Chapter Text
Steve was a few hours into his shift at the video store, and it felt like time had slowed to a stop. He wasn’t sure, but he might have been dying of boredom. Even Robin didn’t have the energy for their usual level of banter. He was shelving and reshelving candy at the front counter just for something to do with his hands when the bell above the door jingled.
“Welcome to Family Video-“ Steve said noncommittally when a set of knuckles wrapped really loudly against the counter, startling the hell out of Steve, who nearly threw a chocolate bar at the person in fear, but lowered it when he realised it was just Eddie Munson.
“Evening Harrington, I just came to ask a favour,” Eddie looked at him, his big brown doe eyes staring deeply at Steve, making Steve feel a little uncomfortable, there was a subtle fluttering in his stomach.
“Oh yeah?” he asked swallowing, trying to regain “Cool Guy Steve Harrington’s” vibe. “And what makes you think I want to do you a favour Munson?”
Eddie mimed like he had been shot in the chest, gripping it and acting wounded, he was a very good actor because it reminded Steve of all the times he and his friends had been in danger. “Okay, okay enough theatrics what do you need Munson?”
Eddie sighed, his head sagging, “A job.”
Steve’s eyebrows shot up, unable to hide his surprise. Honestly Steve thought Eddie made most of his money from drug deals, why would he want to work at Family Video?
“I know what’s going on under all that hair Harrington, you’re wondering why I’d lower myself to a regular nine-to-five right?”
“I mean… kind of?” Steve was being honest.
“Well my uncle is a little sick at the moment,” Eddie blinked, looking off into the distance for a moment. Steve wondered what was wrong with his uncle. Eddie cleared his throat and continued. “So I thought I would put some more money into the household via a proper honest to god job. It’s uh… The least I could do.”
“Ah shit man I’m sorry I didn’t know… Um, it’s not really up to me though I just sort of work here I’m not management.”
Eddie’s shoulders sank a bit and Steve felt the immediate urge to placate him, “But I will make sure to ask Keith the next time I see him.” Steve didn’t know why he was being so accommodating considering he barely knew Munson except for the few occasions they’d hung out with Robin together. It might have been the thought of Eddie doing something to help out his uncle.
Eddie smiled, dazzling Steve a bit with it’s openness and how genuinely appreciative Eddie looked. Steve kind of wished he could take a picture. Holy crap was he crushing on Eddie Munson?
Pushing that disturbing thought aside he made Eddie leave his number so he could call him in for a practice shift, providing Keith approved, and Eddie was off.
As he was leaving, chains jingling, and Steve watched as he held the door open for a woman and her child who were entering the store. The woman looked at Eddie like he was scum, which Steve felt was a bit unwarranted. Sure, he was a bit strange but he wasn’t Satan incarnate. Eddie seemed oblivious to the woman’s glare and smiled as he held the door open, even smiling at the kid who looked at Eddie curiously. Once the mother and child were in, Eddie gave Steve one more nod to say goodbye and was off. If Steve was a little ruder to the mother renting a bunch of kid’s movies, hey, it was late in his shift.
Eddie was a surprisingly hard worker. He’d help lift heavy boxes when he saw Steve or Robin were struggling. He’d offer to restock the shelves when they complained, and he did the sucky jobs like mopping up and staying late to lock up.
“You know you could learn a lot from him,” Robin said one day.
“Oh ha-ha, Robin. I’ll have you know I work plenty hard okay,” Steve says as he put a horror movie on the kid’s movie shelf. Robin lightly took it off the shelf and showed him.
“Whatever.”
Another thing among the many that Steve noticed during Eddie’s first month at Family Video is he was really good with kids. When their parents weren’t around to warn them away from the bad man, he did everything he could to help them.
He’d kneel down to their level and talked animatedly about the movies he recommended to them, wowing the kids with goofy character voices and wild descriptions. He had them wrapped around his thumb as they looked at him in awe.
A few had questions about the way Eddie dressed, he’d kneel down and explain what the pins on his jacket all were, or, on one weird day, he showed them the metal stud spikes on his newest denim vest.
“Pretty cool huh?” he’d say with that brilliant smile and those eyes.
Of course, when the children were supervised things went much like the day that he came in for the job, they’d be ushered away with brisque tones and warned against him. Eddie always gave those parents service with a smile, but you could see it, in his eyes, it cut him up a little bit to be perceived as such a threat.
When business was slow Eddie would just chill at the counter writing. Whether it be a song for his band or a campaign for D&D which Steve still didn’t understand.
“So you don’t even get to play? You just like… describe stuff?”
“You don’t get it, I get to create the world, the creatures, the paths that everyone takes-“
“’Okay I get it… sort of. So you’re like… a storyteller.” Steve said.
“Yeah, I try and do it with my music and my D&D. Create the worlds that people can fall into you know? So that for one song or one campaign they can take a break from the rot and general depravity of the real world.” He said this in a light tone but something in his expression was a bit off.
“That’s really cool…” Steve said lamely, tapping on the counter, and looked away before he embarrassed himself even more.
Steve was about to enter the break room, he heard Eddie having a hushed conversation on the shops phone. Immediately from the immediacy and tone of his voice, Steve figured he was organising a drug deal, the other shoe had to drop sometime, right? But there was something in Eddie’s tone, a desperation but also a kindness. He was talking to his uncle.
“I promise I get my first paycheck soon, then I’ll get you the meds okay you just gotta hold on a little more Wayne I promise.” Steve backed out of the room immediately and let him have his conversation. He wished he could help at that moment, in any way that mattered, but he knew if he tried to give Eddie money the other man would see it as charity and deny him.
While Steve was at the counter and Eddie was mopping, Eddie was pretending the mop was a microphone and was rocking out hardcore to a song in his head. Steve smiled slightly, stifling it behind his hand.
“What are you doing?” Robin asked, slamming her hand on the counter, Steve jumped and looked at her like she’d lost her head.
“What?” he asked, clutching his chest. Robin Buckley would be the death of him.
“With Eddie,” she spoke quietly, they both looked, and Eddie was still headbanging in aisle three. “You’ve been staring at him nonstop for weeks now, and he can’t stack a shelf without you staring at his ass.”
“I wasn’t! I mean I don’t, that’s not…” Robin didn’t get it, he was mesmerised by Eddie’s apparent niceness. It was like finding out a Demogorgon read books to the elderly.
“You totally have a thing for him. I know the signs of a Steve Harrington crush you have the subtlety of a bull in a China shop, and you stare.”
“I wasn’t staring I was watching- I mean I’ve been noticing-“ He sighed, holding the bridge of his nose.
“And he’s noticed you noticing dude,” Steve’s eyes widened, and he looked over to see Eddie had gone back to mopping.
“Why did he say something? What did he-“
“Oh my god calm down dude. You know I’m surprised you’re not more freaked out that you’re crushing on a dude like he’s Farrah Fawcett.”
Steve paused to think. He hadn’t really given much thought to the whole “into guys and girls,” thing. He supposed living in a place like Hawkins he should be more concerned or feel some type of shame. But he’d known for a while now he just hadn’t told anybody. This wasn’t the first time he’d crushed on a guy. But it was the first time he thought about acting on it.
“Oh yeah…” He frowned, turning to face away from the counter so he couldn’t see Eddie and could think for a minute. “How do I handle this exactly; I mean what if he’s not even into guys?”
Robin thought for a second before looking at him. “You’ve been eyeball stalking him for long enough for you to notice the black hanky in his back pocket, right?”
“Nice try, you’re trying to get me to look at his ass... But yeah, I’ve seen it,” Steve said.
“Well, that tells me he likes guys.”
Steve furrowed his brows, not sure how the two things connected, but nodded. He trusted Robin. Now, how to ask Eddie out somehow? Steve gulped chancing a look at the black hanky.
Steve was eating a sandwich in the break room one day when Eddie came in, looking a bit nervous.
“Woah Munson are you oka-“
“Dude why are you stalking me?” Eddie cut him off and Steve’s stomach dropped, he put down his sandwich and turned to Eddie who was shifting on his feet a little bit clearly agitated. “Do you think I’m doing a bad job here or something, are you gonna get Keith to fire me ‘cause I really can’t have that right now Harrington so If I’m doing something wrong you really have to tell me and maybe I can fix it or-“
Steve had to stop the onslaught of words, he couldn’t go another second of Eddie thinking he was bad at his job, “Woah, woah Eddie stop stop stop! I’m not trying to get you fired dude. It’s just ah… Um… You’re really nice.”
Eddie went through about twenty different facial expressions before landing on bemused and looking at Steve like he was an alien. “You’ve been stalking me because I’m… Nice?”
“I haven’t been stalking you, okay people really need to stop- look I just have noticed, you’re a really nice person, and I wasn’t expecting it is all.”
“Shocker Steve the Hair Harrington thought Eddie the freak was a jerk,” Eddie laughed a little bitterly.
“Hey, don’t call yourself a freak,” Steve said so earnestly and hey when had he suddenly stepped forward. They were suddenly an arm’s length apart. The sincerity in Steve’s voice had caught Eddie by surprise and he was looking at Steve, wide Bambi eyes locked on.
“It’s just ever since you started working here the like, vibe has changed, I guess? You’re so good with people and kids and people treat you terribly and I don’t think that’s fair because you seem really… Nice.”
Eddie smiled and laughed, not in a mean way, just in a way that showed his surprise, “Well shit, thanks man.” He looked at the floor for a second “You know it’s hard when people treat you like some sort of monster but it’s nice to know someone can see through all of that.”
Eddie moved to close the gap between them and hugged Steve, who was shocked, but also it felt really good so he didn’t move, he just hugged Eddie back.
“Hey, Do you want to go, like, get something to eat after work?” Steve asked awkwardly over Eddie’s shoulder.
Eddie put his hands on Steve’s shoulders and moved back to inspect Steve’s face, whether to check if the invitation was genuine, or something else wasn’t sure.
Eddie simply said “That’d be nice.”