In the little time that Eddie had actually spent around Steve, (not counting high school. That wasn’t the same Steve) he’d never seen Steve genuinely smile. He’d seen Steve smile sarcastically at Dustin, and maybe a fake smile here or there to get people to stop asking if he was ok, but never a genuine smile.
So when he did finally see it, when he and Steve and Robin were hanging around, nursing wounds and swapping stories, it slammed into him like a Mack Truck. Robin had said something about a Muppet that Eddie wasn’t following, and the next thing Eddie knew Steve was wheeze laughing, holding his sides with a face-splitting smile.
It was fucking beautiful.
It made Eddie’s chest tighten to see Steve so happy after everything. Steve had been through so much, they all had, but Eddie couldn’t imagine protecting the kids for that long, to be under that stress. Steve needed more reasons to smile.
Eddie was going to give them to him.
The first one he got was three days later. He was driving Steve somewhere and Steve started poking around in his cassettes like he usually did. “Hold on.” Steve said, pulling a tape out of the collection. “Where did this come from?” Steve asked, holding up a Tears for Fears tape.
Eddie just shrugged. “Thought it would be nice to have something you like to listen to.” Eddie said as nonchalantly as he could.
“You bought this for me?” Steve asked, the hint of a smile pulling at his lips.
“Yeah, I bought it for you.” Eddie said. He glanced over at Steve again to see him smiling down at the tape like it was something precious.
“Thanks, Eddie.” Steve said, looking up at Eddie, smile now aimed directly at him. Eddie might have swerved the van a little bit. He blamed it on a pothole.
The second one came when Max tried to teach Eddie to skateboard. Honestly, Eddie should have been more embarrassed, having the guy he was crushing on watch him repeatedly fall on his ass while a high schooler pityingly shook her head at him, but Steve was laughing, trying to hide it, but actually laughing. After what felt like the thousandth wipe out Steve came to help him up, smile plastered on his face.
“Maybe you should stick to guitar,” Steve had said through a laugh, eyes practically sparkling, and Eddie was close to speechless.
“Yeah, maybe,” Was all he could get out.
The third time was a surprise, one that Eddie didn’t plan or try for. He asked Steve to go to the grocery store with him. Even though his charges had been cleared, the town still treated Eddie like he embodied the Devil, so being in a building with what felt like half the city’s population really made him uneasy. Having Steve there helped.
“Alright, in and out Harrington, I don’t want to be here any longer than I have to.” He watched as something like determination washed over Steve.
“Gimme the list.”
Eddie handed it over and watched as Steve tore the shopping list carefully in half. “Uh… Stevie?”
Steve handed the top half to Eddie. “Divide and conquer,” Steve said, looking down at his watch. “It’s 3:32. I bet we can do it in 15 minutes.”
Eddie had never shopped so fast in his life. He had the cart, powerwalking it down aisles, throwing things in as Steve sporadically appeared to add two or three items and then disappear into the aisles again. Then they were piling the food onto the checkout conveyor belt, paying, and powerwalking the cart back to the car.
“Twelve minutes!” Steve said, looking up form his watch to grin at Eddie, proud and gleeful. Eddie almost dropped one of the bags of groceries.
A week later, Steve came over for a movie night. When Eddie answered the door, Steve was already smiling, like seeing Eddie was reason enough to smile. Fourth time.
When Eddie and Steve decided to make grilled cheese and tomato soup to go with the blustery fall weather, Steve smiled as they hip checked each other out of the way while trying to use the stove. Fifth time.
When Eddie got Steve one of his sweaters because it got cold in the trailer, Steve smiled as he took it. Smiled as he put it on. Smiled as he held his arms out and asked, “What do you think? Is black my color?” sixth, seventh, eighth. Eddie overloaded.
“You’re beautiful.” Came out of his mouth. And Steve’s smile faltered. “I- I mean. You…” Eddie started backpedaling, his face getting warm.
“Beautiful?” Steve asked, like the air had been knocked out of him, but the tiniest little smile was pulling at his lips.
“Gorgeous,” Eddie said, and the smile got bigger. “Handsome.” The smile grew and Eddie took a step closer. “Stunning.”
Steve kissed him and Eddie could feel the smile against his lips.
please make more of these
