Work Text:
It slipped out.
The big boy.
Maybe it was the nerves of the whole grand theft auto situation, or just the fact that he never had the best of filters; and to be honest, if any of the thousand rumors circulating the halls of Hawkings High was to be true, Eddie’s money was on Steve packing.
How else could you explain the never-ending line of girls seemingly ready to jump into his bed, or the begrudging admiration of the general male population?
Anyway. Eddie’s got a beautiful response out of him, that’s all he was saying.
Like seriously. Confusion looked cute on Steve. So did the pondering expression Eddie caught whenever their eyes met for the rest of the day. Scrunched up brow and pouty, red-bitten lips. Or maybe Steve was just feeling dizzy from all the blood loss? Who was Eddie to tell. He barely even knew the guy.
The only thing Eddie knew for sure, was what his gut was telling him.
A spark had been ignited.
The ancient fire had awoken.
Beacons were definitely lit.
Only no one was coming to his aid this time. And in the greater scheme of things, worrying about it on the off chance that it was as mutual as he believed it could be, was nowhere near the top of his priorities. Those being: survive, clear his name, get the hell out of Hawkings. End of list.
Now, under the stern look Steve was giving them by the trailer, demanding no heroics or any tomfoolery while he was gone, Eddie felt pinned to the spot.
His gut was twisting again, urging him to talk, to diffuse, to reassure.
And he found himself wishing that, in the moments between one breath and the next, there was a way to convey tales of a wonderful world full of potential; to follow the string of lights burning across dimensions into the darker side of their hearts; to rejoice in the monumental significance of their chance connection in the middle of the goddamn apocalypse.
Steve turned to go an Eddie leaped forward.
“Steve.”
What was Eddie to say?
The words mushed together on their way out and he swallowed them back down.
His gut twisted harder.
He hesitated.
“Make him pay!”
Next time.
He would find a way to tell him, next time.