Chapter Text
They find a house. It takes a while, but they finally find one. It’s big enough to fit all five of them and close enough to the city that Nancy, Jonathan, and Robin can make the drive for their classes. Between the money Steve has set aside and each of their jobs, they make it work.
Steve has never lived with so many people at once, has never been in a house that’s so full all the time. It’s overwhelming, at times, but not in a bad way. It took some getting used to, of course. He finds that spending every possible moment with each other is a little different from moving in together. They have to figure out how to split the bills, how to divide the chores, and how to navigate the sleeping situation.
The house has three bedrooms that they all end up rotating through, but they all have their preferred sleeping arrangements. Steve and Eddie end up together most nights, partly because they both have to get up early for work on most days. Nancy says it’s because they’re both prone to waking up in the middle of the night horny, and she likes to get a full night of rest, thank you very much. They don’t bother arguing with her.
Jonathan prefers to sleep alone a lot, hating the way that he ends up sweaty and uncomfortable when there’s someone else in the bed. He also tends to kick in his sleep, and they’ve all fallen victim to his flailing limbs. Robin and Nancy usually end up in the third room. Steve knows that Robin could fall asleep just about anywhere, but that she sleeps the deepest when it’s next to Nancy.
They attempt to keep separate closet space, at first. It’s a lost cause within a month. Nancy and Robin share the biggest closet, and their clothes quickly bleed into each other’s sides. Jonathan and Steve’s style has started to mix. Even Eddie, who still insists on keeping most of his clothes separate, has started to find items of clothing that do not belong to him in his closet.
There’s a hoodie that floats between all five of them. No one is quite sure who it originally belonged to, but it’s soft and oversized and smells like home. There’s a pair of sweats that they only know were Steve’s because of the Hawkin’s High Basketball logo on them. Jonathan regularly steals Eddie’s band t-shirts, much to his chagrin. Robin steals Nancy’s shirts, who steals them from Steve.
When they have guests over, usually the party or Wayne or any combination of their family from Hawkins, they have to make do with the pull out couch and an air mattress that Robin got second hand.
They can’t all go out together. They’re closer to Chicago than Hawkins, but it’s the 90s, and while the world might be ready to acknowledge that gays and lesbians exist, it’s definitely not ready for whatever the five of them have found themselves entangled in. They never even told The Party, not exactly, but Steve knows that most of them have it figured out.
Joyce and Hopper know, mostly because it’s impossible to keep anything from them. Jonathan tells his mother everything, anyways, which Steve finds endlessly endearing. Wayne knows, because Eddie is a terrible liar and his uncle is insanely protective over him. They all endured thorough interrogations and thinly veiled threats before he warmed up to them. Steve is happy that Eddie has someone like that in his corner.
Steve’s pretty sure Karen Wheeler knows, too. She came to visit once. Spent most of the time observing, watching the way they interacted. She and Nancy spent a long time talking on their porch, before she left. Nancy seemed lighter after that.
Robin’s parents think they’re all roommates. Steve hasn’t talked to his parents since they left Hawkins.
Then there’s the friends they’ve made in Chicago. Or, the friends they’ve been forced by Robin and Eddie to make. Steve’s never seen so many queer people in one place, and he’s pretty sure Nancy and Jonathan are in the same boat. There are others like them, people they don’t have to censor themselves around.
Still, it’s not safe for all five of them to go on dates together. It’s not always safe for Robin and Nancy to go out together, and it’s not always safe for Steve to go out with Eddie or Jonathan, or for Eddie and Jonathan. They make do.
Their schedules are a mismatch of classes and work, anyways.
Steve has a job at a daycare on the weekdays, and works at a restaurant with Robin on the weekends. Eddie found a job as a mechanic, which he didn’t expect to love. He says it reminds of working on his van with Wayne. It saves the rest of them the hassle of having to pay for oil changes, as well. Robin, Jonathan, and Nancy have classes during the week, and Jonathan and Nancy found jobs at a local newspaper that actually respects them.
It’s hectic, it’s chaotic, it’s a nightmare figuring out how to get around with three cars.
Despite it all, despite their schedules that don’t always line up, despite the ways in which they grate against each other sometimes, Steve loves it. He loves that Eddie keeps adding to their collection of coffee mugs, he loves that there are seven different pairs of shoes in the entryway, and he loves that none of their furniture matches. He loves that the house is never empty when he comes home.