i already chose you, hollander.

Jimmy Fallon taping vs Lunar New Year

His name is Steve, newish in town and recently single. He catches Eddie noticing the tan line from a ring that’s no longer on his finger and adds, “I was married. I’m… not anymore.” (Eddie guesses it must have been a rough divorce.)

Steve is bisexual, he also mentions hastily with a faint blush that tells Eddie the attraction might actually mutual.

They chat for a few hours, comparing their early lives growing up in small towns (Steve in Indiana, Eddie in Colorado) and their current jobs (Steve works in an office doing something the only explains as “really, really dull,” Eddie in a local community center organizing afterschool activities for local kids and DMing for a couple different youth DnD groups) and music tastes (neither of them are huge fans of what’s playing in the bar). After a while, Steve admits that he’s in a rut.

“You looking to change that, sweetheart?” Eddie asks, and part of him wants to jump up and down and punch the air at how smooth that came out holy shit. Because Steve smiles shyly back (it’s like the fucking sun coming out a from behind a cloud) and says that yeah, he’d like that.

Fast forward to next morning. Eddie wakes up drooling on a perfectly hairy chest and a pounding in his head that doesn’t actually hurt, it’s just loud. Knocking, he realizes eventually, and reluctantly hauls himself out of bed. Whoever it is at this unholy hour of… uh, 10am, can just deal with the fact that he’s answering the door in his boxers, covered in hickies and scratch marks, and with bedhead so wild it makes him look several inches taller than he actually is.

Only to be informed by the woman at his door that she knows Steve is here because she tracked his phone to this location. “Oh! Not like that,” she adds hastily when Eddie’s eyes go wide. “No, I’m not, like, a jealous girlfriend or anything, that’d be weird, he’s like my sister. I mean—well, it’s hard to explain. But, anyway, look, I know he’s been having a rough time since his wife died, and I’m glad he found someone to, um, keep company with, he’s way too fucking picky if you ask me—It’s just, I really can’t afford the time off to keep babysitting right now, so if he could be, like, alive by the time school gets out, that’d be good…?”

And oh god, Eddie is trying to absorb all that. Steve is a widower? Jesus H. Christ, at some point last night Eddie had moaned that whoever his ex was obviously hadn’t known what a good, perfect, wonderous thing they were giving up. Steve is picky, but picked him? Oh, that’s giving him butterflies. Steve has a kid? Well, Eddie is good with kids…

Suddenly there’s a groan behind him and Steve shuffles up to wrap an arm around Eddie’s torso in a loose but affectionate hug. “Thanks a lot, Robin,” Steve complains, his voice still rough from sleep, “I hadn’t told him about the twins yet.”

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You're my love, too good to be blue No one gets down on me like you do Born lonely, hope you never go I get so tired when intensity slows