It's Almost Strange

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.)

part one, part two

“If you aren’t going to college, you’re getting a job, Steven. You can’t just count on an alpha to swoop in and marry you,” his mother says the Monday before his high school graduation. “I was working when I met your father, and I-”

“Rich, let the boy eat his breakfast,” his dad says from behind her newspaper. “Steve, kitten, we’ll talk about it later.”

Steve hopes later means the end of summer, since this will probably be his last summer break until… forever, maybe. He really wants a little time to decompress and really think, maybe even go on a real date for the first time since Nancy…

It ends up meaning until just after graduation. One of his dad’s friends from the club owns a half-dozen Scoops Ahoy! locations in northern Indiana, and he’s opening store number 7 at the new mall. Steve starts on Tuesday.

No resume, no interview, just come in on Tuesday for training.

He’s not sure why, but he wakes up too early from nerves, stomach roiling. Steve hasn’t made himself sick like this in years, but after he flushes away the evidence of his anxiety, he gets ready for the day. It’s just ice cream after all; he’ll be fine.

When he arrives at the storefront there’s a girl waiting there that he kinda recognizes—they must have shared a class or two, but Steve guesses she wasn’t in his grade. Even with blockers on he can tell she’s an alpha, but from the way her brow furrows when she spots him he’s pretty sure she won’t hit on him. At least he doesn’t have to deal with that at work.

It's the same with every girlfriend or fling afterwards. They get to pick the movie, the music, the dinner, the activities. Or more accurately Steve picks exactly what they like because they seem to expect it. He shows up to Sarah's piano recital and watches Heidi's cheer practice. He let's Jenna eject his Tears for Fears tape with a frown and put on some Ska instead. And when Chloe really, really wants to go out for milkshakes he pretends like ice cream doesn't make him want to throw up after Starcourt. Not a single one of them ever shows up at his basketball games or his swim meets.

Love means sacrifice and putting yourself second. At least when you're Steve Harrington.

So when Steve starts dating Eddie he doesn't expect anything else. It's not as bad though as with some previous dates. It's nice to listen to Eddie go on a long ramble about the history of metal. He likes to sit in during the DnD games, flicking through a magazine while Eddie and the kids play. And sure he is not the biggest fan of horror movies but it's a nice excuse to cuddle up with Eddie during movie night. Not that he would need an excuse, Eddie is incredibly tactile.

Steve is in the middle of a little league baseball game when things change. He is so focused on coaching his team he doesn't notice the mop of black curls in the audience at first. Only when his little team has their first home run and an eardrum shattering whistle comes from the bleachers, Steve turns and is surprised to find Eddie in the audience, smiling, cheering, hollering.

When he spots Steve looking at him he waves at him with an even bigger smile. During a brief water break Steve jogs over to the bleachers.

"What are you doing here?" he asks, still surprised that Eddie is here.

"Came to support my boyfriend and his team, of course," Eddie grins. If they weren't in public, Steve would steal a kiss right now. Eddie very much loathes sports and yet he still came.

Once the game is over Eddie drives both of them home. When he turns on the tape player, Steve very much expects the usual metal to come out of the speakers. Instead he is met with the familiar voice of Duran Duran. He expects Eddie to change the tape but he just lets it play. After Duran Duran there is a Judas Priest song and maybe the Duran Duran just got on there by accident. But after Judas Priest Hall and Oates plays and Eddie even hums along? No complaints, no berating Steve for his horrible taste in music, but fucking humming along?

"Did you…did you make this?" Steve asks, trying to wrap his head around what is happening.

"Yeah, thought this way we can both listen to stuff we like," Eddie smiles and laces their hands together. "But I also got some Bowie and and Queen tapes if you want something else."

It's the few musicians they can agree on. But Steve shakes his head.

"No, I like it. Leave it."

When they get to their small but comfy new home Eddie dashes upstairs to take a shower and tells Steve to pick a movie from the few he rented earlier.

The first one is Rosemary's Baby. Of course Eddie picked a horror movie. But then the next tape surprises Steve yet again. It's Back to the Future and the one after that is Star Wars there even is Top Gun. And Night of the Living Dead. A perfect mixture really.

When Eddie comes back from his shower Steve is still staring at the movies a frown on his face.

"You alright, Steveheart?"

"You know you don't have to do this," Steve says slowly. "Pretend you want to watch something I like. Or listen to my music. I don't want you to pretend."

Eddie walks over, wet hair dripping onto the floor. He presses a kiss to Steve's cheek and takes Top Gun out of his hand.

"I'm not pretending," he says and walks over to their TV. "I want to watch stuff you like. The same way you agree to sometimes watch stuff that I like. That's how it works, doesn't it? We compromise."

Steve blinks. Compromise. No ones ever really wanted to compromise with him. No one ever cared enough.

"Why?" he asks and sits down on the couch.

"Because I love you. And I want to know about the things you love. The same way I want to hear about your day or how your run went, if you liked your green smoothie this morning," Eddie says and sits down on the sofa too, pulling Steve into his arms.

And maybe it's taken him 22 years to learn. But finally Steve realizes that love is not putting others always first. Love is to meet in the middle. Love is to care, and to compromise and to share.

He felt the tears in his eyes and his vision getting blurry as he watched everyone hug Will. And Steve just stood there, frozen, unmoving. His eyes burned as he tried to hold back the tears, the sadness and anger. Why couldn't that be him right now? Why did his parents have to hate him? Shouldn't they love him unconditionally as well? He's their son for fucks sake. But no. They don't love him, and he's not sure they ever did.

Silently Steve slipped through the door and made his way down to the basement where he could cry in peace. He was gonna talk to Will later, tell him he's proud of him. But right now, he can't.

He sat down on the ground, tucking himself into the corner and making himself as small as possible, hugging his knees to his chest as he finally let the tears fall. And once he let them, the dam broke and there was nothing he could do to stop them. He quietly sobbed into his knees, his entire body shaking.

Written for @corrodedcoffinfest.

All This Time

Prompt #8 - "Where's the Beef?" | Word Count: 1000 | Rating: T | CW: Language | POV: Eddie | Pairing: Steddie | Tags: AU, Office Setting, Meet Cute, Misunderstanding, Free Donuts!

"Eddie, can we chat?"

Eddie looks up from his desk, er, well, the desk he'd commandeered months ago. He nods, wondering if the jig is finally up.

Steve Harrington is standing in the doorway of his office, a tight smile plastered on his face. And oh yeah, Eddie's definitely fucked.

Holding open his arm, Steve gestures towards the chair across from him. Eddie takes it. Steve's face is confused. Kind, too. But mostly confused.

"Eddie," Steve starts, tapping away on his keyboard. Stuttered little henpecks that Eddie finds endearing. "After our audit, I can't seem to find any files submitted by you. Not for a while. Not ever, actually."

Eddie grins, in a way that he hopes looks impish, throwing up his hands in a 'what can you do?' motion.

"And everybody has to pull their weight. I can't have someone on the payroll that isn't contributing. Have you done anything?"

Eddie shakes his head.

"So, um, I'm really sorry to do this. But I'm going to have to let you go."

"You can't," Eddie says plainly. 

Barb is a witness to the fight, to the aftermath, to Steve sitting in the passenger seat of the Chief's truck and lying about his injuries.

She is the sole witness to his first seizure.

He is being weird.

He's been listless and short-tempered all day. He's been clumsy and forgetful, and he is staring.

She had watched him stop and stare. She has seen him pause and stare. She's seen him rub his eyes, shake his head, frown. And stare.

He's been staring at the same spot for five minutes.

She looks behind her to see what has him transfixed and finds nothing. She snaps, "What are you looking at?!"

"Barbara?"

Now she stops. She stares. She matches his frown and asks, "You can see me?"

And then he seizes.

When it stops and he comes to, he cannot see her. He cannot hear her.

She is also the sole witness to his second seizure.

He says awed, "Barb?"

She says, "You're about to have a seizure."

He doesn't want to embarrass Eddie by calling attention to his situation in front of everyone but also like. Monsters with no faces exist in Hawkins and they can crawl through walls. He cannot handle another Barb situation so...

Steve tries to be subtle when he approaches Eddie at school.

He's being so subtle and so casual when he says without really saying that he saw Eddie in the woods and he understands Eddie's *gestures at him* whole thing and like.

If he wants to come over sometime, Steve wouldn't mind. He'd actually like it (because than he'd know Eddie wasn't demo-food) and also, ""Lots of, uh. Beds. In my house. That's more comfortable than your van, am I right?"

Steve leaves this conversation feeling pretty proud of himself for his good deed.

Eddie (morose): It's messed up after that all of the shit you've been through, you know how to remove a blood stain so well.

Steve: ...

There is one guy who could be a groupie, but he’s dressed so… preppy. He’s sprawled on one of the many comfy couches and working on a Rubix cube, tongue poking out a little in concentration. Munson doesn’t introduce him, just calls out, “How’s it coming, sweetheart?” The guy doesn’t even look up, just flips him off; Eddie laughs and moves the tour along to the next room, which contains a full Olympic sized pool with a Star Wars themed mosaic floor.

What draws all the attention though is a coffee kiosk set up inside Munson’s home that’s a clear spoof on Starbucks. It’s a fully branded and decked out coffee “company” named Penta-Dollar, with a logo that has a white pentagram etched on a red sand dollar by a black tentacle holding a tattoo gun, curling around from behind the sand dollar. Once the footage airs Starbucks sues, and Munson has good enough lawyers that it basically just becomes a matter of cease and desist.

A few months later Munson launches his own coffee company called Malicious Compliance Coffee Co., with a logo featuring a hand that’s obviously modeled after Munson’s giving a thumbs up sign. Of the rings on the hand, two are some of his signature decor: a skull and a cross surrounded by skulls. But the middle ring, instead of his signature pig ring, is an octopus. The branded hot beverage cups feature photocopies of the legal decision from the case with “Starbucks” and “Penta-Dollar” blacked out.

It’s such a big stir that it takes a long time for anyone to comment on the fact that, uh, wasn’t that Olympic gold metal swimmer Steve fucking Harrington chilling on Munson’s couch like he lived there?

And doesn’t Harrington have a small sand dollar tramp stamp tattoo??

@iridescentrylandgrace Hehe. Some facts:

Steve is lounging because he lives there.

The pool was a recent addition, a welcome gift for Steve moving in. The mosaic includes some Ewoks. (Yes, they have already christened the pool by time of filming.)

The Starbucks lawsuit is literally the only reason Eddie starts his own coffee company. He wanted the hand gesture on the logo to be a middle finger instead of a thumb but was talked down. (By Steve. In bed.)

Eddie DID bag the hottest Olympic medal winner, you’re so right. (Steve thinks a few are hotter but he’s not going to say it out loud for fear that Eddie would end up banging down their doors to duel over his affections. He is correct to fear this.)

Five minutes after posting that photo Steve realizes it’s a trick cube that opens once solved. It contains an engagement band. Eddie is already down on one knee.

Steve has been trying to solve that cube for over a year, Robin is going to tease him so much about this.

Permanent tag list (ask to be added/removed): @a-drop-of-magic @cosycryptid @gambita7x @grtwdsmwhr @hamiltonswiftie

@hehimmommy @hiei-harringtonmunson @iridescentrylandgrace @mascarponedaydreams @motherofpirates

@mrsjellymunson @sofadofax @stevesscoops @steviewashere @th30ra3k3n

@wheneverfeasible @yesdangerpls @bananahoneycomb @connected-dots @cryptid-demon-antics

It’s really out of hand. During movies they practically fight over who gets to pull the ol’ “yawn and stretch” technique: Steve accidentally kind of punched Eddie in the side of the head once trying to get to it first, and that devolved into Eddie tackling him off the couch entirely to play wrestle on the floor, delaying the start of the movie by at least another ten minutes. One of them will get out of the pool and try to drip all over the other one, so now they’re both in the water for the entire pool party and constantly leaping on and trying to drag each other under, and the kids keep betting on who’s going to lose their swim trunks next; Robin refuses to bring them food while they’re in their anymore on account of how many times she’s been splashed trying to do a hotdog hand off. (But on the plus side Jonathan’s getting really good at manning the grill these days with Steve so distracted.) They bicker playfully over which of them gets to pay the bill at diners and for pizza deliveries alike, to the point where Robin and Nancy and Jonathan are going broke trying to speed things along. They have put gum in each others' hair multiple times.

And the pet names, god the pet names. They started at “sweetheart” and “dear,” and now it’s devolved into shit like “honeybear” and “snookums.” When Eddie whips out “sugarsquirt” one night Mike actually gags, Dustin looks about ready to start pulling his hair out, Will is laughing to hard and silently to breathe, and Lucas just has his face in both hands, shaking his head. Robin just leaves. (The house. She walks home. Eddie was her ride; she needs at least 12 hours before she can look him in the eye again, and even then she will be grimacing. Just, no.)

They actually started hooking up after the first week of this, but decided to keep the bit going just to mess with everyone. The only one who’s figured it out so far is El, but that’s okay because whenever she comments that “Eddie and Steve are in love” their friends just think she’s being too naive. They have an arrangement with her to only call the game quits when she stands to win big in the betting pool.

Fast forward to Eddie pushing Steve against the wall in the boathouse and Steve has his 'oh' moment.