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Eddie got a key for Steve’s house when they first started dating. Just something that Steve did as a gesture that said, “You’re part of my permanent fixture of people.” Which, thank God he got a key or else he wouldn’t be able to come check in on his lovely, lovely, lovely boyfriend.
Especially when said boyfriend seems to have gone dark on all the people in his life.
It started with Robin telling him that Steve no-called, no-showed his shift at Family Video. Strange, he had thought. Though, he’d heard that Steve’s done it a few times before. Once when he had a migraine and was vomiting so profusely that he was simply too exhausted to reach his phone. Another, his bat wounds were infected and he was laid up in the hospital. There was kind of recently where Steve just slept through the entire day, nightmares riddling him the night before. Eddie had been there for that day, had to calm Steve down when he realized he missed work, had even held him as he shook from the come down of another nightmare.
So Eddie thought it was a little odd, but not all that different from how Steve can be if given dire circumstances.
Though, then Dustin radios him. “Steve didn’t pick us up from school today. He promised he would, but I guess he couldn’t? I don’t know. I can’t get a hold of him.”
That made the hairs on Eddie’s neck and arms stand up. Because, Steve doesn’t do shit like that. It’s Eddie, usually, who forgets. But Steve? No way, Eddie had thought. Yet, no way turned to, Okay, maybe he did. Eddie made it his duty to pick all the party members up and drop them off at their respective houses.
However, that wasn’t the final straw to make Eddie go to Steve’s.
No, what crumbled his resolve was hearing Max on the radio. She didn’t go to school today. Her limbs aching in a way that made it impossible for her to move from bed. Dustin had told Eddie that. He’s even witnessed it, the poor girl. Her voice came through the radio, small and scared, “Steve?” But there wasn’t a response. “Steve, please, are you there? I—I had a dream about the—“ And her voice trapped in her throat, the cut off of a sob making itself apparent over the radio wave. She forgot to switch to a private channel. She’ll do that, now, apparently. It was mentioned in passing that the channel dial was hard for her to navigate without being able to see all that clearly. She was half-blind, for Pete’s sake.
Eddie comforted her through whatever nightmare shook her. The bats, he concluded. Because, though she wasn’t there to witness it, her mind filled in the blanks easy enough. Vicious, red, raw, bleeding images.
His hackles rose. He beelined for his van. He scurried his ass over to Steve’s house. Because, What the fuck is happening today? And more importantly, He needs me. Maybe that was a selfish thought. Though, maybe, it was a necessary thought.
He creeped through the foyer. Easily realizing that neither of Steve’s parents were home. Tiptoed his sneakers off by the front door. And called out, gentle yet as loud as he could, “Steve? Are you home?”
There wasn’t a response, which made Eddie’s stomach twist. He made his way up the stairs, coming to the cracked opening of Steve’s bedroom door. There was a lump on his bed, Steve’s body. But Eddie couldn’t really tell if he was alive or not, all things considered.
Coming to Steve’s bedside and crouching down, he noticed that Steve was awake. Wide-eyed, glistening, staring through to nothing. Eddie tried to bring a palm up to cup the side of Steve’s face, but that only made him flinch away from the touch. “Stevie?” Eddie hesitated. “Baby, are you alright?”
Steve whimpered in response. He curled farther into his blanket, hands white-knuckling on the edge, head burying itself into his pillow.
Eddie hushed gently. “It’s alright, sweetheart. It’s Eddie,” he tried to cajole. “Just came to check on ‘ya.” He settled down on his butt, criss-crossing on the carpet. Hands folding in his lap. HIs eyes still attentive on Steve.
“Bad day,” Steve muttered.
“That’s alright,” Eddie assured. “It’s okay to have a bad day. Why is—“ He hesitated momentarily. This probably wasn’t going to be a very comforting conversation to have. “Why is it a bad day, Steve?”
He shrugged. “Something’s…Something is missing,” Steve articulated, or at least attempted to. “Like…I don’t know. I don’t know, Eddie. I don’t know.” His voice produced a nasally quality, wet where it shouldn’t be. Getting worked up. “My chest hurts,” he quietly sobbed.
“Oh, honey,” Eddie cooed. He rose up onto his knees. Palms down on the edge of Steve’s mattress. “Can I—Are you okay with me—“
“Please,” Steve cried out. And the way it reached from within his chest made Eddie shudder. It clawed itself out of Steve. Almost bubbling and bursting to the surface. “Please, Eddie,” he had begun to plead, “Come here. I need—“
Eddie took no time at all. Chucking his jacket to the floor. Crawling under the duvet. Curling his body around Steve’s trembling back. He wrapped his arms around Steve’s sturdy torso, hands interlocking and squeezing against the subtle softness of his belly, fingers splaying against his naked skin. He pressed his forehead between Steve’s mole-dotted shoulder blades, brushing his lips over the moles within distance. Shutting his eyes against the shuddering breaths in front of him. Nosing at the top notches of Steve’s spine.
“I gotcha, love bug,” he whispered, “I gotcha and I ain’t going anywhere. Promise, baby. I promise.”
He knew that Steve didn’t like showing himself when he cried. But something about this was different, to its core, Eddie could tell. Something almost hollow and echoing to Steve. Something hungry and aching all at the same time. Eddie never wanted to let go.
Steve shifted in the hold. Turning over completely so that his head was tucked under Eddie’s chin, face burrowed in his chest, arms wrapping around Eddie—low near his hips. He was scrunching himself as to not take up the most amount of room. And Eddie hated it with a great passion. Hated it so much. But realized, in that moment, it was not worth the fight. That, in the throes of loving somebody like Steve, that things need to run their course.
Even as devastating as they are.
Eventually, when Steve calmed and went boneless yet hiccuping in Eddie’s hold, only then did Eddie pull away. Only slightly, as to not startle the stilted air between them. Only to peer a little, to look and gaze and cherish.
Before Steve could even open his mouth, Eddie murmured, “Don’t apologize. It’s alright, love bug. You’ll be okay. Can you…Are you okay to tell me what happened?”
Again, Steve shrugged. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “Just woke up feeling sticky and wrung out and…Empty, I don’t know. Tired.”
Eddie nodded. His eyes sunk in a little, going soft and sad in understanding. “Okay,” he muttered. And cuddled back in, as close as their bodies would let them. “Okay, Steve. That’s enough. ’T’s all I needed to hear, sweetheart.”
Steve sighed against him. His exhaustion noticeable, heavy and armored. Before he drifted, though, he murmured, “Thank you for coming over.”
“Thank you for letting me in,” Eddie responded. His palm slid over Steve’s naked, mottled back. Kissed the top of his head. And pushed himself in closer. “Love you.”
“Love you, too,” Steve could only muster as a whisper.
And that was enough.