Chapter Text
“Yeah,” Steve sighed into the phone, leaning back against the kitchen counter. His free hand buried itself in his hair. “He’s okay.” His head tipped to the side. “No. He’s out of town.”
Eddie looked away, sinking further into the top step of the stairs to the basement.
“I don’t know. He’ll call me when he’s settled.” He sighed heavily, breath shaky. “No, I know he would never-” He paused. “Hey-” His voice broke as he choked out the word. “We’ll figure it out. Hawkins is fucking crazy. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation-”
Eddie stood quickly, sinking down the stairs into the fully furnished basement, needing to block out the new reality he had stumbled into. When he made it down the steps, he paused, looking around at yet another entertainment space left for Steve to haunt in the house his parents had all but abandoned him in.
Since Eddie had first set foot in the basement months earlier, it had transformed from another cold corner devised by an overpaid and tasteless decorator into a cozy and creative space. The first time Steve had invited them over, the band had taken one look at the basement before mutually agreeing to take over the place; they’d plastered posters along most of the dull and blank walls, left instruments and tapes littering the room, stiff and showy blankets had long been replaced with well-loved ones. With everyone’s help, they had even managed to drag the fridge from the garage down the stairs, filling it with soda and beer. Over time, a stereo had made it downstairs, along with a mountain of records they all borrowed and left recordings on.
Eddie walked over to his favourite corner, pulling a black blanket stolen from Steve’s room over himself to shield him from the early-morning light creeping in through the short windows that hugged the ceiling. The soothing draw of the couch cushions slowly eased the tension from his shoulders before he felt himself growing drowsy after a sleepless night. As he teetered on the edge of sleep, familiar footsteps descended the stairs, pulling Eddie back into consciousness.
Steve sighed heavily, coming closer before kneeling at the edge of the couch. His head slowly poked under the blanket, bringing him face to face with Eddie below the warm cotton knit.
Eddie looked over at him, but didn’t say anything.
Steve frowned deeply, his eyes shining adorably. The face felt genuine, but it was exaggerated, likely for Eddie’s benefit.
“Don’t give me that,” Eddie mumbled, hiding his face in the pillow.
“Give you what?” he whined, the tone drawing a smile to Eddie’s lips.
He couldn’t help but huff in amusement. “I’m traumatised and you’re trying to make me laugh.”
“No, I’m not.” Steve shoved his shoulder, urging Eddie to move over. Steve followed, wrapping himself around Eddie from behind. “We’re going to figure it out. It’s all going to be okay.”
“How do you know?”
A heavy sigh left Steve, his warm breath fanning over the back of Eddie’s neck. “This isn’t the first time this shit’s happened.”
Eddie burrowed further into the couch.
“Nancy, Robin, Dustin, and Max should be here soon. We tried Lucas, but he wasn't home, and Mike's not in town.”
Eddie nodded, unable to speak.
Steve was quiet for a moment before squeezing Eddie’s waist. “It's going to be okay,” he promised.
They fell into heavy silence, Steve’s grasp never letting up. His shoulders finally relaxed when the front door opened, four sets of feet following before everyone wandered downstairs.
Steve freed himself from their blanket fort first, earning a laugh from Robin. “What’re you doing?” she asked.
“We just got comfy.” He squeezed Eddie before pulling away with a stretch. Steve’s hand fell to Eddie’s shoulder over the blanket, gently shaking until he sat up with a groan. “Good morning, sunshine.”
Eddie huffed, pulling the blanket from over his head. He looked up at Steve’s small smile with a frown. “Not a good morning.”
Robin hummed, settling into the one-seater across from them. “We heard there were monsters afoot.”
A frown pulled at Steve’s lips as he reached out to fix an errant curl hanging in Eddie’s face. “Yeah,” he breathed, looking away from Eddie. Steve stood before wandering off, prompting Eddie to sit up.
Dustin threw himself into Eddie’s arms, holding on as if Eddie would float away. “What happened?” he asked after they pulled apart.
“Upside down bullshit,” Steve grumbled, sitting on the ground in front of Eddie. He held a can of Coke up to Eddie before sliding into the space bracketed by Eddie’s shoes.
Eddie popped the tab on his soda, taking a slow sip before letting his hand fall to Steve’s shoulder.
Slowly, Steve’s shoulders relaxed beneath his touch.
After a moment of peace, Eddie forced his mouth open, explaining how Chrissy had asked him for help- for drugs. He recounted how everything had been fine until he had left the room, only to come back to her floating on the ceiling. While he recounted the snapping of bones, her cracking jaw, and bleeding eyes before her gruesome death at the hands of some unseen force, Steve leaned into Eddie’s touch, grounding him. “Steve said it’s happened before,” Eddie breathed solemnly, thumb tapping nervously just below Steve’s hairline.
“Not exactly the same,” Dustin sighed. “But yeah, we’ve been more or less here before.”
“Billy,” Max uttered.
Robin looked down at her socks. “Barb.”
Nancy’s lips parted before she schooled her features, looking past Steve, out the window to the backyard.
After letting his head fall forward, defeated, Steve’s shoulders locked up again.
Eddie’s fingers combed through the hair at the nape of Steve’s neck to soothe him. Before his brain registered the action, he felt Steve lean into his touch. He cleared his throat, continuing. “So, we kind of know what we’re dealing with?”
“Unfortunately,” Steve murmured, resting his temple against Eddie’s knee.
“Yes and no,” Dustin said, seemingly having missed Steve’s comment. “We’ve faced some of this stuff before. Well-”
“Supergirl has,” Steve interrupted, scoffing. “We’ve just been window dressing.” Steve’s head fell back, drawing Eddie’s attention down to his lap. “There were fireworks last time.”
Eddie blinked, slowly processing Steve’s words before a laugh bubbled out of him. “Really?”
He nodded. “Like a full shopping cart’s worth.”
“Fucking metal.”
Steve smiled weakly before a frown found its way to his lips again. “Only problem is El’s in California and her super powers went bye-bye.”
“We’re just more in the brainstorming phase,” Robin said slowly, smiling when her gaze caught Steve’s.
He looked over at her, snapping his fingers. “Brainstorming, yeah.” Steve let his head fall back as he smiled up at Eddie. “We’ll figure it out.”
Eddie patted Steve’s cheek. “You’re killing me.”
“I think you're forgetting about the heart attack you almost gave me when you hid in my closet until I got home last night.”
“At least I'm out now.”
Robin snorted, breaking up their bickering. “God, you two are like high octane Statler and Waldorf if they were making fun of each other instead of the Muppets.”
“Why do we always come here?” Eddie agonized in his best Muppet-style voice.
“I guess we'll never know,” Steve said, voice mirroring Eddie's.
“Alright!” Max finally interrupted. “If you two chuckle heads are done-”
“I'm done,” Steve promised, looking up at Eddie. “Are you done?”
“I'm done. You're done?”
“I'm done-”
“God! At least Statler and Waldorf are funny,” Max scoffed.
Eddie and Steve turned to each other before laughing, still sounding like muppets.
Max sighed heavily, shaking her head after they both quieted down. “Is it the best idea to hide Eddie here?” she asked, exasperated. “I mean, it just seems like this would be one of the first places Jason and his goon squad would check. Since you’re in a band together and everything.”
Steve pursed his lips. “Well-”
“We’re lying about my whereabouts,” Eddie said with a large, tight smile. After a breath, he glanced downward, hand resting on one of Steve's tense shoulders reassuringly.
With a heavy sigh, Steve nodded. “As far as the band knows, I dropped Eddie off at the train station in Indy this morning and he’s going to call me when he gets where he’s going.”
Eddie frowned as he watched Steve look down at his lap. “They’ll understand,” he promised.
“I know.” Steve’s voice came out tight. After a moment, he nodded. “I feel bad lying to them, but they don’t need to get dragged into this.”
“It’s better off this way.” Eddie squeezed Steve’s shoulder again, bringing his hand up to rifle Steve’s hair. “I mean-” he began, smiling when Steve shoved his hand off to focus on fixing his hair. “End of the day, I know the ins and outs of this place pretty well by now, so if something does happen, I have all the good hiding spots memorized.”
“Yeah,” Steve mumbled, half paying attention as he continued playing with his hair. “Safe to say we won’t be ringing the bell when we come back.”
“At least they’ll be considerate in their stupidity,” Robin said with a shrug.
Steve pointed over at her again. “Exactly.”
“We’ll just keep the curtains closed,” Nancy said.
Robin nodded. “But, like, the sheer ones, so it’s not super suspicious.”
“Right,” Nancy agreed.
With furrowed brows, Eddie looked down at Steve for clarification.
“The ones that are kind of see-through. We’re not closing the heavy ones, you know?”
“What?”
Steve frowned, letting his head fall against Eddie’s knee. “You black out when I talk about interior design, don’t you?”
Eddie smiled. “Let’s not forget that you were the one who talked me out of nailing a sheet over my bedroom window before we got curtains.”
“Is this really a priority?” Max huffed, drawing Eddie’s attention away from Steve’s warm gaze.
“I just want to know the intimacies of my cage, ‘kay?” Eddie said, aware his tone could have been softer. He took a calming breath when Steve's arm wrapped around his calf, grounding him.
She rolled her eyes, sinking back into the couch cushions. Her fingers played with the tag of the Misses Pacman pillow she tended to favour pulling into her lap.
“Why don’t we go pull the car into the garage and close the curtains?” Robin asked, waiting for Nancy’s nod of approval before nudging Max’s shoe with her own. “Dustin can help.”
“Me?” Dustin asked, taken aback as annoyance flooded his features. “Why-”
“Not up for debate,” Nancy said firmly, already standing to climb the stairs.
“But-”
“Stairs,” Robin interrupted, pushing out of her chair to tower over him. “Chop, chop.”
“Why am I on curtain duty?” Dustin huffed, following Nancy, Robin, and Max up the stairs.
“No one assigned activities yet, but if you want to argue like that, I am happy to call sexist, patriarchal bullshit on your short little ass.”
“Jesus!”
When the door to the basement closed behind them, Eddie stood. He stretched his arms over his head until one of his shoulders popped before shimmying out from behind Steve. “The red ones?” he tried, wandering off towards the windows.
“Yeah,” Steve agreed, already wandering over to close the curtains over the back door. Light from outside still shone through, but everything was mostly obscured.
“See? I listen.”
Steve hummed, tackling the short windows hugging the ceiling along the opposite wall to Eddie.
Halfway down the second wall, Eddie spoke again. “I can feel you staring at me.”
“I’m not staring,” Steve huffed, making quick work of closing the last of the curtains.
“Okay,” Eddie hummed. “Well, it feels like you’re not talking about what’s bothering you either.” He turned quickly when Steve let out a heavy sigh. “Oh my god. You’re still on that?”
“I mean-”
“Dude!”
“Well-”
“We can’t change anything-”
“But you can apologise-”
“Oh, yeah? Just call Lucas right now? You think Jason will want to say hi, too?”
“That’s not-” Steve groaned, walking over to sit on the coffee table, facing Eddie. After letting out a heavy sigh, he spoke again. “Stop being a jackass. You know I'm right.”
“I’m not-”
“He won the game, dude!” After a moment of shared silence, Steve wiped a hand over his face. “You should have been there,” Steve said, quieter than before. “He won the game. Buzzer beater and everything.”
“Oh, so I'm expected to rearrange my week- a week that involves a lot of planning and coordination, thank you very much -for his little…throwing balls in laundry baskets nonsense? Thanks, I’ll pass. Except, oh wait, I did!”
“We’re not having the basketball argument again. It’s a fucking game. Who cares that he likes-”
“And there’s your bias, Stevie!”
“Me? What about your board games-”
“Table top is not the same-”
“It’s a student-run club! You could have moved-”
“And let the establishment win?”
Steve’s brow twitched, quiet anger winning out over the heat of their shouting match. “I need you to get a grip,” he said, voice steady and direct. Always the babysitter.
Eddie leaned back on his heels. Suddenly, the argument felt stupider than he already knew it was. He sat down on the couch, knees slotting between Steve's as they took in the heavy silence around them.
“Are we cool?”
Eddie nodded, his jackhammering knee only ceasing at the weight of Steve's palm. A heavy breath rushed out of his lungs before he spoke again. “Yeah.” Silence settled over them again, the weight of it all more comforting than before. “You know, I wasn't trying to be a jerk or a dick-”
“No, but you ended up being a jerk and a dick.” Steve levelled him with an easy smile, hitting Eddie's knee playfully. “Like, come on. He’s fourteen and it makes him happy, bro.”
“Ouch.”
“Well.”
Eddie nodded after a moment of quiet. “Yeah, I know.”
“He'll understand.”
“I know, I’ll talk to him. When- whenever we have time.”
Steve frowned. “I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s-” Eddie sighed, exhaustion from the last day finally sinking into his bones as he melted into the couch. “You were right.” He swallowed before continuing, Steve's eyes trained on Eddie’s as his shoulders fell. “I wish I moved Hellfire.”