ask and you shall receive !! part two of tarot-verse !! read part one here !!
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“Robs, do you really think this is going to work?”
“Well normally I would say yes. It's pretty straight-forward and I don’t think you’re leaving a lot of room for misinterpretation. But at the same time, Eddie has been demonstrating some particularly impressive levels of obliviousness when it comes to the way you go all goo-goo eyes at him.”
Steve opens his mouth to dispute her claim, he does not go all goo-goo eyes at him, but gets cut off.
“That and the fact that he’s all in his head over a scenario he literally made up. So I don't know, it might be hopeless.”
Steve just blinks for a second.
“Wow. Thank you, Robin, for that very motivating pep talk.” He runs a hand through his hair. “I am feeling much more confident now, that's really great.”
She huffs on the other end of the line. “Well, I just mean that-”
He holds up a hand even though she can’t see him. “No, no. I got it.” He perks up at the sound of a door slamming in the driveway. “Hey, he’s here Robbie. I gotta go.”
Robin's screech has him pulling the phone away from his ear. “Good luck, dingus!”
“Thanks Robs. I’ll call you tomorrow.”
He hangs up and wipes his, now clammy, hands on the front of his jeans and psychs himself up.
“Come on Steve. Be cool.”
A musical knock that Steve would know anywhere sounds through the foyer and he has to tamp down the smile threatening to split his face. This is serious.
He swings open the door just as Eddie’s hand is poised to knock again and cuts him off before he can even start to speak.
“Okay. I know I asked you to come over so we could smoke and watch that movie you like but can I show you something first?”
Eddie’s eyebrows furrow but his smile doesn’t drop.
“Course, Stevie. Why so serious? What did you do, rob a bank?” He asks, shouldering his way past and making his way to the living room and hopping over the back of the couch.
Steve knows the moment Eddie sees them. His shoulders stiffen up and his breath catches. Steve hurries to placate.
“Hey, I know. I’m sorry just-” If he runs his hand through his hair again it's going to go flat but he can't break the habit. “Just let me show you?”
Eddie settles back into the couch and gives Steve a quick nod.
Steve takes a breath and grabs his stack of cards from the coffee table and settles on the other end of the couch.
Okay, Steve. Just like you rehearsed.
Another deep breath.
“Two summers ago Robin told me she wanted to learn how to read tarot. She bought a deck and tried to learn on her own, but she had a hard time memorizing what all of them meant.”
Eddie huffs a quiet laugh. “No shit. Shit’s hard.”
Steve laughs too. “Yeah, I know that now. But, she had a hard time with it so I told her I would learn and help her practice. And I did. And she got really good at it and she brought them everywhere and she did readings for people constantly. But then she eventually got bored and stopped.”
Eddie shifts and uncrosses his arms. Finally looks less like he’s ready to bolt.
“What, do you just have like a rolodex of stuff you’ve learned for Robin that she doesn’t care about anymore?”
“I think of it more like an old toybox.” This gets a laugh out of Eddie. “But this one– this one stuck with me. I forgot about it for a while but a while back, a few days pre-vecna oddly enough, I pulled a reading for myself and I wanted to show you.”
Eddie’s eyes dart between his own for a beat. He tilts his head a bit.
“I would love to see it, Stevie. But I’m not understanding what was so urgent about this. I thought it was gonna be about the whole,” he waves his hand around while he talks, “you watching me make myself look stupid the other day.”
Steve hates the dejected tone his voice has taken on behind his false bravado.
“It is! I mean, I’ve never thought you looked stupid. But, I mean I kind of goaded you into it, just– just let me talk you through this and I promise it’ll all make sense.”
Eddie sits back again. “Okay sweetheart. Wow me.”
Steve takes a deep breath because this part is a bit like baring his soul to Eddie.
“So when I pulled this reading. I was feeling really confused about what was in store for me. I decided to dust off my cards and see what happened.”
He pulls four cards right off the top of the deck and lays them out face down. Flips the first one.
Judgement.
“I got judgement first. Now, I know you know what it means, but I’m going to tell you my interpretation.”
When Steve looks back up at him, Eddie’s got his chin propped in his hand and the stars back in his eyes.
“Judgement told me to stop looking for things in the same places I’d always looked. That I should look somewhere different. Now granted I didn’t know what that meant yet, but it was just the start.”
Flips the second card.
The Moon.
“You would think that maybe I would’ve taken the hint with this one. It’s the one that tells you, ‘Hey! Stop lying to yourself! Listen to your intuition!’ But still I didn’t know what that was supposed to mean either.”
He skips ahead and flips the last card and Eddie looks confused and goes to flip the third card himself.
“Call me crazy, Stevie, but I think you skipped one.”
Steve bats his hand away.
“Shut up. I know that, but there’s an order to this story.”
Eddie puts his hands up in a gesture of innocence and Steve taps the fourth card.
The Lovers.
“This one made me finally start to piece this one together. Maybe I needed to start looking for a different type of girl, ya know? Clearly I was gonna fall in love and I needed to start looking in new places for whoever it was.”
He brings his eyes up to meet Eddie’s.
“Maybe a farmer’s market.”
Eddie throws his head back in a laugh.
“But this last card had me so confused because it didn’t fit into this lineup at all. In my experience, when a card doesn’t really fit, it might need to be read more literally. And I found out later that this one was meant to be taken very literally. Like, very.”
He flips the final card.
The Devil.
“Because a few days later, I met you.”
Eddie squints at him, but he's smiling.
“That feels like an insult, babe.”
Steve can literally feel his cheeks flush at Eddie’s effortless flirting.
“Okay, well I can only think of one person who was accused of devil-worship in this town, so.”
“That’s fair,” Eddie nods.
“And I had this stupid big crush on you before I even remembered the reading. When I did it got so much worse. And then, last weekend, I saw your cards and I thought it would be fun to see what kind of reading you would pull for me. Thought maybe that would be my chance to tell you how I felt. I was going to wait for you to tell me about whatever you pulled and then tell you I knew that already.”
Eddie shifts to sling an arm around Steve’s shoulder and lets him finish.
“But then I saw those cards and I knew you were making stuff up and I thought it was because you didn't want it to be you.”
Eddie’s face falls for a second before Steve bumps their noses together.
“But then you were being so weird at the farmer’s market so I talked to Robs about it and she told me we're both stupid.”
Steve feels more than he hears Eddie’s laugh.
“I would have to agree with Birdie on that one. Steve, has anybody ever told you you have an insane poker face?”
Steve hides his face and laughs.
“No, that's a new one.”
Eddie puts on his most dramatic voice again.
“Well allow me to be the first. Because that was a phenomenal performance. I had no idea that you knew I was talking out of my ass.”
“Well you do that a lot anyway, so.”
Eddie squawks and shoves Steve to fall backwards until he’s in his space, looking down with a blinding smile.
“So, cards tell you anything about a first date?”
Steve’s hands settle around Eddie’s waist and his eyes dart around his face.
“We could ask. But I can think of a better way to spend our time.”
Eddie bends down and nips at the side of Steve’s jaw, hums.
“Yeah? Hm. I think it might be worth an ask.”
Steve huffs and brings his his hands to either side of his face to tug him down.
“Shut up.”
Eddie’s laughing the first time their lips meet.
He bites and tugs at Steve’s bottom lip to get his attention.
“I can’t believe you called me the devil.”
Steve’s eyes are hazy and his smile lazy.
“Yeah but you’re my devil.”
Eddie laughs and leans down to peck at the corner of his mouth.
“And you’re my magician.”
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