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It’s Sunday morning and Eddie watches as Steve brushes his teeth in the bathroom, shirtless.
Normally, Eddie would be staring at his chest, back, and arms. He would be a nemesis and stand close behind him and wrap his arms around Steve from behind and press hot kisses down from his neck to his shoulder blades. He would tweak his nipples until Steve would have to spit out the foamy toothpaste saliva out of his mouth in shock (it wasn’t shocking, this was a daily thing for them).
Typically, Eddie would be trying to get Steve laid out on any horizontal surface because the man was just so hot in the it should be illegal for you to walk around like that type of way.
But, for some reason this Sunday morning, Eddie watches as Steve brushes his teeth in the bathroom, shirtless. Steve's left arm is putting in all the work of holding him up to perform this task, his shoulder up to his ear he was so tired.
He can’t keep his eyes off of the way Steve’s hair looks like a tragedy, or how his chest and back have wrinkles from the sheets they slept in last night, or how Steve is slowly brushing his teeth with his eyes closed. Stevie sleepy.
Eddie watches as Steve’s right-hand abandons the toothbrush to rub the sleep out of his eyes. The toothbrush hangs at a 45-degree angle and a big glob of toothpaste slides down, and now Steve is using his other hand to help scrub at his eyes.
The glob of toothpaste spit finally decides to fall and it lands right above his belly button.
“Uck, gross,” Steve grumbles, more toothpaste spraying out on the mirror. He grabs the hand towel and wipes it off his stomach and the mirror.
Really, it should be gross. It is gross.
But Eddie is unable to tear his eyes away from this scene in front of him. How did he get here? How did Eddie Munson get the honor to watch Steve Harrington brush his teeth? How?
Follow-up question, why? Why did Eddie think this was the cutest fucking thing he had ever seen?
Steve finally ended his teeth brushing with a loud spit in the sink and cupping water from the faucet to rinse his mouth out. Another loud spit. Jesus Christ, Eddie thinks to himself. Eddie watches as Steve rubs the back of his wrist across his mouth to wipe off the water and toothpaste still lingering.
Eddie lets out an audible hum at that and it gets Steve’s attention. He looks at Eddie with an easy smile on his face. “Hey, you,” He greets, putting his toothbrush in the coffee mug on the counter. Eddie’s eyes had followed the movement, transfixed by Steve’s fingers. His eyes land on their mug with their toothbrushes leaning against each other, bristles facing bristles, and it is the silliest thing to make Eddie’s heart lurch and flutter, but it does.
“Morning, sweetheart,” Eddie returns the smile as his eyes focus back on Steve’s. Steve is still blinking sleep out of his eyes, a yawn stretching his mouth wide. Eddie laughs softly as Steve covers his yawn with both his hands and walks over to Eddie. Eddie opens his arms up and accepts his sleepy boyfriend in his embrace.
Steve is like this when he wakes up, Eddie has come to know. Steve is few words, warm skin, touchy-feely gropey, and likes to burrow his face in Eddie’s neck until he fully wakes up. And it is at this moment Eddie realizes he is 100% gone on this man in his arms.
“Sleepy,” Steve mumbles into Eddie’s messy curls.
“When do you need to clock in?” Eddie asks, his voice low, as he rocks them slowly in the hallway. He can hear his uncle snoring in the living room and the trailer has that soft early morning glow that Eddie loves. The quiet is so promising and comforting.
“8:30,” Steve groans and Eddie swears his feet do a little tantrum stomp.
Eddie smiles and runs his fingers through Steve’s hair. “You’ve got an hour before you need to be serious about getting ready. Let’s go back to bed and I can rub your back and you can doze for a bit. I will make sure to get you up in time.” He presses a kiss to Steve’s temple.
Steve just nods and removes his arms from around Eddie’s waist to wrap them around his neck. Eddie knows this tell. “Seriously? It’s 10 steps to the bed,” And Eddie can feel Steve pout against his neck. Eddie rolls his eyes, but his hands drop to the back of Steve’s thighs and hoist him up. Steve’s legs wrap around Eddie at the waist and his pout flips to a smile. “Brat,” Eddie shakes his head.
“You love it,” Steve giggles against him.
Yeah, I do, Eddie thinks as he carries his big, reformed jock to his bedroom. “You got me,” Eddie says before lowering Steve to the bed. He walks over to his dresser and packs a bowl.
“Eds,” Steve whines, he actually whines. Eddie chuckles and looks at him in the mirror by his dresser. Steve is on his side, the comforter wrapped around him like a burrito and the man is pouting at Eddie. No wait, he is glare-pouting at him and Eddie doesn’t think he’s seen anything more adorable.
He grabs one of his lighters and turns around to walk over to the bed. He flicks the lighter on and brings the pipe to his lips, sucking in the smoke. He takes in more smoke than needed and leans down to Steve, patting his jaw a few times. Steve opens his mouth and Eddie breathes the smoke into him as he climbs into the bed with him.
This is a thing they do sometimes. The first time it happened, Steve laughed and said of course you wake and bake, makes total sense and Eddie had just looked back at him and said of course I do . He was not ashamed to admit it. And now Steve was just as bad as he was. Except Steve was needy and pitiful first thing in the morning and didn’t like to smoke a blunt or a bowl. So Eddie did the work.
“Mmmm,” Steve hummed happily, the THC already doing its thing. He unwrapped one side of the comforter to allow Eddie inside with him.
Eddie scoots under it and goes to pull Steve’s upper half across his chest. Steve doesn’t need much maneuvering because he was already pressing his face under Eddie’s chin, his arms already wrapped around Eddie’s back, and his right leg was hitched over Eddie’s hips, his foot snug under the back of Eddie’s knee.
“Damn koala bear,” Eddie muttered and brought the pipe to his lips.
“Whatever, I know you love it, Munson.” Steve burrows in deeper and presses a kiss to Eddie’s Adam apple.
Eddie smiles and uses his free hand to rub up Steve’s back. He makes sure not to move the comforter covering them because Steve will protest. His hand traces his shoulder blades, and his fingers count the notches in his spine, massaging the back of Steve’s neck. Eddie will never get over the way he can feel Steve relax against him as he touches him like this. It is one of the ways Steve is putty in Eddie’s hands.
Within a few minutes, Steve’s breathing has evened out and he is letting out soft mewls and moans as he sleeps. Eddie about lost his shit the first time they slept together. He had expected Steve to be a big, loud snorer, but Eddie was wrong. Steve Harrington moaned in his sleep. It wasn’t a sexual moan or anything. It was just happy, content moans. It drives Eddie almost to insanity.
Again, little silly things that shouldn’t affect Eddie this way, but here he is, being affected by it and wanting to write a song about it.
As Eddie lay there, rubbing his lover's back, smoking his pipe, he thought a lot about his feelings for said lover.
Eddie knew he had been keeping the four-letter word at bay for a while now, too afraid of the weight of his feelings to even acknowledge it. It wasn’t that he didn’t think Steve was genuine, or that Steve didn’t care for him the way he cared for Steve. He just had never felt this way about anyone and the feeling was like ivy taking over a brick wall. The more time they spent together, the more they learned about each other, the ivy grows and climbs and covers all the rough, cold, ridges of the wall.
Steve’s heart has always been on his sleeve, his smiles were always stretching across his face, his limbs and words and heart knowing no boundaries when it came to Eddie. He remembered Nancy telling him to be careful because once Steve decides he loves someone he can be almost suffocatingly free with his love. Nancy hadn’t meant it rudely, just wanted him to know what he was getting into.
Laying here with Steve, he was starting to understand what she meant by that. Steve was always there. Even when he wasn’t. And the crazy part was, Eddie was pretty sure he had no idea he had this effect on Eddie. The fucker was just, open.
Once the contents in his pipe were burnt down to dirt ash, Eddie checks his watch and knows he needs to begin the process of waking Steve up for work. He puts his pipe down on the bedside table next to his rings.
Just like when he plays his guitar, he knows which strings to stroke to wake Steve up. They are different from the ones that lull him to sleep. He lightly dances the tips of his fingertips up and down Steve’s sides, making sure to go from the waistband on his hips up to the dark hairs of his armpit.
Steve hums low and nuzzles up behind Eddie’s ear and it is so sickeningly sweet that Eddie wants to scream.
Eddie tap dances his fingers under his armpit, knowing it made Steve ticklish.
“Staaaahppp,” Steve grumbled.
Eddie does not stop. “Sorry, nope, can’t! You gotta wake up, sleeping beauty.” He dances his fingers down to the small of his back, slipping them under the waistband of his boxers. He feels and hears Steve’s breath hitch. With a devilish grin, he runs his fingertips across the meat of his ass. Steve’s body jerks away from him, but Eddie uses his other hand to hold his hip in place. “Nu-uh,” Eddie tsks and continues to play with Steve’s ass, finding all his ticklish spots. He runs his fingers under his cheeks and pulls them up, before pressing his fingertips into his skin, dragging them up towards his waist.
Eddie didn’t understand it, but for whatever reason, that always tickles Seve. “Okay, ok–Eddie! Eds, stop, stop! I’m awake!”
Eddie gave his butt a love tap before pulling his hands out of his boxers. “Morning sunshine,” He says as Steve lifts himself on his forearms. “Sleep well?”
“Until someone was groping my ass.” Steve glares. “Fucker, we don’t even have time to do anything about my obvious hard-on.” Steve finishes lifting himself on his hands.
“Nice to know it woke you up enough to form complete sentences.” Eddie gave him a shit-eating grin.
“Shut up,” Steve sits up in bed against the wall and crosses his legs. He begins the process of wiping the sleep out of his eyes, and Eddie knows he will need to brush his teeth again. He will not be watching that again or else the four-letter word will most definitely fall off his tongue.
Eddie must have been staring at Steve because Steve nudges Eddie’s hip with his foot. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer, Munson.” He teases, his voice rough with sleep. It amazes how hard Steve sleeps.
Eddie looks over the edge of the bed and grabs his polaroid camera. Before Steve could register what was happening, Eddie had taken a photo of Steve in all his morning glory.
“Hey!” Steve finally protests.
Eddie takes the polaroid and shakes it between his index and middle finger as he sits up more. “You told me to take a picture,” He shrugs and suddenly he has a very warm Steve Harrington tackling him. Steve miscalculated how far they were to the edge of the bed and sent them both tumbling off it in a tangle of bedsheets.
The two of them were laughing and breathing hard against each other. Steve had landed on top of Eddie because of course he had. And Steve was looking down at Eddie as if Eddie had just named a star after them–which, actually sounds cute as fuck and he needs to see if that is a thing he could do. Jesus Christ, he is such a goner.
“You’re pretty amazing,” Steve says to Eddie, his hand reaching down to push some of his hair away from his face.
Eddie is sure he has lost the function to breathe. “You’re not so bad yourself, princess.” He reaches up and cups Steve’s jaw. He rubs his thumb along his bottom lip. “Kiss me? And then I’ll make you some chocolate chip pancakes while you shower.”
Steve doesn’t need to be asked twice for that. He leans down and presses his lips to Eddies. The kiss is soft at first, both pairs of lips just press firm kisses against each other. Steve’s hands slide into Eddie’s hair and he tilts his head just right and Eddie gains passage into his mouth.
They lay like that for a good five minutes. Tasting each other and touching each other. It is languid and warm and every moment of it feels like jello. At least that is how it felt for Eddie who was feeling the full effects of the weed he smoked. He thinks it must be similar for Steve, but from coming out of his good sleep.
When they finally break apart because they hear Uncle Wayne coughing in the living room, Eddie is the one who groans at the loss of Steve’s touch. “I wish you could call in,” Eddie pouts.
“Do you want Robin coming after you for leaving her along on an opening Saturday shift?” Steve cocks an eyebrow.
Eddie thinks on that for a beat and shakes his head. “Yeah, no, you’re right. I don’t.” He taps Steve’s ass to get him to move. They both untangle themselves from the floor and stand. Eddie kisses Steve’s nose and walks out of the bedroom into the bathroom. He starts the shower for Steve, making sure the temperature is just right.
“You’re so good to me,” Steve whispers from behind him.
Eddie stands and pulls the shower curtain closed. The four-letter words bite at his teeth to come out. It would be so easy to reply with a well, it is because you’re easy to love. “Only the best for my baby,” Is what he says instead. “Now no dilly-daddling in there.” He gives Steve a quick kiss and smacks his ass.
Steve shakes his head, smiling, and pulls out a clean towel from the cabinet over the toilet. He goes to step out of his boxers. “Those chocolate chip pancakes aren’t going to make themselves,” He chides Eddie and it leaves Eddie breathless at how their dynamic can switch on a dime. He loves it.
“Watch it,” Eddie points at Steve, and Steve just blows him a kiss. “You’re ridiculous,” Eddie shakes his head and steps backward out of the bathroom. He steals one last glance at Steve’s naked body stepping into the shower before he shuts the door.
He presses his forehead against the door and takes a deep breath. He needs to get a grip and figure out how to tell Steve he loves him.