Ravyn Am I

Steve seems to enjoy it, he's a bit of a note-taker, nodding along and jotting things down, he's a good player once he's figured out everything he needs for a Paladin Cheat Sheet, he even keeps up the accent Eddie had given the character, much to the amusement of the others.

Plus, there's the added bonus that Steve starts to hang out with Eddie more, and Eddie gets to quietly brag to the memory of his teenage self that he's had Steve Harrington on his bed. Not like that admittedly, but it's a damned sight closer than Teen Eddie ever got with the King, and he's pretty sure there's potential there.

Far too soon, the final session of the campaign ends and everyone scatters, but as per usual, Steve uses 'helping clean up' as a reason to linger long enough that the others won't see him not leave Eddie's government funded trailer (where Eddie skipped normal Living Room furniture in favour of the biggest table he could fit in there and still get a ton of chairs around).

Eddie doesn't mind, he likes the help, he likes Steve, he wants Steve to keep coming to games and lingering after, so he invades Steve's space and slings an arm around his shoulders, grinning at him,

"So, think you'll be coming back with your own?"

"Oh absolutely!" Steve beams, "I've got so many ideas, man." he escapes Eddie's grasp and moves to the backpack he got almost exclusively for his DnD things, pulling a battered notebook out.

It's not his character one, this one is fat with how crumpled and worn the pages are from use, as well as extra pages visibly taped into it, it's got dozens of different colour sticky notes cocked out of it as well, it's chaotic.

"Jesus, Harrington," Eddie laughs, "Well I'm sure someone in there will fit the setting."

"Huh? No way man, this is the setting!" Steve grins at him, holding the notebook up to show the sticky label on the front, it looks like it might be the fourth one stuck on there, and even that has a couple of things aggressively scribbled out, but the final is KINGDOM OF TATHARIEN.

"Stevie, you don't need to make up whole kingdoms to play..." Eddie says slowly, trying to figure out where he gave Steve the idea that he needed to create a world to create his own character. Sure Steve had been curious about his process and the DM Handbook, but Eddie had kind of chalked that up as an excuse for innuendo, flirting.

"I know, but I thought if I did this, it's less likely that you nerds can embarrass me with some deep lore bullshit about the world I've not got the book for," Steve says with a shrug, "I summed up some basic world background stuff for people to reference, but I need to photocopy it, it's too much for me to do again by hand..." he gives an embarrassed laugh and scratches the back of his neck. "I haven't changed any classes or races or anything, so aside from tweaking backgrounds, anyone you make should fit in fine."

"Anyone... I make?" Eddie has been stuck as the DM since he took over the mantle of Hellfire's president, he loves it, he's good at it, but to take a break from wrangling players and just... play? "Holy shit... You want me to play! Holy Shit! You made a fucking homebrew world?"

"Okay listen, you are 100% gonna recognise some things in here, I only have so much originality in me, but I worked really hard, man..." Eddie is listening except he's really not processing it, he's too excited, he's started bouncing, closing the gap between him and Steve until he's holding Steve's biceps and jumping, and Steve, bless his beautiful, confused heart, looks like he wants to jump around too.

"YOU MADE A HOMEBREW WORLD! Dude! That's SO COOL!" somehow, yelling in Steve's face does the trick, he latches onto the excitement, holds Eddie's hips and starts jumping around with him.

"IT IS?" Steve is yelling too,

"IT IS! SO COOL!" Eddie delights, Steve is grinning at him, the pretty slant of his mouth showing teeth, Eddie wants to kiss him, especially when their jumping finally slows and Steve's hands shift easily around his lower back, fingers linking behind him.

He's a little breathless when they finally stop, they're so close, Steve's giving him a look Eddie has only ever dreamed of having aimed at him, hazel eyes flicking down for a brief, telling moment.

"Can I..." Steve barely forms the words,