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It was only a few days into his time at the Hawkins Fire Department when Steve realized Ozzy wasn’t the only animal Eddie had an…affinity of sorts for.
Sleep had not long taken hold of Steve when he jerked awake to a loud banging noise just before one am. The shifts at the station were long, often lasting up to twenty-four hours, but if there was nothing happening then the crew were free to sleep.
And most of them chose to - with the exception of one.
Steve padded out into the hallway, rubbing his eyes blearily to find Hopper already there, his face like thunder.
“That wake you up too, kid?” The Chief questioned and Steve nodded. “It’ll be Munson with those damn ‘coons again, wait till I get my hands on him.”
Hopper was tugging his boots on with a lot more force than necessary, and Steve couldn’t help but feel a little nervous for Eddie.
“I’ll go,” he piped up, and Hopper frowned at him. “I mean, I’ll go check what the noise was. If it was Eddie.”
“Make sure you tell him he woke me up. Again. And that he’s on dishes duty for…” Hopper tilted his head, considering. “Two weeks. No, actually…a month.”
“A month. Got it.” Steve started to head down the hallway, Hopper’s quiet voice following him.
“And tell him to get his ass to bed, even he needs to sleep at some stage.”
Bypassing the kitchen and the truck bay, Steve navigated the hallways, trying to remember where the back door was – Hopper had shown him after their first call out. The noise had come from that direction, and Steve knew the large skip bins were out there. Hopper had mentioned something about raccoons; surely that’s where they’d be…
He swung open the back door, wishing he’d brought a jacket as he stepped out into the cool night air.
“What the –” A figure jumped as Steve approached, his shoulders quickly sagging in relief. Eddie straightened up. “Fuck, it’s you, Harrington. Thought it was Hop.”
“It’s Steve, and no. Not Hopper, although you did wake him up, and he is pissed, so…” Steve trailed off, glancing to Eddie’s feet where several raccoons were gathered like his own personal little congregation. “What’re you doing?”
Eddie gestured at the raccoons and shrugged, as if it was obvious. “Feeding them.”
“Why?”
“They’re hungry.”
Steve narrowed his eyes, watching a particularly plump raccoon scratch at its belly. “They don’t look hungry.”
Eddie did a mock gasp, bending down to cover the ears of the nearest of the animals. “Don’t listen, Mabel, he’s being rude. You’re very slim.”
Steve couldn’t help but smile at that, watching for a moment as Eddie continued reaching into a bread bag and handing out slices to each waiting raccoon.
“What was the banging noise?” He asked eventually, to break the silence.
“Oh, Patty got stuck in that bin,” Eddie gestured to a smaller bin with a metal lid. “She knocked the lid off getting out.”
Eddie seemed content to keep quietly feeding the critters, and Steve, for whatever reason felt himself straying a little closer.
“Do you have names for all of them?”
Eddie nodded. “There’s Mabel and Patty. This is Jim,” he gestured to the largest raccoon at the back of the group and flashed a smirk at Steve, “Hopper loved it when I told him I’d named one after him. There’s also…Betty and Harold. Dorothy hasn’t turned up tonight, I hope she’s ok.” Eddie sniffed and squatted down to gently stroke Mabel’s head.
Steve screwed his nose up a little. “Why have they all got…well, old person names?”
Eddie shrugged, “I thought it was cute. Don’t you?”
It was kinda cute. “I guess. Do you feed them every night?”
“Most,” Eddie nodded, “In winter, yes. I…I don’t want them to be hungry and cold, because that’s…well, that’s not fun.” Eddie looked away from Steve, went back to ruffling Mabel’s head and laughed softly when she batted at his hands. “You wanna pat them?”
Steve considered for a moment. “They don’t have like…rabies or something right?”
“I’m pretty sure that’s a myth.”
“You’re sure?”
“Totally.”
“Good, cos Robin happens to be terrified of rabies and she hears I’ve touched a raccoon -”
“Harrington, get over here and pat one,” Eddie interrupted, rolling his eyes.
“It’s Steve,” he answered flatly, because how many times did he have to tell people…
Eddie, for his part, looked the tiniest bit apologetic. “Right. Steve. Come on, Mabel’s the friendliest.”
Steve crouched down next to Eddie, holding out his hand gingerly to the small creature. She sniffed at his offered fingers then backed away slightly, and Steve dropped his hand in defeat.
“They don’t like me,” Steve grumbled, but Eddie shook his head.
“Just give them a minute. Most people haven’t been kind to them. They look at them, and they just see some…annoying pest, and so they treat them like shit.” Eddie cleared his throat before speaking again. “Here, try again. Just…hold your hand like this.”
Eddie took Steve’s wrist gently, his fingers five small points of warmth on otherwise cold skin. Steve sucked in a breath as Eddie leant closer to him, feeling the puff of the man’s breath over his cheek while he guided their hands forward towards Mabel.
This time, she sniffed again but stayed where she was, and let Steve gently pat the top of her head with Eddie steering his movements.
A small smile crept across Steve’s face, mirrored by Eddie.
“See?” Eddie murmured.
“She’s soft,” Steve said, a little surprised.
“She is,” Eddie agreed.
A moment passed, Steve’s eyes meeting Eddie’s in the dark, and he swallowed heavily as he realized just how damn lovely Eddie Munson looked in the dull light of the moon.
Before he could linger on that thought too long, Eddie let go of his hand and pushed off his knees to stand up, reaching his arms up over his head to crack his back.
“You wanna see something I’ve been cooking up to piss off Hopper?” Eddie asked with a grin.
Steve laughed softly. “Why do you try and make him mad on purpose? He’s your boss.”
Eddie pouted his lips briefly, then smiled again. “I reckon he likes me winding him up, deep down.”
Steve frowned. “I don’t think so.”
“Deep, deep down,” Eddie repeated, then waved a wand at Steve. “It keeps him young, don’t worry about it. So…you wanna see?”
And he was wide awake now, so why the hell not?
“Sure.”
Eddie ran back inside and quickly returned with a teddy bear in hand. Steve had seen it in various places around the station – on the first day it had been on the dash of the truck, one time on top of the fridge, another time sitting beside Robin on the couch in the lounge. It was a mascot of sorts, a bear dressed in a little fire jacket with a red helmet, a helmet around about the right size for…
…a raccoon, and Steve realized what Eddie was doing while he grappled with the bear to get the hat off it.
“You seriously think one of them is gonna let you put that on it?” Steve raised an eyebrow as Eddie held the hat out for the critters to inspect.
“Eventually they will, I think,” Eddie said, “Just gotta get them used to it. Jim’s the perfect contender, he’s got the biggest head.”
Steve watched while Eddie sat the helmet down in the middle of the raccoons, letting them congregate around it and sniff at it curiously. Meanwhile Eddie lit a cigarette, holding a box of Marlboro Reds out to Steve with a little shake.
“Want one?”
Steve looked at his watch. It was 0130, still plenty of time left for him to sleep before he needed to get up at 0700, provided there were no emergency calls overnight.
“Yeah, why not.” Steve took the cigarette and lighter from Eddie and took a long drag, the smoke warming his lungs.
“So what, um…what brought you back to Hawkins? You were gone for a while,” Eddie asked, his tone casual as he blew out a mouthful of smoke.
Steve studied the concrete below his feet for a long moment.
“It’s fine, man, you don’t have to tell me,” Eddie said eventually, sensing Steve’s reluctance.
“No, it’s…it’s ok,” Steve said quickly, “I was in Chicago, and things just…weren’t working out. I was stuck doing something I didn’t want to do, something I never should’ve got into in the first place, but my dad…yeah.”
Eddie gave a small nod of understanding when Steve paused to take another drag from his cigarette.
“Anyway, I sort of…upended my life there, and came back to Hawkins to live with Robs for a bit. She’d been raving about the fire service for a while, convinced me it might actually be something I could be good at, so I went and got qualified, and here I am.”
“Here you are,” Eddie echoed, his eyes dragging over Steve’s face. “For what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re here.”
“Really? Why?”
Eddie tutted softly. “You don’t think much of yourself do you, Steve?”
Steve felt his cheeks flushing at that, and he opened his mouth to say something before snapping it shut. When he did speak again, it was to change the subject.
“Eddie?”
“Hmmm?”
“Hopper said you’re on dishes duty for the next month, by the way.”
Eddie cursed and Steve laughed, and the moon shone down from above, illuminating Eddie’s little circle of nocturnal followers.