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“Harrington? Hi.”
Shit. Steve was so busy trying to act natural he hadn’t even noticed his sole customer walk up to the counter.
“Hi!” Steve carefully avoided eye contact and looked at the tape sitting in front of him. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show, huh? My friends keep telling me to watch it but I’m really not one for musicals. And I try to avoid movies with 'horror' in the title. Or 'show'. Also they came back from a midnight showing sopping wet and covered in breadcrumbs once and honestly it all sounded a bit overwhelming-”
“Steve?”
He looked up as Eddie cut him off with an amused smile on his face. Oh god, he’d been rambling, hadn’t he? Robin was a terrible influence.
“Yeah?”
“I’m uh- hang on.” Eddie quirked his head to the side. Steve was hit with the unsettling realization that Eddie Munson was cute. “Is today ABBA day or something?”
Steve snorted.
“The girls are in charge of music today. Apparently trying to 'expand my music taste',” he said with a roll of his eyes.
Eddie chuckled and leaned in conspiratorially.
“Do you want to know a secret?”
Steve’s mouth went inexplicably dry as he nodded.
“This is actually my go-to drunk karaoke song.” Eddie pushed himself off the counter and started singing softly along, “Don't go wasting your emotion... Lay all your love on me...”
He did a little spin and leaned his elbows on the counter with a flourish, grinning up at Steve. The wide smile lit up Eddie's big brown eyes with a mischievous glint and Steve’s brain went fully offline.
“Your eyes are gorgeous,” he breathed.
Steve watched in awe as those eyes got impossibly wider and a fierce blush colored Eddie’s cheeks. He really was extraordinarily beautiful, Steve thought with the one corner of his brain that was still somewhat functional. There was a softness you wouldn’t expect to see in the edgy metalhead, hidden behind layers of leather, denim, and sarcastic theatricality. He stood there drinking it all in until he noticed Eddie was being very uncharacteristically silent. How long had Steve been staring into his eyes? Oh god, he’d called him gorgeous. Out loud. Steve started to turn away. He needed to get out of here before he embarrassed himself even further, he needed to get to the break room-
“Howdoyoudoyourhair?” Eddie huffed out all in one breath, cutting Steve’s hysteria short.
“Hm?” Steve looked back to see Eddie rubbing the back of his head.
“Your hair?” Eddie tried a little slower this time. “I hate to say it, but there's a reason you got your nickname. It’s very impressive,” he said with a little wave up to Steve's hair.
Steve shook his head with a snort.
“Me? If one of us deserves to be known as The Hair, it's you.”
He reached out and curled a lock of Eddie’s hair around his finger. Eddie’s breath hitched. Harrington really had no concept of personal space or propriety, and this was Eddie talking; if anybody walked into the store right now they could end up in a very uncomfortable situation. But he couldn’t bring himself to care about any of that as he watched Steve’s mouth form a little “o”.
“It's so soft!”
Eddie's brain absently registered that he was almost nose to nose with Steve Harrington. Steve Harrington, who was playing with his hair and looking at him with eyes full of such an open warmth that Eddie couldn’t reconcile him with the “King Steve” he’d known - and hated - all through high school. Steve, who he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about for the past few weeks and who had always seemed so laughably unattainable. Until now. Eddie was either going to kiss him senseless in the middle of Family Video right this instant or pass out.
The door swung open with a soft chime. He jumped back and almost knocked over the candy display as Steve’s head snapped up to greet the new customer. Eddie fought to get his heartbeat under control as he straightened the candy bars threatening to fall off their shelves. He couldn’t bring himself to look up.
“I gotta go- the girls- probably waiting by the van-”
“Sure, no worries.” Did Steve sound… disappointed? “Here’s your tape.”
Eddie gingerly grabbed Rocky Horror with a mumbled “thanks” and stumbled towards the exit.
“See you around, Harrington,” he threw over his shoulder, pushing the door open.
“See you,” Steve said quietly with a frown as the door closed behind Eddie. Why was his stomach in knots all of a sudden? And where the hell was Robin?