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sp0o0kylights · 5 months

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Eddie led a weird life.

This was something he welcomed, given half the things people thought were “weird” was just his fashion sense or preference for table top games.

Small potatoes to the larger things in life, really.

Of course, this was before he found out there was an evil version of Hawkins underneath him.

Now Eddie did things that would previously sent his old self into a fucking coma.

His friendship with Steve Harrington for example.

Dude saved his life and bridal-style carried him out of literal hell.

It’d have been rude not to be friendly with the guy after that, even if they weren’t both members of a very exclusive and bloody club, with trauma and secrets that really only a select few people would ever understand.

Sleeping over at Harrington’s half the week also made perfect sense, and Eddie will argue that to his very grave.

It turns out nightmares suck, and waking up screaming all the time sucks even more.

Something everyone involved in this entire escapade (and all the ones prior) knew.

Because more bodies means more eyes to look out for you, and feeling safe means you might actually sleep for an hour, they all got used to showing up at each other's houses at odd hours of the night.

Pulled one another out of nightmares and got comfortable with the fact that they slept better, together.

Steve’s house in particular is typically void of both adults and annoying freshmen, which meant it's the most comfortable place for a lot of people to crash together.

(Sometimes the annoying freshmen do show up and maybe Eddie is also a little weirdly overprotective of the whole Party now, and alright fine, he enjoys all their company, even Erica's--but who's keeping track?

He isn’t.

He’s busy arguing all this is perfectly normal.)

Sleeping in Steve’s bed is where things get a little tricky.

See, when it was more than just Robin and Eddie crashing at Casa De Harrington, they all sleep in the living room.

Steve drags out some fancy blow up mattress (an air mattress what the fuck) and changes the couches around and long story short his fucking living room is more comfortable than Eddie’s own bed has ever been.

But when it's just Eddie and Robin, they retire to Steve’s stupid huge bed, so large the damn thing takes up most of his equally massive room.

(“This isn’t weird right?” He’d asked Robin once, hanging his head over the edge of the bed while Steve did--whatever it was he was doing to his hair in the bathroom.

Robin, who was busy rifling through Steve’s drawers for a shirt to steal, stopped and looked at him, one eyebrow raised.

“Not unless you make it weird, Munson.” She’d told him, and well, that was all the permission he needed.

They slept together in tight groups, where it was easiest to defend each other in case of Upside Down fucking monster attack.

Case closed.)

Sleeping in Steve Harrington’s bed, without the buffer that was Robin Buckley, is where the lies started.

Because it was weird.

It was incredibly weird, and did guys even do this solo?

Eddie hadn’t. If one of Hellfire or the band stayed over, it was a strictly floor/bed/couch situation unless there were more than three of them, and that was within Eddie’s small ass trailer.

Sure they piled up if they had to, but it wasn't like it was with Steve. All tangled limbs and being right up in each others space, no pillow or blanket or anything as a buffer.

Hell, Eddie had woken up getting spooned or doing the spooning more than once, and no one said shit.

How Steve made it sound so genuinely normal was beyond him.

Not that Eddie argued about it.

Not the first time of the fifth or the twenty-fifth, and not even after Robin pointed out he was rooming with Harrington more than she was.

Because he just slept better, next to Steve.

(Steve apparently, felt the same.

Or must have given it kept happening.)

It wasn’t like Steve didn’t crash at Eddie’s trailer either--his parents had come right home upon hearing about the earthquake, and had been a bit more present after running into the joint forces of Jim Hopper and Joyce Byers in the hospital lobby.

Add in Wayne’s own Disapproving Stare (TM) and the town being up each other’s ass to try and keep it together, and suddenly Mr. and Mrs. Harrington were hanging out in Hawkins that much more.

(Steve seemed to think it was more to save face rather than because they actually gave a shit, which Eddie felt was obvious but he wasn’t gonna say it.

“They’re trying I think. They just--they’ve never encountered anything like this.” He’d said, a little frown line pinching his eyebrows together.

“Stevie, no one has faced anything like what we have. Your parents, on the other hand, are only dealing with what they think is the aftermath of an earthquake and plenty of people have seen those.”

Steve had sighed. Stared a little helplessly, like he knew he was making excuses but couldn’t help himself.

“I know, Eds. I know.”)

Them being home more meant Steve was at Eddie’s more--on grounds that Robin’s parents were fine with him hanging out but drew some kind of weird not--very--hippy line at him sleeping over.

Which was fine.

Great even, the Eddie and Steve had never slept better! Sucks to be Robin, who had to call up Nancy Wheeler if she wanted to share.

All this was, was trauma buddies being guy pals who were very comfortable with each other due to said fucking trauma.

Steve used to help Eddie take a piss for fucks sake, and according to literally everyone else involved in the Vecna related mess, this was their fourth go round with supernatural shit.

Chances of it all happening a fifth time seemed kinda high, even if the gate was supposedly closed and the psychotic meat puppet madman six feet underground.

Sharing was caring, and caring was not letting your new buddy you saved fight off monsters alone if they popped back up.

Plus he and Steve spent a huge amount of time together, almost as much time as Steve did with Robin.They were all in each other’s back pockets to the point that Eddie’s band was used to it, with Gareth even starting to make secret lover jokes about it all.

(The dick.)

They were just really good friends dealing with the shit life had dealt them. That was it, that was the whole ass story.

Eddie’s growing gay crisis aside.

So no. It wasn't all the time with Harrington that sent Eddie over the edge. Nor was it the bed sharing, rapidly dropping boundaries, or even the fact that Steve knew where Eddie kept his condoms (An accident Eddie wouldn't ever live down, holy shit.)

No, what sent him into an absolute, hair tearin' meltdown, was the day Steve woke up, rolled over, kissed Eddie right on the lips and then went to make breakfast.

No good morning, no how ya doin.

Steve just left Eddie there, clutching onto the sheets for dear life and mildly terrified he’d just hallucinated the entire encounter.

(Hell, maybe the whole thing was hallucinated.

Maybe he died in the Upside Down and this was some sort of sick version of the afterlife.

Eddie pinched himself, and when that wasn’t enough, bit his own knuckle. Both hurt, which was unfortunate, because death seemed preferable to dealing with life right then.)

Unfortunately for him, Steve did not run back into the room with a myriad of excuses, which meant Eddie had to experience the horrifying ordeal of getting out of bed, putting his clothes on and going into the trailer’s kitchen--because Steve hadn’t even had the decency to wreck Eddie’s life at his own house.

‘What the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck--’

Heart galloping, Eddie put on his big boy pants--metaphorically and physically--before stepping out into the kitchen and confront his friend.

Who was cooking shirtless, without a care in the world.

It still took him a full thirty seconds to get his mouth to work.

“Hey Stevie? Do you want to tell me what that was about?”

"Hmm?” Steve replied. His eyes were hooded, hair mussed in a way Eddie knew only a few select people had ever seen it.

He looked half asleep, and proved it a second later when he reached twice for the one of the two mugs on the counter and missed entirely.

Eddie swung in, grabbing one and offering it out for Steve to pour coffee into, before swapping it out for the other mug once Steve was done.

Stayed in Steve’s space even as the former jock fussed with adding in milk and sugar and whatever else he was feeling, working up the courage to say something.

Anything.

“Uh, the--just now?” Eddie squeaked. He coughed to clear his voice, trying desperately to act normal.

Look normal.

Like he hadn't just been kissed by the guy he had absolute worst crush on.

Steve, bless him, didn’t tease him. Just shoved one of the mugs into Eddie’s hands and kept the other for himself.

Took a nice, slow sip, adam's apple bobbing and Eddie quickly averted his gaze, staring firmly into his coffee.

“What happened?” Steve asked a second later, sounding a touch more clear, and not at all like he was experiencing deep regret, or dodging the question, or even aware of what had happened.

Eddie had two seconds to realize that hell, maybe Steve really didn’t know, before his mouth once betrayed him.

“When you kissed me?” And motherfucker, for once, Eddie wished he would think before he fucking spoke.

(Wayne had always told him he'd come to regret it. He just hadn't thought it'd be like this!)

“Oh.” Steve said, very anticlimatically. “I didn’t realize I did that, sorry.”

Eddie's entire body twitched.

One long shudder, like it was rejecting the very words coming out of Steve's mouth.

“You didn’t,” He tried, voice dry and cracking. He realized his hands were shaking and promptly put his mug down before he dropped it. “You just--what, did that on instinct?”

“...Kinda, yeah.” Steve said and why the hell did he sound entirely unphased!?

Was this some kind of weird jock thing? Did the basketball team all wake up together and kiss each other on the mouth?! Did they think it was some sort of straight--guy haha joke, or fucking--Eddie didn’t even know what, because Eddie was too busy spiraling.

“Steve I’m gay.” He blurted out, mouth now firmly ahead of his brain.

He instantly wanted to take it back.

Grab the words with his hands, and cram it into his mouth.

Maybe Steve was only cool with it if he thought Eddie was straight.

Hell, maybe he fucking did it while sleep walking or something and Eddie was the one being weird about it, or he--fuck, really did imagine it and, and--!

“I know.” Steve told him, interrupting Eddie’s catastrophizing entirely.

“You know?” Eddie stared at him, feeling like the world had fallen out from underneath his feet. “How do you know!?”

He actually had a pretty good idea of how Steve knew, considering they were both friends with Robin, but while Robin was comfortably out to both of them, Eddie was not.

Had not in fact, even confirmed that he was queer to Robin herself, though he’d hinted at it plenty and shared more than one inside joke.

Didn’t think Robin had outed him or anything, but more that, well…

Steve was smarter than the kids made him sound, that’s for damn sure.

“Honestly dude? You’re not subtle.” Steve told him and at least he finally sounded serious.

Like this was a much needed conversation and not some weird tangent Eddie was on.

“The handkerchief, that triangle pin that you and Robin both have, the fact that you once jumped in my pool to get away from Dustin asking about you're dating life."

He rolled one hand in an etc. all gesture, before adding; “Also there was that time you and Robin got absolutely smashed on my dad’s whiskey and argued about who the hottest Rocky Horror actor was.”

Eddie’s mouth sprang open to defend himself, but absolutely nothing came out.

When had they even watched Rocky Horror together!?

“You kept insisting the guy who played Brad was hotter than the one who played Rocky, remember? I thought Robin was going to strangle you because she like, adores Susan Sarandon.” Steve continued, like they were having one of their playful little spats and not--not discussing Steve kissing him!

“You guys asked me to tie-break,” He added slowly, like he was trying to jog Eddie’s memory. “and I told you guys I thought both were hot.”

Which--oh.

Oh.

“Okay so you’re…?”

Not going to kill me is what Eddie intended to say, but Steve took it as another question entirely, and answered with a nod and a hum.

Which--okay.

Steve Harrington was bisexual, and also already thought he’d come out to Eddie.

He could roll with that.

That was not the problem, at all.

The problem was; “That doesn’t explain the kiss though?!”

Steve finally put his coffee down, huffing out exasperatedly. “I wasn’t lying when I said I didn’t realize I did it, man. We share a bed a lot and I guess I wasn’t--I must have--”

And now, finally, Steve was getting embarrassed. A red flush spread across his cheeks and down his neck, vivid even on his tan skin.

He ran a hand through his hair, and Eddie knew purely from the sheer amount of time they spent together that it was a self-soothing action.

“I guess I’m sorry?”

It came out less as a question and more as an accusation-- which Steve himself seemed to hear because he immediately corrected it with a far less sassy and much more sincere; “No I am--I’m sorry.”

None of which answered why Steve had kissed him.

“You didn’t think I was Nance, did you?” Eddie asked, because apparently he just couldn't stop while he was ahead.

Maybe he should have died. It'd be better for both of them, considering he was doing about as good as kicking Steve while he was down.

Steve, the guy who had saved Eddie's life and was now one of his best friends and here Eddie was, dragging this out of him like a moron.

“No.” Steve said immediately. Reflexively, almost, firm and sure. “I am very aware you’re not Nancy.”

‘Let it go Eddie. Don’t make it weird Eddie. Just laugh it off and say okay--’

“Then who did you think it was? I mean you said it was instincts and like, I'm not stupid. I know I can be confused for Nance in the low light, it's happened before but--"

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

“I didn’t think. I knew it was you." Steve interrupted. "I knew I was kissing you, Eddie."

Oh god, just kill him now.

Hell he'd even take a Vecna death! With all the gross gore and the shitty villain monologue!

"This morning I was tired, and I was sleepy, and I apparently skipped the part in my head were I asked you out and we were dating.” Steve deadpanned at him.

Eddie gaped, mind shattered and rapidly reforming.

It was like the universe was recreating itself, only this time all the stars had aligned and his wish had come true and some Disney director had taken control of his life--

“But I get it if I’m not your type." Steve was saying, because Steve was perfect.

And Kind.

And wanted to date Eddie.

"I’m sorry if I made things uncomf-mmphhh!”

‘Mmmph’ because Eddie had flung himself at Steve, face first, the second "I asked you out and we were dating" had finished processing.

(Which was alarming fast, considering he'd been struggling all morning.)

‘D--ff--ing?”

Steve laughed in his mouth as Eddie tried to talk while kissing, pulling away slightly and holding his chest back with a hand when Eddie tried to chase him anyway.

“Yes, dating. As in, would you, Eddie Munson, like to go on a date with me, Steve Harrington?”

“Yes.” Eddie’s mouth said.

At least this time it and his brain were on the same wavelength.

“Yes I very much would.” He put some weight into his lean, making it harder for Steve to hold him back. “I think you can tell, by the way I'm trying to kiss you. Which you are not doing."

He pouted, and refused to be embarrassed about his behavior.

Steve laughed, and he might have said something like “God you changed up fast” except he had given in and let Eddie close again, and his words were now being swallowed down.

Eddie's life was weird alright, and now it was weird even by his own standards, but he wouldn't have it any other way.

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wynnyfryd · 4 months

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Trailer park Steve AU part 45

part 1 | part 44 | ao3

Nancy, Jonathan, and some guy with the longest hair Steve's ever seen are standing in a loose circle with Eddie and his bandmates, talking and sort of dance-nodding along to The Power of Love by Huey Lewis (a fact that Steve absolutely intends to mock his boyfriend for the second he gets the chance), and Steve, like, mentally girds his loins.

He and Jon are cool with each other, and he and Eddie are obviously, uh, plenty warmed up to one another by now, but the rest of them...

One's a stranger, one's an ex who seems drunk as shit and is currently so invested in spinning around to the music that she hasn't opened her eyes to notice him, and the other three are thawing to him at a truly glacial pace. Steve hasn't so much as been invited to watch a rehearsal yet because Eddie's 'still working on them' and needs 'a bit more time, but don't worry, they'll come around.'

They don't openly scowl when he and Robin approach, though, so Steve takes that as a win.

"Harrington!" Eddie calls, bowing deeply to add, "Lady Buckley."

Steve would feel stung by the surname if not for how downright giddy Eddie sounds. God, he loves tipsy Eddie; fucking Disney cartoon boy.

"Munson," he plays along, giving him a sly grin and a shoulder bump as he sidles up next to him. "Didn't know you were allowed to leave the basement at these things."

Jeff interrupts his air-guitaring to glare at Steve, bur Eddie holds out a hand and assures him that Steve's just fucking around. Before Steve can apologize or defend himself, Long Hair Guy leans in across the circle, his eyes wide and intense and bloodshot to hell.

"Dude," he greets. "You have. Such beautiful hair."

Steve barks a laugh. Robin rolls her eyes. Jonathan also rolls his eyes, but it seems more fond and less annoyed. "Can't take you anywhere," he mutters to the guy, then asks them, "You guys met Argyle yet?"

Steve holds out a hand. Confusion washes over him as he processes what Jonathan just said. "Uh." Argyle. "Like the sweater?"

"Yeah, man," Argyle smiles, dopey and slow. Sure. The guy in head-to-toe tie-dye and a neon green fanny pack is named Argyle. Why not? "My parents wanted a sheep, but they got me, instead."

Jonathan laughs like it's the funniest joke he's ever heard. Steve's pretty sure he's too sober for this conversation.

They exchange handshakes, and Robin asks if she can touch the guy's hair, and they all slip into easy, friendly conversation, naturally splintering into smaller groups of twos and threes. Steve's just getting the rundown on all the 'sick new gear' the band got for Christmas when the song changes, and god, this night just could not get better.

"Oh, fuck off!" Eddie groans in the DJ's direction.

Steve has to practically swallow his lips to keep himself from cackling, and then he gives up and does it, anyway, because Eddie looks like he just sucked a lemon while watching a dog die as his bandmates all start sing-shouting along. "We're talking away..."

"No." Eddie wheels around and points a finger at Steve, because Steve's singing, too.

Steve just sings louder. "I don't know what, I'm to say!"

"Oh, my god." He scrubs a hand down his face, dragging the skin down until Steve can see the pale pink of his inner eyelid. "Nobody I know has any goddamn taste!"

"Maybe you don't have any taste!" Robin teases, bouncing around and swinging her arms haphazardly to the music.

Nancy backs her up with a mumbled "Yeah!" but she's still spinning around in such tight circles that Steve doubts she has a single clue what's happening in the argument right now. Which is kind of endearing, actually. He likes how willing she is to stick up for people.

The chorus kicks in; Gareth air-drums the switch to half time just before Frank does an honestly super impressive falsetto of 'in a day or twoooooo', and Eddie despairs while Steve laughs his fucking head off.

—

part 46

tag list in separate reblogs under '#trailer park steve au taglist' if you'd like to filter that content. if you want to be added please comment and let me know (must be over 21; please either verify in the comment or have your age visible on your blog)

#trailer park steve au #steddie #steddie fic #steve harrington #eddie munson #robin buckley #nancy wheeler #jonathan byers #argyle stranger things #corroded coffin #my writing #my fic

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the-case-book-of-fanfiction · 8 months

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The Only Tally Mark

Ship: Steve Harrington x reader

Summary: The 'You Suck' tallies are getting pretty high, but there's a girl in Scoops Ahoy who knows Robin in wrong. If she can just get the courage to open her mouth, Steve's luck is about to change.

Word Count: 7,250 words

Warnings: Robin's a bit mean, she also has no filter, pining, Steve's failed flirting attempts, blatant staring/pining, implied confession, first kiss

Note: Set pre-s4 and the day Dustin comes back, before the Russian code is cracked.

☟ Continue below the fold ☟

July had only just begun in Hawkins, and you could already tell it was going to be a hot one. Less than twenty-four hours in, temperatures had already hit record-breaking highs—at least, that was according to the weatherman on the television you were sat in front of, sweating and feeling relief from the heat only when the fan beside you swiveled back toward you.

“Every July is this hot,” your father said from the kitchen, where he was drinking his second glass of water in five minutes.

“Oh, sure, but never this early,” your mother retorted. “It’s only the first, and already we’re melting out of the house.”

Sensing an irritable argument birthed from the nearly unbearable heat, you left the living room and headed up the stairs to your bedroom. You picked up the phone you’d begged your parents to let you have years ago, dialing the number of your best friend of four years: Robin Buckley, the band dweeb to your theatre kid.

It was her mom who answered the phone, several dial tones later. “Hello?”

“Hi, Mrs. Buckley—is Robin home?”

“Oh, hi, sweetie! She’s at work right now, her shift ends at seven.”

You stopped yourself from swearing. “Oh, right, I forgot. Thank you!”

“No problem, dear,” Mrs. Buckley said before hanging up.

You leaned against the wall. How could you have forgotten? Robin had been telling you about her new job in the mall—and the sailor’s uniform she had to wear. You’d seen her get ready for work once and had burst into giggles the moment she put the hat on her head.

You glanced at the digital clock next to your bed, checking the time. There was still several hours before the mall closed. You might as well visit Robin and abuse your friendship to get some free ice cream at the same time, right?

So you grabbed your wallet and shoved it in your pocket and bounded down the stairs.

"Hey, I'm going out!" you shouted to your parents.

"Where do you think you're going, young lady?" your father asked, appearing in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.

"To the mall? Robin works there and I'm going to visit."

"Don't spend too much, dear!" your mother called.

"Sure, Mom!"

You hopped in your car and headed for the mall, following the thick cluster of traffic that always lined the streets leading to the mall, passing through the streets lined with empty, hollow shops.

~❊~

The mall was crowded, as busy as it had always been since the day it opened. You pushed your way through the crowds gathered around storefronts and display windows, trying to remember which floor Scoops Ahoy was on.

You took the escalator down to the first floor and scanned the shops surrounding you. When you spotted the sign for the ice cream store, you headed toward it, maneuvering past a group of pre-teens cackling about manipulating the store's workers into giving them free samples.

There was no one at the counter when you walked in. A majority of the tables were occupied by groups of teens. As you approached the register, you could hear faint bickering from behind the pebbled glass windows, Robin's distinct voice floating out to you.

"...do the job you're supposed to do, I've been scooping so much ice cream my hand's cramped," she was saying.

You stifled a giggle and tapped your hand lightly against the bell in front of you, wincing when it was a little louder than you had been expecting.

The swing door on the left opened with a bang, revealing the back of a boy who was gesturing at Robin, who was quite literally pushing him out the door. She disappeared before you could catch her attention, and the other attendant took up his place in front of the register.

"Ahoy, sailor! Would you like to set sail on this ocean of flavor with me? I'll be your captain, I'm Steve Harrington."

You blinked at him. "Is that company policy like the hat and the outfit?"

He stared at you. "I'm sorry, what?"

You shrugged. "I'm a friend of Robin's, she complains about the, and I quote, stupid company rules that make everyone look stupid."

He stared at you. You stared at him. Awkward silence settled between the two of you.

The introduction hadn't been necessary. You had spent most of your high school experience listening to Robin complain about Steve Harrington and his stupid perfect hair and his stupid easy charm and his stupid actual stupidity. The Steve she'd painted matched up perfectly with the kid you'd seen around in the halls, dressed in his ironed polo shirts and pleated khakis or that stupid basketball uniform and letterman jacket—and Nancy Wheeler on his arm.

You and Robin had watched his life crash and burn with malicious glee—and all the while you had tried to ignore that this was the very same boy you'd crushed on in middle school, and had been so shocked to find out had changed so much when you got to the high school, a year after he did.

Steve cleared his throat, his gaze dropping to the register, firmly away from you. "Um. What can I get you?"

"Uh..." Every ice cream flavor you had ever liked instantly disappeared from your head. It wasn't like the usual mind-blankness that came from being asked a question about your favorite anything. It was like your entire body had stopped, freezing in the pretty face of Steve Harrington, ridiculous as the uniform was. Especially with the hat, which Robin hadn't told you about.

The door swung open again. "Jesus, Steve, what's taking you so damn long?" Robin froze where she stood. A smile lit up her face. "What are you doing here?!"

You grinned. "Visiting!"

Robin hip-checked Steve out of the way. Steve glared at her while she grabbed the ice cream scoop from the pocket at his side.

"Jesus, do you have to be so brutal?" he snapped.

Clearly fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Robin turned back to Steve. "I'm sorry, would you please get out of the way so I can serve my best friend? Thanks," she said, her customer service smile plastered to her face.

Muttering under his breath, Steve pushed away from the counter, leaning on the sill of the window behind him. He crossed his arms, still staring resolutely at the floor.

Robin grinned at you. "I wasn't expecting you to—"

"Be here?" you finished. "I called your house before I realized you were working, so I thought I might as well come visit."

"Glad you did," she said. "You would not believe how much of a headache it is working with dingus over there."

You glanced over her shoulder at Steve, his pink lips forming a pissy pout. Oh, yeah. Still pretty, still a bitch.

"You didn't tell me you worked with him," you said under your breath.

Robin shrugged, shooting you a knowing smile. "Yeah, well, I knew you'd show up and find out for yourself eventually." Her eyes slid to the corners, as if she could see Steve sulking behind her. "We'll talk about him later. What ice cream do you want? On us."

You giggled. "How did I know you'd say that?"

She snorted. "Oh, so you're abusing our friendship for free ice cream?"

"Maybe," you said. "Just this once."

Robin rolled her eyes and grabbed an ice cream cone. "Here—I'll grab your favorite."

And, without you needing to remind her, she lowered the scoop into the tub of ice cream that you got every time the two of you had gotten ice cream after going to see a movie, back before the mall. You wondered how you could have forgotten, until you looked over Robin's shoulder again and found Steve looking up, lips parted and eyes fixed on you. The minute you caught his gaze, he blushed and looked away.

You took advantage of his embarrassment, admiring the pink in his cheeks and how he awkwardly licked his lips. He toyed with the watch on his wrist, crossed and uncrossed his legs. Was he nervous? An even better question—had you ever seen Steve Harrington nervous before?

While you studied Steve, Robin made a second cone of ice cream, a different flavor than yours.

Robin looked behind her. "Hey—man the counter, will you? I'm going on break."

Steve spluttered. "You just came back from break!"

"No, we just finished our lunch break. I still have my federally-required thirty minutes to take. So I'm gonna take 'em." She shoved the scoop at Steve's chest and stepped out from behind the counter.

The pair of you took an unoccupied table near the counter, in case she was needed.

"Should you be leaving him to do it by himself?" you asked, glancing back at Steve one last time.

"What, are you worried about him? He'll be fine," Robin said. She shrugged with a sigh. "He's...he's not as bad as we thought he was in high school. He's less of a douche now, at least."

"Just a dingus?" you asked with a smile.

She nodded. "He's still as stupid as we always thought."

You turned your attention away from Steve at toward your ice cream. "Why didn't you tell me he worked with you?"

She rolled her eyes. "Let's not have that conversation while he's here, okay? For your dignity's sake. I know he's far away, but he's got impressive hearing." She shrugged. "Blame it on four years of listening for gossip, I guess."

Your gaze shifted back to Steve as he raked a hand through his hair, stretching enough for his shirt to lift. Heat rushed to your cheeks and you crossed your legs. Now that he wasn't surrounded by assholes who mocked you and Robin and your friends for their own personal entertainment, it was easier to appreciate how he'd grown into himself since middle school. Taking care of himself had made him a whole new level of handsome.

Robin giggled. "Yeah—that's why we're not gonna talk about this while he's around. You still have a thing for him, don't you?"

Steve relaxed against the countertop, fixing his hair and putting the hat back on with a scowl. You cleared your throat.

"I was hoping you'd forgotten about that."

"Me? Forget about you having the most embarrassing crush on him for years? Only to get to high school and find out he'd become a dick? Never."

You groaned. "Oh, stop rubbing it in!"

A gaggle of girls walked into the store, four of them giggling and talking and rolling their eyes. Immediately, Steve stood up a little straighter and fiddled with his uniform.

Robin snorted. "Oh, watch this. He's been failing catastrophically with every girl that walks in. I keep count."

"You keep count?"

She nodded gleeful, pointing with her chin in the direction of the counter.

"Ahoy, ladies!" Steve said, leaning on the counter. His attempt to be attractive failed dismally, however, when his hand slipped off the side and he lost both his balance and his composure for a moment.

One of the girls giggled with her friend. Steve's cheeks darkened.

"I'm Steve Harrington, I'll be your captain on this ocean of flavor. What can I get you lovely ladies today?"

You glanced at Robin. "I don't see what he's doing wrong."

"That's because this is scripted," Robin whispered back.

The first girl stepped forward. "One scoop of chocolate and one of vanilla, please."

Steve tried a debonaire smile. "Oooh, classic, I like it. I'm all for vanilla myself, you know, all the time."

You winced. "Was...was that supposed to be a double entendre?"

"Yep," Robin said, popping the p with a smirk.

"I see what you mean now," you said. The girl was making a face that said she caught Steve's drift and found it rude. Steve cleared his throat and moved on, scooping ice cream into a cone and handing it to her with a mortified whisper of "here you go." His gaze flicked over to you and Robin, at which point his mortification seemed to grow.

You watched the exchange grow steadily worse. Steve stumbled over his words and tripped over his feet and dropped an empty cone twice. Customers who had already gotten ice cream became onlookers who left, one by one, as the secondhand embarrassment grew.

"God, he's hopeless," you whispered. "Whatever happened to the Steve in high school?"

"You mean the one with a new girl on his arm every week? I'd say that stopping can be blamed on one Nancy Wheeler," Robin said.

You rolled your eyes. "While they were dating, obviously. But now? One relationship shouldn't make him incapable of flirting with a girl."

Robin watched the girls leave, snickering behind their hands. A moment later, Steve groaned, wiping a hand over his face. "You know what I think his problem is?"

"What?"

"He's trying to flirt all of them into submission, not just one girl he likes out of the group."

You nodded slowly. "Sounds about right. I mean...if he flirted with me one minute and then you the next, I don't think I'd want to jump his bones, exactly."

Robin rolled her eyes. "What are you talking about? You've always wanted to jump his bones."

"That was middle school, and that was before any of us gave a shit about sex."

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," Robin teased. "I saw how you looked at him during gym class."

You shrugged, trying to hide your face behind your hair. Robin knew your expressions better than anyone; your embarrassment was going to be obvious the minute she caught sight of you. "It's gym class! Guys don't wear shirts ninety percent of the time, they practically invite girls to stare." Your gaze slid back to Steve, who was once again staring at the floor. His cheeks were still red, and that pretty mouth of his had once again formed a pout. "Jesus, I don't think I've ever seen him so...despondent."

"He's like that at least five times a shift," Robin said. She played with a small red plastic spoon she had pulled from her pocket. "You know... You could come work here with us. Then you'd get to see Steve every day."

"Robin, you're constantly complaining about how much you hate working your, and I quote, pitiful minimum wage job."

"Yeah, but you like Steve, and eye candy makes the day go by faster."

You swatted her arm discreetly. "Don't objectify him!"

She rolled her eyes. "Hey, Steve!"

Steve looked up so quickly you swore you heard his neck crack, even with some distance between your table and the counter. "What?"

"Come convince her to work with us!"

You glared at her. "Robin, I already have a summer job!" you protested, trying to stop your heart from racing as Steve approached the two of you. You looked anywhere but him, knowing a soft smile and a well-timed flutter of his eyelashes was all it would take for Steve to convince you to do anything he asked.

Steve pulled a chair from the other table for two next to you, spinning it unnecessarily in his hand and dragging it to the edge of your table. He straddled it, leaning his arms against the backrest. Your heart climbed into your throat.

Steve's eyes met yours and every thought melted from your brain. Brown had never been such a pretty color. Although his eyes weren't just brown, they were hazel, mottled with soft greens and blues and greys. You'd never seen such beautiful eyes before, so expressive and kind and interested and attentive and—

"Tell her why she should come work with us," Robin said, breaking your focus on Steve's eyes.

You rolled your eyes. "Robin, I already have a job," you repeated. "A job I like that pays well that I can work at year-round."

Steve snorted, shaking his head absentmindedly. "Then don't come here, that's for sure. The pay is shit, the job is just as bad, and nobody likes ice cream in the winter."

Robin glared at him. "What part of convincing her do you not understand?"

Steve shrugged, ignoring her. "But, then again, you'd get to work with Robin and you might alleviate my boredom from dealing with her all the time." He jerked his head toward Robin. "You wouldn't believe how mean to me she is."

You stifled a giggle as Robin huffed. An easy grin reminiscent of the king he once as slid across Steve's face. You felt slightly giddy, knowing you had been the one to put it there.

More people walked into the store and Robin shot to her feet. "Come on, dingus. We have a job to do." She dragged him to his feet, ignoring his hiss of complaint. He shot you an apologetic shrug as she pulled him behind the register again.

While the two of them got back to work, you sat back in your booth table and finished your ice cream. Once you were done, you discreetly snuck out of the store, leaving a note for Robin at the counter promising to call her after her shift.

As you wrote the note and taped it to the register, you failed to notice Steve pause where he was scooping ice cream to watch you, or that his gaze stayed on you until you left the store and Robin had to snap him out of his reverie.

~❊~

Though it seemed utterly impossible, the next day was even hotter than the last. You lasted all of two hours at the community pool before you got tired of the screaming children and moms flirting with Billy Hargrove and you went home.

You changed out of your bathing suit, dressing more consciously than you had since the eighth grade semi-formal. You selected your jewelry carefully before hopping in your car and heading to the mall for a second time that week.

Scoops Ahoy was significantly less busy when you walked in. Robin looked half-asleep where she stood at the counter, but she brightened when you walked in.

"You just couldn't stay away, could you?" she asked, leaning on the counter with a grin.

You shrugged. "It's hot, ice cream is a solution."

She studied you for a moment. "The pool didn't solve that?"

You scoffed. "Hell no. It's full of tiny children and middle-aged moms and girls who only go so they can take up space and stare at Billy."

"And there's no Steve there, is there?" Robin teased.

You rolled your eyes. "No," you admitted. "Or you."

Robin scooped your ice cream and passed it to you over the countertop. "He'll be back soon, his break ends in a minute. He went to go grab us food."

"He what?"

Robin shrugged. "Yeah, he does that a lot. I hate to say it, but he's actually a nice guy. I think we might have been wrong about him."

You grinned. "So I was right back in middle school! I told you."

Robin rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you did." She cleared her throat. "Behind you."

You heard Steve's footsteps approaching a split second before he said, "Hey, you're back! Applying?"

Turning to face him, you snorted. "Absolutely not. I'm here for ice cream and ice cream alone."

Steve frowned. "What are we, chopped liver?" he asked, gesturing between himself and Robin.

"I'm surprised you know that phrase," Robin said.

Steve made a face. "I do know some things, Robin." He turned back to you. "I told you she's mean to me."

You laughed. "She's mean to everyone sometimes, it's nothing personal."

"Yes it is, dingus," Robin said, and you remembered she had plenty of reasons aside from Steve's years mocking her and her friends to be angry with him.

You just shrugged at him when Steve looked at you for guidance. He copied your shrug and passed Robin a plastic bag that smelled heavenly.

"If I'd known you were coming to visit, I would have gotten you something," Steve said apologetically.

"Oh, it's fine," you promised. "I've got ice cream." He smiled at you, his laughter shining through. "Honestly, I'm surprised you two don't exist off of ice cream."

"We used to," Robin said.

Steve nodded. "It got pretty tiring after a week. It's like when they told us in health class that energy from sugar doesn't last very long. Or something like that."

Robin squinted at him. "You can't remember enough of high school to get to college, but you can remember health class?"

"I remembered enough to graduate," Steve mumbled, cheeks turning pink once again. You were starting to get used to Steve's embarrassment. It was as cute as he always was.

"Stay and eat with us," Robin said, turning back to you. "I'll split my fries with you. You did remember the fries, didn't you, dingus?"

"Of course I remembered the fries," Steve snorted. He dropped the Closed for lunch! sign on the counter and held the swinging door open for you. You thanked him as you walked by, aware of his eyes following you.

You sat in the seat Robin pulled out for you and finished your ice cream before stealing some of the previously offered fries.

"I think we're closing early, Robin," Steve said, glancing out the cracked window. "We've had, what, three people all day?"

"Four if you count the Radio Shack employee across the way," Robin said. "But I don't, because they get it for free."

You frowned. "Do I not count as a customer because you give me ice cream for free?"

Steve shook his head a bit too quickly. "No, you count, Robin just doesn't like the Radio Shack employees."

"Because they're rude," she complained. "They complain about everything and change their minds three times—but always after you've already started scooping, and even when you're done, they don't like it!"

"Sounds like a regular day in customer service," you said, feigning cheerfulness.

"Yeah, a shitty day," Robin said.

"Where do you work?" Steve asked. "I don't think I've ever asked."

"The record store down on Main," you said.

"You know, the one I said I had been planning on working at," Robin said. "But Scoops hired faster."

"Maybe we should switch jobs," Steve muttered.

Robin snorted. "Yeah, like that'll go over well."

"The store won't hire more people, anyway," you cut in. "It got rid of most of the staff, especially the new people, to cut costs because of the mall."

"Is there a record store in here?" Steve asked.

"No, but there is a Sam Goody and a Camelot Music in the mall. We used to have a partnership with the Sam Goody on Main, but then it closed due to the mall, and we started losing business to the one in the mall." You sighed. "I hear about it all the time. It's all the owner ever talks about these days."

Steve munched on a fry, staring at you as you spoke. His eyes were stuck firmly on you. You tried not to squirm under his intense gaze.

Robin leaned back in her chair. "One of these days, I'm gonna visit you at work instead."

You rolled your eyes. "If you ever have a day off," you said.

"Kinda hard to have a day off when we're the only two working here," Steve said.

You nodded. "The constant problem of being short staffed."

"That would be solved if you just came and worked here," Robin muttered into her wrap. You rolled your eyes again, stealing another one of her fries.

"No, Robin."

Robin harrumphed and took a bite of her sandwich more viciously than twas strictly required.

Steve faked a pout. "You just really don't like us, do you?"

"She doesn't," Robin agreed, smirking. You knew that smirk; she was going to do her best to guilt trip you—using Steve, which was perhaps the only way to guilt you into doing what she wanted.

You rolled your eyes. "It's got nothing to do with you, I promise."

"Ouch," they said in unison.

You frowned. "What are you, the same person?"

They both shrugged.

"Alright, that's just weird," you sighed. You glanced down at your watch. "How long does your lunch break last?"

"Thirty minutes. Why?" Steve asked.

You shrugged. "Wouldn't want you to get fired because I'm here distracting you."

Steve propped his head up on his hand. Stray curls of hair fell into his face. Your heart twisted in your chest. He was beautiful. How could he be so beautiful?

Robin watched as you and Steve stared at each other. You were aware of her gaze bouncing back and forth between the two of you, observing the way you were melting under his gaze, your lips parting the longer he looked at you, the barriers you'd put up slowly crumbling. Steve was no better, staring at you with open, asking eyes. He moistened his lower lip with his tongue and it took everything in you not to whimper.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw the look on Robin's face—the look of disgust that crossed her face every time she was disgusted by public affection from straight couples. Your heart did flips at the sight of her expression.

"Would you guys stop that?" she groaned, getting up from her seat.

"Doing what?" Steve asked, still looking at you. You tore your eyes away from him and back to the half-empty container of fries.

"Making eyes at each other," she said. Steve spluttered, instantly losing the lovey look in his eyes.

"Making eyes— Robin, what are you talking about?"

You cleared your throat. "Hey, um, what's the board for?" You hoped your question would steer the conversation away from the feeling bubbling in your chest at the sight of Steve.

Steve groaned, hiding his face in his hands.

"I told you I was keeping score of Steve's failing dating life. This is my scoreboard."

You nearly choked. "You keep track of it on a whiteboard at work?!" You looked at the neatly drawn board, the 'You Rule' and 'You Suck' columns divided by a line.

"Actually, I have to put the one from yesterday on here."

Steve groaned again, cheeks burning very red. He looked like he wanted to crawl under the table and stay there.

You watched her add a line. "Robin..."

"She's right, I suck," Steve sighed. "My luck's been pretty shit recently."

"You don't suck, she's just being mean," you said. You sent her a look, shaking your head slightly. She just shrugged.

"You don't have to be nice about it," he said. "I know how bad I am at this. I haven't gotten laid in months."

"Okay, too much information, Steve," you said with a little laugh.

"Oh, so this suddenly isn't a safe place to talk about all our life troubles?" he teased.

You laughed fully. He smiled, and the room seemed to light up with the glow emanating from him.

"Get a room," Robin groaned.

Steve turned around. "I'm not flirting, Robin!"

"Yeah, right," Robin smirked. "It's just working this time."

You coughed. "I, um, I have to go."

They both turned back to you, as if they'd forgotten that you were even there.

"Shit, hang on," Steve started, but Robin cut him off.

"No, wait, I didn't mean it like that—" Robin said, realizing she'd practically told Steve you liked him.

"Yeah, right, I know, I just have, uh..." You fumbled for an excuse for a minute. "I have to go drive a friend home! I'll call you later, Robs!" You rushed out the swinging door just as the bell at the counter rang.

Steve pushed his hands through his hair. "Shit."

"Oh, no," Robin whispered. "Steve, ignore that, ignore all of that, I screwed up, I shouldn't have said anything, she's going to be so pissed. It's just that she's liked you since middle school and it's gotten worse now that you're not a douchebag—" Robin clapped a hand over her mouth.

"I won't tell her you said that," Steve said quietly. "Oh, Jesus, Robin..."

"I'm sorry—"

"Stop apologizing to me," Steve said. "If you hadn't said anything, I never would have realized."

Robin made a face. "See, that's why you suck, not because you're bad at flirting with girls. You've just been flirting with the wrong ones, because you're oblivious of the ones that actually like you."

Steve was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. Thanks for pointing that out." He peered out the window, watching you leave the mall, wiping at your eyes and pushing your hair out of your eyes.

Simultaneously, Steve and Robin whispered, "Shit."

At the counter, Erica Sinclair tapped the bell again. "Hello? I want some samples!"

They shouted, "Shut up!"

Steve slammed the glass doors shut.

~❊~

Steve unlocked his front door, stepped inside his house, and put his back to the closed door. He slid down the door with a heavy sigh.

"Jesus Christ," he muttered under his breath. All he had been able to see since you left Scoops was your stricken face, horrified and embarrassed that Robin had spilled your biggest secret. (Which Robin had told him after, in bits and pieces, while they closed up the store.)

Steve couldn't believe it. How had he never noticed? Granted, he hadn't been the most observant for, well, the majority of his life. And his middle school years had been fairly dull, unmemorable. But wouldn't have noticed if you—you, out of everyone in Hawkins Middle—had been crushing on him?

To his utter shame, the most Steve remembered of you in middle school was how you had been a good friend to him, long before any of his high school friends knew who he was, and that he'd ditched you once he got to high school. You'd helped him study a few times, too. He wasn't sure what year it was, but he knew you'd helped him pass both English and History in the same year.

He'd shared a handful of classes with you, too, when classes had been so small they'd mixed grades. Sixth grade science, when the two of you had worked on a minor chemical project together. In seventh grade, you'd had two classes together. Gym, which had been downright brutal so early in the morning, especially when the teachers split up the teams as boys against girls. He remembered you had gotten nailed in the head with a basketball once, and that he'd been asked by your teacher to take you to the nurse. Then there had been math class, where he'd sat behind you, asking you questions and begging you to explain the concepts he didn't understand—even though you didn't understand it much more than he did. Eighth grade history, where Steve had done a presentation on his grandfather's experience in the World War, and you had been the only to actually raise your hand to ask a question.

Steve got up from the door and went up to his bathroom, stripping out of his uniform to take a shower. While the water soaked his hair and skin, warming him up, Steve's mind turned back to you—not that it had ever really left you.

You had been his first crush. Well, his first real crush. You'd been pretty, even when you were young and curious and a year younger than he was. Most of his friends had said that the younger girls were cute, but embarrassing to like. So Steve hid that he liked you. It wasn't until Nancy in high school, when it became cool, that he dated anyone younger than himself.

He wished he'd said something to you then. Would it have saved him a world of hurt? Or would it just have been an even worse broken heart waiting for him?

Steve recalled the way you had looked at him earlier, your eyes practically sparkling and your lips stretching into a gorgeous, content smile. It had stopped his heart to know that he was the reason you looked so happy, that he had brought that smile to your lips and that he had made those smile lines around your eyes appear and that he had been the reason your pupils were blown wide.

Steve shut off the shower and pulled on a new pair of boxers, flopping onto his bed with a content sigh, which matched the happy smile on his face.

You liked him.

Feeling like a teenage girl, Steve rolled until he could hide an excited squeal in his pillow.

You liked him again.

Steve was certain that's what made him so giddy. You'd liked him before he'd become King Steve, before the popularity made him interesting—and you liked him again, now that he'd changed and learned and grown up. Now that he'd learned to be himself without a care in the world for anyone else's opinion.

It was like redemption, but it felt so much better than that.

A sudden feeling overwhelmed Steve.

The next time he saw you, he needed to tell you how he felt about you. He needed to make it clear that Robin's slip-up had not ruined the slow banter, the friendship the two of you had been dancing around.

Resolved, his thoughts stopped spinning. He turned off the lamp on his nightstand and shut his eyes.

Please come back tomorrow, he thought, before falling into a gentle sleep, full of dreams of romanticized meetings, confessions, and kisses.

~❊~

You avoided Scoops for several days, choosing to tough out the warm weather in the overcrowded community pool until your mortification subsided. Robin had called repeatedly to assure you Steve wasn't weirded out or annoyed or embarrassed by your crush on him. In fact, she almost made it sound as if he was pleased by it.

But you still couldn't make yourself go to Scoops Ahoy. Even the mental image of walking in and seeing Steve's face twist with some kind of disgust made your stomach twist.

But a girl could only take so much of Billy Hargrove. So, after nearly a week, you drove to the mall instead of the pool. It still took you nearly ten minutes to force yourself out of your car.

You had thought seeing Steve and Robin in their sailor uniforms had been strange, but there was a far stranger sight directly ahead of you: Robin at the counter, staring in absolute confusion, and Steve jumping with joy at the sight of the small child in the front of the store.

"Henderson!" Steve's smile was huge. The sight made you smile, albeit a bit more confused. "Henderson! He's back, he's back!"

"I'm back! You got the job!"

"I got the job!"

And then, just when you thought this strange scene could not get any weirder, Steve mimed playing a trumpet and both he and the child did a strange miming handshake, giggling all the while.

Robin leaned forward. "How many children are you friends with?"

Steve's overjoyed smile slipped from his face. He gestured to Robin with a strained look on his face, as if he were signaling See what I have to deal with?

"You mean there's more children?" you asked, walking up to them with a shy smile, almost embarrassed to make your return. Your stomach dipped as Steve turned to you, but his smile was back.

"Hey, you're back!" Steve said. "I thought we'd never see you again!"

You shrugged. "Yeah, well, I got tired of Billy flirting with me."

"Max's brother?" the child asked.

You stared at him. "I don't know who that is. Or who you are, actually."

"Oh, I'm—"

"This is Dustin," Steve interrupted. "Dustin Henderson. He's, uh, he's one of my friends." He went behind the counter and started making an ice cream sundae.

You gave Dustin your name and offered him your hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

"How do you know Steve?" Dustin asked.

At the same time, both you and Steve pointed to Robin. She waggled her fingers at him.

"I'm going on break," Steve said, handing the sundae to Dustin. "Your turn to man the counter. Come on, Dustin, my treat!"

The two of them slipped into a booth. You leaned against the countertop with a heavy sigh.

"There's like...five or six of them," Robin said. "Kids, I mean. That he's friends with."

"Jesus," you muttered. "How old are these kids?"

"Like...thirteen, maybe?"

"Oh, boy."

Robin giggled. "Looks like you gotta share your man with children now."

You choked. "He's— He's not my man, Robin!" you hissed, your entire body burning. You glanced at Steve, but he was too engrossed in whatever story Dustin was telling him.

"But that's why you're here, isn't it?" Robin asked. "You came back because you're ready to talk to him again, knowing that you like him and he likes you."

You glanced over at Steve. While you observed him, Robin slipped out from behind the counter, quietly humming to herself as she worked.

"Yeah, I mean, sure," he was saying to Dustin. "It's not really a good idea for me though, gotta keep in shape for the ladies." Was it just your imagination, or did his eye stray over toward you?

"Yeah, and how's that working out for you?" Robin teased.

"Ignore her," Steve said quickly.

"She seems cool," Dustin said.

"She's not," Steve said, even quicker. "But, uh, the girl you just met? She's cool. She's really cool." A smile tugged at your lips. You pushed it away as you looked down at the floor, completely missing Steve's lovestruck glance toward you.

Dustin, however, missed nothing, and raised his eyebrows. "Oh, really, Steve?"

Steve cleared his throat. "Anyway. So, uh, where are the other knuckleheads?"

"They ditched me yesterday," Dustin said.

"No," Steve said, his face falling. Your heart squeezed at the sight of his empathy. The Steve from high school never would have cared about a kid whose friends had abandoned him, but this Steve did.

"My first day back! Can you believe that shit?"

"Whoa, seriously?!" Steve demanded, incredulous. Your heart warmed once again.

You turned back to Robin. "In answer to your earlier question," you said under your breath, "yes, that is exactly what I'm here to do."

She giggled. "I knew it! I knew it, I knew it, I knew it!" She paused. "Was Billy Hargrove really flirting with you?"

You nodded. "I guess he doesn't really care about high school social status, as long as he gets laid." You shuddered. "I've never felt more objectified in my life, and I pranced around on stage in fishnets and a bodysuit in front of the entire school last year during Chicago!"

"I'm still convinced that was our best show," Robin said.

"I'd like to know how we got the rights to it," you snorted.

"I'd like to know how we convinced Principal Higgins to let us perform it."

You snorted. "Yeah. Has anybody heard anything about next year's shows?"

"Nothing yet," Robin said.

You harrumphed, your gaze sliding back to Steve and Dustin and found them talking in hushed tones. Steve's face was fixed into an expression of embarrassed confusion.

"Oh, got customers, hang on," Robin said, and served them while you moved off to the side, watching Dustin speak behind his hand. Steve just blinked at him and told him to speak up.

"I intercepted a secret Russian communication!" Dustin said, far too loudly.

The entire store went quiet. You and Robin exchanged a glance.

"Jesus, shhhh!" Steve hissed. "Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said."

Business as normal resumed and Robin's customers headed for their own table.

You cleared your throat. "Well, I guess I should head out—"

"No, no, no, wait! What about Steve?"

"He's busy, Robs," you said, gesturing to him. Your stomach did flips at the cute, teasing little expression on his pretty face as you caught him saying American heroes. You weren't sure you wanted to know what mischief they were getting into. "I'll just...come back tomorrow."

Robin sighed. "Fine. As long as you let me play matchmaker!"

You rolled your eyes. "You've been doing that for the past, what, four years?"

"Yeah, but this time I might actually be successful!"

You shook your head with a smile. "Catch you later, Robin. Bye, Steve!" you added as you walked past.

Steve's head snapped up. He scrambled up from his seat at the booth. "Hey, wait, wait, where are you going?" He caught your arm and your eyes darted to his fingers on you. Every possible excuse was wiped from your head. "I thought you were gonna stay and...hang out for a little while."

You smiled apologetically. "Yeah, I was going to, but your friend just came back, so I figured I'd just come back another time. So you don't have to...divide your already divided attention, y'know?" You gestured back to the counter.

Though there was understanding in Steve's eyes, he still looked disappointed. "Oh...um... Would you—" He cleared his throat, his cheeks gaining a deep pink shade. "Would you maybe wanna hang out together—" He stopped again. "Would you wanna go on a date? With me? Sometime?"

You couldn't stop the smile that stretched across your face. "When?"

"Oh, you know, whenever you want? If you want to, I mean."

You stopped his rambling with a finger against his lips. His eyes widened. "I want to, Steve. I really, really want to. I always have."

He beamed. "Really?"

"Really," you promised. You patted his chest. "Even in this stupid little uniform."

He laughed. "What do you say to...two days from now? Meet me here at the end of my shift so Robin can make fun of us like always—" You laughed with him. "—and then we can go see a movie?" His thumb caressed the skin of your arm. That single touch alone sent butterflies through your stomach, not to mention the beautiful, sappy look in his eyes.

"I'd like that," you said. "I'd like that a lot."

"And, um, if you'd like, there's a little dinner about ten minutes from here with awesome milkshakes we could go to after."

You beamed. "Oh, Steve."

"Yeah?"

"You're absolutely perfect," you said to him, cupping his cheek and smoothing your fingers over his skin. He hummed happily. "Steve?"

"Hmm?"

"Can I... Do you... Can we kiss? I know it's soon, it's just... I've wanted this for a long time."

Steve beamed. He leaned in, cupping the back of your head and pulling you into him. His lips touched yours, and you swore your body crackled with electricity. A feeling similar to pins and needles, but far more pleasant, spread throughout you.

He made to pull away. You brought both your hands to his cheeks and held him to you, kissing him for all you were worth.

In the booth, Dustin's mouth dropped open. A grin spread across his face.

At the counter, Robin, who couldn't see the kiss but saw your hands slide into Steve's hair, pulled out her whiteboard and added a singular tally into the 'You Rule' column.

She glanced back at you and Steve. Steve had broken the kiss to tug you close to him, hugging you to his chest. You twisted your hand into his hair, smiling over his shoulder, your eyes closed against the rest of the world.

Robin grinned; she guessed the 'You Suck' tallies didn't matter anymore. Steve had found the one his charm worked on.

☞ ❊ ☜

Stranger Things // Steve Harrington

part 2 coming soon!

Taglist: {comment and let me know if you'd like to be added to the S.H. taglist!} @ohatropa@nix-rose@live-the-fangirl-life

511 notes · View notes

sunflowergirl522 · 2 years

Text

Pretty Boy

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Reader

Summary: Robin brings the boys to help move her cousin and you mistake Eddie for Steve at first.

Word Count: 1940

Eddie Masterlist

You’re Robin’s cousin and that means that you just have the best damn cousin anyone could ask for. She’s not just your cousin but also your best friend, the two of you have always been two peas in a pod. When either of you were visiting the other you were basically attached at the hip and you’d call each other almost every night and be on the phone until one of your parents told you to get off. So when your dad got offered a job a few states away he was worried how you would take it because you’d be so much farther away from her than just a thirty minute drive.

When he did tell you about the job offer your main worry was college. You knew you and Robin would still talk everyday but you were already enrolled in your current school and working towards your degree. You told him you could see if you could move to the dorms last minute but since he also went there he knew you wouldn’t be able to. So after a phone call to your mom's brother you were moving in with Robin and you couldn’t be happier.

Robin brings the boys with her to pick you up because Eddie’s van would come in handy in a way Steve’s BMW wouldn’t. And she really wanted you to meet Steve and vice versa. She’s told you all about pretty boy Steve Harrington and how he’s her best friend who isn’t related to her along with everything they’ve been through together. She was hoping to possibly play matchmaker because she’s tired of Steve pining after Nancy and you haven’t had a relationship since your ex broke your heart.

“Oh thank god!” Robin exclaims as they finally pull up in front of your house. “You know you two suck for road trips. Remind me to never do this again.” Eddie and Steve had basically been arguing about music the whole second half of the trip. “I mean seriously you couldn’t not be annoying with each other for a full thirty minutes.” Robin rushes out of the van and up to your front door as soon as Eddie opens the back doors for her. She basically vibrates with excitement as she makes it up the walkway. Her uncle opens the door shortly after she knocks.

“Hey Robin, Robin’s friends. Y/n’s up in her room finishing up packing if you wanna head up.”

“Thanks Uncle Jay. C’mon boys hurry up!”

“Robin!” You squeal and tackle her into a hug as soon as she opens your door.

“Hey there cuz.” She laughs as she returns the hug completely. “Are you ready to move in with your favorite person ever?”

“I can’t believe I get to live with you. I’m so excited to be able to hang out everyday. I’ve been packed for the last few days. Like I literally packed up everything but my bed stuff and some clothes three days ago and even then I’ve been slowly packing up my blankets and pillows. I slept with just one pillow and one of the couch blankets last night. But now everything is packed away and I’m ready to go.”

“Wow, she’s even got the Buckley ramble.” Steve’s voice brings your attention away from your cousin and to the two men standing in your doorway.

“Hi! I’m Y/n.” You walk up and offer your hand to Eddie. “You must be Steve. It’s great to finally meet you, Robins told me so much about you!”

“Apparently not enough darlin’. I’m Eddie, one of Robin’s newer friends.” And your face heats up at the mistake while Steve silently scoffs over someone thinking Eddie was him.

“So then you’re Steve?” You tilt your head as you look him up and down taking him all in. “I guess I see it.”

“See what?”

“Well I mean Robins always referring to you as Steve ‘the hair’ Harrinton or pretty boy Steve. And I get it, you’re pretty and all but honestly I think Eddie might just be the prettiest boy I’ve ever seen. So he’s so much prettier than you, and he has a lot more hair so I just figured he was Steve.” At this Robin lets out the laugh she’s been holding in while Eddie’s face goes red and a smile appears on his face. He’ll never let Steve live this down.

“Sorry Steve, did I mention she doesn’t really have a filter?” She’ll have to throw out the idea of playing matchmaker with you and Steve now with how Eddie’s looking at you like you just lit up his whole world with that statement. But maybe she could play it with you two. “Alright grab some boxes and let's go dinguses.”

“So you’re the metal head then right?” You ask Eddie as the two of you make your way out of the house boxes stacked in your hands.

“Yeah, I guess that’d be me. Did Robin say anything about me?”

“Umm,” You start to try to think about what she would’ve told you about Eddie.

“It’s alright if she didn’t, we really haven’t been friends for that long.”

“No, no she did tell me some stuff. You’re in a band right? Oh what was it called? I remember telling her it was really cool.”

“Corroded coffin.” He answers while putting his boxes in the back of his van before taking the ones out of your arms.

“Yes! Robin told me she’d take me to a show the next time I was in town and you guys were playing. Let’s see what else did she say? That you play dungeons and dragons and the last time there were issues in the upside down you almost died because of the demobats right?”

“You know about the upside down?”

“Of course I do. Robin tells me everything.”

“And you believed her?”

“She’s never lied to me before.” You shrug nonchalantly before walking away from the van to get more stuff from your room and to get out of Robin and Steve’s way when you see them getting closer.

“So what kind of music do you listen to?” Eddie asks as he catches up to you.

“A little bit of everything I guess. My parents have very different music tastes so I grew up with a lot of different things so it’s just what I like now. Currently I listen to a lot of Metallica, Queen, and Dolly Parton.” Eddie groans as you say her name.

“Oh come on you were doing so good!” When you started with Metallica he thought you were a woman after his heart but ending with a country artist could’ve ruined it.

“Oh god don’t tell me you’re one of those metal heads.” You huff and roll your eyes picking up another box.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. One of those pretentious I only listen to metal or rock and anything else is disgusting. And if you listen to the stuff they listen to but also something different you’re automatically not a real fan.”

“I listen to other things! I just don’t think country music deserves all the hype it gets.” He’s quick to defend himself.

“Oh yeah? What else do you listen to? And have you ever listened to Dolly before?”

“Okay, don’t tell Steve because the fucker will tease me if he knew, but I listen to a lot of Abba. Like an unhealthy amount. And no, I just know the genre she is.”

“Well she’s the best.” You shrug before nudging him with your shoulder. “And Abba fucking rocks. I own every single one of their albums twice, once on vinyl and once as a cassette.”

“What could they be talking about this enthusiastically?” Steve asks Robin as the two of them come out of the house with the last of your boxes.

“Who knows.” She shrugs. “Could be music or movies or comics. Now that I think about it they have a lot of the same interests. Maybe I should’ve been hyping Eddie up instead of you.”

“You were hyping me up?”

“Tried to be your wingman, play matchmaker a bit maybe. That’s out the window though, look at them.” Eddie’s sitting in the back of his van, legs dangling off the edge as he leans back and watches you pace and talk with your hands about something Steve and Robin can’t hear from where they’re stopped. You both have smiles on your faces and the two friends can just tell by the look on Eddie’s face that he’s already smitten. “I haven’t seen Y/n take to a man like this in a while, she’s friendly sure but this is something different. And Eddie’s well, Eddie. I wouldn’t be able to take it if her falling for someone else broke his heart and I constantly had to look into those big broken puppy dog eyes all the time.”

“Well then let’s go play matchmaker Buckley.” Steve starts heading towards the van again with purpose.

“What are you planning Steve?”

“Just sit back and let the master work his magic.” Eddie hops up as Steve gets to the two of you so they can get the rest of the boxes in.

“Is that it Y/n?”

“Yeah that’s it Robs, I had packed up the rest into my car last night.”

“Hopefully there’s room for three people in your car because I can’t handle any more metal or Eddie yelling at me when I ask to listen to something else. And Robin’s obviously going with you.”

“What? You’re gonna drag me all the way out here to drive home alone? No offense darlin’.”

“None taken. Guys that’s sort of a dick move don’t you think? Eddie shouldn’t have to drive with all my shit by himself.”

“Sorry man but I’m all Eddied out.” Steve jabs Robin with his elbow to tell her to say something about it.

“Sorry Eds I’d go with you but the weed smell is really bothering me.”

“It’s not even that strong.”

“Robin’s always had a sensitivity when it came to scents.”

“Y/n why don’t you go with Eddie? I can drive your car that way Robin and I get a break from the van and Eddie doesn’t drive alone.” Steves normally an idiot but Robin has to admit this is kind of genius.

“I’m fine with that. Eddie, you good if I go with you?”

“I’m fine with that.”

“Okay cool. Let me go say bye and grab my keys and we can go.” You head inside and spend a solid twenty minutes saying goodbye to your parents and promising to come visit before they leave in a week and then to call them as much as possible after that. On your way out you yell a bye one more time while grabbing your keys from the holder and excitedly hurry to the trio waiting at the van. You toss your keys Steve’s way before climbing into the passenger seat. “Hurry up pretty boy I wanna get unpacked!” You yell out the window causing Eddie to blush and smirk Steve’s way as he passes him.

“You hear that Steve, I'm the pretty boy now.”

“God I’m starting to regret this already.” Steve says as he and Robin climb into your car. “He’s so damn smug.” Robin laughs at him while watching Eddie get into the driver's seat before looking over to find you shoving a tape into his stereo.

“If it helps Steve I think he’s starting to too. How much do you wanna bet he comes out of this drive liking Dolly Parton?”

Eddie Taglist: @starbxcks @phluffybunny-blog @sadbitchfangirl @notbeforelong @kenzi-woycehoski @celestialsxturn @daisyellsong @urmomashleyyy @ofherscarlettwitchways @munsonswhore86 @katsukis1wife @violet-19999 @navs-bhat @that-chick212 @dixontardis @bubsonnobx @ruinedbythehobbit @pikapickabitch @emotionaldreamer @kodakoalabear @chaoticevilbakugo @thatsamegirl @fromasgardandback @lupinpetersclearwaterodairparker @fangirl199812 @greenclues @isshecrazyorissheclever @rockchickrebel

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson #eddie stranger things #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x y/n #eddie munson oneshot #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fanfic #eddie munson fanfiction #eddie munson fic #eddie munson stranger things

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canonicallyobserving911 · 2 months

Text

Buck & Eddie: Magic & Chemistry

The MAGIC & CHEMISTRY Eddie said he was looking for in 6x17, he already has it with Buck, therefore his current relationship status with M is UNDETERMINED!

In 6x17, Eddie spent a lot of time trying to find someone to date and all he ended up with was a dog bite on his hand. He told the team he wants what he had when he met Shannon which was “magic”, according to him and when Chimney questioned his belief in it, Eddie said he believes in “chemistry”.

Well, he already has both of those things with Buck. Buck said Eddie sucks at dating but the truth is, he doesn’t when he dates Buck since he had a successful poker date with him in 6x13 (related post linked here).

Their conversation inside of the fire engine continued with Buck questioning Eddie about the age he was when him and Shannon started dating. He asked, "Weren’t you guys like in the 12th grade when you met?" and Eddie explained they met when they were in 8th grade but they lost touch then reconnected in the 12th. Everything they said pointed to the fact that Eddie’s looking for something he had in high school but no one, not even Bobby explained he won’t be able to recreate something he had when he was a child especially since the things he once liked may have changed. Even though his found family didn’t explain it to him, the suit he wore in 6x13 and the shirt he wore in 6x18 explained it perfectly and they also alluded to the way his current relationship status with “M” is UNDETERMINED. Before 7x1 aired, RG (the actor who plays Eddie) said in an interview “Eddie’s trying to find out who M is” but based on Eddie’s actions with Buck in the episode, it seems like he already knows👀.

Full disclosure: While live watching 6x18 last season, I literally changed the channel before the episode ended when I saw how the show was once again shoehorning more one-dimensional love interests in for both Buck and Eddie. I didn’t rewatch the episode and I won’t because 6x13 was the finale for me but I had to access it so I could make GIFs for some other posts during the hiatus and when I did, I noticed Eddie’s shirt was navy-blue (this is the Buckley-Diaz Family color related post linked here) while he was talking on the phone to M and I got even more pissed off since it seemed like the show was trying to force the narrative by having Eddie build a family with her. However, after reading RG’s interviews before 7x1 aired, then watching the episode and seeing how everything happened with Chris and his 3 parents, i.e., Eddie, Shannon and Buck (post linked here) and carefully listening to Buck and Eddie’s locker room conversation and M’s ONE LINE, I believe I’ve been able to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. Doing so helped me to notice that TM (showrunner) included all the necessary pieces to show that Eddie’s relationship status with M, at the moment, is UNDETERMINED.

Also, to illustrate how I came to this conclusion, I have to give credit where it’s due because I didn’t learn about how plaid clothing works in TV and movie wardrobes until I watched an analysis video for the movie “Clueless” (not only is it one of my favorite movies, it’s also one of the most fashionable movies in history). I watched it during the hiatus because there was nothing on TV and I listened as the creator explained how plaid is a pattern wardrobe stylists use to depict “High School” because it usually reminds people of Catholic school uniforms.

Why is the fact that Eddie wore a plaid suit jacket in 6x13 and a plaid shirt in 6x17 important?

It's important because it explains how he was feeling about dating at those specific points in time. Both his jacket in 6x13 and his shirt in 6x18 were plaid but there’s a major difference between them.

In 6x13, his jacket was part of a full suit and it represented how he’s an adult man with mature tastes. Reminder, he wasn’t nervous at all while he was with Buck and he was the one who had to tell Buck to “Relax”. They were on a DATE which further proves he’s already found the MAGIC & CHEMISTRY he so desperately wants and craves and has been trying to recreate with all those excursions he took when he went to play golf and hike. After 6x14 – 6x18 aired, I wondered why 6x13 aired when it did and I believe it has something to do with the way Eddie views what he’s looking for since he already has it.

But in 6x17, he wore a plaid shirt because it represented the “high school” mentality he had when he was 14 and 18 years old when he dated Shannon. While it appears they were trying to show Eddie doing something for himself with him asking M out on a date, I think someone (*cough* Bobby *cough*) should have explained to Eddie that he was looking for something he had when he was young and it might not exist anymore in the way he remembers it. He could have told him that when they were at the hardware store so Eddie would have REALIZED how he might want something different now that he’s in his 30s and he has a son. Let’s be real here because sometimes things a person wanted when they were in middle and high school are no longer relevant.

To be clear, I didn’t like the way that scene played out and I also didn’t like how they had Eddie acting when he called M. I’ve posted many times about how much I despised the way he was being portrayed as a “giggly teenager” in 6x18 and I still roll my eyes at it because it was not quintessentially Eddie.

Eddie’s always been sexy, suave, debonaire and cool under pressure especially when he’s with Buck. He was also very suave while he was on the blind date with Vanessa in 6x14, so IMO, the show was contradicting itself when it showed Eddie be self-assured on his date with Buck in 6x13 and confident enough to tell Vanessa he wasn’t ready in 6x14 (even though he didn’t get the chance) only to show Eddie acting OOC in 6x18 when he asked M out on a date.

Even though, during their phone call, Eddie was acting like an awkward teenager, after watching 7x1, I realized M was and is doing the same thing Eddie did in 6x18 except hers was cringey and difficult to watch. It’s kind of like before Eddie asked her out, she hadn’t been on a date before which is why she doesn’t know how to act.

In 7x1, she only had 5 or 6 seconds of on-screen time and she had only one line (more on this below) but she was acting just as “giggly” as Eddie had been when he asked her on a date in 6x18 and that shot of them standing together made them look like they were friends who were trying to see if there could be something more.

(Side note: M WASN'T SHOWN SITTING ON EDDIE’S COUCH but Chris’ date Penny was while they were playing video games.)

It appears the show was trying to illustrate how Eddie was trying to recreate the magic and chemistry he had when he was 14 years old again but we should all remember Eddie never had the chance to date in high school. Reminder, his father told him to be the man of the house when he was 10 years old, he got yelled at when he was 12 for setting off the smoke alarm while he was trying to make eggs for the girls, he met Shannon at 14 and they lost touch but reconnected at 18 which was his senior year in high school.

Also, he admitted in 6x16 that after she found out she was pregnant, he suggested they get married and in 7x1, Buck reminded him that she was the first woman he ever had sex with.

In addition to the shirt Eddie was wearing in 6x18, M’s shirt was GRAY (related post linked here) and that’s important because she’s unsure of her role in Eddie’s life which is GREAT because they only agreed to go on a date. Reminder, in 6x14, Eddie told Pepa he couldn't get married which he automatically equated to dating so that speaks volumes too. But also, the shirt she wore in 7x1 was hot pink and the color screamed young, immature and high school. Reminder, in 6x5 when Eddie first saw her and when he saw her again in 6x17, her hair was curly and she wore it in a ponytail. She looked young but it’s evident they straightened her hair in 7x1 and now she just looks like a more matured version of a teenager but still a high schooler, nonetheless.

Back to the regularly scheduled program…

Eddie wants to find what he had with Shannon again but he’s obviously looking through a pair of rose-colored glasses since their relationship was TOXIC AF. All they did was argue and have sex but they didn’t know how to communicate and that could probably be contributed to how young they were when they were together. Also, it appears neither of them had the best example of how a relationship was supposed to work since Ramon was hardly ever home and Eddie spent most of his time with controlling and overbearing Helena 🙄 (I’ll be so glad when he realizes his mother was a huge problem because I’ll never forget her comment, “Don’t drag him down with you Eddie”. I mean who says that to their child?). Also, IIRC, only Shannon’s mother was shown in Eddie’s flashbacks while he was in the well that showed Chris being born in 3x15.

Furthermore, Eddie’s reaction to Ana in 4x6 when he saw her again was like some kind of fairy tale with a princess (Cinderella or Snow White) being pursued by a prince charming while he was on bended knee which could mean that’s the way he thought it was supposed to happen. Buck did the same thing with Natalia in 6x15 and even though he didn’t get down on one knee, he did treat her injured hand the same way Eddie treated Ana’s so there’s that.

Before proceeding, please remember 9-1-1 is very intentional with the words they include in their scripts so everything that's said by the characters likely means something.

Is Eddie doing it for Christopher or for himself?

Let’s find out shall we…

Both Shannon and Ana were focused on the fact that Eddie’s a good and great dad (Shannon’s words) and/or an amazing father (Ana’s words) and so far, M’s comment in 7x1 was focused solely on Chris and not Eddie but I believe it was done on purpose.

In 2x17, Shannon said, “You’re a good dad… you’re a great dad” after Eddie suggested they reconcile so they could be a family again. But she announced she wasn’t pregnant and that it changed things for her even though he said it didn’t for him. She went on to say that she wouldn’t do it again before she was ready because she was still learning how to be “someone’s mother” (not Chris’ mother but someone’s) and maybe someday she would learn how to be “someone’s wife” (not Eddie’s wife but someone’s) then she suggested they get a divorce. Did she love Chris? Yes! And she wrote him a letter but she also included that she would love him from a distance because she didn’t think she was one of the things he needed in his life.

During their conversation, Eddie pointed to Chris and he used him as a shield for his heart the same way he always has. He said, “Being his father taught me more about being a man than war ever did” and reminder, he was looking for a sign to be with her again and he thought her being pregnant was it but she wasn’t.

In 5x3, during their breakup, Ana said, “You’re an amazing father” but here’s another quick reminder, Eddie pointed to Chris instead of himself when he said, “Chris loves you so much”.

He never said he loved her and his response was reminiscent of the conversation he had with Shannon especially since Eddie was looking for someone for Chris instead of for himself. Before the blackout, the audience didn’t see how Ana ended up taking care of Chris but Eddie told Buck that she was a Godsend for taking care of him while he was working. So the question is, did she volunteer to do it like M offered to chaperone Chris’ date in 7x1? Reminder, Carla was back and she helped Buck take care of Chris after Eddie was shot in 4x14 so why was Ana there during the blackout instead of Chris’ home healthcare aide? It’s obvious she still had her apartment and we know this because when Eddie went home, he told her “Maybe you should go home first!”

When Buck told Eddie to breakup with Ana, before he suggested it, Eddie was planning to “stick it out” but when Buck questioned him about it, he responded, “My kid loves her” and Buck asked, “Is that enough?” (I always thought Buck was asking for himself and I think I might have been right.) It was a valid question because earlier in the day, Eddie told the team that Buck takes Chris to the zoo all the time and that he had the whole place memorized. Therefore, it appears the GA was the target for their comments then too since Ana was staying with Chris but no one ever said she did anything other than take care of him during the blackout. Eddie never mentioned her taking Chris to the zoo and she used to be his school teacher so there’s that.

In 7x1, M said, “Your son has game” 🧐 and that was it. That was her one line in the entire 5.689 seconds she was on screen and her comment pointed directly at Chris. IMO, she said it to remind the audience how Eddie has to be with someone who wants to be there for both him and Chris and there’s only one person who fits that description and it’s Buck. Also, she didn’t address Chris by his name and Eddie’s response to her was “Yeah, he has video game”.

Reminder, who exactly has Eddie played video games with and there was sexual tension beforehand? BUCK! And don’t forget, he asked Eddie, “You want to go for the title?”

Also, Buck has ALWAYS focused on Eddie and Chris. Eddie and Buck discussed Chris’s skateboarding in 3x12, his two weeks at summer camp in 3x18, him running away to Buck’s loft in 4x8, Chris’ nightmares in 5x10 along with Chris’ homework in 5x14 and 6x13. These are just a handful of the conversations they’ve had about their son.

Also, in 2x4, Buck told Maddie, “He’s a really great dad” but it’s important to note that Buck’s attention was on helping both Eddie and Chris. He was trying to figure out how to help Eddie so Eddie could get the care he needed for Chris.

Buck’s different from the women Eddie was married to, dated or he’s currently trying to determine what they are because it’s not just Eddie since he has a son which means whoever he dates has to be aware of that fact and they have to be there for both Eddie and Chris. The truth is Chris has viewed Buck to be one of his parents for years (related post linked here).

In 5x17, Ramon asked Eddie if he was working to be better “For Christopher?” but Eddie responded with a head shake of no, then replied, “For myself!” (related post linked here). It appears Eddie’s finally trying to do something for himself but whatever he ends up doing it also has to include Chris. Please don’t misunderstand me because I understand Eddie already knows this but the magic and chemistry he’s trying to recreate is obsolete since he was a literal teenager when he experienced it. He’s a grown man now and the things he wants for himself are different. He was the one who said he was 14 when he met Shannon and 18 when they reconnected but it appears the realization hasn’t registered for him yet. He’s looking for a feeling he had when he was a child but it’s not the same thing as looking for something as an adult.

Shannon’s own admission in 2x17 illustrated how she didn’t want to be there for them since she wanted to leave. Ana’s own admission illustrated how she was waiting for Eddie to love her too but she was willing to be a stepmom to Chris while she waited. It’s still too early to tell what M is going to admit (if anything at all and hopefully she’ll be gone soon so it won’t matter) but based on the way Eddie responded to seeing the picture of Chris and Shannon being face down on his desk and then seeing it face up again after Chris read Shannon’s letter in 7x1, it appears he’ll be making a decision about M really soon because he’s not going to get involved with anyone else he’s not planning to have a future with because if he does and they leave, it will prove Chris’ ideology about women always leaving. Reminder, in 4x8, Buck told Chris “I’m not going anywhere” and he hasn’t.

Buck

Make no mistake, Eddie already has MAGIC, CHEMISTRY, SEXUAL TENSION and everything else with Buck. But the question is, does he know it? I think he does especially since he nodded his head during the kitchen scene like he was down for whatever Buck was offering and I think they may have done more than play video games that night (related post linked here).

In 7x1, Eddie’s face after Buck said he broke up with Natalia was priceless. It kind of looked like he’d been waiting for it to happen and his facial expression was one of pure unadulterated smugness filled with both joy and glee. It looked like he wanted to say, “Ahh $hit, finally I can get my boyfriend back.”

Reminder, EDDIE NEVER SAID HE’S DATING M! Therefore, I don’t believe Eddie and M are dating and if they are, I don’t think it’s serious. During their conversation in the locker room, Buck assumed he was and he was the one who said it but Eddie didn’t respond except for to suggest Buck take Natalia with him for go karting.

Here’s their conversation in text.

Buck: “Uh hey so do you have any plans for the weekend? I was thinking about go karting, there’s a place out in the desert… supposed to be a blast.”

Eddie: “Can’t this weekend. I got a big date. First date.”

Buck: “Uh, I thought everything was going great with Marisol.”

Eddie: “It’s not my date, it’s Christopher’s.”

Buck: “Oh no.”

Eddie: “He invited this girl from his math class, Penny over on Saturday and Marisol agreed to help me chaperone.”

Buck: “I see so it’s actually your date.”

Eddie: 👀 (no response to Buck’s comment and he didn’t say they were dating) “Why don’t you invite Natalia go karting, I’m sure she’d love it.”

Buck: “We uh… we broke up.”

Eddie: 🤪😜🙃😁😊💕

Eddie did not respond to Buck’s comment about it actually being Eddie’s date and Eddie was so slick with his non response that Buck fell right into it and revealed they broke up. Reminder, Eddie didn’t ask Buck to talk to Chris until AFTER Buck admitted he was single. Additionally, Eddie called Buck a “reformed player” which means Buck’s told him he’s no longer Buck 1.0, 2.0 or 3.0 or whatever upgrade of himself he’s up to now. Furthermore, Eddie said M agreed to chaperone Chris’ first date, therefore he didn’t ask her to do it. Buck also said he thought things were going great with M and it was very reminiscent of the way he said he thought things were going great with Ana in 5x2.

The look on Eddie’s face illustrated how he was waiting for Buck to end his relationship with Natalia and now that he has, Eddie might remember the words he told Chimney in 3x13, “Tomorrow is not promised” and he may finally tell Buck that he loves him. But also, don’t forget, Eddie was hurt by that “SHE SEES ME” 🙄 raggedy @ss comment Buck made in 6x15 and I still hope it’ll resurface before they confess their love because that cut him deep, especially since Eddie’s always SEEN him and he still does.

The point of this post is that it's evident Eddie’s been hanging out with M but based on the words he used during his conversation with Buck and RG’s comments during his interviews about Eddie, it appears they’re in an undetermined status of a friendship, relationship or whatever. After reading RG’s interviews, based solely on the things he said in them, I reexamined Eddie’s idea of M and I posted that he didn’t believe things would get too serious with her (related post linked here) and it appears I may have been correct. Since Buck was being SEEN by someone he had just met, it seems Eddie went looking for a friend to hang out and have fun with and Pepa’s response to him in 6x14 about him spending time on Saturdays having a Cafecito along with going antiquing (not too sure about that one but ok) adds further credence to whatever he has with M because he’s supposed to be having fun and I think that’s what they’re doing. RG said Eddie’s instincts have always been to enter a monogamous relationship but right now he’s taking calculated steps. Also, he questioned if Chris is happy for Eddie to be dating M or if he’s actually ok with it. So apparently, the audience will have to wait and see where it goes.

IMO, M is there to point the GA towards Buck’s importance in Eddie’s and Chris’ lives. How will she do that? When the GA sees her, they should ask themselves, why Eddie goes to Buck for coparenting help instead of to the woman he’s dating/hanging out with. It should also cause them to take a closer look at his friendship with her and figure out, "Oh, it’s not serious because if it was, he would ask her for assistance".

Will Eddie end whatever he’s doing with M before 7x5 airs? HOPEFULLY, he will because he already has magic and chemistry with Buck but only the showrunner, writers and producers know the answer to that question.

#buddie #eddie diaz #evan buckley #christopher diaz #the buckley diaz family #buckley diaz family #911 abc #911 on abc #911 season 7 #911 season 7 speculation #911 meta #911 spoilers #911 speculation #anti eddiemarisol #anti marisol

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theladybarnes · 6 months

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CRIMSON AND CLOVER: CHAPTER THREE

" You know, you're not what I thought you'd be like ”

▸ summary: winter ends and so do relationships ▸ characters: robin buckley, eddie munson, & steve harrington 💕 (ft. dustin henderson and jonathan byers) ▸ word count: 13.7k ▸ warnings: SEMI-SMUT (18+MINORS DNI) handjob, & angst ▸ series masterlist

DECEMBER (CONTINUED..)

“You’re kidding me.”

“I am not, Jonathan!” you hissed, looking down the hall. When there was no sign of anyone else coming out of their rooms, you continued on. “I just..left.”

“But why would you just..that doesn’t make sense! Tell me from the beginning again.”

Sighing, you sat down in the chair by the kitchen phone. It had been over an hour now of venting to Jonathan and because he’s currently hopped-up on whatever his friend Argyle supplied him, it’s taking longer to explain everything to him.

“Fine, but this is the last time.”

“Last time, promise.”

You go over the events that happened at the end of the night you spent at Steve’s. It was a bit painful to explain it in detail again but you really needed some advice from your friend. “..And when I looked back, he was standing there. Note in hand and everything.”

“Christ.” he sighed, “And since then you two haven’t talked?”

“I called him when I got home that afternoon. Other than that we’ve been thankfully busy. Mostly just school and then work. But I’ve switched with Keith a couple of times to avoid the long hours.”

“You really know how to put on the theatrics, don’t you?”

“Seriously?” you gaped, looking at the receiver as if it insulted you and not your friend on the other line. “I’m doing anything for theatrics. I’m literally trying to get out of possibly another fight.”

“Yeah, which surely won’t happen the next time you see each other again.”

“I’m sort of hoping it'll resolve itself by then.” he went silent for a moment and you knew that he was possibly coming to his own thoughts on it. “Don’t you think?”

“I’m thinking you’re not gonna like what I have to say.”

“I’m sure I can handle it. Just give it to me.”

He sighed softly, seeming to be more nervous at your request. But he spoke up either way. “I think you’re in the wrong for asking that much from Steve.”

“..you’re right. I’m hanging up.”

“Would you let me finish?” Jonathan chuckled before he turned serious again. “I get where you’re coming from. I know that in your head it’s just logical for the guy with no official ties there to just leave and go with you.”

“Good, you get it.”

“But,” he continued on. “I also think it’s wrong for you to assume it'd be easy. Steve Harrington has lived in Hawkins his whole life and despite any complaining he might have done to you at some point, a small part of him is gonna be scared shitless to just leave the comforts of home.”

You frowned at your friend’s words. Hating that a small part of you felt like what you were hearing was right. “But I left home. I haven’t lived there in almost three years..”

“And I’m sure if your parents asked you to come back you’d tell them no, right?”

“I—“ the answer died on your tongue. At this point you weren’t sure what you’d actually say to a question like that. While Hawkins the place wasn’t your home, the people that inhabited it were. And you didn’t think you could give up any one of them. Especially Steve.

“I know it sucks not to have things go your way. But sometimes you gotta take the curveballs life throws at you and do something else.”

“Something else?” you frowned. “But..what about the relationship? The feelings we worked on getting out..all that was just for nothing? All because we let fear get in the way of progressing it?”

Jonathan sighed and you can practically envision him with his hand on his hips right now. “Who says you guys are supposed to progress together? What if there’s changes along the way?..Look this is definitely something you should talk to Steve about. But, if this were me in the situation. I’d just do what my heart thinks is right. Even if it’s to the disappointment of others. Just do what makes you happy, you know?”

The thought about what makes you happy was easy to answer. It was Steve. He was the only thing these days that made you the most happy. But Jonathan was right, if you truly went with what you wanted, some people along the way might get hurt.

“Henderson? You still there?”

“I’m here I’m just..” you sighed. You were about to ask about his thoughts on taking a gap year when the sound of a car engine cut you off. Dragging the phone and long cord with you, you peeked through the window to see Steve parking in your driveway. “Shit.” you whispered. “Can I call you back later?”

“What? Why? Is Steve there?”

“Yes,” you muttered, looking as he seemed to be talking to himself in the car. “I think he must have heard you lecturing me.”

“Good. The two of you need to seriously sort your shit out. Anyway, Argyle is gonna come over tonight. He has this new album he wants to show me.”

“Fine, I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“All right, sounds good. And look..just hear him out. Maybe he’s going through something we don’t know about, okay?”

The two of you muttered out a quick goodbye before dropping the phone back down. Grabbing your thick coat off the coat rack, you quickly made your way out the door. Closing it up behind you with a swift thud as Steve had just made his way out of his car.

“Oh, hey.” he said nervously. “Guess you heard me coming in.”

“Yeah.” you said plainly. “I was by the door anyway..”

The two of you slowly moved towards each other. His usually confident demeanor faltered as he approached. His eyes, usually warm when looking at you, had a dull shine. Snow crunched beneath your boots as you both met in the middle of the driveway. It made your stomach twist to know that the two of you were not only nervous but awkward with each other. Even when you hated Steve you never felt this bad.

“I missed you.” He said softly, reaching a hand out to place on your arm. “I missed you all week actually.”

“I missed you too.” you said softly, not even realizing that amidst the trouble, there was the need to see him again until he was before you now. Your eyes caught sight of a little patch of green peeking out from his shirt. Reaching forward you pull down his coat to expose the familiar tacky vest from work. “You came from work..”

He chuckled a bit, nodding his head before he unzipped his coat, exposing the rest of the vest to you.“Yeah, I did. Would have come sooner, but I was sort of building up the courage.”

That tugged at your heart a bit and you reached out to cup at his cheek. Rubbing with your thumb soothingly. “You should never be afraid to talk to me..”

He reached up to place his hand on top of yours, a small smile on his face. “Never. I’ll always want to talk to you..it was getting you to talk to me that made me nervous.”

Sighing, you look down to the ground. Not sure how the two of you were going to approach this. But things couldn’t continue this way. Turning your attention back to Steve, you give him what you hope came off as reassurance. “I’m listening..”

Changing your hand to lace together, he led you over so that the two of you could lean against your Aunt’s car. Shading you under the roof of the parking spot and also placing you closer to his side.

“I have a small confession.” he murmured, moving his other free hand into his pocket. “I did come with other intentions than just talking.”

You watched as he dug out a small box from his pocket. The size was oddly too familiar with something else but he quickly opened it up before you could question it. Peering down, you looked inside to find a beautiful gold necklace.

“Steve,” you softly gasped. “It’s not even Christmas yet.”

“Humor me.” he said before reaching in. He pulled at the chain until he was able to dangle the center of the necklace to you. A small letter ‘S’ shined back at you. Nudging at your shoulders, he gently turned you around so that he could place the necklace around your neck, quickly locking it on.

Turning back to face him, the two of you glanced down at the accessory. It was a perfect fit. And though you’ve never been one to have your boyfriend’s name be proudly displayed for others to see, the small little S made your heart beat faster.

“I've, uh, wanted to give that to you for some time now.” he said, clearing his throat. Almost nervously. “That box has been sitting in my sock drawer since the summer, honestly.”

“The summer?” you asked, “Why?”

“Remember that night before we were stuck in the elevator?”

You couldn’t help but smile a bit at the memory. It was the night that cemented your feelings for Steve. “Yeah,” you nodded. “There was that mess on the roof, then I got upset and you came over to cheer me up..it was perfect.”

Steve smiled at that, nodding his head in agreement.

“That night changed everything for me.” He reached up to cup the side of your face, eyes boring down to yours when he suddenly turned serious. “I wanted to tell you I loved you a thousand times that night. But seeing as we weren’t there yet, I settled for trying to make a grand gesture sort of thing.”

“You’ve loved me since that night?”

“I’ve loved you since Prom, Honey.”

Your jaw slacked at the small confession. Unsure how you could have missed at all that Steve’s feelings for you had been that serious then. Prom had been the first time in months since the two of you kissed and he felt that strongly then?

His hand reached out to hold the necklace, brushing his fingers lightly over the letter before he let go. “I got this the next day. Right in Starcourt.” he said, voice tinged with some sort of fondness. “Was gonna give it to you right when you entered the store, but then..”

“I came from Billy’s attack.” you finished, reaching up to hold onto the necklace. “You wanted to give me this since then?”

“I wanted to give it to you as a way to ask you to be my girl,” he looked down at the ground sadly. “But I guess now I’m giving it to you, to ask if you’re still my girl?”

You breath hitched at his words. It would seem leaving didn’t just prevent a fight from happening, but also put in a whole new worry for Steve. “I’m always gonna be your girl, Steve.” you said softly, reaching over to grab hold of his hand.

“Then why does it feel like I’m about to lose you?”

“You don’t have to lose me, Steve.” You sighed, letting go to lean back against the car. “In fact, I think me asking you to come with me proved otherwise.”

He straightened his composer, lips pursing at your words before he glanced up at you. “I told you, I can’t go with you. Not when I feel like I still need to be here.”

“I don’t get it, Steve.” You scoffed, pushing your hair away from your face. “How can you easily give me this necklace, talk about loving me for so long only to let me leave without even thinking about coming with me.”

“I can love you and know where I want to go, Trouble. It’s pretty easy to do both things.” He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. “What I don't get is how you can love me back but be upset that I want to stay here. Why is long distance out of the question?”

“Because long distance isn’t feasible for us, Steve!” You moved to stand before him, peering up at his face better. “How can you and I, the same two people who sneak into each other’s houses in the dead of the night, the very people who are constantly touching each other, suddenly just deal with the next four years without seeing each other.”

“We’d see each other,” he pointed. “We’d have holidays, birthdays, and surprises. There’s ways we’d work things out.”

You sighed, meeting his intense gaze. "Those are only if we even get the chance to see each other. You’re forgetting that there are going to be nights where the both of us are tired from either work or school and we wouldn’t even have the comfort of having each other.”

He shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "I know but Hawkins is... it's my home. There's something here I can't just walk away from."

“But you’re willing to walk away from us? From me?” you asked, trying to keep your voice steady from the sudden ache in your throat. “I thought we were a team. I thought we'd want the same things..”

He paced back and forth, unable to meet your gaze as he suddenly became torn. "My friends are here, my family is here.”

"Why do you insist on staying stuck in Hawkins? You have so much potential, Steve. You could go anywhere, do anything, but you're choosing not to."

The word slipped out before you could see the impact cut across Steve’s hurt face. It was the same word that Tommy had used just the other month and from Steve’s furrowed brows, you could tell it struck a nerve again.

"I'm not stuck, okay?” He gritted. “This is where I belong right now. I've got responsibilities here."

"Responsibilities? What about your own dreams, Steve? What about your future?" you pressed again, exasperated at the fact that almost a week later and he still wasn’t seeing it.

"I've got people here who rely on me here, despite what you want or think." he countered, a hint of defensiveness in his voice.

"But what about you? Have you ever thought about what you want?" you shot back, feeling the weight of the disagreement hit again.

He hesitated for a moment, eyes cast down on the ground before he could meet your gaze again. "Maybe I've never really thought about all of it. But I can't just up and leave everything behind.”

"It's not about leaving everything behind, Steve. It's about growing, exploring, finding your own path,"

There was a life for Steve outside of Hawkins. Outside of you, and though your main point was to have him explore that life with you, it was hurting to see that he didn’t want that for himself.

“Look, I know it’s new for me to not agree to what you want, but this isn’t by choice. Even when I was with Nancy, I told her the same thing. I’d stick around, make sure she was okay and work here. I wanna do that for everyone.”

Bringing up Nancy brought up a sour feeling that you shoved down. Knowing that in some way, this was Steve’s poor excuse. “I’m not Nancy Wheeler. Okay? I’m not gonna sit back and let the boy I love waste potential in a place that doesn’t deserve him.” you glared. “And in case you can’t tell, the others are all grown up now. They’re in high school, Robin is following up right after me in graduating. What happens when they’re all gone, Steve? Is that the time you figure out you wanna be with me?”

Steve circled back towards you, finger pointing over at you. “That’s not fair for you to say. You know I want you, God, it’s literally the one thing that’s been consistent since I met you. Why can’t you understand that me being here doesn’t mean I’m not with any plans of my own, huh? Why is it automatically your way or nothing?”

Tears welled up in your eyes the longer you stared at Steve. “Then tell me!” you cried out. Frustrated that you pushed him into thinking things had to go your way. “Tell me what it is you want! Because as far as I know it just sounds like excuses to not be with me!”

“I thought I made that clear a while ago. I want you, dammit!” he yelled, moving to gently place his hands on your shoulders. “Please, can we just pause this? I need some time to figure this out. Can we... can we take a break from this?"

You held your breath. Not quite ready to have Steve be so suddenly upset from all this. You couldn’t help but think back to what Jonathan warned you about. Steve wasn’t ready to leave this place. Even if you didn’t understand, it didn’t change how he felt. No matter how much you wished it would.

“What’s gonna change in the next six months, Steve? We fall even harder for each other and break up then? When are we finally gonna stop going in circles over this and realize we’re on different paths?”

“Different paths?” he asked softly, confusion over his face.

“Yeah,” you sniffled. “Different paths..”

His jaw slacked a bit and you tried to keep your composure tough but the realization is hitting harder than you thought it would. Before you know it, your vision of Steve is suddenly blurred by your tears and you’re swaying in place to keep from running back in the house to burst into a sob.

“Honey..”

“I think we want different things, Steve. I want to explore, grow, and I thought we'd do that together. But if you can't leave Hawkins..then I need to understand that I can't ask you to." Wiping at your eyes, your sight cleared up to catch his expression mirrored the same anguish you felt inside.“I never meant to push this choice onto you. Not when you weren’t ready. I want you to want things with me. But if you aren’t ready then I need to let you go..”

“Please,” he pleaded, “I love you.”

"I love you too," you whispered, ignoring the ice that was gripping onto your heart at the moment. "But if we keep this same argument months later..who knows what might happen. We might even grow to hate each other..”

He reached for your hand, desperation in his eyes as he pulled you closer. "We can work this out. We've been through so much worse than this."

"I know, but this is different," you said softly, pulling your hand away gently. "I feel like we both need to figure ourselves out.”

"I don't want to lose you," he pleaded, voice cracking.

"I don't want to lose you either," you admitted, tears streaming down your cheeks. "But I need to move forward. And I don’t think I can do that when I know there’s going to be pain in the future.”

He looked broken as he watched you take a step back. Hand twitching out to you before he brought it down to his side. "What... what do you want me to do?"

The words felt like knives, but they needed to be said. "I need you to let me go too, Steve..”

His eyes glistened with unshed tears, his silence speaking volumes. "So this is it?" he finally whispered. “After everything we’re just..over?”

“Please, Steve.” you pleaded softly. “Let me go too.”

his hand reached up to cup your cheek, his gaze searching into yours. "This is what you really want?" You nodded, feeling a lump form in your throat.

"Yes."

His lips met yours in a tender, bittersweet kiss, filled with all the love, and heartache that lingered between the two of you. It was a goodbye in itself, a lingering moment that you wished would go on for an eternity.

When you pulled back, you carefully reached up to return the necklace, feeling like you were the person least deserving to wear his sign of love. But Steve quickly reached out to stop your hands. Shaking his head as he carefully readjusted it on you.

“I’m– it’s yours. Regardless if we break up or not.”

Tears welled up in your eyes as you clutched the necklace tightly. "Steve..."

"Please," he insisted softly. "You wanted me to make some decisions for myself? You keeping that is one of them.”

With a heavy heart, you watched as Steve stepped away from you. Hand reaching up to pinch at the side of his nose as he tried to conceal his emotions from coming through. It took everything in you to let him return back to his car.

You thought back to what Jonathan had said about doing what your heart thought was right. Even if it was to the disappointment of others.

Little did you know it’d be you who was disappointed in the end.

JANUARY (THREE WEEKS LATER)

It had been a long dead night over at Family Video. The soft radio playing from the speakers was the only noise between you and Robin for the past hour. Something you were a little grateful for considering the awkwardness that came in when you first clocked in for your night shift.

It was three weeks since that night in the driveway and things within your small group of friends had turned painfully stagnant. Whether it be from your three week reclusive approach, or Steve’s avoiding one. No one knew how to handle the break up. Hell, neither one of you would so why would your friends be able to?

But along with the sadness between you and Steve came the awkwardness with Robin. Stuck between being friends with the both of you. It wasn’t until a couple of days ago that she had slipped up about knowing the details of everything that happened. Causing your walls to momentarily come up around her.

But that happened over a week ago and you were really trying not to push away one of your newer friends all because of a bad breakup. Robin was nice to you before even knowing Steve personally. So with that in mind, you tried your best the whole night to be friendlier. Or as friendly as you could be. But that didn’t mean it was going to be easy.

Robin had restocked the snacks, you organized the return tapes, and then lastly the two of you worked together to set up a promo spot for tomorrow’s movie selections, All in record timing. Once Robin noticed you were slowly opening up again, she seemed to be keen to make up for the few awkward hours before.

“I don’t know how I feel about Weird Science.” Robin sighed, looking over the stack of movies facing the door. You set down the clipboard with the list of things to order for tomorrow to go join her on the other side of the counter.

“I know. But, considering we’ve got Fright Night and Teen Wolf up, it’s at least keeping with the whole sciencey-horror theme.”

“There’s absolutely nothing horror to do with Weird Science.” Robin scoffed as she adjusted one of the boxes, scrunching her nose over at the mini poster for Teen Wolf. “Keith’s gonna kill us.”

“It can be considered scary if you’re bad at Science?” you tried, looking back over to her. She had a knowing look on her face that had your confidence in the set up crumpling. “Okay, he might. But just say I did it.”

“Right.” she snorted. “It’s not like he’d ever tell you anything anyway.”

Reaching back for the stock list, you go over all the candies once more before sighing. It’s been a slow night and you weren’t looking forward to another hour here. But this was the life of a working teen and you were oddly still putting up with it.

Robin, who was quietly tidying up around the register, suddenly let out a loud gasp. “Oh no!” she said, reaching down the counter for her bag. You quickly left the candy area to join back at her side. Looking at her worriedly.

“What’s wrong?”

She pulled out a miniature calendar from her bag. Flipping through the pages rapidly until she landed on one with scribbled notes on it. “I completely forgot to write up the assignment needed for the Terminator’s class.”

The familiar name amused you momentarily before you glanced over her shoulder to see the circled date. “Shit.” you frowned, “How many pages do you need?”

“Just three, but I barely had my notes put together yesterday.” she looked through her bag for another notebook before flipping through them for a certain spot. “God I’m gonna have to pull an all-nighter after this.”

Glancing at your watch, you wince at the late hour. “You need more time.”

She ignored you momentarily to push back the notebook and calendar into her bag before coming back up. Biting her lip in worry. You couldn’t help but feel bad for your friend. Feeling the familiar panic of academic stress. Pushing the phone towards her, you nudge for her to take the receiver. “Call Steve to pick you up. Then at least you can get started sooner.”

“What?” she gaped, looking at the clock on the back wall. “No, I-I can’t do that! You’d be by yourself.”

“It’s fine, Robin.” you reassured her, pushing the handle into her hands. “Steve will get here fast, and you’ll at least get a big enough head start and maybe catch some hours of sleep before school.”

“No,” she shook her head. “I wouldn’t feel right leaving you by yourself. What if some creepy guy comes in and murders you?”

You stood still blinking over at her. Wondering why she’d mention something so creepy at a time like this. “Not that I needed that new fear, but I’ll be safe. I’m a big girl.” You take the base of the phone, dialing the number practically engraved in your mind before pushing it to her ear. “What I do need is for you to study. So get to begging.”

There’s a moment of worry on her face before the sound of Steve’s voice perked up through the phone. She thankfully gets the idea of you not backing down from your offer and asks Steve to come take her home. You give her a thumbs up and get the area ready to close off. Needing the distraction from the inevitable moment of seeing Steve again for the first time in days.

Robin helped too. Making sure the windows and backdoors were all checked and locked before joining you back in the front. It was only a couple of minutes before the headlights of Steve’s car shined through the store.

A part of you hated the idea of being alone. It was going to be creepy. But the sight of Steve stepping out of his car, hand combing through his lush hair, made you want more than ever for Robin to get out of here. The sound of the door ringing open snapped you into averting your gaze from the boy and you quickly meddled with the few papers in front of you to keep your focus on.

“Hey, you guys ready to go?”

“Uh, it’s just me, actually.” Robin said, grabbing her bag. “Henderson is gonna wait out till closing and for her Aunt to pick her up.”

Without even having to look up, you knew that Steve’s eyes were on you now. It was like a magnetic pull that he still had on you. But you couldn’t look up just yet. Not when you knew what kind of face he’d be giving you right now. “Is that true?” he asked softly.

“Uhh, yeah, I was gonna call her in twenty minutes and let her know.” you coughed, face down. The sound of his keys jingling was oddly loud, but not as loud as the sound of your heart beat.

Before you knew it, Steve moved to stand in front of you at the counter. Forcing you to finally make eye contact with him. His eyes were etched with the same worry that looked at you the night in your driveway. You tried not to visibly recoil from the ache that burst into your chest.

“I could come back for you.” he offered softly. A small bit of confidence in his voice.

“That’s fine, Steve. I’ll get home.”

“I’m serious,” he frowned. “I could just come back. You’d be able to close up and maybe get some–”

“NO.” you said quickly, having to physically take a step back. There’s a flicker of hurt over Steve’s face and he’s balled up the fist holding onto his keys. You can’t help but feel like how it was that second year here when you were cruel to him on purpose. Pushing him away from having still been mad at him.

You didn’t feel good then and you don’t feel good now.

“I’ll be fine,” you said more nicely after a minute of awkward silence. “You should take her home..she really needs the extra time.”

He glanced over at Robin, giving her a questioning look, but all she did was mouth a please to him before he nodded his head. Backing away from the counter almost defeatedly. “Be safe.” he said softly, shuffling over towards the front door.

Taking that as a leaving cue, Robin picked up her bag from the counter. Reaching over to place her hand over yours as she threw you a sympathetic smile. “I owe you a million for this. Call me later so I know you’re okay?”

“A million and one.” you said softly, trying to smile back. But with Steve’s presence there you’re sure it’s more wincing than you wished. “I’ll call you.” you added.

The two make their leave after that agreement. Quietly making their exit from the store while you stayed over at the counter. They quickly enter the car, leaving you and family video alone for the rest of the night.

Thirty minutes later and you’re done with the store being dead. If Keith wanted to get mad at you for closing early, then he could pout about it in the office tomorrow. Right now, all you wanted was to get into your bed and try not to think about the haunting brown eyes that looked at you with such concern tonight.

Picking up the phone, you made an attempt to reach out to someone at home. But with your Aunt possibly still out and Dustin most likely hanging out with your friends, there’s no one there to answer your call. You’re suddenly filled with panic of how the hell you’re getting out of here.

A part of you thinks it might be fine to just call Steve. It’s not like he’d be upset since he was so adamant before. But even the short car ride home would be long enough for that horrible pain to come back in and you didn’t think you could handle that. Nor did you want to put Steve through that either.

Looking at your watch, you realize you’ll at least be able to make the last bus for the night if you close up now.

Rushing to the back, you make a move to grab your jacket and purse, ready to lock up and get the hell out of here. But before you could grab the keys, you could hear the sound of the door’s bell jingle.

“Dammit!” you whispered to yourself. Of course tonight you’d still have to deal with annoying customers. Turning off the light in the room, you grab the keys and slowly enter back into the front. “Uh hey, sorry but we’re actually closing up–”

The sight of an empty front desk killed off your words instantly.

“Hello?” you called out. Taking a small hesitant step, you enter the counter booth and try to peer out into the store. There isn’t a soul in the place.

Biting your lip, you reached over to the phone on the counter. Unsure of who’d you’d even cal-

“Lovely night, isn’t it?”

You let out a small yelp, grabbing the clipboard near you and swatting it to the direction of the mysterious voice.

“OW!”

Peeking your eyes open, you’re welcomed to the sight of Eddie rubbing the side of his head. A glare on his face as he looked over at you.

“Is that how you greet all your customers?” he chided.

Setting down the clipboard, you use your hands to lean against the counter. Getting in some air to help calm you down before you looked back up at Eddie again. This time you used your hand to slap at his arm.

“OKAY! Really?!” he asked as he moved to rub his hand.

“Yes, Eddie, really! Why the hell did you come in and scare me like that?”

“Scare you?” he scoffed. “I said it was a nice night!”

Frowning, you crossed your arms over your chest. “Oh yeah? And so sneaking up behind me as I called out to a totally empty store didn’t make you think I’d freak out?”

“I thought you’d enjoy a different kind of greeting.”

Sighing, you turned away from Eddie, ignoring his presence momentarily so that you could finish up all that you needed before you’d eventually push him out. Even if you were about to have a heart attack, you’d still make it in time to catch that bus.

“So I’m bored tonight.” Eddie yawned out, moving to stand in front of the counter before you. Unaware that you’ve moved on to closing up rather than waiting around.

“How fun.” you replied back, collecting the inventory papers together.

He tapped his hands against the counter, looking over the place before the VHS display caught his attention. “None of these go together.” he snorted, picking up one of the tapes. “Weird Science wasn’t even scary.”

“I wasn’t going for scary.” you muttered, reaching out to grab the tape from his hands to set out on the counter. “I was going for..sciencey-horror..ish.”

“Ish?” he smirked. “When did they bring in that genre?”

“They brought it in just for Family Video, didn’t you know?” you shrugged.

He reached over for the copy of Fright Night next. Reading the back description out loud to himself before his gaze returned back on you. “Got a thing for vamps?”

“Nah, but that Chris Sarandon is kinda hot.” you said quickly as you grabbed the tape and scanned it into the checkout before Eddie could change his mind. “Will that be all tonight?”

He finally caught on to how rushed you were making things. Dramatically, he spun around to look around the store as if he had a line of people waiting behind him.

“Are you trying to kick me out, Princess?”

“Yes!” you laughed, waving your hand out for him to pass over the rental fee. “If I close the store now I can catch the last bus home.”

Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a couple of crumpled up dollar bills for you. “Why the hell are you taking the bus this late? It’s not safe.”

You want to tell him because a giant flesh monster scrunched your car up into a ball last summer. But since that wasn’t an option, you settled for the semi truthful answer. “Because I have no car and need to get home.”

He watched in silence as you flattened out the crumbled money before adding it to the registry. You noticed that he’s given more than needed and figure he’s already prepaying for his inevitable late fee.

“So..why don’t I just give you a ride home?”

You waited until you closed the register before looking over at him. There was a bit of pink to his cheeks and you wondered how someone who had this usual odd confidence could be nervous about offering a ride.

“You know, Robin warned me about creepy guys coming in tonight.” you teased, watching as his face turned from nervous to shock.

“Offering a ride constitutes me being creepy now?”

“Probably.” you laughed as you watched Eddie cross his arms over his chest. “Besides, I wouldn’t want to be a bother to your night anyway. You were probably coming in to grab a movie and head home.”

“It’d be an honor to drive you home, Henderson. Lord knows I gotta work on doing the whole nice friend thing.”

“Oh and we’re friends suddenly?”

“It’s what I’d call us.”

Quickly, you closed up the computer, shutting it down so that you can end the night finally. “You kinda have to know a thing or two about each other before you can say you’re friends.” you pointed out before reaching down to grab your stuff.

“You know a lot about me.”

“Like?”

He tapped at the cover of the tape smiling at you. “That I got a thing for vamps too.” he winked, making you roll your eyes. “Besides, what better way to get to know each other better than with a nice ride home?”

You let out a small sigh, unsure what the hell you were just about to agree to. But if he was cool enough to hang out with Dustin and his friends. Then you shouldn’t dwell too much on the simple favor. Right?

“It wouldn’t be trouble for you?”

“You’re trouble, that’s for sure.” he chuckled. “But the ride isn’t.”

The words sound all too familiar to you and you can’t help but blink a couple of times over at him. He’s not aware of the history of that nickname, and you hold back on telling him in favor of nodding your head.

“Let’s head out then.” you said instead.

The next five minutes are left with you closing up the store with Eddie closely behind you. Talking about his recent venture out to Indianapolis for the weekend and how he’s excited to finally finish up the school year, again.

Oddly, you found yourself actually enjoying his company. It was sort of light spirited and completely free of problems. Something you haven’t had in a while. The only downside was playing down events that took part in the time you’ve dealt with the upside down. Like how you became close to Nancy and Jonathan. Or why Billy’s break up with you was a bigger deal and the fight he had with Steve. Or the damn mall fire. Everything had to be vague, but Eddie didn’t seem to mind. He actually enjoyed talking less about the heavy stuff and focusing instead on the more fun.

It was nice not to really think of the stresses you were bound to have this year and focus on silly things. Like what sort of bands Eddie listened to.

“So Iron Maiden isn’t a cool rock band led by girls?”

“It’s like you’re musically inept outside of pop.” Eddie laughed as he parked his car just on the street of your house. You couldn't help but laugh at his reaction before you shrugged your shoulders.

“It’s not all pop. I like rock too.”

“Really? You like rock. Like who?”

“Joan Jett.” you said simply after thinking it over for a second. “She’s got killer makeup, great voice, good music. I love her songs. ” He raised a brow at you, almost waiting out to see if you were fibbing or not.

“She is pretty cool.” he agreed eventually before slapping gently at the wheel. “All right, that settles it. The Henderson family is officially a lot cooler than I expected.”

“Oh?” you laughed. “You’re just figuring this out now?”

“Not to mention you’re all so humble too.”

You playfully slapped his shoulder. “Don’t you forget it.” you smirked, reaching down to grab your bag from the floor. “Thank you for the ride and music lesson. I guess that means people from the Munson family are a lot nicer than I expected.”

“Ahh, that stings a little.” he laughed, shaking his head. “But honestly, I think you should just say that the Munson family are nice to people like you.”

“People like me?” you frowned, unsure what he meant exactly by that. “Care to elaborate?”

“I would,” he said as he glanced towards your driveway. “But it’s late and a gentleman should never keep a lady from getting some sleep.”

“Suddenly you’re a gentleman?”

“Get out of my van.” he deadpanned, waving you off. “Here I am trying to charm you and you’re throwing me off with your quips.”

With a giggle you climbed down from the seat, ready to close the door after you when suddenly a thought came into mind. “Maybe we can hang out again?” you said softly, unsure of where you were going with this offer. “You can tell me what kind of person I’m like and maybe show me more of those groups you wouldn’t shut up about?”

Eddie’s chest rose as he quickly sucked in some air. His brown eyes widened in shock before he quickly changed his face back to his familiar smile. “And you’d be okay hanging out with a creep like me?”

“Wouldn’t be my first time.”

He seemed to question that answer before he shrugged his shoulders. “You got a deal. I’ll uh, see you soon then.” He held up the VHS tape with a small smile. “That is if Chris Sarandon doesn’t get me.”

“Oh that’s terrible.” You laughed, finding humor in his cheesy words. But instead of being embarrassed, he only grinned wider. Like that was the reaction he was looking for.

“As long as it’s gotcha laughing.” He winked before changing the gear in his car. “Till next time, Princess!”

You waved him off, waiting until he was turned around and back on the street before making your way up the driveway to your house. It’s odd but you found that you’re smiling genuinely about something for the first time in weeks. And it’s because of Eddie Munson of all people. Making a new friend must have been the thing you needed right now. Especially when you thought about how much you’d be laughing when you got to hang out with him again.

“Your Aunt’s car looks a lot like Eddie Munson’s van.” said a voice suddenly, disrupting your thoughts.

It scared you a bit. Causing you to let out a small gasp as your head snapped towards the direction of the noise.

At your house stood Steve. Back resting against the front door with his head hung to keep his gaze downward and off from you. The gravel beneath your feet was the only noise as you slowly made your way over.

“What are you doing here?” you asked slightly out of breath. Your composure was calm but the sight of Steve standing there had you feeling anxious.

“I drove by your house and noticed no one was home..was worried you’d still be stuck at the store.”

“Oh.”

He pushed himself off the wall, closing the rest of the gap that kept you two apart. On his face was a look you weren’t quite place. Was it anger? Disappointment? Worry? Jealousy?

“I could’ve come back for you.”

“Steve..” you sighed. He held up a hand, shaking his head as he seemingly tried to calm himself down.

“We wouldn’t have had to talk. It could have been just a ride. You’d have never needed to talk to Eddie Munson or get a ride from him.”

There’s a hint of disdain the way he dragged out Eddie’s name and you couldn’t help but sigh again. This was something you had worried about when Dustin had started to hang out with Eddie. The two were close these days. With how long that ridiculous game took, it’d be crazy for them to not have bonded by now. And while you knew deep down that your cousin could hold strong friendships with everyone. Steve did not.

For a short while, Dustin was the closest thing he had to a best friend before Robin came into the picture. But the very idea of Steve hating a simple ride from Eddie threw you off.

“He came to rent a movie right when I tried calling home. Okay?” you crossed your arms, tilting your head a bit. “He’s a nice guy..he offered the ride when I told him I didn’t have a car.”

“But I could have come. I would have.”

“I didn’t want you to come.” You said slowly watching again as the bitter truth caused the hurt cut across Steve’s face. “We haven’t been alone in weeks. The silence would only make things..painful.”

His head dropped quickly to look back to the ground while you wrapped your arms around yourself. This wasn’t the kind of shit you wanted to add to Steve’s list of problems. The break up was hard..period. But no matter how you go about things, you can’t stop this pain from coming in.

“I just wanted to make sure you were safe..”

“I know..thank you.”

He looked back up and raised a hand. Almost like he was going to reach out for you. And while you were dying to feel the touch of his skin again, doing that would probably only make things harder on the two of you. So without another thought, you took a step back from him.

His hand dropped quickly, stuffing into his pocket while he covered up his face with his other hand. Rubbing at the corners of his nose before he turned his gaze back towards the road. There was a glazed sort of look in his eyes.

“Right, so you’re here. I’ll just uh, head back home.”

You’re about to nod your head, but Steve didn’t even get the chance to see as he quickly turned and dashed away from your side. Moving towards the direction of the driveway. The sight of his retreating figure only hurt your chest even more as your thoughts were plagued with all the things he must be thinking right now.

The night of Tina’s Halloween party came into mind. The way he looked driving you home after hearing the truth from Nancy’s drunken confession. Before you know it, you’re chasing after him.

“Steve?” you called out when you reached close to his backside. He spun around quickly, almost bumping into you and causing you to fall back. But he quickly reached out to catch you. Cradling you close to his side until you were able to get your footing right.

“Are you alright?” He asked, checking over you before he let go. His eyes were red and even if it weren’t cold you’d know it was from how he was probably feeling right now.

Reaching out, you couldn’t help but cup at his cheek. Watching as his eyes slipped close from the relaxing touch. It’s been weeks since either of you have been able to share this kind of comfort. An intimate moment that you shouldn’t be having with him. Not when things were already so hard. But just because things were over doesn’t mean the need to make sure Steve was okay could go away so easily. Especially when in moments like this, when he still meant the world to you.

“I need time.” you said quickly, ignoring the worried voice in your head.

“Time?” he asked softly, eyes opening slowly to look down at you. The pad of your thumb brushed over his cheek and you could feel the warmth underneath. Your mind replays a supercut of all the moments you’ve felt that cheek. Kissing, against your own, against your body.

God this was a mess. You were a mess.

“I need time to feel comfortable around you again..I need to get over you, Steve. But I can’t do that if you’re still trying to be my hero..”

“Hero.” he chuckled sadly, shaking his head from your gip. The brim of his eyes were red and he looked suddenly tired. “Never really did a good job of that, huh? Guess I’m supposed to be just your coworker now?”

For a second you couldn’t speak. Only shaking your head no as you tried to reassure him that what he was thinking wasn’t true. He was everything to you. He could never be anything as casual as a coworker. But at the moment, you didn’t know what you could call Steve. He wasn’t your boyfriend, nor your enemy, and friend felt wrong.

“You’re just..Steve.”

His throat bobbed. Like that was the worst answer he was expecting. And though you wanted to reach out again and pull him close, you couldn’t. Because this was just how things had to be. Just the two of you stuck in this limbo of love and loss.

“Right,” he said after a minute. “Just..Steve.”

You opened your mouth, ready to apologize if what you said came off worse than you thought. But Steve quickly caught onto that and held a hand up, waving you off a bit. “I get it.” he said a bit curtly. “I’ll see you around, Hone–Troub– Henderson.”

Again he’s gone from your side without a proper look at your reaction. He practically sprinted over to his car across the street, not once turning back. It was only a second after he pushed himself into his seat that his car was revving to life and leaving the block.

You waited out until you couldn’t see the taillights of his car before you forced yourself inside the house.

The usual warmth of your home wasn’t welcoming at all. All it reminded you was how cold you were feeling and no matter what, nothing could thaw out this permafrost that surrounded your heart. The empty house taunted you with the loneliness you were feeling.

That’s because you’re alone now. (Tick)

“I’m not alone.” you whispered softly, making your way to your room.

You will be. (Tock)

FEBRUARY (VALENTINE’S DAY)

It’s four weeks after that night in front of your house that you found yourself with Eddie Munson again. The two of you have changed simple hang outs into make outs,then into something else you couldn’t quite place. This night in particular, you found yourself knocking on his trailer door after work.

“Fuck, don’t stop.” Eddie groaned.

The two of you were sitting on the dingy couch. Some loud tv show playing in the background as you straddled Eddie’s strong thigh. It’s been like this for a while now. What was originally just a chance to makeout with someone you trusted on Valentine’s day. Turned into Eddie flirting with you and you eventually feeling the need to make up for his lack of dating life.

It was Valentine’s day and you had unfortunately worked the night shift over at Family Video. Something you would have been pissed about last year. But considering the current changes in your love life, you didn’t have the room to be too upset. Especially when you found out you worked with Robin. That gave the two of you five hours to complain about how complicated love was.

Kind of like how your relationship with Eddie had turned from friends to..complicated.

“God, you’re so whiny.” you smirked, pausing the movements of your hands. You glanced down to his lap, getting another look at the size of Eddie’s cock. It was red and hard against the base of his stomach. Weeping from the tip from the few strokes you had given him. It was only the second time you’ve done this with Eddie and you’re still stunned by how he gets from a simple handjob.

“Shut up.” he gritted, letting his head sag back against the couch. “If you’d have any idea how good you are at this, you’d be just as desperate too.” The ego boost does something to you, and you quickly lean in to press your lips roughly against his. Causing the boy to let out a loud groan before he fought back.

The kiss was so different from your past boyfriends. Billy had always been so dominant, taking what he wanted without thinking too much if you liked it or not. Steve’s was sweet, hot, and romantic. As if it were the last kiss on Earth. And Eddie’s was fierce. Like he wanted you to remember him hours later.

The tip of his tongue poked through your lips, brushing against yours as he deepened the kiss. His hand went down from your neck to grab at your hips. Pulling you closer into his lap. It made your head spin a bit but you pulled back enough to tighten your grip around his cock. Picking up the pace with your wrist. During times like this, Eddie never lasted long. He was already riding high from just kissing, and with the added teasing he’d never make it long.

His other arm moved to grip at your thigh. Digging his fingers with every jerk that his hips gave as he reached closer to his climax. He jerked his leg up, giving you a slight sensation between your legs as you straddled him. While small, the touch was stimulating enough to have your eyes fluttering a bit. It’s been a while since you’ve really let anyone get you this aroused but you’re finding it hard not to roll your hips.

“That is, princess.” he cooed, making your face get a hot flush. “Let me make you feel good.”

The dirty words had your head spinning a bit and you pulled back enough to stick your face into his neck. Sucking lightly against the vein on his neck while continuing to jerk your wrist. Eddie’s breathing began to grow louder.

“Yes, fuck, please don’t stop.” Eddie rasped, letting the wrecked voice send a chill up your back. It pleased you to know you had this boy at the mercy of your hands. Moving your hand and wrist faster now in order to work him over. You made sure to use your long nails at the sensitive skin of his cock, causing Eddie to whimper whenever it was dragged closer to his slit.

He moved to rest his face against your neck, pressing soft kisses at your skin while his other hand moved to cup at your breast. The only material keeping him from touching your warm skin being the bra you managed to keep on during his fondling earlier.

The gentle squeezing plus the ridge on his thigh you were rolling on hit just the right spot to have you letting out a moan yourself. Unfortunately, with how close Eddie was, there wasn’t going to be a chance for you to come with him.

“Come for me, Ed.” you whispered into his ear, another shudder falling from him. Stopping your rolling, you gave the base of his cock one good squeeze before jerking at a quicker pace.

The base of his member twitched in your hands and when Eddie let go of your breast, you watched in awe as he gripped to your hips, focusing down at your movements before he let out a loud guttural moan.

Ropes of white hot cum began to shoot out from the slit of his cock, coating your hand as you carefully continued with the jerking motion. It wasn’t until you watched as Eddie’s head fell back from ecstasy that you gently let go of him.

The mess before you doesn’t help with your sudden unattended arousal, but you remove yourself anyway. Quietly letting him know you were going to clean yourself off. The water quickly washed away all the remnants of your night and you quickly glanced up to fix up your appearance. The sight of your necklace quickly stole your attention.

The small single ‘S’ sitting on the middle of your chest brought a pang of guilt to your chest. You hadn’t taken off the necklace since the night Steve gave it to you. Something that was probably wrong considering what you were just doing with Eddie. But wearing it brought you a sense of comfort that you couldn’t bring yourself to give up.

After you got yourself together, you emerged from the bathroom to find Eddie was still on the couch. He was tucked back in his pants but still with the belt unbuckled as he continued to catch his breath. A small snicker fell past your lips and you quickly covered your mouth when his eyes turned to look over at you.

“It’s not funny.” he frowned, trying not to smile at your amusement. “I’m literally a mess and you’re looking over at me with that goofy grin on your face.”

“My face is never goofy.” you said as a matter of fact, hand reaching up to gently hold onto the necklace. “If anything, it’s your position that’s goofy.”

Eddie held a hand up, pretending to mimic your voice through his hand while you moved towards the couch. It was a struggle to find your sweater amongst the mess of the room, especially when you just threw it behind you earlier. But before you could bend over to pick up the item, Eddie had climbed up from the couch to you.

Placing his hands gently at your hips so that he could have you face him. “Let me make you feel good, Princess. I know you didn’t get to come.” he said softly, rubbing his thumbs on the bare expanse of your stomach.

It hurt to look up into Eddie’s eyes. They were warm and so full of a genuine interest in you. Like you were the only person he cared to look at. It made moments like this confusing. Where your mind knew that this would make you feel right and move on, but something in your heart made it hard to follow through it.

Letting go of the necklace, you reached out to cup the side of Eddie’s face. Letting your thumb brush across the apple of his cheek before you gently pressed a kiss. “I’m fine.” you said softly, getting out of his grip to reach for the sweater. From the side of your eyes, you could see that Eddie was watching you as you pulled the material over your head.

From his calmness you knew where this conversation was going to go. It’s not the first time Eddie’s pointed out an offer nor would it likely be his last.

“Hey,” he coughed softly, shuffling awkwardly closer so he could rest a hand against your arm. “I didn’t mean to put you off.” Calmly you moved over to place yours on top, rubbing soothingly in hopes to get that worried look off his face.

“It’s okay.” you said softly, not really having the courage to tell him what you were thinking. “Like I said, I’m fine with what we’re doing now.”

Eddie reached out and gently brushed a hair away from your face. “Are you?” he asked slowly. “Or..are you I don’t know, nervous? I mean shit, I’m more than grateful for what we do now..and labels are shit. But if you’re wanting to be something more official in order to feel comfortable doing more then I’m more than happy to–”

“I like us being friends, Eddie.” you cut in. Scared for what words might come out next. You weren’t ready for that kind of talk. “Even if what we’re doing is not the most normal thing friends do. I like just hanging out and having fun.”

There’s a flicker of something in Eddie’s eyes. Like he might have wanted a different answer. But he threw you his signature goofy smile and leaned in to press a mushy, rough kiss to your lips. Causing you to laugh against his hold.

“Sounds good to me, Princess. Now I’ve kept you stuck in this dump long enough. You should probably head off home.”

You turned your watch over, noting that while it was a little bit late, it wasn’t the worst you’ve come home at. But since Eddie’s Uncle might be coming home soon, it’d probably be easier to leave now than stick around and dance around the friends with semi benefits relationship.

“I’ll see you later, Eddie. You rest up.” you smiled, taking a step back from him. He chuckled at that, waving you off as you quickly made your way out the trailer door. The residents of Forest Hills trailer park were quiet that night. A dark and eerie chill going up your spine as you made your way over to your Aunt’s car. Across the way you glanced towards Max’s trailer.

The majority of her lights were all off aside from one flickering light from the main front window. Things had been rough for her lately. Ever since her stepdad took off and her Mother started working two jobs just to keep a roof over their heads. Things haven’t been the easiest. Especially with the sudden downsizing in lifestyle.

You wished you could make things easier. But honestly, you didn’t have much you could say to Max that you thought would make her feel better. The events of the summer battle caught up to her and she began to close everyone off. Including you.

She was protecting herself from others. Every approach was met with a cold wall that you couldn’t crack. No matter what you or her friends did, she was a different girl now. She was here in Hawkins but her mind was somewhere else. And if you were being honest, you’d say that you were starting to feel the same.

Your mind was busy focusing on other things like school, work, and your new thing with Eddie. But your heart wasn’t in it. Not the way it should be. It was permanently stuck in a loop of being unable to enjoy the new life you were making for yourself. All because of a boy in Loch Nora who still had power over it.

Which was where you were now.

Through the lush houses of the neighborhood and up the driveaway of the path that led to the Harrington household. You’ve been there so many times, but for the first ever you’re nervous to be there. You shouldn’t be here.

And you definitely shouldn’t be getting out of the car to walk to the front door. And you really shouldn’t be knocking..

It only took Steve about a minute to come up to the door. He was more cleaned up since the last time you saw him. His hair was a little shorter, and there was a noticeable little bit of stubble on his lips. Almost like he’s debating whether or not to grow a mustache or not. It’s kind of nice..

“Hey, you okay?” Steve asked worriedly. His brown eyes looked over your body, almost like he was checking to make sure you weren’t hurt. It was a little embarrassing. You didn’t mean to make him come down to the door, let alone be suddenly worried about you.

“I’m sorry…I just ended up here.” you whispered finally. Not really able to think of a better excuse to say. “I should go.”

He quickly stopped you by reaching out for your hand. It’s almost like an electric shock to have such contact from him again but you don’t dare let go of his warmth just yet.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” you shook your head. “I just wanted to–”

“See me?” He asked softly.

You look at him for a long time. Feeling such an overwhelming amount of unsurety. Steve was someone who managed to wedge himself into your trust again. He earned it. But right now you were finding yourself struggling to be fully open to him. The thoughts running through your head were leading to a place where you two couldn’t go down. Not when things were so different now.

“It’s Valentine’s day,” you said lamely, wincing a bit at the dumb words that quickly came into mind. “D-did you go out?..”

“You drove all the way over to my house to ask me that?”

“..yes.” you lied, not needing him to know it was more like an impulsive need to see him tonight than some random inquiry.

Steve looked a little bit taken back. Probably not quite believing the answer, but eventually went ahead and nodded his head. “Yeah,” he said honestly, to your heart’s dismay. “Uh, with Molly Stevens. I knew her from school last year.”

Nodding your head, you tried to control the jealousy that started to fill up in your throat. You have absolutely no right to feel this way about Steve. None whatsoever. But the very idea of him out with another girl brought up such a venom to your throat.

“Did you guys..” you waved your arms in front of you in a mindless motion. Stupidly unable to speak the words you’re dreading to hear. Steve looked only slightly amused as he crossed his arms over his chest like he’s caught you in your lie. The dark green shirt looked tight on his biceps, distracting you from that fact very quickly.

“No.” he answered simply. “Didn’t feel right.”

“Right.” you nodded, letting out a small sigh of relief. “That’s um..good. I mean, not good but it’s um—“

“And what about you?” He interrupted, raising a brow to you. “Did you go out?”

“I worked tonight..”

He turned his wrist over, frowning down at the time his watch displayed to him. “It’s eleven thirty. Store closed at ten.”

“I may have..gone to hang out with a friend.”

“With Eddie.” he corrected.

“Yes.”

His lips pursed a bit before he took a step closer to you. Pushing your back to rest against the threshold of his door. “And did you guys..?”

“No, not that.” You said evenly, gauging his reaction. “..but something like it.”

For a moment Steve looked stunned. Like the words froze him in place. Now that previous venom is turning into guilt. He didn’t even do anything besides go out on an innocent date and here you were ready to burn Hawkins to find her. Meanwhile you were the one actually doing more with another guy.

For someone that didn’t want to hurt Steve, you sure did so easily.

“I’m sorry.. I should go.” You whispered, feeling like you’ve put the guy through enough as of lately. Before you could fully turn around Steve had already reached out for your hand, keeping you in place.

The look on his face isn’t the same sad one you saw flicker moments before. It was determined now. Like he was fully trying to understand what you were saying before him. Carefully, he leaned down to press his face inches before yours. The small fan of his sigh brushed over your face.

The closeness should make you nervous. It should make you want to step back. But you’re curious to what he would say next.

“So you mess around with Munson and still end up at my doorstep?” He asked softly. There’s a slight darkness in his tone that should warn you how bad an idea this is. But again, you ignored it. “Did he not make you feel good?”

“He made me feel..fine.” you whispered back. Not sure how much you want to deep dive into whatever it is you and Eddie were doing. Turning your head up a bit, you peered up at him, placing your hand to rest gently on Steve’s chest to both keep him from getting closer and to get a chance to feel his heartbeat.

“Just fine? Not good?”

“Steve,” you sighed. “We shouldn’t be talking about this.”

But your words only encouraged him to pull you inside of his home. Keeping an arm hugging at the side of your waist as he pressed your back against the closed door. The personal space is gone out the window now that he’s able to wedge himself between your legs.

It’s painfully embarrassing how your body is instinctively trying to wrap around him. But you managed to keep your flat back against the door and legs unwrapped from his waist. But Steve seemed to be aware of your inner dilemma, moving to press himself even closer.

“He doesn’t make you feel good, honey?” He said finally, moving his face down your face to your neck.

The old nickname had your body shuddering. It’s been too long since you’ve heard it. This was definitely not the way you thought the conversation would go. But you’re struggling to find a way out of it.

“What I’m feeling isn’t your concern anymore..”

“Oh, it definitely is”. His hand slid down your waist, down to your hip, the tip of his fingers nearly diving past the waistband of your jeans. He casually rubbed his thumb underneath the hem of your shirt. “I want you feeling better than just fine.”

“Yeah?” you asked softly, moving your hands to place against his shoulders now. They were itching to wrap around his neck, but you reminded yourself to keep from making things messier. Not that Steve seemed to care as he slid closer into the small space you had before.

“I want you to feel great.” he leaned down to your ear, pressing a kiss to the spot beneath your earlobe before he finished. “Actually, I want you feeling so fucked out of your mind that you wouldn’t dare go to another man’s house after fooling around with me.”

There’s a darkness in Steve’s words but not one you’re afraid of. In fact, you’re excited. It had your heart racing and core growing so hot that you had to slightly rub your thighs together from the excitement. “Is t-that all?” you managed to ask, unable to think of a better response.

“That's all I want right now.”

It’s hard not to feel that familiar spark that fires up your body when around Steve. You were feeling embarrassingly desperate for it at this point as you pulled him down towards you. “We shouldn’t be doing this. We’re broken up for a reason..”

“It’s a bad idea.” he agreed, brushing his lips carefully down your neck. He seemed to catch the sparkle of the gold chain around your neck and followed down the line to where the S laid on your chest. He then gently placed a soft kiss against it.

“We’re being so incredibly stupid right now.” you gasped, feeling his lips graze up again.

Though the tender touches were setting a blaze to your skin, it wasn’t quite satisfying the ache growing inside of you now. In fact, it was setting your whole body into a desperate, needy, frenzy.

“I gotta be honest with you, baby.” He said calmly.

“Honest?” you gulped, failing to get yourself to cool down.

“I really don’t care if we’re being stupid.”

Something took over you and you moved your hands up to grab hold of the hair at the nape of his neck. Pulling back so that you could get a good look at him. The browns in his eyes were gone and he looked at you with such a desire that you could feel yourself get embarrassingly aroused.

You should stop this. You should push him away and leave his house. Because there had to be something more important in life than having sex with Steve Harrington right now.

But you really couldn’t remember what.

“Fuck it.” You sighed shooting forward to press your lips against his. He didn’t waste his chance at all and wrapped his arms around. Using the palms to push down your lower back to press your chest closer to him.

At some point there’s a struggle with moving past the door and breaking the kiss apart. When air was needed, Steve quickly pulled back, pressing quick pecks to your lips before he turned to drag you up the stairs. Each step had your heart beating faster as you focused your sights on the warm glow coming out his bedroom door. Anticipation washing over you for whatever was going to happen next.

Once the two of you were in, he quickly shut the door behind him with the kick of his foot. Only giving you a second to catch your breath before he rushed over to capture your lips again.

“Tell me,” he said against your lips. His hands were already working on your clothes, shedding them off with no problem. “Tell me you want this.”

“I want this.” you said pulling back, moving to cup the sides of his face. “I want you.”

For a second it looked like Steve wanted to say something else, but you pushed to press your lips back together. Capturing up any words he had in order to get back into the greedy need that had been building up.

Then after that, there’s nothing else left. Just you and Steve.

The clock besides Steve’s bed ticked softly as you lay in his arms. It’s only been a short amount of time since the two of you had your fun and you can feel how Steve is easily relaxed against you. Letting his hands rub over your bare skin while he held you close.

It should make you worried. Things between you two were over. You both made it that way. But the soft kisses he was pressing against your arm and neck were too distracting. The feeling of completeness was too good to give up so quickly. And with the way Steve keeps pausing to give you looks, you think he might be thinking the same.

What could either one of you do? It’s been such a long attempt to get over him but all you can feel is yourself falling again with every touch. If anything, you think you might be even more in love with him after this.

You think back to the night where Eddie dropped you off. It felt like Steve was done with you. But like yourself, one night of giving into each other’s needs seemed to fill you both with an urge neither of you could quite get rid of just yet.

His hand reached out to cup at the side of your face. Bringing your attention back to him again before he kissed you.

“Stay.” he said in between kissing you and down your cheek. No part of your face or body was left unscathed from his pink plump lips. You reveled in the sensation. Melting into his hold and allowing your body to relax again. It’s all you’ve missed these past few weeks. But even in Steve’s affection care, the worry of the real world sets in quickly with you.

“I can’t.” You said sadly. “It’s getting late.”

“Who cares? It’s Friday night.” he replied, kissing even more now that he realized it has some sort of effect on your emotions. “You don’t even work tomorrow, I do.”

“Your parents will be home soon, won’t they?”

“They love you. Might even wanna take you out for breakfast.” You pulled back to give him a knowing look. He smirked a little bit before he rolled his eyes. “Okay, they’d freak out, but we’ll be quiet.”

“I drove in my Aunt’s car..” you laughed, but turned to shuffle closer to him in the bed. He reached over to grab the back of your leg, moving your thigh now to drape over his waist. It brought your bare body dangerously close to his but he kept things tame for now. Moving to rub the palm of his hand on the round of your behind.

“She can get it towed.”

Rolling your eyes at his convenient answer, you pushed at his chest lightly. Attempting to get out of his warm hold but he changed to bring his arm back up to wrap around your waist, locking you in place.

“I’ll call the shop myself.”

“Steve..”

Not wanting you to continue with the inevitable truth, he pressed his lips back onto yours. Shutting up the conversation and forcing you both to enjoy this fluke of a night. You give in to him, if only for a moment.

It’s unfair how this is the most comfortable you’ve felt in days and it’s because you’re in his arms. But as soon as you begin to wonder why it’s like this, you remember how it felt to be in his arms that night. And how incredibly crushing it felt when you pulled away. So you made the kiss count until you eventually pulled away.

His lips turned down into a pout. Which you forced yourself to ignore as you rolled out of the bed. A shiver hitting over yourself when you left the comforts of his warm side. Reaching down on the ground, you gather up the forgotten pieces of clothing you two discarded when you came into the room.

By the time you’ve got your outfit presentable and ready to go, Steve has moved to sit on the edge of his bed. Only a pair of boxers covering up his body now. He extended a hand out to you and you find yourself easily slipping it inside his. You hate how it feels perfect there.

“I want you..” He said, low and soft. Like he was almost afraid to say the words out loud.

“I know,” you sighed, pulling the hand up towards your lips to press gentle kisses at his fingertips. “You always wanna go again.”

A frown flickered over his face, like he wasn’t quite looking for that answer. But he doesn’t say anything else, choosing instead to take your hand and lead you out the room and back downstairs to the front door again.

“Can I ask you something?” He asked nervously once the two of you were at the threshold.

“Yeah, of course.”

He paused for a second, looking deep into your eyes before he spoke again. “Did you come over on the pretense of having sex? Or because you really wanted to see me?”

A small pang of guilt began to build up in your chest again tonight. Reaching for his hand, you reached out to place it against your chest. Almost hoping that he’d feel the sincerity of your words through your heartbeat.

“I was thinking about you on the drive home.” you said trying not to reveal just how much you were actually thinking about him. He didn’t know the pathetic way you were still in love with him. “I didn’t even realize I had shown up here until I was at your door. It was like I needed to see you tonight.”

A small creeped on his face at your reply. He took the words as permission to press his lips against yours once more. Like always, it made your mind foggy and breath short. “Then tell your thoughts to think of me again tomorrow? Maybe after work?” he said, pulling away to return his gaze.

You should say no and remind him that tonight was a fluke. A misstep on your attempts to move on from each other. But your body is unwilling to listen to your logic and instead chooses to nod your head. Making Steve’s small smile turn into a grin that has you trying to remember when was the last time you saw it.

“Goodnight, Trouble.” He said softly, holding the door open for you.

“Goodnight.” You mumbled still a bit love-struck.

He waited at the door until you were in your car and waving off. The enticing view of Steve’s house eventually faded and you managed to get your brain working again in order to get home. The tv is playing some romance film for your Aunt and you bashfully wish her a goodnight as you floated to your bedroom. Still on the Steve induced high. It wasn’t until you flopped over your bed, brushing your fingertips over your kissed lips that Dustin decided to come in. A similar goofy grin on his face as he held out a Hershey’s kiss to you.

“Happy Valentine’s Day.”

“You’re in a good mood.” You snorted, taking the candy. “What were you up to tonight?”

“Just got off the radio with Suzie.” He said with a dreamlike sigh. “She read out sonnets to me.”

“That’s sweet. You rode all the way up to that hill to talk to her?”

“Hill?” He snorted before he remembered. “Oh! That hill. No, Steve spent most of the night helping me set up this new ham radio in my room.”

You shot up from your bed, looking at your cousin with a confused frown. “Wait, Steve was here?” You asked. “In our house?”

“Yeah,” he confirmed. “He came around the time you left for work. Hung out with me all night until like an hour and a half ago. Didn’t even get to thank him before he dashed out of here.”

Your mind was suddenly wrecked with a thousand thoughts. Why would Steve lie about going out? Why would he invite you in after hearing about Eddie? He didn’t have to lie about going out on a date, not with you. It’s not like you’d have judged him for taking things slow. Lord know you didn’t have the right to. Was he waiting to see if you’d come home from work all this time? Did he know you’d go to his house? So many questions without any chance of an answer came to you.

“That was really nice of him...” you said softly, looking down at the candy.

“Yup. That’s Steve for ya.” he replied matter of fact. “Makes you maybe wanna consider things, right?”

Dustin’s attempt to mend the two of you hasn’t gone unnoticed these past couple of weeks. He wasn’t too aware of all the details. You and Steve never dived into it with him. Not wanting to ruin the relationship with the boy for either one of you. He was uncharacteristically neutral for the most part, but you knew that he was secretly hoping for some sort of reconciliation.

“Goodnight, Dustin.” you said instead, cutting the conversation short. He let out a big sigh before nodding his head, waving over at you before he closed up the door behind him. You kicked off your shoes, laying back onto your bed with only one thought running through your mind.

What were you going to wear tomorrow night?

A/N: HI GUYS I MISSED YOU. So sorry for the long awaited update. I struggled so hard to make this break up real but also angsty and drama filled? I don’t feel too confident in it, but there’s so much left in the season to work with so I hope you guys enjoy this.

#steve harrington x reader #steve harrington x henderson!reader #steve harrington x henderson reader #steve harrington x female reader #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x y/n #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson x you #eddie munson x henderson reader #eddie munson x henderson!reader #eddie munson x y/n #cac #stranger things fic

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jmojellybae · 2 years

Text

Lay All Your Love On Me

Pairing: Robin Buckley x Fem!reader

Word count: 6k

Summary: It’s a Friday night, and Robin has cleared her schedule to spend time with you. She wants to take you out, and you fully expect Steve to be your taxi like always, but Robin has a surprise.

CW: 18+ Fluff to Smut real quick. You might get whiplash. Romantic Robin. Mature language. Kissing. Making out. Pet names. Reader wears a dress. Non-serious thoughts of kidnapping. Dirty talk. Rough!Robin. Groping. Hair pulling. Finger sucking. Drool. Praising. Oral (Robin receiving) Light period typical homophobia. All characters involved are 18+

A/N: This fic can be read as a standalone or as follow up of 3rd Period. l do highly recommend reading it as it provides more of a backstory to Robin and Reader’s relationship. As always, likes/reblogs/feedback is much appreciated.

Masterlist

🎵 Enjoy my 80′s Robin playlist here 🎵

The upbeat disco beats of Abba gently fill your room as you sit at your vanity, meticulously applying a light coat of blush on your cheeks. It’s a Friday night, and by some miracle, Robin doesn’t have anything to do. No band practice. No Family Video. No school projects. For the first time in a long time, your girlfriend has a clear schedule, and she fully dedicated the night to you.

You’re unable to contain the excitement thinking about what Robin has planned. In all honesty, it didn’t matter where or what you were doing. It’s been a long time since the two of you had a real date. You’d be happy with anything. You suggested just staying in and watching some movies, but Robin insisted she’d take you somewhere like she promised.

You give your face a once over, happy with how well you did your makeup. You stand up and make your way to your closet and swing the double doors open.

“Now the hard part.” You mutter to yourself.

You let out a puff of air looking at the options in front of you. You didn’t know what to dress for. Casual? Fancy? Would it matter to Robin? Definitely not. You decide to go with a safe option and pull out a mint colored pleated dress.

After getting dressed, you check the time. Steve and Robin should be here any minute. Yes, Steve. Because you and Robin rely on him to drive the both of you places. You feel guilty having Steve chauffeur the two of you around all the time, but according to him, it’s not a big deal. He enjoys seeing Robin happy, and he never misses a beat to tease her about it when given the chance. You totally would drive, but you don’t know how, and neither does Robin. It’s quite the pitiful dilemma.

You look out your window and see an empty driveway. Your parents have already left for the night to have their own date night adventures and they’ll be out late, which means (according to you) you can also be out late. You wonder what kind of shenanigans you can get up to later.

A car turning into your driveway breaks you out of your thoughts, and you notice immediately that it’s not Steve’s car. In fact, you don’t recognize the car at all. Could Steve have gotten a new car? You tilt your head thinking. The car turns off and sits idle in your drive away. You notice movement in the driver’s seat, but the darkness of night prevents you from clearly seeing anything distinct.

Curious, you step away from the window and start heading downstairs.

Who’s car is that? Is Robin okay? Is Steve okay? Am I about to be kidnapped by someone driving a Volkswagen Dasher?

You start thinking critically about the many different ways you could escape being tied up as you make your way down the stairs and to your front door.

You confidently walk to your front door and swing it open with so much force that you create a tiny gust of wind on yourself. You expect to see a creeper standing in front of you, but to your surprise, it’s Robin standing there, being illuminated by the porch light, looking incredibly dashing. She’s still as stone. Her hand is halfway raised looking like she was about to ring your doorbell. Her other hand is behind her back.

“Hi, pretty girl.” She blinks at you, taking in your worried expression. “Are you okay?”

“Robin!” You let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding. You stand on your tiptoes to look over Robin’s shoulder at the car in the driveway. “Did Steve get a new car? I don’t see him. What’s going on?”

Robin smiles wide, a beautiful blush spreads across her cheeks.

“Um. I drove, and that is actually my car.” She says proudly.

“What?!” You take her arm and drag her inside your house and close the door behind her. You want to ask a million questions.

“Wait, wait!” You can hear her laughing behind you. You take a deep breath, trying to keep it together.

“Robin, you know you can’t drive. You don’t even have a license! Please tell me you didn’t really-” You whip around and Robin is holding her hand out. She’s holding a beautiful, single red rose. Whatever else you were about to say dies on your lips.

“Surprise!” Robin says shakily. Her voice cracks like she’s suddenly nervous.

“Oh!” You squeak at the unexpected gesture. You’re caught completely off guard at the romantic act. You carefully reach for the delicate rose, bringing it to your nose.

“I um. I’m sorry that it’s just one. I would have totally gotten you more but uh, I wasn’t even sure if you liked roses, you know? Roses are like, super expensive too. Did you know that? I wanted to save as much money as possible to take you anywhere you wanted to go tonight so-” Robin goes on one of her famous rambles. You watch her go through a myriad of different facial expressions, eyebrows twitching up every so often.

You smell the rose again and the combination of the flowery fragrance and Robin’s scratchy voice calms your wired nerves. A kidnapper, really? You curse your imagination for running wild.

“Robin.” You grab the front of her jacket and pull her towards you, careful not to crush the rose. She stops talking and flashes you an toothy grin. “Thank you so much. This is really sweet.” You lean up and give her a soft, quick kiss.

“Yea?” Robin visibly deflates in relief.

“Of course, silly…” Your hand comes up to caress her cheek and she nudges into your palm like a cat. “But!” You break the cute moment and give her a sudden, harmless, tap on her cheek. “Did you really drive here? What’s going on?”

Robin stands up a bit straighter and takes a huge breath through her nose.

“You want the long version or the gist?” She asks.

You snort, knowing you’ll get the long version either way. “The gist please.”

“Okay. When we started dating, it really sucked not being able to um, hang out with you freely. If you know what I mean. I wanted to get my drivers license, but my parents didn’t have the time to teach me and didn’t have the money to get me into any classes. We were totally poor. Well not really. They were just-”

“Babe.” You gently interrupt her.

“Right, right, sorry. Anyway, I started picking up more shifts at Family Video so I could pay for the classes on my own. Even Dingus let me take some of his shifts.”

You think about all the times you wanted to see Robin after school and on the weekends but it always seemed like she was working. Your heart broke every time she told you she couldn’t. If she wasn’t at band practice, she was at Family Video. It was definitely hard to get through some weeks. You nod your head to signal for her to continue.

“Yea. Yea. Eventually, I had enough to pay for driving classes. I was super proud of myself. I sat through the classes and, god were those classes boring. Steve would even let me practice driving with his car. You should have seen his face every time I would brake too hard. Thought he was gonna strangle me and accidentally commit a hate crime. Anyway! I aced the actual driving test on my first try!”

The image of Steve losing his shit over his car and Robin behind the wheel makes you laugh out loud. You think about what Robin said, and a realization occurs to you.

“Wait, so you learned to drive without telling me, and somehow bought a car? You kept all that a secret?” You’re a little hurt that Robin would keep something like this from you, even though it’s facetious to think she did it for malicious reasons. She notices the hurt on your face and begins to sputter.

“Well, hold on! I wanted to surprise you. I figured wow, wouldn’t it be so cool if I could take my awesome girlfriend wherever she wanted whenever without having to rely on my best friend to take us everywhere like a couple of children? My parents noticed how much I wanted this, and they made me a deal that if I did well in school, kept up with band, and paid for my driving classes, they would pitch in to help buy me my own car! I really wanted this for us.”

The confession almost sweeps your legs from under you. You’re dizzy from the amount of pure adoration and genuine sincerity coming from Robin’s words. Robin worked herself to the bone for months for you?

Noticing your still unconvinced expression, Robin reaches into her back pocket and pulls out her beat up wallet. “Look.”

She opens it and right there on the front, is her drivers license. Picture and all. She is smiling so wide in her picture and your heart does a little flip of how happy she looks. You know she was so proud of herself that day. You smile warmly and Robin lights up and your reaction. She shoves her wallet back into her pocket.

Robin gently plucks the rose that’s in your hand and places it on top of a nearby side table. She takes your hands and intertwines your fingers with hers. Your skin makes contact with her rings and the touch sends a cool chill through you. You gaze into your eyes, her expression tender.

“I’ve got the girl, and now I’ve got the car. I can take you to school, pick you up. Take you out on the weekends. Maybe, Um. Maybe take trips somewhere. Just the two of us. Without worrying too much about…well you know…”

Your heart is full. Robin is staring at you like you’re the only thing in the universe. You shake your head in disbelief of how utterly lucky you are.

“So you did all this in what, a couple of months?” You question.

Robin shakes her head up and down a little too fast. “Mhm. Four to be exact.”

You feel like an ass. Here was Robin, your amazing girlfriend, working way too much for a high school student, going to band, learning to drive and keeping her grades up all the while you’d mope and complain about your lack of time together. Obviously, you didn’t know what she was doing, but you can’t help but feel terrible with how hard she had to work over the last few months. Hell, you’re sure even some adults would crack under the pressure of it all.

Robin notices your brows knitting together in thought. She grabs your chin and turns you to face her.

“Hey. Don’t worry, pretty girl. It was worth it. Trust me.”

Robin smiles down at you and leans in closer. You naturally gravitate toward her and meet her halfway, her soft lips make contact with yours in a sweet and slow kiss. You are overwhelmed by everything Robin just said to you. You never doubted Robin’s devotion, but this was the most amazing gesture anyone has ever done for you.

Robin’s hands are on your waist and she pulls your hips flush against hers. You can’t hold back the moan that escapes you. Robin’s hums and smiles against your mouth at your reaction.

“Now don’t go making those noises or else we might not leave this house.” She jokes, but you can’t ignore the way your body reacts to her words.

“Hmm.” You tap your finger on your lips and act like you’re deep in thought. “What if we stayed here just a little longer before going out?” You bat your eyelashes innocently, but your request is anything but.

Robin understands but raises an eyebrow in surprise anyway. “I would love nothing more pretty girl but um…your parents?”

“Gone, and will be for a while. It’s their date night too you know. Plus, I don’t think I’m quite ready to be in a car with you behind the wheel yet, Buckley.” You jest, and Robin laughs, low and warm.

Robin grabs your face with both hands and blows a gnarly, wet, raspberry on your cheek. You yell in disgust at the crude noise and you try to push her away but you’re laughing too much. She’s got you wrapped up tight in her arms now, and you can barely budge.

“Did you not hear me when I said I aced the test on my first try?”

“Beginner's luck.” You strain to say against her body. You manage to wiggle free from her grip.

“Huh. That’s weird. Sounds like someone with no license is trying to talk to me.” She cups a hand to her ear and leans toward you.

You act quickly. Robin is making this too easy. You stick your finger in your mouth and aim right for her ear. Robin acts like she just got sucker punched. She jerks back, holding on to her ear and twirls in place a couple times. She’s repulsed.

“Augh!! A Wet Willy?!” She’s rubbing her ear, a look of betrayal on her face. “That’s sinful!”

You’re doubled over in laughter, tears threatening to fall from your eyes, but one look on Robin’s face has you sobering up quickly. A predatory gleam darkens your girlfriend’s features and you know you’re in trouble. You gulp.

“Oh shit.”

Robin reaches for you and you only just manage to evade her. You run to the living room, Robin hot on your heels. You’re joyous screams and Robin’s heavy footsteps fill the house. Your heart is beating so fast at the thrill of your girlfriend chasing you. You thank the heavens that Robin is so uncoordinated. You manage to evade her swipes every time she’s within reach. Robin chases you in circles around the couch a couple of times. You’re both laughing at the ridiculousness of it.

You are starting to lose your breath. “Wait wait! Truce!” You stop in front of the couch with your hands raised in front of you. Robin stands on the other side of the couch, you’re both panting. “Let’s call a truce before we break something!”

“Fine.” She says breathlessly. “You wanna apologize you little hellion?”

You laugh at her choice of vocabulary. Despite the wonderful news Robin told you about her recent achievements, you are in a spunky mood. You want to keep pushing Robin’s buttons a little more.

You smile crookedly and cross your arms defiantly. “I have nothing to apologize for.” And you stick your nose in the air.

Robin vaults, actually vaults over the sofa that was separating you two and you don’t even have time to blink before she effortlessly wraps her arms around you in a crushing bear hug. You squeal in amusement and flail like fish trying to escape, unfortunately she’s got her hands securely locked around you and she starts peppering your face with a dozen tiny little kisses. You’re laughing uncontrollably now. You don’t even really care if you go out tonight anymore. Robin being with you, like this, is way more than enough.

You’re overwhelmed with emotion. You kiss Robin deeply, and she makes a delighted noise deep in her throat. You feel the tiny vibration shake your whole body. Her arms forget their hold on you and instead fall to your waist. Robin starts to move her feet as you continue attacking her sweet mouth with your own. You absently follow her, unable and unwilling to break the kiss. Robin collapses onto the couch and positions you to straddle her lap.

The kisses started out soft at first, but the longer your make out session went on, the more furious the kisses became. Each slide of lips and tongue only got you more worked up. You couldn’t help but move your hips back and forth in her lap, trying to find any kind of friction. Robin moves her hands from your waist to your ass, giving your flesh a bruising squeeze over your dress as you moved against her. You feel a white hot ache in your lower abdomen at the rough touch.

Fuck. It’s suddenly too hot.

Feeling daring, you catch Robin’s bottom lip with your teeth, giving it a harsh tug. Robin winces but growls pleasingly at the sensation. She retaliates by slinking a hand in your hair and harshly tugs, pulling your head back and forcing you to bare your throat. You feel a spark of desire ignite through your whole body at slight pain and let out a wretched moan.

“What’s got my pretty girl so feisty tonight?” She asks in a cool voice. She places open mouthed wet kisses all along the base of your throat.

“Robin…” You’re breathless and whiny. Robin takes pity on you and lets go of the vice grip she has on your roots. You stare at her. Her eyes are cloudy with desire and you know you must give off the same look.

“What do you want, baby?” Robin’s voice is coarse and low.

You want to make Robin feel good. You want to reward her for all the hard work she put herself through over these past few months. You want to let her know how much you appreciate her, and how lucky you are to have a woman like her in your life.

You whimper and shift against her. “I want to taste you. Please Robin.” You blurt out. You can see Robin’s eyes go a little wide, like she wasn’t expecting you to say that.

“Yea? That’s what you want?”

You nod your head excitedly, and Robin chuckles at your enthusiasm. “I owe you from last time, remember?” You give her a sly wink.

You can see Robin thinking very hard about your request. You pout cutely, and give her some serious puppy dog eyes. She clicks her tongue and relents. Like she could ever say no to you.

“Get on your knees for me then.” Robin commands, you start to move a little too quickly, your eagerness taking over your mind and body. Robin roughly grabs your chin to stop you. “Slowly.” She says in an almost dangerous timbre. Your cunt throbs at her tone of voice. It lacks the usual tenderness you get all the time from Robin, replaced by something more sharp and assertive. This dominant side of your girlfriend is nothing new to you. You know exactly what to do when she wants to play this game, and you are more than happy to oblige her, especially after all that you learned today.

You give her an apologetic look. She lets go of your chin with a flick of her wrist, and you sensually crawl down her body. Slow, just like she wants. She watches you with a ravenous gaze. She brings her thumb between her teeth as your body slides deliciously down hers. You maintain eye contact as you sink to your knees and nestle between Robin’s legs. You can see the darkness in Robin’s eyes grow large. Her pupils are blown wide at the sight of you on your knees for her. You reach for her belt on her jeans but she pushes your hands away. You look up at her curiously.

“Not yet, baby.”

Robin sits up and takes off her jacket and tosses haphazardly. It lands somewhere with a thud. You don’t even know. You continue watching her through a hazy lens of desire. Robin leans forward and cups your face with a hand. Her thumb lazily caresses your heated cheeks. You smile and hum happily for her, a reassuring noise to Robin that lets her know that you’re okay. She beams lovingly down at you.

“Such a sweet thing.” She traces two fingers down your forehead to the bridge of your nose. You let out a light, little laugh at the tickling feeling. She pauses at your lips. “Open that pretty mouth for me.”

You obediently part your lips and eagerly take Robin’s fingers in your mouth. You maintain eye contact with Robin as she slowly slides her fingers over your tongue to the second knuckle. Robin watches you through hooded eyes. You ball your fist in the hem of your dress, knuckles turning white trying to be patient. Robin presses down against your tongue just slightly but it causes your head to jerk back out of instinct. She laughs darkly. You fight the urge to bite her and wipe that dumb grin off her face.

“Go on then pretty girl. Give me a show.” She presses a tiny bit further in your mouth.

You close your lips tightly around her fingers and suck. You slowly move your head up and down the length of Robin’s fingers and you watch as she bites her lip absently. Robin pumps her fingers in tandem with your movements. The pressure of Robin’s fingers sliding against your tongue makes you moan around her. Robin shivers at the sensation. Even though you’re still fully clothed, you feel extremely exposed, not to mention small. You love this feeling, you decide. So much so, that you start rocking your hips into nothing. You let out a symphony of obscene moans as Robin’s fingers work your mouth.

The sucking noises combined with your whiny, needy mewls only spur Robin on. “You like getting your mouth fucked like this?” She says in a cracked voice. Her deep blue eyes have been replaced by her blown pupils and an almost animalistic veil cloaks her features. You clench your thighs together at Robin’s arrogant tone. You can feel arousal start to pool in your underwear. You don’t reply to her verbally. You only speed up your efforts hoping that satisfies her for an answer. Robin is pleased it seems, judging by her wicked grin. You’re making a mess of yourself, and Robin loves it. Your saliva has coated Robin’s rings and you feel more of it drip down your chin.

You try to hold down a gag after a particular hard thrust but it chokes out of you anyway. Robin gently cups your face signaling for you to stop. You open your mouth and Robin slips out her fingers. A string of spit follows, attached to your lower lip. It breaks and sticks to your dress. You try to be disgusted with yourself, but it turns out it doesn’t faze you, and it only turns Robin on even more. You look up at Robin with shimmering, needy, eyes. Your lips are puffy and trembling.

Robin wipes her hand on top of her jeans. She leans forward again, this time, to tilt your chin up and kiss you. A kiss so sloppy and hot you feel it scald. She groans in your mouth and you are reduced to a puddle under her.

Robin breaks the kiss and kicks her red converse off, careful not to accidentally hit you in the process. She settles back into the couch.

“Go ahead, pretty girl.” She says breathless. Her voice comes out a little shaky.

You need no further instruction. Your hands come up to her knees and you slowly glide them up, massaging her thighs along the way. Robin is already bucking her hips up in anticipation. You finally reach that damn belt of hers and hurriedly unbuckle it with careful precision. Robin is watching your hands attentively as you work on the button and zipper. She’s quiet, for once, and at first you’re a little concerned, but she’s already lifting her up her hips for you expectantly. You smile to yourself.

Your fingers dip into the waistband of her underwear, and you pull down her jeans and underwear in a flourish. You free both articles of clothing from her long legs and toss them behind you. Robin scoots down the couch a little lower, her bottom half almost hanging off the edge of the couch and invitingly spreads wider for you. You can see her glistening slick sticking to her inner thighs and some of it is coating her dark, fine hairs. The sight and smell of her shatters you completely.

“Baby, please.” You hear her say, barely louder than a whisper. Robin blushes a deep crimson. Normally, Robin isn’t one to beg for anything from you. You’re usually the one doing that. You want to make a quip, but think better of it. You figure that you teased Robin enough. You don’t want to be that mean. At least not tonight.

You waste no more time. You start leaving a trail of open mouthed kisses along the inside of her thighs, getting closer to her to center after each one. You can hear Robin whimper above you as you get closer to where she needs you the most. You place a feather light kiss directly on her clit and her whole body twitches at the touch. She’s so hot and wet.

You adjust your kneeling position one last time before indulging. You flatten your tongue, and burrow yourself deep into Robin’s folds and god she taste so fucking good.

Robin bucks her hips almost violently at your first lick and her hand immediately grabs fistfuls of your hair. She pushes you in deeper, and you let her. You can’t help but be pliant under her touch, addicted to the way she controls you. You groan against her when her taste engulfs your senses entirely.

You want to go feral on her cunt. You want to see how fast you can make her cum. It takes every fiber of your being to control yourself and push those urges away. Your girlfriend deserves to have her pussy eaten slow, lovingly, and for however long she wants in whatever way she wants.

You continue your slow strokes, gliding up and down Robin’s cunt, greedily lapping up her wetness in the process. You lick from her entrance all the way up to clit and back down. Repeating the motions over and over. You moan against her, and the vibrations send a heavenly shiver throughout Robin’s body.

“Fuck. Feels s’good.” Robin sighs in pleasure and her head falls backward against the couch cushion. You stare up at her through your eyelashes as your mouth continues to worship her. She’s looking up toward the ceiling with her eyes closed, her free arm resting behind her head and her mouth slightly agape. She has a pure, blissed out expression on her face. You are enamored with the sight of her being so relaxed. Something about Robin reclining back and enjoying herself so leisurely while you’re on your knees eating her out sends some kind of unknown feeling to your brain, and it’s definitely not a bad feeling either.

You can feel her hand tug tighter in your hair, and she’s guiding you a little higher. When your tongue makes contact with her clit, she keeps your head there. You don’t need to be told what she wants. You bring your tongue to a point and circle the spot with just the right amount of pressure you know Robin likes. A wave ripples throughout Robin’s body and her arm comes from behind her head to yours. She’s got both of her hands clutched on either side of your head. Securely locking you in place. Her chest starts to rise and fall faster. It’s a beautiful display.

Robin whines and starts to slowly roll her hips in time with your tongue. “Right there pretty girl. Right there.” She strains to talk clearly and her voice cracks. Your own cunt is begging for any kind of relief. Each roll of Robin’s hips on your face sends an almost painful throb straight to your core.

You alternate techniques, switching between sharp tight circles to long, broad strokes. Occasionally closing your lips around Robin’s clit to suck. You’re eating Robin’s pussy with purpose now. It’s hard to be slow when Robin is grinding against your mouth. You whine harshly against a mouthful of pussy as your own desperation rocks you again. Robin dares to look down, and she’s met with your hungry and needy eyes.

“You’re doing so well babe.” Robin coos. The fire burning in your lower belly only grows at her praising. All you can do is let her fuck your mouth while your tongue tries to keep up with her erratic thrusting. Her breathing is coming out in short, shallow breaths and she’s clutching your head tighter. You hum excitedly below her, knowing she’s getting close.

You tap her thigh, signaling to her. Robin lets go of your head and you pull back gasping.

“Fuck my face Robin.” You cry out, you don’t even recognize your own voice. “Please can you-”

You don’t even get to finish what you were about to say. Robin grabs the back of your head again and forcefully shoves your face back into her cunt. You let out an embarrassing salacious moan at being manhandled.

“What my pretty girl wants, she gets.” Robin says with a growl.

She clutches your skull with both hands again and you lay your tongue flat against her swollen clit, bracing yourself for what’s to come.

Robin mercilessly thrusts her hips into you, grinding herself at a furious pace against your mouth. You can only take short breaths through your nose in between her thrusts. Fuck. You can barely breathe, but you couldn’t care less. The way Robin is abusing your face and tongue makes your cunt quiver once again. You know for a fact you are soaked through your panties. You can feel it every time you shift.

“Touch yourself.” Robin grunts, as if reading your mind. “Want…want you to cum too.” Oh thank god.

While Robin continues her ruthless bucking, your hand flies under your skirt and quickly dips inside your panties. You’ve never been so wet in your life. You don’t know whether to be impressed or embarrassed. You don’t give yourself time to decide. You hurriedly find your clit and frantically start getting yourself off. You want to catch up to Robin’s own imminent orgasm.

Robin’s high pitched moaning and the wet sounds of your face being fucked is a cacophony of the most unholiest music, and your empty house amplify each note.

Your jaw is starting to ache, but you don’t dare try and pull away. You wanted Robin to use you like a toy and that’s exactly what you intend to stay as.

Robin’s eyes have screwed tightly shut and her eyebrows knit together in concentration. You know this face all too well. You furiously rub small tight circles against your clit.

“Shit….” Robin whispers low and broken. Her fingers grip your hair and her hands shake with how tightly she’s pulling. You wince at the intense pain but it only fuels the fire of your growing orgasm. “Gonna cum. Gonna fucki-” Robin’s eyes roll in the back of her head and arches her back as an intense orgasm takes over her body, and god, is it a spectacle. She unleashes a guttural moan as her hips convulse in a broken rhythm against you. You relax your tongue, letting her ride out her climax, and without warning, your own orgasm catches up to you. It takes you by surprise and you find yourself cumming against your fingers. A deep groan falls from your lips and the vibrations make Robin twitch away from you.

The both of you ride out the last waves of your orgasm together until Robin can’t take any more stimulation. She relaxes and frees your head from her clutches. You swiftly sit up straight and take deep breaths, trying to fill your lungs back with air. A cold breeze hits your chin and nose, letting you know that your face is drenched in a mixture of Robin’s arousal and your own spit. You groan as you slip your cum covered fingers out from under you and wipe them against your dress. Fuck it. You never really liked this dress anyway. You lift the hem of your dress up and wipe your face dry. You feel so dirty, and you kinda love it. In your post orgasm stupor, you look at Robin, who’s fallen on her side and nestled into the couch, lazily watching you, looking completely fucked out. You look away from her, embarrassed that she just witnessed you clean cum and spit off yourself.

“Mmm. Y’look s’pretty.” She says dopey and slurred. You snort and shake your head.

“You good there, Buckley?” You ask sarcastically.

She gives you a shaky thumbs up as an answer and you laugh. You can see Robin’s usual goofiness start to creep its way back into her features.

“Can uh. Can you get my clothes pretty girl? I don’t think I can move.” She confesses. You quirk an eyebrow questionably.

“Really? After what I just did for you?” You ask teasingly. Regardless, you get up on shaky legs and start gathering her discarded clothes in your arms.

“Mmm, and I loved it baby believe me, but I kinda did most of the work.” She says jokingly, but then immediately regrets it.

You’re standing at the edge of the couch, looming over her. Her clothes raised high above your head. Now Robin is the one to visibly gulp.

“I love you?” She says nervously.

You slam the bundle of clothes right on top of her with all your might.

—

A few minutes later. The two of you are sitting on the couch, Robin’s arm draped over your shoulder. You’ll never be able to look at this couch the same way for a while.

“It’s still early. Did you still wanna go out?” Robin’s scratchy voice breaks you out of your thoughts. She sounds hopeful. You hum happily and nestle into her arm.

“Sure. I definitely need to change first though.” You look down at your stained dress and grimace. Robin follows your eyes and nods her head.

“Right.” She says. “Your dress kinda reminds me of pistachio ice cream, and I mean that in a good way. Minty. Did you want to get ice cream? I know of a decent place. Obviously it won’t be as great as Scoops because it’s not made by yours truly, but I hear good things about it and it’s not that far-”

You listen to Robin ramble, and you fall into the warm familiarness of it. As much as you love the Robin from earlier, this is the Robin you fell in love with, and you wouldn’t change a damn thing about her.

You don’t have the heart to tell her that you’re actually beat, and you know how much she just wants to drive you somewhere, anywhere.

“Sure, ice cream sounds great.” You say happily.

Robin pumps her fist victoriously and you giggle at her reaction. You suddenly can’t decide if she was more excited about driving you somewhere or getting ice cream.

“By the way Buckley.” You say suddenly serious.

Robin whips her head to you, expression also turning serious at your tone.

“If you ever compare my articles of clothing to types of food again, you can say goodbye to any future driving dates.” You smirk, letting her know you’re just teasing.

Robin clutches her heart and exaggeratedly falls off the couch. You laugh loudly at her theatrics, clutching your stomach.

You leave her on the floor as she pretends to play dead, still laughing as you make your way up the stairs to change.

You can faintly hear her say “I said pistachio ice cream in a good way!” Just as you enter your room.

#1k #1.5k #Robin Buckley #robin buckley x you #robin buckley x reader #robin buckley x female reader #robin buckley smut #robin buckley imagine #robin buckley fanfic #stranger things fanfiction #stranger things #jmo writes

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chickenfics · 8 months

Text

the way I love the ocean

Relationship: Robin Buckley x Female!Reader

Summary: It was the summer of ‘87. Nothing in your life had prepared you for Robin, but somehow everything had begun falling into place. It all started with a movie and a pair of ocean-blue eyes, and suddenly you were dancing to a Jukebox in a long-closed diner, or racing down the length of a pier, swimming in the moon-dipped lake and walking her home down yellow-lit streets, talking about the way The Smiths sound like indigo and the best time of the summer is when the fireflies start to come out.

It was the summer of ‘87, and you were falling in love.

Word Count: 7.3k

A/N: .........Hi. Okay so yes it's been six months I am so sorry for the wait. I will finish this fic, and the final chapter will not take another 6 months to get out, but I do still have to write it so bear with me <3 Thank you all for the support, I hope this chapter is at least a little worth the wait :]

Let me know if you’d like to be tagged for future chapters! (Only one more to go)

Fic Playlist! Also on Ao3

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Chapter 7: Here I Go Again

“I’m telling you guys, he just like… doesn’t listen to what I’m saying. It doesn’t matter what it is -- I could tell him I’m heading to college tomorrow, bags already packed, and he’d still be fucking disappointed.”

Steve was stacking shelves with half of his focus and ranting with the other, hand waving through the air with an occasional VHS to add to his point. You were leaning back against the counter of Family Video, resting between Robin’s legs. She had her arms wrapped around your shoulders in a loose but heavy grip, and her chin sat on one of her arms. Steve would have been complaining that she wasn’t working if he wasn’t still reeling from an argument he'd had with his dad.

“I’m sorry, Steve,” you said.

“Yeah,” Robin chimed in, reaching up to lay a hand on the top of your head, tilting it this way and that like a monkey inspecting a coconut. “Parents suck.”

“Parents fucking suck,” he insisted, shoving the last VHS tape into its spot on the shelf. “I can’t wait to move out.”

“Take me with you,” Robin pleaded. Your heart immediately fluttered at the thought of moving into your own little home with Robin and Steve.

“God, can you imagine,” you said, sliding your hands behind Robin’s knees and pulling her closer to you. “Actually having a place of our own…”

“Now hang on a minute, I said I can’t wait to move out -- who said anything about you bozos.”

“Steeeeeeve,” Robin whined, tilting her head so her cheek was smushed against your shoulder. She wrapped her arms further across your chest. “I thought we were best friends.”

“We are best friends -- that doesn’t mean I don’t need my own space.”

“So you can have a man cave,” she replied, voice rising an octave in that way that always meant she was making fun of him.

“Really, Robin? You just--”

“Hey guys,” a sudden familiar voice called along with the chime of the bell as the door opened and Eddie burst through. “I brought the kid.” He spun halfway, pointing a finger at a teenager who was trailing behind him.

“‘The kid.’ Really?” the boy deadpanned, giving Eddie an unamused look.

“Henderson!” Steve grinned, his mood immediately improving. He fidgeted like he was going to run over to him but instead leaned over the other side of the counter. Robin pulled her legs out of your grip to twist around.

“What am I, chop liver?” Eddie demanded, shooting him a wink when the other man rolled his eyes before going to poke him in the ribs.

“Hey,” Robin greeted the kid.

“Hey,” the kid, nodding his head at her, then his gaze quickly snapped to you peeking over her shoulder. “Holy shit,” he said with an endearing lisp. “Is this the…”

“Yep, this is my…”

“Hi,” you raised an awkward hand.

“Holy shit, hi!” he perked up, grinning from ear to ear. The corners of his mouth curled into dimples, the skin around his eyes crinkling with the intensity of his smile. The decision that you liked this kid was instantaneous.

He took a big step closer to the counter and reached a hand over it.

“I’m Dustin, it’s nice to finally meet you,” he shot Robin an intentional look, then glanced back at you. You ducked around Robin to take his hand, smirking when he gave it a firm, business-like shake.

“Nice to meet you too.”

“Why is this just now happening?” he demanded, glancing around the room.

Steve gave a vague shrug, Eddie smirked slyly as he leaned onto Steve’s shoulder, and Robin said, “We’ve just been a little busy, that’s all.”

“Uh-huh,” Dustin said around another smaller grin, eyes twinkling as he looked back at you. “Awesome.”

“Henderson quit staring, you creep.”

“Wha-- I’m not staring--” He dodged as Steve suddenly lunged around the counter for him. The older boy dropped a hand onto the top of Dustin’s baseball cap and gave him a friendly shove before ducking away from the kid’s elbows. Eddie was watching them with his arms crossed and a love-drunk grin on his face that you knew he probably would have denied with his life if anyone dared to bring it up.

“Oh my god, they’re adorable,” you whispered to Robin, turning to face her and draping your arms over her shoulders. Her eyelids fluttered half-closed as she smirked at you.

“You’re adorable.”

“Shut up,” you tucked your nose behind her ear, inhaling the familiar scent of her shampoo.

“Holy shit!” Dustin suddenly yelled, voice cracking. You lifted your head and Robin turned hers to find him staring at you. “You guys totally have to come skating with us on Friday.”

There was a chorus of “What? No,” “Skating, you guys are going skating?” and “I can’t skate -- I can barely even walk,” the last one belonging to the girl whose legs were wrapped around your hips.

“Come on,” Dustin groaned, obviously lacking the patience required to deal with any answer but ‘yes.’ “Guys, it’ll be so fun. El wants to go before they all head back to California, so that means it would actually be really rude to say no. Besides," he added, waving a hand at you. "She can meet the rest of the party there. You guys can't just keep her all to yourselves forever."

"Uh, last I checked she’s a free person," Robin said with mock pleasantness and her own eyebrow raised.

"Alright, fine," Dustin replied, somehow sounding like a parent who was ending an argument he knew he could win. You couldn't help but wonder who this kid was. He was kind of great. "But my argument still stands."

Then, horrifyingly, he looked to you, his lips curling into that adorable grin.

"So, you wanna come skating this weekend?"

"Uh," you hummed, glancing at Robin. She just stared back at you with what you thought might be an expression high on fondness. "Sure," you decided even though you weren't actually sure. "Why not?"

"Robin might fall and crack her big head open," Steve said in answer to your rhetorical question.

“Uh, for your information, I actually have an average-sized head, thank you very much.”

Eddie snorted.

“I mean, if that’s okay,” you ignored the theatrics you were more than used to by now and looked at Robin. You didn’t want to pressure her into anything, and you also didn’t want to just waltz yourself right into her friend group if she didn’t want you to.

But Robin smiled softly. Always soft, always sweet like springtime.

“If you’re game,” she shrugged. “I’m game. You’ll just have to keep me from cracking my perfectly average-sized head head open,” she hooked her arms around your waist with a smirk.

“Oh, you guys are so cute,” Dustin said, and you both turned around to find him grinning at you.

“Shut up, nerd,” Robin said even though she was smiling too. She reached over to give him a little shove to keep up appearances.

“So, six o’clock?” he looked expectantly around the room.

“Yeah, sure,” Steve grumbled, and everyone else nodded in agreement.

“Cool, cool…. So, I’m also gonna need a ride--”

“Oh, me too,” Robin raised a hand.

“Oh my god!”

______________________________________________________________

The roller rink in Hawkins was, in almost every way, about as fancy as you’d expect. It was almost always empty during weekdays and crowded during weekends when kids had off school and parents were looking for a way to get them out of the house. It was dark, the floor was cracked in a few places, and the roller skates were likely older than all of you combined. You were pretty sure your parents had used the same skates you were using now, and as you carried the worn leather back to an equally worn cushioned seat just outside the skating area, you half expected a wheel to pop off or something.

You’d arrived before the rest of the kids. You, Robin, and Dustin had all piled into Steve’s car earlier that evening. Dustin, taking the passenger seat, had ranted about the grade he’d gotten on his science project and how he was being “cheated for all I’m worth, Steve. Cheated.” Then he changed the tone by bragging about how well Suzie had done on her own project.

“Suzie?” you asked, wondering if she was one of the kids you’d be meeting tonight.

“Dustin’s girlfriend,” Robin teasingly provided.

“Yeah,” Dustin said, grinning dreamily. “She’s great. She lives in Utah, though, so we made this whole radio system to communicate. Way easier than using a phone, and this way we know no one can listen in on our conversations.”

“Ew,” Steve muttered.

“It’s not ‘ew,’ it’s romantic.”

“Sounds pretty ‘ew’ to me.”

“Oh, there it is,” Robin leaned between the seats to point at the turn in the road. “Pay attention, Steve.”

“I am, Jesus, would you sit back down?”

With a smirk, Robin flopped herself back into her seat. As Steve turned into the parking lot, Robin gave you a fond smile. It lit up her face like a spring morning, all sunshine and birdsong, and you felt something unbearably warm bloom between your ribs.

Clambering out of Steve's car, you’d all rushed inside to get your skates, Dustin leading the way like he owned the place and chatting with the employees eagerly -- even when they were less than eager to talk to him. Steve had rolled his eyes about five times since getting inside, but there was a constant spark in them. You were pretty sure he loved this kid, and you were also sure that it made sense. Steve, at his very core, was loving -- even when he was trying very hard not to be.

You and Robin had just sat down next to each other when a familiar puff of brown hair popped up in the crowd of pre-teens and parents who had already filled the building. When he caught sight of you, Eddie waved dramatically, and then he spun in a circle to herd a group of kids toward the front desk. Behind him, a large man in a floral shirt had his arm slung around a tiny woman in a beige jacket and following them was another group of kids.

“Jesus, you guys weren’t kidding. How many children does Steve know?”

Robin looked at you and grinned.

“Hey, oh my god!” Dustin called, hopping excitedly as two boys ran up to tackle him in a group hug. From the back of the crowd, another boy appeared and raced towards the pile, throwing his skinny arms around his friends. You watched them with a vague smile on your face.

What happened next was chaos. Between the crowd of strangers and the crowd of children, you felt like you were drowning in faces as Dustin, Robin, and Steve all tried to introduce you at different times to different people. But after only a few moments, the group seemed to realize that there was a newcomer among them.

“Everybody shut up!” Dustin shrilly yelled.

“Dustin, Jesus Christ,” a dark-haired boy muttered, face scrunched in annoyance.

“Okay,” Dustin said, ignoring him. “Everyone, this is Y/N. She’s Robin’s… friend. Y/N, this is Mike,” he pointed to the dark-haired boy, who gave you a grimace in place of a smile. “Lucas,” he pointed to the boy next to Mike, who smiled and nodded. “And Will.” Last in line, Will murmured a shy, “Nice to meet you.”

Then Dustin stretched up on his tip-toes to peer over the crowd. “Max! Eleven! Erica!”

“Jesus, would you stop yelling,” Mike insisted, and Lucas laughed to himself.

Three girls appeared out of the crowd, two of them looking like they were ready to kick someone’s ass.

“What the hell do you want, nerd,” the smallest of them snarked.

“I want to introduce you to someone, so could you be pleasant and or agreeable for once in your life? This is Y/N, she’s Robin’s friend.”

“Hi,” you offered, trying to seem as disarming as possible. “It’s nice to meet you.”

The girl narrowed her eyes at you. “Hi. I’m Erica,” she finally said, looking you up and down.

“Hello,” the girl next to her said in a soft but clear voice. “I’m El. It is nice to meet you,” she held out a hand, and you took it with a gentle shake. She seemed sweet.

“This is Max,” she said, tilting her shoulders to make room for a redhead who was eyeing you warily.

“You’re Robin’s friend?” Max said, and you got the sense that this was some sort of test.

“Yeah,” you replied simply, and the girl only nodded.

“Alright,” Steve clapped his hands together. “Now that that’s done, everybody get your skates before they run out. Come on, chop-chop everybody, let’s go!”

You watched as Steve slipped into what Robin had warned you was “Mom Mode” as he herded all the kids towards the back of the room to pick up their skates.

“Hi,” the small woman greeted you, stepping around the man in the colorful shirt. She smiled as she offered you her hand, and kindness radiated from every inch of her. “I’m Joyce, Will and El’s mom. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you, too,” you replied, instantly feeling comfortable.

“I know things can be a little crazy around here,” she glanced around the roller rink. “But you let me know if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” you said, feeling a bit of your mask chip away as you began to feel more at ease. Maybe meeting new people wasn’t as scary as you’d been led to believe your whole life. Maybe you’d just never met the right people.

“Should we get this show on the road?” Robin said, appearing close to your side.

“Let’s do it,” you murmured. “Just promise you won’t break any bones, okay?”

“‘Course not. You’re here to look after me, right?” she replied, voice sugar-sweet. All you could do was nod, your mouth opening uselessly. Robin shrugged as she backed towards the seat. “Then I’ll be fine.”

______________________________________________________________

“Keep your knees bent. Knees bent, Steve -- fucking Christ.”

“Shut up, Henderson,” Steve hollered back as best he could without toppling himself over. He looked like a baby deer on ice. You’d started calling him Bambi and he’d threatened to never drive you anywhere ever again. Robin laughed so hard she’d nearly fallen over, and you’d had to grab her under the armpits to stop her from hitting the deck. Then Steve laughed so hard he did fall over, and Dusin had to take several prolonged minutes to catch his breath and wipe the tears from his eyes when the whole ordeal was over.

You grinned as you passed Steve, who squinted his eyes at you in a way that suggested if he didn’t have wheels strapped to his feet, you’d be in a headlock right about now. It also probably helped that you were the main reason Robin wasn’t on her ass. In her words, “I’ve got about as much coordination as a newborn giraffe. Probably less.” She hadn’t let go of your hand since you’d entered the rink, her knuckles white and her palm sweaty. It was probably one of the few places, you realized, where the two of you could hold hands like this without getting odd looks. Plenty of people were helping each other stay upright -- it hardly mattered that you and Robin were touching.

It was nice. God, it was nice -- even when you were both sweaty, and the rink was crowded, and Robin looked like she was doing the monster mash trying to keep herself balanced. You giggled at the thought.

“What?” she managed to look at you without tripping over her own feet.

“You look adorable,” you murmured, leaning to bump your forehead on her shoulder because outright kissing her like you wanted to wouldn’t have gone down well.

“You look adorable,” she shot back, wrinkling her nose with a grin. “Also, how are you so good at this?”

You shrugged. “I’ve got good balance.”

Risking life and limb, Robin skated closer until she was nearly pressed against your side.

“My girlfriend’s multi-talented,” she whispered in your ear, wiggling her eyebrows when you looked up at her. You tried to keep yourself from burning up.

“I have to pee,” you suddenly said.

Robin looked at you for a moment, then glanced around. “I, uh, guess I should help you to the bathroom, right?”

“I mean… Peeing on wheels is dangerous business.”

Her eyes lit up with the realization followed by a mischievous smile, and then she was pulling you towards the rink’s exit, ignoring the other skaters as they dodged around you.

“Hey,” you heard a familiar voice call. You tilted your heels and spun around.

“Holy shit,” Robin muttered, grabbing onto your arm in alarm -- as if she’d be able to hold you up. No, the gesture was more like a commitment to going down with you.

“So what, you guys’re just gonna leave me?” Steve yelled, and then his arms flew up as the effort of yelling nearly knocked him on his ass for the dozenth time that night.

“Bathroom,” you yelled back, pointing towards the door in the corner of the large room. “Besides, Dustin’s taking great care of you.”

“Finally,” the kid announced. “Some of the respect I deserve. I like her,” he turned to Steve. “She’s way better than you.”

“Oh, oh really, okay,” Steve muttered, pulling a face before dodging sideways and trying to push Dustin over. The younger boy yelled, but he was grinning. You smiled after them, and when you turned to find Robin again, she was watching you, something soft and distinctly happy on her face.

“So, uh… bathroom?” you murmured.

“Oh, uh… yes. Bathroom,” she replied.

It was more of an ordeal than you’d expected, getting inside the small room without being dismembered by the sink or beheaded by the stall doors. The slight slope in the floor was enough to make you unsteady, and Robin, her cheeks flushed red, looked like she was seriously considering the possibilities of an afterlife. But you managed, mostly by holding onto each other in a death grip. You were surprised neither of you had lost an eye by the time you determined that the bathroom was empty.

And as soon as you did that, you found your back against the wall. Robin was holding onto the sink -- the only reason she’d been able to push you backward -- and she was smiling at your lips. With eyes half-lidded and breath coming in short puffs that moved the strands of her frizzy hair, she leaned forward and kissed you. Her lips were hot and soft, and they tasted like the chapstick you kept in your work apron. You hummed, wrapping an arm around her neck.

“I,” she said, ducking back slightly. You opened your eyes to look into her soft blue ones. “I probably smell really bad right now. Like, a serious B.O. situation going on--”

You laughed, quickly shaking your head.

“No, no -- you just… you smell like you. Good,” you clarified. “You smell good…” Inching your nose into her hair, you managed to convince her.

“I’m so glad you exist,” she whispered against your cheek. “And that you’re, like, a goddess on skates, because otherwise I’m pretty sure I’d be dead by now.”

“Oof,” you winced, leaning back enough that you could smile, but not so far that your noses couldn’t touch. “‘A goddess?’ I don’t know…”

“I do. It’s definitely hot.”

You breathed out a small laugh, glancing at your feet, at the way Robin’s leg had braced against your thigh. You didn’t know what to say, so you lifted your hands to the waistband of her shorts, letting them play with the belt loops before sliding your fingers gently up her waist.

Eyes wandering slowly across your face, she’d just opened her mouth when there was a sudden noise from outside the bathroom. Pushing off of you, Robin spun in a circle like a rabbit caught in a trap. Acting on instinct, you reached out and caught her with one hand while flipping on the sink with the other -- just in time for Joyce to round the corner.

“Take it easy,” you said. “If the floor gets wet, we’re gonna have even bigger problems…” Laughing anxiously, you nodded toward the soap dispenser.

“Oh… oh right,” realization flitted across her face and she reached around you to stick her hands under the stream of water. She was still unsteady, though, and you grabbed her waist with both hands, this time just to steady her. Turning over your shoulder, you glanced at Joyce.

“You both are braver than me,” she said, smirking kindly. “Could never get me on a pair of those things. Not anymore…”

You smiled, the panic rushing out of your body.

“Yeah, it’s… an acquired skill,” you managed.

“I haven’t acquired it,” Robin added, and then she stiffened as she almost lost her balance again. Your hold on her waist kept her from falling.

“Well, it seems like you’re both doing great,” Joyce said, smiling again before ducking into a stall. You let out a breath as you turned to glance at Robin. Nothing was said, but you both could see it in each other’s eyes, how close of a call that had been. Even though Joyce seemed nice, you didn’t want to take any chances. At the very least, you didn’t want to have to try and explain what you and Robin had between each other to anyone else. It was yours, and you wanted to keep it that way.

“Ready?” you breathed, hand sliding around to the small of her back -- more of a comforting gesture than anything. Maybe for her, maybe for you.

“Yeah,” she nodded, grabbing your hand. She gave it a squeeze and a little shake, and it made your insides feel just as good as when she kissed you. Everything Robin did made you feel loved.

Which even included having to hold her tall frame up as you both wobbled your way out of the bathroom.

“We're lucky no one’s lost an eye,” she said.

“I was just thinking that,” you laughed and held her hand tighter.

“Heya,” a voice droned past you, and you looked up in time to see Eddie spin on his wheels and coast backward, two cans of soda in hand. “How’s it going, nerds?”

“This is what happens when he hangs out with Erica. He gets even more annoying than usual,” Robin explained, leaning into you so she didn’t have to yell over the music and clatter of skates.

“Ouch?” Eddie announced, clutching a hand to his chest.

“We’re good,” you said, ignoring Robin with a smirk. “Well, we almost died in the bathroom, but other than that.”

“Oh, the bathroom, eh? And of course, you needed a partner for that perilous journey…”

“Exactly.”

“Didn’t you hear the part about us almost dying?” Robin said, wobbling again. “If it wasn’t for her I’m pretty sure you’d have to wheel me out on a gurney.”

“Uh-huh,” Eddie squinted, but then he lifted his hands and shrugged. “As long as you’re being safe.”

“Shut up,” you grinned, rolling your eyes.

A smile tugged at Eddie’s lips, and then he was whipping around and hooking his arm over your shoulder, holding the opened soda can up and out of the way enough that, when a few splashes escaped, they landed on the floor and not on you as he pulled you into him a planted a kiss on your cheek.

“Take care of our girl, hot wheels,” he said, and then he was coasting away, lifting a can in parting without even looking back.

“He’s such a dork.” Robin announced.

“He’s a total sweetheart,” you replied. She looked over at you, then smiled.

“Whaddya say, hot wheels. Should we hit the floor?”

“Well, let’s not hit it too hard.”

Robin’s face scrunched with a grin and she nuzzled her adorably wrinkled nose into your ear before tugging you toward the rink.

______________________________________________________________

“So, do you like, skate a lot?”

“Well, not a lot. I used to, when I was younger, but not as much anymore.”

“You’re pretty good at it.”

“Thanks,” you smiled softly.

The redhead -- Max, you were pretty sure her name was -- had reluctantly worked her way over to you. Robin was in your line of sight, waving occasionally from the center where she and Steve were skating in smaller circles. Erica was with them, coaching them better than any gym teacher you’d ever seen and, even though they both made sure to very loudly voice their complaints, it was actually helping. Steve hadn’t fallen for a solid ten minutes now, and Robin was finally looking less like a falling tree. You thought maybe Erica seemed proud -- when she was sure neither Robin nor Steve was looking.

You’d stayed on the outside, coasting leisurely while watching the people skating around you. In the crowd, you recognized friends and strangers alike, and people that fell somewhere between the two. You’d thought the kid had maybe been watching you, but you weren’t sure until she came racing by, hitting the brakes moments before sailing past you. Her first few sentences had been awkward -- stilted, like she hadn’t really decided that she wanted to do this but was doing it anyway. You tried to seem casual enough that she wouldn’t feel weird about it and found yourself letting out a breath when she relaxed into easy conversation.

“You definitely seem to know what you’re doing,” you said. “Do you skate a lot?”

“I skateboard.”

“Oh, cool!” you grinned. “I don’t think I’d be very good.”

“It just takes practice. I was pretty shit at it when I first started,” she shrugged. Then, very hesitantly. “I don’t know, you seem pretty average on wheels. It probably wouldn’t take you long to pick it up.”

“Do you skate at that bank in the park?”

“Yeah,” another hesitation. She glanced at you. “I could teach you sometime if you wanted. I mean, I’m not a teacher or anything,” she added in a rush, icing out her fluster with indifference. “But I could show you the basics or whatever.”

“Really?” you grinned wider. “Yeah, okay. Cool.”

“Cool,” Max nodded. Then, with an almost surprised glance in your direction, she skated off, catching up with Lucas, who gave her a mock shove in the shoulder. She grabbed his shoulders and pretended to shake him before he ducked out of her grip. Someone grabbed onto your shoulder. You turned around and Robin was there.

“Holy shit, that was exceptional. She, like, has this whole thing going on where she likes to seem all tough and it makes her pretend she doesn’t like anyone even when she does.”

“I like her,” you said. Robin smiled.

“Me too. She--”

“Robin!” Steve yelled from across the room, voice raising in both volume and octave as he flailed toward you.

She took a breath to yell something back -- probably “What are you yelling for so loud, dingus, can’t you use your inside voice” -- when Steve, half hunched over in a desperate attempt to not fall, pointed frantically toward the ceiling.

Robin’s eyebrows furrowed. “What--”

“Robin,” you gasped, grabbing her arm.

“Would someone kindly tell me what on Earth is-- Oh my god!”

“ABBA!” Steve yelled.

“ABBA,” she yelled back, grabbing your arm as Mamma Mia blared over the speakers.

“You can’t not dance to ABBA, but I might genuinely die so hold onto me, okay?”

You laughed, readjusting your grip on her enough that she didn’t faceplant as she began to wiggle around.

“Mamma Mia,” she sang, spinning around so she could face you head-on. You gripped her hands tightly.

“Here I go again--”

“Woah, careful!”

“My, my, how can I resist you.”

“Mamma Mia,” Steve joined, coasting by -- nearly crashing into the wall.

“Does it show again, just how much I missed you.” Steve circled behind you as the two of them sang. You couldn’t stop smiling if you tried.

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie muttered as he slowly skated by. “This is truly a sad sight to see.”

Very slyly, you shot him a look. Then, throwing an arm around Robin’s shoulder, you sang nearly as loud as her and Steve.

“Yes, I've been brokenhearted. Blue since the day we parted. Why, why did I ever let you go?”

“Not you too.”

You just kept on singing, much to the delight of Steve, who seemed to be especially enjoying Eddie’s misery at the choice of music.

“It’s a roller rink, man,” Steve argued, shrugging. He’d gotten pretty decent on the skates, much to Eddie’s dismay. Less ammo. “They’re gonna play disco music.”

“Whatever. Just focus on not breaking your neck, okay Harrington.”

"Oh my god, do you think they'll play Dancing Queen?" he asked Robin.

"Eds, I can see the vein in your forehead popping."

"New girl, I need less of that and more--" he pulled a thinking face "--ehhh, emotional support. That's it." He hooked an arm around your neck. Robin had grabbed your hand. You hadn't noticed until now -- wondered if anyone else had. Didn't care.

It surprised you, but it felt good. Your insides felt all indigo and warm air and flowers woven into a crown. The lights blinked in a meadow across the floor. You rested your hand on Eddie's arm and squeezed Robin's with the other.

"I love you," Robin whispered, leaning closer.

"Insufferable," Eddie said with a big roll of his eyes and a little tug of your shoulders.

"Can you guys not hang off each other for like, five whole minutes?" a now familiar voice appeared just a moment before Dustin skated into view.

"You know what, Henderson?" Eddie pushed off of you and slid over to grab Dustin by the shoulders. "I've always been impressed by how much gall you can pack into such a tiny body."

"Ha ha."

“Seriously, though, how do you not explode?”

“Hey.” Robin’s voice was close. You took a moment before you looked at her, shivering at the feeling of her words and the memory of her lips. Then you turned, buckling under the weight that she held in your mind -- entirely too much; perfectly enough.

“Hey,” you replied, hushed, with a shy smile that you didn’t even think to control. Probably couldn’t, when it came to her.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah,” you said. Then, “Well, almost.” You were getting tired, and your social battery had run out a while ago, and--

“It’s, like, really loud,” Robin said like she already knew everything you could ever tell her. Like she knew all the right ways to make it better.

“Yeah,” you whispered, smiling.

“You wanna get out of here?” she said -- dragged the words out slowly, glancing around, ocean blue eyes scanning the room before landing back on you. Always on you.

How were you this lucky to be the one that she came back to?

“Yeah,” you whispered, face aching.

Robin was steadier than she’d been the entire night as she led you toward the carpet. Everyone else around you was a blur, blending into yellow and blue streaks of sound and light and all that was inconsequential. And in your hand, Robin’s had grown warm. And somehow that didn’t matter because all the people around you were just as inconsequential as the blur. Your hips brushed hers as you untied your laces with quietly hasty fingers. And that warmth that had been in your hand came radiating off of Robin’s body. You didn’t even need to lean into it, it permeated your whole atmosphere.

The world felt so much smaller as you followed Robin to the booth at the back of the rink. The world felt just the right size. You left your skates on the counter, feeling unsteady now on your own two feet. But then Robin was there, always there, and her fingers were intertwining with yours, and you looked up at her and you knew without uncertainty that wherever you went in this life, however unsteady your feet grew, she’d always be there, and you’d always have just enough strength to find your way to her.

The two of you had the whole world.

And yet, it was sitting on a dumpster behind a run-down roller rink in nowhere Hawkins where you watched a sunset that felt too substantial to possibly be found anywhere else.

“I like your friends.” You broke the silence that had started with “You want to get out of here?” and lasted long enough to watch the yellow sun bleed down into orange, and then pink, and then purple. The sky was indigo now. It felt like home draped over your heads -- like the world had made this millions of years ago just for you where you were now. Like it had been waiting all this time for you to find it. A million and nineteen-something years.

“Oh.” Robin broke her own silence with a sigh. And with that, you were together -- a million and nineteen-something years in the making. “I’m glad,” she said. “I was irrationally afraid that you’d, like, totally hate them, or find out that they’re completely crazy and then decide you want to bail, or… something.” She chuckled nervously, her eyes finding yours, still reflecting the last bits of the sky’s color.

The sunsets always lasted longer in Robin’s eyes.

“There’s nothing,” you said like it was a full answer. Maybe it was. “There’s nothing that could ever make me want to bail, or… anything.”

You watched the tides of Robin’s eyes shift as she watched you -- ocean spray turning to dark waves and blue depths. And it was the same as the sound of crickets, far off from where you were now, away in the forest that had first held the two of you close, and it was the same as the buzz of the pavement settling under the indigo sky that held you now. Everywhere you went, there was something that knit you together. Here, outside a roller rink in nowhere Hawkins that was bursting at the seams with warmth and life and love, it was your lips.

She didn’t always kiss you slowly, but when she did, it was often under the light of a sunset, or the beams of the moon, or the glow of pool lights settled just below the water. And when she did, you found it ineluctable in you to not reach forward and feel the reflections that had settled on her cheeks. She could make any sharp light soft. She made the roughness of your fingers feel alive and ancient until her freckles and your fingerprints became one and the same.

“I’m glad you’re alive,” you said, eyelashes brushing her cheek. Robin smiled.

“Right back at you, Earth girl,” she murmured. Reaching onto your lap, she sought out your hand and hooked your pinkies together.

You took a deep breath. It was filled with the smell of asphalt and dirt and the berry shampoo in Robin’s hair. Pulling one leg up onto the dumpster and crossing it under the other, you leaned toward Robin until your temple rested on her shoulder. The sky was glowing, and the air smelled like summer. It felt like the whole world belonged to you -- like no one else was here. Like nothing else mattered beyond the connection between your pinkies.

“‘M I interrupting something?”

Neither of you panicked at the familiar voice. Instead, you turned to find Eddie walking into the orbit of your world, his hands stuffed in his pockets and a soft smile on his face.

“Don’t you usually,” Robin answered, lacking malice.

“Hi, Eds,” you said because it felt right.

“Mind if I sit?”

Robin shook her head a second before you did. Eddie hopped up next to her.

“A dumpster. Romantic.”

“Said the guy who brought Steve that old sweatshirt like a cat dropping a dead bird on a porch.”

“Hey. That sweatshirt is a piece of Metallica history, Buckley, and you’ll show it some respect.”

“You’re such a dingus, dingus.”

“Yeah, yeah, tell me about it.”

The three of you sat in silence. Eddie knocked his knee against Robin’s. She knocked hers back.

“Hey,” Steve rounded the corner. “What the hell are you guys doing, I’ve been looking for you for like twenty minutes,” he said, lacking malice. Almost soft.

“Just admiring the sunset from this dumpster,” Eddie announced.

“Looks to me like you’re third-wheeling, Munson.”

“What? Never.”

“Yeah, I, uh… think we’re pretty far beyond third wheeling in this relationship, Steve,” Robin said. “Or even fourth wheeling.”

“We’re a package deal,” Eddie added. “Like collectibles.”

“Collectables,” Steve narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, okay sure. Well, when you guys are done being weird, I’m ready to go.”

Eddie raised an eyebrow indignantly before hauling himself to his feet and sauntering over to Steve.

“Don’t you have some infants to put to bed, Harrington?”

Steve pretended to bat him away before letting Eddie settle an arm around his neck.

“No. They do have parents, in case you missed that.” Everyone knew that it didn’t really matter. Steve looked after them like they were his own. Always would. “Anyway, they’re all spending the night at Byers’ place as a going away party or something.”

“Well then,” Eddie pulled him closer. “Looks like we have Mama Steve all to ourselves.”

Robin blew some hair out of her face and clapped loudly. Grinning, you hid your face in her shoulder and kicked your legs.

“Whatever, just don’t expect me to cook your dinner or do your laundry,” Steve muttered. Eddie shot forward to offer you and Robin each of his hands as you jumped off the dumpster.

“Don’t you do that anyway?” Robin asked, crinkling her nose.

“We love you, Steve,” you said, walking over to him -- he’d slowed down to let the three of you catch up -- and bumped your shoulder into his.

“Yeah, I don’t wanna hear it,” he said, but you could hear the way he was fighting a smirk, and when he wrapped an arm around your shoulder, you knew that the sentiment had been returned.

As the four of you made your way to Steve’s car, Robin skipped forward and grabbed your hand, lacing your fingers together. From the other side of the parking lot, the kids were all piling into Joyce and Hopper’s car.

“There’s no way that’s safe,” she commented.

“Clown car for sure,” Eddie said, taking a few exaggerated, floppy steps and honking an imaginary nose.”

“You’re the clown,” Steve muttered.

Bathed in a dark blue glow like the backdrop on a stage, someone reached above the car and waved. Dustin, maybe. Probably Dustin.

The four of you waved back.

Robin didn’t let go of your hand.

______________________________________________________________

No one was in the mood for swimming, but no one wanted to be inside either. Steve passed out a round of beers and then never got up to get any more. Unprompted, he said that his parents were supposed to be coming back in a few weeks.

“Summer’s almost over,” he said, staring at the can in his lap. Little droplets of perspiration clung to his fingertips, slid down the dark, shiny aluminum. “Still, I thought they’d be away longer.” He shrugged lamely. “There’s still time.”

"It'll probably be weird, not being the only one living here again, huh?" Robin murmured. You leaned your cheek onto her thigh. The skin was soft and warm, and every breath you took smelled like Robin, chlorine, and the sweet summer night air.

Steve looked up and glanced at Eddie, then at the two of you sitting across from him.

“Haven’t really felt like I was the only one living here, though,” he said with another shrug, like he was trying to shut the conversation down before it got too far.

All three of you knew what he meant. You didn’t need to say anything to know that you were thinking the same thing. Eddie and Robin and you, you’d all spent as much time here as you could -- almost as much time as Steve. There had been countless nights where he and Eddie had shared a bed, or all four of you had fallen asleep in a pile in the living room; nights where you and Robin had camped out on Steve’s bedroom floor, feeling like you were kids again having a sleepover, gossiping about what you were going to do during summer break or what you wanted to be when you grew up.

But now you were grown up. High school was over forever; you all worked jobs, none of you had the aspirations nor the money for college, and you had no idea what lie for you beyond Hawkins. Sometimes you wondered if you even wanted to find out. Somehow you felt like no matter what you did, you’d always be a failure. In a lot of ways, you still felt like a kid sleeping on the floor of a friend’s bedroom with no worries bigger than what you were going to buy back-to-school shopping with your mom or which teachers you were going to get.

You wished you could pretend that the summer nights on Steve’s floor would last forever like you used to when you were a kid. Nights that glowed softly with streetlamps from outside open windows and warm breezes and the sound of crickets had always felt like, if you squinted just enough, focused your mind just enough, they would never end. You’d always been able to convince yourself that you could freeze them right then and there and nothing would change. A perpetual summer of sleeping on a friend’s bedroom floor. But things had changed, and you’d gotten older, and now the world expected something from you. Something you didn’t feel ready to give. Something none of you felt ready to give.

The world hadn’t given any of you a chance to be kids. Now, when it wanted you to be adults, you had no idea what to do. You were sinking.

“I wish we could stay like this forever,” you whispered, picking at the fabric of your pants. They were a pair of Steve’s flannels. Somehow, none of you had thought to start keeping a change of clothes at his house, despite how long this had been going on. Or maybe you had thought of it, and the thought had been ignored. “I wish we could always be together like this.”

The four of you taking on the world felt so much more bearable than facing it all by yourself.

“Then… fuck it." Eddie's voice joined the night. "Why don’t we?” All three of you looked at him and, after a moment, he looked back. “Yeah. I mean, fuck it. We’re already failures, if you ask any respectable resident of Hawkins--” he pulled a face. “So, why shouldn’t we stick together? What’s stopping us?”

You felt Robin’s hand slide down your neck to the center of your shoulder blades. Her palm was warm, and her leg where your cheek was pressed was warm.

“I mean,” Steve started, staring at the concrete but really looking somewhere far beyond it. “It’s not like I’ve got anything to lose besides you guys and a bunch of rugrats. King Steve is six feet under and turning fucking blue.”

“Yeah,” Robin said. You could feel her voice through her fingertips. “I never had much of a reputation anyway.”

In the silence, you all realized what was happening. A sort of pact made next to a glowing, mirror-surface pool, under a sky of dark indigo. Your only witnesses were the crickets and the stars and the echoing of a suburban neighborhood while everyone else was asleep.

And nothing else was said about it, about Eddie’s fuck it or Steve’s I don’t have anything to lose besides you guys, but the silence allowed all four of you to understand, almost suddenly, that nights like these didn’t have to stop. Not for Steve’s parents, not for anybody.

“Rent will be cheaper with four people,” Steve said, almost as an afterthought.

And that was that.

______________________________________________________________

Taglist: @alonezz , @gaysludge, @gray-cheese, @rare-breed-of-human, @vea-vea-vea, @lady-silkwing, @im-a-milf, @yourmanifestingbigsister, @bubbles0oo, @wormm-mom

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ghosthunterbuck · 2 years

Text

sofa, so good

(buddie) (1k words) (6x01 spoilers) of course I can't resist a coda for the first ep of the season who do you think I am

Buck lasts five minutes in the damn armchair before he’s up and pacing again.

Because it’s stupid right? He gets it. It’s a metaphor. Whoop-de-doo. But it’s also an actual literal fucking couch, and he’s been without one for months now.

Which is – yeah, Chris was right, it’s weird.

But also, he’s kind of barely noticed. It’s not like he spends much time at his place. He’s at the firehouse, or Eddie’s, or Maddie’s, and they’ve all got couches. So maybe he doesn’t even really need one.

Maybe he should just get more chairs. Or a chaise. Beanbag chairs! Chris would probably get a kick out of those. Hell, maybe he could find some of that inflatable furniture he begged his parents for in the nineties.

Buck stares at the armchair.

He really needs a fucking couch.

Eddie shows up at 9 AM on Saturday, and Buck tries to convince himself this isn’t a bad idea. Not Eddie showing up – as far as Buck’s concerned, any idea involving Eddie is an automatic plus five on the good idea scale. No, the issue is the couch/girlfriend/getting-his-shit-together metaphor has sunk its claws in deep, and now Buck’s pretty sure he’s going to take one step into the furniture store and spin around and walk back out.

For the first time in as long as he can remember, Buck isn’t even sure he wants a couch. He says as much to Eddie.

“Then why am I driving you to the furniture store?” Eddie raises an eyebrow.

“It’s not—it’s what the couch represents, man,” Buck says.

“Mm.”

“Don’t look at me like that!”

Eddie holds his hands up. “I’m not looking at you like anything,” he placates, although the grin tugging at the corners of his lips begs to differ.

Buck can’t help but laugh. “Come on, aren’t you supposed to tell me to, I don’t know, suck it up and get a new couch?”

Eddie smiles, ducks his head, and looks up at Buck. “Is that what you want?”

“Therapy made you way too smart, Diaz.”

That makes Eddie laugh, and that in turn makes Buck feel warm. It wasn’t so long ago that it felt like he might never hear that sound again.

“Get in the damn truck, Buckley,” Eddie snorts. “We’re getting you a couch.”

...

Buck’s never been to a furniture store.

It’s absurd, actually, because he’s a thirty-something-year-old man, but he’s never had cause to. Like, Ali furnished most of the loft, and every piece of furniture he owned before he got off Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace.

It’s absurd, and it means that he’s entirely unprepared when Candace, the Senior Sales Associate with a shark-like grin and sensible shoes, clocks them both as soon as they’re through the door.

“How can I help you today?” She asks. “What are you looking for? May I take you around our showroom? We’ve got several new pieces in that I’m sure you’ll love.”

“I—uh,” Buck stammers.

“We’ve also got an extensive sale inventory I can walk you through, if you’re looking to score a bargain! The same excellent quality we’re known for, with prices we’re sure will fit any budget.”

Yep, Buck’s going to leave. He’s going to turn around and leave, and he’s never going to get a new couch, because this place is huge and anxiety inducing and he’s pretty sure he saw Candace on a true crime documentary once and—

Eddie takes a smooth step forward. He matches Candace’s overly wide smile with one of his own and tells her, “No thank you, we’re just browsing for now. We’ll come find you if we have any questions.”

It’s like he knows the magic words, because no sooner than he’s said them, Candace disappears into the mattress section.

Buck turns to him, wide-eyed. “How did you do that?”

Eddie laughs. “You’ve just got to speak the language, Buckley.”

“I’m so glad you’re here,” Buck mumbles.

Eddie claps him on the shoulder. “Let’s find you a couch.”

...

In the end, after Buck’s sat on so many different pieces of furniture his butt is sore, they find one. It’s a dark buttery leather that Eddie says will complement his hardwood floors, and that Buck is pretty sure he could fall asleep on, if necessary.

Eddie, somehow, manages to knock twenty percent off the asking with a flash of his teeth and a slow blink at Candace, which Buck mostly appreciates but is also kind of afraid of. He also insists that they throw in a couple of accent pillows, which Buck supposes is probably nice.

With the help of a few associates, they load the couch into Eddie’s truck and strap it down with more bungee cords than Buck thought any one person had the right to own.

Eddie catches his raised eyebrow and grins. “You remember that accident on the one-oh-one?” he asks.

The image of a four-poster bed sticking out of the windshield of a Corolla flashes across Buck’s mind, and he shudders. “Good call,” he says with a tight nod.

Eddie throws his head back and laughs, then motions to the truck. “Come on, I have to pick Chris up at three. Let’s get this show on the road.”

Buck deposits himself in the passenger seat and watches as Eddie starts up the truck and puts it in gear.

Eddie looks up and catches his eye. “What?”

Buck shakes his head. “Nothing, just—thanks. I’m pretty sure Candace would’ve eaten me alive if it weren’t for you.”

“Women and couches,” Eddie says with a shrug, “maybe they’re just not for you.”

Buck snorts. “Who needs ‘em,” he says. “That’s what I’ve got you for, right?”

Eddie’s thumb brushes against his forearm. “Yeah,” he says.

...

Buck sits on his new couch.

It’s soft, and comfortable, and the color complements the room’s existing palette, just like Eddie said it would. It’s long enough that Buck can lay down, and deep enough that he won’t accidentally roll off if he falls asleep. It’s exactly what he needs in a couch.

He lasts all of five minutes before he’s up and pacing again.

The color is too dark. Leather is the wrong material. All three of the couch cushions are plump and firm, without a single weird divot from being slept on too many nights in a row.

The couch fits perfectly in his apartment, Buck thinks, and at the end of the day, maybe that’s the problem.

Buck doesn’t want a new couch.

He wants one that’s familiar.

He texts Eddie.

Dinner at yours tonight?

#thank you ceecee for the title you're incredible at puns and I'm obsessed with you for it #911 #911 spoilers #911fic #buddiefic #buddie #uhhhh I straight up can't remember the tags I usually use #Abbie writes #buddie fic #Evan buckley #yeah I wrote a couch coda who's gonna stop me #I'll go find my tag list in a minute!#911 fic

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fanficimagery · 2 years

Text

First High

You decide to get high for the first time, much to Steve, Robin and Eddie's amusement.

Words: 4.4K Author's Note: ST4!AU. Vecna never happened so this is Eddie hanging with Robin and Steve for the first time. Also I've never smoked a day in my life, so excuse my poor description of it.

All throughout elementary, middle and high school, you had been content to fly under the radar and do what needed to be done in order to graduate school. You'd done well up until you decided to get a summer job when Starcourt Mall opened up, scooping ice cream alongside Steve Harrington and Robin Buckley.

Everything was fine and dandy, but then a secret Russian base was found underneath the mall and all hell broke loose.

You had trouble comprehending everything you learned about Hawkins Lab, a girl named El, and a dimension they called the Upside Down. Being drugged and beaten also didn't help things at all, but those who were in on the secret did their best to help you cope.

Steve and Robin ended up getting new jobs, both being hired at Hawkins Family Video, but you ended up becoming somewhat of a recluse and barely left the house. And when you did leave the house, it was because Steve and Robin picked you up to drag you somewhere.

Your parents were surprised when Steve and Robin showed up on your first day of senior year, the ex-king of Hawkins High unintentionally becoming your and Robin's chauffeur. Robin made sure to check in with you during school hours, even making Dustin and Mike check in with you when she couldn't. Lucas was there every once in a while, but his main priority was Max who was surprisingly not taking Billy's death too well.

So, for a while, everything was good.

It was fine.

But then Thanksgiving break came up and your parents had plans to travel to your grandparent's place that was a couple hours away. While that didn't bother you much, they then had every intention of staying your entire break up there. One day you could handle, but the entire week? Nope. Out of the question.

So, after a little convincing, you got your parents to agree to let you stay behind.

A few days before, they even went out and bought you everything you'd need to make your own Thanksgiving meal, and then a bit more groceries to last you until they came home.

Your first night alone led you to having little to no sleep since you jumped at every little sound your house made, so you ended up visiting Robin at work to ask her to stay with you during break. Steve overheard and invited himself, and you found out firsthand how the two absolutely had no sense of boundaries as they piled into your bed to sleep.

Luckily for you, you loved your space in bed, so there was more than enough room on your king-sized mattress for all three of you.

On the day of Thanksgiving, all three of you sleep in. And then when you do wake up, Steve immediately puts on a football game while Robin heats up a couple cans of Spaghetti O's so you're not too full for dinner.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Robin says as you're washing up the slight mess in the kitchen. "I invited someone from school to have dinner with us."

"What? We were allowed to invite people?" Steve wonders as he joins the two of you in the kitchen. "Why wasn't I aware?"

"Because we don't want to watch you suck face with Heidi," Robin tells him. "And I invited Eddie Munson," she then tells you.

You freeze just as Steve huffs. "Eddie Munson? What'd you invite him for?"

"You didn't see him at the store yesterday, Steve! Him and his doe eyes, and he just looked so glum about choosing what frozen meal to buy. Frozen meals are disgusting!"

You whirl around, hands still soapy as you stare at your female friend with wide eyes. "You invited a cute boy and you're only telling me now?"

"What?!" Steve yelps just as Robin grins and says, "You think Munson's cute?"

"Robin! Now I have to clean the house!" You whine.

"Gross," Steve then mumbles.

"Oh, shut up," you grumble at Steve. "I might have been quiet and kept to myself before we became friends, but that doesn't mean I didn't watch everyone around me. Need I remind you who you bedded before Wheeler got her hooks in you?" His eyes subtly widen as Robin starts to giggle. "Yeah, that's what I thought. So, while I start on cleaning the living room, Robin gets to finish cleaning the kitchen."

"Hey!"

"Ha!" Steve laughs.

"And Steve gets to pick up all the dirty laundry from my bedroom floor and put it to wash."

"Aw, come on."

"Nope. I don't want to hear it. And after you're done with that, I'm going to need you to take out the bathroom and kitchen trash so I can get started on the dinner prep."

"Ugh," both Robin and Steve groan as they get to work.

Though you're a little anxious for Eddie's arrival, you manage to keep your cool. Steve does everything you've assigned to him, as does Robin, but she ends up joining you in the kitchen while you're putting the turkey in the oven.

"So, Munson, huh?"

You shrug with a little laugh. "He's cute."

"Since when?"

"Since he let his hair grow out and got the tattoos."

"Ahh. I get it. It's the ink."

"And his stupid smile," you say a little breathily as you gather some potatoes to peel.

"And the doe eyes." Robin flutters her own eyes at you, and you laugh, throwing a dish towel at her. "But in all seriousness, why didn't you ever go for him?"

As you take a seat at the table, you huff. "Have you seen me? Like really seen me?" You ask. "I am not the type of girl Eddie goes for and he's just- he's.."

"Incredibly lucky to have a girl like you pining after him," Steve says, leaning over the little counter that separates your kitchen from your living room. "Seriously. I'd date you if I knew you'd go for me."

You and Robin both laugh, and Steve shrugs as he goes back to his game.

Lowering her voice, Robin then scoots closer to you. "Would you ever go for Steve?"

"I might have," you murmur. "That Scoops Ahoy outfit really did it for me."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. But we're too platonic now for us to ever find our way out of the friend zone."

"Platonic with a capital 'p'. Got it."

You snort and then finally start peeling the potatoes.

"So, what are we all having tonight?" She asks. "Anything I can help with?"

"Turkey and gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, and some rolls."

"Well, you pre-made the dressing and casserole last night," she says.

"Mhm. And those will be popped into the oven as soon as the turkey comes out. I'll also put the potatoes and macaroni to boil while the turkey rests, and then I'll need your help collecting the turkey water and grease for the gravy." Her nose wrinkles and you laugh. "It's good. Trust me. It's going to blow your mind."

"You're already blowing my mind by doing all of this. I sometimes mess up making a bowl of cereal."

"And that's why your job is to put the rolls into the oven for a few minutes after everything comes out."

Robin chuckles. "I can do that."

You, Robin and Steve lounge around while the turkey cooks, the smell making all three of you groan in hunger after the first hour and a half passes. Steve helps you retrieve the turkey every now and then so you can bast it, and then it takes everything in you to not fall back asleep while waiting.

However, just as you decide to pull the turkey out of the oven for the final time, you remember you were expecting another guest when there's knocking on the door.

"I got it!" Steve calls out.

You glance at Robin who beams at you in response, and you wrinkle your nose at her. "Please don't say anything. Let's just get through tonight and you can tease me all about Eddie after he leaves."

"Fine. I'll behave."

"Oh man, it smells good in here!" Eddie Munson walks into the kitchen, inhaling deeply as Steve rolls his eyes in amusement behind him. Sparkling brown eyes land on you and a boyish smile breaks out. "Sorry for the intrusion, but Buckley said it was cool that I come. And bring a set of pajamas which I thought was weird."

"Yeah. No, you're good." You flash him a smile as you chuckle. "And the pajamas are to lounge around in. After stuffing yourself full of food, jeans are very uncomfortable to be wearing."

"We can always make this a no pants party."

Both Robin and Steve snort with amusement as heat instantly blooms in your cheeks and Eddie smirks at getting you all flustered.

"I, uh, shut up," you end up muttering when the other three laugh at you. "There are drinks in the fridge. Help yourself. We'll be eating probably in half an hour."

"Well alright then."

Robin lingers around the kitchen with you as you put water to boil for the potatoes and macaroni. The pans of dressing and the green bean casserole get placed into the oven to heat up, and you have Robin set the table.

Once the food is all done and Steve's carved up the turkey, you set everything out on the table.

"So where are your parents?" Eddie asks as he piles the potatoes onto his plate. "Kind of odd you aren't together for this."

"Oh, uh, they're at my grandparent's place," you say. "They're gonna be there for the entire break and I didn't feel like being there."

"Got it." At his first bite of food, Eddie groans. "Are you kidding me? How do you cook like this and still be single?"

You choke on your bite food, Robin claps a hand over her mouth as she barks out a laugh, and surprisingly Steve nods along in agreement. "He's right. This is really good," he says while dipping some turkey wrapped up in a piece of roll into the gravy. He then shoves it into mouth, groaning appreciatively. "So good."

You clear your throat and try to will your blush away. "Well, it's nice to know I can win you boys over with my cooking."

"Don't forget your good looks." Eddie winks.

"Can you please stop flirting? I'm eating here!" Steve grumbles though you can see he's fighting off a grin.

Eddie and Robin laugh, and you shake your head in amusement.

This boy was going to be the death of you.

Everyone eats their fill, telling you how good it all is. Then as you go about putting up the leftovers, Eddie sheepishly joins you at the counter and asks if he can make a plate for his uncle. You agree and put together a container of food, setting it aside to cool off before it can be refrigerated.

"Too bad no one thought of dessert," Steve says as everyone relaxes in the living room.

"Who says I didn't?" You sleepily grin.

"What do you have?" Steve asks.

"Pumpkin and apple pie."

"Oh my god. This is the best Thanksgiving ever," Eddie mumbles.

"Just- just let me take a short nap and then I'll pop the apple into the oven."

"But- but why can't you do it now?"

"Are you serious?" Robin scoffs. "How are you still hungry? I'm stuffed."

"Now the pajamas make sense," Eddie muses. "I'll be right back. I'm gonna grab mine and change. I mean, only if it's cool that I still hang out with you guys."

"Yeah. Feel free." You wave him off. "My parents don't return until Sunday afternoon, so it's just going to be us here. There's no rush for anyone to leave."

"Cool. Is it alright if I smoke?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. We'll just.." you trail off, glancing around the living room. "Do it in my room. I don't want the smell to cling to anything in here."

As Eddie walks out of your house to go grab his change of clothes, both Steve and Robin look at you.

"Are you really going to smoke with Munson?" Steve asks.

"If he offers." You shrug. "I've never actually smoked weed. Just cigarettes."

"What?" Steve's eyes widen before he starts to smile. "You're so totally getting high then. I need to see this happen."

"Like I said, if he offers, I'll join in."

"Oh, he's offering," Steve says. "If I have to buy it off him right now, I will."

When Eddie walks back into your house, you realize he'd changed in his van. Instead of the band tee and jeans he'd been wearing, he's now wearing one of his infamous Hellfire club shirts and a pair of red and black plaid pajama pants. He kicks his shoes off by where the other shoes have been left behind and you must audibly swoon because Robin elbows you. "Knock it off unless you want him to notice."

Grumbling, you pull out the pies from the refrigerator and place them on the counter. The pumpkin is automatically picked up by Steve as Robin retrieves the whipped cream, and you put the apple into the oven before setting a timer to remind you to check on it.

"So how much would a pre-rolled joint cost me?" Steve asks.

Eddie looks up from his plate of pie. "You looking to buy, Harrington?"

"Yeah. Our wonderful hostess has yet to partake in the fun and I need to be there for her first time."

Eddie glances at you then, a smile blossoming. "You've never...?"

"I didn't have friends before. I wasn't going to get high all on my lonesome."

His smile falters. "You didn't have friends? I could've sworn..." he trails off, frowning. "You were always surrounded by a group of people."

You open your mouth to reply, but Robin speaks up, grinning. "Watched YN, did you, Munson?"

Eddie freezes, his own cheeks turning a faint red as Steve starts to grin. Eddie looks nervous all of a sudden, so it's your turn to elbow your friend while coming to Eddie's rescue. "Knock it off, Robin. And just because people were around me, it didn't mean we were friends. I wasn't very confrontational back then so everyone just kind of sat around me and carried on with their conversations as if I weren't there."

"Jesus. That's cold," he says.

You slowly smile at him, and Steve rolls his eyes. "So how much, Munson?"

"Free." Eddie's fast reply surprises even himself. He then clears his throat and tries to make himself seem cool and collected as he digs into his piece of pie. "I love popping cherries."

His smug and teasing smile as his lips wrap around his fork makes you blush so hard that Robin ends up muttering, "Trust me, that cherry has been popped for a while."

"Robin!" You bark at her, and Steve and Eddie explode with laughter. "Jesus Christ." Your friends stare at you, giggling, and you shake your head at them all. "This is why I never keep friends."

"Oh, come on, YN. You know I'm your favorite."

Steve and Eddie end up splitting the pumpkin pie while you and Robin wait for the apple. Then when the boys are nice and full again, and you've cleaned up the kitchen to the best of your ability, you lock up the front door and lead the way to your room.

Eddie enters last, whistling slowly at what he sees. Your room has a black and white theme, with very little color splashed here and there. There are band and movie posters along your walls, as well as a small section dedicated to nothing but polaroid pictures you started taking when you worked at Scoops Ahoy. Your king-sized mattress sits in the right back corner of your room, pillows and blankets piled on top of it and looking quite inviting. White Christmas lights are strung up above your bed, and Robin hurriedly plugs them in so you don't have to turn on the main light.

Steve immediately opens the door to your small balcony and then crawls into your bed to sit right next to Robin. Eddie glances between your desk chair and your bed, and you grin as you grab your ash tray that was hidden within your desk before walking towards your bed.

"Hop in, Munson. We don't bite," Steve muses. "Well YN might."

"You sleep right next to me, Harrington. I will strangle you."

"Not tonight. Robin's taking the middle."

With Robin and Steve gleefully sitting side by side at the head of the bed, their backs against the wall, you sit with your back against the other wall and pull a pillow into your lap. Eddie tries to figure out where it's best to settle down before he caves and shamelessly lays across the foot of your bed.

Setting the ashtray between you and him, you wait for Eddie to light up.

Eddie takes the first hit before passing the joint to you, and when it's your turn you inhale and exhale so easily that he doesn't believe it's your first time. "How the hell..."

You grin as you take another hit, letting the smoke release from your nostrils before passing it back. "I smoke cigarettes when I'm stressed and lately I've been stressed a lot. Smoke is smoke."

"You're going to regret those words in about half an hour," Eddie muses. He takes a hit and closes his eyes in pure bliss, pushing one hand beneath his head. "Cig smoke doesn't relax you like you're about to be relaxed."

Once the joint is finished, you crawl over to Robin and lay down with your head in her lap.

"Are you doing okay?" Steve asks, amused.

"I'm good, Harrington." You practically moan as Robin slides her fingers into your hair, nails scraping at your scalp. "Nothing's kicked in. I'm just getting comfortable."

Eddie chuckles as he moves the ashtray to the floor, laying back down on his side with one hand supporting his head. "If you're a sleepy stoner, I'm gonna be seriously let down, YLN."

You grin, letting your head loll to the side and cracking open an eye. "Talk nerdy to me, Munson. I won't know what you're talking about, but I actually like the sound of your voice."

Eddie gapes at you, and you and Robin end up giggling. After Eddie finds his footing, the boys start talking to each other, landing on the topic of Dustin since that was the only person they had in common. Surprisingly, they bond over the fact that they both think the freshman is a little shit.

Eventually you feel your body really sink into the bed and you subconsciously start to hum. Robin's fingers slow in your hair and the boys stop talking. You continue humming, smiling with your eyes closed until...

"Okay, so am I the only one who thinks that's the creepiest song ever?" Robin asks.

You huff a laugh and continue humming.

"I know that song. Why do I know that song?" Eddie mumbles.

Your humming trails off. "Stars shining bright above you," you sing instead. "Night breezes seem to whisper I love you. Birds singing in the sycamore tree. Dream a little dream of me."

"Wow," Steve says. You chuckle as your eyes open once more, turning so you're hugging Robin's legs now. "You're totally stoned," he then realizes.

"Maybe."

"You so totally are." Eddie laughs.

"Stop laughing at me." A buzzer suddenly sounds and you hurriedly sit up, gasping. "The pie! I got it."

You try to crawl over both Robin and Steve, only for your arms to give out on you and for you to fall face first onto the hardwood floor. Luckily it wasn't a far drop and your friends laugh at your misfortune.

"Jesus H. Christ." Eddie guffaws. "Are you okay?"

"Ow." You grumble and maneuver around until you're laid out on your back. "Fuck you, gravity."

Steve continues to giggle as he gets up, no doubt going to check on the pie for you. Robin lays out on her stomach, head hovering over the side of the mattress as she looks down at you. "You good?"

"Fantastic." You sigh and then quickly sit up. "Hey, have you ever thought what would happen if gravity just like... cut off?"

"What?" Robin snorts.

"Would we- would we just float away?"

"YN, that's- that's a horrifying scenario."

You laugh, but then slowly come to a realization that she's right. It's terrifying! A look of horror overcomes your expression and your friends both laugh at you. You grasp onto your bed covers, gripping tight. "I don't wanna float away."

Hands drag you onto the mattress then, arms and legs wrapping around you. "Don't worry. I got you, YN."

"Oh my god." Robin laughs.

When Steve re-enters the room, he stumbles to a halt. Eddie and YN are sitting side by side, a blanket wrapped tight around their shoulders and over their heads as Robin snaps a picture with a polaroid camera. "Uh.. what did I just walk in on?"

"YN's convinced she's going to float away and that was Eddie's answer to keeping her grounded."

"They're so stoned."

"Totally stoned," Robin agrees. She snaps another picture when Eddie murmurs something to YN that ends up with her giggling, and then hands the camera off to Steve. "Here. Take this and document anything cute or blackmail-ish. I gotta pee."

As Robin leaves, Eddie glances at Steve and practically beams.

"Hey Harrington, who am I?" He then points his finger towards the ceiling just a bit, shaking slightly, as he says, "ET phone home." Steve snorts and YN giggles, falling to the side and dragging Eddie down with her. The two stoned individuals maneuver around until Eddie is behind YN, arm wrapped around her waist. Their giggles die down and Eddie hums. "How is your bed so comfortable? I seriously don't want to go home now."

"Then don't." Your amusement vanishes as you start to play with Eddie's fingers that were tapping against your abdomen. "Steve and Robin are staying. You might as well too."

Steve groans and Eddie laughs. "Are you inviting me to an orgy?"

"No!" Your face heats up, eyes wide. But then you calm down and- "Well..."

"Don't even think about it," Steve says.

"We don't have to do it, but I'm still going to think about it."

Steve frowns at you before turning his attention to Eddie who's shaking with silent laughter at your back. "See what you started!"

Robin walks in to see Steve, hands on his hips, glaring at Eddie and YN who are still wrapped around each other, only this time they're laying down. "What did I miss?"

"Apparently we've just acquired another bed partner."

"Well, on the bright side, if Munson stays wrapped around YN like a limpet, then we'll have more room in the bed."

Steve seems to brighten up a bit. "Fine, but if there are noises coming from their side of the bed in the middle of the night, I'm suing for emotional damages."

"Whatever. Just get in bed."

The next time you're fully conscious, you grimace and try to hide under the covers from the sunlight. An arm squeezes around your waist and you tense just as the person chuckles.

"How are you feeling?"

You reluctantly turn your head and lift the covers to find a sleepy Eddie grinning at you. Your nose wrinkles at him. "I have a headache. Why do I have a headache?"

"The weed hit you hard."

You groan and hide back under the blanket, letting your body relax once more. "So, how'd you sleep, Munson? Was casa de YN to your liking?"

He chuckles. "Better than I ever imagined, princess."

"Imagined it a lot, did you?" He doesn't reply and it's your turn to chuckle at him. Reluctantly turning over, you smile up at him as he tries to hide behind his hair. "I'm just messing with you. I'm happy you had a good time."

"Are you?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well until yesterday I wasn't sure you even knew who I was."

"Are you kidding me?" You lean back a little, staring incredulously at him. "Eds, you're hot. Of course I knew who you were!"

His expression is slack in awe until a shit eating grin forms. "You think I'm hot?"

"Dude, do you even know the number of girls at Hawkins High that find you attractive? It's a lot, but they're just a bunch of stuck-up bitches who will never admit it outside of the girl's bathroom in fear of it messing with their reputation."

"So, what does that make you?"

"A dumb bitch for just admitting that I think you're hot to your face." Your face heats up as your words finally catch up to you and your heart pounds. You can't believe you just admitted that to him.

Eddie snorts and pulls you closer to his body, and you willingly go with an embarrassed groan. He leans his face close to yours, his nose just barely brushing yours. "Then it's a good thing I think you're hot too."

"Y-Yeah?"

"Mhm." His lips press chastely against your own and you quietly moan at the contact, especially when his hand travels down to your thigh and lifts your leg until it's settled over his hip. "And don't even get me started on that sailor's uniform you had to wear when you worked at the mall."

Surprised laughter spills from your lips and Eddie smirks at you. You continue to laugh as he presses a kiss to your jaw, teeth quickly nipping at your neck.

Suddenly your bedroom door is shoved open, and you and Eddie spring apart.

"Gross." Steve scowls at the two of you. "Now if you two are done canoodling, we kind of need YN downstairs. Robin burned breakfast."

Groaning, you reluctantly pull out of Eddie's embrace so you can turn over. "How many times do I have to tell you Robin can't cook?"

"Sorry, but we were hungry and you were dead to the world!"

"Yeah, yeah. Go clean up and I'll be right down to cook something for us."

"Thank you!"

As you sit up, you stretch your arms above your head and then glance over your shoulder to find Eddie smiling fondly at you. You return his smile. "To be continued?"

"To be continued."

#eddie munson x reader #eddie munson imagine #eddie munson fanfiction #stranger things imagine #stranger things fanfiction #eddie munson #stranger things #stranger things 4 #robin buckley #steve harrington

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schrijverr · 9 months

Text

I Found Myself a Cheerleader 14

Chapter 14 out of 28

Bumped to the lowest step on the social ladder after his fight with Billy, Steve gets roped in with the cheer team. What starts as a favor to help them out when one member breaks her leg in turn for protection from the brunt of the bullying, sets the universe on a different path.

In this chapter, Christmas is on the horizon and Steve runs into his parents. His father’s comments send him in a spiral that set him back and he snaps at Eddie when he tries to help, ruining their chance at friendship or the more that was brewing.

On AO3.

Ships: steddie & buckingham

Warnings: homophobia, hate crime, internalized homophobia, HIV/AIDS crisis mention, f-slur, arguments, eating disorder, child abuse

~~~~~~~~

Chapter 14: The Closet

Ever since the night Eddie drove him to Robin’s place, she’s been even more on his case about his crush on Eddie. Chrissy has now also been let in on his crush and the two of them are encouraging him to make a move.

Steve honestly thinks it’s sweet of them, but he doesn’t know if he can. He and Eddie are close, sure, not the closest, but definitely friends. And Steve likes him so much. He still longs to tuck a strand of hair behind Eddie’s ear, to make him blush, to feel his fingers between Steve’s own and his lips on Steve’s. But he doesn’t have the courage to actually do anything about it.

In the back of his mind, he still thinks back on that first conversation in Family Video. How he is technically still in the trail period, even if Eddie never called it that. He doesn’t want to fuck this up, he likes being around Eddie too much.

Besides, he’s only just gotten to the point where girls will flirt with him first whenever they come in. He can luckily decline them by mentioning Chrissy, who has been fake dating him, but it is nice that they perceive him as straight. The thought of sneaking around to be with Eddie gives him too much stress to actually want to try. Friends is just easier.

So, he just rolls his eyes whenever they try to hype him up and waves them away. He hasn’t told them to stop yet, he likes hearing that he has a chance with Eddie, even if he doesn’t really believe them.

Eddie is just an affectionate person, it doesn’t mean anything to him. No matter how much Chrissy and Robin insist it does. He just lets them talk with a shake of his head as the days grow shorter again.

He spends thanksgiving with the Buckleys, making a pie in his kitchen to bring. He can never pay them back for their hospitality, but he can try.

The Friday after thanksgiving is used by Eddie to play a day long session of DnD in the Wheeler basement. Steve drops off a few of the kids and sees that Karen isn’t too pleased about the new friends her son made, but she is too polite to say anything to Eddie’s face.

Steve and Eddie still have their fake-rivalry going on, but Steve tones it down a little when seeing Eddie at the Wheeler house. He doesn’t want to sabotage them with the Wheelers just for their prank on the kids that’s almost coming to an end anyway.

He is talking with Karen, trying to dodge her questions about his dating life, when the kids plus the older members of Hellfire, finally come spilling out of the basement. All the kids are loudly talking about how epic it was and how they ended on a cliffhanger, which is unfair. Karen’s smile is tight and she winces at the noise. Steve is used to their antics and quite likes the chaos.

However, he starts to herd the kids out of the house anyway, not wanting them to loose their spot in the Wheeler basement. As he is doing that, he catches Eddie’s eye. In the humdrum of everyone, no one pays attention to them and Eddie winks at him, dimples showing.

Steve stares as Eddie gets distracted by Dustin, grinning at the younger boy and ruffling his hair. He looks like the cool older brother. Steve loves him.

The though terrifies him and he immediately looks away, not wanting to be sucked in further and accidentally play his hand. The cold shoulder he gives Eddie afterwards helps sell their prank, but he catches Eddie’s confused frown and instantly feels bad about it.

He promises himself to say something to Eddie next time he comes over. Though he is also terrified of being alone with Eddie now.

What if he lets something slip? He doesn’t want Eddie to laugh at him for being in love with him. He is terrified at the idea of Eddie asking him how he thinks Eddie could ever like him after all he’s been and done to him. Steve knows that King Steve was a dick to Eddie, knows that no matter how hard he tries to make up for that, the shadow of his former self still looms over him.

But, he tells himself, maybe I can say something about wanting to ramp it up before the reveal or having a headache. Or maybe I can say I slept badly. I’m sure I can think of something.

However, Steve never does get to fine tune his excuse for Eddie. Instead his world gets thrown off balance again before the two have a chance to speak again.

Two weeks pass wherein the last dredges of school make everyone busy and miserable. Chrissy and the kids come by Family Video less, Robin is walking around with her flash cards while restocking and Eddie is too busy actually trying to pass this year.

It’s a little lonelier than usual, but Chrissy makes him go on a run with her despite the cold, the kids come by to annoy him into letting them rent the movie they want to see to celebrate when the exams are over, he sees Eddie once more when picking them up – Nancy getting them once when he has a late shift – and Robin still forces herself into his home and drags him to hers as well. So, it’s not the worst all in all.

Steve is out on the Tuesday before winter break to find gifts for everyone. He has gotten gifts for most of the party and is wondering if he should get Eddie something or if that would be weird as he cruises a boutique he can’t afford much at as he looks for something nice for Chrissy.

He pulls out a nice lilac sweater that Chrissy might like, before a familiar person sitting near the changing rooms catches his eye.

It’s his father.

Now that he’s aware, he can hear his mother’s melodic voice from one of the changing rooms where she is hounding a poor employee about her dress that has to be perfect for their Christmas party they’re throwing.

The Harringtons have always thrown a Christmas party for business partners. Steve was often forced to attend, however, last year with his bruised face, he’d been send to his room all night and the guest were told he was a girlfriend’s house.

Panic creeps up on him and he needs to get away from these two people right now. He is finally settling back into his life after they uprooted it. He broke into their house. He doesn’t want to know what they think of him now. He’s not sure he can live with knowing that.

Steve is about to turn, to stuff the sweater he can’t really afford anyway back into the rack and get the hell out of there, when he looks his father in his eyes. It is clear they have spotted each other, Steve can no longer just leave and pretend he hasn’t.

Instead, he watches in horror as his father gets up from his seat and tucks the paper he’d been reading under his arm. Steve does not know what he has heard since coming back in town. If he thinks the sweater Steve is still holding is a gift for a girlfriend. If he thinks that Steve is actually dating Chrissy. If he thinks he has changed his sinful ways.

Richard Harrington comes to a halt in front of Steve, who he has denounced as son. His brow is stern as it has always been and without preamble he asks: “Have you found a wife yet?”

He probably does think all that and it is likely the only reason he even dares to acknowledge Steve as human in public. Anger washes through him and in a moment of defiance, Steve replies: “No, sir, I haven’t.”

Mentally he curses himself for calling his father sir, for that ingrained habit that cannot seem to leave him alone, even in his anger and hurt.

“You should. God is coming for the fags,” his father says coolly, as if that is a normal thing to say to someone, before he hands Steve the paper he’d been reading.

Frozen in shock Steve takes it, fumbling with hands he hadn’t noticed were shaking.

It seems that his father deems this interaction done, because Steve turns invisible in front of him as he calls out to the changing room: “I have better things to do that sit around here. Call when you need to be picked up from your little trip.”

Disdain seeps from his every word, but his mother has been playing her role for long enough that she only calls back: “Of course, dear,” in a fake, hollow voice.

Steve wonders if there has ever been a time when they genuinely cared for one another, or if both are incapable of love, as he watches his father leave the boutique.

Once he is gone, Steve lets out a big breath. His lungs feel like they’re being compressed, but his anxiety has considerably lessened with his father gone. Still, he does not want to talk to his mother, so he moves to put the sweater back.

At the action, he is reminded of the paper his father gave him. A confused furrow appears between his brows as he unfolds it to look at the page his father left it on. There in bold letters it reads: AIDS IS THE WRATH OF GOD, SAYS VICAR!

The words stare back at him in accusation. That feeling of being wrong that has followed him for so long now creeps up again as his throat becomes dry and his hands start to shake again. Paranoid he looks around if anyone saw, before messily stuffing the sweater back and hightailing out of there as he crumples the paper and stuffs it in a bin.

Steve walks away quickly, as if running from a crime scene while his head spins. He needs to think for a second, he needs to be alone.

An alleyway comes up to his right and he ducks into it, still throwing glances over his shoulders to see if anyone noticed him. No one does.

In the alleyway, he slides down against the wall, the few shopping bags he has with him landing on the ground around him as he tries to catch his breath. Bricks are rough against his back, but the sharp sting grounds him, just like the pain had grounded him at Starcourt.

He presses his hands into his eyes until weird shapes start to dance in front of them. He is all scrunched into himself, straining as if to release the tension.

His father still thinks he’s a dirty gay.

His father knows.

It’s this odd thing that Steve has never been able to wrap his head around. How swiftly his father acted, based of a picture and words of an angry teen he didn’t know. How he never let Steve explain, but just punched him. Just kicked him out.

Despite years of playing King Steve, of being the perfect child they had always wanted. After years of making himself invisible when asked, of cleaning up after them, of smiling at the important people and shaking the right hands. It wasn’t enough.

And even now, his father still knows that there is something wrong with Steve. That it was all an act and Steve is very much queer.

Steve doesn’t understand what it is about him that makes his father believe it, even though Steve has never slipped up. He has always kept it up. He never even looked too long at a boy, never gotten too close. Never touched. Never kissed.

Nothing.

The only person he has ever looked at is Eddie. Eddie with his pretty curls and long fingers. With his happy trail, his stubble on lazy days, his sharp hips and cute dimples. Eddie, who he has only dared to look at when they’re alone.

How can his father know that? How can he look at Steve and know? How can the one question about a wife be enough of a confirmation after years of repressing?

It makes Steve feel terrified. Everyone has only just began to forget his sexuality was ever questioned. The punishment for it had been public, but the long reaching shadow of King Steve now cloaked him, as more people remembered him than cheerleader Steve, who had only been there for a few months.

He hates how he finds comfort in that. How he feels uncertain and unbalanced now that his father pointed it out again. As if people will suddenly remember. As if he’ll come back to his car and find it vandalized just like it had been after graduation.

Steve curls further into himself, before realizing that is a slip up he can’t afford where someone can see him. What would the town say if they heard they saw Steve Harrington have a breakdown in some alleyway? What would they think?

To snap himself out of it, he bangs his fist against the asphalt below him, hissing when his knuckle breaks open. But it does the trick. He drags himself to his feet and quickly makes his way to his car, still unharmed and alright.

A breath of relief escapes him as he slides behind the wheel, stuffing the gifts he got into the space in front of the passenger side seat, before driving off. He needs a place to think, to get his head on right. He just needs a moment of quiet to stop his chest from feeling like it is going to explode and his throat from feeling like it will crawl out of his mouth.

In an echo of his last interaction with his father, he drives to the quarry. Not really watching the road like he should as he does.

He wishes he hadn’t left his bat at the cabin, so he could smash something as he stumbles out of the car and breathes in the cold air with lungs that don’t seem to work right. He probably looks a mess, but there is no one to see that. No one that will know.

Right as his shoulders start to relax, a familiar voice calls out: “Stevie? That you, man? Are you okay? What are you doing out here?”

Eddie Munson.

Eddie fucking Munson.

The reason for this whole mess. This mockery of what his father thinks Steve to be. This person that haunts him, that has made himself comfortable in Steve’s heart and left an invisible mark that everyone picks up on. A mark that notes Steve as wrong.

Steve cannot deal with Eddie right now. His head snaps around, brows pulled together as his eyes glare. It’s an intense enough look that Eddie halts his movement, before he can put a hand on Steve’s shoulder like he’d done when Steve threw up. When Steve was weak.

More irrational anger flashes through him and he snarls: “Get the fuck away from me.”

“Whoa, man, I’m sorry,” Eddie says, taking a step back as his eyebrows shoot up. “I’m stepping back, don’t worry,” he adds in a soothing voice.

It makes Steve feel like he’s some sort of skittish animal that needs to be comforted, to be calmed down. He hates it. It makes his skin crawl. And in that moment, he hates Eddie a little too. If Eddie would just go, then Steve could learn to love someone else, then Steve could be normal.

“Why do you always need to force yourself into people’s lives when you’re not welcome,” he snaps, going through all he knows of Eddie so he can press where it hurts. Steve might not be a bully anymore, but it’s like riding a bike. You never forget.

Even in his emotional state, he remembers Eddie telling him how he doesn’t know why his uncle still put up with him, that vulnerable edge that tinted his voice. He recalls how uncertain he was about being welcome when he brought Steve to Robin. It’s an obvious weak spot.

“What?” Eddie laughs in a way that shows that he doesn’t think it’s funny, but he just can’t believe it and has to laugh at the absurdity, because there isn’t really another way to react.

“You heard me,” Steve says, knowing that if he pushes just a little bit harder, Eddie will leave and Steve will be alone again. “I don’t want you here.”

“Come on, man,” Eddie replies, a desperate pleading edge in his voice that doesn’t register with Steve beyond notifying him that he’s on the right track.

“I said why do you need to force yourself into people’s lives when you’re not welcome,” Steve repeats with force. He manages to add a condescending laugh. “It’s pathetic really.”

A hurt look crosses Eddie’s face, but he manages to suppress it and frown: “What the hell has gotten into you?”

“Nothing has gotten into me,” Steve tells him. “I’m just sick and tired of you popping up everywhere when I just want to be alone. You show up at my work, you show up at my house and now you show up here. I don’t even want the kids to know I even associate with you and yet you keep coming back like some stray puppy that you fed once. It’s like you can’t take a hint. Leave me alone.”

Letting the anger out feels good. Making someone else feel as small as he does for a change, makes him feel powerful. In control.

He looks at Eddie with a look he used to wear often in junior year. A look that screams ‘I’m too good for you and we both know it, so why are you even talking to me when the gum I stepped in is worth more than you?’

Then he sees how tears line Eddie’s eyes, before he swallows and he hears the hurt in Eddie’s voice when he spits back: “Well, fuck you too then. I thought you were cool, Harrington. But I guess that once an asshole, always an asshole.”

Immediately a sick feeling swoops through Steve’s stomach as he realizes what he has just done. He has gotten Eddie to leave, sure, but in doing so he punched him in the face and kicked him when he was down. He made Eddie feel like nothing. He made Eddie feel like he does. He acted like his father.

Horror washes over him as the anger leaves him and he reaches out as he says: “No, wait, Eddie, I-”

“No,” Eddie shrugs him off and steps back. “You made yourself quite fucking clear. I don’t need to hear it. I’ll fucking leave.”

Eddie turns around and walks off, his shoulders are hunched and he doesn’t look like the Eddie that Steve has come to love. He looks small, withdrawn. He looks bullied.

Steve wants to run after him. Wants to explain. Wants to tell him about his father and the shit he told him. How Eddie makes him terrified, because he loves him.

But he can’t.

A small, scared part of his brain stops him. Tells him to stay put. To watch Eddie go. Because if Eddie leaves, then maybe these feelings will go away too, maybe it will all be a phase, maybe Steve will become normal and all of this will be behind him. Maybe if he lets Eddie go, he can feel safe again.

So he stands there and watches Eddie leave. His insides feel hollow and he wonders if this is how his mother feels when she talks to his father. Like a shell of a person that regrets all their choices that led to this moment, yet unable to change them.

Steve stands on the edge of quarry for a long time, until his face feels as numb as his insides does and he can’t feel his fingers anymore. He doesn’t really know what he’s feeling, besides an overarching aching.

In the end, he drives to the nearest payphone and calls in sick. He barely remembers anything of the conversation, but he must sound horrible, because Keith lets him go without much of a fight about it.

He drives to the safest place he can think of; the Buckley house. Daisy and Thomas are at work and Robin will be at Family Video, but Steve doesn’t care. He doesn’t need company right now, he just needs some comfort and Robin’s bed is the place he has always found the most of that.

Robin’s bed is comfortable, filled with cushions and stuffed animals and extra blankets. Steve crawls into it and curls up.

He remembers the nights after Starcourt when both needed to be reminded it was over, remembers all the nights after when she held him and he held her as both waited for sleep to become alluring after all the nightmares, and he remembers all the laughter they had on that bed. How they gossiped and shared secrets. How they just had fun.

There is no place he loves more than Robin’s bed.

Hours must pass, but Steve does not fall asleep. He just lays there and stares ahead without seeing anything. Thomas often works late and on Tuesdays Daisy has the night shift. But even if they had come home, he likely wouldn’t have heard, because he misses Robin coming home until the door to her room is swung open with a loud bang.

“I can’t believe you left me with Keith, you d-” she stops as she takes in the lump her bed, the indignant exclamation dying in her throat. Instead her voice becomes softer and a little bit more careful as she asks: “Hey, dingus, Stevie, are you okay? That’s silly, I know you’re not. Do you wanna talk about it?”

Steve has remained with his back to her, but turns at the question. He’s been thinking nothing, yet thoughts have been racing through his mind. His anger and anxiety have subsided and now all he craves is comfort.

When he looks back, Robin is standing there in a horrible combination of clothes that one she can pull off well, sympathy and understanding filling her eyes as she waits for him to say what he needs before coming closer.

Without his permission, tears build up in his eyes and start to fall. He bites his lip, but that is not enough to stop them. He just wants to bury his face in her shoulder and makes grabby hands at her in the hopes she understands.

Fortunately for him, Robin always understands and she crawls up on the bed next to him, pulling him close so he can curl up against her chest.

Quietly, he murmurs: “I fucked it all up, Robs. I’m a terrible person.”

“That’s not true, dingus,” she tells him as she holds him close. “We both know better than that. You are way too much of a kind pushover for that and I should know, I’m with you nearly all the time, so I am an impartial judge. Very important in judging. So what happened?”

Shame creeps up his spine and he buries his face more into Robin’s shoulder so he won’t have to face her as he admits: “I got into a fight with Eddie.”

Robin stills for a second, then gasps: “Oh my god, are you okay? Should I go get ice cream? I mean it’s a cliché and kind of ruined by Scoops, but also a classic for heartbr-”

“No,” Steve cuts her off, more mortification coming out of his pores. “I was the one that started it. I was- Fuck, I was so mean.”

“Just start from the beginning,” Robin tells him. “What happened?”

“I was out shopping and ran into my father, so I-”

“You what?” Robin screeches. “Oh my god, are you okay? Did he do anything to you? I swear I’ll go kill him if he touched you.”

Steve is both overwhelmed by her intensity to defend him as well as the love her has for her. She is truly his best friend. And yeah, it might be because they were tortured together and came out to each other on the bathroom floor, but Steve wouldn’t change it for the world. Robin is his number one person.

“I’m…” he trails of before he can say that he’s okay. “I’m- Well, I don’t really know. He asked if I had a wife yet and when I said no, he said I was gonna go to hell for being a fag and gave me a newspaper with an article about AIDS,” he shrugs, trying to make it sound less upsetting than it had been.

“Holy shit, Steve, your dad is a fucking asshole,” Robin breathes.

The comment comes straight from the heart and Steve can’t help but snort: “Yeah, he is,” as he sits up next to her, the two of them leaning against the headboard, pressed together from shoulder to ankle. Robin has one arm around his shoulders, her other hand holding his.

“But that sucks, are you okay?” Robin asks. “I mean obviously not, but, you know, seeing the circumstances, should I go egg their house? Or is it more a put fireworks through the mail slot kind of situation?”

“Neither, Robs, Jesus,” Steve laughs. “And they don’t have a mail slot.”

“Figures,” Robin pouts. Then frowns and asks: “How does that turn into a fight with Eddie? Was he there or something?”

At the reminder of what had happens, Steve curls into himself and shakes his head. “I drove to the quarry afterwards. I- I just needed to be alone for a bit. Think. He was there too. He asked if I was okay, but- but I just didn’t want to talk. I wanted him to go.” His voice drops to a whisper. “So I made him want to leave.”

Robin makes a sympathetic noise and leans more against his side, squeezing his hand. It can’t undo the heavy feeling in his chest, but her presence makes it all more bearable. She soothes the raw edges that have been left behind.

Without his permission, tears start up again and he sobs: “I called him pathetic. Pretended I hated him and didn’t want him around. He nearly cried, Robs.”

“Oh, dingus,” Robin sighs, holding him closer. “Just try and explain yourself. We’re all scared, especially with what the papers say. He’ll get it, if he gets that you’re gay.”

“I don’t know if he will,” Steve replies morosely. He knows that Eddie will get being scared, will understand being on edge after seeing his father. But he might not understand how Steve is still afraid of others knowing he’s gay. How he still wants to conform in the eyes of others. Eddie has never been like that, he might not get it.

Plus, Steve was a giant douchebag too. He pressed where he thought it would hurt and – going off how Eddie reacted – he succeeded in that. Eddie might not ever want to talk to him anymore after this stunt.

“Of course he will, just go up to him and say, like, ‘I’m sorry, man’,” Robin says.

“I’m sorry, man?” Steve repeats. “That is the most awkward, non-apologetic thing to say.”

“Well, I’m at least trying here,” Robin huffs, throwing her hands up, though that isn’t very effective from where she is wrapped around Steve, so she just jostles them.

“I know,” Steve says, voice softening. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Robin replies awkwardly, though with a genuine smile.

“I just have to talk to him,” Steve nods. “I can fix this.”

“That’s the spirit!” Robin grins. “You can totally do this.”

Steve fake frowns: “That doesn’t really sound like you mean it.”

“Oh shut up, dingus. I totally do,” Robin argues and Steve lets himself be distracted by her bickering. It’s not perfect, but much better than when he got here.

The next day, he hangs out with Chrissy at the cabin. He contemplated going to Eddie’s trailer yesterday, but remembers how Eddie performs with his band on Tuesdays. Remembers Eddie coming by sweaty and beaming brightly after a show with an aching heart.

Chrissy naturally notices something is up. They’re sitting on the couch, Chrissy was complaining about one of her classes when she suddenly stops and asks: “Are you okay? You’ve been distant all day, Stevie. Is something wrong?”

“Sorry,” Steve wrinkles his nose, he knows how much it sucks when someone isn’t listening and spaced out. “Just- I- I ran into my father yesterday.”

“What?” Chrissy shoots up. “Why didn’t you say?” she demands. They’ve bonded over shitty parents, she gets it. He now feels kind of silly for not saying it, but he just feels so much shame about what he did to Eddie because of it.

“I didn’t wanna bother you,” he shrugs, looking away, so he doesn’t have to see those kind bright eyes.

“Don’t be an idiot, Stevie,” Chrissy says, bumping her shoulder against his.

“Yeah, I know. Thanks, Chris,” he smiles at her, before sagging in the couch, so they’re both lying across each other. He sighs: “My father was a fucking douchebag again. I don’t know why I let him fucking get to me.”

“You just got to try to stop caring and never stop trying,” Chrissy tells him.

“Ugh, don’t use my own wisdom against me, Chris. Not fair,” Steve groans, even though he knows she’s right. His father doesn’t care about him and he shouldn’t care about him. But it’s not that easy and it is not just his father.

He hasn’t been keeping up with the news too much, but he knows what’s going on. He knows that people are dropping like flies and what the government thinks about it. What the general population thinks about it.

So far it has mostly been the big cities that are being hit hard and Steve never even thought about how that could be applied to him. But it is also directed at him and if he slips up, he’ll be even more hated by the town. It’s already not easy to not care about what his father thinks, but it’s even more difficult to not care what everyone thinks.

“It’s good wisdom,” Chrissy argues. “You should listen.”

“I know,” Steve whines, because he does. “It’s just hard.”

Chrissy gives him a sad smile: “I know.”

They both fall quiet for a second as they think about it. Steve knows that Chrissy gets this, how difficult it is to stop caring, how easy it is to fall back on a persona, to keep smiling and not let anyone see the hurt. She knows how to lash out with vicious words. Chrissy might be one of the kindest people Steve has ever met, but he has seen her claws on that first sleep over when he pushed her about the pizza.

So, he quietly says: “But it’s not my father that’s bothering me. It’s- I- Well, I fought with Eddie.”

His tone must have set something off in Chrissy, because she gives him a curious look and gently asks: “Do you want to tell me about it? I won’t judge.”

“I didn’t even mean any of it,” Steve groans, burying his head in his hands. “It was just instinct. It’s like- Every time I think, I have left all my high school bullshit behind me and then I turn around and shit like this just comes out. I can’t help it. I needed him to leave me alone for a moment. Needed him to let me breathe, so I just pressed every button I knew would hurt. And now he probably hates me.”

“I sometimes make myself throw up when I’ve had a fight with my mom,” Chrissy says in a small voice, as if she hopes Steve won’t hear, yet also needs him to know.

Steve immediately sits up and asks: “Holy shit, Chris. Are you okay? That’s not healthy.”

“I know,” she rolls her eyes. “I’m trying not to do it and most of the time I don’t. What I meant, is that it’s easy to fall back in shit you know it’s bad, because you know it will help. You just gotta try not to. And if I do, I sneak down and eat some bread. It’s not perfect and it doesn’t make up for doing it, but it makes it a little less bad.”

“Tell me if it gets worse?” Steve requests, ignoring her point in favor of making sure she’s going to be okay.

She gives him a small, yet bright smile and nods: “I will. Just keep going and all that.”

“Yeah, and all that,” Steve echoes with a deep breath. He’s quiet for a beat, then asks: “So, what’s my bread?”

“What?” Chrissy frowns in confusion.

“How do I make up for it,” he clarifies.

Chrissy thinks for a second, then shrugs: “I don’t know, Stevie. I wasn’t there. Just be nice to him when you can, try to show you didn’t mean it. Apologize.”

“I’ll try,” Steve says. “Thanks for listening to me go on about my own shit.”

“Course,” Chrissy replies. “I was complaining about about Mrs. Click assigning way too much homework again, that was less interesting.”

“I still like listening to you,” Steve tells her, needing her to know that. Needing her to know that he cares, even if she doesn’t think it’s interesting. That he wants to know the boring parts of her, because those also make her her.

“Thanks, Stevie,” she smiles and it feels like she understands.

They put on the Breakfast Club and cuddle up on the couch. Steve thinks they both crave the contact as he practically pulls Chrissy onto his lap and she clings onto him without a word, just making herself comfortable.

On Thursday he knocks on the door of the Munson trailer. His heart is nearly beating out of his chest and his fingers are tingling, but he doesn’t run. He stays there and knocks loud enough that anyone inside must hear.

Eddie’s van is parked nearby, but no one opens the door. Steve keeps knocking for an hour, before he gives up. Maybe Eddie is on a walk, he thinks, but he knows that’s not true. He tries not to feel the heaviness in his chest.

Friday is the start of the winter break and Steve is picking the kids up from their last session of the year. Despite the cold, he is waiting on the hood of his car like he usually does, prepared to make a scene just to apologize to Eddie.

Steve perks up when he hears the rascals approaching. They all seem excited, huge smiles and big gestures as they talk about the session. Eddie is in the middle of the group, looking so happy and energetic as he holds court. Steve can look at him forever.

Then he looks up and his eye catches Steve. Steve gets up from the hood and sets a step forwards to talk to him, but his stomach drops when Eddie’s whole demeanor changes. The easy going smile is gone and he looks angry, genuinely angry.

Before Steve can find his tongue to say something, he hears Eddie say: “Oh, I forgot something, you guys go ahead. It’s cold.” Then he turns around and walks away, never looking back.

Standing in that parking lot, Steve feels his heart rip in two. Eddie officially hates him and he has no one to blame but himself. Their little rivalry they put on in front of the kids is now real and Steve doesn’t know what to do.

The kids seem oblivious, all of them talking happily about the game. They give him a whole run down of what happens, but Steve doesn’t hear a word of it as he drives them home.

He thinks that he should maybe give Eddie some space, let him cool off, before trying to apologize again. However, it keeps gnawing on him and he keeps repeating what happened over and over again in his mind.

Lisa is back in town and he and Chrissy go by to see her before Christmas. She’s still a little more reserved and whip smart, but there is a distance between them now, created by Steve being horrible at calling and all the shit that has happened since she has left.

It’s not not fun, but it’s different now. Not as close as it used to be. Steve can feel the friendship slip through his fingers and he doesn’t know how to fix this either.

Christmas eve is spend with the Buckleys though they go by the kids on Christmas morning to bring them presents. Chrissy meets them at the end of her street, and the three of them exchange presents in the car.

He knocks on Eddie’s door again on the 27th, but there is no answer. He tries again on the 28th and the 29th without success. He has told Dustin to invite whoever he wants and knows that means Eddie will be invited for new years too and he hopes he will show up, but a part of him knows that he won’t.

Still, on new years eve, he keeps looking down the dirt road at the cabin to see if the headlights of Eddie’s van will come down the road again, as they have done so often.

But the lights don’t come.

Steve goes into the new years without new years kiss like a part of him had day dreamed about, instead cheering with the kids and feeling a little hollow inside. Robin and Chrissy both send him looks that are meant to be sympathetic, but make his skin crawl. He feels pathetic and he does not want any pity, he doesn’t want to think about it.

And a part of him is angry at Eddie too. How he can just ignore Steve, pretend he doesn’t exist, like they haven’t shared deep secrets. Like Steve didn’t let Eddie see a side of him, he usually keeps hidden.

It feels like a betrayal. Eddie claims he got Steve, but he didn’t. He didn’t know what it is like to have always had the town’s eyes on him. To be the perfect golden boy. To never be allowed to slip up and make mistakes. He doesn’t know what it is like to always be judged, not for being too out there, but for never quite being what people need. That silent cloak of expectation and disappointment.

Plus, he doesn’t need Eddie’s approval anyway. He’s better off without him. Safer. If Eddie doesn’t want to talk, fine. Steve can move on. Steve can be normal. He can find someone else. Someone who does look at him, who doesn’t ignore him.

It’s better like this. They were never going to work anyway. They’re just too different.

A/N:

Opposite of a fun fact: that header is an actual title I found… jikes (it’s from February 1985 so not entirely matched up with the timeline, but definitely what the mindset was at the time). I’ve been reading ‘All the young men’ by Ruth Burks and it’s utterly heartbreaking.

Also being comfy with yourself is a journey and it’s not linear. There are ups and downs. This is a pretty bad down, but it can be part of it. Sometimes you self-sabotage (Even if it was really angsty and hurt to write aaahhh)

Also also, im so sorry about phasing Lisa out, but there are already so many characters and I just couldn't make her a big part of it, plus, loosing friends after high school is an experience TM and it fit with the whole everything is falling apart theme I have going on xp

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