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Eddie jumps into the pool first, and despite Steve’s warnings, nearly headfirst. His clothes have been discarded into a small pile by the back door and his hair is pulled back into a bun that’s threatening to fall apart.
Steve is still clutching at his shirt that’s currently balled up in his hands, he stares at the pool with pursed lips and pinched brows.
Eddie frowns and swims forward a little so he can grab onto the edge. He makes sure Steve sees him before he reaches out so he doesn’t accidentally scare him. He wraps his fingers around Steve's ankle, squeezing it gently. “Steve,” and when Steve doesn’t look at Eddie right away, he squeezes his ankle a little harder, just enough so that the cold of his rings presses against Steve’s skin harder than before. “Hey, Princess Steve,” and when Steve finally does look at him, slightly amused, Eddie can’t tell if it was because of the rings or the name.
Eddie holds onto Steve's ankle as he continues, “I’m not saying you should just move on and forget about what happened to Barbara, but the best way to heal is to make new memories, so you don’t just remember the bad ones.”
Then Steve cracks a smile and snorts, kneeling down so he was almost level with Eddie. “The metalhead has a heart huh,” and he drops his shirt to flick Eddie’s forehead.
Eddie tugs at Steve’s ankle and sticks out his tongue. “Rude Harrington, I worked incredibly hard on that speech.”
Steve huffs out a breath of laughter, “Oh really Munson?”
Eddie nods dramatically and a few pieces of his hair come loose. “Yes really! Please have a little more faith in me.” Steve raises an eyebrow and Eddie squints back at him, then lets out a long mocking exasperated sigh, “Fine fine, you caught me, I may have stolen the words from Wayne,” Steve laughs and stands up and Eddie glares with no heat behind it, still holding onto the edge of the pool and Steve's ankle. “ Hey! It was good advice though wasn’t it? Can I at least get like B- for effort.”
Eddie finally lets go of Steve's leg and pushes off the ledge of the pool as Steve speaks again, smirk and all. “Maybe if you’re lucky you’ll get a B+”
“Not even an A-, oh dear Sire, you wound me,” Eddie gasps as he flops back into the depths of the pool before popping back up again. He looks Steve up and down and smiles easily, it looks dangerous and Steve feels oddly exposed. “Are you going to get in Harrington or do I have to get out and throw you? Which you should know, I am extremely willing to do.”
Steve scrunches his nose up, dipping his foot into the pool to splash Eddie in the face. “I would kill you, Munson.”
Eddie is blindsided for a moment by the water in his eyes and really only feels the water splash up when Steve jumps in. He really does feel Steve wrap a hand around the calf of his legs and tug him down into the water so fast he can’t do anything but yelp.
He opens his eyes to see Steve floating in front of him, his hair is wavy and suspended and his eyes, despite being underwater, have a certain sparkle to them that kind of makes Eddie fear for his safety.
When Steve pushes to the top of the water Eddie follows, he sputters a little bit and flips Steve off, hiding his eyes behind his forearm. “You’re lucky you’ve saved my life before Harrington, or I’d drown you.”
Steve laughs, and it’s not the subdued chuckle that he hears too often, it’s a loud uncontrolled laugh that takes over every inch of his face that Eddie really doesn’t see enough. “At least call me Steve when you’re threatening me.”
“Okay, Steven , I’m going to drown you,” Eddie announced and pounced at Steve, grabbing on so he ended up on Steve’s back, pulling him back into the water. He lets go and swims around to float in front of Steve, still holding him by the shoulders.
In one swift movement, Steve pulls Eddie closer to him, getting one arm under his knees and the other arm behind his back and lifting him out of the water. Eddie, not originally ready for Steve’s actions once again, almost sucks in pool water when he shrieks and curses, wrapping his arms around Steve’s neck.
Steve is smiling at him again, and Eddie raises his eyebrows as high as they go, “Don’t you fucking dare, Steve-” Steve throws him up in the air, and Eddie goes down yelling, “Shit shit shit, Jesus Christ-”
Eddie stays underwater until Steve pulls him by the nape of his neck, “First of fuck you Harrington, I just swallow so much wat-” He stops when Steve grabs his face by the chin and twists it towards the house, which definitely doesn’t do things to him, at all. “What are you-”
Steve lets go of his face and nods towards where Nancy and Robin were inside of the house. “Are they… Dancing?” Eddie asks, smiling and looking back at Steve who’s still watching them with a fond look, and it’s only then that Eddie realizes Steve’s hand is around his waist.
Steve hummed and snorted. “Robin’s horrible at dancing,” he says, looking over at Eddie, “She always steps on my feet.”
“Maybe Nancy offered her lessons,” Eddie says, wiggling his eyebrows and smirking.
Steve scrunches his nose up and hits the water with his hand to effectively splash Eddie in the face. Eddie, blinking rapidly, hits the water harder, making sure Steve, who is laughing his ass off, gets a mouth full of pull water. Steve makes a small wheezing noise and narrows his eyes at Eddie who is half hiding underwater, leaving only his eyes above the surface.
“Wow, Ed, way to treat a guy.” He draws when Eddie pops back up, his hair is completely loose now, resting against his shoulders, instead of the normal curls, it’s just wavy and undefined and kind of makes Eddie look like a drowned vampire, pale skin and all.
Eddie smirks, throwing his arms out, shaking his fingers a bit, “All’s fair in love and war baby.” And he dives back under the water. Steve watches him with an eyebrow raised, trying to figure out what his plan was.
Then Eddie goes under him, hooks Steve’s legs over his shoulders, grabs onto the skin between Steve’s knees and thighs, and stands up. Steve shouts and reaches down to put Eddie’s forearms in a death grip, “Oh my god! What in the fucking hell, holy shit.”
Eddie laughs, and lets Steve hold onto him, “Okay, easy, I’ve got you.”
“Yeah, okay, sure.” Steve mutters, breathing heavily, “Is there a point to this?”
Eddie hums and tries his best to look up at Steve, and just ends up resting his chin on Steve’s thigh, “Why yes there is, thank you for asking.” He straightens his back a little more and moves over about a foot. “Be a good boy and try to see what Nancy and Robin are saying.”
Steve glances down at Eddie and is ridiculously glad he can’t see the blush creeping its way up his neck. “Why would I be able to read their lips in any way?”
“Well, you’ve always found ways to surprise me.” Eddie comments, taping his fingers against Steve’s thigh.
Steve meets Eddie’s fingers with his own and intertwines them, still keeping them in a death grip. “Okay, hold on.” He blinks at Robin and Nancy for a second, watching them move slowly through his living room, obviously moving at the pace of the song. “I think Nancy just asked a question.”
“I thought you couldn’t read lips.”
Steve tilts his head, “ I can’t , but I know Nancy’s facial expressions.”
Eddie huffs a laugh and smiles up at Steve, “Do you know what the question was?”
“No, but she looks nervous, oh, wait for a second, aww. Look at that.”
Eddie finally tears his gaze away from Steve just in time to catch a glimpse of Nancy and Robin kissing. It’s kind of adorable. “I totally knew it.”
Steve looks down at him, “No you didn’t.” Then he looks back up at Robin and Nancy and Eddie looks up at Steve to see the blinding smile he sends Robin when she looks up from where her head is resting against Nancy’s.
“As much as I love being taller than everything else, I would appreciate it if my feet could touch the ground,” Steve says looking down at the top of Eddie’s head.
“What, you don’t like a little man-handling Harrington?” Despite his words, he lets Steve lower himself off of Eddie's shoulders and back into the water.
Steve ends up with his hands wrapped around Eddie’s waist, standing behind him in the water. “I’ve never really been man-handled before Munson.”
Eddie turns around in Steve’s hands, the smile that he usually hides with his hair is plastered across his face. “We could change that,”
Steve considers him for a moment, still not moving his hands. “We could do that.”
“Steeeeve,” Eddie draws out, giving him an ‘are you sure’ look.
“Eeeed,” Steve says back, giving Eddie what he hopes is a reassuring smile. Then he feels Eddie creep his hands under his thighs and he’s being hoisted up. He’s half ready for it but he still yelps, and automatically moves his hands to wrap around Eddie’s neck.
Eddie’s pupils are a little blown out, “I’ve still got you.”
Steve hums and knocks his forehead into Eddie’s, “Yeah I know.” He searches Eddie’s face for a second, counting the freckles he can still see in the light of the setting sun. “I like this.”
Eddie lets his head fall onto Steve's shoulder, and when he speaks his lips brush Steve’s skin. “This?”
“Mhm, you, us.”
Eddie chuckles and it vibrates the nerves in Steve’s skin. “Well, I would hope so, I’m laying it all on the line.”
“Really, and what are you laying down exactly?” Steve mutters, running his fingers up and down Eddie’s spin.
Eddie tightens his grip on Steve’s thigh and it lights his skin on fire. “My dignity for one, do you know what it will do to my reputation when people find out the person I spend all of my time with listens to Wham! ”
Steve scoffed but there wasn’t any real heat behind it, “Am I not pretty enough for us to gloss over that fact?”
Eddie kissed him, it was fast and hard and Eddie put his whole being into it, and Steve wondered if this is what being enveloped by a person's love feels like. Eddie pulls back slightly, and presses a kiss to the corner of Steve’s lips, his forehead, his cheek, neck, and finally his collarbone, muttering against it, “You, my pretty boy, are something, you know that?”
Steve traces Eddie’s jaw, “You do too many things to me, Eddie Munson.”
Eddie lifts his head up and Steve moves his hands to hold his face and neck, “You wanna tell me about them?”
Steve grins, and it’s kind of beautiful, “I think I do.”
And Eddie kisses him again.