what is going on

He didn’t understand it at first until he watched Steve going on failed dates after failed dates, or watching a short relationship end in a terrible break-up and Steve moping around.

Eddie didn’t want to count how many times he’s seen Steve’s heart break.

So now he’s on a mission: keep Steve from dating.

He’s ruining every opportunity Steve gets for dates, making plans with him almost every weekend and after a while, Steve stops asking girls out and Eddie feels accomplished.

At least, he did until Steve kissed him goodbye after movie night and now Eddie’s so fucking confused.

they first find him in the jungle, where an armadillo has no business being

they find the entrance to the city, while being followed by him

he is present when the volcano starts to erupt (previous concept art also showed him in the background actually stopping the eruption)

miguel and tulio sucked ass at the ball game, so they used Bibo as a ball. He ricocheted himself all over the place and defied physics to get into the hoop every time

You know what you are so right... We have a bond, these 50 rats and I....

OH SHIT OH NO

WAIT

He's a freshman in high school and this nice drug dealer guy is showing him how to smoke a joint so he doesn't beef it in front of all his friends, and...he's kinda cute.

And then Steve kisses him.

And Eddie kisses back.

And they're making out at a random table in the woods until - "Whoa."

"You okay?"

"Sorry," Steve says. "Sorry, man. I'm actually going to do the whole gay thing - bi thing? I think I still like girls - in a couple of years. I want to be popular first."

"...We can still do this if you're in the closet. I can keep a secret."

"I’m not in the closet. I’m just going to be - whatever I am later."

Eddie is just, "... You're scheduling being gay?"

Steve thinks about it and, "...Yes."

"You can't do that."

"Um, yeah I can. Free country."

"What," Eddie starts and stops. He takes a breath and asks, "Do you have 'be a homosexual' penciled in your calendar four years from now?"

"I don't think they make multi-year calendars like that."

Because that's the only issue with this conversation, not pushing your gay awakening down the road. Eddie can't even point out that all of this is absurd because Steve is just like, fingerguns, "Anyways, if you're free in a couple years, hit me up."

"For what, a meeting on the gay agenda?"

"Or to make out," Steve shrugs as he packs up his stuff. "You're a good kisser. See ya, Munson."

Eddie doesn't hit Steve up.

—hotch comforts you when you worry you depend on him for the wrong reasons. fem, 2k

You were aware of the irony. Girl who hates her father latches onto the first older man to give her any positive attention: the framing isn’t complimentary to either of you, and it’s not true, really. You love Aaron because he’s kind, and he’s handsome, and because he loves you first. You won’t pretend he’s perfect even if he might say that about you. He doesn’t have to be. 

Aaron is kind where all the other men in your life have been cruel. He is the person you go to when things go wrong, even if you don’t expect him to fix things for you. You know you have ‘daddy issues’, and you don’t want them to affect how you and Aaron are when you’re together, but it’s obvious to the both of you that you crave being looked after. The way Aaron takes care of you absolutely factors into why you love him. 

He wraps the tail end of your scarf into your coat and flattens the lump of it until it’s under your chin. “Alright?” he asks, not expecting an answer as he turns away to grab his own scarf. “Will that coat be warm enough? It might be a few hours.” 

“Fine. We’ll be inside most of the time.” 

“Mm,” he hums, reaching back to pinch your side. You laugh and he smiles but doesn’t say anything further, pulling open the front door, and holding it for you until you’re on the porch. 

“You know you don’t have to… spoil him, so much,” you say lightly. 

“It’s not spoiling, he only wants a few things.” 

You’d personally felt that Jack’s birthday wish list was a bit long, but you don’t care. You don’t have a vendetta against Jack's happiness. If Aaron wants to spend half a paycheck (alright, a quarter, if that) on some toys, he should do it. But he probably knows already that Jack won’t care if he doesn’t get all of that stuff. “I didn’t get half as much for my birthdays,” you say. 

“Believe me, honey, neither did I.” 

“One year someone’s mom got me a full box set of movies though. That was a good one.” 

“One year, I got two different pagers.” He snorts. “And now they’re useless.” 

“I never used a pager.” 

Aaron goes a bit red, self-shame or something silly like that. “Don’t tell me that.” 

“Cradle snatcher.” 

“Stop, that’s not funny.” 

The idea that Eddie is stronger than he looks is fun.

There's nothing else to it.

He doesn't have the stereotypical "jock muscles" that he teases Steve about and very much resembles a gangly, floppy-muppet creature (especially in the midst of his cafeteria speeches and other such performances). But he's not weak!

And everyone gets their own taste of what that means.

Exhibit A: The Party

Eddie will absolutely haul the children around with the same ease he hauls his laundry bag around (he is SLIGHTLY more careful with the children because they bruise easier than his laundry bag). If they're being particularly unruly, they're going over the shoulder to get the potato sack treatment.

Whenever they need to set up a space for D&D from scratch, Eddie's the one doing most of the heavy lifting. He brings the most stuff (from gear for the actual game to the snacks) and deals with the tables and chairs.

He is the only one allowed to move his throne. He's the only one who knows exactly where it goes for the best effect.

Exhibit B: Corroded Coffin

Similarly, there's a lot of heavy lifting. Eddie and Grant (the unnamed freak in CC) are the only ones who can lift their band's amps on their own. Gareth and Jeff need to work together, or have help from Eddie and Grant.

He has carried each of them at least once after rescuing them from bullies or for the heck of it (this mostly applies to Gareth since he's still short enough that his feet dangle when Eddie lifts him up).

No one talks about it out loud, but they know Eddie's had to defend his "territory" in the woods on more than one occasion. Being a known dealer in Hawkins has never been as easy as he makes it look.

Exhibit C: Jocks

Eddie's not an inherently violent person, necessarily, but he will and has absolutely thrown down to defend his sheepies. And unlike Steve's track record with human opponents, he's won enough fights to make even jocks like Jason Carver nervous.

He's not afraid to get loud, he's not afraid to bear his teeth, he's not afraid to get in people's faces. No punches actually need to be thrown for jocks to get the idea.

His metal rings have left their marks on certain offenders. The smart ones have healed, but those stupid enough to keep going? Well, at least they'll always have a fun conversation starter when they meet new people.

Steve's not the only one who's been thrown against a wall. He's just one of the few who Eddie willingly let go before the fight was finished. He's also the only one who's walked away relatively unscathed.

Exhibit D: Steve

Eddie refuses to let Steve carry the grocery bags. Even if they're preparing a party that involves all of their friends and their families, and end up buying a quarter of the store to accommodate everyone, Eddie will fight Steve when it's time to get the groceries back to the car. He insists that they maintain the foundation of equal trade--Eddie handles the bags, Steve handles the food later on.

He despises Steve's morning runs, and makes sure Steve knows it. He will cling to Steve the night before and refuse to let up, even when still under the enchantment of sleep. It's only when Steve uses all his might to try and escape that Eddie finally wakes up--no alarm clock needed anymore. Whether Steve proceeds with his run or not depends heavily on his skills of persuasion that day. He's found that bribery usually works best.

Eddie will regularly trap Steve in blanket burritos when he feels like Steve is running himself ragged or notices that he's especially stressed. He's the only one who can get Steve in the blanket and the only one who knows how to secure it so that Steve can't get out on his own.

Steve might be The Party's resilient knight, but he's Eddie's fair maiden. And Eddie treats him accordingly. He loves scooping Steve into his arms with loud declarations of adoration, spinning him around, and then settling him on his lap. Bonus points if Steve ends up falling asleep--it warms Eddie's heart that Steve trusts him enough to NAP in his presence when he's usually too worried about everything to randomly fall asleep.

He will carry Steve to bed if they stay up late watching a movie, or Steve needs some time to come down from a nightmare. That includes braving the stairs with so much care that Steve doesn't realize he's been moved until the next morning.

(If he and Steve had been together during the latter's encounter with Billy Hargrove, or even just friends, Eddie would have left Billy with a permanent limp for laying his hands on Steve and Lucas.)

The first person to find out about this secret hobby is Robin. His parents stop helping him out financially when they realise he's not just taking a gap year to figure things out and has in fact decided not to go to college. Steve doesn't have the money to get her something fancy for her birthday so he instead buys wool and buttons in her favourite colour and crochets a cardigan. He's never seen someone react so enthusiastically to a present he gave them before and every time he sees her wearing it he feels a surge of pride at the fact that he created something she loves so much.

The second person is Eddie, who complains everyone's ears off about how thin the hospital blankets are and how cold his room is while he's recovering from the demobat attack. Steve crochets a blanket for him. It's basic, black with thin red stripes, and the entire time Steve is wondering why he's even spending so much time making it when Eddie will be discharged before he knows it. He hands it to him one day when he's visiting with Dustin and Robin.

"Oh nice, you bought me a blanket," Eddie says, immediately opening it and spreading it out over his lap.

"Actually I made it," Steve corrects. "I'm still a beginner so it's not the best but it should be pretty warm for-"

Eddie's gaze snaps up from trailing over the intricate little knots of wool.

"You made this?" Eddie asks, his eyes wide.

Steve nods.

"You made this?" he repeats, holding up the corner of the blanket and pointing at it as if it wasn't obvious what he was talking about.

"That's what I just said, yeah," Steve responds.

"Sir Steven Harrington," Eddie grins. "You continue to surprise me. Who knew jocks could knit?"

Steve rolls his eyes and lets out an exasperated huff.

"It's crochet not knitting. And if you don't like it I can-" he reaches to take it back, but Eddie snatches it away in a tight grip, pulling the edge of it to his chest like he's protecting something sacred.

"No way, Big boy." He refuses. "You've bestowed this precious gift upon me and I have accepted it. No takebacks. I will take care of it and protect it with my dying breath." His expression changes to something unsure. "Wait, is it okay for me to keep this or did you want it back when I leave?"

"Please don't talk about your dying breath when you're sitting in a hospital bed after almost bleeding out," Steve chastises, crossing his arms, unimpressed. "And yes you can keep it. I made it for you."

Before he can say anything else, Eddie drags him down into a crushing hug, not giving a shit about the tube attached to his wrist or his fairly recently stitched sides. Dustin later describes the noise Steve made as sounding like a cat having its tail stepped on. Robin points out in a teasing way that it took Steve a suspiciously long time to disengage from that hug, just making a perfectly casual observation.

The next one to get a handmade gift is Dustin. He wouldn't let go of the fact that Steve had made something for both Robin and Eddie before him even though he was supposed to be Steve's best friend. That christmas Steve gifted him a handmade sweater with a lightsaber design on the front, which meant he had to make things for the rest of the teens not long after because of course Dustin went around wearing it and bragging at every possible opportunity.

Soon all the people Steve cared about the most had something made by him.

Then one day Eddie asks him to teach him how to crochet so he can make something for Wayne to show how much he appreciates him. Steve thinks it's a really sweet idea, so he agrees. Eddie found a photo of a sweater he wanted to try and make for him, but he's finding it really tricky even with Steve's help. So in the end, Steve makes the sweater and they both work on a much easier blanket pattern together.

Steve's spending a lot of time in Eddie's room, sitting very close to him and occasionally gently taking hold of his hands to guide him when he gets stuck. This is how he finds out that Eddie still sleeps under that blanket Steve made for him over a year ago. It's also how he ends up making out with him on top of said blanket.

Wayne is so touched when he gets his handmade gifts that Christmas that he cries. Eddie teases him about it until Steve, who's spending his first Christmas with the Munsons as Eddie's boyfriend, reminds Eddie that he practically ripped Steve's hand off at the hospital when he tried to take that first blanket back.

"Yeah, well, it was important to me. You made it." Eddie shrugs. Then he picks up a large, slightly lumpy present and shoves it into his hands. "And you still haven't opened your gift. Less talking, more opening."

After that Steve is the one trying not to cry, because the second he pulls back the wrapping paper, a blanket pours out onto his lap, navy with white stripes. It was clearly made by Eddie because it smells like him, and some of the stitches show mistakes that he made when they were working on Wayne's gifts together.

He gently takes the material into his hands and runs his thumbs over each bump in awe. No one's ever put this much effort into a gift for him before. "I love it," he says, his voice slightly shaky.

"Are you sure?" Eddie replies, self-conscious. "I made a few mistakes, and I ran out of wool at one point, but the store didn't have any left in the same shade of blue so there's a small part at the bottom that looks slightly different. I can get you something else if you want. I know it's not as good as yours."

Steve leans over and shuts him up with a kiss on the lips, something he's learned is extremely effective over the course of their relationship.