🏳️‍⚧️Oofyoofs🏳️‍⚧️

“She’s feeling a lot better, but staying in bed for a few days straight makes you stiff, you know? I was thinking it might be good for her to do some stretches, really work on that flexibility.” Ok, maybe that’s laying in a bit thick, but Chissy is blushing and it’s harmless, really.

“That would be great! She says, clapping her hands together a little and lifting lightly onto the balls of her feet, megawat smile firmly in place. She leans in a little, lowering her voice. “You know, we let people bring a plus one in for a free session to let them try it out. I won’t tell anyone Robin’s already been in if you don’t.” Robin is going to owe him so bad after this. So bad, he’s practically got Chrissy locked down for her already.

But he’s not done yet, there’s one more step to phase two, and it might be the most important one.

“Robin said you helped her a ton with catching up with class; she was super grateful.” Play it cool, Harrington. “Want to go grab some food with us after class next week? Our treat, as a thank you.” Nailed it. “Rob mentioned you're a vegetarian, she knows some great spots.” 

“Oh, really, don’t worry about it. It was my pleasure!” She says, waving her hands around like she’s trying to banish the thought from his mind. “But I would love to hang out, you guys seem like a lot of fun, and Robin is great. Count me in!” Steve will humbly accept his wingman of the year award now, please and thank you. Chrissy looks over the moon. 

“Is it ok if I bring my best friend? He’s in this class too, Eddie, come say hi!” It can’t be. There’s got to be another Eddie in this class. Maybe even several. Hell, for all he knows, everyone in the class is named Eddie except for him. What would he know? It must be a coincidence.

It is not a coincidence.

Answering the call of Chrissy’s energetic wave is the same Eddie from yesterday. He’s wearing another shirt with an indesernable logo that he assumes is meant to be the name of the band, but this one is only left with the memory of sleeves, cut down the sides to expose the sides of his stomach.

Well, that’s not fair. Steve is pretty sure he can see Eddie’s armpit hair, just a little bit, which should not be as hot as it is. If he lifted his arms up, he could see more. Steve is going to have to examine some things later. 

Robin is going to hate him, actually.

Oh no, he’s smiling at Steve. He has dimples. How did Steve not notice those dimples before today? This is not helping his plan at all.

“What can I do for the two finest maidens of Yogaspire today?” He says, bowing low to both of them. 

Oh god, he’s a nerd. Am I into nerds now?

He’s going to choose to ignore that thought, and also ignore the weird feeling he’s getting from Eddie looking up at him like that. Shoo, shoo.

Rubbing the back of his neck, he gestures vaguely, not wanting to risk going in for a handshake. Stay strong, Harrington. “Hey man, glad you’re feeling alright.” There, good, no follow-up questions, just good old-fashioned midwestern politeness, just like mama taught him.

“Steve here just invited us to lunch after class next week, you free?” Which, no, he did not. He very specifically asked Chrissy, and an extra body is really going to mess with his plan of dipping out at the last second.

He needs to save this ASAP.

“Well, far be it from a lowly bard to reject such a generous offer,” Eddie says, leaning back into his full height with a dramatic flair.

Steve needs to fix this. He shuffles back a little to angle his arm and part of his body behind Chrissy’s head. It’s not elegant, but it’s the best he can do. He starts waving his hand like a god damn Looney Tunes character, making every conceivable hand motion to signal to Eddie to please, for the love of god say no.

He might just have a lucrative career as a mime in front of him, because somehow the rapidly alternating death glare and puppy eyes and the frantic waving of his open palm do the trick.

He watches Eddie’s eyes widen, trying to make quick meaning out of Steve’s, honestly, probably concerning change in demeanor, and turns back to Chrissy. It’s not subtle at all, but he manages to stop before she sends a cutely confused look his way.

Eddie laughs awkwardly, like a genuine “hahaha” sound is falling out of his mouth as he rubs the back of his neck. Steve feels the urge to bash his head into the doorframe for a moment, but he bravely resists. Anything for Robin, he reminds himself

“Alas, I am afraid that I must decline after all, as I am otherwise occupied. Wayne, uh, has a-uh-apointment! With the dentist! Old man’s finally going to get that tooth pulled, he’ll need a ride. Anesthesia and all.” Steve really wants to find the nearest doorframe. Eddie is a terrible liar.

And, wow, Steve doesn’t know what to do with the look on Chrissy’s face, and it isn’t even directed at him. She’s smiling, technically, all white teeth and crinkled eyes, but he can feel the bad energy coming off of her in waves.

“Oh, really, that’s too bad. So wild that he needs Wayne needs you on that specific Thursday night, weird that you didn’t tell me before!” Eddie is definitely feeling her ire, too. Steve feels kind of bad.

“Haha, yup, can’t be helped!” Eddie is definitely sweating. And, oh, now he’s making eyes at him. Not the cute confused look from last week, but big eyes that scream ‘you owe me a god damn explanation.’ 

Damn, Steve was planning to hit up the grocery store after this.

Steve made his goodbyes to Chrissy and Eddie, deciding not to make Chrissy any more suspicious than she already seemed to be and linger outside for Eddie. Apparently, she usually stayed behind an extra hour after class to do setup and cleaning, but it wouldn’t be a problem for her to leave right after class next week.

Five minutes pass, then six, then seven, and at eight, Steve is ready to call it a day, silent agreement be damned, when Eddie walks out in a fresh change of clothes.

He really is cute, if a little rough around the edges, looking around the entrance with hunched shoulders and straightening out when he spotted him, trotting over in a way that absurdly made Steve think of a frolicking deer.

“Dude, what the fuck was that?” Well, so much for hello, but he supposes that’s a fair reaction.

“My bad, man. I’m kind of trying to do something here, and I couldn’t exactly have you tagging along.” Instead of clearing his confusion, something about what he said made his hackles rise. His eyes narrow, and he stretches to his full height, ever so slightly taller than Steve.

“Are you trying to hit on Chrissy? Because let me assure you, you’re barking up the wrong tree,” he says, voice steely. Protective.

This is really not good. Steve might not have dated a lot of unathletic, alternative men in his life, but he’s always gone for someone with a little fire. An edge of competence and danger that draws Steve in, often against his better judgment.

And then his question registers. It’s probably a reasonable ask, but Steve doesn’t like the implication, instinctively moving his hands to his hips the way he always does when he’s irritated.

“What!? No! I’m trying to set her up with my best friend, Robin. I’m not some creep trying to, like, trap her in a date or something.” Steve is ready for this to devolve into an argument of some kind, honestly, but Eddie surprises him again.

His face lights up, dimples making another appearance and ruining Steve’s life. And also maybe giving him whiplash. This guy sure is expressive.

He claps his hands together, like he can’t contain his excitement and needs to let it in a physical way. Steve wants to find it annoying. “Right! I forgot about the illustrious Ms. Buckley!”

Illustrious, that’s good, right? He said it like it’s a good thing, but Steve doesn't think he’s ever actually heard that word before.

He must be making some kind of face, because Eddie explains. “Chrissy talks about her a lot. It’s always ‘Robin’s last paper was so good’ and ‘Robin wore suspenders today, it was so cute!’” He says it all with a surprisingly good falsetto, a clear imitation of Chrissy, before leaning in, voice getting softer. More intimate. “Though, lately it’s been a lot more ‘Robin said this’ and Robin said that.’ I’ve got a feeling a certain pretty boy had something to do with the recent breach of the hyperbolic sound barrier?”

Steve can feel his ears turning red at the attention, ‘pretty boy’ dancing through his head. He’s not going to back down though. If Eddie is expecting him to fluster at his proximity, he’s got another thing coming. He plants his feet, not challenging, but also not willing to be cowed by the potential awkwardness of their position.

Eddie just grins, the word ‘impish’ coming to Steve’s mind. He’s pretty sure Eddie is checking him out, making him wonder where the shy, bumbling man from last week went. Steve thinks he might like him either way.

“Yeah, well, the feelings are mutual. Robin hasn’t shut up about the ‘ethereal beauty with a mind of gold’ in her writing class since the semester started.” He can’t help but roll his eyes a little. He told Robin that Chrissy was a slam dunk. They could be halfway to being engaged and buying those rocking chairs by now if she’d listened. “But Robin’s a bit of a coward when it comes to girls, so I’m helping out.”

Eddie rocks back on his heels, giving Steve some space as he crows. “Aha! I see the vision. I’m guessing you’re gonna make yourself suspiciously absent at next week's soiree. My attendance would shatter your master plan.”

Steve can’t help but smile, charmed. “You got it,” he says, snapping his fingers into a finger-gun and immediately regretting it. So dorky.

But Eddie doesn’t seem to mind. He doesn’t laugh or point it out like Robin or one of the kids would. In fact, he doesn’t even seem to register the motion at all, gaze firmly locked onto Steve’s mouth with a poleaxed look about him.

His smile turns into a smirk. He’s still got it, no matter what Dustin says. Even as he tries to remind himself of all the reasons he’s not trying to date right now, it feels nice to be noticed like this.

Eddie shakes himself out of his reverie, cheeks pinkening sweetly as he clears his throat and looks away, stuffing his hands in his back pockets. He rocks on his feet again, a habit Steve has noted even in their short time knowing each other, like he’s resetting himself.

He rocks himself back into Steve’s space, the corners of the other man’s smile curling up in a cheshire grin, any signs of bashfulness gone as quickly as they’d come.

“What if I told you I had a bit of a proposition for you, Stevie?”

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“It’s just—just a thing from when I was a kid, y’know? I don’t, um, I’m not the biggest fan of, like, fog and shit.” He keeps his voice as light as he can, like maybe that can make the fear smaller. But Steve just looks at him, so earnestly listening, and he ends up tacking on more of the truth than he planned to. “I used to think it’d like. Take, um. Take people away.”

It skirts the edges of the full story—of the long nights he’d be left alone in his old home, waiting for his dad to come back. The place backed onto some woods, and when he was desperate he’d sit outside with his heart in his mouth, just watching the fog roll in.

You’re alone, the creeping mist would whisper. You’re all alone, and they’re never coming back.

He’d broken only once; the unhappiest of years had bled into one, but he couldn’t have been more than ten. He’d called Wayne. And back then, Wayne was only slightly more familiar than a stranger—it’d only be much later that Eddie would figure out the distance was a deliberate choice on his dad’s part—but he stayed on the line, and he must’ve missed his shift but never once mentioned it, just kept talking to Eddie quietly.

Eddie can’t remember how the phone call ended—his next clear memory is of Wayne’s car pulling up early in the morning, the gold of his headlights burning through the fog; he drove all the way from Hawkins, Eddie had thought with a childish wonder, as if Wayne had been on an impossible journey in an adventure book.

His dad must’ve returned at some point because Eddie vaguely recalls eavesdropping outside, dizzy with lack of sleep. It’s one of the only times he’s ever heard Wayne raise his voice: “For fuck’s sake, Al, that’s your kid.”

Steve absentmindedly passes the flashlight from one hand to the other. He looks thoughtful. “No kidding? Me too, kinda.”

You’re sweet, Eddie thinks; he can’t help it.  

He nudges Steve’s side with his elbow, “That’s nice of you and all, but you don’t need to make me feel better.”

“Hey, rude, I was being serious,” Steve says, with a lightheartedness that suggests maybe he’s sidestepping something just as much as Eddie. “I get it.”

It’s between one step and the next that an answer comes to Eddie. His mental map of Hawkins unfurls, and he zeroes in on the Harrington house; of course, Steve’s place backs onto the woods, too. There’s something undeniably comforting about a shared experience, however long ago. But mostly Eddie feels a twinge of sadness. I hope you weren’t as alone as I was.

“But that wasn’t the big fear,” Steve says—louder, more confident, like he’s somehow heard Eddie’s train of thought and is really saying, Come on, man, that’s enough. Have fun with me.

“No? Enlighten me, Harrington.”

“It was,” Steve says, as if he’s a very serious newscaster, “the sound of the toilet flushing.”

Eddie snorts. “It was not.”

“It was so! That thing sounded like a monster, dude, it was, like—” Grinning, Steve makes a juvenile noise in demonstration; it sounds more like static from a radio. It’s exaggerated and ridiculous, and so obviously done to make Eddie laugh. “And I’d run downstairs like this—” He covers an ear with his free hand, briefly stops walking to do a comical jog on the spot, “—so I wouldn’t have to hear it. Now that is embarrassing.”

“Okay, fine, dude,” Eddie says, still chuckling, “you win.”

Thank you.

The laughter helps, but it doesn’t quite stop the flare of anxiety when he catches sight of the girls again, the fog rendering them into nothing but shadows, like they might just vanish any second now.

“Hey, you know what?” Steve says kindly. “I don’t think Robin’ll be pissed at all.”

He whistles, and that brings back warmer memories of Steve in his element on the basketball court, Eddie pretending not to watch.

And as they catch up with Nancy and Robin, Eddie can see now that it’s not so bad really; the flashlight’s beam easily cuts through the fog. Steve smiles encouragingly, and he feels on the verge of some glimmering emotion; feels like he’s been given something that won’t ever slip away.