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Steve Harrington has always been an accident-prone human- and it’s all coming back to bite him in the ass. He sat in the doctor's office on the stupid bed with noisy ass paper on it while Robin sat in a chair next to him, waiting for the doctor to come back and tell him what was happening.
Steve wasn’t gonna lie, he was kinda freaked out, he knew he’d had his head hit a lot, but he never thought he got hit that hard. He’d been having a hard time seeing since a couple of years ago, but glasses fixed that just fine, and he only wore them when it was important, like reading or something. He didn’t think he looked good.
But this time after getting in that fight he’d had darkness around the edges of his vision, he tried to ignore it at first, hoping it would go away, but it’d slowly been creeping further across his field of vision.
Robin reached over and put a hand on his knee. “I’ll be okay, Steve,” she said softly, trying to comfort him.
Steve gave her a tight smile, he didn’t agree or believe her, but he didn’t want her to know that. His anxiety was his alone to bear. He fidgeted with his hands for a few more seconds before there was a knock on the door and the doctor walked back in.
“Hey, Steve Harrington?” he asked, a smile on his face and clipboard in his hands. Steve nodded. “How are you doing?” he asked.
Steve shrugged. “Kinda freaking out, man.” he chuckled, trying to play his honesty off as a joke. But the doctor nodded in understanding with a sympathetic smile instead of laughing with him.
“That’s understandable.” he nodded as he took a seat on his stool and looked at his computer screen. “I’ve been going over your test results, scans, and lap work- I don't have great news for you…”
Steve felt his stomach tighten like it was trying to reject everything that was currently inside of him. “Okay- what is it?” he asked.
The doctor took a deep breath and let out a heavy sigh. “Long story short, Steve, you’re losing your sight. You’re going blind. Right now you have about 80% of your vision left, but it’s deteriorating pretty quickly… I’d say you might have eighteen months of sight left.”
Steve was having a hard time listening to everything else the doctor said- he was focused on the fact that he was going blind. He couldn’t believe it.
“Wait- is there nothing we can do?” Steve asked quickly. “There has to be something.” he pressed.
The Doctor nodded. “Well, that’s all if left untreated. What we can do right now is start you on some medication that is 64% effective in slowing down the loss of sight,” he explained. “Eyes are really tricky and we don't know a lot about them right now, but we are learning and if we come across a cure, we’ll let you know.”
“So that’s it? I’m gonna go blind?” Steve asked.
The doctor nodded. “Once we start you on this medication and see how it works with you, we should be able to give you an accurate estimation of how much time you have before you go completely blind,” he said.
Steve felt like he might faint. His head was spinning and he was feeling sick.
Robin spoke up for him. “Okay, let’s start that medication.” she nodded.
The doctor nodded and started to fill out the prescription paper. “You’ll want to take this to your pharmacist, give them about a week to fill it out, and go back to pick it up,” he told Robin as he handed it to her. “For the time being, try not to hit your head anymore, yeah?”
Steve nodded slowly. He didn’t want to believe this was real. He couldn’t. But he was an adult and needed to deal with this- his parents couldn’t pay for them to find a cure like they might have tried to when he was a kid. He was just going to have to live with it.
Robin got up and offered Steve a hand. “C’mon Harrington, let’s go.” she nodded. Steve took a moment before he even realized the doctor was gone. He took Robin’s hand and got up and she took them back out to his car. “Guess I’m gonna need to get a license.” she chuckled as they got in the car.
Steve sat behind the wheel, key in hand, and just stared for a moment. He couldn’t believe it. He was going to go blind. He only had a year and a half left. Way less when it came to having enough vision for it to matter.
“Steve? Are you okay?” Robin asked softly.
Steve felt his chest tighten and then he couldn’t stop it, he was crying.
Steve had only come to terms with the fact that he might not be completely straight a few months ago, and now he’d found out he was going blind. What a great life. But it kinda gave him a good slap in the face. What was he waiting for, he needed to let himself live like he was dying or else he wouldn’t get the chance to see everything.
How was he supposed to go blind knowing he never took the time to just watch a sunset? He wouldn’t be able to live with himself. So that’s what he started doing. He started stopping to look at anything and everything he found that was beautiful. He couldn’t help the research on eyes, he wasn’t smart enough and he knew it. So the only thing he could do was spend his time wisely.
He helped Robin get her license so she could do the driving, seeing as he wasn’t allowed to anymore. It was three months before he actually noticed a huge difference in his sight. He’d been taking the medication for a while so he thought it might have been working. When he went to the doctor they told him it wasn’t working with his immune system and that he still only had fifteen months of vision left.
It was that day he asked Robin to drive him to a gay bar. He’d had enough beating around the bush and he wanted to just fuck around and find out. Robin was confused until he told her he might be into guys, and so she drove the couple hundred miles to the nearest gay bar.
Robin had fun flirting with a couple of girls, but Steve stayed next to the bar. He was freaking out a little, not sure what he was doing here. He’d always been into girls, why was he now questioning that? Maybe this was a mistake… he thought about asking Robin to bring him home, but he didn’t wanna ruin the good time she was having, so he resigned himself to just sitting at the bar the whole night.
“Hard day?”
Steve looked up to see the bartender. He had long curly black hair and a pretty face with big dark eyes, and the prettiest dimples when he smiled.
Steve hesitated. “You can say that…” he nodded.
The bartender nodded. “I get that, what do you wanna drink?” he asked.
Steve hesitated, he wasn’t sure if he should drink, what if he needed to drive cuz Robin wanted to drink- but he couldn’t drive, he couldn’t read road signs… “Something strong,” he told him.
The bartender chuckled with a pretty smile. “Alright, on me.” he offered as he got to mixing Steves's drink. Once he set it down in front of him he leaned against the counter. “Name’s Eddie.”
Steve offered him a smile. “I’m Steve.”
Eddie beamed. “What’s a pretty boy like you doing sitting at the bar? Why don't you go dance?” he asked. “Or is your boyfriend somewhere around here?”
Steve blushed and choked on his drink. That was new. “Uh- no- I- I don't have a boyfriend-” is what he managed to say. Instead of telling Eddie about how he wasn’t sure if he was gay at all, or that he was having a life crisis because he was going blind. All he managed to tell Eddie was that he was single.
“Oh, well lucky me.” Eddie winked and Steve felt his chest tighten. But in a good way.
“Oh?” Steve glanced up at Eddie through his eyelashes. “Why do you say that?” he asked.
Eddie smiled. “I think you’re cute, I was thinking about telling you when I get off, inviting you over to my place.” Eddie was straightforward about what he wanted. It made Steve squirm slightly.
“I- uh-” Steve was blushing like crazy and he wasn’t even sure what to do, he wasn’t used to being on this end of things.
Eddie leaned back slightly. “Sorry- if you’re not interested I can leave you alone.” Eddie stood up and patted the counter in front of Steve as if to say he was leaving. But Steve didn’t want him to leave, not yet- not when he was finally starting to understand himself a little. He reached out and quickly grabbed Eddie's wrist.
“No- I- I’m… interested.” Steve was blushing bright red as he looked up at Eddie with his big brown eyes and pleaded for him to stay.
Eddie looked at him for a moment, then smiled. “Tell you what, I’m gonna clock out early and I’ll come to sit with you, how's that?” he offered. Seeming to understand, Steve was just new to this.
Steve bit his lip, then nodded. Eddie gently took Steve's hand and gave it a squeeze before letting go and then disappearing. For a scary long few minutes, Steve was worried Eddie had just left. Left them to wonder what was wrong with him and left him to spiral with only his thoughts and the strong drink in his hands.
But then someone sat down next to him and he looked over to find Eddie. Steve smiled. Unable to hide how pleased he was to see the man.
Eddie smiled back. “I’m sorry if I came off a little strong, you’re new to all this aren’t you?” Eddie asked sweetly.
Steve looked down and blushed, but he nodded. “Yeah… you can say that.”
Eddie nodded in understanding. “How long have you known?” he asked.
Steve cringed slightly. That was just it, wasn’t it? He didn’t know… not really he didn’t think. “I- I’m not sure…” he didn’t know how to explain it. How could he be into guys if he’d always been into girls? It didn’t make any sense.
“Pretty recent,” Eddie smirked, almost like he was reading Steve's mind.
Steve felt bad. He needed to be honest with Eddie. “I’m still… figuring it out?” he offered sheepishly.
Eddie seemed to understand that. “Oh, I see.” Eddie nodded. “Alright, well I can work with that. You said you were interested in, right?” he asked. Steve nodded. “Well, what part were you interested in? Knowing when I got off, or going back to my place?” he asked.
Steve's stomach lurched. “Uh- both…?”
Eddie smiled. “Alright, do you know what happens when I take you back to my place?”
Steve blushed deeply. “Essentially…”
Eddie laughed at that. “And are you interested in learning all the details?” he smirked, tilting his head as he watched all of Steve's micro-expressions.
Steve wanted to hide his face, but his pants felt tight at the thought. “Uh- I- yes?”
“Then I’d say you’ve got it pretty figured out.” Eddie smiled.
Steve frowned. “But- I like girls-” it slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it. Eddie laughed.
“Yeah?” he chuckled. “So then maybe you’re bi, good for you.” Eddie nodded. “You’re allowed to like both.”
Steve felt like someone had just turned on a light. Everything changed. “Oh.”
“ Oh-”
Turns out Steve was really bad at keeping things to himself when he was being taken care of by a man. Steve was definitely into guys, he found that out. But the following morning when Steve woke up in Eddie’s bed, Eddie wasn’t there and he kinda panicked. When Eddie showed up after getting out of the bathroom he almost cried.
He had to explain that he had really bad anxiety and when he started doing that it all just kinda started spilling out. About his vision, his parents, and his entire situation. He said things he hadn’t even admitted to himself yet. He was scared that if he didn’t find the one before he went blind then he never would because how would he know if he couldn't see- he couldn’t imagine being blind, he’d always had sight.
Eddie was so sweet and held him and listened to him. He gave Steve his number and told him to call him any time if he needed to talk. He might not always answer, but he’d always call him back.
Steve agreed, and then he had to go back home with Robin.
It was only a week or so after talking with Eddie on the phone for hours a day before Robin and he decided to move out there. To be closer to the LGBT community… of course. When Steve told Eddie about this plan, Eddie quickly offered up his place as somewhere to stay while they looked for somewhere to rent.
Robin and Steve were poor, so they agreed. By the time they got out there and moved in temporarily with Eddie, Steve only had 50% of his vision left, and it was really scary for him. He’d started trying to learn how to read Brail, but it wasn’t going very well.
Eddie would sit with him for hours, helping him and being patient as he struggled to learn how to read little bumps as letters.
A few weeks later, Eddie asked if Steve wanted to move in with him… less temporarily. Steve was shocked, he was confused because he thought that’s what people who were dating did.
Eddie then explained he thought they had been dating the whole time. They had a good laugh over that, Robin thought it was the funniest thing in the world. She didn’t mind the idea, she’d gotten herself a girlfriend she wanted to move in with anyway, so it was all working out anyway.
The longer Steve lived with Eddie, the more he fell in love with him. Sometimes it was really scary how fast his vision was going, and Eddie was always there to hold him and comfort him. He was the best boyfriend Steve could have ever asked for.