the king of hellfire

Love as Acceptance

That's it in a nutshell--desperate to be loved. He's a serial monogamist, can't be alone. His whole ramble to Nancy about how if some other girl had slapped some sense into him before they met feels like him hanging all his self-worth and destiny on Nancy loving him. He'll officially have a good grade in Person if Nancy loves him. It's like he never got over not being with her, never stopped taking it personally.

When you survive the end of the world by partying with your (maybe?) Monster hunting boyfriend. Or are they ‘steddie’ already XD 

I mean, the good news is, I get a big enough thump on my head, I can change, you know? I can learn. I can crawl forward.

The moment Eddie tries to tell Steve he's impressed, and he uses the best niche compliment he can think of- likening Steve to Ozzy Osbourne. Steve doesn't understand the reference, but instead of giving up, Eddie broadens the reference by telling him it was very metal of you, which considering the high opinion Eddie has of "metal" things, should relay how impressed he was, but Steve still doesn't get the reference. And instead of giving up after 2 tries? Eddie looks him over, thinks for a second, and then pulls in common ground by telling him Dustin told him Steve was a badass. That's when Steve's whole demeanor changes to interest, to paying attention to Eddie, and we see the physical shift of their bodies reflect the swap of their conversational tones. Where before Eddie was trailing behind Steve as he was trying to get Steve's attention, as soon as he has Steve's attention, Eddie moves ahead of him and it's Steve following him trying to get him to say more. And then when he's finally got Steve engaged in the conversation and paying attention properly, that's when he very smoothly switches into talking about what he thinks of Steve, and they're walking side by side then.