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Steve sat cross-legged on his bed after work one day. He’d had a shitty day! First, Keith was being a dick, then Robin got sick! Steve convinced her to go home, but that left him alone in Family Video all day. Some kids came in and messed up all the movies and Steve had to clean them up. Then, some lady started bitching that they didn’t have a movie that hadn’t even come out yet. Steve was just so frustrated and so tired . As soon as he got home he just collapsed into Eddie’s arms. Eddie held him for a while before convincing him to go upstairs and relax for a bit while he made dinner.
So, Steve dragged himself upstairs. He took a hot shower first, which helped to get some of the tension out of his muscles. Then, he went to his room where he put on a pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pajama bottoms and one of Eddie’s band shirts. This one was Iron Maiden. After dragging Tomato out of his hiding place in his closet, Steve finally sat in the middle of his bed. He told Tomato all about his awful day, knowing he would make it better.
In Steve’s regressed toddler mind, Tomato talked to him, suggesting they play their favorite game, ‘toss.’ ‘Toss’ was a game where Steve would throw Tomato as high into the air as possible and then try to catch him.
They did this for a while. Steve started out tossing Tomato lightly in the air, just a few inches above his head. Then, he started to throw him higher and higher.
After one throw, Tomato got stuck on a shelf. Steve reached up to pull him back down. Tomato fell into Steve’s arms...except for his leg. Steve stared in horror at his beloved teddy bear that was now missing its right leg. Steve has taken such good care of his teddy bear until now!
Tearfully, Steve cradled Tomato in his arms and ran downstairs to find Eddie stirring a pot of noodles.
“Eddie!” He wailed.
Eddie turned towards Steve. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“T-Tomato’s leg came off!” Steve showed off his teddy bear.
“Oh no! Do you know where his leg is?”
“Mhmm.” Steve nodded. Tears started to fall from his eyes.
“Can you go get it and bring it back down here?”
Another nod. Steve ran back to his room and stood on his tiptoes to get Tomato’s leg from off the shelf. He brought it and his teddy bear back downstairs.
Eddie had drained the noodles and put the pot back on the stove while Steve was gone. Now, he sat at the table with a sewing kit.
“Don’t worry, sir, I’ll take good care of Tomato for you,” Eddie said. “Dr. Munson is here! I’ll do surgery and he’ll be as good as new!”
Steve sniffled and sat in the chair next to Eddie to watch. He watched as Eddie carefully threaded the needle and started to reattach his teddy bear’s leg.
“I didn’t know you could sew,” Steve said. He was much calmer now that he realized his teddy bear would be okay. Eddie was almost finished!
“Yeah! How else would I get all my patches on my vest?” Eddie pointed to one of the patches. “And here you go! See, good as new! You can’t even tell anything happened, can you?”
Steve took Tomato back and inspected his leg closely. “No. Thank you, Eddie. I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to Tomato. I’ve had him my whole life!”
Eddie smiled and stood up. Normally he’d ruffle Steve’s hair just to annoy him, but he’d already had a pretty crappy day, so Eddie settled for just squeezing his shoulder. “Give me 5 minutes to finish up dinner, okay? Then maybe we can watch a movie afterwards. Why don’t you and Tomato go pick one out?”
“Okay.” Steve walked to the living room, hugging Tomato tightly. “You’re grounded from ‘toss,’” he whispered to his teddy.