You know that trope where Person A thinks Person B is just being nice but theyāre actually flirting. What about the opposite? Person A misreading their behavior and being the only one falling impossibly in love.
Clumsy in Love part 1
Eddie really is just that nice and friendly, but Steve is convinced that Eddie is flirting with him. Heās flirting back, less confident and more subtle than he usually would, but heās never liked a guy that way.
Not in a way that made him really want to spend every waking moment just hearing them ramble. Not in way that made Steve want to keep him the way he wants to keep Eddie. Everything is so new. It feels, delicate. Precious.
His heartbeat quickens each time Eddie leans into his space and itās been happening all the time now that Steve worries heāll develop a heart condition if he doesnāt deal with it soon. When Eddie laughs and leans his face closer to his own, looks into Steveās eyes through those lashes in a way that Steve canāt help but take a quick glance at those lips curled is mischief.
Heās always so happy to see Steve, wasting no time in bouncing his way to greet him and pull him into the conversation with an arm slung around his shoulder. Then thereās the moments of shared glances when someone says something particularly astounding. And how Eddie will make his way into Steveās space when they sit together, throwing his feet in his lap or leaning into his side.
Sure, Eddie is friendly but not to this extent. Not with everyone else. Steve feels it. Knows it. That electricity between them that makes this thing between them different. Special.
But one day (another that Steve spends trying to work up the courage to do something), theyāre in the city shopping for music in an alternative store thatās tucked away. Steve is talking to Eddie, giddy and happy because it just them today, and Eddie is nodding along while he browses through the tapes and then,
Eddie looks up and stills, eyes widening just a bit. And Steve is still rambling along, but he can tell his words are just going through one ear and out the other. He trails of caught in the middle of his story because heās never seen this look on Eddie face.
Eddieās mouth is slightly agape, eyes alight caught in wonder and soft as he looks at something across the room and when Steve turns to see what caught his eyeā
A guy stands a couple tables away looking at some vinyl and shyly smiling at Eddie in small glances. Heās a bit taller than them, dressed in black with a couple of piercings decorating his face, the sides of his head shaved short. Attractive, dementor coy and kind.
His heart skips a beat again, but it feels different this time.
Steve looks back at Eddie whose cheeks are slightly dusted in pink.
āEddie-ā
Eddie takes his lower lip between his teeth before smiling back at the guy and continuing without casting a second glance at Steve, āyeah, uh, give me a second, okay?ā And heās crossing the room without waiting for a response.
His chest. It feelsā¦
Like those few seconds before plummeting down a rollercoasterā¦ when your way up high, at the very top, the moment still with the anticipation of the fall, and thereās nowhere else to look but down.
You finally plummet and caught in the whiplash thinking you must have left your heart back at the top.
Thereās static there on the bottoms of his feet and at the palm of his hands. The world goes a bit distant as he watches them.
Eddieās leaning against the wall with a sultry smile adorning whatever sweet words heās speaking.
Steveās drowning in the honey, itās palpable. doesnāt know if itās better or worse that he canāt hear the words.
Eddieās fiddling with a curl thatās draped over his shoulder, pulling it slightly over his face like a young school girl.
Steve doesnāt think heās ever seen Eddie appear anything but confident and loud; the image of the person in front of him is foreign, strange.
Eddieās speaking to him but his eyes are locked on the guyās lips that are wet from the tongue that peaks to briefly lick them as he listens.
Eddieās shoe is nudging the guys own, as he talks, playful.
Oh.
Oh.
Mouth dry, Steveās throat clicks.
Itās hard to swallow.
Part 2
