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It starts with the kids. Of course it does, it sometimes feels like everything good and bad starts with the kids even now that they’re (mostly) teens.
They constantly call him names when Steve acts like the responsible adult that they all so obviously need. ‘Mother hen’ comes up a lot, as does ‘stick in the mud’ and ‘hypocrite’. Steve ignores all of them, just like he ignores the ‘mama bear’ that makes another appearance after he inserts himself into the latest brewing fight between the basketball team and the hellfire club.
Unfortunately, Eddie doesn’t.
“Mama bear?” And he’s not going to any time soon if the delight in his voice is anything to go by.
Damn it. As if he doesn't already have enough nicknames to make Steve blush! Whatever, if he can ignore the kids - even Henderson - calling him mama bear, he can ignore Eddie, right?
Wrong. Oh, so wrong.
Steve doesn’t know who he was trying to fool, but ever since they walked through the Upside Down side by side, he hasn't been able to ignore a single thing about Eddie Munson. Especially not when Eddie’s out there calling him big boy and sweetheart and exchanging the King title he used to throw around for ‘mama bear’.
It’s become his new favorite way to invite Steve along to whatever plans he has for the day. Any indication that Steve might be thinking of sitting one out and Eddie's quick to tease him with it.
“Not going? But who’s going to keep your little cubs safe, mama bear?”
“Come on, you can’t say no. Mama bear's gotta be there to growl at all the baddies who get too close!”
“Doesn’t mama bear want to see me home safely? What ever will I do without him?”
Always with that teasing grin. Steve always rolls his eyes, but he can’t help his flush. He never can when Eddie leans in close.
“Yeah, yeah.” He says to this last question, pushing Eddie back before he can fall off the kitchen counter he’s tipping over precariously on. “So long as you don’t jackrabbit off at another red light, I’ll get you home.”
“It was for a kitten! You know it was for a kitten, dude.”
Steve shares a look with Robin because she was there that day Eddie nearly gave him a heart attack, she knows exactly what it was. She shakes her head and then turns to Nancy who’s watching with her eyebrows raised.
“It wasn’t a kitten.”
“A cat then. Christ, you’re all so picky about semantics.” Leaning back, hands gripping the edge of the counter, Eddie nearly brains himself on the cabinets rolling his eyes before Steve yanks him forward by his jacket. Eddie slips off the counter at the tug and stares at him from far too close, eyes wide. A beat passes before he grins and throws his arms around Steve’s shoulders theatrically. “My hero!”
Warmth flares across his cheeks again and Steve hopes he’s only a little pink when he turns his head to give Nancy a flat look.
“It was a raccoon.”
Eddie immediately recoils with a gasp, putting a hand to his heart.
“Stevie! How could you call Meowrwen such a thing!”
That makes Steve pause. Closing his eyes, he heaves a big sigh and hopes to god he’s misunderstanding everything.
“Eddie.” Steve feels so tired. He doesn’t want to know the answer to this question, but he has to ask.
“Yes, Steve?” He took too long and Eddie’s always too happy to fill the silence. Usually Steve appreciates that, however, right now he just rubs his eyes.
“Did you keep the raccoon?” Please say no. Say no. Please.
“Of course not!” Thank god. Steve sags as he lets out a sigh of relief, only for Eddie to continue, “The cat though...”
He trails off with a growing smile at the glare this earns him, then laughs as he jumps away before Steve can grab him by the shoulders and shake him.
“It’s not a cat!”
Eddie loops around a table and then tries to hide behind Nancy, who just watches with a smile. She doesn’t move to protect him from Steve though, so he abandons her for Robin who doesn’t even give him an illusion of safety before shoving Eddie in Steve’s direction.
Shaking her head, Robin ignores both Eddie’s ‘oh shit’ and Steve’s ‘gotcha’ as he manages to grab his prey before Eddie can run off in another direction.
“I’ve got to get home before my parents freak. Figure this out yourselves.” Grabbing her bag she looks to Nancy. “Ready to go?”
“Yeah, let’s go.” She pulls on her purse and gives Steve a little wave on her way out of the room. “Thanks for dinner and a movie.”
A year ago that would have sent Steve soaring, now it just gives him a soft warm feeling as he flashes her a smile and keeps his hold on Eddie who keeps trying to escape his arms. He’s failing horribly because he’s laughing too hard.
“Stop jumping around!” Steve’s exasperated order is ignored and Eddie nearly stomps on his toes while still attempting to jackrabbit out of his arms.
“What am I supposed to do, man? You’ve got me trapped!” Another dramatic gasp falls from his lips and he leans to one side so he can flash a comically ‘terrified’ look over his shoulder at Steve. “Oh no! Is our mama bear hungry? Am I going to get eaten?”
There’s something in that question that warms Steve in an entirely different way and he tugs Eddie a little closer before the absurdity of the question has him making a face.
“What? No, we just had pizza.” The boxes are still on the table actually, he should probably clean those before they go. Chase complete and suitably distracted, Steve lets Eddie go with a little shove. “Besides, I don’t think rabbits like you are all that filling.”
“R-Rabbits?”
The unexpected stutter makes Steve turn back with a frown, but Eddie’s looking the other way and Steve can only see his hand and where he’s holding it near his face behind all that hair.
“Yeah, rabbits. Constantly running around and jumping everywhere, right? Just like you, bunny.” Steve confirms as casually as he can manage before grabbing the boxes to trash them. Walking back, he leans over a bit to see Eddie’s face and manages to catch a glimpse before Eddie turns to lead the way to the car.
It’s flushed a pretty pink.
Oh-ho, so Eddie Munson can dish it out but can’t take it? Catching his tongue between his teeth, Steve bites back a grin. He grabs his keys and follows Eddie out, completing his chore along the way.
Then he waits until after he’s got the car started, but before Eddie manages to look him in the eyes again to test his theory.
“What’s wrong, bunny?” He asks as innocently as he can manage. “You were hopping around all over in there and now you’re so quiet. You wear yourself out?”
Out of the corner of his eye Steve gets half a second to see Eddie’s shocked look before he turns to the window with a hand over his mouth. He was right! Oh, he can see why Eddie uses all those nicknames on him if it’s always this fun.
However, he also knows what it’s like to be teased like this, so Steve drops it for now to move back to the more pressing question.
“But seriously, you didn’t keep the raccoon, did you?”
That gets him a snort and the rest of the drive sees Eddie getting more animated to the point where he basically leaps from the car when they get to the trailer. He never does give a straight answer, but Steve’s mostly certain Eddie doesn’t actually have a raccoon as a pet if only because Wayne wouldn’t allow him to.
And that would probably have been that. Steve living his life with the added benefit of being able to give as good as he got in at least part of this ongoing nickname war he’s having with what he’s finally starting to realize is his crush and not just a good friend.
Except, when he’s out trying to find a good gift for Robin’s birthday, he sees it.
It's not the first thing he pauses to look at though. That's a plush brown bear with a little shirt in a row of stuffed animals. The fur though - he reaches out to brush the edge of a tuft with one finger as he inspects it closer.
It matches the color of his hair exactly.
“Huh.” Not something Robin would like, however. She’d probably just make fun of him actually. Steve goes to turn away and jumps as a salesclerk basically materializes in front of him.
“Do you like it?” The older woman seems genuinely curious as she smiles up at him.
“Uh, yeah. It’s nice, but-”
“They’re customizable you know.” Reaching up, she pulls off a different stuffed animal in a small jacket from further down the shelf. Turning the toy around, she shows him the back which is a blank black. “I’ve got this embroidery machine and it can do pictures and lettering at just the right size for their shirts! Would you like to see it?”
She looks like what Steve imagined his grandmother would as a kid, all silvery gray curls and a knitted cardigan with a pair of glasses hanging on a beaded chain around her neck. Even if he could say no to the woman’s delighted smile, the animal in her hands would make it impossible.
Because it too has a familiar color of fluffy fur, but it’s not Steve’s hair it matches.
“May I?” Reaching out he waits for her to nod before gently accepting the dark brown bunny from her. He turns it over and as he looks at those big, shiny brown eyes he can feel himself start to smile. Steve can almost hear his voice in the back of his head, calling him another of those damn nicknames.
It’s not what he’s looking for, but it’s also kind of perfect?
“Well?” She asks after a moment, taking a step towards the back counter of the store and gesturing towards the machine set up there.
After a beat, Steve gives in and the woman all but twinkles up at him.
“Alright. Do you have any thread that will show up on black?”
“Young man, I have just the thing!”
And that’s how Steve walks out of her store with a little poorer than expected, but with two gifts and a pocket full of surprisingly good hard candy. Robin gets the little statute he found for her and loves it just as much as he thought.
Eddie - well. Eddie doesn’t say anything because Steve can’t think of how to give it to him.
Somehow, in all the excitement of seeing such a perfect bunny, Steve forgot that most guys don’t want stuffed animals. Forget the fact that he’s already a bit off around Eddie due to his crush, stuttering at the strangest times or tripping over himself at the exact wrong moments, he's sure even Dustin wouldn’t want a stuffed animal at his age no matter how adorable.
So the bunny lives in his room. It lived in his car at first, when he was still trying to think of ways to hand it over. Now that he’s accepted that it’ll never happen, it’s kind of nice having a reminder of Eddie to cuddle close when he wakes up from a nightmare.
Which means that he kind of forgets it’s there when the kids push Eddie into the pool fully dressed.
Eddie tries to drip dry as well as he can, but denim and leather just don’t do well when soaking wet. Resisting the urge to reach up and touch that damp hair, to push it behind Eddie’s ear so he can see if the pink on his face is a blush or a sunburn, Steve tosses an extra towel in his direction and waves him inside.
“Come on. I think I’ve got something you can wear. Maybe it’ll keep you from dying from heat exhaustion.”
“Oooh, not dying, my favorite! You know me so well, sweetheart.” Eddie steps close, his arm brushing against Steve’s bare chest as he makes his way inside. Between that and the smile he tosses his way at close range, Steve can’t help his own flush as he grips the door handle to keep himself from leaning into the touch.
“Yeah, yeah. Showing some basic human decency and all I get is sass.” Closing the door to keep the cooler air inside, Steve puts a hand on the damp leather and pushes Eddie to the stairs. “Keep it moving or you’re going to catch a cold.”
“Aw, is mama bear worried I’ll pass something to the kiddos?” When that gets him a harder shove Eddie cackles his way up the stairs as Steve shakes his head.
“Keep it up and you can just air dry, bunny. I’m sure you’ll love smelling like chlorine the rest of the night.”
Pushing Steve’s bedroom door open, a slightly flushed Eddie hangs on it dramatically, towel hanging from his jacketed shoulders like a cape.
“You wouldn’t!”
Steve leans in close, smirking as he passes Eddie. The way those brown eyes flick down makes hope sing in his chest and his stomach swoop. It takes effort to try and push it down. Looks and brief touches are all well and good, but Eddie never does more than blush at his flirting no matter how obvious.
“Watch me.” Turning away, Steve heads for his dresser to try and find something Eddie won’t try to burn if he even suggests it. He’s got a few sweats in here that aren’t sports themed. In the bottom drawer, right?
After the door shuts, the quiet stretches for longer than usual, but Steve doesn’t notice until he’s found a suitably dark shirt and sweatpants to offer. When he looks up, he finds Eddie near the bed towel and jacketless, but with a familiar plush in his hands. It feels like his heart stops.
Oh, shit. Before he can find his breath to distract him, Eddie’s already turning the little guy over.
“Bunson?” Eddie reads, tone indecipherable under the renewed and overly loud pounding coming from Steve’s heart. Long fingers trail across the back, likely following the lines of the guitar stitched there under the name.
How the hell is Steve going to explain this?
“It’s for you.” His mouth says without running it by his brain first. Steve bites his tongue to try and keep any other secrets from leaking out after that one.
Eddie holds the bunny close, but doesn’t actually touch it to his damp clothes as he turns to look at Steve with almost comically wide eyes.
“For me?” The question is soft, but it feels loud in the quiet of Steve’s room.
He’s not sure why Eddie’s surprised because the answer is literally stitched on the back, but Steve responds truthfully because a lie would be so easy to disprove.
“Yeah.” Swallowing, Steve looks down and sees the clothes in his hands. Right, gotta clean and dry Eddie’s things. He stands up from his squat and holds the bundle out. “Here you go. Once you’re changed I’ll put your stuff in the wash.”
Eddie stares at him for a beat then drags his eyes down to the clothes. A slow blink later, he reaches out with his empty hand and accepts them only to toss the bundle aside onto the bed. Before Steve can protest or try to leave so Eddie can use his room (to change, in Steve’s bedroom, into Steve’s clothes! If he weren’t already in a crisis, that would be sending him into one), the man steps closer to shove the fluffy plush into his face.
“Stevie, if you wanted to gift me this bunny, why the hell is it on your bed?” The end of the question raises dangerously high.
Steve winces. See? This is why he didn’t give it to him. Who gets their guy friends soft toys? No one. And now Steve’s gone and made it weird anyway.
“Because I realized you probably don’t want it.” That’s a valid reason and the truth to boot. Steve looks down at Bunson because he doesn’t want to see Eddie scoff at the idea that he might ever want it. Reaching up, Steve tries to take the bunny back before - well, Eddie’s not mean enough to chuck it across the room, but Steve could use the comfort of holding the stuffed animal right now.
He doesn’t even get to feel the fur before it’s snatched away.
“Don’t want it?” Steve’s not sure Eddie could sound more incredulous if he tried. Blinking at him in surprise, Steve watches as Eddie pulls the bunny close to brush that soft fur against his cheek and oh god, Steve was right. The color is just perfect. The only reason Bunson isn’t lost in those curls is because they’re a little darker than usual from the dip in the pool. “Why wouldn’t I want him, he’s adorable .”
“Well, yeah.” That’s obvious. Anyone with eyes can see how cute the little bunny is. Steve thought that was going to be the issue. “But it’s not very metal, you know. I didn’t think of that before buying it though, so I just kept it.”
“Instead of returning it?” Oh, that’s a good point. Steve could have tried that, but he’s not going to.
“It’s a custom design.” No way to get that out without ruining the jacket. Maybe they’d take the bunny back, but Steve doubts it. “Besides, I liked it, you know. It’s comforting.”
Smiling, Eddie lets his head tilt a little to almost nuzzle the toy in his hands and Steve feels like his heart might explode because Jesus Christ he thought the bunny was cute by itself, but this? This is on another level. If he could take a picture of this he’d never be sad again.
“Comforting enough to stay on your bed?” The teasing smile has returned and Steve snorts, nodding.
“Obviously. He keeps the nightmares away.” Which is a miracle all by itself.
“Oh? Now I really want him.” Eddie murmurs almost to himself. Pulling Bunson back to look at him, he addresses the bunny. “Think you can do that for me?”
Steve’s heart unexpectedly pangs a little bit. He hadn’t thought about what would happen if Eddie actually liked it. Not after he brought it up to his room. The thought of being alone in this big house again without even the little plush to hold is surprisingly painful.
Watching Eddie duck in and nod as if listening to what the toy has to say before holding it close again loosens the tight feeling in Steve’s chest, but it doesn’t fully leave him.
“He looks like me.” Eddie says eventually, statement as confident as it should be. The resemblance is extremely obvious. When he looks up from the doll with it pressed to his cheek once more, something about the look in his eyes makes Steve’s skin tingle. “You find me comforting, sweetheart?”
Does he find Eddie Munson, metalhead, leader of hellfire, and fellow wrangler of their little hellions comforting? The man who waltzed back into his life with a broken bottle at his neck? Who teases him at every opportunity even after Steve saved his ass from bleeding out in another dimension? Does Steve find him comforting?
“Yes.” Steve tells the truth because that hope he pushed away earlier is climbing out of the dark well he dropped it down. This time he can’t look away, because he needs to know what Eddie thinks of that.
He’s not a mind reader, but Eddie seems to like the answer as his expression softens. Stepping closer he reaches out to Steve with his empty hand, the one that’s still holding the bunny dropping to his side.
“Yeah? And what about your bed, big boy?” The words send heat zinging down Steve’s spine. He can’t help but glance over at the furniture in question before focusing his attention on Eddie as his calloused fingers brush along his jaw. “Am I comforting enough to stay on your bed?”
Steve’s lips fall apart so he can take in a shallow, shaky gasp at the thought of Eddie on his bed. It’s definitely not the first time he’s thought about it, but having him here, so close, filling nearly every one of his senses with his presence - it takes a moment for Steve to collect himself enough to answer.
“Yes.” He breathes the word out and then finally tears his eyes away from Eddie’s mouth to see what his reaction to that is. Unfortunately, he’s done that in the wrong order, because Eddie’s already closing his eyes as he leans forward to press his lips to Steve’s.
Gasping at the feel of them, Steve lets his own eyes close because they’ve barely started and he’s already feeling lightheaded. He presses into it, reaching out and up to grab Eddie by his damp shirt, pulling him closer. The hand on his jaw adjusts the angle of the kiss as Eddie moves against him. Steve didn’t hear even a soft thud, but Bunson is MIA when Eddie’s other hand runs down Steve’s naked chest, drawing a moan from him.
His disappearance probably for the best as the next half hour isn’t suitable for such innocent eyes. Steve’s not sure how far they might have gone without some of the kids stomping up the stairs to pound on his thankfully locked door about getting dinner. He pants against Eddie’s lips as quietly as he can, before calling back in as even a tone as he can manage.
“You’ve got five minutes do decide on a place and what you want before I come down there.” Eddie laughs into the side of his neck and then plants a wet kiss against the bruise he put there earlier. In return, Steve tugs at his nearly dry hair and gets a hiss for his troubles. “If you haven’t got an answer everyone likes by then I’m ordering whatever I want and you little shits will just have to live with it.”
The protests are loud, but they all scramble away when he makes some ticking noises.
“Mama bear.” The nickname is murmured against the underside of his jaw before Eddie sits back with visible reluctance. “Does that include me?”
“Which part?” Eddie is quickly becoming the center of Steve’s every thought, so it’s likely.
“What you want.” He looks unsure for a moment as if they hadn’t just made out on Steve’s bed for the last twenty or thirty minutes. Steve swoops in to try and kiss it from his face.
“Absolutely.” The amount of feeling he tries to pack into that word when they part makes Steve’s teeth hurt a little, but he’s had a taste now. He can’t let Eddie think this isn’t for keeps. Steve just won’t risk it.
“Good.” Eddie’s grinning so wide he can’t drop more than a single kiss to Steve’s lips. “Great!”
That word gets punctuated with another kiss as do the next three happy exclamations until Steve is laughing in Eddie’s lap. Eventually, he pushes himself up and then grabs Eddie's arm to pull him to his feet.
“Go get changed.” Tossing the long forgotten clothes at him, Steve waits until Eddie shuts the door to the ensuite before holding a hand to his mouth as he stares at the slightly damp blankets where Eddie was just sitting.
His cheeks hurt from smiling so much and his lips are probably tellingly red and raw, but he can’t bring himself to care.
Trying to think of anything else so he doesn’t try to follow Eddie into the bathroom, Steve looks around for Bunson. It takes a minute, but he eventually finds him on the floor on the other side of the bed. He picks him up and presses a little kiss to the bunny’s forehead before setting him on a pillow.
Eddie doesn’t take the toy with him that night. Which is both a relief and a little disheartening, because Steve thought Eddie had liked little Bunson.
A few days later he learns he was right. Because Eddie walks in to propose a trade with a familiar stuffed animal in his hands and a teasing smile on his face. Steve accepts and Bunson goes home with Eddie that night, but that’s alright.
He’s got Bearrington to help keep the nightmares away and he may have a little varsity jacket with his name on it instead of Bunson's 'leather' one, but he smells of Eddie and hard candies so Steve has the sweetest dreams.