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Steve put on the Hellfire Club shirt on, looking himself in the mirror and smiling a bit; at first, he would cringe even at the thought of wearing such a thing and just went to the D&D games in his own clothes, but after Eddie reprimanded him – kind of scaring, actually – he began to use it and soon enough he was happy while using it. He felt happy about what the shirt meant to him and to his friends. To Eddie .
Ever since they defeated Vecna, a lot of things seemed to happen all at once: Eddie's name was cleared, Eleven got her powers back, the Byers came back to stay at Hawkins and Hopper was fucking alive somehow?!
And one of those things – the most random of all, in his opinion – was himself and Robin joining the kids' and Eddie's D&D game. He just wanted to spend more time with everyone after almost kicking the bucket like that. Eddie had already graduated after so long, so they were once again using the Wheeler's basement to play.
Of course, they started a whole new campaign after it all and Steve couldn't be happier about that – he really needed that Session Zero, he knew absolutely nothing about the game and had trouble understanding it all even now after so many sessions. Making a character was the most fun for him, he thinks, presenting the character to everyone else was a bit nerve-wracking since they already knew everything and he didn't want to look more stupid in front of the smart kids; even though Eddie had calmed him down beforehand, talking about how his character was very nice especially for a beginner.
Speaking of Eddie…
He and Steve became close, like very close. He didn't think it was possible since they were so vastly different from each other, but it turns out that life and death situations bring people close indeed! At first, they were a bit awkward since they didn't know how to react to the other; Steve didn't know how to react to Eddie's theatrical personality, and Eddie didn't know how to react to Steve's jocky one. They made it work, in the end, the D&D helped a lot together with the saving-my-life thing that they did to one another.
They began spending time together outside of the game sessions; Eddie showed him more of his guitar skills and painted his nails for him, while Steve showed some pretty neat movies that he had watched with Robin before. Both talked a lot as well, – sometimes high on weed and sometimes not – they wanted to know more about the other. Then it became them just laying together in bed, listening to whatever music they chose together; every so often, Steve would be brave enough and link their pinkies together, and even then, they wouldn't say a thing about it afterwards.
It messed his head the first time he looked at the dude and the thought of how pretty he looked in the moonlight came into his mind, how Steve wanted to hold his face and just look . He really had a shitty sexuality crisis, spoke with Robin about it and all. Before he could come to terms with it, even just the little bit he had right now, he just ran away, he hid from Eddie and was convinced that if he was away from the man the feelings and attraction would stop. Like Eddie had made him that way or some shit.
Of course it wasn't like that. He remembers the way his heart raced in fourth grade when Michael Sanchez had held his hand while playing and gave him that wide smile, how his face went red when Jason Cooper accidentally kissed his cheek on a party and he wished it was on his lips before stomping the feeling down until it was dead – he just didn't check if it was really dead or just sleeping.
So basically: Steve had a sexuality crisis, avoided Eddie like the plague for weeks, went back to talking to him like nothing happened and now he was accepting himself as something Robin called "bisexual", since he liked women too.
All of it happened a few months ago and he was getting better at allowing himself to look at men and be attracted to them – even if none of those men had the same effect on him as Eddie did.
Today they were going to fight a boss enemy that Steve couldn't remember well the name of – seriously, why are all the names so fucking hard?! Just call the characters John or something! – and he had a plan… Well, kind of a plan, it depends on the dice and he was so bad at rolling dice that he was regretting the plan already. It was Robin's plan in actuality, so if it went badly he could blame her for the rest of their lives.
He grabbed Eddie's jean vest (which he never gave back since that day, but also never wore again, the vest was just there inside his closet as a reminder of Eddie) and put it on before running down the stairs to his car.
Maybe today was the day he got to kiss Eddie Munson, after all.
The ride to the Wheeler's was calm and relatively short, but with his mind running so fast with anxiety it felt like an eternity and just one second at the same time. Steve stared at the house while fiddling with one of the vest's buttons; was it really okay for him to do this? Was he going to ruin everything with everyone? Robin said that it was fine… he wasn't so sure.
He didn't know how much time he spent there, just thinking about all the different scenarios that could happen – most of them not good – when the front door opened and Eddie stepped out of the house, lighting a blunt that hung on the side of his mouth.
Steve almost made the stupid decision of ducking so he wouldn't see him, but he already knew his car anyways; then Eddie locked eyes with him and smiled brightly, the stupid man not understanding how much that made Steve's heart burn. He ran towards the car, hair flowing like he was in some God damn rom-com or something.
"Dude! We've been waiting for you for, like, ages ." Eddie laughed, releasing the smoke directly onto Steve's face and then bowing so low his hair almost touched the ground. "But, of course, King Steve Harrington, sire, thou shalt come whenever thou pleases!"
Steve rolled his eyes and got out of the car, slapping Eddie's nape while the man laughed. "Stop it, you know I hate being called 'King Steve' or any shit like that."
The other straightened up, clearly about to say something when he finally saw the vest adorning the Hellfire Club shirt. They were quiet now, though Steve's heart almost stopped as soon as a little laugh escaped Eddie's lips.
"You still have this shit?" His tone was soft just like his hands when he touched it's collar, brushing them briefly on the bare skin of Harrington's neck; the touch was enough to send a shiver through his body.
"Why? You want it back?" Steve raised an eyebrow and pretended to take it off, but Eddie stopped him, his hands grabbing the other's with a caring grip.
Unfortunately, the touch was lost a second too soon. "Nah, keep it, Harrington. It suits you." He winked, his blunt back between his lips. "C'mon, they're waitin' on us."
Eddie rushed back inside, leaving Steve alone in the dark with his face red and hands cold. He followed the metalhead after calming down enough.
It's alright , he thought with a shaky smile, If it isn't, I can just throw myself into the Lover's Lake again and let the Upside Down swallow me! This is fine.
***
To his surprise, it was fine. At least until this point.
Successfully – albeit very difficult –, all of them had defeated the boss (that now Steve know it's called "Dracolich" or something) and Robin had made the final blow, which made everyone scream in shock and amazement; Steve thought that Eddie would be mad about his big bad guy being defeated, but when he looked at the man he was laughing softly in delight, clapping his hands.
Steve didn't remember when he got to have so much fun before this, before everyone.
He got so caught up with the moment – clapping, laughing, talking – that he really forgot about the plan… until Robin kicked his leg under the table.
"What the fuck-!" Hissing, he massaged his shin with a pout. Nobody seemed to really notice since him and the woman were always bickering anyway, so when Steve went red at the reminder on Robin's expression, no one was looking at them.
However, looking at Eddie, he noticed how wrong he was. The dude was staring at him with kind of glazed eyes – probably weed – and definitely noticed the red blotches spreading through his face, if his amused and curious grin was saying anything.
Clearing his throat and grabbing the dice, Steve took a deep breath before saying, "Actually, before we end this session I wanted to try rolling something." Thank God his voice didn't weaver, at least he got that much.
The kids stopped talking, looking at him expectantly. Eddie leaned back on his chair, brows raised. "Sure, what ya wanna do?"
"If he wants to raid the cave, I call dibs on the magic crown!" Will said loudly, grinning.
"Hey, no, you can't call dibs on that shit!" Dustin complained.
"Of course I can, I already did!"
"Listen here, little shit-!"
"Calm your tits, Henderson, I'm not trying to raid anything yet." Steve rolled his eyes at the boys' fight. Teenagers.
They calmed down, even though they were glaring daggers at each other still; Eddie laughed a bit and motioned to Steve. "Tell us, then, oh, mighty high elf, what do you want to do?"
His throat closed again, but he pushed through. "I want to roll… uh, charisma?" Steve looked at the paper, trying not to look at the others.
"That's suspicious, what you gonna do?" Erica scowled.
Eddie straightened on his chair, making a shush gesture. "Let the man speak, ladies and gentlemen."
"Can I, like, say what it is for after I roll?" Steve bit his lower lip, nervous. "Because if I say what it is for and then don't get a good roll with this, I'm going to kill myself out of embarrassment."
Eddie's interest seemed to peak as he exaggeratedly pretended to think about it – his theatrics were becoming attractive to Steve, and that was way more concerning than him being a man. "I will allow it, then, if just for the sake of your life."
Max rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breath, which made Eleven laugh; that made Steve even more nervous, but he ignored them in favour of shaking the dice in his hands.
If this went terribly and he got a low number – as usual –, he would need Robin and some ice cream to watch movies with hot chicks to feel better.
Steve spent a few seconds shaking the yellow dice and basically praying in his head to get at least a 15 or something; when he threw it on the table, time seemed to slow down and his heart to speed up. Everyone was staring at it, waiting for it to stop turning.
Please please please please , he chanted in his mind, gripping the table until his knuckles were as white as it was possible. His stomach kept doing flips and turns, making Steve feel like he was going to throw up because of how nervous he was.
One more time rolling against the wooden table and then, the dice stopped.
He didn't want to look at it, but his eyes were faster than his mind; a sudden silence overcame the table…
…And then every single one erupted in indiscernible screams and hollering.
"WHAT THE FUCK , STEVE!" Dustin screamed, holding his own hair while laughing.
Robin hugged his frozen body and almost lifted him up with the force of it. "I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT, HOLY SHIT!" She was laughing and beaming.
"THAT'S YOUR FIRST, RIGHT?" Will looked at him before throwing his arms up and hollering.
At the table, the number 20 was staring back at Steve like a blessing from God or something; he finally unfroze from his spot when Eddie started clapping with a huge smile on his face, eyes shining.
Steve screamed and jumped up from his seat, looking at Robin as she screamed back and hugged her, going around the table to hug the others as well. "HOLY FUCK ! I CAN'T BELIEVE THIS SHIT!" He laughed, not even seeing who he was hugging now, just extremely euphoric. "I DID IT! I DID IT, GUYS! WHAT THE FUCK, I'M AWESOME !"
He didn't even think about what he was going to do with that 20, all he could think of was that he finally made a natural fucking twenty on this stupid fucking game.
As he distanced himself from the person in his arms, Steve noticed the curly long black hair and stepped back to see Eddie laughing with pink cheeks. "FINALLY! I'm proud of you, Harrington!" Munson slapped his back in appreciation and pride before sitting back on his chair, still smiling. The praise went directly to his heart – and maybe other parts, but he wasn't going to think about that right now.
"Tell us what it is already!" Lucas and the others were still standing up, waiting for him to continue.
"Right, right!" Steve laughed again, blood rushing through his ears, and pointed at Eddie with confidence. "I want to kiss Eddie!"
With his mind foggy with the adrenaline and giddiness from the game, he didn't even notice what he had said until the silence of the table made him think about his words properly; his whole face was on fire and now Steve was pretty sure his whole body was going to combust because of how hot he was feeling – was it possible to be literally red from head to toe? Because he was pretty sure he was.
Even Nancy and Jonathan were staring at him from the couch they were cuddling at, Jesus Christ!
"N-NO! I MEANT OUR CHARACTERS!" He turned to Eddie to apologize, only to find the man even redder and shell shocked. "OUR CHARACTERS, EDDIE!"
Robin burst out laughing first, obviously making fun of him.
Max threw her head back and laughed together with the other. "Now I understand why you said you would kill yourself if this didn't work, oh, fuck!"
Eddie cleared his throat, making Steve flinch a bit. "Well, uh, let's just- I'm just gonna roll here, wait a second- um." He looked awkward, his voice was shaking as well.
Steve couldn't look at him right now out of pure embarrassment, so he opted to look at the kids – another mistake. Lucas seemed confused (he felt like looking at himself when Robin came out as a lesbian to him), Mike seemed pensive, Will was looking straight at him with glowing eyes (huh?) and Dustin had his jaw practically on the floor.
"But like, both of your characters are men, right?" Will asked, though he didn't seem to be judging, just wanting to understand. "Your character has just flirted with women NPCs before."
He laughed awkwardly before returning to his seat – which was right beside Eddie. FUCK. "Yeah, yeah they're both men, yup. My character likes both. Why do you ask?"
The Byers boy just beamed at him, his cheeks lightly pink as he shook his head and side eyed Mike (interesting…).
"Yep, ok, you can, uh, you can do it, I guess." Eddie said, his voice still a bit shaky.
Steve swallowed, drying his sweaty hands on his pants. "Right… So, um, Erlen is… to Arkron, yeah, he's going t-to-"
An exaggerated and annoyed groan came from the kids, Erica was now up and staring at Steve with a bored expression. "For fuck's sake! Just kiss the longhaired freak already, Harrington, we all know you want to kiss Eddie Munson since you all came back from the Upside Down. Stop wasting our time, I have stuff to do!"
"ERICA!" Her brother was looking at her with wide eyes.
"What?! Everyone was thinking that!" She grabbed her juice box and continued to drink it like nothing happened.
Steve was, also, looking at her with wide eyes. It felt like he was literally about to explode now. "Haha, I don't know what you're talking about!" He turned his head to look at Eddie with a sheepish smile."S-Seriously, dude, l-let's j-just forg-get about it-"
When the man stood up violently, Steve almost covered his face with his arms, afraid he was about to be beat up; he managed to just close his eyes, waiting patiently for the punch when he heard Eddie say, "Fuck it." And then the lapels of the vest were grabbed and his body was yanked up, towards Eddie's body.
Towards Eddie's lips .
Because he was being kissed. By Eddie Munson. By Eddie "the freak" Munson. By Eddie .
Steve Harrington was a weak man, he admitted that when he just sighed into those soft lips and buried his hands into frizzy hair, kissing back with so much force he was afraid to fall off the chair.
All the noise coming from the others was deafened by the taste of Eddie's mouth, by the way he slipped his tongue into Steve without a second thought. His big hands traveled from the jean vest to Steve's face, cradling his cheeks in such a sweet manner that almost made the other man choke. Those thick rings he always sported were cold against his hot cheeks, the pressure of them on Steve's skin making his stomach flutter.
They moved at some point, since now Munson was seated very comfortably on Harrington's thighs as they kissed without a care in the world. He was going to die , Steve was going to kick the bucket and the cause of death would be because of a stupid metalhead on top of him, making him feel all of these- of these things . And, Jesus , his THIGHS! How were his thighs that big?!
Eddie broke the kiss, making Steve whine (shit, this is so embarrassing) but he didn't get up… He just stayed there, resting his forehead against Steve's. "Hey, there, pretty boy." His low whisper made him short-circuit, the compliment made him start sputtering.
"JESUS, DUDES, GET OFF EACH OTHER! THERE'S KIDS HERE!" Jonathan's laughing voice boomed through them, shocking Harrington so much that he flinched backwards. He really forgot about everyone else in the room.
Would you look at that, he fucking fell. With Eddie on top of him still. But this was worse , the position now wasn't sexy, they were tangled on each other and, ow , his head was aching. "Thanks a lot, Byers!" Steve sent him the finger.
"You did that to yourself, man." Jonathan was still laughing; now that Steve wasn't drowning on Eddie's… everything , he could hear the others cackling and talking loudly.
Fear thrummed in his chest before Eddie cradled his face once again; his expression must've shown his panic, because his friend(?) was comforting him with caresses and a smile. "It's okay, sweetheart, you're okay. We're okay, hm?" Another kiss or ten were planted on his lips as they untangled. "Let's get up, they must be dying to make fun of us."
Steve hesitated, grabbing Eddie's fingers to ground himself as he took some breaths before getting up.
The scene in front of him was funny, he had to admit. Max was covering Eleven's eyes as Eleven was covering Erica's eyes in turn. Will was sitting with a dark blush on his cheeks and obviously trying not to stare at Eddie and Steve; meanwhile, Lucas and Dustin were in a heated argument because "HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE, DUDE?!" and "DUSTIN, HOW THE FUCK WOULD I KNOW?". Mike was just… there, staring at the board with his mouth agape and ears burning hot.
Robin started whooping and clapping her hands – in which Jonathan and Nancy joined her, for his misery. "That's my boy!"
"Anyways, I have my own campaign to plan, so bye." Erica was unfazed, getting up and gathering her things. Before leaving the basement, she glared at Steve and Eddie. "Also, I said kiss and not FULL ON MAKE OUT. Don't ever make us watch that gross stuff again, ugh, and that goes to everyone in a relationship here. Nobody wants to see y'all basically spitting inside each other's mouths like that. Bye."
Steve was left with his mouth hanging just as much as Mike's, hearing a small " Fucking couples, ew! " from Erica upstairs.
"C'mon, Lucas, they were obvious!" Dustin was still discussing that?!
"To be fair, Henderson, it was only obvious to you because I talked to you about it." Eddie spoke up, hugging Harrington from behind. Today was really his death day, huh.
Lucas lightly punched his friend. " That's why it was obvious to you, idiot!"
"Semantics, dude!" Dustin defended himself. "Anyways! Congratulations, you two, I was going to die if I heard more pining from Eddie, I swear. You two are so oblivious it hurts."
"Hey!" Steve complained, but didn't really defend himself there. Especially when Munson's chin was resting on his shoulder like that.
In some kind of act of world peace, Robin finally took pity on them and got up. "Great session, guys, now let's leave the two lovebirds alone, yeah?" She started ushering the kids upstairs, even with their complaints. "I've got a hot date tomorrow, I need my beauty sleep, let's go !"
Steve smiled thankfully at her, promising to himself to buy her something nice for the save and for the plan – that surprisingly worked! Kind of.
A hand tapped him on his shoulder and he turned to see Nancy with Jonathan's arm around her waist, both smiling softly at them. "We're going to leave you two alone so you can talk a bit, ok?" Nancy patted both on the arm, a sweet expression adorning her face. "I'm glad you both found each other, it's cute."
The couple waved at them while leaving for upstairs, though Jonathan added the embarrassing remark of, "But no sex on the basement!"
Eddie rightfully threw a pillow at him, both laughing.
When they were finally alone, they stayed quiet; the two couldn't even look at the other now.
After some time in awkwardness, Steve sighed and took Eddie's face in his hands. "Didn't think you would kiss me in front of everyone like that… I was honestly expecting a punch." He said it quietly, rubbing his thumb on the pale cheek of the man.
Eddie giggled, putting his hand on top of Steve's one and looking at him with those big doe eyes of his. God, he was just gorgeous . "I wouldn't do that, your face is too pretty to mess up like that." A feral grin stretched across his red lips. "Unless you want me to. Then I can make a really pretty mess of ya."
Yup. Death day.
"No sex on the basement, you heard the boss man." He joked even as his body grew interested in the words. Clearing his throat, he got a bit closer. "But we can try it out later. Right now I think we need to talk, like Nancy said."
The smaller man visibly gulped, but nodded. "I'm sorry for kissing you like that in front of everyone- lf the kids , oh god, that was embarrassing. I'm really sorry." He plopped his head down on Steve's chest. Cute. "I was really nervous and thought that if I didn't do it right at that moment then I wouldn't get the courage to do it later; being out and proud doesn't mean I'm less scared of reading a situation the wrong way, especially if I confused a straight boy for a gay one-"
"Bisexual one." Steve corrected him, running shaky hands through curly black hair.
He popped his head up from his chest with a smile. "I don't think you know this term, but I'm pansexual." He did, in fact, not know the term.
"In my defense, I only learned about bisexuality, like, a few months ago." In a slow motion, he kissed Ed's forehead. "But besides labels and sexuality crisises-"
"That's not a real word, Harrington."
"-what I really want to talk about is us. Are we on the same page? How do you feel about me? What do you want us to be?" His tone was nervous now. Steve knew he was borderline in love with the dude, but if it wasn't reciprocated, then… then he didn't know what to do.
They put a bit of a distance between each other, although still holding hands. "How do you feel about me, Harrington?" Eddie's smile seemed a bit pained now. "I've been tricked by people before, I don't want to pour my heart out before hearing something concrete, ya know?"
The taller man nodded, heart aching. How does one confess to another dude? Robin said to do the same things he's done to woo a girl, but maybe confession was different? He really should've thought more about the actual confession instead of the dumb plan.
"I- I think-" He breathed out frailly, bringing Munson's warm hand to his own cheek for emotional support. "I mean, I know that I like you. A lot, Eddie, I do. I want to be with you. I want us t-to be… to be together. Me as your boyfriend, and you as mine." Turning his head, he kissed Eddie's palm with care. "If you'll have me."
Eddie stared at him with his big doe eyes again, the brown eaten up by the black of his pupils. He seemed surprised, his palms sweating and body trembling. Steve hoped to God that he had said the right thing.
Another hand came to rest on his face; it felt like that wasn't enough, he wanted to be held everywhere by the other. " Darling ." Eddie breathed. "Of course I want to be with you, sugar, of course. I would be the stupidest man alive if I denied the one I've been pining over for so long like this."
And just like that, he was pulled to another deep kiss. This one was sweeter, less rushed and less desperate.
Steve felt every part of Eddie as both of them pressed against the other, his arms going around the robust waist of the man in front of him. Thinking now, kissing another man felt just so right to him; the way Eddie's stubble would lightly scratch his face, how muscly his body was beneath his fingers and how his calloused hand fit just perfectly on his cheeks. It was so perfect, he felt like crying.
"Love? Are you alright?" His… his boyfriend's concerned voice made him realize they had parted after a sob made his way out of his chest. His big hands were drying the tears that were spilling. "Did I do something wrong? Talk to me, sweetheart."
"No, ah, I'm just… overwhelmed. In a good way, I promise." He sighed, touching their foreheads. "Just happy, love. So happy."
"Me too, love, me too."
They smiled, just holding onto each other. And that was enough.