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Eddie Munson is on the run.
And Steve is wearing his vest as they wander through the dense blackness of the upside down. The denim smells of old leather, bud, and oddly, cinnamon sugar. He watches them all walk ahead, Nancy and Robin locked in conversation, Eddie leading the pack with determination and a makeshift weapon. Steve doesn't hate him.
He expected to, the enemy in a competition for Dustin's coolest adoptive big brother, but he doesn't. Steve would rather have joint custody. He can see the same fierce protectiveness that that filled him back in '83, what turned him from reluctant babysitter to bat wielding father in moments, forming with the same ease in Eddie. Maybe Steve should make him his own bat. He will, he thinks, if they make it out of this.
When he realizes he's staring a bit, Steve thanks his lucky stars Robin is too busy poking at Nancy for stories to embarrass him with to notice. He'd never hear the end of it from her, his only friend that gets it, the only one who knows girls aren't Steve's only interest. So he takes the moment to stare a little longer.
Steve Harrington is wearing his vest.
And Eddie is on the run. A different run than before now though demobats are somehow less scary than Jason. At least the literal monsters don't call him a freak and a fag or notice how hard he's trying not to think about how Steve is behind him, wearing his vest and bandaged on his neck. When Dustin had told him that The Hair was actually a pretty good dude and basically his big brother, Eddie had never believed him. But then he showed up at Reefer Rick's with the kids ready to fight for someone he barely knew just because his kids had asked him to.
So maybe his stupid crush from middle school had come back full force. Maybe Eddie was doing his best to ignore it and keep on to house Creel, the so called Mordor of this creepy as shit place. He understood now why the kids seemed to flinch during certain campaigns and know too well how to defeat certain monsters in others. It was supposed to be his year, he'd graduate and get the hell out of this shit town. But now? Graduation for sure, leaving Hawkins would have to wait until his kids were safe. He got the feeling the jock in the rear of the group never left for college for similar reasons.
Then they're at the house and Eddie wipes his thoughts of shared custody and little family from his mind, taking the opportunity to remind himself that there's also a girl behind him that Steve is hopelessly hung up on. They walk into hell as his mind writes a song subconsciously.
Eddie Munson is strumming his guitar.
In a few hours, Steve's little sister is going to die if they don't pull this off. They have to. He won't lose his kids. He won't lose any of them. They're preparing for war and everything is eerily silent beyond the soft stylings of one Eddie Munson. It's the calm before the storm, tense as though they might snap. Their resident metalhead looks at home with his instrument though even with Dustin beside him looking like a live wire. Steve makes a mental note to check in on the kid in a moment.
He takes stock of which kids he has, Lucas and Erica behind him acting the only way siblings do, Max alone in the space between Lucas and Erica and where Nancy and Robin sit as she sways a bit to Kate Bush, and Dustin, perfectly in his line of sight as he watches Eddie - or rather his fingers - pluck at the guitar strings. If they all die tonight, Steve hopes he'll buck it up and say something first.
Steve Harrington is pacing.
He's trampling over the already dead grass really as Eddie watches him in his peripheral. He's nervous, jumpy, they all are. Steve's trying to hide it though, Eddie clocked that about two minutes after they were pulled out into that bedroom. He knows the feeling, the idea of staying strong looking so they can get the kids through this. They'll break down later. Hell, Eddie will find his still too jocky ass, bring him a blunt, and they'll talk. It'll do hell for his heart probably but Steve will need one of the "adults" that he can show fear in front of. They don't know each other well enough for Steve to be pretending yet.
Later though. He's not sure it will come. He'd sworn to himself that there would be no running away this time. Eddie the Hero, Eddie the Fighter, Eddie Who Stayed. New names to take over for Eddie the Banished. Then again even if they somehow survive this, there's still the murder charge - Eddie the Imprisoned then. Like father like son. He stops his train of thought, focusing again on the pacing hairdo in front of him.
Steve had talked to Dustin, got up, and started to pace. His shoulders sat tense, the stress following down his arms to his hands which rested steadily on his hips. He could catch Robin looking up every now and then, concern on her eyes. He got the feeling this Steve, the new grown and war torn Steve, tended to throw himself in front of everyone. He had before, with the bats, had the healing gash to prove it. That's how Eddie could tell Steve was contemplating death. He could see the cogs turning in the ridges of his eyebrows as he tried to decide the best way to make sure everyone else got out alive. A martyr. Eddie the Fighter. Steve the Savior.
Eddie Munson is dying.
Steve is trying not to panic. They'd arrived back at Dustin as the demobats finally flew off. He'd been hoping their release, this moment of concerning silence was the work of El. She's figured it out and they'd be fine. They all would.
Until he saw the blood, Eddie's torn body, and Dustin's tears. His bat hits the dirt as he rushes forward, sinking down in front of them both. He looks at Dustin, back down to Eddie and back up as the kid speaks.
"The demobats...he's gone..." Dustin manages to choke out and Steve's heart breaks for too many reasons as he wraps his arms tight around his little brother. He holds back his own tears, focusing on Dustin. That'll be better. That's what he needs to do, what Steve is meant to do. He's in charge of making sure everyone is safe and happy. He failed. His arms tighten around Dustin but his eyes drift to the broken body now on the ground. He wasn't brave enough to say something.
Right now though, he has to be brave for Dustin, for Max, and the rest of the kids. So he squeezes Dustin tight. "We have to go. I'm sorry."
Steve Harrington is grieving.
Which is surprising to Eddie. It feels more surprising than being out of his body honestly. He'd talked about out of body experiences and astral projections and ghosts in his campaigns enough for that to scare him a whole fuck of a lot less.
Steve thinks he's failed. He's got that look on his face that only people like him and Eddie can recognize, the look of those that make it their life's mission to save everyone around them. Steve's staring too intently at his body with his own shining eyes as he holds Dustin tightly.
"You didn't fail. Take care of them" Eddie reassures despite the fact he will not be heard. He watches Steve make the decision for them to leave, watches him struggle with that. However, Eddie misses the way he looks back for just a moment before they all disappear back into Hawkins.
Eddie Munson is missing dead.
Steve's trying not to think about it but he's spent every day for the past month at the high school helping out while Eddie's eyes follow him from the poster. The posters, a sticking point for the town still, and the cause of Steve's dad giving him the most attention he has in at least a decade. Watching Eddie's Uncle Wayne come in everyday to see the posters defaced or torn down had been heartbreaking so Steve had gone to one of the few still standing copy machines in town, his dad's office. Where Daniel had spotted him and reamed him out for associating with "that disgusting satanist." Apparently that was his current excuse of the week as to why Steve hadn't gone to college or joined the family business.
It had been worth it for the look on Wayne's face when he had believed the town had finally stopped taking it down. So Steve kept a stack with him in his bag and replaced them whenever needed. It was the least he could do.
Steve Harrington is unable to move on.
Neither is Eddie really. He's been wandering the vast expanse of the Upside Down for three? days. Sometime after the Party had left, his out of body experienced had ended abruptly and shot him into the world of the undead. At least Eddie thinks he is but who knows with this fucking place, maybe he didn't die at all, maybe he's still a ghost and just delusional. Either way, the demobats are finally disinterested. There are craggy fault lines everywhere, the gates, red and pulsing and once every now and then showing a glimpse of Hawkins above.
He never thought he'd be trying to get back into that town. If he was lucky enough, the windows would show him someone. He's only caught the Party twice. First, a glimpse of Max, limping around the trailer park and adjusting. Second, Nancy Wheeler, sitting where Vecna had taken Fred and contemplating everything. No Dustin, Mike, or Lucas, no Robin, no Erica...and no Steve.
So Eddie wandered, guitar strapped to his back like a hero's sword and the last bit of his courage. There were so many ways into this place but ways out seemed to be blocked. El, Supergirl, it had to have been her. He'd never met her but Dustin's description made her the likely choice. He'd find a way back though.
It was his year. He'd get out of the Upside Down and finally graduate.
Eddie Munson is gone.
A year and a half after the earthquake, Wayne had Eddie declared dead. There'd been a small funeral, attended by the Party and protested by the town. Steve had stood at the back, moral support.
After, he'd talked to Wayne, gotten permission to see some of Eddie's things. He'd taken a guitar pick for Dustin, a die as well, and made a matching necklace. Dustin had cried again when Steve presented it and no one needed to know about the second pick that lived like a worry stone in his pocket.
Relief had moved out of the high school and into a more permanent structure. It'd grown into the Rebuild Hawkins Fund and Steve had moved with it. Robin graduated, ran off to college with her girl. She'd be back in a month or so for summer. Joyce had moved back, seeing Nancy and Johnathan off to their own school. With Hop finally making them officially the Hopper-Byers clan. Steve absolutely did not cry in his speech.
And then it came, the final showdown. Or what they hoped would be. El said there would still be cracks but not enough to let anything slip through. There was no way of killing the Upside Down forever. Dustin had dragged raced straight into the fray, blasting Master of Puppets out of the shitty speakers of his first car. In the end, they'd all made it out alive. Well...those that were still alive for the final battle that is.
That night they'd sat around a bonfire and commiserated, their bittersweet victory well won. Steve had watched them all, his kids, his family. He knew he'd never let anything touch them again. He'd already failed too many times.
Steve Harrington is staying.
Eddie has started to lose track of time. Even though he's not entirely certain there was time down here to begin with. He can tell he's aging as if years are passing but it feels like mere moments. Somewhere in all this, there had been a moment where he knew it was the end.
Eddie had braced himself for impact but it didn't come. The ground shook and the cracks went dark and then nothing. Vecna was gone along with the mindflayer. But the bats, dogs, and gorgons were still here. They were native to this hell, calming as the darker energy that had tortured them for so long faded into nothingness. And so Eddie kept wandering.
He hoped there would be a door somewhere. Not all those who wander are lost but it'd been long enough for Eddie to start thinking he was. Eddie the Banished and Eddie the Lost. His mind often wandered as well, thinking on the town above, what had happened to them all. None of them seemed to be down here so that was a good sign.
He hoped they'd gotten out, were living. How long had it been for them? Their first trip down had solidified that time was practically non-existent here. At a point he'd set up camp in what he thought was possibly the Harrington home. There'd only been one attack here on the upside so it was the least damaged familiar spot. He'd been here before, supplying various drugs to the crowds of teens that used to fill it each weekend but this was different. Even stuck in '83, you could feel the emptiness in this house, the reason it must've been packed to the brim so constantly. Steve's room miraculously lived in in stark contrast to the rest of the museum like house.
Eddie had started to get it, to understand why the Steve Harrington of '83 was the way that he was and why the Steve Harrington of the Upside Down had come to be with so much ease. It made Eddie a little sad and yet oddly hopeful. At least Steve was up there with his found family. That had to be a good thing right?
Eddie Munson is a memory.
Four years on and Steve still hasn't left Hawkins. The kids have, coming back in forth in between colleges and summer jobs and all things that come with growing up. Robin's moved for work, Johnathan and Nancy too, all coming back for short visits. Even Hopper and Joyce had retired to a farm a couple towns over. But Steve stayed, coach of the Hawkin's High basketball team and unofficial Hellfire club facilitator, taking over for Dustin after learning all he could as the kid himself headed off to USC. Eddie's Uncle Wayne had left as well, unable to cope with the memories.
He couldn't leave though. Someone had to stay to watch over it all. He'd gotten an apartment in town, a cat, a beater of a couch, and made what one supposed you would call life here. He'd practically worn a hole in the pick that still lived in his pocket, his final mission still failed. One of them didn't make it out alive and so Steve was here until he was a ghost himself.
Sure they'd been worried, Dustin and Robin and his real parents, Joyce and Hopper. He'd even heard once from El and another time from Nancy. But Steve wasn't like them, he was stuck here, cemented in the concrete sidewalk of Main Street and waiting for his final mission to end. The ghosts of the town watched him curiously, girls (...and guys) from high school that had stayed wondering why Steve "the Hair" Harrington seemed an immovable object. But he'd taken the team to state last season so they'd ignored it in favor of hopefully getting another victory.
Days went like this: Steve woke, went to school, did his PE periods, coached practice after school, went home and went to bed. Weekends went like this: Steve woke, coached the game, sat by Eddie's empty grave till dark, and went home. Nothing changed. Sometimes he'd make the drive to the Hopper-Byers' for dinner where Joyce kept looking at him with sad worry and Hop kept trying to get him to talk. The kids and Robin would needle at him to go to college and move on but he would stay.
There was one night where Dustin, having matured so quickly, had asked him point blank about the Eddie of it all. Steve could never hide anything from that kid. They'd commiserated over beers and left it at that, an unspoken truth, a new part of their bond. Time moved around him. Steve stayed still.
Steve Harrington is alone.
Not that Eddie knows that even if he is too. It's been too long he thinks. He's given up getting out. Or he had. One day something just struck him and he'd walked out to the Harrington's pool. There it was, how hadn't he seen it before? A crack, small but pulsing and open enough Eddie could stick his arm through.
He set to work on making it person size. It had taken a lot of those uncountable days down in hell but eventually, the crack was just wide enough for him to slip through and splash directly into the pool on the other side, Hawkins again. That wouldn't be good for the guitar but here he was, air actually fresh, and sunlight...sunlight beating down on him.
The clamor of something falling to pool deck woke him out of his stupor.
"Eddie?" Was that...Mike Wheeler? He whipped his head around to confirm. Eddie sloshed his way out of the pool ask quick as possible and wrapped his wet arms around the kid. "H-How?"
And then the stories began. He told him all about wandering the Upside Down and the gate and all. Mike told him it'd been almost 5 years, kid was back for the summer and cleaning pools for cash. Everyone was back for the week, going up to Hop and Joyce's for a family get together. Eddie smiled just a bit, they were all a family and they had all made it.
"Come on, we're all supposed to be meeting at Steve's to leave. They'll be happy to see you."
Eddie Munson is alive.
Steve's been trying to focus on driving because if he thinks about the metalhead in the backseat who's been dead for half a decade, he may faint. Not that looking away is keeping his mind from drifting back to Eddie anyway. He's squashed in the back with the Party, listening to each of them as they fill him in on what he missed. And Robin's in the passenger seat giving Steve weird looks. Steve's looking at the road.
At some point, Eddie - Eddie - reaches over the middle dash and changes the music around, looking for something familiar. He finds a metal station and sits back as he murmurs something or another about having missed half a decade of music. Steve shuts his eyes at a stoplight and just listens. For a moment, the chatter and laughter from the back can just be real, he can be whole, his family is whole, and there's nothing scary or weird about it. And if he thumbs the pick in his pocket the rest of the drive anyway, who cares. If Robin notices, she thankfully doesn't say anything.
Steve Harrington is not okay.
Eddie had started to pick up on it pretty much right when Mike and him had pulled up to what was apparently Steve's apartment building. Once the shock had worn off and he'd been wrapped in ridiculously tight hugs by the kids, Steve had slapped him on the shoulder and hugged him quickly. It was stiff and unfamiliar even for as little as they'd known each other before all this. The stiffness hadn't left Steve's shoulders even for the ride.
It stays during dinner as Eddie answers what he can about his time in the Upside Down and finally meets the rest of the crew. Hopper grills him a bit, still trying to see if anything's wrong while Joyce looks between him and Steve and the others with concern. But by the end of the meal, Eddie is all caught up and Steve is nowhere to be seen. So he takes a moment as the kids debate over who's turn it is for the dishes to slip outside and go looking. It's not too long till he sees a familiar poof of hair at the end of a makeshift dock hanging into the little pond on the farm. He makes his way over, the light of Steve's cigarette a beacon.
Eddie watches Steve for just a moment. He seems to be thinking as he messes with something in his hands. A guitar pick? Eddie can't help but be a little extra curious.
"You know, I've learnt getting a hole in one of those makes the guitar pretty damn hard to play." He says as he flops down, startling Steve in the process.
"Good thing I don't play I guess." Steve turns it over and over in his fingers. "You okay?"
"Am I okay? Dude, you look like you're seconds from falling over. What happened after?"
Steve's silent for a long moment, looking out at the starry sky. "Uh...we killed him, Vecna I mean. And then life seemed to happen. Kids are in college which is great, Robin's starting her Masters, Nance and Johnathan are a cute little journalist team. Max got her sight back! It was a bit touch and go but it was great when she did. Not sure if her or I cried harder. They're doing pretty good, you know? It's nice to have the missing piece back though." He looked over at Eddie, who smiles a bit sadly.
"What about you? You share that apartment with a girl? Finally go to college?"
"Me, uh, no. I coach basketball at the high school. Took them to state though. Someone needed to stay just in case. The kids have a whole life ahead of them, Joyce and Hop are finally happy, I've got no girl, no guy, no degree." He stops himself, going a little red at his slip. "Just seemed fair I'd stay. I'm the one that failed...too many others never got to leave." Eddie kind of starts short, Steve's slip hits him first but not near as hard as the next bit.
"You failed?"
"You died." Steve says, more out to the distance as if the Eddie sitting next to him is nothing more than a ghost. "And I promised I would get everyone out. Barb died right in my pool. And then Billy, shithead or not, was still Max's brother. Bob...Hop for a bit...and you. What's the point of a protector that can't protect?"
"You know, I've found in D&D that lots of times one member of the group will decide to stick up for everyone else and never ask for help. That person always burns out. You have to share the burden." Eddie watched him for a long moment. "You didn't fail. I was sharing that with you. You'd get the kids out and help the town. And it looks to me like you did."
Steve takes a long drag from the annoyingly warm beer by his side. "Wasn't easy...was mostly the kids, El." He shrugged. "You'd have been proud of Dustin though, came in blasting your favorite like...well, a bat out of hell. They're happy now," he offers Eddie the beer absentmindedly. "That's all I can really ask for, that they're living. Government even pays for our therapy though I think that just might be Murray."
"What about you? Are you happy?"
Steve stills and shrugs. "I've got a job and a place." Eddie furrows his brow in concern but doesn't push. He lets their moment fade into companionable silence.
Eddie Munson is having a nightmare.
Steve knows because he doesn't really sleep anymore and he can hear Eddie shuffling restlessly from the other bed. It's instinct, Steve insists to himself, as he stands and shuffles over. He sits on the edge and touches Eddie's shoulder just slightly. He's done this, still does this, with the kids when he's around and they need it.
Eddie shoots up, stumbling off the bed and jumping back into a defensive position. He's panting heavily as his eyes dart wildly around the room.
"Eddie, hey...hey, it's just me. It's Steve." Steve holds up his hands in surrender and keeps his voice soft. "You had a nightmare." Eddie blinks, tension slowly leaving his shoulders.
"Steve? Fuck, man, I'm sorry. Did I get you?" He climbed over the bed to look at Steve's face.
"No. You okay?"
"Yeah...yeah...fine."
"Don't worry. We all have them. I don't think El slept for a month straight after everything." They sit for a bit after, against the headboard, just breathing. It's one of those things you can only feel when you share trauma with someone else, the comfort of the presence of someone beside you. Neither one knows who falls asleep first but it's Steve's head on Eddie's shoulder when they wake. And if this is the first time in ages either of them have slept peacefully through the night, it goes unspoken.
Steve Harrington is acting distant.
Another year passes and everyone's adjusting to the new life. Eddie had settled into the old trailer, making it as close to his own as he could through the destruction and disuse. Now it was like a shrine to his musical heroes with D&D scattered throughout. A few weeks into living there, it started to feel far too silent so he'd asked Steve to move in.
That was that. They made a little life together in a way. Eddie had been amazed to find that Steve had kept the Hellfire Club going and was happy to jump right back in with one new member. Each week they ran a session as co-DMs and spent probably too much of the rest of the week planning the campaign. With the cover story solidified, Eddie had gotten a job at the local comic shop. They'd get home from work, eat, plan, spend time really as Eddie wrote music and Steve tried to figure out how he was getting the team to state again. It was surprisingly easy, the way they'd settled into friendship. Even in the darker moments, when they both couldn't sleep and they stayed up until dawn broke over the forest, or one was awoken to the others screams, they just sort of fit.
And sure, Eddie's feelings had grown (so had Steve's) but it was nice to just have a friend like that. So when Eddie had seen that his vest still lived in Steve's things or realized that the guitar pick that was always with Steve was definitely his, he stayed quiet. And when it felt like Steve was starting to pull away, Eddie ignored it at first. But then the silence crept back in and Eddie was agitated and confused and tired. They are friends, that's what he thought at least, so what was going on?
A weekend party with the kids back in town had been the proverbial dropper of the shoe. Max had found a karaoke machine so ancient it looked like it had been made before karaoke was invented and dragged it out. Surprisingly, Steve had gotten up at the begging of Robin and dove into a rendition of Waterloo that they were all pretty sure ABBA could unfortunately hear in Sweden. And Steve, happily on his way to drunk, bright red, and winded with his signature hair all over the place stopped pulling away for just a moment to hand over the mic. He issued a challenge with a smirk. Eddie accepted all the same. He reached deep into his repertoire for some Queen, looking straight at Steve. And yeah, maybe he was halfway to drunkville himself and had thrown his fears out the window a drink or so back.
"This one is for Stevie, for who's hair Freddie would've weeped." Eddie hummed as he began the first few lines of Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy, eyes on Steve the whole time as he dramatically pranced around the room. The only problem with that was Eddie got a front row view of Steve going red and leaving before the end of the song. The group's eyes followed him with confusion but no one got up. So Eddie followed him, leaving the karaoke machine running without the lyrics.
Eddie Munson is following him.
Steve wishes he wouldn't because this has already been hard enough. These last few weeks had been torture almost. He'd been so reckless in asking Eddie to bring up that jacket to the school, he could tell in the way the other man kept looking at him that he knew. He'd seen the vest. And it was weird now.
Steve had been waiting for the shoe to drop, for Eddie to ask him to move out cause yeah it's probably fucking weird he'd kept the vest. They hadn't been friends like this, not yet, when Eddie had "died" so why would Steve have held onto it. He'd started distancing himself, hoping it would make this easier but fuck, did Eddie make it hard. And then there he was, long brown hair fluffed around his head and sleeves pushed up, singing Queen right at Steve. Torture. He couldn't handle the false hope the song had given him. He had to get out into the air. And now, here was Eddie, following him and catching up with his hand on his shoulder.
"Steve, hey man, what's going on?" Even knowing he was there, Steve nearly jumped out of his skin. It was still a pull from his head, the millions and millions of thoughts that were swirling around and killing him.
"Nothing. Go back inside before Robin brings out her horn again." Steve tried to brush him off with the memory. It didn't seem to work.
"Let her. I'm more worried about my friend." They made their way to a bench at the shitty park and sat without much nuance. Eddie looked over at Steve as the other man stared straight ahead. "I think I crossed a line, Steve, I'm sorry." Steve didn't look up, just kept staring out and messing with his hands. They sat like that for a long moment before Eddie spoke again. "Hey, Harrington, look at me. Please." Another silence before Steve finally did, confusion and worry on his face.
"You didn't," Steve shuffled his feet, "You didn't cross a line. It's just...it gets hard sometimes when I know you don't mean it that way." He let out the confession quickly, without thought. It felt like it had clawed its way out of his throat.
"Don't mean what?" Eddie asked, heart quickening just a bit. Steve looked away again, standing up to pace nervously as he did far too often as Eddie looked on. He watched as he ran his hand through that signature hair, watched as he tried to still the shaking, watched as Steve finally started to speak again.
"Don't mean to be flirting, to be close and want to know these things, and give...just...I can't do it anymore, man. I think about you all the time and I don't want to be just friends and once I think I'm getting over it, you pull shit like that and it brings me right back in. And I'm having a stupid fucking crisis because my shithead father found out I like dudes and then you found the vest. And now you know and you're in there singing me love songs as if you don't know and it's just...it's taking the piss, Ed. I know it's creepy and weird I kept it and you can have it back and I'll move out and..."
"Steve!" Eddie was in front of him now, hands on his shoulders. Steve stuttered as his rant paused abruptly as their eyes met. "Harrington, you're a big, stupid idiot, you know that? It sucks people have forced you to not be yourself. Cause maybe if you were, you would've noticed I liked you too." And then Eddie kissed him. Steve curled his hands in his shirt, clinging to him desperately. In the morning, Eddie will probably wake up hungover and weirded out and ask him to leave anyway, but he could have this right now.
They stood there for a long while, foreheads together and just breathing with stupid giddy smiles on their face before heading back in. They watched money be exchanged silently between the crew when they walked in hand in hand and that was it. For that night, it was just that. They fell asleep curled against each other and Steve didn't have to think about the morning.
Steve Harrington is warm.
He's like the perfect space heater actually and Eddie cannot help but to curl tighter against him. What is most definitely afternoon sun streams through the window, it's quiet beyond their shared breaths, it's amazing. The memories of last night come back to his mind and he smiles.
Then, Steve wakes up. At first it's blearily, he also curls in tighter to the warmth and smiles. It doesn't last long though as he tenses and pulls away, "Oh shit, Eddie, I'm so sorry!" He looks terrified, "I told you all that and then I spend the whole night like an octopus around you. Fuck, you have to think I'm the weirdest man alive."
Eddie laughs a little and shakes his head as he sits up himself, "You know, Stevie, you gotta learn how to get out of your own way sometimes." Steve blinks in confusion. "Everything I said last night was true. So um...what do you think about giving this a try?"
Steve looks absolutely stunned. His heart is beating like it may fall out of his chest and he's just sort of staring at Eddie. Then he nods and smiles. The world feels whole. "You know, Dustin's probably already planning our wedding. He'll be jazzed to have two dads." Steve laughs. It feels weird to him that it was that easy to calm but it always seemed to be that way around Eddie, comfortable and safe.
"I'll draw up the custody papers," Eddie laughs himself and leans over for another kiss. Everything feels in its place in that moment as if the final piece of the ridiculous puzzle that is their lives has been placed. It's amazing.
Eddie Munson and Steve Harrington are in love.