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It’s not the first time he’s seen Eddie Munson like this. They were at school together for years, including when their senior years overlapped. Eddie’s just larger than life, curls bouncing as he hikes himself up onto canteen tables so he can parade down them like it’s his personal stage, a rockstar commanding the crowd when it’s just a high school canteen.
But still, he’s magnetic.
At the time, Steve didn't think much about it. For one, there’s more important things happening in the last years of his high school experience to care too much about Eddie's rants about non-conformity or whatever.
For another, he hadn’t met Robin yet. He doesn’t know.
Then comes Scoops and Russian torture. Truth serum and bathrooms. Muppet impressions and matching CVs. The kids end up in Eddie Munson’s care and he ignores how it feels like a weird cross between jealousy and something he can’t quite name. Not yet.
Then comes the Upside Down and Vecna’s curse.
Bat bites and blood, too much blood, more blood than should be pouring out, Jesus do people even have this much blood inside them.
Then comes recovery and standing guard in a hospital slowly turning into the slow turnings of an actual friendship. Then there’s movie nights with Robin squished between them until she suddenly decides she can’t stand to be in the middle anymore and starts claiming an end space instead. There’s the haze of weed and painting new walls and volunteering for relief efforts and PT.
There’s smiles that make something turn inside him that he doesn’t know what to do about.
It’s not the first time he’s felt it, nor is it the first time he ignores it.
He knows he’s a bit wrong, everything getting mixed up in his head. This is just one more thing.
Until Robin gently explains, out of nowhere but pointed so he doesn’t need to read through the lines. Spoon fed and safe.
Then this. It’s not the first time he sees Eddie on stage, but it’s different now. It’s after months of getting accustomed to his smile and still not being prepared for it being directed at him full force like that.
It’s the first time he can name the squirmy feeling for what it is, not ignoring it for the first time in his life.
Butterflies.
The thought stops him short.
He’s got a crush on Eddie Munson.