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Steve wraps his fingers around the strands of Eddie’s curly hair. “Man, I don’t know how you don’t sweat your ass off with all of this hair up here.”
“Like you have room to talk, dingus, you’re literally called ‘The Hair’ Harrington.” Robin shouts from the other end of the Family Video. They’re supposed to be reorganizing the stock for a huge inventory shipment that Keith says is coming at the end of the week.
Eddie smiles over his shoulder, “I’ve had my hair since I was about ten. I’m not about to get rid of it just because of some heat.” Steve watches him turn his head forward again and twiddle his thumbs over each other. His shoulders periodically tense and relax as Steve continues to braid the hair down Eddie’s back.
After a few minutes, Robin comes up behind him. “I can’t believe you know how to braid hair.” She teases.
Steve’s knuckles brush Eddie’s back again and he feels him tense again. “Max taught me one day when she couldn’t get her hair to cooperate and El wasn’t around.” He offers.
“Max let you braid her hair?” Eddie tilts his head a little and Steve pushes his neck a little with the tip of his finger. “I can’t imagine her letting you anywhere near her head, to be honest.” Eddie’s shoulders slump when Steve reaches the bottom of his hair. He pulls it away from Eddie’s shoulders with one hand and takes the hairband from Robin’s outstretched wrist.
HIs fingers get caught in the hairband on the second twist and as he pulls them free, he accidentally tugs Eddie’s hair, jerking his neck back. “Fuck, I’m sorry man.” Steve runs his fingers over the back of his neck, under the braid. Eddie tenses again. “Are you okay? You’re tense.” He asks finally.
“Hmm, yeah. I’m good, you just startled me.” He looks over at Robin, “Thanks Rob, it’s been a long time since I’ve put my hair up like this.” He pulls his head forwards just a tad. “Are you finished?”
Steve pulls away, nodding, “Yep. All done.” He goes to pat Eddie’s shoulder but Eddie’s standing nearly a second after he finishes talking. Eddie walks to the front door, mumbling about needing a smoke.
Steve settles on his knees next to Robin. She’s looking over the handwritten note Keith left them about making space. “You know he doesn’t like to be touched a lot, right?” Robin asks out of the blue, putting the paper down on the ground.
“What do you mean? Everyone likes to be touched.” Steve scoffs. He’s never met someone that doesn’t like to be touched. Hell, he can’t get enough of it. If he could convince the kids to always ride on his back or hold hands with Robin all the time, he’d be forever happy.
“No, they don’t.” She pushes her hands into the tops of her knees to stand. “And Eddie doesn’t like to be touched more than he has to.” She picks the paper up off the floor and puts it next to the computer.
“How do you know that?”
“Because he told me after the bats. Also, dingus, it’s obvious if you just look at him when someone touches him. He gets all tense and his face squeezes like he’s uncomfortable.”
~-~
“Bonita means handsome.” Robin offers some time later. Steve asked her about her Spanish class one day and offered to run through vocab if she ever needed help.
“Do you want me to use it in a sentence for you?” Steve looks at her. Eddie tilts his head from the other side of the counter. He came in a few minutes ago from his smoke break.
“Yes.” She grins.
He looks at Eddie, “Do you feel bonita?”
“I feel bonita.” Eddie deadpans.
“Wonderful, because you look bonita!” Steve claps his hands and shouts.
A wide grin breaks over Eddie’s face and he throws his head back in a laugh. “Bonita actually means beautiful. I should know, I took Spanish I three times.”
“What the hell, Robin!”