Work Text:
December 1st was one of the best days of the year in Steve’s opinion. It was the start of Christmas! Steve didn’t actually like Christmas all that much (he experienced too many Christmases all alone because his parents couldn’t be bothered with him), but he adored the decorations. Christmas lights, garland, big blow up Santas and snowmen. He loved them all. The few good memories he had with his parents usually involved decorating for the holidays when he was very young. His mother always started decorating on December 1st.
Eddie woke up alone. That wasn’t too unusual. Steve woke up earlier than he did. Why was he awake at 8:30, though? He could normally sleep until noon with no problem.
A loud crash above Eddie’s head gave him his answer.
“Steve?” He called, hesitantly. “Is that you?”
No response.
Eddie got to his feet and slowly tiptoed out of his and Steve’s room. Ah, fuck. The door to the attic was open. Eddie really hated attics.
“Steve?”
Eddie nearly jumped out of his skin when the man came running down the stairs carrying so many boxes Eddie was surprised he was able to see where he was going.
“Jesus H. Christ, Steve! What are you doing?”
Steve lowered the boxes so Eddie could see the big grin on his face. “Decorating!”
“For?”
“Christmas,” Steve said in a ‘duh’ tone.
“At 8:30 in the morning?”
“You got up at 5 on Halloween to finish your costume. I don’t wanna hear it. Help me bring these boxes downstairs.”
“Jesus, Steve, how much Christmas shit do you have?” There were already so many boxes downstairs that Eddie could barely see the floor.
“I like Christmas decorations. Do you wanna help me decorate?”
Eddie opened his mouth to say no, then saw the glint in Steve’s eye that was only there when he was little. He looked so excited.
“Okay. Where do we start?”
Eddie has never had such a big area to decorate for Christmas. As a child living with his father, he could maybe manage to put up a drawing of a Christmas tree on his wall for a few days before he noticed it and tore it down. Wayne loved decorating with his nephew, but the trailer they lived in was small. There was only so much stuff they could put out before they ran out of room.
Steve’s house was huge, and he was insisting on decorating inside and outside.
Eddie glared at the ladder as he picked up the box of Christmas lights. He wasn’t going to let Steve go on a ladder when he was little. He already fell in the grass twice running back and forth between the blow up decorations.
“You’re lucky I love you, Stevie. It’s freezing out here.” Eddie’s hands were cold. He hoped he could get this stuff up fast before his hands became frostbitten.
Steve smiled cheekily. “Don’t worry, Eds. I’ll catch you if you fall.”
“Very reassuring.”
After finishing outside, Eddie was absolutely frozen. He managed to convince Steve to take a break to watch a movie and eat a late breakfast/early lunch.
As soon as the movie ended, Steve jumped off the couch. “Time to decorate the tree!” He ran to the box with the artificial Christmas tree and started taking the pieces out.
“I’m surprised you’re not dragging me out to get a real tree,” Eddie said, kneeling next to the little.
“My dad’s allergic to pine. I don’t know if they’re coming back this year, but just to be safe. The fake tree is nice too, right?”
“Course, Stevie. You know, this will be my first time decorating a tree for Christmas.”
Steve gasped. “Really?”
“Mhmm. Uncle Wayne’s trailer is too small for a tree.”
“Oh. Does he wanna come help decorate our tree?”
Eddie checked the time. “I think he just got home from work, bud. He’s asleep. We can just decorate it now and invite him over later. He’ll love seeing all the decorations!”
“Okay....”
“Hand me that piece. Gotta figure out how to put this thing together first.”
Steve and Eddie spent the entire day decorating. When Wayne Munson came over for dinner, it looked like Christmas threw up all over the Harrington’s home.
“Hey, Uncle Wayne,” Eddie greeted from the kitchen. He and Steve were covered in flour from making cookies.
Wayne walked towards them. He pressed a kiss to his nephew’s forehead as a greeting and squeezed Steve’s shoulder. “Hi, boys. You two did a nice job decorating. The house looks great!”
Steve beamed. “Come see the tree!” He grabbed Wayne’s hand and pulled him towards the tree. There was a small section left undecorated. “We left this part so you can put ornaments on it too if you have any. I still have some left over if you don’t have your own.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you, Steve.”
If you asked Wayne Munson a year ago what he thought of Steve Harrington, he’d have some very colorful, not very nice things to say. Now, he knew how kind-hearted the boy was. He could see how much he cared about his friends. Wayne couldn’t be happier that Eddie was included as one of his friends. (Maybe even something more than friends if he was reading their relationship correctly. He was happy for the two of them, no matter what their relationship was.)
“I have something for you boys.” Wayne held up the grocery bag he’d brought in.
“Oh, you didn’t have to get anything,” Eddie said.
“I wanted to.”
Eddie wasn’t used to people just buying him things for no reason. Neither was Steve, but he was little and excited about gifts!
Wayne took out a matching set of Christmas pajamas. Dark blue with little Christmas trees, Santa hats, reindeer faces, and candy canes.
Eddie glared at his uncle while Steve gasped excitedly.
“Thank you, Mr. Munson! I love them! Eddie, can we wear them now? Please, Bubba?”
“Alright, alright, Stevie. Let’s go.”
Eddie brought Steve upstairs and got them both dressed in their new pajamas.
Wayne was waiting downstairs for them with a camera.
Eddie’s glare returned. Steve gave the camera a wide, toothy smile, hugging Tomato with one arm and holding Eddie’s hand with his free hand.
“Aw, that’s a great picture. Come on, Ed. Why don’t you help me make some hot coco? We can have dinner in a little bit.”
After dinner, Steve and Eddie fell asleep on the couch watching a Christmas movie. Wayne took another picture before covering them with a blanket and shutting the light off. The lights covering the tree stayed on.
