Work Text:
Steve was in his absolute element, surrounded by those he loved and who loved him.
He danced around the kitchen with Claudia when her favourite song was playing, just as Mrs Sinclair took a fresh batch of cookies from the oven. Joyce was eyeing them warily from her perch on a barstool in the furthest corner, he’d noticed her reluctance to join the other women but she couldn’t say no to his charms. When the song finished he brought out some supplies for fancy cocktails and by the time he left them, Joyce and Karen were chatting comfortably.
When he found Gareth and Will with their stolen beers, attempting to hide in the pantry he was full of dramatic hand movements and exasperation, shooing them away quickly. Eddie marvelled at how only seconds after he’d gotten rid of the boys, Steve ushered El into the cupboard and helped her load her arms with pilfered snacks to take back for Max and Lucas. Max, who was prone to overwhelm and needed lots of space despite her recovery going well, found all the things set aside to make an amazing pillow fort when she’d arrived. More than once over the course of the night Eddie witnessed Steve sneak into the fort and if his heart fluttered a little with every little laugh coaxed out of Lucas, Max and El, well, who could blame him?
Mike, Grant, and Jeff had appointed themselves official party DJs and were taking the roles very seriously indeed, or they would have been if they could agree on anything. Jeff lined vinyls up in very precise order and knew exactly which tracks needed to be played next to create the correct ambience, except Grant kept “accidentally” playing them in the wrong order. While they argued about track listings, Mike wouldn’t stop complaining about Steve and his terrible taste in music. Eddie had to take himself outside for a smoke break so his laughing wasn’t too obvious when Steve snuck up behind Mike, making a perfect mocking hand puppet of Mike’s bitching, and deposited a stack of Eddie’s records onto the pile so that Mike had less to complain about.
He snuck little knowing glances at Robin as she flushed red and laughed a little too loudly when Nancy told a joke, but only Eddie knew how much he’d helped her prepare for every conversational eventuality. They’d spent hours before the party practising scenarios so that Robin would feel more confident and relaxed when everyone else arrived. Steve had instinctively known when Jonathan was feeling overwhelmed by the crowd and found a subtle way to alert Argyle so that they could sneak out together for a little calming refreshment, without drawing too much attention.
Erica and Dustin had been sniping at each other for most of the night, it was good natured but different adults kept butting in to chastise them and Erica was going to blow up the next time Ted Wheeler told her to “pipe down”. Steve fixed the situation without anyone else realising that’s what he was doing, apart from Eddie of course. He led Holly over to them by the hand, armed with a box full of crayons and a huge stack of “My Little Pony” colouring sheets, within seconds all three of them were equally engaged in the activity and talking happily about their favourite characters.
He even worked actual magic and managed to find some tentative common ground between Ted, Wayne, Hopper, Mr Sinclair and Murray. With the help of some particularly expensive vodka, Steve had brought up the question of fixed and faked sports matches and suddenly everyone had an interesting opinion that didn’t seem to offend the others too much (yet.)
And Eddie.
Eddie realised he was in love.
****
The smoke from Eddie’s cigarette curled up and mingled with the steam that Jonathan’s breath made in the cold night air, for a while they said nothing, sitting in calm companionship as Jon rolled a joint with practised fingers. He lit it and took the first drag just as Eddie reached down to stub out his cigarette in the ashtray between them. The joint magically appeared in Eddie’s hand where the cigarette had been a second before, the slight smug smile on Jonathan’s face made Eddie laugh.
“Glad to see the end of this year, man.”
“Yeah, can’t say it’s been the best but there’s definitely been a highlight or two” replied Eddie as he passed the joint back.
“Does one of these highlights happen to have music taste almost as bad as his hair?” Jonathan elbowed Eddie in the ribs.
“I can’t even attempt to defend that ridiculous man,” Eddie’s cheeks flushed pink as he spoke, “Last week I caught him with his fringe tied up in a tiny pink hair tie, while dancing around the kitchen singing ‘Chiquitita’. He looked like a fucking pineapple” They both burst into fits of giggles at the mental image.
“You guys seem really happy, it’s nice to see after everything that’s happened.”
“Shit Jon. Not sure what it says about my taste but pretty sure I’m head over heels in love with him.”
“Isn’t that a Tears for Fears song?” Jonathan didn’t stop laughing even as Eddie pushed him completely off his chair.
***
Now that his feelings had words that he’d managed to verbalise, Eddie was desperate to get a second alone with Steve to tell him. It felt like there was something physically growing wings inside his chest, clawing to escape, making him more and more restless than usual but there was no chance for even a moment alone as Steve ran around making sure everybody was enjoying every single second of their New Years.
The countdown to midnight was seconds away, Steve was on the opposite side of the room from Eddie and suddenly it was an intolerable distance. He covered the distance quickly with confident strides, reaching Steve as a chorus of numbers began from around the room.
Five
He reached his love and crowded him against the wall.
Four
“What are you….
Three
“Shh, nobody is looking. It’s nearly midnight”
Two
Steve relaxed into him, bringing his arms up around his neck and pushing their bodies flush together.
One
They kissed as the clock struck zero and nothing else mattered but their own personal fireworks. Eddie Munson was in love with Steve Harrington and he was going to tell him as soon as he could, everything was right with the world.
Happy New Year!
***
Steve’s heart was in his throat as he realised the room was silent, they were kissing in front of everyone and he felt his two worlds colliding like tendrils of the upside down creeping in as the silence filled him. Turning to the crowd he saw instead that people weren’t looking at him and Eddie, there was another couple whose kiss had drawn their rapt attention…
When the countdown started Gareth had been perching on the arm of the sofa that Will was sitting alone on. As midnight struck Will leaned up and kissed the curly haired drummer, who in his enthusiasm to reciprocate had fallen into the other boy. They were both now laying across the couch, flustered and embarrassed while their friends and family looked on in surprise.
Before Steve even realised what was happening, Eddie was pacing on the kitchen counters, clapping together a pair of saucepan lids as if they were cymbals and making everyone cringe at the painful sound. He shouted about how tragically his year has started, pulling out all his best theatrics while attempting to drag Robin up with him to help with his speech. Thanked everyone for helping “The Party” survive the year and enthusiastically suggested a toast to a “less eventful, but not fucking boring” new year.
All attention was on Eddie, he was the distraction while the boys snuck away unnoticed by everyone else, because that was something Eddie knew they needed and could just do.
And Steve.
Steve realised he was in love.
***
By the time Eddie actually managed to get time alone with Steve, it was about three in the morning. Steve had insisted on personally seeing everyone who was leaving out of the house safely and everyone who was staying over got a personal goodnight, if they’d let him he might have gone so far as tucking them into their beds.
“Come on Big Boy, “ Eddie patted the bed next to him, Steve flopped down fully clothed, “Do you even realise that you spend every moment of your time making sure everyone else is happy?”
Steve only managed a contented hum in response as Eddie pulled the taller man into his lap, dragging his t-shirt up over his head while sleepy Steve offered little in the way of help, just burrowing his face further into Eddie once it was free of his clothing.
“You haven’t stopped all day, you’ve just been finding every little issue that could happen, before it happens and just fixing it as naturally as anyone else breathes air,” Eddie was stroking patterns through Steve’s hair now as he talked, tracing his fingers down the back of his neck and along his back too.. “You are truly something else Steve Harrington, and that’s why I’m in love with you.”
Steve didn’t move but what he whispered into Eddie’s lap sounded suspiciously like a sleepy no. Confused, Eddie pulled him so they were face to face.
“No?”
“I wanted to say it first.” Steve pouted.
“You’re lucky that I love you, brat”
“I love you too, Eddie.”