Chapter Text
Eli had a habit of doodling on sticky notes. He’d always had trouble keeping his hands still, which was one reason he did all of his homework so far ahead of time: it gave him something to do. But homework wasn’t enough to occupy Eli because he did finish it so fast. So eventually, he started doodling on his papers. But when he realized that doodling on his schoolwork meant his teachers actually saw his doodles, Eli turned to sticky notes.
He kept a pad of sticky notes with him during school so if he finished his work early (which he often did), he would have something to do. Most of the time, his doodles ended up crumpled up and in the trash because he didn’t need his locker and backpack to be littered with endless doodles on brightly colored sticky notes. They weren’t that good anyways. But Eli’s favorites, he kept and put up on a wall in his bedroom.
Steve didn’t understand why Eli was constantly doodling on sticky notes only to throw them away at the end of class. It just didn’t make sense to him. So one day, when Coach Lawrence was sick, resulting in a substitute teacher and a class that could not be convinced to be quiet, Steve asked Eli about it, knowing their conversation would get lost in all of the other white noise circling the classroom.
“Why do you doodle on those sticky notes so much?” Steve asked as Eli studied his newest piece of art - a doodle of a troll holding a yellow umbrella. He asked it in a judgmental tone, but only to keep their cover (which Steve was getting increasingly bad at). He was actually genuinely curious.
Eli looked over at Steve, like he hadn’t expected Steve would talk to him. “It’s-- I… I can’t keep my hands still. I need to be writing, or reading, or--”
“Doodling on sticky notes,” Steve finished. He leaned over to get a better look at Eli’s drawing. “Wow, that’s really good. So why do you always throw them away once you’re done?”
Eli gave Steve a weird look. He hadn’t expected Steve to notice his routine of throwing all of his doodles in the trash can. He wasn’t even sure Steve noticed he doodled on sticky notes so much in the first place, if Eli was being honest. He shrugged, “I guess I just don’t know what else to do with them. I only keep the ones I like best.” Without really thinking, Eli handed the sticky note in his hand over to Steve, “You can keep this one if you want.”
Steve wasn’t sure how to respond. How could he take this doodle from Eli when it definitely looked like one he would want to keep? “Are… Are you sure?” Steve looked down at the sticky note again. “This is, like, really good.”
Eli placed his hand on Steve’s and pushed the drawing towards the blonde boy. “I’m serious. If you don’t want it, I won’t be offended. But if you do want it, keep it.”
Steve smiled down at the sticky note. “If you insist, Pepperbuddy.”
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The next day, Eli was furiously doodling when Steve entered the classroom, which was normal, but Steve also noticed something that wasn’t a normal occurrence. In the upper right corner of Steve’s desk was a bright yellow sticky note with pencil markings on it. As Steve sat down, he noticed that the pencil markings actually formed a sketch of him. He looked over at Eli, but the boy was too distracted by his next doodle to pay any attention to Steve.
Steve just smiled to himself and placed the sticky note inside the cover of his notebook, next to the one Eli had given him the day before.
A few moments later, another sticky note appeared on Steve’s desk. This doodle depicted Eli and Steve in their Creepslayerz outfits complete with Steve holding Eli’s “Last Resort” that hadn’t worked at all. Steve almost wanted to keep that doodle on his desk, but if someone saw it, that would definitely blow their cover. So Steve added it to his collection that now consisted of three doodles from Eli. Of course, he could never let anyone apart from Eli see it, but just knowing that the doodles were in his notebook lightened Steve’s mood.