny glass a second time though… “You can have more…” He offered his cut thumb to Eddie.
Eddie looked at it through his fingers, then at Steve, back at the thumb, and repeated this a few times. “You do know this is exactly what I was afraid of, right?”
“You’re not jumping me in the slightest.” Steve shrugged.
Eddie removed his hands from his face, “I don’t even know how much would be enough.”
“I’ll let you know if you’re taking too much.” Steve offered, wiggling his thumb.
“I… I can’t…”
“You’re normal and in control now, what would a few extra sips change?”
“I don’t know…”
Steve got a little tired of Eddie’s self doubt, he stepped forward and pressed his thumb against his lips, “I trust you, Eddie.” Steve said quietly. “If you won’t have faith in yourself, at least have a little faith in me.”
Eddie stood still in shock, his eyes were teary again, they stood like that for so long Steve thought he wasn’t gonna take it, until he felt a shy tongue run over his cut. Steve was transfixed, staring at Eddie, while he looked down and strictly avoided eye contact. After a few more licks Steve pushed forward, trying to prompt Eddie to take more.
Eddie’s eye’s snapped up at him as he let out a shaky breath through his nose, His teeth grazed over his thumb as he properly closed his lips around it, and sucked. Steve rested the palm of his hand against his cheek, inadvertently pushing his thumb further into his mouth. Eddie closed his eyes and covered his hand with his own and clung to Steve’s sleeve with the other.
Steve felt warm. And stupid. Really, everything about this should be weirding him out or scaring him but instead he… liked it. He wanted more. He wanted to give Eddie more. Was it because he was finally useful for something? Was it selfishness to deal with his guilt of getting Eddie killed? His head was a mess, all he could focus on was the tongue on his thumb as Eddie gently sucked on it. Steve couldn’t even feel any blood loss, hell there probably wasn’t a lot coming out, it was only a small cut. He should’ve cut deeper.
Eddie removed his thumb from his mouth and looked at him with half lidded eyes, “You stopped bleeding, Steve.” He whispered.
Steve felt his stomach knot, why did he look so… so… Steve can’t name it. Was it the exhaustion? The hunger? The blood? Steve didn’t know. Was this messing with Eddie’s head as much as it did his? Steve swallowed, “Do you want more?” he asked quietly.
Eddie leaned into his hand, “I shouldn’t…”
Steve rolled up his sleeve, exposing his wrist, all his worries about minimizing risk have apparently flown out the window. “If you’re still hungry, you should eat.”
Eddie licked his lips and looked at his wrist like it was a delicious meal, “You promise to still stab the shit out of me if I go too far?”
“Of course.” Steve said, wondering what would be too far at this point.
“Alright…” Eddie hestated, but he slowly grabbed his exposed arm with both hands and held his wrist close to his mouth, again hesitantly looking at Steve.
“Do it.” Steve whispered, he felt dizzy.
Eddie held his lips against his wrist for a second, was he checking his pulse? Before opening his mouth and slowly sinking his teeth in.
“Mh-!” Steve clutched Eddie’s shirt, it hurt. Of fucking course it hurt, his wrist was getting bitten.
Eddie froze and looked at him with alarm.
“No, keep going.” Steve unclenched his fist and held Eddie.
Eddie sunk his teeth a little deeper and then removed them and sucked on the puncture wounds, Steve could feel his tongue lapping at the wounds. The pain subsided and… It felt good. Really good. What the hell is wrong with him? This should be painful and scary. But he felt the knot in his stomach tighten and noticed he was breathing heavily. He leaned on Eddie for support, and because he wanted to.
“Hmm?” Eddie looked at him, now steadily drinking from his wrist. His eyes seemed to hold more light again, it was beautiful.
“I’m good.” Steve breathed and nodded, but didn’t make a move to get off him.
Eddie snaked an arm around his back and held it there, his eyes on Steve a moment longer before closing them with a low hum. Was his blood that delicious? Eddie looked completely lost in it, like it was the best thing he’s ever tasted, his long eyelashes fluttered occasionally.
Steve’s heart was going crazy. He tried, and failed to even out his breathing. He watched Eddie’s lips pressed against his wrist, he was so slow and careful with it, he hadn’t spilled a single drop. He felt his tongue glide over his wrist again. A familiar heat pooled in his stomach. Oh fuck, was he getting hard? Was he seriously getting turned on right now? Oh fuck, he totally was turned on. Shit. What the fuck. Was it the biting? The licking? The sucking? Was it Eddie?
…oh.
OH.
Oooooh. That does explain a few things.
Wait fuck does he seriously have a crush on Eddie? He looked at him, only to find those big brown eyes staring back, did he sense his panic? Steve felt his face heat up. Yep. He totally likes him.
Fuck, he can’t be having these realizations while the guy is actively sucking him off. His wrist. Sucking his wrist. He slumped his head and patted Eddie’s back, tapping out.
“Hmm?” Eddie carefully removed his mouth and quickly grabbed some gauze and pressed it to the wound, he also seemed a little out of breath. “Are you… okay…?” He sounded a little hoarse.
“Yeah… yeah, just…” Steve cleared his throat and made a vague gesture with his free hand, “got a little light headed.”
“I’m sorry…” Eddie said, he looked so scared, “I should’ve stopped earlier.”
“Oh, no, you’re fine, I don’t think you even got close to taking as much as they do for a donation.” Steve waved his hand dismissively.
“But you got lightheaded?” Eddie’s eyes widened, “Oh shit, you haven’t even had dinner yet. Go sit down, I'll fix something up for you.” Eddie took Steve’s free hand and placed it over the gauze before leading him to a chair at the dinner table.
“Ah, alright, thank you.” Steve sat down and pressed down on the wound, it really didn’t hurt all that much anymore. It really should be hurting more. Or had he just gotten so accustomed to pain these years?
Eddie stood over him, “I… I really am sorry.” he quickly turned back to the kitchen to rummage through cabinets.
Steve watched him for a while, “There should still be a box of mac and cheese in the cabinet to your left.”
“Oh! Perfect!” Eddie found the box and got to work.
He seemed a lot livelier again, Steve smiled, he was glad to see it. He felt his cheeks heat up again, watching Eddie. And now he knew why. He… liked Eddie. He didn’t know how to feel about this discovery. He liked a man. Okay, thinking back maybe it’s not very surprising, he’s always had an appreciation of sorts for men’s looks. But he thought that was just an athlete thing. And hell, Eddie was so far removed from the impressive muscles that came to mind. He just genuinely liked him? Steve stared up at the ceiling, it’s been so long since he’s felt like this about someone… it’s nice…
But what would it even be like to be with a man? It would probably be different than with women… If Eddie was a girl Steve would take her on a few nice dates and then, maybe, y’know. But Eddie couldn’t be out in the sun, or in public, and he can’t eat normal food anymore. He could make an at home romantic dinner with a bowl of his blood. Alright, definitely not before Eddie gets comfortable with drinking blood. And Steve preferred him drinking it straight from the source. And would Eddie even want the princess treatment? Hmm… Steve thinks wouldn’t really mind the princess treatment, but he loves doing stuff for his partner so he wouldn’t want to be the only one getting pampered. Would Eddie feel the same? Maybe he doesn’t even know since he’s never been in a relationship.
Steve could help him find out what he likes… Steve would be his first…
“What are you thinking about so hard?” Eddie stood next to him with a bowl of mac and cheese.
Steve jumped a little, he was too lost in thought to notice him approaching, “Oh! Nothing!” He yelped.
“Alright… Well, here you go.” He placed the bowl in front of Steve.
“Thanks man.” Steve had a hard time maintaining eye contact. What if Eddie could tell what he was thinking?
“Mhmh. I’m gonna head to bed.” Eddie said, starting to walk out the kitchen.
“Oh. Alright… Goodnight…” Steve tried not to feel disappointed, he knew how tired Eddie was.
“And sorry again.” Eddie said before leaving the kitchen.
“Stop apologizing!” Steve called out after him.
So Steve ate his dinner alone, that’s alright, he’s used to it. He’ll turn in early tonight as well, today has been a lot. Again. He’ll hit the showers and pass out, maybe tomorrow will be chill now that they’ve figured out all the vampire shit.
Steve turned the shower on to let it heat up and faced the mirror. He methodically removed the various bandages littering his body. The bat bites were looking good. The bite on his neck was bruising but the punctures didn’t look infected and had proper scabs now, so that’s good. His wrist and thumb were obviously still fresh, he’ll have to be careful with soap cause that’ll sting like a bitch. He knows that.
He stepped into the shower and let the warm water run over his body, he let out a sigh of relief. He’s finally been getting a bit of proper sleep but his body still held so much tension, it felt like it always did these days. But things are getting better now, right? Eddie is back. His love life might get less pathetic now, too. He went about his usual elaborate shower routine, but if it took even longer than usual because he was jerking off to the thought of soft lips and sharp fangs… then that’s between him and god.