Cas

Now when Eddie is anxious about something, he'll send himself outside.

He doesn't even think about it anymore, not until he rounds the house and sees Steve staring at him with a raised eyebrow.

Eddie slows to a stop, "Hey."

"Since when do you exercise?"

"I...don't," Eddie says. "This isn't exercise. It's...I don't know. Stress relief?"

"Okay...I call it exercising, but whatever. What are you stressed about?"

"About asking you out on a date...oh."

"Seems like you did it easily enough," Steve replies, fighting a grin. "I don't think you need to sweat about it, Munson."

Steve opens the door and goes inside. Eddie is still kinda of stunned that he just - said it. He almost forgets that -

"Wait," He calls after Steve. "You didn't answer!"

In contrast, Eridians had to discover fire in a lab since their atmosphere doesnt have O2 like ours. So they dont have, like, an entire culture normalizing fire.

> Be me. Rocky the Eridian cosmonaut

> Tell Grace about Eridian space elevator design made out of Xenonite. Grace very impressed, says humans only dream about making space elevator.

> Odd? Ask Human friend Grace how humans got into space. Expecting some high tech solution since science humans clearly know more physics.

Eddie is obsessed.

He first found a video of Dustin's set scrolling on Tiktok. He then proceeded to find every video that exists of him on stage and like, he's obsessed with this guy's OC.

'Steve' is clearly a D&D character so it's like, fine that Eddie is writing fanfiction about him, right?

Eddie gets a ticket to see Dustin and ends up sitting next to this really hot guy. He tells Hot Guy about Dustin, about his sets, about Steve, and okay. Maybe he's had a drink too many because he tells Hot Guy about his crush on Steve too.

"Why don't you ask him out then?"

"Because he doesn't exist," Eddie says like, duh. "You think someone as cool as - as Steve exists? He saved kids from a rabid Demogorgon in a junk yard. People like that don't exist."

"They might."

Eddie is going to deny him but the show starts and the first thing Dustin does is introduce the crowd to the man behind the inspiration and...

"You do exist."

Lessson #12 Bless you!

Someone to be brave for.

excerpt is from chapter 29 of the novel.

However, this was usually the moment where Steve would hungrily take his lips with his own, not start yelling at him as soon as he was able to get out of his hospital bed from being in a month long coma.

"What the fuck, Munson?!" Steve's hands were curled into the fabric of his shirt.

"Um..."

"No! You need to explain to me what the fuck you were thinking!"

Eddie's fingers start to try and reach for the emergency nurses button.

"If only there was a way for me to know why you're angry with me,," Eddie announced loudly, trying to prevent himself from going into a full blown panic attack, because he could see and feel the anger coming from the man currently glaring at him.

Steve narrowed his eyes slightly, allowing Eddie to see that clearly he was also trying to calm himself down.

Eddie's heart nearly falls out his arse when he sees the unshed tears.

"Steve?"

"I told you not to be a fucking hero and you go running back into..." Steve pauses, lowering his voice a bit when he remembered that that were still in the hospital, "into the Upside Down and get yourself all torn up and bleeding and injured and then you almost die in front of Dustin!"

Oh.

Eddie swallowed thickly, looking down, finally seeing how bruised and torn up his hands were.

Double-Oh.

"I was trying to give you guys more time," Eddie muttered, struggling with everything within himself not to flinch when Steve angrily met his eyes again.

"You went back into danger..."

"Oh my god, Dustin is safe!" Eddie shouted, frustrated, "I saved the kid alright, they were trying to break into my trailer and go up through that gate to get to him, he's safe!"

Steve stared at him for a moment, a little bit of confusion over his face.

"I know he's safe!"

"Then why are you fucking angry at me?!"

Steve has wanted to strangle Eddie Munson on several occasions, hell, even multiple times in the past three minutes alone, but never has he wanted to strangle him as much as right that very moment.

"Why am I angry with you?" Steve has his hands on his hips now, looking alike a disappointed mother, a stance that Eddie had always taken the time to appreciate.

Eddie avoided eye contact, he felt safer not looking at such an angry Steve.

"Yeah, like...Dustin is safe, so get off my back,"

Steve has to bite his tongue to stop a horrible remark leaving him.

"He's not the only one I wanted safe you fucking dipshit!" Steve exclaimed, his hands going up in the air.

"Harrington, I am rather woozy from a little thing called a coma," Eddie sighed, "you wanna break it down a little more for me?" he winced a bit when he moved a little to sharply, his hand touching his side.

"You!" Steve snapped, "I was wanting you safe as well, you fucking..." he stopped his sentence, eyes now watching Eddie's three fingered hand hold the injuries hidden by the hospital gown.

"Back in bed," Steve ordered, taking a deep breath, "now," he almost felt the need to click his fingers to get Eddie moving when the other man stood there staring at him with those big chocolate brown eyes of his.

"Jesus Christ," Eddie muttered, huffing like an annoyed child as he climbed back on the bed, watching Steve as he held the blankets up for him.

There was a small silence that fell over the two men, Steve standing right by the bed, watching Eddie closely as Eddie eyed Steve cautiously.

"You were worried about me, Stevie?" Eddie now, also, wanted to strangle himself.

Steve huffed out a laugh, fingers rubbing at his temples.

"Unfortunately," he then pulled the hospital chair closer to Eddie's bed, "you could have died, Eddie," his hand was in his hair, distressed.

"You would've missed me?"

At this point, Munson, just accept that you'll be murdered by Steve Harrington.

Steve gently took a hold of Eddie's hand, eyeing the spaces where his ring and middle finger had once been.

"You kinda grew on me," Steve mumbled, reaching around behind him to pull the privacy curtains around the bed so he could comfort Eddie the way that he wanted without judgment.

Eddie's eyes became wide.

"I did?!" he asked with a startled expression, but he was leaning forwards like an excitable puppy.

"Yes, which just makes me even more angry with you," Steve tried to force his lips to stay in a firm line, but the corners refused to be tamed.

Eddie grinned, though still looking like death, his smile, no matter how big or small, always made him look radiant and playful.

"You kind of grew on me too, Harrington," Eddie replied, his brain stopping for a second to try and figure out how to hold Steve's hand with missing fingers, before he huffed and simply used his other hand to place his fingers where he wanted them.

"Good, because next time you do something dumb like that?" Steve caught his eyes, "I'm sending you back here myself, you got that?"

Eddie gulped.

Written for the @steddiemicrofic prompt ‘pride’ | WC: 481 | Rating: T | CW: flirting, implied ogling, self-delusion, pining, getting together | Tags: either post-S4 or a no Upside Down AU | A/N: they're idiots your honour | Steddie masterlist | General masterlist

Steve's proud of his self-control, never reacting to Eddie's near-constant salaciousness. Eddie wouldn't be genuinely interested in him anyway, he's made his views on jocks abundantly clear. So Steve projects impassivity, disguising the effects Eddie has. There's no flirty comebacks, squirming or tittering, despite it all bubbling up inside him.

If Eddie leans in, Steve elbows him away with a derisory chuckle. Stripping to swim, Steve’ll fling his sweater at Eddie’s face rather than fluster at his ogling. And should Eddie glance at his lips for more than a second, Steve immediately looks away.

His mother said it in the tone of a woman who'd wished she'd had a daughter to dress in frilly, lacy things.

His father said it with disdain, an insult. Dsgust that he was the father of a 'pretty boy'.

Steve tried to be manly and handsome, to accentuate those things instead of what people commonly commented about his as being 'pretty'. He hid and he hid and he hid.

Until Eddie.

Eddie barreled into his life, loud and brash and being exactly who he was. No hiding.

And Eddie saw through the carefully cultivated mask Steve'd created and had gently coaxed it away. With gentle hugs and soft words. With sweet kisses and assurances that Steve was perfect as he was.

Written for @steddiemicrofic.

Point of Pride

June Prompt: Pride | Word Count: 481 | Rating: T | CW: Mild Sexual Content | POV: Eddie | Pairing: Steddie | Tags: Post S4, Canon Divergence, The Upside Down is Gone, But In The Aftermath Steve Still Needs Something To Do

"It looks clean enough to me!" Eddie hollers, standing on the front porch, putting in his two cents.

Steve's been scrubbing his car with a sponge for an hour. Suds running down, which he then rinses off with the garden hose, before scrubbing some more. Their water bill's gonna be sky-high.

"It's not," Steve says, hand still moving in tight circles, soaping up the car.

"If you say so," Eddie says, sitting down on the porch swing. Swaying with the breeze. It smells like rain. That figures. Steve will scrub and shammy that car to gleaming, then get water spots from the rain.

"It's a point of pride for some of us, you know? Having a clean car," Steve answers, not looking back at Eddie.

It's more than a little pointed. Eddie's truck is still muddy from the last time he and the boys took it offroad, where they promptly got stuck and had to push it out. But Eddie doesn't mind. It's mud. It's fine. It's gonna rain eventually.

But that's not good enough for Steve.

No, he needs something he can fix, Eddie's pretty sure. Their lives had been in such upheaval for so long, that Eddie thinks Steve always needs something else to focus on now that the Upside Down is toast.

Even if it's all but washing the paint off that car.

They spend the summers together playing in the forests, turning over rocks and slaying imaginary dragons in the backyard.

To everyone's surprise, the Harringtons encourage the connection. They may be absent, jet-setting around the world, but they do care for their son in their own way. They see the way Steve brightens up around Eddie, their normally serious little seven year old coming alive.

Wayne doesn't mind either. He loves to see Eddie so animated. His nephew always starts the summer sullen, coming to him straight from Al with a shaved head and a dulled spirit. Eddie makes friends easily at the park, pulling all kids of kids into his imaginary world, but no one brings his true self out life little Steve.

Eddie is loud, and protective, and sweet in the ways Al tried his best to beat out of him.

Waybe takes care of the boys more often than not, the Harringtons quick to agree to week long sleepovers when they know they'll be out of town. They love to hear Steve's stories about Mr. Wayne and Eddie when they get back.

Years later, their friendship will fall apart. Steve's parents will start fighting, and he'll close himself off, trying to be a picture perfect son so they'll stay together. Eddie will become angry, taking his frustration at the world and his confusion about his dad's sentence out on anyone who comes too close.

But even then, Steve's favorite memory will be of Wayne pulling him out of the car after a movie at the Hawk, more than half asleep and clinging to his soft flannel. He'll hold the sleepy image of a young Eddie resting on the opposite shoulder, the sun setting behind him, as a needle makes its way into his arm. He'll pull it to the forefront of his mind as he passes out in the Byers' living room. He'll try to recreate the feeling when he holds Nancy close on Christmas.