Work Text:
Steve pulled up to the high-school parking lot at least ten minutes after he'd promised Dustin he would be there.
He didn't like to be late, even if it was just something simple, like taking the kid home. It was hard to believe that almost a year ago he'd been pissed, jealous even, that Dustin was getting rides home from Eddie Munson instead. It all seemed so irrelevant now.
Steve had been in such a rut lately. His job felt like a prison sentence. He kept on going dates without anything to show for it afterwards-, unless you counted feeling more empty than before.
He had no idea where he was going in life and it felt like everyone else he'd graduated with had just moved on so easily.
The parking lot was nearly empty, except for one very familiar looking van by the rear fence. Steve stared at it for a minute, looking between it and the school. There was no sign of Dustin, or any of the other sophomores.
Steve threw the beamer in reverse and backed into the spot right beside Eddie.
The old Chevy had been taken by police as evidence in the case of Chrissy's "murder". When Eddie had been fully cleared, he'd gotten it back. The Munson's had their trailer back, too.
The last Steve had heard from Dustin, Hellfire Club had assisted Eddie and his uncle with fixing the place back up. Steve had wanted to volunteer himself to help out too, but he kept finding stupid reasons not to go.
Most of them had to do with sweeping whatever weird connection he'd felt to Eddie in the upside down under the metaphysical rug.
It was selfish. But it wasn't like Steve didn't have plenty of distractions going on to make him forget about the guilt.
He felt it immediately upon seeing Eddie's hand hanging out of the van, his fingers pinching the end of a cigarette.
Slowly, he climbed out of the BMW and walked around to the driver's side door. The music was turned up almost painfully loud inside, and Steve had to knock on the side of the vehicle to grab Eddie's attention.
He jumped in his seat, clearly startled but relieved that it was only Steve. Eddie put the cig back between his lips for safety and kicked the radio off.
"Harrington! Long time no see."
He didn't sound mad about that. So why did Steve still feel like shit?
"Yeah, hey...uh, -I'm sorry I haven't been around. Work, you know?"
Eddie honestly looked confused, taking a drag off his cig through the crack in the window.
"No worries. Lemme guess, you came for Henderson?"
Steve nodded.
"Yeah, you know where he is?"
"Home, I expect." Eddie said through a smile.
Now it was Steve who was confused.
"Home? How? He said he needed a ride."
Eddie shrugged. "He probably did. But Gareth just got the keys to his dad's old beater. Brought it to school today. They all piled in it after we split."
"What a jerk. I should've known."
"Sorry, dude."
Steve just sighed while leaning against Eddie's van.
"Oh well. Not like I had anything better to do."
Eddie snorted. "Me neither."
He finished the cigarette, stamping it out in the Chevy's ashtray. It began to get dark very quickly in the parking lot as gray clouds filled the already heavy looking sky. A low, deep rolling thunder echoed south of the school, making Steve's teeth vibrate.
Eddie was staring at school itself, looking miserable.
"You miss it?"
Steve was joking, and Eddie shot him a funny look, like he had somehow guessed what the musician was thinking about.
"Yeah, right. I totally miss spending all day, everyday with people who hate my guts. Oh wait- I do that now."
"What do you mean?"
Eddie looped his hands around the steering wheel.
"Dustin didn't tell you?"
Steve bit his lip.
Dustin had.
The majority of the population of Hawkins didn't seem to care that the case against Eddie was tossed out. He was labeled guilty in the court of public opinion. Sentence? Town pariah.
Dustin had said he'd seen people spit at Eddie. They left him awful notes in his mailbox. Prank called his house. Even threatened him in public. Eddie only ever left his trailer to travel outside of town, or to do stuff with his friends like meet them for Hellfire Club nights in secret. Dustin had rebranded, but it was still the same old DnD group.
"Yeah, I've heard some stuff. Has it gotten any better?"
Eddie just shook his head.
Steve was searching for something positive to say (and failing) as the sky above him opened. Rain began to splatter against the gravel parking lot as if someone were emptying a pool over their heads. Eddie reached over his gear shift to throw the passenger door open for Steve, who rushed across the slick ground to jump into the van.
He was already soaked by the time he sat down. Eddie kicked the heat on, to which Steve mumbled a thank you.
From this new perspective, he could see how well Eddie had healed up. That was surprising, considering how bad off he had been back in March. They hadn't been sure he was even going to make it through the night.
Steve supposed there were still some obvious tells that something wasn't right. Eddie seemed oddly stiff, especially with how he'd positioned his hips in the driver's seat. As Eddie reached out to give him a cigarette, he spotted a hint of fresh pink and white flesh from one of the other man's many scars.
Maybe he was staring a little too much. Eddie pushed his sleeve down, looking embarrassed. Without thinking, Steve put his hand on Eddie's wrist.
"Sorry-, I didn't mean to be weird. Not that scars are weird. I mean...mine are. You should see my back dude,"
Eddie's mouth split into a grin at Steve's rushed apology. He didn't shrug him off, either.
"You're rambling. Want the cig or no?"
"No, I'm good." Steve released his grip. "Also, I'm sorry about how things have been for you lately...it sucks that people are giving you such a hard time."
Eddie lit Steve's cig for himself.
"I'll live. It's not like it's any different than that shithole,"
Steve looked up at the school through the rain splattered windshield. The guilt was chewing him up something awful. He'd ignored Eddie when he probably needed people who knew that he was innocent surrounding him.
"I'm sorry. Sorry for not...helping. With your trailer. With anything, everything." Steve told his distorted reflection.
"Oh, dude. Forget it-,"
"I can't." Steve turned his head, feeling oddly bent out of shape now that he was there, right in front of what he'd been avoiding.
There was nowhere to hide.
Eddie's warm eyes seemed to burn right into his own.
"Why not?"
"It's stupid."
"I like stupid." Eddie shrugged, only half joking. "Try me."
"There's no point even bringing it up." Steve insisted, trying to laugh it off even though he didn't mean what he'd said.
Eddie's head tilted to the side, tapping the cigarette against his knee.
"Can I be the judge of that? You know...since you owe me and all."
"Owe you?"
"Yeah. For not being around."
Eddie was smiling, maybe to show Steve that he meant it as a joke. But it didn't feel like a joke. It felt heavier than the rain clouds outside trying to drown them.
"I doubt you wanna hear it."
Eddie made a tsking sound, suddenly annoyed. He reached for his lighter.
"Jesus, just spit it-, shit!"
He dropped both the lighter and the cig, clutching his fingers. Steve leaned over the cup holders, tugging Eddie's other hand back to see what had happened.
Eddie had burnt his index and middle finger with the flame from the zippo. The affected skin looked red and pissed, but definitely nothing hospital worthy. Steve glanced around the van, hunting for anything that might help soothe the burn.
There was a half empty soft drink cup from the convenience store sitting crushed under Steve's leg. He picked it up and shook it, grateful for the ice left smacking around inside. He lifted the lid, checked for anything suspicious, and passed it to Eddie.
"Fuck...thanks. I'm such an idiot."
"It was an accident."
Eddie jammed his burnt fingers into the nearly melted ice.
"Yeah. Maybe it'll scar too. Then it can match the rest of me. Not like things could get any worse."
"It's not bad enough to scar."
Eddie rolled his eyes.
"No shit. I was being sarcastic."
Steve fetched the lighter and lit the cigarette for Eddie, holding it out for him to take between his lips. Eddie accepted offer, inhaling and then exhaling when Steve moved it away.
It was unexpectedly intimate, in Steve's opinion. He tried not to feel weird about it. Eddie looked like he felt off too. He'd stopped talking, his face pink as he smoked the cigarette with Steve's assistance.
"Thanks again. For...whatever the hell this is."
"Don't mention it."
"You don't have to spill your big secret, I guess." Eddie added. "That was shitty of me to keep digging like that."
Steve shook his head, taking a drag off the cigarette while thinking a little too hard. When it occurred to him that he was putting his mouth right where Eddie's had just been, he nearly choked on the smoke.
A few minutes passed in silence.
"I guess I'm just embarrassed about it. I read into something too much, and even though I can see that, I also just can't shake the idea-,"
"Idea of what?" Eddie interrupted.
He was staring at Steve smoking the borrowed, the shared, cigarette. Steve held it out to him and he took a drag off it again.
"In the upside down you gave me this big speech about how I should get Nancy back."
Eddie nodded, remembering the same moment Steve was referring to.
"Right. You didn't take the advice."
"I'm not coming in between her and Byers. Never again."
"I'm sorry, Harrington-,"
Steve waved his apology away.
"Not the point. The point was that I wasn't even listening to half of what you said that day."
"You weren't?"
Steve laughed. He couldn't help it. The truth was spilling out of his mouth at lightening speed.
"No. I was too caught up in how bad I wanted to kiss you."
Silence.
Just the rain. It was falling much more gently over the top of the van. Steve was still holding the cigarette, watching as it burnt down to the filter between his fingers.
"I uh...I told you. It's stupid."
"It's not. Not at all."
Eddie wasn't looking at him. He was facing the windshield, his long hair hiding his reaction.
"It wouldn't leave me alone." Steve continued, still unable to stop the words from coming out. "The uh...the idea of it. It stuck in my head like glue. Couldn't focus much on Nance."
"That so, Harrington?"
"Uh huh." Steve swallowed hard, recalling how intently he'd watched Eddie's mouth form words. How badly he wanted to just lean in and feel what it might be like. How he would miss his chance if one of them didn't end up making it. "When we came out still breathing, I dunno. I still couldn't deal with it. Made me want to try to bury everything."
Eddie was nodding.
"I get it."
Steve looked over at him curiously.
"Really?"
"Oh yeah. Shit, I would be freaked out over wanting to kiss me. You ever actually look at me before dude? Especially now." Eddie laughed, but it was strained and not like him at all.
"That's not what I meant."
Steve wasn't sure where he'd lost Eddie, but clearly he had. His one hand had buried itself in his hair, while the other remained stuck in the Styrofoam cup.
"You, Steve fucking Harrington have some kind of...gay, twenty something crisis in the face of a lot of pain and death. And to have that crisis hone in on the school outcast who's accused of serial murder?" Eddie said. He was still using that same, strained joking-but not joking voice. "-fuck, I'd be knee deep in dissociation myself."
"That's still not it."
Steve had turned in the seat, facing an Eddie who was doing everything in his power not to look back at him.
"Then what? What's the reason?"
The cacophony caused by the sudden increase in rainfall made both of them look up.
"Because I didn't kiss you. I chickened out a few times. And there were so many opportunities." Steve leaned his head back while reminiscing. "The upside down. The front seat of the RV. Before I left you with Dustin. And I just didn't. I felt like I missed my chance."
Eddie was quiet for a moment before he chuckled behind his own hand.
"That's insane. You can't be serious."
"What if I am?"
Eddie shot him a look.
"Dude, are you even lucid right now? People can't even look at me. And I know what they're thinking, they wish I was dead, instead of Chrissy. Sometimes, shit. I wish it had been me."
Steve felt his stomach slowly start to sink.
"Eddie."
"What? It's true. I'm a high school drop out. Charges were dropped against me and it means nothing. I want out of Hawkins, yet here I fucking am day after day. Playing with high school kids and feeling occasionally sentimental about my left fucking nipple-,"
Steve made a weird snorting sound. "Wait, what?"
Eddie poked at his own chest.
"Bats took my fucking nip, dude. Dustin didn't tell you?"
"Nope. No he did not."
"Oh."
They looked at each other briefly before bursting into laughter.
"Shit, I guess you did get it worse."
"Told you, Harrington." Eddie said while swallowing back more laughter. "Uh...if you ever still want to try that kissing thing...just so you know? I'm down for that."
Steve heard the distinct sound of his blood whooshing through his ears.
"You would?"
"Yeah. Unless you're not into one nipped guys."
Steve let out a nervous chuckle, and he found himself inching closer towards Eddie in the passenger seat.
"I'm into you."
"...shit."
Eddie looked like he didn't know what the hell to do with that information. He looked at Steve with wide eyes, his hand was still wedged in the cup. Some of his long hair was stuck to his lip. Steve reached over and pulled the stray strands off of Eddie's mouth before he leaned in and pressed their lips together.
At first Steve wondered if maybe he'd made a mistake. Maybe Eddie meant they could try kissing later, because he was just sat there, dead still. Steve simply couldn't wait.
Eddie's mouth was warm and a little wet. He pressed his tongue along the seam of his lips and immediately met teeth. He sunk into Eddie then, a happy sigh escaping as fingers wound themselves into his hair.
Eddie began kissing him back. He was definitely more hesitant, but that was okay. Steve tasted cigarettes and cinnamon and wondered if maybe he tasted similar. The fingers in his hair drifted down to the front of his throat and vanished beneath his collar.
As if Eddie just wanted to feel something other than what he could see in front of him.
Steve grew more bold with their kiss. He put his hands on Eddie too. He set them around the collar of the musician's jacket, yanking him closer. Even then, Steve felt like they weren't touching enough of each other.
He leaned back from the kiss, nearly slowing down once he saw how pretty Eddie's eyes looked when they were glazed over like that, as if Steve had kissed his soul out to the surface.
He moved to Eddie's neck and licked at a spot, tasting salt and even more smoke. Steve had no clue how the other man felt about hickeys, and he didn't ask before biting down gently into Eddie's throat to suck one into his pale skin.
The soft whine Eddie let out coupled with the pulling on Steve's hair made him decide that hickeys must be a good thing.
So Steve bit another one lower, closer to where Eddie's collarbone peeked out from beneath his clothing.
"I think I like kissing you." Eddie blurted out as Steve's teeth dragged across his flesh.
"Yeah, well," Steve said while pulling his mouth off of Eddie's throat. "I know I like kissing you."
"Even though that makes you a pariah by association?"
"So? Like I give a damn what anybody around here thinks of me anymore-,"
Eddie's eyes on him were full of something that might've been awe. Or maybe he was just a little turned on.
"Harrington. I think that's the hottest thing anybody has ever said to me."
Steve brought their mouths together again, with more intent, more intensity behind the way that he licked into Eddie's mouth.
The other man went to get even closer, leaning over the gear shift between them. Just like that, Steve felt cold liquid being dumped across his lap.
"Shit,"
Eddie's hand was still in the cup.
He had tried to put his arms around Steve, forgotten about it, and then gone and covered them both with melted ice and Coke.
"You could've just said you didn't wanna keep going," Steve said jokingly. "You didn't have to try to ruin my good jeans."
Eddie groaned. He leaned back and yanked the now empty cup off his hand, chucking it to the floor.
"Sorry. Seriously...I didn't mean to fuck this up too."
"You didn't," Steve said firmly. "How's the fingers?"
"I think I'll escape unscathed from my own lighter."
"Good. You can drive then."
Eddie's head whipped around as he looked at Steve in disbelief.
"Uh, sorry? Drive where?"
"My house? Your house. Which ever is closer."
When Eddie looked back at him blankly, Steve laughed.
"Making out in the car sucks. There's no room. Your van is a fucking mess. Plus, there's a lot of advantages to being less vertical-,"
Eddie coughed hard over Steve and started the van.
"You got it, Harrington. Uh. Steve. Anywhere you wish."
"You're so weird."
Eddie laughed. "Yeah, but you like it. Right?"
"I think so."
"Or were you just trying to peek at my weird lack of nipple? Cause I'd show you anyway, no strings attached."
Steve just shook his head while buckling himself into the seat.
"Drive, Munson."