I love 'stuck in a time loop' fics where the characters slowly fall in love with each other. But right now I'm thinking of Steve rushing downstairs wearing nothing but a pair of boxers and his left sock while someone pounds on his front door in the middle of the night. When he opens it, there stands none other than Billy Hargrove, sweaty and exhausted.
And carrying an axe.
Steve tries to close the door but Billy's already jammed his boot up against it, holding it open. Billy's voice is a croak in the otherwise eerily silent night.
"The first pet you ever had was a cat named Sampson. You found him in the alley behind Melvald's and hid him in your room for six weeks before your mom found out and gave him away while you were at school. You were eight."
Steve is sure there's smoke billowing out of his ears from how hard the gears are turning in his brain. But try as he might, he has absolutely zero fucking clue what to do with this information. Somewhere in the house an antique clock strikes midnight.
Billy flinches, grip creaking around the axe propped up on his shoulder.
Steve chooses his next words very carefully.
"While I'm really glad you and Tommy are swapping childhood stories about me, it's getting late-"
"-And you have a shift in the morning. Yeah. I know. I also know that in the past one hundred and fifteen days you've never once even made it till morning. So I'm here to keep you from becoming monster chow and then maybe my fucking life can go back to normal"
Billy's shouting by the end. Steve's heart thunders in his chest.
you've never once even made it till morning
monster chow
The image of a demon falling out of the Byer's ceiling in a cloud of plaster and rot bubbles up with a growing panic. Billy's tapping his fingers anxiously around the handle of his axe, eyes darting to the side every now and again like he expects something to be there. Steve swallows down a hysterical laugh with the thought that the best case scenario right now is Hargrove took some type of hallucinogenic drug and drove to Steve's house in the middle of the night with a weapon.
The worst case scenario...
An owl hoots in the darkness and Steve feels like he might vomit with the surge of adrenaline. A stray breeze rustles the branches of the forest around them.
What if it's a prank?
God please let it be a prank
"All my friends knew about Sampson. Hell, the lunch lady knew about him."
Billy's jaw tics. "Look, I'm trying to keep us both alive so would you just shut up and let me in? The last place I wanna die is bumfuck Indiana."
He moves to shoulder past but Steve doesn't let him through. From this close Steve could count all the freckles on Billy's nose, air tense as a piano wire. Billy stares back, gaze wild.
Desperate
And one hundred days is a long time to get to know a person.
"I'll let you in. But-!" Steve's hand shoots up to press back against Billy's chest as he attempts to shove past him. His heart beats like a hummingbird under Steve's palm. "You have to make me believe you."
Billy breathes a harsh sigh through his nose, leveling a glare at Steve. The axe thankfully does not lodge itself into any part of Steve's person. For now.
"What do you want from me Steve?"
A coyote howls in the distance. Guttural and wrong. Chills erupt down Steve's spine.
"Tell me something I've never told anyone. Something only I would know."
An expression Steve can't parse flashes across Billy's face. Whatever it is it looks painful. Sad, but not for himself. There's more rustling out in the woods. This time without a breeze.
"You're adopted"
It's like a punch to the sternum.
Steve lets him in.
.
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@steddie-week day 2: fluff | 1.8k words | teen and up
The door to the apartment slammed shut, followed by the jingle-clang of keys landing in the ceramic bowl Robin had made for Steve two years ago.
"Babe?" Steve looked up from the magazine he'd been flipping through and frowned at the stormy expression on Eddie's face.
Eddie barely acknowledged him, just swept past with stomping feet, dropping an absentminded kiss to the top of Steve's head as he made his way into the bedroom. A few moments later Steve heard the telltale thunk and flop of Eddie's bag hitting the ground and the man himself hitting their bed.
Ah, so one of those days.
Steve set down his magazine, folded his reading glasses neatly atop it, and pushed himself up from the couch to make for the bathroom.
~*~*~*~
Eddie wanted to die. Nope, no, he wanted to commit a homicide.
Actually, scratch that, being wanted for murder sucked.
What he wanted was for the world not to be full of a bunch of entitled little shitsacks who had never been taught how to talk to another human being who didn't have a white collar around their neck.
At least his bed was there to support him. The mattress was a little lumpy, sure, but nothing could outmatch the satisfaction of dramatically flinging oneself onto a flat surface after a shity day at work.
The sound of running bath water filtered into Eddie's awareness.
Okay, maybe one thing.
Steve usually allowed him a few minutes to sulk and brood when he got home feeling like shit. Sometimes interacting with any human (even someone he would literally—and nearly did—die for) was just too much.
"Eds?"
"Mmph." Eddie spit some of the hair that had landed in his mouth out, but didn't bother to raise his head more than half an inch off the bed to do so.
Steve chuckled. "Okay, five more minutes—otherwise the water will get too cold. I'm gonna go make us some tea."
Eddie raised an arm and waved vaguely in the direction of Steve's voice in acknowledgement.
He let himself drift for his five minutes to the sound of Steve puttering around the kitchen—grabbing mugs, teabags, the sugar jar—before peeling himself up off the bed when the shrill whistle of the kettle pierced through the relative silence of the apartment. If he wasn't in the bath by the time Steve made it there he'd be in trouble. Which could be fun, but it wasn't what he was in the mood for today.
Eddie stripped off his—itchy, sweaty, suffocating—uniform as he padded over to the bathroom, leaving a trail of clothes behind him as he went.
~*~*~*~
Steve waltzed back into the bathroom with two steaming mugs in his hand to find Eddie already situated in the tub, knees pulled up under his chin, hair piled up in a messy bun, and one hand dragging lazily across the surface of the water.
Steve set both mugs down on the ground next to the bath. "Hey, baby," he murmured, pressing a kiss to his boyfriend’s temple.
"Hi." Eddie's voice was low and subdued.
“Bad day?” Steve asked as he pulled his shirt up and over his head.
Eddie shrugged. “You could say that.”
“Wanna talk about it?” Steve shucked off his jeans.
Eddie shook his head. “Not much to talk about.”
“Okay.” Steve folded his clothes, set them in a neat stack atop the closed toilet lid, and carefully lowered himself into the bath behind Eddie.
The water was just a touch too hot for his own comfort, but Eddie ran cold and preferred his baths on the scalding warmer side. (Shared showers were a trial. Eddie insisted that Steve was trying to murder him with frostbite. Steve maintained that Eddie was trying to boil the both of them alive.)
Some of the tension had already bled out just from being in the bath. Eddie’s shoulders were no longer curled up around his ears—instead, he was slouched forward into the water.
Steve wrapped his arms around Eddie’s waist and pressed a kiss to the patchy birthmark high up on his back, smiling when Eddie responded with a humming little sigh. “Wash my hair?” he asked.
“Sure thing, Eds.”
Steve reached over to grab the shampoo and tiny bucket they left in the shower just for this. “Wanna drink some of your tea before I douse you?”
Eddie didn’t say anything, but reached out blindly to grab one of the steaming mugs next to the tub. Steve didn’t bother holding back a snort that he’d managed to grab the “Don’t Bother Me, I’m Crabby” mug they’d nicked from Wayne.
Eddie took a slow sip of the tea, and the second he’d set it back down and straightened back up, Steve dumped a bucket of warm water over his head.
Eddie spluttered. “Babe, what the fuck!”
Steve snickered from behind him. “Just wanted to make sure you were here on earth with me, bedhead.”
Eddie shook his head like a rain-soaked dog. “You could have at least taken out the ponytail first!”
“I suppose I could have,” Steve said, lips twitching up into a smile as he reached up to start pulling Eddie’s dark curls from where they’d gotten tangled in the hair tie. “I got you talking again in something other than a monotone, though.”
“Maybe I was enjoying playing the dark, broody hero.”
Steve pinched Eddie’s side, which resulted in a high-pitched squeak, and a wild flail that had water splashing up around them. "Behave," Steve chastised—though the warning was undercut by the laugh of unconcealed delight he barked out as Eddie’s arms swung around him.
"You're the one assaulting me in my time of suffering!"
"Suck it up, buttercup,” Steve shot back, combing his fingers through wet curls and gently detangling each and every knot he ran into. He couldn't help but rub the silky-soft strands between his fingers as he went. Steve's own day had been slow and uneventful, but a quiet sort of unease had been hovering at the edges for hours. Drawing Eddie a bath and settling in behind him to wash his hair helped settle Steve back into his body just as much as it did for Eddie.
Steve began working shampoo into Eddie's roots, massaging his fingers into his scalp, and Eddie's head tipped back as he let out a pleased hum that sounded almost like a purr. "Love your fingers in my hair, Stevie," he mumbled, sounding a bit hazy.
"Yeah? Is that the only place you like my fingers?" Steve asked, right into Eddie's ear.
Eddie scrambled back upright and turned to face Steve with an alarmed expression on his face. "No! Why would you think that? Did I say something to make you think that? Please, I’m so sorry, baby. Please know that I love your fingers anywhere on me. Or in me. What if they went somewhere else right now?"
Steve laughed, grabbing Eddie's shoulder to turn him back around with one hand, and dipping the bucket back into the water to rinse the suds out of Eddie's hair with the other. When Steve was sure he'd thoroughly rinsed Eddie's hair he leaned past him to grab the conditioner and whisper in his ear, "You can get them somewhere else a little later if you're good for me, baby," before leaning back and clicking the bottle open.
"I'll be so good for you, Stevie. Just tell me what I gotta do."
"Keep still and don't sass me for the next five minutes."
Eddie's mouth opened and then immediately snapped back shut as he clearly decided that whatever his response to that was gonna be probably qualified as "sass."
"Good boy," Steve said simply, dropping another kiss to Eddie's back.
"I can be good when I wanna be," Eddie grumbled.
"Careful," Steve shot back, gently chiding. He methodically worked the conditioner through Eddie's hair in sections, tugging gently as he did, just for the soft satisfaction that ran through him every time Eddie let out a soft gasp in response to it.
"Always careful, Stevie," Eddie mumbled back, eyes fluttering shut.
Steve reached down to brush one hand over the scars running down Eddie's side. "Not always," he whispered, just a little sadly, as he pressed a firm kiss to the mostly-faded ring of scars at his throat.
"Mm, don't be sad, baby."
"Not sad. Just glad you're alive."
Eddie was quiet for a stretch, and Steve chuckled.
"What? What were you gonna say, asshole?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, love," Eddie replied, all faux innocence.
"You were gonna say something sassy just then, that's why you went all quiet. So, out with it, come on. How were you gonna sass me in response to me saying I'm glad you're alive?"
"Promise you won't hold it against me?"
"Yeah, baby." Steve leaned over to press a kiss to Eddie’s nose. "This one's a freebie."
Eddie looked over his shoulder with a wide grin, and a twinkle in his eye. "I was gonna call you a sap."
Steve rolled his eyes. "Oh, well, fuck me for being happy my boyfriend's alive I guess."
"I was actually hoping that you would fuck me," Eddie replied.
"You're pushing your luck, Eds," Steve warned, yanking lightly at his hair.
"Sorry, baby."
Steve ran his hands up and down the sides of Eddie's arms. "All forgiven, Eds."
Steve let his hands drift as he waited for the conditioner to rest—digging his fingers into the dense coils of muscle in Eddie's neck, smoothing his palms down the ridges of Eddie's spine, ghosting his hands up Eddie's sides. When time was up, he grabbed the bucket, turned on the tap to fill it with clean, warm water, and spilled it over Eddie’s head. Steve combed his fingers through the chestnut locks again, making sure he’d thoroughly rinsed them once more. The two of them fell still and silent, like two little stones in the river bed.
Steve loved this. The quiet trance they fell into, as Eddie relaxed into the water, and Steve pressed kisses into his lover’s skin, and they both forgot the mugs of tea that Steve made.
Steve separated Eddie’s hair into even sections, savoring the feeling of freshly cleaned locks passing through his fingers as he wove the strands together—over-under, over-under, over-under—and plaited Eddie’s hair down the length of his back. When he was done, he flipped the end of the braid back over Eddie’s shoulder, and Eddie leaned further into him, pressing the length of his back against Steve’s chest.
Steve let his hands start wandering, and Eddie let out a soft gasp of surprise when the pads of Steve's thumbs brushed over both nipples. "Steve."
"Shh, I got you baby," Steve murmured, and let one hand drop down to where Eddie was stiffening up beneath the water.
"I know you do, Stevie," Eddie whispered back on a sigh and a gasp. "I know you do."
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Maybe it's just the jock in me, but I think about Steddie going to the gym soooo much. For a lot of different reasons lmao. Part of it is that I think it's a great place for Eddie to thirst and be confused at how homoerotic so many of the rituals around the gym are, but also because there's a lot of humor in Eddie going to the gym.
He has a lot of energy, and we know he has some muscle, likely just from day to day activity, mechanics, band equipment, etc. He seems like he would enjoy being outdoors, and hiking or exploring. Something that is a work out but doesn't feel like one if you do it right. Despite all that, he absolutely has the vibe of someone who hated gym class (which, same), and probably would claim to hate working out/doing physical activity.
I just know that when Steve finally convinces him to go to the gym with him, Eddie would be SO MAD at how much he loves it and how great it makes him feel. He is absolutely that post that is like "you mean regular exercise is good for you and makes you feel good???? is good for your mental health??"
He feels lied to, he feels cheated. Maybe he should've expected this, now that he's dating a jock, but he thought that his jock was an exception. He hates jocks. What is happening to him.
Of course part of it is just that it's not gym class, which is not good at catering to any demographic other than "generally athletic and doing a school sport". Another part is that Steve is very big on making sure he doesn't hurt himself, and making sure that why he lifts and shit are at the level he is actually at. Steve would not allow him to overwork himself. He likes that he looks after him and likes that they are able to do something together that aligns with Steve's interests and not the nerd herd's.
It becomes a great way for them to spend time together in public, and it's extra fun when Robin comes along, or when they manage convince one of the others to join them.
The funniest part would be how much his friends would heckle him for it though. It's all affectionate, but Gareth every practice makes a joke about how he knows how Luke Skywalker feels, now that his "father" has betrayed him. Lucas is smug every time he shows up for a session with Steve, and Eddie is there too. it takes a lot for Eddie to remind himself he can't fight a toddler.
(He refuses to admit that he knows Lucas would win.)
The worst though, as @starsvs brought up, is that Steve would look at Eddie, who loves the outdoors, is good at staying hydrated for dnd/the band, and is now working out regularly? And go "babe I think you're a jock now" and Eddie would lose. his. shit.
Eddie genuinely takes a moment to consider if this is what is going to cause him to dump his boyfriend, because he better take that slander back right the fuck now. Eddie? A jock? The very antithesis of everything he stands for? The sheer dramatics that statement causes is enough to keep Steve laughing for weeks. Eddie would grumble and bitch for days, laying on the floor complaining about him!! being called a jock!!! Wayne is just calmly sipping his coffee and watching his boy go on and on, because its certainly more entertaining than anything on day time tv.
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Can you imagine Steve having the urge to wear women’s clothing and makeup from being young but always ignoring it because it’s not the done thing. He tells Eddie in confidence and Eddie thinks it’s perfect. Subtly encouraging him to try things and confront it when they’re alone. Steve’s thinking about growing his hair a little and Eddie’s like “I think you’d look so pretty, baby.” He didn’t think anyone would ever react like that. The first time Steve actually works up the courage to do makeup and hair and wear a dress, he shows Eddie when they’re alone and Eddie nearly has a fuckin heart attack.
oh this is so lovely. I love the idea of Steve liking girl's clothes when he's a child. Maybe he sneaks into his parents' bedroom when they're out and tries on his mother's make-up and jewellery, spritzing himself in perfume, and when they go shopping for clothes, he wistfully looks at all the girl's things: the dresses and sandals and little skirts. But he represses it because he knows it's wrong to want those things and boys have to be boys, not girls, so he crushes all those desires back down and tries his best not to think about them. Or about how much he loves looking at and touching girls because he wants to be like them. Then telling Eddie about it when they start dating, knowing Eddie won't judge him for it. And Eddie doesn't, if anything he doesn't seem surprised. And he would encourage Steve so gently, not wanting him to feel insecure, or like it's anything to be ashamed of, saying how pretty he is, that he's already prettier than any girl Eddie's ever seen. So Steve grows his hair longer and he gets his blonde highlights again, and he starts wearing a little mascara and a tinted cherry lipbalm, starts wearing a necklace or a bracelet... subtle enough things in public that no one will say anything.
And in private, when it's just him and Eddie, he does even more. Wearing perfume, trying on dresses, heels, shaking his legs... and when Eddie sees him for the first time he's just stunned. Not because he's shocked at how beautiful Steve looks, but because he didn't think Steve could become even more of a vision than he already was. In a way that's almost unbearable. The makeup and clothes bringing out all of Steve's softness in a way that has Eddie's mouth filling with spit, his dick chubbing up so fast it's painful. He's standing there staring at Steve, mouth open, and Steve shrinks back, insecure, says "you don't like it?" but a moment later Eddie's crossed the room, his arms around Steve's little waist and he says, "baby doll you're fucking gorgeous" and Steve gasps, quivering, at the praise and the pet name.
And Eddie wants this to be about Steve, to be about showering him in adoration, but his hind brain, the one that's whispering to Eddie about what a pretty little housewife Steve would make, kicks into gear and they wind up fucking right there in the kitchen, Eddie slipping his hand between Steve's thighs and roughly pushing his panties to the side so he can finger him open, the whole time breathing into his ear about how he's going to fuck his pretty little pussy. As Steve shakes, flushing red, whimpering "yes Daddy, wanna be your good girl" and Eddie literally has to stop for a second, knuckle deep in Steve's tight hole, groaning "oh fucking hell" into Steve's hair, trying so hard not to cum in his pants like a dumb fucking virgin.
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