Chapter Text
Steve rubbed his face with the palm of his hands, sighing. He laid his head down in his arms on top of the countertop and closed his eyes shut.
“Am I boring you that much already?” Robin said in a playful tone from beside him.
He opened his eyes to the bright light that loomed throughout Family Video, as well as to Robins's face leaning against the same counter, looking straight at him.
“Well, yes, but that's not what I'm bored about,” He mumbled into his arm, “Was this gig really the best we could go with for the summer?”
Robin supported her chin with the base of her forearm and blew a part of her bangs out of her face, looking straight up and to the front door of the store which hasn't been walked through since Steve started his shift.
“Well, it's the one that's paying the most, it also has air conditioning so that's a win in my book,” Robin shrugged her shoulders and continued, “Besides, maybe we’ll be able to see some hot Hawkins babes before the end of our shift.”
But, from what Steve could see, the “Hot Hawkins Babes” Robin was implying that came to this store were nowhere in sight, and the only things of interest were VHS tapes scattered on the shelves that they were supposed to reorder an hour ago. He fiddled with a small stand that held “The Outsiders” on it.
No matter how many times Steve watches that movie, the only thing he can focus on is how great Rob Lowe’s hair looked. Not for any reason really, it's just that he had always wanted his hair to look like that, or so he thought.
Maybe it was also how athletic he must have been, Steve was always on the scrawny side no matter how many times he would plan his diet or regimen. Steve couldn't help but gaze at Rob Lowe in his sleeveless jean jacket for a few more seconds before coming back to reality and continuing the conversation with Robin.
“Well, those ‘babes’ you're talking about are not here, and you know you have an embarrassingly enormous crush on Vickie,” Steve drawled.
Robin scoffed and pushed him with her shoulder, a tint of pink fluttering to her cheeks.
“Yeah, well I'm still trying to figure things out with her,” Robin’s gaze flickered away from Steve’s and down to her hands, “Do you have anyone on your mind, Steve?”
Steve thought about it for a few seconds before concluding, “Well, I think I've run through literally a quarter of the girls my age so I think if I start trying again I'm not going to find any luck in it for me.” He sighed exasperatedly, running a hand through his puffed-up hair.
Robin grabbed his wrist and giggled, “Well if you, Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington,” she paused to give effect, “mess up your hair before the hot babes come in, I don't think you'll have any effect on them.”
He groaned and tried to put on a mean face for Robin, but it couldn't hide the fact he was smiling. He turned to find any reflective surface to “fix” his hair.
A faint ring of a bell sounded from across the store, and heavy boots clicked on the ground before moving over to the shaggy carpet near the VHS tapes.
“There's your hot babe, Steve,” Robin chuckled to herself before going towards the back of the store, probably meaning to finally sort out the jumble of CDs and cords that attached to a broken TV.
‘Who even rents movies on Tuesdays?’ Steve rolled his eyes before biting his lip in dissatisfaction and going back to messing with his hair.
“Getting all ready just for me, Steve?” a rugged-sounding voice sounded to the right of him.
Steve jumped and flicked his head towards the spot where the voice sounded.
And there he was in all his glory, Eddie Fucking Munson.
Steve had been chatting with him a few times after the whole incident with Vecna, and both of them are still shaken up about the situation, especially Eddie. Not that he would blame him, of course, he felt the same when he found out about the upside-down a few years back. But still, he couldn't help but have the urge to just comfort Eddie in a hug for as long as Eddie would allow.
That's not that weird of a thing to want to do, it's just for helping out a friend of his, he'd give hugs to any of his friends if they needed it.
Actually, take that back. Dustin was never going anywhere near him when he didn't know where those hands were before (He quite literally raised a demon from the upside-down).
What he did want near him though right now was Eddie as his eyes gazed into his own, looking at Steve with honey colored irises that Steve thought could hypnotize all the ladies. His leather jacket was ditched as he wore a tight long sleeve with the name of a band Steve hadn't quite heard of before, a really tight long sleeve actually...
Steve didn't realize he was ogling Eddie until he cleared his throat and snapped Steve back to reality.
Steve laughed awkwardly before starting, “Oh, yeah, what'd you need Eddie?”
Steve fiddled with his hands, feeling his face grow hot, clearly trying to avoid the eye contact his brain was desperate to resume.
Eddie fumbled with a VHS he had in his hand, his lanky fingers sliding it over to Steve in an ungraceful way.
Steve couldn't help but glance at Eddie’s hand, his pale skin making it easy to see his blue veins that protruded when he moved his fingers a certain way.
He also wandered to the bases of Eddies finger's where he studied his rings, first, there was a silver looking skull-shaped engravement on one, another was simple and also silver, though it swerved and created a satisfying pattern with the metal, and another Steve was deeply enraptured by, the metallic silver ring on his ring finger, it had a skillfully carved ruby in the middle of it and it was adorned with a pattern on the edges of the ring. It was absolutely beautiful.
Steve had pretended he was staring at the cover of the movie, which was called-
“The Labrinth?” Steve questioned, not knowing of the movie at all. Although, the dude with spiky hair at the top of the VHS looked oddly familiar.
Eddies eyes brightened up and his smile cracked to a slanted grin.
Steve looked up from the cover and immediately regretted it as his stomach did an entire flip.
“Hell yeah, dude!” Eddie started up again, “It's about this girl who has to save her baby brother from this goblin king.”
Steve hummed thoughtfully, “Sounds like your type of movie, then.”
Although Steve didn't think he had said anything all that funny, Eddie roared in laughter, and Steve couldn't help but notice the airy feeling he had in his chest as he beamed at Eddie.
“You're right about that, Harrington,” Eddie snickered and regained his composure.
Steve examined the cover again before placing it in a bag for Eddie to take home.
“Hey, who's the guy with the spiky hair?” Steve started, “I can't shake the feeling I've seen him somewhere.”
Eddie’s eyes gleamed as he started explaining what he knew to Steve.
“I mean, it's David Bowie, although he's not really my taste music-wise, he still has some good songs.”
Eddie continued ranting with counts of enthusiasm bounding from every bone in his body as Steve just leaned on the counter and listened.
Steve’s thoughts went elsewhere, ‘what other taste would he have that's not music-wise?’
He shook his head away from the thought and went back to listening in on what Eddie was talking about now.
From The Labrinth to David Bowie to Ozzy Osbourne and back to The Labrinth, Steve was intrigued with every bit of the conversation, although he may not know much about any of the topics at all.
Steve looked at the bag with the Labrinth in Eddie's hand again and sighed, “It does sound like an awesome movie, maybe ill watch it sometime.”
You could tell from the way Eddie’s eyebrows furrowed and raised that he had come up with the most genius idea the world has heard in a century, or at least in his eyes.
Eddie put both of his hands on Steve’s shoulders and began, “Hey, come over to my place tomorrow night, we can watch it then and I can finally introduce you to what good movies are!” He said with so much fervor that it would be physically painful to decline.
Steve hummed lightly to try and not focus on the sudden contact and replied, “Sure man, I think I could have someone cover for me,”
Eddie had told him the time and where his trailer was, although he already knew from the Vecna Situation (but he wasn't going to spoil Eddie's happiness for the world).
When all the plans were made, Eddie bit his lip and drummed his fingers on the counter excitedly before grabbing his bag with The Labrinth in it. He saluted Steve and spun around clumsily towards the front door.
“See ya later, Stevie!”
Steve watched Eddie’s long brown curls bounce as he walked away before finally turning the other way and getting back to boring work.
“Stevie?” Robin said in a mix of utter amusement and confusion when she got back to the cash register.
Steve couldn't do anything but glance at her and say, “Yeah, don't know where he got that from.”
He started making patterns in the dust on top of the shelves and got lost in thought, most of them - all of them, including Eddie.
Robin peered at him from the counter and furrowed her eyebrows before looking away and back to closing up shop, also thinking deeply from what it seemed. Not that Steve cared at this time.
When the lights were finally turned off and everything had been accounted for, Robin and Steve closed up shop with the jangle of keys and shared their goodbyes with one another.
Steve hopped into his car and started driving back home to his apartment, his mind was surging with thoughts and all of them were about Eddie. It was strange, to say the least, he had never felt this way about any of his friends before, it also didn't help that whenever he thought about those damn eyes there was an unfamiliar pang in his chest. The only reason he could come up with was that he just wanted to spend more time with Eddie to get to know him.
When he finally got home, he parked nearby and turned off the engine. Although he could get out of the car right now and into the comfort of his bed, he slid his head down to the front of his steering wheel and sighed.
He didn't stop thinking of Eddie that night.