new hs history teacher(/basketball coach ofc) steve who is being shown around the school by gym teacher chrissy.
she takes him around the building to show him where the teacher's lounge is, the cafeteria, what bathrooms to avoid at all costs, and to where her office is if he ever needs anything.
"If I'm not here, I'm probably in Robbie's class over in the language department."
"Robbie?"
"Robin, my partner. She officially teaches ASL, but she likes to join in on the others' lessons whenever she has downtime."
Finally, once they've covered the whole length of the school, she brings him to his room. "So this is you, and right next door is Eddie, our Criminalistics teacher." gesturing to the still-dark window of the door directly across from his in the alcove.
There's polaroids covering nearly every inch of the outside of the door, pictures of what he can only assume are students with the same dark-haired man.
"Criminalistics?"
"It's a science elective," she explains, "It focuses on the basics of forensic science!"
"Wow that’s…really?"
She nods enthusiastically, "It’s super interesting,” she nods, moving to unlock the empty what-will-be history classroom. “Eddie’s here on even days, and in the music room on odd days for the guitar elective classes."
"Anything I should know about my wall neighbor?" he asks as she pushes the door open.
It looks like she's going to say no, but something flickers across her face and she winces minutely.
"Oh god, what is it?"
She looks at him sheepishly, "How do you feel about metal music?"
--
Since his tour in mid June, Steve's completely overhauled his classroom.
The only room available to him was the one down here in the science hall, but he made do, plastering removable whiteboard contact paper to the tops of the lab tables and a little reminder at each spot for the students about his less-than-stellar hearing, to make sure they speak up when answering a question from the back of the room.
And ever since he got his room, he'd been waiting for the day he finally meets his neighbor.
He met Chrissy's Robbie the same day he had the tour, and they clicked instantly (No seriously, how did he ever function before Robin?). Chrissy had made the comment about them being platonic soulmates one night in August when they'd gone out for one too many drinks, and it's stuck ever since.
Speaking of: "What are you still doing here, dingus? It's almost five."
"Yeah, I know, I know," he says, waving her off.
Robin comes in from the hall and plops herself down on one of the table tops instead of helping him hang a map behind his desk. "You're still adding stuff to your walls?"
"Well, I haven't been here for a couple years already, Bobs," he grits out as he stretches up on his toes to hang the far corner of his map. Finally, the eyelet hooks over the many-times-painted-over hook embedded in the concrete wall. "So yes."
"Well you can finish up tomorrow, we," she emphasizes the word by dramatically waving the same sign with her hand between them, "Have a burger date to get to."
--
The following day, the day before the school year officially starts, Steve arrives early to his classroom, only to find his neighbor's classroom lit up as well.
The be-polaroided door is propped open all the way, the sound of heavy drums and guitar streaming out the door along with the faint smell of moth balls and a spicy incense.
His own room forgotten, Steve steps through Mr. Munson's doorway.
Eddie is standing behind his desk at the front of the room, but hunched over it scribbling onto something.
When Steve's shoe squeaks against the tile floor, Eddie says "Hey, what do you think, identifying skeletal remains, or blood spatter first?" without looking up at him.
"Skeletons, of course." Eddie's head snaps up to look at him. His huge dark eyes are much more striking in person than in a photo. "Much more interesting, yeah?"
Eddie blinks at him. "You're not Chrissy."
"You're correct."
Eddie blinks again, "Who're you?"
"Oh, sorry, hi. I'm Steve. I'm your new neighbor." he gives the other man an awkward wave when he still doesn't move. "Sorry, should I--" he says, gesturing over his shoulder with a thumb.
"No!" Eddie interrupts, standing straight and hurrying out from around his desk.
He extends a hand and jogs lightly up to Steve. His pen is still laced into his fingers, the end of it chewed flat. "Oh shit, sorry, sorry," he tucks the pen behind his ear, "I'm Eddie. Munson."
"I know," Steve smirks, taking Eddie's hand. "I've been waiting to meet you."
"Oh have you?" he smirks.
"Yeah, Chrissy told me you're her best friend and I wanted your advice on maybe asking her out."
Eddie's face hardens immediately, the warm milk chocolate of his eyes curing into a solid dark, the easy smirk morphing into a cringe as he looks Steve up and down.
He opens his mouth to say something particularly scathing, Steve's sure, but he cuts him off before he can. "I'm kidding, man, I know she's with Robin."
His expression softens just a bit.
"Plus, she's not really my type anyway, even if I were hers."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, I'm more into brunettes." Steve winks, finally releasing Eddie's hand. "I still have a bit more to get done, but I'll check in with you later?"
"Oh--yeah, for sure, I'll be here." Eddie stammers out, his cheeks tinged pink.
Steve fist pumps in his head as he heads to his door, You still got it, Harrington.
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@eddiemonth prompt, oct 15th: Ren faire | Knights of Cydonia - Muse | Committed
And how can we win, when fools can be kings? Don't waste your time, or time will waste you.
Robin stands off to the side with Nancy and watches as Eddie and Steve fight side by side with faux swords against the evil King, the antagonist of the Renaissance Faire’s overarching storyline who's brought together unlikely allies: elves, knights, and peasants fighting as one.
Steve’s medieval outfit, thrifted mainly by Eddie and Robin with a few suggestions from Nancy’s closet, is convincing enough but Eddie? Eddie’s gone all out. Elf ears with gold cuffs applied with an industrial adhesive. Green and beige fabrics fashioned into a shirt with golden embroidery painstakingly stitched into woodland and patterns along his sleeves. Brown leather pants found at a steep discount while thrifting for Steve. A crown made of greenery and medallions tied from his forehead into the back of his hair.
It’s as impressive as it is excessive.
Nancy nudges Robin gently, a light tap of her shoulder against Robin’s, and gestures with her chin towards Eddie.
“How the Hell are his ears still on?”
Robin laughs and shrugs as Steve lands a pretend blow and Eddie beams at him. Perhaps there's something healing about fighting a villain and winning without true, mortal stakes.
“No idea, I just hope that whatever glue he used has an easy solvent. I’m not sitting in the E.R. with him and his elf ears.”
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Steve paced the linoleum, sneaker just off white squeaking every time he turned. He was just aware enough to refrain from crinkling the gifts he held in his hands as he glanced again at the clock on the wall, then to the board. DELAYED stared back at him, minutes ticking by without change.
He had no reason to be nervous, not really. He had last seen Robin 11 weeks, 6 days, and roughly 13 hours ago, when he’d seen her off at this very same airport. Hell, he’d talked to her on the phone less than 24 hours ago to reassure her that all the plans were in place to pick her up at the right time and terminal. Two semesters of college hadn’t dulled her anxiety, somehow, but Steve didn’t mind. He’d call her every day if they could, to reassure anxieties or just to shoot the shit. They had tried to, her first semester away, but phone bills and clashing schedules weren’t too kind to them. This semester they’d scheduled calls twice weekly instead, which worked in theory but didn’t stop Steve from missing her terribly. At one point he started scribbling down notes so that he would remember the stories he wanted to tell her on their next call, much to the mockery of almost all of the kids (when he was really bothered by it, he reminded them that he’d gotten the multiple concussions AND stayed in Hawkins for them, which usually shut them up).
The spiral of his thoughts was cut off by a new rush of people coming his way—another arrival at the Indianapolis airport. Steve froze in his tracks, peering past the stream of people to see which gate they’d come from. But before he’d even gotten the chance to register that this was the flight he’d been waiting for, he was bowled over by a flurry of freckled limbs and mismatched green luggage.
“Steeeeve!!!!” Said flurry shrieked, somehow dropping everything onto his right foot while throwing herself at him in a giant, uncoordinated hug.
Steve was laughing in joyful relief before he even registered doing so, stabilising them both and hugging her back just as fiercely, trying to match her tone as he half-yelled back, “Robiiiin!!!”
Robin was laughing just the same, just short of snorting into Steve’s collar, “Oh it’s so good to be on the ground again, Steve I swear they make flying more stressful every time! And I get to see you, of course, though I could miss Indiana and be fine with it, especially with this awful humidity and having to see my extended family again, and missing G—Some people from school, yup, no one in particular—“
Steve couldn’t stop his happiness, fully content to let her ramble herself hoarse. He’d really missed this. He hugged her tighter unconsciously, inadvertently crinkling the goodies in his hands. At the noise, he swore and pulled back from the hug, “Damnit, I had this whole thing planned out—“
Juggling the meagre bouquet of random flowers to one hand, he held up the little sign he (and some of the kids) had worked on, as he had meant to do to welcome her arrival.
Robin paused her rambling to read the sign, cracking up as she did so. “Willkommen zurück zur Hölle!” Had been written several times over, first in messy pencil then bolder marker, with a few doodles of flames along the bottom of the page.
Steve grinned, “I thought you’d like it, even though all you’ve done this semester is complain about your German professor.”
“It’s not my fault he hates me!—“
He shoved the flowers at her to cut off the much-repeated rant, “And these are for you. Mostly because I hate hearing about all these dates you’re going on with no flowers involved! What happened to romance, Rob?”
Robin took a moment to softly smile at the gesture before jumping right back into their usual banter, “It’s not that easy, Steve! Am I supposed to be giving flowers or getting flowers? What if there’s allergies involved? Plus, you know I’ve been on all of three dates and none of them were the flower-giving types—“
Steve once again let her ramblings wash over him as he picked up her luggage and started walking back towards his car, her right at his side. He was so happy to have her back, even if just for the summer break.
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