Archive of Our Own ^beta

It's not too much of an exaggeration to describe the descent of five lively teens into a basement as a literal avalanche. Because that's exactly what it feels like some days, not that there's anything wrong with that, assuming everyone finds a soft place to land. If it does have to be a natural disaster then at least it's a quick one, and Eddie's already picked a chair - even if only two of its legs are currently on the floor - before half of the kids have their jackets off.

There's a brief period of shouting, and then a slightly longer period of intent snack stacking, in piles that he can tell are in no way structurally sound. There are dice on the floor and someone has already been accused of cheating before anything has even been set up. So no different to any other Wednesday so far. It's familiar enough that Eddie doesn't want to complain. Though he will because he likes to discourage rowdiness while he's trying to worldbuild.

But then Mike is dragging a familiar blue bag strap into view in one hand, before lifting the entire thing from the chair it had been dumped on when Steve had to disentangle Dustin from his own backpack.

"Bag," he says, mouth already half full, expression unsurprised. It's clear he has no intention of actually getting his ass up and returning it to Steve though, who's already gone up the stairs and out, had maybe even left already after dropping the kids off. Eddie's the one who has to stretch an arm over the table and catch it, before rocking forward on his chair to get to his feet.

"Anyone looks at anything while I'm gone, I'll know about it."

"No you won't," Max points out from the sofa, looking exactly like someone who would ferret out secrets and then share them for snacks.

Honestly, it depends, at least three of these kids give out guilt like white noise, and no amount of overlaid innocence or sullen posturing could hide it. Max is better at hiding it but she's also sometimes terrible at hiding how smug she is about not getting caught. Which is a pretty big giveaway.

"I'll know," he repeats, two fingers pointed around the table before he backs up the stairs and rocks the door open with his ass. "I'll know and there will be consequences!"

Steve is actually only halfway to the back door, shoes squeaking across the kitchen, hands delving in his pockets, face confused like he knows he'd forgotten something but couldn't remember exactly what. It's kind of funny how often Eddie's seen him wearing that exact expression.

"Hey!" he holds the missing bag up, strap bunched in one hand, and Steve's brain visibly switches back on.

"Shit, yeah, that's what I was missing, thanks man." He takes it from him, swinging it over his shoulder and tugging at the zipper. Open or shut he can't seem to decide for a minute. "I have a bunch of stuff I have to do before I head home and I swear I'm going to forget half of it - probably have already forgotten half of it." He grimaces, shaking his hand a little to get teeth to bite. The late sun is turning the kitchen a moody yellow, hopefully none of the things he has to do require too much daylight because that's going to be checking out soon.

"No problem."

"I'll see you later," Steve says, concentrating half on him and half on the zipper, which seems to have decided to make his life miserable on purpose.

"Yeah." Eddie needs to get back downstairs before the lure of looking through his shit becomes too much for a bunch of teens with no self-control.

Steve finally gets his bag fully done up, gives a half-satisfied and half-annoyed huff of triumph before he's straightening up. Eddie tips his head back a bit, so the late sun isn't right in his face and Steve's leaning forward before he's even registering it and -

Holy shit.

Eddie wasn't expecting to be kissed today. A dozen idle thoughts scatter like collapsing buildings and every single bit of his attention is now focused on the sudden warm pressure over his mouth, the sliding closeness of a nose that isn't his own, and the unexpectedly vibrant smell of cologne, hair spray and something deeper that he suspects is just pure, undiluted Steve. There's a flare of breath across his cheek, a shuddery warm exhale that sets his whole face alight, and then Steve is pulling away, his bag sliding off his shoulder in slow motion. He looks about as shocked as Eddie has ever seen him.

Eddie has no idea what expression he's wearing right now. But his mouth is half open and his lips feel wet, and that feels horribly incriminating somehow.

Steve makes a sound which isn't a word in any language and then fights his way backwards out of the door, ends up barely closing it behind him. Eddie definitely hears a strangled out 'shit' before Steve rounds the corner of the house and disappears. He stares at the door for a second, feeling the exact opposite of every time he's ever been punched and knows two things for certain. Firstly, oh yeah, he's definitely into dudes, not that he needed that confirmed but now it's extra confirmed, stamp that fucker and send it off to be ratified. Secondly, he's one hundred percent sure that Steve hadn't meant to do that, because that moment had all the car-crash hallmarks of a complete and total accident.

Eddie's pretty sure he just pavlov-dogged Steve.

He thinks that maybe he just jabbed a finger into some sort of stupid, post-date instinct without meaning to. Because he's a person that Steve spends time with, and hopefully kind of likes, but they're also saying goodbye near a doorway and he'd smiled and tipped his head back in exactly the right way - or the wrong way for Steve, he guesses, fuck. Steve had probably reacted to that exact set of circumstances so many times he doesn't even have to think about it. Because he clearly hadn't put an ounce of thought into it this one time.

Obviously, or he wouldn't have kissed Eddie like that was a totally normal thing to do. He can feel something building in his throat that's either a hysterical laugh or some sort of strangled noise of misery. Because of course Steve Harrington had not intentionally kissed him and now everyone has to live with that.

Honestly, Eddie really does not have time for this right now, because he currently has a group of teens - who he can actually hear now the world has stopped dissolving in the blare of a mental dial tone - he has a bunch of teens downstairs that will absolutely start getting up to shit that he'll have to deal with if he doesn't show his face right now. Whether his face is ready to be shown or not.

He pushes the basement door open with a sneaker.

"I will know," he says from the top, and if his voice sounds a little bit like he's just been cracked open like a miserable walnut then he hopes no one has the balls to mention it.

Luckily they seem to have considered his stuff untouchable, or figured he was too close to get away with any snooping at least, which knowing them is far more likely. He sets up while they festoon the table with snacks and he thinks he makes an excellent show of not having lost his mind in the two minutes he was gone.

Really? In the middle of the kitchen, not even a damn word of warning?

If you accidentally bait someone into kissing you does it even count? It doesn't count, right? This is definitely a valid take-backsies situation here.

Do not pass Go.

Do not count that as a first kiss.

Go directly to jail.

Shit, ok, maybe not the last one. Still feels like way too soon to be joking about that.

The kids aren't currently looking at him like he's insane, but he feels like impending insanity is a minor but credible threat right now. He can't even remember what he was supposed to be doing. He can't remember the backstory he plotted out for the tavern keeper, can't remember which guards are being mind-controlled. He could just look but he doesn't normally have to do that. It feels like cheating. He had this whole thing prepared and then Steve had to go and -

- and kiss him like that was a thing they just did.

Ok, but this technically wasn't his fault, for a change, and Eddie knows Steve well enough at this point to be fairly certain - though with more hope than actual proof - that he will entirely take the blame for accidentally kissing Eddie in the Wheeler's kitchen because his body hadn't bothered to let his brain catch up. Accidentally kissing him and invalidating his first kiss like some sort of dirty cheater at the kiss olympics. Which sucks but Eddie gets it, he gets it, he's done fucked up stuff by accident and this isn't even close to 'set the house on fire' or 'release monsters from another dimension' levels of bad. No one is going to die because of this mistake. It's not even a code magenta in the grand scheme of things.

He figures Steve will either awkwardly apologise and it will be one of the most uncomfortable moments of Eddie's life, definitely top ten at least, or he'll brush it off and pretend the whole thing never happened. The choice is probably going to be up to him. Whether he makes a thing out of it. Eddie would normally be one hundred percent behind making a thing out of an entertaining fuck-up like this, and the fact that it involves him isn't even a dealbreaker. No one can flagellate you quite like yourself. But Steve wouldn't want it to be weird and Eddie kind of owes Steve reduced weirdness at the very least. At the very least. Steve is going to try and fix this, he just knows it, and Eddie has to let him.

The hysterical laugh breaks ranks and makes it halfway out before he can stop it.

The kids eyeball him but he suspects they just think he's up to something. Which is usually true, he is normally up to something. Not so much today though. Today his brain is just a dish of paint, the roller squelch-squelching its way through it with no walls to cover.

Steve Harrington kissed him.

Accidentally, so it probably shouldn't count but still.

Still.

He's lost the thread of the story and everyone's waiting and he can't even remember what's supposed to be in the basement of the tavern. They're well past rats at this point and though he feels a lot like a gelatinous cube right now he understands that's definitely something you need a run up to. Even if, at this point, the surprise of it might go some way towards him feeling less like the only person going through a crisis right now.

He never cancels, is the thing.

Eddie's held court through stomach flu before. Steve Harrington is not stomach flu.

He might be worse.

Eddie might be in big trouble.