Things you said through someone else -- steddie! For the ask thingy 😄💛
(This is so old but I finally have the energy and the idea for it, so here we go!)
Steve cheers every time it starts raining. He's not a fan of getting rained on, and lightning makes him uneasy after a few too many trips to the Upside Down, but rain means people stay inside, and when people stay inside, they're not at Family Video.
It is dead, and it is glorious.
Robin amuses herself by stacking as many tapes as she can on the front counter. She's up to twenty seven and has climbed onto the counter to keep the tower going. Steve occasionally blows on it , just to see the tower shake and laugh as Robin frantically tries to stabilize it.
He bets she'll make it to thirty six before it falls. There's no way she'll make it all the way to the ceiling.
While Robin stacks the tapes, Steve relays the story Dustin told him, in typical dramatic Dustin fashion, about Eddie cancelling Hellfire last night in favor of going to see a local band they really like at a bar a few towns over. He's almost at the point where he has to do an impression of Dustin doing an impression of Eddie, which is as ridiculous as it sounds, when the bell on the front door rings.
Rather than groan aloud, Steve and Robin send each other matching help me looks.
Robin hops down from the counter but makes no move to dismantle her teetering tower of tapes. Steve looks around them to see Eddie and the guys from his band walking in and brushing the rain off their jackets.
"Hey guys," he says because he knows them, he's been to a few band practices. "What's up?"
Eddie beams at the sound of Steve's voice and waves very dramatically, but he doesn't say anything. Instead, he writes something down in red crayon on what has to be an absolutely drenched notepad. He passes it to Gareth, who rolls his eyes.
"Eddie lost his voice last night at the show, but that didn't stop him from dragging us here," he says. His own voice is scratchy, and Eddie elbows him for his dead tone.
Robin rolls her eyes, amused.
"Okay, but why come here?" Steve says. "If you're not feeling well-"
Jeff pokes Eddie. "Come on. You're the one who dragged us here because you can't talk."
"Well, all of us didn't need to be here," Archie adds.
"All of us have to witness this," Jeff says, and Archie nods, satisfied.
Eddie waves his hands frantically in an unmistakable stop talking gesture before he keeps writing on his notepad.
Steve tries valiantly not to laugh. One look at Robin's matching expression of these guys are ridiculous ruins it instantly.
Eddie makes eye contact with him, and Steve watches as he turns bright red as he keeps writing.
That totally doesn't do anything to Steve. Nope. Not at all. Because he totally didn't realize that he might not have completely heterosexual feelings for Eddie as of... last week.
Okay, they've been around for longer, a lot longer, but Steve wasn't able to catch on to that until very recently.
Other people's emotions? Easy, very clear. His own? No thank you.
Eddie tears off the top sheet of the notepad and hands it to Gareth.
"Jesus, Eddie, I can't read this," he says, and he passes it to Archie.
He takes it, squints, and says, "I refuse to read this."
Steve has never seen Eddie look more embarrassed. It shouldn't be as cute as it is.
Jeff snatches the note out of Archie's hand, and reads, out loud, "I was out last night and all I could think of was how much better of a time I would have had if you were there. Date, Saturday, 7:00, I'll pick you up, yes/no?"
Everyone freezes. Gareth and Archie stare at Eddie incredulously, Jeff holds the note far away from him, like it'll give him cooties, Eddie has his head in both of his hands, Robin looks one stiff breeze away from a laughing fit, and Steve-
Wait. Eddie feels the same way?
And then Robin's tape tower clatters to the floor, breaking the silence.
"Eddie, that's some middle school shi-"
"Damn, okay, guess we weren't enough fun for you, I'm joking, I promise-"
"Oh my god you couldn't even wait-"
"Yeah," Steve says.
Everyone stops and looks at him. Eddie takes his head out of his hands, big eyes hopeful.
"It's a date," Steve says. "But I'm driving, maniac."
Eddie's smile is blinding, and then, all at once, his friends pile on him.
"Let's go!" Jeff yells.
"I can't believe that shit work- ouch, Archie."
Robin laughs with them and gives Steve a hug of her own.
"You're never letting him live this down, are you?" she whispers.
"Absolutely not," Steve says.
"Alright, get out of here!" Robin says when she pulls back. "Get some vocal rest and find someplace dry that isn't here. You'll attract customers if you stay, and God knows we don't want that."
The guys laugh, high-fiving Steve and Robin on the way out.
Eddie is the last to leave. Steve can tell he wants to talk, can see how he opens his mouth before he remembers that no sound will come out.
"See you Saturday," he says for him.
Eddie nods and leaves when Archie yells at him to unlock the van.
Steve watches them pull out of the lot as Robin starts reassembling her tape stack.
When a car pulls into the lot and out comes a mother and her two kids who will definitely take every tape off the shelf and definitely ask too many questions and actually will make them work, Steve and Robin look at each other and say, in unison:
"Goddammit."
There are some people even the rain won't stop.
Though, Steve supposes as the bell on the front door rings, maybe that's a good thing.
Prompts here.
