Chapter Text
Steve didn't mean to adopt a cat.
The little guy is sitting on the back patio by the pool, just staring. He’s a black cat, perched on the ledge of the patio. He doesn’t look frightened of Steve, or even in the least bit bothered as Steve slowly starts walking toward him.
"Where did you come from?" Steve asks when the cat doesn’t spook. It just watches him, head tilting to the side a little when he got closer. There’s no collar on the cat, nothing to signify that he belonged to anyone. He’s dirty and thin around his middle, proof to Steve that he’s likely a stray. "Do you have anyone to take care of you?"
The cat blinks.
"Yeah, me either," Steve chuckles gently, reaching out to pet his head. The cat is apprehensive at first, pulling his head back and staring at Steve with wide yellow eyes. "Right, we gotta get to know each other first. Well come on, it's warmer inside, and I have food."
Steve isn’t sure if the cat will listen, but he seems okay enough with the idea to follow Steve inside the house after all. He stays close by Steve's ankles, but not quite touching. The cat sits back on his haunches as Steve looked around the kitchen, leaning forward to nip lightly at his ankles when the promised food appeared right away.
"Food, food," Steve hisses at the insistent prompting, beginning to open up every cabinet for something that might be cat-friendly. "Oh! Cats eat fish, right? You want some tuna?"
Another blink.
"That looks like a yes to me, big guy," Steve laughs, deciding to plate up a portion of a can of tuna. He wouldn’t give the entire can to the cat until he can do some research to find out how healthy it is for the little guy, and until he knows the cat won’t engorge on too much all at once. The weeks after Steve’s surgery following the demobat bites were clear in his mind, when the feeding tube came out and he ate so much he immediately lost it all to reflex. That had been a bad day, only made better by Eddie sitting beside him in the bathroom all afternoon until he’d worked up enough courage to try eating again. There was no way Steve would do that to the little thing now.
The cat digs into the tuna immediately, even being so enthusiastic about the food that he lets Steve sit down beside him and pet along his back. Every touch is gentle, hesitant like in a moment's notice the cat won’t be comfortable with it. Still, the cat almost seems to lean into the touch, raising his back to bump further into Steve’s hand. After the food was gone, the cat walks over and plops down on the ground beside Steve, paw reaching out to grab onto his hand.
"Oh, more love?" Steve obliges, scratching at the cat's ear until he hears a gentle purr coming from it. "See, it's not so bad. You can trust me."
This is silly. What he should be doing is taking it to the nearest shelter, letting them know that it was sitting outside without any sign of belonging to anyone. He shouldn't be feeding it, petting it, oh, letting its sweet little head rest on his thigh while it sleeps—
"Guess I better get some supplies tomorrow, huh? You wanna stick around here?" Steve sighs, a smile worming its way onto his face as the cat relaxes against him. "You can stay. We'll take care of each other. Now you just need a name."
It takes a week for a name to come to Steve.
The cat warms up to the house quickly, soon becoming the new king of the castle. It takes a little longer for him to warm up to Steve, who gives the little guy his space until that trust comes.
“It’s okay, little man,” Steve tells him, sitting on the ground with his back to the kitchen island. It’s lunchtime, one of Steve’s favorite times of the day because it means the cat is distracted enough to allow some pets. “It’s still just me.”
He’d taken Robin out shopping for supplies a few days ago so the cat would have everything he could ever possibly need. Tuna could be an occasional treat, but now the cat has actual cat food served up out of a little dish with a fish painted on the side rather than a random plate Steve pulled out of the sink. He also has a breakaway collar with a little tag on it, just in case the cat ever got lost.
“How about Albert?” Steve tries, laughing as the cat looks up at him with a judgemental look. “Okay, fine, we’ll nix Albert.”
That’s just as well, he’s not sure he really wants his cat to be named after a scientist even if Dustin had been excited about the idea.
“Robin thinks we should name you Bastard for how many times I call you that,” Steve tells him, smiling as the cat purrs at his gentle petting. The little guy loves having the spot behind his ear scratched, sometimes leaning and pushing all the way to the floor with excitement. “I think you’d answer to that one.”
The cat certainly has some personality. He clearly trusts Steve, often curling up between his lap and arm on the couch when he needs a catnap. However, he’s not afraid to let Steve know when he’s not pleased about something, or when he’s unsure about a situation. The playful nipping hasn’t stopped and has quickly turned into the primary way the cat communicated with Steve. Steve wasn’t aware just a week ago that taking in a cat meant becoming comfortable with having scratches on his ankles and arms from when the cat got over being pet.
He’s also energetic though, and Steve can see the signs of how loving the little man is. “You just need some love, don’t you?” Steve sighs, smiling as the cat finishes eating and curls up at his hip. His ass had fallen asleep several minutes ago, but he won’t give this moment up for anything. The fondness he has for the cat truly snuck up on him, until Steve suddenly can’t picture ever living without the little guy.
Why do the best people do that? Eddie had snuck up on Steve too. Somewhere between being pressed to the wall with a broken bottle at his throat and driving Eddie home from the hospital in April, they’d become friends. Maybe more friendly than Steve would ever admit to anyone else, simply because the way he blushed and smiled around Eddie certainly wasn’t how he’d acted around any of his other friends. He snuck up on Steve Harrington, and now Steve can’t imagine living without the man either.
A gentle nudging pulls Steve from his thoughts. He looks down to see the cat readjusting, burrowing his head further into the sweatpants Steve is wearing. His paw reaches up and latches onto Steve’s thigh, holding on as if to say ‘please don’t leave’.
“I’m not going anywhere, little man,” Steve promises, reaching down and petting the cat’s exposed stomach softly. His hand pauses, though, when a thought occurs to him. “How do you feel about the name Eddie?”
The cat’s gentle purr is enough of an answer for Steve.
Eddie's pretty sure he's going crazy.
It starts with innocuous questions from the kids when Steve comes to pick them up from D&D night. "Hey, how's Eddie doing?" Max asks when Steve gets out of his car, standing by the open driver's side door as if to signal he needed to take off quickly.
It's odd that Max would ask Steve that when Eddie was standing right there, but he doesn't question it.
"Steve! Is Eddie settling in okay?" That's Dustin. It's been weird after the Upside Down, having been cleared of the murder charges but still not welcomed back into the hearts of the Hawkins people (though he's not sure he ever really had a spot there, to begin with). It's nice for the kids to be worried about him, but again, Steve Harrington doesn't really seem like the most knowledgeable party in the room. Sure, Steve is the person Eddie calls when the nightmares get to be too much, or when the unrelenting need to check on the group in the middle of the night keeps him from resting. The entire group went through the same thing, but sometimes Eddie feels like Steve’s the only one who gets the way he’s dealing with it. So sure, Steve might know how Eddie’s doing a bit better than some of the others, but more than Eddie himself?
Sometimes, though, it's easier not to ask questions and go with it, especially with this band of hooligans.
"Did you see Steve with Eddie yesterday? He was dancing around with him to Springsteen, it was the sweetest thing."
Eddie doesn’t know if Nancy saw something that he didn't, but he's fairly certain he did not get to dance with Steve yesterday. The thought alone has him curling a bit of his hair around his finger, eyes staring at the table distractedly. The image of having that strong body pressed against his, so close he could feel Steve's heart beating as quickly as his own, hands wrapped up in each other as they swung to whatever gentle music Steve liked to play when everyone was around playing unbidden in his mind.
He wishes.
But it's the day Eddie walks into Family Video and overhears Robin's conversation with Steve that does it.
"Have you gotten Eddie to sit in your lap yet?"
What.
Eddie ducks behind one of the shelves before they can see him, determined to hear what Steve has to say about it. He wouldn't call it eavesdropping, per se, especially since the conversation is about him. He has a right to hear, after all, and anyone would back him up on that.
"No, he'll always sit right next to me instead," Steve sighs dramatically, and Eddie can practically envision the way Steve must be draped over the center counter. "I mean, the little shit practically begs for my attention all day but completely ignores me when I try to do something about it. I tried to pick him up yesterday and the little fucker bit me."
Now there's a thought. Eddie could think of a few things he'd like to bite o—
"But he did sleep in bed with me! Slept right on my chest until I fell asleep. I call that progress."
Now that's just cruel. Does Steve know how many nights he's idly thought about the same thing? How many times he laid on his thin pillow and wished it was Steve's fucking ex-jock pecs holding him up? Was it all some joke, a way to tease Eddie after finding out about his crush on him?
The little shit practically begs for my attention all day.
Shit, that was it. Steve wouldn't do that, right?
Except.
Except Eddie can vividly remember the day when Carol Perkins and Tommy Hagan got together, and Steve had been so relentless in his teasing that even Eddie felt some amount of sympathy for the pair. That ended the second the two turned their anger toward the freaks and geeks of the school, of course, but it had existed for a brief moment if only because of Steve Harrington's ability to hurt when he wanted to.
Well, two could play at that game. If Steve thinks this is funny, spreading rumors and rubbing it in Eddie's face that he couldn't have him, well, he'll show him just what he’s missing.
Eddie's heart races as he grabs the nearest movie case, sidling up to the counter and trying to act like he wasn't bothered by anything he'd heard.
"Hey, Harrington," Eddie smirks, dropping the case onto the counter in a move that he hopes screamed cool, cool, cool.
Steve raises an eyebrow, grabbing the movie and beginning to process of letting him rent it. " Can't Buy Me Love? Didn't think you were the Rom-Com kind of guy."
"I'm not," Eddie laughs. This could not be more perfect. He hasn't seen the movie, but he's overheard Nancy telling the plot of it to Robin in an attempt to get a date out of her. The universe must be on his side for once, urging him to remind Steve that he wasn't the only person who knew how to hurt. "My date insisted. I don't really get it though. Why Dempsey would give up everything for the pretty popular one is above me."
"It's a cheesy movie, but the plot has some p—"
"I mean they're all the same anyway. Perfect little airheads using daddy's money to make friends. Sure Amanda Peterson's character has the looks, but what else does she have, really?"
Steve stands stock-still, hazel eyes focused intently on the movie case. He seems so unbothered by the whole thing, carrying on with grabbing the cash Eddie'd slid over the counter.
"I mean, she's a perfect representation of all those sporty types, isn't she? She expects any freak out there to just want her because she's cool like we can't all see right through the bullshit. "
That one felt like shards on Eddie's tongue, remembering the night Steve had told him about the Halloween party, about the public humiliation he's suffered, and all the heartbreak that came after. Still, nothing could hurt quite so bad as hearing Steve mocking him, telling everyone they knew that Eddie was doing all of these things he could only dream of doing. It was a sick joke, one that deserved only the best retaliation. If Steve was so certain he was different from who he’d been a few years ago, then he’ll have to do better than play sick pranks like this.
Eddie can only relish in the shocked look on Steve's face, one he's sure matched his own when he heard Eddie and lap in the same sentence.
"I'm sure it'll still be a decent movie though," Eddie finishes with a little smile, picking the case back up.
Steve hasn't stopped staring. His lips finally close back together, eyebrows drawn tightly as he considers Eddie. He seems to shake it off, Steve’s entire face shuttering into something like casual nonchalance.
"Have a fun date then, Munson," Steve says, and Eddie nods his agreeance.
"Have a fun night too, Harrington."
Eddie doesn't stop at Robin's loud shout of indignation. He doesn't stop for anything, continuing to his van until he can no longer see Steve's face.