Work Text:
Steve felt the sting of rejection on his first Valentine’s day in high school. It was first period and roses were being handed out to students from a member of the student council. Some had notes attached from lovers, some were plain from secret admirers, and others were bundles of roses. He knew the one’s he’d paid for were being delivered with nothing attached to the girls he’d been on dates with, but it’d stung to see he hadn’t received any when the student council member left. He knew he’d already been perceived as a ladies man, but he thought maybe those dates were for something other than his good looks.
It was finally his last year in high school and Steve was trying to finish his homework. He panicked when the bell rang, but sighed in relief when the door opened and a student walked in carrying roses. He looked back down at his math textbook and prayed that whoever was handing out the roses could give him enough time to finish the last three problems. No matter how many times the student walked past him, he never spared them a second glance. Steve knew he wasn’t going to receive one, he’d accepted that fact four years ago.
He was almost finished with the last problem when a bulb of red was sat upon his textbook. His pencil stopped moving as he processed what that meant.
“Do you know who it’s from?” Steve finally looked at the student who’d passed by him so many times.
The student just shook his head as he went to pass out the last few flowers. Steve looked at the flower with a small smile. He let his eyes sweep the room in hopes of catching someone looking for his reaction. He didn’t notice anyone staring at him, but wished he knew who the flower came from. When the student passing out the roses finally left the room, Steve realized he still never finished the last problem. As the teacher gathered everyone’s work, he couldn’t find it in himself to worry about the unfinished problem.
It was about ten minutes into the lesson when suddenly the door was yanked open and everyone looked over as Eddie Munson walked through the door, late as usual.
“How nice of you to finally join us Eddie,” the teacher grumbled as Eddie crossed the room to take his seat.
“So sorry to have left you in sus–,” Eddie paused as he sat down with a grin, “ –pense.”
Everyone focused back on the teacher, but Eddie’s eyes caught on the rose sat in front of Steve. He watched as the boy's eyes would drift to it ever so often; admired the way his eyes lit up and his cheeks pinkened every time they landed on the flower. Eddie couldn’t help the fondness that settled in his chest at the way his crush obviously adored the small gift he sent.
***
“Henderson, don’t you dare,” Eddie laughed as Dustin circled him.
Steve watched with a fond smile as the two were wrestling by the pool. The doorbell rang, so he walked through the house to get the pizzas he’d ordered. On his way back outside, he heard a loud splash followed by Dustin’s uncontrollable laughter. Steve set the boxes onto the counter and rushed outside just in time to see Eddie making his way out of the pool.
“Seriously, Dustin? I don’t have any other clothes, dude,” Eddie huffed.
Steve paused in the doorway, looking at Eddie. He was trying to wring out as much water as possible from his hair, but quickly gave up and just put it in a bun. Steve couldn’t help the blush that spread to his cheeks from seeing Eddie no longer hidden behind his hair.
“Pizza’s here,” Steve called out, moving out of the way as all the kids rushed past him.
As all the kids ran toward the kitchen, Eddie began to squeeze some of the water out of his shirt. Steve walked over with a towel and held his breath as Eddie took the offered fabric. He released the breath in a fond chuckle because of how Eddie had wrapped himself in the towel like one of the kids would with a blanket.
“C’mon, Eddie. I’ll grab you some clothes to change into,” Steve turned to go back inside and prayed the heat in his cheeks would be gone by the time he got to his room. He didn’t have to worry about whether or not Eddie was following him, he could hear the clinking of the other’s wallet chain from behind him. Once in his room, Steve began pulling open drawers and grabbing clothes he knew were too big for the slim man in his doorway.
“I’m sorry these are going to be big on you,” Steve started as he tossed a pair of sweatpants onto his bed, “but they’re dry and soft. You can also take a shower if you want, get the chlorine off,” he continued as he grabbed a dark green long sleeve out his closet.
Eddie finally found the courage to step into the room, slowly walking toward Steve’s bed. He stared at the bedside table, smiling gently at the dried rose sat in an old Coca-Cola bottle. He freed his hand from the towel and brought a finger to be just barely touching the old gesture he’d made.
“I grabbed a pair of underwear, but do you want socks?” Steve turned from where he’d stood by his dresser once again, freezing when he saw Eddie lightly touching the fragile flower. “Could you– uh, please don’t mess with that. I don’t want it to fall apart, it’s from–”
Eddie removed his finger from the wilted petal, bewildered. “You kept it?”
“What?”
“You kept the rose. From our senior year together, you kept my rose?” Eddie couldn’t hide his confusion nor the smile that tugged at his cheeks.
“You– Wait– Why?”
Eddie took a tentative step towards Steve, “It was the only way I could back then. I felt stupid having a crush on you when we were in school, so I waited for a chance to do something you wouldn’t be able to figure out who it was from. I thought you would get so many that you wouldn’t notice mine, but when I walked in you just had it. And you would look at it throughout class and smile so fondly I knew how much it mattered to you.”
Steve strode toward Eddie, and Eddie tensed. He thought he’d made a mistake, misread every moment they’d had together since fighting Vecna. But Steve just grabbed him by the waist and pulled himself into Eddie’s chest, not caring the other was slowly making his clothes wet as well. Eddie dropped the towel as he wrapped his own arms around Steve’s shoulders.
“I’m glad it was you,” Steve whispered. “It’s been you since the boathouse.”
“It’s always been you,” Eddie squeezed Steve a little tighter, glad they felt the same.
“It was only ever you,” Steve admitted. “I had no idea that you were it back then, but I knew whoever gave that flower to me was it. It was the only one I’d received all of highschool, and I’m glad now that it was you.”
Eddie made sure to always give Steve a flower after that, hoping to make up for the lost time. Steve made sure he always took care of the flowers and saved every one of them.