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This might’ve been the drunkest Steve had ever seen Eddie.
His boyfriend was sprawled out on the carpet in the lounge, cheeks flushed red, long-forgotten beer that he kept tipping everywhere as his hands flailed madly, recounting a very slurred story that Steve was trying to keep up with.
“And I told Gareth, I said Aragorn, son of Arathorn, rightful King of Gondor, would never have run from that troll, because Gareth was tryin’ to tell me even he would’ve retreated in the middle of that fight if he’d rolled a 1 and I told him to wash his damn mouth out because…how dare he, you know?”
“Yeah, no, how dare he,” Steve agreed with a small laugh. He sipped his beer, not having a clue what Eddie was talking about, but the other boy seemed appeased by his answer.
He rolled over slowly onto his stomach, looking up at Steve with wide eyes. “Right?! I’m so happy you agree with me, Stevie. Knew you would.”
“Of course, baby.”
“Stevie?”
“Hmm?”
“I love you.”
“I know.”
“You’re quoting Star Wars now? Fuuuuuuck, I love you.” Eddie scrambled over the carpet, sitting at Steve’s feet and placing his hands on Steve’s knees, looking up at him reverently. Steve reached out, quickly steadying Eddie’s wrist and preventing him from accidently dumping his whole bottle of beer in his lap.
“Maybe you should having something to eat, Eds,” Steve suggested carefully, watching as Eddie swayed a little, even while seated. He slowly stood, ignoring Eddie’s noises of protests, and made his way to the kitchen.
The sun was low in the sky, not far from setting now. Steve and Eddie had spent most of their rare day of leave catching up with some of Eddie’s old friends while they’d been in town. Steve had only drunk a little, watching with amusement while the rest of them had gotten drunker and drunker, progressing from band practice in the garage to a heated but often non-sensical to Steve D&D debate. Eddie’s friends had not long left, and Steve was now pondering how to get some dinner into his seriously sloshed boyfriend.
“Can we have pasta?” Eddie drawled, stumbling into the kitchen and wrapping his arms around Steve from behind, his mouth kissing sloppily behind Steve’s ear.
“Sure, I think we’ve got some.”
Eddie did a tiny dance, his feet tippy-tapping on the kitchen floor. “Thanks,” he slurred into Steve’s neck. “I love you.”
Steve smiled, starting to get the ingredients out and a pot of water boiling. His movements were made difficult by Eddie having latched himself like a limpet to his back.
As he worked, Steve glanced out the window into the setting sun. The light was illuminating the orange tree that dominated their backyard, and he could see a flash of orange near the top of the tree.
“Look, Eds, the oranges are starting,” Steve pointed out the window to the tree, Eddie sluggishly following his finger. “We can pick some soon. I’ve been wanting to make juice, I can’t wait till they’re ready.”
Eddie blinked slowly several times, then turned to Steve with a dopey, love-sick expression on his face. “You want an orange?”
“Well, yeah, when they’re ready -”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Eddie gasped, starting to stumble towards the door, “I’ll get you the best orange Stevie, don’t you worry, only the best for the rightful King of Gondor.”
“For the what…?” Steve frowned, watching as Eddie fumbled with the doorhandle. “Eddie, come back!” He started towards him.
“Never fear Stevie, I’ll get you all the oranges you could ever want!” Eddie flapped a hand at him.
“No, just…” Steve cursed as he heard the pot boiling over behind him. “Just…wait there!” He ran back to the stove, swearing at the water bubbling everywhere and turning the element down.
After taking a minute to clean up, he turned around to retrieve Eddie again.
The door was open, and Eddie was gone.
Steve sighed, preparing to head outside and locate his inebriated boyfriend.
Suddenly, movement flickered from outside the window, the branches in the orange tree shaking.
Stomach dropping, Steve sprinted outside.
“Eddie, get down!” he yelled worriedly, squinting as he looked up at the tree. “You’re gonna fall!”
Eddie was already a good two thirds of the way up the tree, alcohol apparently lending him wings. Steve was almost impressed at the rate he’d gotten up so high.
“Won’t fall!” Eddie called back, “I’ll be like…like the elves of Lothlorien! They live in the forests, did you know that?”
“Eddie you’re not an elf!” Steve tried to reason.
The branches stopped moving for a moment, before Eddie’s sad voice sounded again. “I might be, you don’t know.”
“Oh my god,” Steve ran a hand over his face, “Ok, stop climbing, I’ll…I’ll come up and get you.”
“No, I’m almost there, I’m getting you your fucking orange!”
“Just get one from a lower branch!”
“I want to get you the best one,” Eddie argued, “And that one’s at the top, and I can almost…oh.”
He fell quiet. Steve’s heart beat faster. “Eddie? What is it?”
“Um…well, I think…I think this elf is stuck.”
Steve craned his neck, tried to see his boyfriend in the fading light. He could make out his socked feet on a branch way too high for Steve’s liking, but that was about it, the foliage covering the rest of him.
Steve sighed. “Stay there, I’m coming up.” He hauled himself a short distance up the trunk, cursing as the bark scraped his hands.
“This branch won’t hold us both,” Eddie said nervously as Steve grabbed for a lower branch.
Steve grunted as the branch he was holding snapped and came loose in his hand as he slid back down the trunk. How the fuck had Eddie, who had not been blessed by the athletics stick get all the way up there?
“Ok,” Steve said, dusting his hands off on his jeans, “Can’t you just…come back down the way you came?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“I’m scared,” Eddie whined.
“Well, it’s either that, or we call Hopper to bring the truck and ladder over.”
Silence for a moment, before Eddie replied, “That would be bad.”
“...yeah.”
Steve waited. Dusk turned to evening, the sun having fully set now.
Eddie wasn’t coming down, and after an hour of trying to coax him, Steve was on the phone to Nancy.
“Hawkins Fire Department, where is your emergency?”
“Uh…hi Nance,” Steve said awkwardly, cringing as a twig snapped loudly in the tree outside.
“Steve? What are you doing calling the emergency line?”
“No one was picking up the kitchen phone, and um…” Steve clenched his eyes shut for a moment. “I need…some help.”
“Ok, what’s happening?” Nancy sounded worried, and that was only making this even more embarrassing.
“Eddie’sstuckinatree,” Steve said in a rush.
“Did you just say…” A polite cough down the phone, Nancy trying to cover up a laugh.
“Yes, yes I did. Please can you just send Hopper around to my place with the truck?”
And that was how, twenty minutes later, Steve was standing with a torch and guiding Dmitri as he reversed the truck slowly into the backyard, as close to the tree as they could get it.
Hopper stepped out of the truck, swaggering over to a bright-red Steve and adjusting his coveralls at the hip.
“So…” Hopper started, smirking at Steve.
“He’s up there,” Steve said meekly, gesturing at the orange tree.
“Chief, you’ve come to rescue me!” Eddie called dramatically. “I told Steve, I said, we don’t need to light the beacons just yet, I’m sure I can find my way down, but then…well, I really needed to pee.”
Hopper looked at Steve, raising an eyebrow.
Steve swallowed. “Yeah, he’s…he’s pretty drunk.”
A long-suffering sigh escaped Hopper, before he returned to the truck to help Dmitri unpack the ladder and get it set up. Steve was thankful to note that at least Robin and Billy had been left behind to man the station – a small win for his pride.
Hopper made his way up the ladder slowly (on purpose, Steve was sure), until he reached Eddie. There was a shuffle in the trees, the crunching of branches and a tiny shriek from Eddie until his feet found the rungs and he started to descend, practically draped over Hopper, having long since lost his ability to manoeuvre down a ladder.
“Hop, I gotta pee!” Eddie squeaked when they were halfway down.
“Hold it!” Hopper barked urgently, cursing as Eddie clung to him.
Finally at the bottom of the ladder, Hopper deposited Eddie not-so-gracefully into Steve’s waiting arms.
“My King,” Eddie slurred, looking up at Steve with shining eyes, then his face fell. “I couldn’t get you the orange.”
Behind him, Hopper was rolling his eyes as he packed away the ladder.
“That’s ok, Eds,” Steve said, slinging an arm around his waist to steady him, “I think we’ll just go to the store and get some tomorrow.”