Chapter Text
"Ok, so if you guys want to feed Gertrude you can, just hold your hand out flat like this -" Steve stretches out his palm, demonstrating to the gathering of school kids on the other side of the fence. "-and let her take the pellets, just keep your fingers out of the way."
The ancient black and white goat bleats next to Steve, anticipating snacks.
As the kids stretch out their hands to Gertrude, Steve rests a booted foot on the bottom rail of the fence, keeping a watchful eye out for -
"Douglas!" he hisses, shifting to intercept the enormous goat charging towards the fence. "Hey, get out of it." He grunts as Douglas butts at his thigh.
One of the kids laughs. Douglas lunges for the fence, hooking his front legs over the top rail, and the same kid shrieks in fright.
"It's alright, he just wants the food," Steve reassures the children who are now backing away from the fence. "Get down!" He pushes at the large goat, but Douglas only huffs loudly at him. "Sorry guys, I promise he won't hurt you, he's new here and just a bit…enthusiastic."
"Having fun there, Stevie?"
Eddie's voice floats across the farmyard area, and Steve can hear the smirk in it.
His cheeks flush. Douglas bleats loudly and butts at his shoulder.
"Loads," Steve mutters, and Eddie grins back at him, tongue between his teeth.
"Well, I'm here to take you guys off to the Insect House," Eddie says to the kids, clapping his hands once. "Who's ready to meet some spiders?"
"Yuck," one girl responds, and Eddie clutches his hands to his chest.
"I promise you'll walk out of there having become best friends with my little eight-legged buddies," he assures her. "They're pretty cool! Isn't that right, Steve?"
Steve pauses midway through wrestling Douglas off the fence to say, "Uh huh. So cool." His tone is dry, sarcastic, because Eddie knows exactly what Steve thinks of insects. The reptiles in the next-door exhibit he can see the appeal of - the snakes are interesting, and some of the lizards are pretty cute, but the bugs? …not his favourite, thank you very much.
Eddie chuckles. "He's a little scared of them," he says to the kids, throwing a wink back at Steve as he ushers the group back towards the walkway.
The blush on Steve's cheeks deepens, and he turns away so Eddie won't see.
Ever since the other man started working at the zoo a few weeks ago, he'd been slowly worming his way under Steve's skin. A smile here, a joke there, the brushing of hands on a fence or lingering looks as Steve tosses bales of hay over to the farm animals. Eddie's funny and quirky and pretty, and Steve's been doing his best to ignore all of those things.
Because…because he'd not long gotten out of a shitty relationship. Because Nancy had only just moved away, because the ache of their split still lingered, because he's not sure he's ready to put his heart on the line again.
And Eddie's so different to anyone Steve had known before. He's loud and opinionated and is into stuff like metal music and gaming and…dragons and shit, stuff Steve knows absolutely nothing about. Surely Eddie would get bored with him pretty quickly, once he realised how different they truly were? And then they'd still have to work together and it would be awkward as hell but Steve loves his job at Hawkins Zoo.
Robin had told him that he's being too cautious. That he should embrace the bisexuality he's only ever really acknowledged in theory, that he needs to put himself out there again, that he should try exploring this…thing between him and Eddie even if it goes no further than a single night.
But Steve's not sure he can go back to that. One night stands, sleeping around, waking up to an empty bed. Maybe that's what Eddie wants, though, maybe it's all he's interested in. He is interested, of that Steve's sure - he'd have to be blind and deaf to miss the way Eddie's been flirting with him ever since he first clocked in.
It's just complicated.
And Steve's not sure he's ready to open himself back up again.
Sighing, he gives up on trying to coax Douglas down from the fence. Eddie disappears from view down the walkway, followed by the gaggle of kids. Steve stares in his direction.
"Earth to dingus!" Robin slaps the fence beside Steve, and he jumps. "I've been calling your name, don't tell me you're lost in some gross little Eddie daydream."
Steve rolls his eyes. "There's children around, Robs."
"Well, you've had a one-track mind lately."
"Do you need something?" Steve asks her, a little exasperated.
Douglas bleats as Robin scratches him on the head. "Actually, yes. So, you know how you're, like, my best friend in the entire world…"
Steve sighs loudly. "You're about to ask for help doing some really shit job, aren't you?"
"I need to catch Mango." Robin chews her bottom lip between her teeth, looks at him hopefully. "It looks like he's been pulling feathers out and I want to get him checked over."
Steve groans. "I've gotta go and check on Myrtle, she's gonna have her lamb any day now. You can't ask anyone else? What about Chrissy, seeing as she's the other supposed bird expert -"
Robin hushes him, eyes darting around as if Chrissy would overhear them. "I can't ask her because I don't want her to think I'm incompetent, which I'm not, it's just that Mango is a very opinionated parrot and I just know he's going to be difficult and -"
"Alright, alright, I'll help. But afterwards you're helping me muck out the sheep pen, deal?"
Robin grins. "Deal."
"And if he starts shrieking at me, I'm outta there," Steve tells her, pointing a finger at her.
"He just has a lot to say sometimes."
"Mmmm."
"Honestly, he's harmless."
"That's what you said last time, and then he chewed on my ear."
"It was a love bite at best."
"He drew blood, Robs. Actual blood."
Robin shakes her head at him, huffing out a laugh. "You really are a big baby, you know that?"
"Want my help or not?"
"Yes, yes, come on."
Steve swings himself over the fence, beginning to follow Robin towards the aviaries. She's chattering away about some new wildlife rescue Chrissy was trying to get the zoo to advocate for, and Steve nods along but doesn't take in her words. Because his mind had drifted down the path, past the big cats, and all the way to the Insect House where Eddie would be showing the kids around with infectious enthusiasm. Cooing over creepy-crawlies like they were just misunderstood little puppies.
He shivers a little at the thought of it. Still, when Eddie was enthusiastic about something, he could light up the entire room.
From ahead of them comes a loud, guttural shriek.
"Robin," Steve says pointedly.
"Mmm hmm?" she replies carefully, striding ahead of him.
"I can hear Mango already, and he doesn't sound very accommodating."
Mango lets out another raucous sound, loud enough for Steve to contemplate clapping his hands over his ears.
"I think he's just saying hello," Robin says brightly. After another shriek, she nods. "Yup. He's saying…hello Steve, I promise I won't bite you again, I promise I'll sit still and let you catch me."
"I don't speak bird but I'm pretty sure that's the opposite of what he's saying," Steve grumbles.
They round the corner, arriving at the macaw enclosure. Mango is perched up on a branch, one beady eye fixed on the approaching keepers. He ruffles his feathers, opens his beak, and stares at them as if daring them to come in.
"Well, after you." Robin flaps a hand towards the door around the back of the aviary.
"Hell no, the birds are your job, I'm just the…hired muscle."
Robin snorts, then pushes past him, pulling something from her pocket. "Mango! Hi, pretty boy, I've got your favourite!" She stretches a piece of mango out to the blue and yellow macaw.
Mango hops towards her. Contemplates the piece of orange fruit, tilts his head to one side.
"That's it, here you go, nice and easy…" Robin murmurs, her other hand gripping the towel slung over her shoulder.
Steve readies the travel cage on the ground. If Robin can just get the towel around the large bird, then they can quickly and calmly deposit him in the cage and their job would be done.
But at the last second, Mango chooses violence.
He squawks, swipes the fruit from Robin's hand and nips at her fingers, then takes off with a flap of his wings to a higher perch.
"Well that went…well," Steve sighs.
Robin drags her hands over her face. "We need reinforcements."
"Ask Chrissy, like I said -"
"Not Chrissy! I'm not having her witness me embarrass myself trying to catch a single parrot! She thinks I'm some sort of bird-whisperer, and that's about all I have going for myself right now."
Steve nudges her shoulder. "Hey, you're far more than that. And Chrissy likes you, I've been telling you for weeks, seriously just ask her out."
Robin raises an eyebrow at him. "Oh? Well why don't you just ask Eddie out?"
"Point taken," Steve concedes, leaning back against a tree branch. "We're hopeless, huh?"
"Yup," Robin agrees, popping the 'p'. She snaps her fingers. "Eddie! He can help us, once he's done with the kids."
"Yeah, I suppose if anyone can charm that damn bird it's him." Steve looks up at Mango, watching the bird gulp down his fruit prize.
"Oh, he's charming now, is he?" Robin grins at him.
Steve blushes, then rolls his eyes. "Oh, shut up."
*****
Eddie does, indeed, charm Mango right into the cage.
"They told me you were cranky, that it would take all three of us to catch you, to be careful because you bite!" Eddie shakes his head, tutting as he closes the cage door with a final stroke to Mango's cheek. "You're a sweet boy, aren't you?"
Mango makes a little chattering noise, far softer than anything Steve had ever heard from the bird.
Eddie stands, makes a show of dusting off his hands. "There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Steve and Robin stare back at him, unamused. "Think he just needed a gentle touch." He waggles his eyebrows at Steve.
"Oh my god," Robin whispers, then she's stepping forward to pick up the cage. "Thanks, Eddie. I'm gonna get him off to see Dr Newby, if you two could just lock up the aviary once you're done flirting in here, that'd be great." She marches out, leaving Eddie and Steve alone.
Well, alone with several other macaws, but luckily none as cantankerous as Mango.
Steve clears his throat. "That was…impressive. Catching Mango, I mean."
"I think he's just misunderstood."
"Like your spiders?"
"Yeah. People have this, like, idea of them built up in their minds, y'know? You guys are nervous around Mango because he's been aggressive in the past, he picks up on that nervousness, it makes him unsettled in return." Eddie reaches his arm out to one of the other birds, smiles as it hops onto his wrist. Several people stop outside the aviary, pointing at the scene. "It's like the spiders. People come in already afraid of them, and it makes my job harder - I've gotta try to make them understand that they're not some bloodthirsty scary creature, that they're actually really cool."
Steve can't help but smile a little as the parrot on Eddie's arm bobs his head up and down like a dance, and Eddie follows suit.
"You should come see the spiders some time," Eddie suggests, holding his arm up to a branch and letting the macaw hop onto it. "Maybe I can change your mind about them."
"Yeah, maybe," Steve murmurs.
"I promise they're not gonna just…" Eddie lunges at Steve, wiggling his fingers, walking them up Steve's arm.
Steve snorts and bats him away like an annoying bug. Except his cheeks are on fire, his heart's hammering, and the brief touch of Eddie's fingertips lingers on his skin. "Maybe I'll…stop by, once I'm done mucking out the barn?"
Eddie freezes, blinking back at him. "You will?"
Steve shrugs, aiming for nonchalance. "Yeah, sure."
"Awesome." Eddie smiles, eyes shining. "Maybe Shelob will come out of her burrow, you can have a little face-to-face meeting." He laughs when Steve gulps. "It's alright, you don't have to hold her or anything."
"…cool." Steve nods.
Eddie's gaze lingers on him. Soft, fond, and just for a moment Steve feels a bit like a bug in an enclosure himself. Specifically, one of Eddie's favourite little bugs.
Something wet hits his shoulder.
Outside the enclosure, a child points at him and laughs.
"Wonderful," Steve mumbles, staring at the bird shit now decorating his sleeve.
"Oh, you got a little something…" Eddie reaches out towards Steve's hair, then pulls his hand back. "Well. Everywhere, really."
Steve sighs. "New plan - I go clean up, muck out the barn, then I'll come and meet your spiders."
"Works for me, Stevie."
*****
Steve's doing his best to look relaxed and nonchalant as Eddie excitedly babbles about his spiders in the Insect House. But…but they're creepy, and while he respects that they're probably very interesting he just can't share Eddie's enthusiasm for them.
"And this is Webster! She's a golden orb-weaver, isn't she cute? These guys aren't dangerous to humans at all, although they have been seen killing and consuming snakes before, crazy huh?" Eddie grins, pointing at a black and yellow spider stretched out on a large web behind the glass.
Swallowing tensely, Steve nods.
"One that is somewhat dangerous to people though is the black widow. Only the females, though, males are harmless. We have one here, if you look close…yeah, see the red on her back? That's Charlotte. Her bite won't kill you, but it'll hurt like hell and might send you to the hospital. Like most spiders they're not really aggressive though, she'd only bite if she felt threatened.
"Annnnnd, if you look over here, we have the tarantulas. There's a few different kinds, we have a Mexican fireleg here, they're quite endangered." Eddie crouches in front of a smaller glass exhibit. "See, he's the one with the orange legs. Over here is Shelob, she's a Goliath Bird-Eater which is the biggest tarantula species, these guys can get nearly twelves inches across, can you believe that?"
Steve does, but he's not really sure that he wants to.
"Her species burrows, so that's why we can't see her right now, she's buried herself right down deep. Despite being huge, her bite isn't actually very dangerous to people at all, it would hurt about as much as a wasp sting. But they have these hairs on their legs that detect vibrations, and then they ambush their prey. Luckily for you, she's due to be fed, so we'll hopefully get to see her come out!"
"Oh, that's…exciting," Steve manages.
Eddie smiles at him, tilts his head. "You're really quite scared of these guys, huh?"
In a rush, Steve exhales. "Yeah, look, I'm sorry. I know you love them though, so I'm happy to watch while you feed her, just…from a distance."
"That's ok! It's nice just having you here."
The words warm Steve right down to his toes. "Really? Uh…thanks."
"Usually it's just me in here, unless there's kids coming through. Most people don't stay long, not when there's cute little goats and majestic lions and stuff out there." Eddie unlocks a cupboard, fetches some supplies out of it.
"I mean, the goats are definitely cute," Steve agrees.
"Douglas looked really cute when he was repeatedly headbutting you," Eddie replies, voice dripping with sarcasm. "None of my spiders will ever do that."
"…he's kind of a dick," Steve admits. "But Gertrude on the other hand, she's my best buddy."
Eddie smiles. "A classy old lady, isn't she? Ok, I'm gonna drop these crickets in with Shelob, hopefully she'll come out and grab them." He unlocks a partition on the top of Shelob's exhibit, and carefully places a few crickets into the dirt with a pair of tongs.
The biggest spider Steve's ever seen emerges suddenly from the depths, and he jumps. "Fucking hell, she's enormous," he says shakily, watching as Shelob grabs her cricket snacks.
Eddie chuckles. "It's alright, she can't touch you through the glass."
"I know. I know, she's just…big. I've never seen her out of her…burrow thing before."
Eddie inches closer to him. "Your hands are shaking," he murmurs. "Hey, it's ok. She's just gonna grab her dinner and then head back down into her burrow. Did you know the females can live up to twenty years? The males don't, their lifespan is much shorter. And, if they feel threatened, they literally rub their legs against their abdomen until their hairs come loose, and they can fling them around! Their hairs can be really irritating to airways and skin."
"That's kinda cool." Steve knows what Eddie's doing, knows he's just trying to keep his fear at bay, trying to distract him with fun spider facts, but it's sort of working. A little bit. He watches as Shelob starts to sink back into the dirt, disappearing back to her burrow.
"See ya later, Shelob," Eddie murmurs. He turns to Steve, clasps his hands in front of himself, twists a little on the spot, the spitting image of a child seeking approval. "Sooooo?"
"Hmmm?"
"Did I change your mind? Are you ready to embrace spiders as your friends, as your…long-legged allies?"
"Oh, ummmm…" Steve struggles for a way to voice his opinion politely.
Eddie laughs and bumps his hip against Steve's. "It's alright. Thanks for coming, anyway."
"They're interesting, I'll give them that. Maybe I just need to come back a few more times, like um…" He snaps his fingers, searching for the words.
"Exposure theory?" Eddie offers.
"Yeah! That."
"Well, come by anytime, always happy to see you," Eddie says, his voice uncharacteristically shy, almost coy as he quickly busies himself locking up the supply cupboard.
"Steve! There you are!" Chrissy bursts into the Insect House, cheeks a little flushed with exertion. "Robin said you'd be here, Myrtle just had her lambs - twins! - but it looks like she's rejecting them, and Dr Newby's had to rush away to help with an emergency surgery in Indy so can you please come and see if you can help?"
"Yeah, of course. Shit." Steve's heart hammers. He'd been waiting for Myrtle to have her lamb and hoping that everything went smoothly, but she was a first time mother and sometimes things just happened and -
"Hey, it'll be ok. I'll finish up here then I'll come join you, and see if I can be of any help, ok?" Eddie pats him on the shoulder.
Steve and Chrissy run back to the farmyard area, vaulting over the fence to head through the staff-only gate at the back of the enclosures. They'd moved Myrtle away from the main pens a few days ago to give her a stress-free environment away from the zoo guests to have her lambs.
"Steve!" Robin calls to him, voice full of stress. "Myrtle keeps charging at the lambs!"
Steve slows his pace, taking in the scene. Myrtle had been cornered by Robin, and two weak-looking tiny lambs are lying together in the straw on the opposite side of the pen.
"Grab the lambs!" Robin flaps a hand at him. "Before she hurts them."
"Hang on, just take it easy." Steve keeps his voice steady as he approaches Myrtle. "She's stressed, how about you go and stand by the lambs but try not to touch them too much. Let's just give Myrtle a little space and see if she calms down."
Robin does as Steve suggests - after all, he's the senior keeper for the farmyard animals.
Which makes this situation his responsibility, especially with their vet off-site.
"Hey, Myrtle, what's going on?" he coos to the sheep. Myrtle stares at him, wide-eyed, then huffs loudly. "I know, they look a little funny, but they're your lambs, I promise." Over his shoulder, he asks Robin: "Have they drunk from her at all?"
"Not that I've seen. I was just passing by and thought I'd check her again since you said she was close to lambing earlier, and I found her knocking one of the babies over."
If Myrtle doesn't accept the lambs soon, Steve will have to go and source some colostrum and formula.
He clenches his jaw, but forces himself to exhale slowly. He crouches beside Myrtle, pulls out a small handful of the pellets that had a permanent residency in his pocket, and offers them to her. She snuffles at his hand, relaxing slightly as she recognises him.
"Bob will be elbow-deep in a giraffe by now," Robin adds. "He said the operation was going to take hours, so to just do what we can for the lambs."
"Chrissy, can you pass me a blanket from the shelf back there?" Steve asks.
Eddie joins them quietly, leaning against the barn wall next to Chrissy. "What are you doing?" he asks Steve, keeping his voice low to not stress Myrtle any further.
Steve drapes the blanket gently over Myrtle, then rubs it against her. "Trying to get this blanket to smell like her. Then we'll rub it on the lambs, see if that helps her recognise them as hers."
"And if that doesn't work?" Robin questions.
"Well, we'll cross that bridge if we come to it." He passes the blanket over to Robin. "There, rub that all over the little guys, I'll make sure Myrtle doesn't charge them." Gently, he strokes the stressed sheep behind her ears. "There you go, you're alright," he murmurs to her.
The four keepers wait. The air is tense, as much as Steve tries to keep things calm for Myrtle's sake. But slowly, slowly, Myrtle relaxes, and takes a few tentative steps towards the tiny bundles of wool on the straw.
"Good girl, keep going," Steve encourages. "Just be nice, they're very small."
One of the lambs bleats, and Myrtle jumps, but stretches her nose out towards them. Tottering to shaky feet, one lamb stumbles towards her. Myrtle sniffs but remains placid, and Steve carefully guides the lamb to nurse, smiling as the lamb's tiny tail starts to waggle happily.
But the second lamb is a step too far for Myrtle. Head lowered, she makes to lunge at it when it stands, and Steve swiftly steps between the two of them. He rubs the blanket over the second lamb again, lingers as the hours tick on, tries over and over to get Myrtle to accept the other lamb, but to no avail.
Finally, well after closing time, Steve admits defeat.
The newborn lamb can't wait any longer, and Myrtle had made up her mind that she wasn't interested in caring for both of them.
His shoulders slump as he bundles the exhausted lamb into his arms and carries it out of the pen, thanking the others for their help.
"Hey, you did really well," Eddie says, falling into step beside him. "You got her to accept one lamb, at least."
Steve sighs. The lamb suckles on his finger. "Yeah. It's just shitty that this little one won't have a mom now."
"She will!" Robin smiles at him. "She'll have mamma Steve."
He huffs out a laugh, tired from the events of the day. "I guess she will. Can someone find me a box? I suppose this little lady is coming home with me."