Eddie practices his arguments with Steve.
The thing is -
Here's the thing. It's not that he's expecting an argument. So far every time either one of them have been irritated with one another, or pissed off about something, they usually just, like, talk about it and shit. Healthy-like, which is -
Totally fucking weird for Eddie My-Parents-Fought-As-A-Love-Language Munson and Steve Still-Figuring-Out-Its-Okay-To-Be-Loved Harrington. It's weird, it is, and Eddie can't help but wonder if Steve is just bottling shit up until it explodes out of him and he realizes that this thing they're doing just isn't worth it anymore.
So.
So Steve does this thing, right?
This thing where he rolls his jaw and sometimes it pops and it makes Eddie want to stick a curly straw up his nose and scramble his own brains. And he's such a fucking neat freak that every time he's over, he ends up rearranging Eddie's room - not even in purpose, just. He likes to touch things, and Eddie gets it, he does, but touching things usually leads to picking things up leads to setting them back down and before Eddie's had time to look up, Steve has swept empty beer cans into the trash and lined up Eddie's models in a neat row like they're troops readying for battle and since he's like a war buff they're always lined up like a little battalion which is cute but also frustrating as hell because - because Eddie's chaos is organized and now he can't find his fucking lyric journal with the song he's very much not ready for people to see, or know about, or -
The point. The point is Eddie has been gearing up to talk to Steve about it for three days now and he's now at the stage where he practices. Works out the scenarios, muddles through possibilities, tries to anticipate every way it could go tits up.
He's never - Steve is most of his firsts, and he knows it's dumb and romantic but he'd like Steve to be all of his lasts, too, and so what if that means he's pacing the length of the trailer (all the while perfecting his Steve-voicr, which has been a tough one to nail but he feels like he's getting there. He's smarter and more eloquent than he lets on, is Steve.) and arguing with himself. Resetting, back to the start, working through a disastrous turn where Steve accuses Eddie of cheating on him (nope, reset, Steve's well aware Eddie wouldn't, cut that from the options).
"And seriously, Eddie, how could you think I'd do that shit to you, you know -."
"What the hell?"
Eddie whirls.
Mike Wheeler is standing in his living room, staring at Eddie like he's grown a second head. Which. Shit. They haven't actually, like, told anyone that they're...doing whatever it is they're doing (There's things Eddie wants to call it, but he hasn't brought them up yet because they're terrifying and super fucking telling and even though he's pretty sure he and Steve are on the same page he doesn't want to presume) so the kids don't know. No one except Robin knows, and she's states away and busy so.
"What the hell right back, Wheeler, what are you doing here?"
"I left my chem textbook here last night. You said I could come get it."
And - sure, he definitely had, but he'd sort of been staring at the hollow where Steve's neck and shoulder met and imagining biting it when he said it, so -
"So you broke into my house?"
"The door was unlocked."
"So you walked uninvited INTO MY HOUSE?" And he's maybe hamming up the annoyance as cover, but Wheeler just stares at him.
"Are you practicing breaking up with Steve?" Wheeler asks without preamble, with zero inflection, not even a quirk of his brow, and Eddie -
Flounders, is a generous term for it. Really what he does is shriek, and cackle, and then cover it up with the weirdest laugh either of them have ever heard which covers nothing at all. "What are - why would you - what makes you think - listen, Michael, you can't just break into people's homes and accuse them of - of - what exactly are you accusing me of?"
"Of having really terrible taste in men, Eddie, where's my textbook?"
"I don't fucking know, Wheeler, Steve rearranges shit all the time so who the hell knows where he would have -."
"It's probably on the bookshelf, then," Mike says, and then squints. "Are you...practicing arguing with Steve?"
"How do you even -?"
"Neither one of you is subtle."
"Shut up, Wheeler."
"If that's how you talk to Steve it's no wonder you have to practice your arguments."
"I'm not - you're infuriating."
Mike squares him with a look that reminds Eddie of when he's calculating hit points and strategizing his next move. He frowns. Sighs. "I have like ten minutes before I have to leave. Steve doesn't think you're cheating on him, so let's start from the top."
---
"The kids know," Eddie tells Steve, fingers shifting in Steve's hair, and Steve's lashes flash as he looks up from Eddie's lap. Mike had been - well, Wheeler might be half a decade younger but he'd been pretty instrumental in helping Eddie nail down the right approach to "Please stop cleaning up my messes you're ruining everything." so another non-argument is in the books, and Steve had looked confused about it but he'd agreed to try not to move shit around at least.
("I'm still cleaning up all the trash, though, you live like a goblin."
"It's hot that you know what a goblin is, baby."
"Nerd.")
"Are you...okay with that?"
"Are you?"
"I asked first."
It's not that he doesn't want to answer, it's just.
Okay he doesn't want to answer. Jesus Christ, he'd used Mike goddamn Wheeler as his Steve stand in to practice an argument that hadn't happened and he's still scared to call Steve his -
"I... don't really know. What to tell them." And that's - shit, not what he meant to say, Jesus.
"What do you mean?"
Steve crinkles his nose, and Eddie hates how goddamn cute it is, because he really wants to just, like, boop the tip of it and then suck Steve off but -
Where's Mike Wheeler when he needs him?
("If you ever tell Steve about this I'll tell Will to TPK your party for the next ten campaigns."
"Why would I tell Steve I'm helping you save your relationship?"
"Brownie points. So you can hold it over Henderson's head. Blackmail."
"I used to be terrified of you, but you're actually super lame, honestly."
"Preaching to the choir, my friend.")
"I mean, what...what do we tell them we...are?"
"Are you freaking out about calling me your boyfriend?"
"...no."
He shifts, and Eddie's fingers slip through the strands of Steve's hair as he shuffles, scoots, sits up and twists to face Eddie.
"I am, right? I mean...you want me to be?"
Eddie hasn't practiced this conversation, because - because it's presumptuous, because it felt sort of like jinxing it, because -
"Yeah. Duh. Of course I - shit. Yeah. Yes."
Steve's smile is bright and a little knowing. "I have a confession."
"I'm not sure I want to hear it."
"Trust me, you want to."
"Okay fine," Eddie tells him, eyes on Steve's hand as he slots their fingers together. Eddie hooks his pinkie along the edge of Steve's sleeve. "Twist my arm, why don't you?"
"I'm actually kind of glad they already know. I've been trying to figure out how to tell them for a while. I've been, like - creating scenarios in my head to try to figure out how they're going to take it."
There's - okay, so Eddie's thinking a lot of things, right at this moment, like how Steve apparently also creates mind-scenarios to play out before a situation happens, and how they might want to test out their creativity in other areas, actually, and that derails his whole train of thought for a moment, but "How long?"
"How long what?"
"Have you been trying to figure out how to tell them?"
Eddie's not insecure, exactly, but he is a big fan of knowing what people he cares about think of him and how often they think of him and -
"I mean, since, like, the first time I kissed you?"
Eddie is stupid crazy about Steve Harrington. He's fully fucking feral for this man, honestly, it's dumb. Absolutely ridiculous.
"I'm in love with you," Eddie tells him, and the tips of Steve's ears are pink.
"I know," he says, with a smarmy little grin because Eddie had admitted (under duress, and screw anyone who doesn't think a naked Steve Harrington in your lap is duress) he'd been obsessed with Harrison Ford for like a full year in his tweens, and Steve takes every opportunity to remind Eddie he knows.
"I'd also very much like to circle back to you creating scripts in your mind about telling the kids about us."
"Henderson's always a nightmare, I swear to god."
"We gotta teach him some humility."
"He respects you more than he respects me, you teach him."
"You gonna say it back?"
"Well not now," Steve says, and Eddie wants to bite him.
---
"I love you," Steve says, while Dustin and Mike and Max argue about who knew first.
Eddie hasn't practiced this one. "I know," he says, and Steve's brow quirks when Dustin catches the exchange and groans.
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