Work Text:
December 23
Steve never stayed in school on Christmas. Never-never. Not once. Deep down he had always wanted to, but never did. Always spent Christmas somewhere at a resort, with his parents, and it was the only day of the year they were good. And they always spent that day together. Skiing in Switzerland, or lying on a beach somewhere on the islands. Worst case scenario, if mom was in a pinch - they were home, and they had the biggest prettiest Christmas tree. It's always been like that. Ever since he was a kid. But the literature teacher failed Steve on the exam, although he studied hard, the semi-annual certificate, in which among the solid B's looked sometimes even A's, replenished with a C, his father got angry and canceled Steve's plane tickets.
Steve stayed in school for Christmas.
There are five of them in the cafeteria. Five of them in the huge cafeteria.
1: Mr. Bauman.
He wipes his glasses and looks at the list of staying students.
'Familiar faces,' Mr. Bauman exhales. The others always stay for vacation. 'Argyle?'
2: Argyle.
'Right here, brocacho,' he raises his hand. Argyle has family in Mexico, and he never flies out to see them. No one knows his last name because the teachers always get it wrong when they read it out. There's only one Argyle at the school anyway. Mr. Bauman nods.
‘Hargrove?’
3: Billy Hargrove.
He raises his hand in silence. Billy always stays, too: he hates his parents and sister, his parents and sister hate him. Everyone knows. No one speaks about it so as not to get punched in the nose. Mr. Bauman nods.
‘Munson?’
4: Eddie Munson.
‘Oh, Mr. Bauman, darlin', of course I'm here, got nowhere else to be,’ Eddie dramatically puts his hand over his heart and looks lovingly at Mr. Bauman. Mr. Bauman sends him a kiss, and Eddie catches it in mid-air and slaps it on his cheek. Billy snorts a chuckle.
Eddie is on scholarship and never has money for a ticket home.
It's unclear what Eddie thinks about Steve. It's unclear what Steve thinks about Eddie. They flirt half-jokingly, pissing each other off, each attracted to the other. Eddie teases, pushes and makes fun of him with his friends. Steve doubts that he likes girls.
Bauman nods.
He lowers his eyes to the list and raises his eyebrows.
‘Steve Harrington?’
Steve clears his throat:
‘Here,’ he wheezes.
5: Steve fucking Harrington.
Everyone turns around. No one was expecting him here - that's to say the least. Eddie grins like a Cheshire cat:
‘His royal majesty honored the villeins with his presence at the folk festivities?’ Eddie grins. Steve's sick enough without him.
‘Fuck off, would you?’ he mutters. And Eddie, for some reason, fucks off. Hargrove doesn't say a word. Argyle hums "Let it snow" to himself. Bauman doesn't say anything more about Steve, just nods again.
Then he puts aside his notebook and looks around at all four of them. Eddie is sprawled in his chair, as at home. Argyle is red-eyed and smiling. Billy is leaning sideways against him for some reason and resting his head on his shoulder - he's weird here, not acting like he usually does at school. He quirks his eyebrows at Steve: fuck you looking at? Steve turns away silently.
‘Okay,’ Mr. Bauman clears his throat. ‘The rules of the game are as follows: you don't bother me, I don't bother you. You come for lunch and dinner, you sleep in your rooms, and I don't care what you do the rest of the time. Don't do anything to each other that will require the intervention of the local hospital, priest or pathologist. Argyle and Billy in room three, Harrington and Munson in room eight. Don't go in the others, they're locked and full of pupils' stuff. That's it, you're free to go.’
‘Can't I thirdwheel to Argyle and Billy's?’ Eddie asks.
‘No,’ Bauman says.
‘What if I asked nicely?’
‘I'm afraid they're going to have some activities going on where two wheels are more than enough.’
Steve frowns in incomprehension and for some reason turns to Billy and Argyle again. Argyle winks at him. Oh dear. Eddie shrugs:
‘Threesome's more fun.’
‘Look, do whatever you want, just don't die in the process,’ Bauman gets up from the table and puts the notebook in his bag. ‘That's it, I don't want to see you until dinner.’
Steve is so fucked. He's stuck for the entire Christmas break at school in the fucking middle of nowhere, where the nearest supermarket is in the nearest town, and the nearest town is a bus ride that runs twice a day, through the nearest woods, with a history teacher, a junkie, a bully, and fucking Eddie Munson. Steve is so fucked.
The four of them walk from the cafeteria to the building. The school's snowed in, their feet getting stuck in the drifts. Eddie's talking to Billy and Argyle about something, and the two of them are holding hands, and Billy, the same Billy who's been scowling and fighting and threatening to break somebody's limbs all year, is laughing hoarsely and throwing his head back at Eddie's joke and holding hands with fucking Argyle.
The laughter, the jokes, the frost-red noses and ears and fingers, the crunching snow, it's like a cheesy Christmas comedy where everyone's having a good time and at the end someone's going to kiss under the mistletoe, only Steve's the fourth wheel on the tricycle. Eddie doesn't even step into the eighth fucking room, he goes straight to the third, and Steve lies on the unmade bed and stares at the ceiling in silence.
The laughter, the jokes, the frost-red noses and ears and fingers are not for Steve. Steve has already disappointed his family too much to hold hands and laugh with someone he really likes. If Steve were a little braver, he'd even name in his head who ""someone he likes"" is and who he wants to make out with under the mistletoe at the end of the Christmas comedy. And no, it's not Chrissy Cunningham, who his parents really like.
Steve sets his alarm for dinner time and goes to bed because there's absolutely nothing else to do.
***
Eddie watches Steve from a safe distance. Steve is sad, absent-minded, and Eddie is even uncomfortable poking and prodding him.
At first Eddie just spends the afternoon at Billy and Argyle's, talking about nothing, dangling his feet in the air, and refusing the offer of a smoke. At dinner he stuffs himself – when the school is low on students, the cafeteria suddenly starts cooking good food – and watches Steve poke at his potatoes with his fork, lost.
Eddie likes Steve, so he watches him. Steve doesn't like Eddie, so Eddie acts like a little shit.
Only it's Christmas soon, and Steve looks like a lost boy at the mall that his mom forgot about, so Eddie doesn't go to the room number eight, but collapses on the bed in room number three. Watching Steve collapse onto the bed across the floor.
In silence, Eddie rolls over onto his back and peers at the cracks in the ceiling.
‘Why aren't you with Billy and Argyle?’ Steve asks uncertainly, as if he doesn't know if he's even allowed to talk right now.
‘Don't want to fuck around when they’re all lovey-dovey,’ Eddie replies, shrugging.
Steve hesitates.
‘They're…’ he stops talking, searching for a word. ‘Together?’
‘Nah, you know Billy, he’s just a friendly little guy who he keeps hugging and holding hands with everyone,’ Eddie snorts. At Steve's incomprehensible look, he sighs: ‘Yeah, they're together.’
It's quiet again. Eddie thinks that if you listen hard enough, you can hear snow falling outside.
Eddie is fucked. He's stuck in a room with Steve Harrington for the entire Christmas vacation. He catches his breath, running that thought over and over: he's alone in the room with Steve. There are only two people in the whole building besides them, and Bauman doesn't give a deep shit about anything. If only Eddie had a chance.
‘Why did you stay?’ Eddie asks quietly, rolling over onto his side. He stares at Steve's face in the faint light of the wall lamp.
‘Forman failed me at the exam, my parents canceled my ticket to France and went alone,’ Steve mumbles awkwardly, as if he's embarrassed in front of Eddie for something.
‘Ouch,’ Eddie exhales. ‘That sucks.’
‘You're not funny.’
‘I'm not laughing.’
Steve rolls over onto his side, too, and meets Eddie's eyes. Stares into Eddie's face. Eddie tries not to move.
'I know there's no point in me complaining,' Steve explains curtly. 'I just stayed at school over Christmas. Once. You stay all the time. If you're laughing about 'his majesty honoring the villeins with his presence,' it's not funny. If you're trying to pretend to sympathize, don't. It's my own fault, and you have it worse.’
Eddie knows he's the one who's always picking on Steve, but for some reason he feels like the Christmas vacation nullifies the whole relationship. You become different people for a while in an empty dorm, the game stops, Billy doesn't fuck with Eddie all day, Argyle doesn't pretend to see Billy for the first time in his life, and Eddie doesn't hate Steve. That's the way it's supposed to be. If Steve doesn't realize it's time out, Eddie lets him know.
‘I'm serious,’ he explains, trying not to take his eyes off Steve. ‘You're more hurt than I am.’
Steve folds his eyebrows in misunderstanding. You look like a dog.
‘I'm no worse off because I always know I'm not going anywhere. Default. My uncle barely has enough money for food-clothes-housing-rent, and tickets to anywhere are expensive. I've made friends with the guys, Bauman's like my mom now, it's more home than my home to me,’ Eddie turns away, because it gets awkward. ‘And you were promised a trip, and they canceled it just because of Forman failing you. And you stay in school for the vacations and feel like an odd man out because you're not friends with me, or Billy, or Argyle. Fucking sucks.’
Without answering anything, Steve turns his back to the ceiling again. Eddie watches his face. Again. It must be completely shameful that he likes Steve so terribly.
‘Your part sounds sucks, too,’ Steve says quietly.
‘I study here for free, eat well, live in a cool dorm, and I could work and live in a rusty trailer. I'm living the best life I can,’ Eddie shrugs. ‘Don’t think it sucks.’
Eddie really doesn't think it sucks. He likes the empty school, likes staying up late, likes the sense of freedom that he doesn't have normally and that he doesn't feel as much outside of school. He feels good here.
The empty bus into the town, the locked rooms, the cafeteria with no people and delicious food, the sleepless nights and the cold wind - that's all made for him. And now for Steve, too.
‘I thought I was annoying you,’ Steve mumbles, as if he doesn't want Eddie to hear him. Eddie does.
‘You're not annoying me,’ he replies humorlessly. ‘It's all jokes, that's all.’
Steve raises his eyebrows: surprised. Genuinely surprised. It's so weird: Steve should be surprised that someone is annoyed by him at all, not the other way around. Eddie squints.
‘I thought you knew,’ he shrugs. 'You're not annoying at all.’
‘You, somehow, aren't either.’
Eddie snorts, Steve lets out a chuckle. They don't talk anymore.
Eddie has liked Steve for a long time. Not that Eddie's completely in love, no, they talk too little for that, but he likes Steve enough to have something constantly itching in his head when Eddie looks at him, and enough to keep joking and rolling his eyes. And to get lost and hold his breath when Steve talks to him for longer than a second.
Eddie has liked Steve for a long time. Eddie likes to jokingly flirt and tease with him, because Steve teases and flirts back, and it can go on endlessly until Eddie gets tired of pretending he doesn't want it to be serious. Eddie loves it when teachers pair them up on projects because they think they don't get along, and Eddie treasures every interaction with Steve an awful lot: casual touches, brief conversations. Every reference to "you," every time Steve called him by his first name. Eddie treasures Steve's name, too.
Eddie has liked Steve for a long time and Steve still thinks he annoys him.
***
Someone knocks on the door.
‘Yeah?’ Steve yells back. Billy peeks into the room.
‘We're going into town,’ he says instead of saying good morning. ‘You coming?’
Eddie turns to Steve.
‘Are we?’
Steve shrugs and turns to Billy.
‘We are.’
For some reason, Steve likes that there's some kind of 'we'. There's always 'someone and Steve', 'Steve and someone', 'me and Steve'. Now there's a "we." We means me and you.
‘ Hurry up then, if you don't want to miss the bus, I'm not to calling a fucking Uber,’ Billy goes to his phone and slams the door.
They manage to get to the stop a couple minutes before the empty bus. The only other person inside is a grandpa in a red scarf, snoring in the seat just behind the driver's. Steve doesn't talk much as they ride, just listens to Eddie talking to Argyle and Billy: Steve rarely has much to say, but right now it feels quite a bit less sad than usual. In general, not talking to people isn't as frustrating when you know they don't hate you. Steve is still out of company, but it's nice to know it's not because everyone is sick of him. It's also nice to know that he's being taken to town, too. And who would have thought that "his majesty" King Steve would be so happy that someone doesn't find him annoying?
Everyone wants to hang out with the king, no one wants to hang out with Steve. Eddie doesn't really want to hang out with either one, and that, for some reason, is the most upsetting.
‘I missed why we're going, though, didn't I?’ Steve clarifies when everyone stops talking so he's sure to be heard. Billy shrugs his shoulders:
‘I don't know. Something to chew on, some alcohol,’ he explains.
‘And Christmas presents, dude, presents, don't forget,’ Argyle adds.
‘I'm just going to stick up to Billy's wallet, he's my sugar daddy for today,’ Eddie says. He's sprawled across the seat, his face catching the white light from the wide window of the bus. He looks like a painting, and it's just the lighting, of course, not that Steve....
‘Uh, no, no, fuck off, you're not in the budget,’ Billy protests. He protests so much that he gets up off Argyle whom he's lying on.
‘I'm going to break up with you,’ Eddie threatens.
‘Dump him, I'll find a place in the budget for you,’ Steve says with a wink.
No matter how many "friends" like Tommy H Steve has, he's always afraid to catch on other people's jokes. Laughter, jokes, frost red noses, ears and fingers are not for Steve. But Eddie smiles and throws his legs over Steve's lap:
‘That's it, Hargrove, you've lost your sugar baby.’
‘Thanks, I already have one,’ Billy mumbles, laying back down on top of Argyle. Argyle let out a dramatic gasp:
They laugh so loudly that the grandpa in the red scarf in the front seat even stops snoring for a second. Then everyone has to shut up. Eddie snorts quietly, squirming in his seat.
‘Hey, you're comfy,’ he concludes, leaning sideways on the backrest and accessing his phone.
‘Yeah?’ Steve nods and raises his eyebrows. ‘How's it sitting?’
‘Great,’ Eddie smiles lovingly at him. ‘It would be even better on your face or on your di....’
‘Get a fucking room already,’ Billy pretends to vomit. ‘Munson, do you even have any underwear under your coat?’
‘Yeah, red and lacy.’
Argyle raises one eyebrow.
‘Don't worry, it’ll be gone soon, too.’ Steve picks up the rules of the game.
‘One word and it vaporizes, just ask nicely, big boy’ Eddie promises. Billy bangs the back of his head against the back of the seat and groans.
‘Are you guys just going to make out under the mistletoe, or are you going to doggystyle right there and then?’ he asks.
‘Depends,’ Steve shrugs. ‘But the kids better cover their eyes and ears.’
‘Here, Billy, see?’ Eddie tilts his head instructively. ‘That's a real man over there, not like you. Covers all my needs, both financial and sex…’
♪ Hawkins. Central bus station. ♪
It's literally a couple of steps from here to downtown, and downtown is all lit up with yellow lights, and the snow that has settled overnight glistens and shimmers like crystal. This is where the fair is. Argyle and Billy go to find a liquor store, and Steve and Eddie stay outside. They both don't really want anything. It's just beautiful here, and Steve feels like walking around.
Eddie looks like a character from a 20th century book, the kind that 15-year-old girls fall in love with, because the author described him as mysterious and seductive. He is in a long black coat and with his long black hair loose, he's pale and smiles slyly at Steve before throwing a snowball at him. Eddie looks like a character from a 20th century book, a painting, a weird old movie that's lying at the bottom of cassette boxes at the movie rental store, and a song from an unreleased album by a terribly famous band that you only hear once in your life and then keep in your memory until you die.
Steve throws a snowball back at him.
‘Oh, fuck, I didn't hit that hard!’ Eddie swears. He picks up a bigger snowball and throws it at Steve with renewed vigor, now in earnest. Steve dodges and watches as the snowball smashes into the corner of the stall. Then all the jokes are put aside: Eddie looks at Steve with his eyes wide, then rushes off running with all his might.
‘You're not outrunning me, I'm an honor student in gym class!’ Steve yells after Eddie.
‘I might be the next!’ Eddie puffs in response, dodging a snowball as he runs. Steve manages to get another one, and this one hits Eddie in the shoulder. For that, he gets hit in the arm.
Steve picks up a pile of snow from the ground, but before he can roll it into a ball, Eddie crashes into a snowdrift. Snow flies in all directions, Eddie's legs bouncing in the air. Steve comes running up with a snowball ready, and Eddie starts screaming:
‘You don't hit a man lying down, you don't hit a man lying down!’
And he pulls Steve's pant leg, and Steve obediently falls into the snowdrift beside him. Eddie can't catch his breath, and Steve just stares at the slowly darkening sky. The sounds of the fairgrounds seem distant, though they've hardly run far away. Steve isn't out of breath, but his heart is still pounding somewhere in his ears.
‘Did I really hit you hard?’ Steve asks in a whisper for some reason.
‘It hurt a little,’ Eddie answers in a whisper, too.
‘I'm sorry.’
‘Kiss me better?’
For a second, Steve really thinks about turning on his side, catching someone else's sparkling gaze, and kissing Eddie right on the lips. It's not a hind-brain thought, it's quite a distinct plan, tangible and real, but Steve forbids himself from following it.
‘Nah,’ he replies instead. He even thinks that the sigh Eddie lets out afterward sounds something like a frustrated sigh.
They lie in silence for another minute, maybe two. Maybe half an hour. Turns out it's not just good to flirt with Eddie-it's good to say nothing and listen to his breathing calm down, too.
‘Uh, Steve?’ a girlish, ringing voice calls out. Steve lifts his head and looks around, and suddenly he catches his eyes on a familiar face.
‘Chrissy!’ he exclaims excitedly.
‘STEVE!’ Chrissy runs over to the crumpled snowdrift, and Steve jumps to his feet to hug her. - I didn't even realize it was you at first!
Out of a gentlemanly impulse (not out of a desire to grab Eddie's hand), Steve extends that very hand to that very Eddie. Eddie grasps it firmly and climbs to the surface as well. Chrissy smiles at him.
‘Okay, now you owe me an introduction,’ she says, resting her arms against her sides.
‘I'm Eddie, Steve and I have a homoerotic rivalry,’ Eddie steps forward, shaking Chrissy's hand. She rounds her eyes, still smiling.
‘Nice to meet you, I'm Chrissy, Steve and I were playing Super Mario on his console while his parents were counseling my parents about their divorce.’
‘I really sympathize, is your dad still divorced?’
Chrissy is laughing all the way down the street.
She is nice, very sweet and open-minded. Steve never misses an opportunity to see her when he stays at school on weekends. They're not best friends, but since that night they played console games while divorce counseling was going on in the next room, they haven't lost touch.
‘Oh, wait,’ Chrissy falters. ‘What are you guys doing here? Didn't they let you go home for Christmas?’
‘School is our second home,’ Eddie replies. Steve just nods, because he doesn't feel like explaining. Chrissie shakes her head understandingly.
‘And how many of you are staying at school?’
‘Four.’
‘And are the four of you busy tomorrow?’
Steve turns to Eddie and shrugs.
‘I don't know, I guess we’re not?׳
׳Come to our Christmas party then!’ Chrissy smiled again and her eyes lit up. ‘There will be grown-ups there, but there's no reason not to have a drink.’
That sounds like a good idea. Sure beats sitting in a room all Christmas. With a man who's complicated and a couple who have it really easy.
***
No one slept half the night, everyone slept half the day. Another half the day everyone searched for relatively decent clothes that weren't school uniforms. Eddie tried several times to talk to Steve about something, and several times he stopped himself: there was nothing to talk about. There was no reason to talk about anything. Eddie felt that if he talked to Steve, he would kiss him, because that thought had been buzzing around in his head since yesterday. Eddie had wanted to kiss Steve when they'd been lying in the snowdrift, and he still wanted to.
Argyle in his red marijuana sweater, Billy in his brown shirt, Eddie in a maroon shirt he'd stolen from Billy, and Steve in his reindeer sweater. They're a match for each other.
They are all silent on the miserably empty evening bus: they have just woken up, it's dark outside, and they don't feel like talking. Argyle and Billy sit in the back seats, cuddled together, and Eddie sits in Steve's arms for no reason at all. Whether this was the continuation of a long joke or already in earnest, Steve didn't bother to elaborate. Eddie didn't bother to clarify. Sitting in Steve's arms was too good to ruin it with explanations.
‘Hello!’ Chrissy breaks out into a smile and hugs Steve tightly, and he kisses her soundly on both cheeks. She gives Eddie a hug too, and just holds out her arm to Argyle and Billy. She’s nice. Sweet. Her and Steve's parents must be trying to set them up. ‘Da-a-ad, more guests!’
She leads them into the hallway (which is twice the size of Eddie's room), showing them where to hang what and where to put what. Amidst a pile of fur coats, jackets, and down jackets that look like Eddie couldn't buy them even if he sold his uncles' entire trailer along with his uncles, he hangs up his coat.
They are greeted in the living room by what must be Chrissy's dad. He welcomes Steve with open arms:
‘Well hello-hello, Merry Christmas, how long has it been since I've seen you?’ he's smiling. ‘You’re all grown up! How are your parents?’
Steve smiles politely back:
‘They’re fine, no complaints.’
Chrissy's dad laughs and turns to the others. Billy holds out his hand:
‘William,’ he introduces himself. ‘Hargrove.’
‘Hargrove, of course,’ Chrissy's dad nods with an understanding smile. ‘Nice to meet you, I’m Sam. You look a lot like your father, what a shame we haven't seen him since last year's deal.’
Billy croaks for a second, but smiles. Holding himself up like a fucking prince, he puts a hand on Argyle's back to introduce him.
‘This is Argyle,’ she looks him over. ‘My... friend.’
‘Nice to meet you, I'm Sam’ Chrissy's dad shakes his hand and winks at Billy. ‘A friend, then. And you, young man?’
Looks at Eddie.
Eddie is lost and doesn't know how to introduce himself. Suddenly, Steve slaps him on the back:
‘My friend,’ he smiles. ‘Eddie. We're not as close of friends as Argyle and Billy are, of course, but …’
Billy snorts. Chrissy's dad shakes Eddie's hand.
‘Pleasure to meet you, Eddie.’
Eddie is used to being the only one short of money for a ticket home, at a huge school for rich boys. But finding himself among rich adults, and watching everyone act like a fish in water, and being the elephant in the room, it sucks. Eddie's face is red and he doesn't know what to do.
Billy says his last name and everyone immediately understands, Steve is recognized by the guests at the party by sight. "How are the parents?" - they ask both of them. They know. Argyle doesn't sweat it, not at all and never, feels at home everywhere and fits any puzzle. And Eddie sits in the corner of the couch and watches Steve (who is at Chrissy's fucking annual party for the first time) and chats with everyone like old friends.
Champagne at a month's wages a bottle, small talk, gentlemen in jackets and ladies in gilded dresses - none of this is for Eddie, he’s out of place here. Eddie has someone else’s shirt on and a coat that's old enough to start primary school, and he has no idea what to talk to all these people about while Billy is laughing charmingly with the lady in the gilded dress, and Argyle is explaining something to the gentleman in the jacket, and Steve is doing small talk with everyone, and even Chrissy is hustling between the guests.
Champagne at a month's wages a bottle, small talk, gentlemen in jackets and ladies in gilded dresses, it's all making Eddie nauseous. He takes his fucking coat from the rack and goes outside for a smoke.
Chrissy has a huge house and a huge garden, complete with fucking garlanded reindeer, a bunch of lights and lanterns and figurines that must all cost like a separate little house, and if you add in the electricity bills, you could buy a separate little garden as well. They've even got a whole photo-area with an arch of Christmas tree branches and mistletoe on top of it, covered in fake snow, and it looks gaudy as hell and expensive as hell. Eddie slumps down on the bench and instead of being angry, he starts to feel sad.
Maybe there's a place for him among the rich boys and students from abroad. Only Argyle will always be more interested in Billy's company, and Billy will always be more interested in charming gaggles of women in gold dresses. And no matter how much Eddie flirts and no matter how much he wants to make out, Steve will always be more interesting with girls like Chrissy, or at the very least with guys like her friends.
Eddie doesn't really have a place next to Steve, and he should probably stop all these games with the lap-sitting and sex jokes and all that. Because it's never going to be anything more than jokes. Because no matter how much Eddie flirts and no matter how much he wants to make out, Steve will always be more interested in girls like....
‘Eddie!’ Steve shouts out of the door and immediately runs up to him. Smiles. ‘There you are! Everything okay?’
Eddie shrugs and takes a drag on his cigarette.
‘Not my kind of party.’
Steve sighs and drops onto the bench next to Eddie.
‘You don't want a drink?’
‘My immune system can't digest anything more expensive than windshield wiper,’ Eddie snorts and Steve laughs. Eddie knows Steve will be back soon to drink with Chrissy and her friends, but wishes he'd stay longer. ‘Why aren't you drinking?’
‘I lost you,’ Steve awkwardly lowers his eyes to the floor. ‘I look around, you're on the couch, then I blink and you're gone. Billy went upstairs to look for you, Argyle said you'd gone for a smoke.’
‘You were looking for me?’ Eddie grins. ‘Sorry, love, escort services are on a separate price list.’
Steve chuckles too, quietly and somehow out of tune with the joke. He doesn't say anything, but he doesn't leave. Eddie sighs:
‘I, just in case, don't need to be babysat. Go charm the girls or whatever it is you do.’
‘I don't want to charm the girls, I want to charm you.’
It comes out of Steve's mouth so fast that Eddie doesn't even get the point of what he said right away. He just blinks stupidly, puts out his cigarette, and round-eyedly stares at Steve. He stares at him as dumbfounded as if he hadn't realized what he'd said.
‘I mean... well, not charm you, but... or yeah, to charm you,’ Steve mumbles, confused. ‘I like you, but I'm like...I realize we're barely hanging out, but you're cool, and funny, and I like the way you look, and I think you're really smart, and I really want to get to know you mo…’
Eddie rises from the bench and holds out his hand to Steve. Steve looks at him in incomprehension, like a guilty dog, but obediently takes Eddie's hand and gets up from his seat as well. Then Eddie drags him behind him through a yard of garlanded reindeer under an ugly archway of Christmas tree branches.
‘What are you doing?’ Steve blinks stupidly.
‘Look up.’
Steve does.
‘Oh,’ he exhales, looking up.
‘Uh-huh.’
‘Mistletoe,’ Steve mutters. Eddie nods. ‘So you're like…’
Eddie nods again.
‘I really like you,’ he admits. ‘I really, really like you.’
Lowering his eyes, Eddie sees that Steve is still holding his hand, and takes his other hand. His hands are freezing in the cold. Steve manages to kiss him faster than Eddie gets completely uncomfortable.
Maybe this is what’s for both of them.