AO3 | @steddiebingo hop into spring prompt: "my knight in shining armor" | @steddiebingo round 2 prompts: radar love; swap | rating: m | wc: 3.2k | cw: depictions of violence | tags: post s4; pre-relationship; steve beats the shit out of two lowlife assholes | masterlist
“Steeeeeeve! Didn’t you say you bought more popcorn?”
“Yeah, it’s in the pantry!”
“No, it’s not!”
“Yes–”
The sound of boxes smashing together and spilling to the floor echoes through the house, followed by an immediate quiet.
Steve sighs, presses his forehead against the wall. Takes a deep breath.
A few moments later, he hears, “Found the popcorn!”
Steve chuckles despite himself. He loves the kids dearly. But, they are truly chaos incarnate. Not a sense of delicacy to spare between the lot of them. He truly believes the only reason his house is still standing has equal parts to do with it being a safe place to crash and El.
He’s convinced El has done something to keep his house in order. She denies it fully, but Steve sees it. Sees the hidden nosebleeds, the flickers of her eyes, the quiet words she exchanges with the other kids.
He makes sure to get her whatever snacks she wants anytime he’s at the store. Maybe spoils her a bit more than the others. The least he can do.
He steps back, folds the blankets across his arms, and treads back to the living room.
“Alright, nerds. Whose turn is it?”
A chorus of “not me” rings through the living room.
Steve and Robin lock eyes, conversation passing through brow raises and tilted chins. Steve eventually caves, throws the blankets into the center of the room, half-knocking Dustin over in the process.
“Hey – what the hell, Steve?”
“Language!”
“Fuck off.” Max chirps. She tosses a pillow at Steve’s back.
“Okay, uncalled for.”
Max cocks her head and smiles. “Sorry, mom.”
Steve places a hand on his hip and glares at her, the look purely devoid of any malice. “Why do I have to be mom?”
“Because you do shit like that.” Dustin says, gesturing at Steve’s posture. “Your stance and your trying to get us not to cuss.”
“Oh my god.” Steve grips his hair, lets out a groan. “Just set it up.”
“I don’t get why you insist on continuing this extremely losing battle.” Robin chirps from where they’re draped across a loveseat. They throw a piece of popcorn up, catch it in their mouth.
“Someone has to try to wrangle them. Unless you'd like to swap roles."
Robin scrunches their nose, cocks their head to the side. "Mmm, but you're so good at playing the part."
“And, we’re practically adults, mom.” Max bullies past him, knocking him against the arm of the couch. Steve pushes her back, making her laugh as she reaches down to grab one of the blankets.
“We fought a mind wizard. I think we’re allowed to say fuck.” Dustin deadpans. He starts moving the pillows and blankets around, getting the room ready for movie night.
“Jesus.” Steve scrubs a hand down his face.
“Is Steve bitching about us saying fuck again?” Erica whips past him, the words landing on the room in one fell swoop. Everyone shares a look and then bursts out laughing.
Steve shakes his head, can’t even hide the smile on his lips.
Because, yeah.
They really did fight off the end of the world, like, way too many times.
But, he’s still allowed to try to teach them good manners.
Which is what he proceeds to lecture them about as he ropes them all into setting up the massive cuddle fort for movie night.
Their tradition is to pull all the massive, comfy couch cushions and form a makeshift bed on the floor. They add in all the pillows they can find to fill it out, make it big enough for everyone to fit. The blankets are strewn about for comfort.
They shut off all the lights, leaving just some Christmas lights that they’ve strung across the ceiling in drooping garlands to coat the room in a cozy glow.
It’s as Steve’s adjusting the curtains to block out as much of the natural light as possible that it happens.
One second, Steve’s pulling the curtain shut, bickering with Max about what takeout they should get for dinner, and the next moment, he’s staring up at the ceiling, Robin’s face upside down above him, a million hands poking and prodding his body.
He blinks, white hot pain shooting around his skull and down through his veins each time.
Broken images dance across the inside of his eyelids.
Darkness.
Boxes.
Debris.
Alley.
Bricks.
Pavement.
Pain.
Pain. Pain. Pain.
Eddie.
Steve shoots up, gasping breaths racking his body, a million hands sliding over him – some soft, some sharp, some –
He grabs his side, yells out in pain. Feels an ache deep in his ribs, too reminiscent of the Russians under Starcourt.
“Steve, what’s wrong? Please, what – what’s going on?” Robin’s voice is frantic as they look over him, hands and eyes searching for the source of pain.
The kids all mimic them, making a dense circle around Steve as he writhes on the floor in pain.
“Should we call an ambulance?” Will’s voice is small and shaky.
Max already has the phone to her ear. “I’m calling Hop.”
“Tell him to–”
“We need to move him–”
“Someone get him some water!”
“Maybe we should–”
Steve hears it all happening around him, but it’s like he’s underwater. Everything is muffled. He feels the warmth of the kids around him, doting over him, trying to fix him. But, he also feels the dampness of pavement. The bitter cold cracking through the air. The roughness of too-strong hands pulling and pushing and bruising.
“El, can you – please, just–” Robin’s crying, their hands shaking where they hold onto Steve.
El leans forward, places a soft hand on Steve’s shoulder, leans in close, whispering quiet protections and questions against his cheek.
Steve feels her warmth, like a blanket surrounding him, protecting him between the two places. It’s like she wipes a window clean, lets him see through the blurriness, lets him slot all the pieces together.
On one side, he sees the scene of him in his living room surrounded by all the kids and Robin. The group forming a circle around him, hands frantically doting over him as he shakes back and forth. Max on the phone speaking a mile a minute. Dustin with the walkie calling out to Jonathan and Nancy, telling them to hurry up. El holding one of his shoulders firmly in her palm, a warm honey-colored glow radiating off of her and circling him. Combating the deep red swirling around his body that he only just noticed.
On the other side.
The alley comes into full vision. Dark and cold. The ruins of the movie theater. Broken signs propped against the wall. The damp concrete. Overflowing dumpsters. Letterman jackets. Sneering faces. Jason Carver’s lackeys. Searing pain. Searing, bruising, aching, devastating pain.
Eddie.
El grabs Steve hard and pulls him, the two of them gasping as they fall together on the living room floor.
Steve blinks. A sea of faces above him, all panicked and questioning. El hugs him, whispers against his chest, words of warmth and comfort and protection.
Steve hugs her back. Whispers his own frantic thanks.
Then, he’s up.
“Steve! What–”
“I’ve gotta – no time, I have to go, now.” He stumbles through the group into the hallway, slides his shoes on.
Robin is hot on his heels. “Oh, no. No, no, no, no – you don’t get to just run out like this. What the hell?”
“Is it a code red?” Dustin slides behind them, shoving his own shoes on.
Steve hesitates, looks over at El. “Yes, and no? I don’t – I don’t really know how to –” He shakes his head.
He reaches into the hall closet, slides on his thick leather jacket, grabs one of many nail bats he keeps on hand. “Look, just – I have to go. Now.”
“Then we’re going too.” Dustin declares. He grabs his walkie, turns to the group. “Be ready. I’ll update you.”
El nods. Looks at Steve. “Hurry.”
That’s all it takes for Steve to be out the door and behind the wheel, nearly driving off with Dustin and Robin halfway into the car.
Steve offers nothing in the way of explanation as he speeds through Hawkins. His knuckles are blanched as he grips the wheel. Jaw clenched. Teeth grinding.
One good thing about their last fight with the hell dimension is that Hawkins is essentially a ghost town.
Things are still being rebuilt. There’s wreckage everywhere. Most people don’t even go out at night anymore.
Unless they're –
Steve tunes out Dustin and Robin as they frantically talk back and forth, El filling them in via walkie with what bits she could parse from Steve’s mindscape.
He speeds through every intersection, every light, every stop sign, vision focused on only one thing.
He slams the breaks, his car sliding in a half circle up to the curb. For the first time in the whole ride, he speaks. “Don’t get involved. Stay out of this. And be ready to go.”
Steve drops his keys in Robin’s lap, causing their eyes to go wide. “Whoa, hey, since when am I a fucking getaway driver? Isn't that your job?”
“Seems we're swapping roles after all.” Steve slips out of the car. He grabs the nail bat, flexes his grip around it.
“Oh, shit. Okay. Uh. Do –”
“Stay in the car. Radio Hopper. Tell him to send people to the old theater downtown. Now.”
Dustin’s eyes go wide as he nods.
Steve nods in return, then turns and walks toward the ruins of the movie theater.
His chest is vibrating with pain and anxiety, his head brimming with shots of debris and fists and pain.
His brain just screaming with a headline of help pain pain help help pain –
He’s barely to the mouth of the alley when he hears it.
Hears them.
Hears the hatred and vitriol and pure disgustingness flying from the mouths of lowlife remnants of Jason Carver’s group.
Steve grips the bat tight as he stalks down the alley.
The two assholes are so engrossed in what they’re doing that they don’t even hear or see Steve until it’s too late.
Until Steve has bodily yanked one of them off, his foot colliding in the ribs of the other.
Jack Powell and Seth Farmer.
Two juniors who followed Jason Carver like he was their god.
Two of the few who have made it their mission to carry out Jason’s last charge – kill the town freak.
They have the wherewithal to look confused, but not to immediately start swinging.
“Harrington? The fuck?” Jack stumbles back against the wall.
“Leave. Him. Alone.” Steve growls, eyes hardened, one hand twirling the bat effortlessly.
Jack and Seth share a look and start laughing. Full body laughter. Completely unbothered.
Seth looks up at Steve, comments through the laughter, “You’re joking, right?”
“He’s gotta be joking.” Jack leans against the wall, arm draped across his stomach. “He’d never defend a freak like this.”
Seth takes a step toward Steve. “You’re right. He’d have to be insane.”
Steve cocks his head, jaw locked in a firm line. “Do I look like I’m joking?”
Jack hesitates, eyes pinging between Steve and Seth. “You – you can’t be serious. You can’t actually be defending this freak?”
“Well, I’m certainly not defending you two assholes.”
“Unbelievable. My how the mighty have fallen.” Jack steps forward, eyes Steve up and down. “King Steve–”
Steve presses the end of his bat to Jack’s chest. “Leave. Now.”
“See, we can’t really do that. We have some unfinished business here.” Jack gestures to Eddie.
Eddie, who Steve has barely even registered looking at at this point. He’s been so focused on just getting these guys away.
Steve looks now. Sees Eddie writhing on the ground, arms clenched tight around his middle, eyes barely open, staring right back at him.
Jack kicks, his foot a millimeter from colliding with Eddie, when Steve swipes his leg out from under him, the end of his bat pressing firm to his chest, pushing him down against the damp pavement.
“Did I fucking stutter?” Steve pulls the bat, lets the nails rip through Jack’s shirt. “I told you to leave him alone.”
Seth jumps on Steve’s back, locks his arm around Steve’s throat.
Steve doesn’t even hesitate.
He just laughs.
And in one motion, he flips, throwing Seth against the ground, knee pressed hard to Seth’s chest.
Seth groans, tries pushing against Steve, his efforts fruitless as Steve presses his full weight against him. “Did. I. Fucking. Stutter.”
“You really wanna do this, Harrington?”
Jack kicks Steve’s back, his shoe smacking dead center of Steve’s spine.
Steve barely jolts forward. Just cocks his head to the side. Presses his tongue against the inside of his lip. Laughs again. “Alright. So that’s how we’re gonna play it.”
Steve pushes himself up. His glare is hard as he points his bat at Seth and Jack. “You have about 5 seconds to get up and get the fuck out of here before I make you regret ever touching him.”
Seth scrambles up, coughs racking through his body. He leans against Jack who is currently staring wide-eyed at Steve like he’s seeing him for the first time, like he doesn’t even recognize the person standing in front of him.
“C’mon, let’s just,” Seth groans. “Let’s just go, man.”
Jack shakes his head, steels his expression. “Not until we deal with this freak,” he kicks Eddie’s leg, making Eddie groan loudly. “And his newly turned freak protector.” He glares at Steve.
Steve nods, tongue pressing against the inside of his cheek. Wicked grin split across his face. “Alright.”
And then, he moves.
When they recount the story to the party later, Eddie will insist on how it seemed something possessed Steve in the moment, led him to fight off Jack and Seth without any trouble, strength and agility coursing through every movement.
Steve will tell them that he just scared Jack and Seth off, that he didn’t actually hurt them, just encouraged them to leave with their dignity and organs intact.
What actually happens is somewhat of a mixture of the two.
Jack charges forward, shoulder colliding with Steve’s chest, causing him to stumble back a few paces. Jack uses the leverage, punches his fist into Steve’s ribs.
Steve coughs. Lets the pain settle in his muscles. Tightens his fist around the bat.
With his empty hand, Steve grips the back of Jack’s neck, forces their eyes to meet. “You fucked with the wrong person.” Then, he jolts his knee up hard into Jack’s groin.
Jack crumples to the ground, curls himself into a ball, groans and whimpers of pain pouring out of him.
Steve turns to Seth, raises a brow.
For what it’s worth, Seth hesitates.
He looks at Steve, to Eddie, to Jack, back to Steve. He steps back. A thousand thoughts racing across his face.
Steve twirls the bat as he walks toward Seth.
“Wait! I – fuck, don’t, just –” Seth stumbles, holds his hands in front of him, panic dancing across wide eyes and stammering lips. “I’m sorry, man, I’ll just go, I –”
The bat twirls out, catches the edge of Seth’s jacket – a fulcrum point that Steve leverages to keep Seth in place.
“See, I would let you go, but, the thing is,” Steve leans forward, his lips ghosting across Seth’s ear. “I don’t play fair.”
Steve shoulders Seth to the ground, presses his boot against Seth’s chest, rips his bat free, shreds of cloth and leather soaking into the pavement.
“Ple—do—” Seth coughs, writhes under Steve’s foot.
Steve presses harder, feels a crack beneath his boot, smiles to himself as Seth wails out in pain. He turns, lodges his bat in Jack’s jacket, yanks him closer. Steve rips his bat through the leather, then pins the edge of it against Jack’s chest.
And if he leverages it just so that the nails dig into Jack’s chest, well –
No one has to know.
It’s only when Steve hears the sirens, hears the timber of Hopper’s voice coming down the alley, feels strong hands on his shoulders, that he steps back, pulls the bat with him, relishes in the fresh groans.
“We’ll take it from here, kid. You take care of Eddie.” Hopper grips Steve hard, levels him with what seems to be a proud glare, the smallest smirk dancing under his moustache. “We’ll need reports from the both of you, so get him up to the meds and get him right.”
Steve nods, takes a step back. Hopper drops his arm, looks at the bat, then back to Steve. “You may wanna hide that ‘fore more prying eyes abound.”
Steve snorts, twirls the bat. “I gotcha, Hop. Thanks.”
With that, Steve turns and beelines to Eddie.
Eddie, who is still half-sitting half-laying on the cold ground. At least he’s propped against the wall now. His eyes are a bit more focused following Steve’s movements closely.
Steve crouches down beside him, bat resting on the ground beside him. “Hey.”
Eddie snorts, pulls a lazy smile. “Hey, yourself, big boy.”
“How you feelin’?”
“Oh, you know,” Eddie waves his hand, winces as he pulls it back to his chest. “Just peachy.”
Steve reaches out, his hands shaky as they hover over Eddie. “Where – I mean, just – we gotta get you to meds. Can you, uh – can you move? Or – scratch that, no, I’ll carry you.”
“Carry me?” Eddie laughs, the sound a bit too breathless. Steve catches the trickle of blood pouring out of Eddie’s mouth as he wipes it away.
“Yeah, man. You, uh, you seem like you could use the help.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“Okay, well, that doesn’t mean you have to suffer now.”
Eddie grumbles, starts pushing himself up to standing. His legs shake, the bruises lining them aching into his bones, setting him unsteady. The pain winds around his ribs, bruises settling deeper there, enough so that he thinks a rib is broken, the sharpness poking tight within the cavern of his chest. He grits his teeth, uses the wall to help push himself all the way up.
“See.” Eddie half-whispers through gritted teeth. “I’m fine.”
He takes approximately one and a half steps before he crumples, Steve just barely catching him before he hits the ground.
“Jesus – yeah, alright, you’re getting carried.”
Steve cradles Eddie to his chest bridal style, stands like Eddie weighs nothing. He even manages to grab the bat, tucked close to his side as he walks away from the chaos, leaving Hopper to handle it all.
“Well, I’ll be.” Eddie drawls, his voice cracking on every other syllable, his breath wheezing. “My knight in shining armor, carrying me off to safety.”
“Not exactly shining armor.”
“Okay, Mr. Accuracy. How about,” Eddie flicks his eyes to Steve’s coat. “Knight in toughened leather?”
Steve laughs, glances down at Eddie’s face. “I can live with that.”
Eddie leans his head against Steve’s chest, wraps his arms around Steve’s neck. He presses his lips in a whisper to Steve’s throat. “Thank you.”
“Yeah.” Steve swallows, feels the heat of Eddie’s lips loosening the muscles in his throat. “I – I’ve got you.”
There's still a million questions running through Steve's mind as he sets Eddie up with the medics, as he watches them clean and wrap and stitch Eddie back together, all while Eddie has one of his fingers firmly linked with Steve's. For now, Steve focuses on getting Eddie stable, trying (and failing) to ignore the pulsing in his brain shouting mine mine mine.
an: this was just my interpretation of "radar love" based on what i've learned and what some of my amazing followers offered as their understanding. i had a bit more of this -- the aftermath where steve and eddie talk. but, i wasn't vibing with it and couldn't find a good end point.
not thrilled with this, but, i am happy that it's done and that i tried something a bit different!
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idk if any steddie enjoyers follow me so im sharing this with you in the hopes this little thought finds the appropriate audience. i hope that’s okay.
i was listening to sk8er boi by Avril Lavigne. And there HAS to be steddie fics based on this song right??? Right??? There’s so much potential. Is Steve in the crowd “looking up at the man that he turned down” or is it a story where Steve is in the crowd but he gets a second chance OR is Steve the one who learned to say fuck it to what other people think and is with Eddie on stage while everyone else can eat their hearts out
Many such thoughts. Much to ponder
Okay, I read this ask and immediately thought, why not both?
So here's some trans Steve Harrington (eventually Steve Henderson by legal name change/informal adoption). My partner is too sick with this stupid cold we both have to do a sensitivity read for me so I hope it's okay. This is not meant to be some universal reflection of the mtf trans experience.
Some notes:
7k words, Mature.
Nothing explicit, though "dick" is used to refer to Steve's junk exactly once.
I basically agab flipped all the older kids in the show except for Vickie and the members of Corrodded Coffin (including Eddie). Robin is non-binary, Chrissy who gets briefly mentioned is trans.
References to dysphoria, transphobia, biphobia, and anxiety about coming out.
Steve was a ballernia because the song stipulates "he was a punk, she did ballet." I don't know much about ballet. (Eddie's still a metalhead though, not a punk.)
Steve didn’t get to grow up as Steve. Not going to deadname him, but that girl was the epitome of self-involved popularity queen of her high school. Which was also a testament to her family’s wealth and status in Hawkins, because constant ballet practice meant she hardly ever had time to actually socialize.
Is it a thing for ballerinas to work so hard they end up not menstruating, like gymnasts? Because if so, that girl achieved it. Slim, toned, flat chested—and the second she eased up even a little bit and her period started, immediate horrible dysphoria that she redirected inwards, blaming herself for not working hard enough or not watching what she ate. She’s taller than most of the other ballerinas her age too, which she secretly likes but isn’t necessarily the ideal build for the dance roles she wants.
Her first serious boyfriend, the one she thought was The One and the reason she had that huge falling out with her childhood BFFs Tammy and Carl, called her out on her bullshit none too kindly when they finally broke up. She lost her way after that, thrown so off kilter by the loss of friends and partner who were her entire support system and the massive amount of pressure her parents (and she herself) put on her that she messes up all her college dance program auditions and doesn’t get in anywhere. And then realizing that she let dance take priority over academics so much that she barely graduates high school. At that point, even daddy’s money wouldn’t get her into a good school—not that he’s offering, and she never wanted a regular college experience anyway.
So now high school’s over, and she’s not dancing anymore. She’s not doing much of anything anymore, until her parents issue an ultimatum: get a job or else. Cut to slinging ice cream with some dude named Robin who she doesn’t even remember from school, but apparently sat behind her in Click’s class fuming with jealousy.
There’s an “earthquake”—really some sort of local tunneling project gone wrong that causes parts of the town and mall to collapse, and she and Robin are trapped for about 48 hours along with a couple of kids who were in Scoops for free samples when it happened. They’re trying to make their way through the still actively (if slowly, after the initial crash) collapsing mall, when she shoves Robin and the kids out of the way of a falling pillar and ends up pinned herself. The pillar also cut off the way they’d just come, and shifting rubble makes all the other possible means of escape too narrow for Robin to get out. They’re so close to escape that he sends Dustin and Erica through the last bit of rubble to freedom, and they yell back promising to find help.
Robin is so scared that the girl who just saved all their lives is going to die if she doesn’t stay awake, so Robin talks. Talks and talks, and comes out as non-binary, maybe a little fem-leaning but still unsure—that’s why they were so jealous of her in Click’s class though, because the girl is always so pretty and feminine and graceful whereas Robin has never felt like any of those things.
Now, Robin is expecting the reaction they've gotten in the past when trying to talk about their gender with others—basically an indignant 'you have to pick one or the other' argument. They figure that said indignance will help keep the girl awake and focused. But instead the girl is just like… “Wait, you can do that? You can just… decide? And actually be something else, just from feeling like you are?”
She passes out just before they’re rescued, causing Robin a massive panic attack, but both survive. The girl is left with some broken ribs and scars across her chest that require surgery; she opts, because she’s over 18 and her parents aren't there to even know about it, to remove more than reconstruct. Kind of on a whim, but… having a flatter chest actually, strangely, feels right. And it’s not like she isn’t going to have scars either way.
After that experience, the girl has a best friend again. Better than Tammy and Carl ever were. Robin tells it to her like it is, and expands her worldview enough to really take a clearer look at how she’s been living and treating herself. They’re attached at the hip, and she gives Robin anything from her closet that they even look like they might want. The two of them get jobs working together again, this time at Family Video.
And eventually, tentatively, she asks Robin to start calling her Steve sometimes. In private.
Steve grows into himself slowly. He turns the focus he used to reserve for dance towards becoming more masculine; saving up for getting his own health insurance and for starting testosterone because his parents are definitely going to cut him off at some point, while focusing on exercising to build more muscle in his arms and upper body. Maybe he errs on the side of scarily unhealthy about it sometimes, but Robin is there to help ground him in the other ways he’s supposed to be taking care of himself too.
The second person Steve comes out to is Dustin, from the mall disaster. He’d already been vaguely aware of the kid as a friend of his ex-boyfriend’s younger brother; now he’s kind of come to think of Dustin as family. He doesn’t have any siblings himself, but has always wanted one and Dustin, kind of a know-it-all little brat with a big heart and a conviction that Steve saved his life so they’re friends forever now, fills that void easily. Dustin is so supportive that he immediately starts researching HRT and inviting Steve over for dinner with him and his mom all the time.
Mrs. Henderson all but adopts Steve, and is equally supportive when she becomes the third person he comes out too. She used to be a nurse, so she helps when Steve does start taking testosterone and demands he move into her guest room when his parents find out and officially disown him.
Anyway, through all of this, Eddie Munson has always had the hugest crush on the Harrington girl. She was always stuck up and generally a queen bitch to anyone around her that wasn’t popular and conventionally pretty, but there’s something about her. Half of Eddie’s tabletop rants about conformity and the patriarchy and rigid gender roles and heteronormativity started in his head as half-baked arguments with her that would get her to change her ways and realize that he was right there, just waiting for her to open her eyes. At the same time, he is deeply embarrassed about his enduring crush on her because she’s terrible to all his friends, even if it was more her popular clique doing and saying things directly than she ever bothered to. So his friends make fun of him about it, the skater boy in love with the prissy ballet bitch who would never give him a second glance, or probably even a first one.
He had tried once. Eddie had asked the girl to prom in his second senior year, her first, and she’d only acknowledged him long enough to wrinkle her nose and soundly reject him with a clear outline of all the reasons why. It had been humiliating as hell. And he has to take senior year a third time, on top of that. The incoming freshmen that join his DnD club don’t know any of his embarrassing backstory though, and the girl probably left Hawkins after graduation as far as he knows; Eddie has a chance to start fresh, at least in some people’s eyes. He puts his old crush to bed and, mostly from a lot of soul searching but maybe a little bit also because Dustin won’t stop going on and on about how cool and awesome and good-looking his older brother is, realizes he’s bisexual.
Steve isn’t out to more than three people yet, so he’s still picking Dustin up from school as a “she.” But he still looks different enough that it usually takes a second glance for people to associate him with the girl he used to be: no makeup, polos and jeans instead of pretty dresses, hair only long enough to have some volume when he styles it (because some habits never die), and while he doesn’t have much in the way of facial hair coming in there’s some subtle changes to his face and hips that make him look subtly more masculine. People he used to be friends with that are still in school or still in town tease him about being a total dyke, but he just shrugs it off and stops talking to them. (And maybe has an ice cream night with Robin afterwards, but that’s between the two of them.)
He’s startled by the standoffishness of the resident dungeon master every time he picks Dustin up from Hellfire club, though. Eddie Munson was barely a blip on Steve’s radar in school, he barely even remembers the prom thing—Robin has to remind him, rolling their eyes when it takes a minute, and, “I love you, dingus, but that’s part of why you were enemy number one to all nerds in high school. How do you not remember the guy that you rejected so brutally that the gossip was that’s why he got held back again?” So Steve tries to apologize to Eddie, but Eddie won’t even give “her” the time of day. Which, Steve realizes like a knife to the gut, is completely fair and exactly what he’s earned from his past actions. The conses of his quences. He doesn’t try again, staying in his car when the kids come out for their rides home, tucked away safely where he won’t bother anyone—even though, if his window is cracked, he can totally hear all the upperclassmen of the club talking shit about “her,” not just Eddie. It’s humbling. And it gets worse when Steve realizes that Eddie Munson is really good looking, which sends him into a bit of a “Wait, am I gay?!” spiral that Robin has to kind of apologize for finding hilarious. (“Look, everyone’s experience is different, but you’ve always liked guys—it shouldn’t be a massive surprise that you still do. And if that ever changes or it turns out it’s not just guys, that’s fine too! Totally valid, and I love you no matter what! But oh my god, Steve, your face is just too priceless right now.”)
Dustin, somewhat oblivious to the animosity towards Steve because he has a very Dustin way of compartmentalizing who [Steve’s deadname] was and who Steve is now, doesn’t put much stock in what Eddie and Jeff and the others say about the former queen of Hawkins High. He’s actually quite smug about the fact that Eddie seems to like hearing about his older brother but never connects it to the “girl” they’re all shit-talking, especially when he asks why “she” picks him up from Hellfire instead of the obviously much cooler brother. No one believed him about his long distance girlfriend Suzy being real either, but this time he’s in on the joke and they’re not, so it’s fine if they’re starting to think that Steve is an imaginary friend. Boy will their faces be red when they someday learn the truth.
Eddie does graduate at the end of the year and leaves Hawkins for stardom. And it takes a bit of a strangled route at first, but he and Corroded Coffin finally get there. He dates around too, fully stretching out and growing into his bisexuality, comfortable in his own skin in a way no one ever let him be in Hawkins as Eddie ‘the Freak.’ It does irk him sometimes though that the media labels him as gay even after he explitly comes out as bisexual, but that's their hangup, not his.
While all that’s happening, Steve follows Robin off to college and they get an apartment together in whichever city they land. Robin eases gracefully from they/them pronouns to she/they, and Steve works two jobs to pay rent so she can focus on her studies. One of those jobs is in a dance studio teaching the early basics to little kids, with emphasis on having fun and healthy habits instead of drilling themselves into the ground—not just with the kids, but making sure the parents know how to encourage them without accidentally piling on pressure and expectations and making them miserable, like his parents used to. (Not all of the parents listen, but most are refreshingly receptive.) Steve loves it; he’d missed dancing, regardless of the strong ties back to the girl version of his life. It feels healing to get back into it at this point in his life.
He’s still shy about being out as a trans man though, and because he passes quite well these days he lets people think what they want to think. Particularly at work, but even at queer bars he’s a little awkward about telling people and that’s caused a few fumbles in his dating and sex life. He encounters some gay guys who respect his gender and some who can't get over the genitals he has; switches to bisexual guys only to find some who treat him like a half-and-half unicorn and some who genuinely accept him as a man. So it's all kind of a wash, this difficult to navigate thing that depends more on who a person is at their core than their stated sexual preferences; Steve isn't always great at reading that, despite how hard he tries.
But he’s learning, and starting to get braver. More secure in himself. He doesn’t flinch at being called “pretty boy” so much anymore; when he does, it’s because other people are making it weird rather than him being self-conscious about previously being a pretty girl. He takes pride in looking good, beautiful in a masculine way without having to be rugged about it or something. He’s proud of how much he can bench press, too, and how much he can manhandle a partner when he has one. His type is bad boys in leather, long haired nerds, loud guys who aren’t shy in voicing their opinions.
Robin’s girlfriend, Vickie, clocks both Steve’s type and the distant little smile he gets whenever Corroded Coffin comes on the radio. She gets that Steve and Robin are a (completely platonic) package deal, a matched set that should not be separated, and she’s come to appreciate him as kind of a brother-in-law. She wants him to be happy, so she sets out to buy him a backstage pass to see his favorite band.
And yes, she does consult Robin about this, but Robin decides to be a little scamp about it and lets her.
Steve ends up with two concert tickets. The idea was for him to take a date, but he’s between relationships at the moment and also… doesn’t want the distraction of a guy hanging off him when he’s there to see an old crush, hopeless though it may be. He takes Dustin.
And Dustin, who is also very much a little shit and still in touch with Eddie, does not hesitate to let Eddie know that he and his big brother will be there. He’s practically bouncing up and down when he hears how receptive Eddie is to finally meet the infamous Steve Henderson. (Steve took the last name when he legally changed his first name and the gender marker on all his documents. Claudia was so happy that she cried. She has two sons now.)
Eddie decides to debut a new song at this concert. It’s half nostalgic, half defiant; about being in love with a girl who never gave him the time of day, and she’s probably off having a miserably predictable, cookie cutter life while he’s really living life, strutting around the stage with his guitar while a pretty boy waits for him in the crowd. And yeah, the song implies it’s a guy that he’s already with—but Eddie is single at the moment and Steve could swear the rock star looks right at him when he sings some of the lyrics. Whether or not it’s true, Steve is definitely looking back up at the boy who, in another life, he’d once unequivocally turned down.
Does Eddie see an attractive guy in the audience to make goo-goo eyes at while he rips through a really cool solo? Absolutely. He doesn’t especially think anything will come of it, because he’s done the groupie thing but he’s a romantic at heart; he wants a partnership, a best friend who knows his body like the back of his hand and makes his heart sing just as loud as his Sweetheart when she’s plugged in. He’s not even thinking much about the girl the song is partly about, anymore.
After the show, Steve and Dustin get their backstage passes checked and meet the band. Jeff, Gareth, and Doug all remember Dustin from high school too, so they have plenty to catch each other up about and Eddie is eventually able to sequester Steve in a corner all to themselves and just. Chat. Eddie confesses to always being curious about meeting Dustin’s oft mentioned older brother; Steve goes a little red and gets a lot of butterflies in his stomach, feeling giddy even as he tries to talk around how they both grew up in the small town of Hawkins but somehow never crossed paths. He has a general story prepared for when he runs into people from back home, some not recognizing him at all and some of whom think he looks familiar—which had stopped bothering him a few years ago when he realized he looks just like his father at this age.
The conversation goes well, all things considered. Steve doesn’t give Eddie his number though, receptive but playing hard to get out, nervous that if they get too close Eddie will realize who he used to be. When he leaves he feels distinctly like Cinderella fleeing the ball. He’s pretty sure he was careful enough not to leave any glass shoes behind.
Dustin is his glass slipper, the little shit (affectionate). Eddie is distraught to have happened across the perfect guy and then lost him just as easily, but he bides his time until the tour wraps up before turning his sights on the kid. Who is in big brain college by now, but still has that earnest innocent streak a mile wide. Eddie calls him to chat, visits once or twice, makes Dustin the talk of his campus by making an appearance at some sort of sciencey thing that Eddie actually finds really cool. And it’s not like he’s just trying to pump Dustin for information about Steve, but.
Here’s the thing: Dustin loves his big brother. Owes him a life debt, only it’s become more of a “you die, I die” thing. He knows that Steve is lonely, isn’t always great at keeping boyfriends even though he puts his heart out on his sleeve every time, and still sometimes faux-casually asks after Eddie, as though Dustin is some kind of idiot and hadn’t noticed the chemistry they’d had after that concert. He wants his brother to have someone worthy—someone safe. So he maybe drops a few too many hints to Eddie about why Steve might have been overly cautious. Maybe he says something about how much Steve hates his old name, how he used to look a lot different, and doesn’t quite notice when it clicks for Eddie.
After that, Eddie does his research. He takes the one picture he has from that night he met Steve, and hunts through the Hawkins High yearbooks that Wayne had lied about throwing out years ago. (The old sap. Eddie still maintains that his uncle should never have wasted precious money on those things, especially not his last two senior years, but it is more convenient than having to hunt them down at the Hawkins public library.) And he doesn’t find Steve, but he does find… her. Not in the glossy portraits, all hair and jewelry and makeup and fake smiles, but in the activities photos. Candid group shots where there’s a glimpse of something familiar in a stance or set of the shoulders, in a head thrown back in a rare relaxed laugh.
He has to sit with that a while. The Steve he fell for was that girl? The one who turned up her nose at him when he asked her out, stepped around him like he was nothing more than a steaming dog turd in her path? Eddie has a few trans friends that he reaches out to, fumbling through asking about… the before and after of it all. How it works. If the person he still kind of resents even exists anymore or if she’s as dead as her name. And he keeps hearing it depends, it depends, it depends, as if that fucking helps at all.
But something his friend Chrissy tells him sticks too: that before she transitioned, she’d been upset and uncomfortable all the time, always a little on edge because her identity and her mother and her almost-fiancée Jasmine were constantly rubbing her raw with expectations and pressure. That she’d pushed herself hard into playing basketball and being swim team co-captain because it felt like more about what her body could do than what it was supposed to be—and also as an excuse to shave her chest regularly without raising any eyebrows, for what that was worth. Eddie thinks about the aloof, distant, flat-chested Harrington girl, popular more for her rich parents and big empty house than anything else because she was always busy flitting off to rehearsals and recitals… and wonders if anyone had really known her at all. If she’d ever been much more than a front.
But the Steve that he’d met and talked with for hours? That had felt real. There had been a connection there that Eddie doesn’t think he was imagining, and if Steve felt it too then Eddie owes it to both of them to get to know who Steve is rather than dwelling on who he had been. So Eddie makes sure he knows how to be respectful and what not to ask if it comes up, but other than that resolves to let Steve to decide how to take that—and then asks Dustin for Steve’s number.
Steve has been… fine. He’d really liked seeing Eddie again, years after high school and getting to really talk, to introduce himself as himself. But any more than that is just not in the cards, and that’s fine.
Robin begs to differ. She knows her best friend slash platonic soulmate slash twin, and he is definitely dragging. He’s very much in a “you suck” slump, dating wise, and she’s noticed that he’s kind of been lowering his standards when it comes to guys lately, accepting borderline-shitty behavior that she’s seen him shut down without hesitation in the past. And if Steve tells her that it’s fine one more time she’s going to lose her shit and tell Dustin to put that big science brain to good use and invent a self-esteem hormone she can start injecting him with alongside the T shots.
So maybe he’s not fine. Maybe he’s beating himself up for still being hung up on a pointless just-after-high-school crush. Maybe he’s craving the way Eddie’s attention had felt, big brown eyes sweeping over him appreciatively and absorbing his every word, earnestly keeping up with the conversation like he wasn’t a famous musician who could probably snap his fingers if all he wanted was a hot date or anonymous fuck, but instead he’d decided to focus on Steve. And asked about real shit, like how he works with kids and what does he like about that and which of the little goobers are his favorites and why, Eddie sharing that he wished he could do the same sometimes but because of his erratic schedule and relative fame the closest he could usually get were at meet-and-greets or charity events. How he’d lit up when Steve had joked about teaching them a dance to one of Corroded Coffin’s song someday—an instrumental version, probably, given the kind of language in the lyrics—and offered to compose him something special under a pen name so even the more uptight parents would have no reason to object.
Maybe his current boyfriend isn’t much of a keeper, but he’s something. And a Corroded Coffin fan, so Steve still gets to hear Eddie’s voice during sex sometimes. It’s not a big deal. It’s not like he has to feel like every relationship is going to last forever—because clearly, in his experience, they don’t. That’s not settling for this guy, or leading him on, or anything; Steve just knows and has accepted the odds.
He’s not expecting Eddie to call him, saying he’ll be in town in about a week or so and asking if Steve might want to hang out then. But he doesn’t say no or tell Eddie that he has a boyfriend, either, or that their phone conversation goes on for so long that he’s nearly late for a date.
Steve hustles out of his and Robin’s apartment while still putting the finishing touches on his hair, walking on clouds and eggshells, and… the date is fine. They have dinner at a nice restaurant and dance at the queer club where they first met, then go back to the guy’s place and Steve fucks him into the mattress. And then breaks up with him.
And kind of gets an ashtray thrown in kind of his general direction for the goodbye pity fuck, but that’s not what sits uneasily with Steve after. He’s acting impulsively over a man he doesn’t really know (no matter how much Dustin vouches for him) and might not be able to see him as a guy anymore it Steve admits who he used to be—not just because he’s trans, but because he was Queen Steve and he knows that Eddie hated that girl.
It all spills out in front of Robin and Vickie a day or two before the date, messy and wretched and Steve hates that he’s saying anything about it all because he’s ruining their date night to do it, but he just couldn’t keep it in anymore. Without hesitation, though, they call off going out and stay with him for a They’s Night (gender neutral) of facials and comfort food and goofy movies. And vodka but, like, a reasonable amount. Just enough for Steve to get giggly and blushy whenever they rickroll him with a Corroded Coffin music video. They prank call Dustin, which mostly just means that Dustin uses caller ID to tell them that no he is not going to go catch his refrigerator, grow up already, and get the lowdown on what’s up. He’s beyond thrilled to hear that Eddie asked Steve out and confides in the three of them that Eddie has always had a thing for Steve, he could totally tell, both before and after the transition and while not even realizing that both versions of Steve were technically the same person. And he’s all, “And don’t worry Steve, I made it incredibly clear that he’d better be good to you, or else.”
“What are you going to do if he isn’t?” Steve sputters. “Subscribe him to a bunch of weird newsletters without his consent? You’re like, thirteen.”
“Twenty, actually,” Dustin replies primly. “And shut up. Mom keeps asking me when I’m ‘finally’ going to propose to Suzy, if you have a decent boyfriend to bring home for the holidays for once that’ll get her off my back until at least Valentine’s Day.”
Steve snorts. “When are you going to propose to Suzy?” he teases. “She’s not going to hang around forever, you little twerp. Better get a move on.”
“Steve, do you have any idea how much time and pressure it takes to make a diamond from scratch?” Dustin retorts cryptically. “No? Didn’t think so. Now, go seal that deal!” And hangs up.
“Someone’s gotta get that kid’s attitude in check,” Steve grumbles, but there’s no heat behind it. Then Robin puts on their copy of Grease and turns up the volume, and he gets lost in that for a while.
On the day of, something in Steve unclenches the moment he sees Eddie. For all that he’s been worrying about this he feels totally relaxed, and even starts opening up a bit about how he’d been stuck-up and self-involved as a teenager. Talks about how it had taken time and a lot of help from Robin to grow out of that and drop all the snobbiness that his parents had ironed into him from a young age.
Eddie follows his lead and talks about his own childhood, too. Growing up trailer park poor and in his uncle’s care after his dad landed in prison, being labeled the local freak. How he’d been loud and angry and kind of a nuisance on purpose back then, leaning into the label so hard that he’d ended up holding a little too rigidly to nerd vs jock dynamics for a self-proclaimed non-conformist.
“I grew out of it too,” he says, offering Steve a warm, dimpled smile. “Well—mostly. Being loud and angry is kind of part of my brand, professionally speaking. And I still am those things, just… for my own sake, instead of out of spite. High school is hell, dude, and I think we all put on whatever armor we can figure out to get through it alive. There’s always time afterwards to make it fit better or even take it off, though, and thank fuck for that.”
They’ve met in the private room of a mid-tier but discrete restaurant so Eddie won’t be spotted by any fans or paparazzi. Eddie starts to apologize for it at one point, sheepishly acknowledging that even being friends with him could open Steve up to… scrutiny. But Steve floors him (and himself, to be quite honest) by asking, “Just friends?”
“I was hoping for more than that,” Eddie replies—not beating around the bush, which is another point in his favor. “But, that’s not up to just me, is it Steve?” And tilts his head a little, dimple popping even more.
“No,” Steve allows. They’re sitting so close to each other at their cozy little round booth that he can feel Eddie body heat right there, from knee to shoulder, even though they’re not exactly pressed up against to each other. “But you should know that I… don’t have the best track record with this stuff. My high school armor is what earned me my first broken heart, and I have some serious baggage.”
“Mm, yeah,” Eddie teases, “talk dirty to me.”
“I mean it, Eddie. There's stuff I’m not good at talking about, and that tends to blow up in my face. And then if it doesn’t, I hold guys to these ridiculous standards that no one could possibly meet.”
Eddie holds his gaze. “Sometimes I drink the last of the milk straight out of the carton, and then I put it right back in the fridge, empty. Like an asshole.”
“Eddie,” Steve huffs. This isn’t going the way he expected at all, absolutely nothing like any scenario he and Robin had tried to construct and talk through together. Plus, Eddie not seeming to take him seriously is frustrating as hell. “I was born a girl.”
“Okay. Can I kiss you?”
“Wh—That’s all you have to say?!"
“No, that’s what I was already thinking and really, really wanted to ask because I’m on a date with a nice, smokin’ hot guy who I want to kiss. You could also tell me you used to be a mime, but if you’re not banging on the inside of a box no one else can see I’m not going to treat you like one.”
Steve opens his mouth, then closes it. A few times. He just… doesn’t know what to make of that metaphor. Is it too on the nose? Is it completely, balls to the wall insane? His brain is refusing to process it.
Eddie’s smile gentles down to something small, private. Earnest. “I like you, Steve. I liked you before I figured out that we had more history than I realized, and—even back, y’know, in high school, it’s kind of funny—I had a crush on high school you before I even realized I liked guys. So technically, technically, you were kind of like my bisexual awakening.”
“I…” Steve’s eyes are starting to feel dry from staring. He blinks hard. “I was really awful to you, though?”
It’s not supposed to be a question, but that’s how it comes out.
“Yep,” Eddie agrees, popping the P sound. “Yep, and I also realize now that I talked a lot of shit about you back then, a non-zero amount of which you may have been within earshot of—sorry about that. But hear me out: maybe… all teenagers are kind of puberty-addled disasters who are still trying to figure out their own shit. So, since both of us have had some time to do that by now, let’s start fresh.” He rocks back on his heels and thrusts out his hand. “Hi there, I’m Eddie Munson! And you are?”
Steve snorts at the absurdity of it all, but he's flustered. Mostly at being seen and forgiven when he doesn't feel like he deserves it. He's blushing hard as he takes Eddie's hand in a firm handshake, muttering "You are so weird" in a tone of awe rather than derision.
"Well, yeah," Eddie replies with a grin. "It'd be a boring old world if we were all just cookie cutter copies of each other, wouldn't it?"
For the rest of the night, miraculously, they're just two guys getting to know each other. Eventually they do talk more about who Steve was before transitioning; he apologizes for how he'd treated Eddie back then, and Eddie is honest about how it felt and how he's grown past being so bitter about it, and they end the night exhausted but still clinging to one another.
Steve feels closer to Eddie than he has with anyone he’s gone out with since… ever. He’d always worried that this would be too close, no room to breathe—but he’d been too trapped to breathe easily before, back at Starcourt, and this is worlds apart. He feels freer.
And there’s the whole dating a rock star thing and how it might affect his life, his job, Robin’s life, if it would bring his parents back out of the woodwork—just a whole mess of stuff. They talk that out too, a series of conversations that cycles through including Robin, Vickie, Eddie's bandmates and manager. Figuring out how to balance Eddie's public appearances with his private life in a way that keeps Steve's life as private as possible. It's not foolproof; all of them knows that eventually the news is going to break one way or another, and Eddie is kind of… contoversial, mainstream-wise.
They take it slow at first. Eddie is semi-local while the band works on their next album and they find times to meet, tiding themselves over with late night phone calls in between. Whenever they see each other in person the connection is electric, moreso than any relationship Steve has ever been in before. He's feeling things, Big things, that he keeps panicking to Robin about.
It's not that he and Eddie aren't intimate. They do a metric fuck-ton of kissing—which is great, it's great! Steve loves kissing, and Eddie is great at it, really fun to make out with. He has this way of pulling Steve's hair, and the way he moans when Steve winds his fingers into his unruly curls and uses that grip to move Eddie around exactly where he wants is delicious. They've left hickies and dry-humped and grabbed asses and teased each other through their clothes. The first time they were shirtless together Eddie practically wrote goddamn poetry about Steve's chest hair while licking and biting him all over above the waist, not even bothering to stop or even catch his breath, playing connect the dots between Steve's beauty marks with his tongue. And they've talked about sex—holy fuck have they talked about it, about likes and dislikes and no goes and fuck yeahs. A lot of it had inevitably devolved into heavy makeouts or frantic phone sex, but they have yet to do any of it. So while Steve knows in theory that Eddie wants to be tied up and take his strap, he doesn't know it for hot, turgid fact.
"Never say that phrase to me again," Robin tells him flatly when he voices that thought.
"What? It's not going to be a cold hard fact, he has body heat. He's not a vampire, even if he is freakishly in love with Halloween."
"You're overthinking it," Vickie cuts in mildly before they can get going. "Trust me, the way Eddie looks at you? It's a fact." She smirks. "If it weren't for us being around during those double dinner-party dates, it would definitely not have stayed in his pants."
Robin slumps back into the couch with a groan. "Stooop, I don't want to think about my platonic soulmate's boyfriend's junk! Why are we talking about this?"
"Because I do want to talk about my boyfriend's junk," Steve sasses back. "I want to see it and taste it and do unspeakable things to it until he goes crosseyed! Just, what if…" He shrinks in on himself in a little, in a way that Robin hasn't seen him do in a long time. "What if it's all a joke? I humiliated him in high school, Robin, in front of everybody. Now he's on the radio and in magazines and there are these guys from LA trying to get him to be a cameo in some movie. He's even out as bi, like publically, and I'm… If he wanted to get me back, get me to fall for him and then just, just pull the rug out from under me, he really could do it in front of everyone! He could out me to the entire fucking country!"
"Steve," Robin sighs, sitting forward to take his hands. "Dingus. I love you, from the bottom of my heart, and… if you genuinely, actually think that's what Eddie's doing here, then I won't judge you for a second if you drop him like a hot potato. But if there's any, and I mean any chance that this is just your own insecurities saying this because some part of you thinks it's what you deserve and it's the first time anyone's been genuinely good to and for you, I'm begging you: talk to Eddie. I know you two talk about everything under the sun, so talk about this. Shake off the idea that you're doomed to temporary, ephemeral sexual and romantic encouters just because you weren't born in the right kind of body. Eddie is going out of his way to prove that by letting you set the pace here, and you're being a snail to your usual Speedy Gonzales because you've had a thing for this guy since you were nineteen and you're truly, emotionally invested for once. Don't be afraid to let this be real, okay?"
He nods, shakily at first but then with more conviction. "Yeah… Yeah. I won't. I'll talk to him."
And he does; he just sort of waits until after they've fucked, Steve holding Eddie's wrists to the mattess above his head while he sinks into Eddie and then Eddie, still loose-limbed and trembling, undoing the stap harness with shakey hands and sucking Steve's dick until he sees not just stars but entire galaxies. After Eddie crawls up for a wet, desperate kiss with a gasp of "Fuck, I fucking love you," and Steve feels the dam he's built around his heart break. Eddie holds him while he shakes apart in a way that has nothing to do with physical pleasure but is its own kind of catharis, rocking Steve and murmuring reassurance and praise and endearments into his hair and skin. After he's thuroughly wrung out, Steve tells him that he loves Eddie too, but that he's so scared because he's never done this before.
Eddie, for his part, comes clean about his own dating troubles—because he's had girlfriends and boyfriends over the years who have only wanted him for his fame and money, and sometimes for presumed access to lots of drugs. Flings more than relationships, with people who loved his music but barely saw him.
"You see me, Steve," he says plainly, heart on his sleeve. "Since I met you as you, I've always felt like you've seen me."
Months later, when Corroded Coffin starts gearing up for their next tour, it happens to coincide with Robin and Vickie moving into their own place as well as the band’s manager signing on a new choreographer for music videos and the live dancers on stage. One of those songs was the new one Eddie had first tried out at the concert where he’d first met Steve Henderson, about a girl he’d used to know that had missed out and the beautiful boy waiting fondly for him to finish his show.
Fans and the tabloids are quick to notice that Eddie Munson has a new ring on his left ring finger; it takes them a little longer to catch on that the band's choreographer is wearing its twin.
End notes:
Never actually did decide on a deadname for Steve.
Dustin does not propose to Suzie before Eddie proposes to Steve, because Dustin is a total butthead. He also literally trying to make her a diamond.
stranger things text postsss lalalala (made by me, the background images/tumblr posts are from pinterest)
also yes there's enby robin buckley. i love enby robin buckley. great hc, 10/10. also psst i have more posts that i can't fit on here so those will be out by tomorrow!!
@genderthings Robin's Gender Week Day 2, prompt: "safe" with a hint of "he/him lesbians" | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4
T | 1570 | (G)Queer/Masc/GNC Robin | poor boundaries Stobin, pining or background: Steddie, Buckingham, Argyle/Jon/Nancy | 90s/00s AU (they're baby queers), STP packers, spicy seven, kayaking with friends
[title placeholder, brain empty]
It's a fun little getaway, planned after looking through dozens of local guides, until they found the nearest kayaking place. At this point, nobody is sure whose idea it was, but after his third time in the water, Eddie is ready to blame anyone.
"Never again is Steve picking a destination. Ever!" he yells, flipping wet hair out of his face as he scouts for the nearest clearing of the river bank. If he tries climbing on the kayak again, he risks dunking Chrissy as well. And frankly, his arms are tired.
"It was actually Chrissy's idea," Steve points out, calmly floating by in his boat. Robin, sitting in front of him, hums thoughtfully.
"Not Nancy's?"
"I'm pretty sure it was Steve's," Chrissy, Eddie's last friend, sides with him.
"Whatever. Do you guys see any place where I can climb out?"
The Robin-and-Steve team dips their oars in the water, pushing ahead, while Chrissy slowly drifts with the current, and Eddie hands limply off the side of her kayak.
"There's a camping place, come on!"
Eddie groans with relief when he hears Steve's voice.
"Finally!" He channels all the leftover strength in his muscles to push himself forward and swim to the makeshift dock. He hopes at least half of their group is tired enough to vote they take a longer break, maybe even take camp for the night. Surely his wet clothes deserve some pity.
The only plus of being in the water is not balancing on the wobbly vessel of a boat and trying to step on the dock. Eddie watches as Steve exits first with barely any grace and then helps Robin and Chrissy. When the girls are securing their kayaks to the pier, he helps Eddie climb on the dock as well.
"Thanks, man," he sighs, collapsing onto the old boards. "As much as I hate the Sun, I surely appreciate it right now," he grumbles, closing his eyes. He can feel his wet clothes steaming in the summer heat.
He yelps when something hits his face
"Dry yourself off, dude," Steve says.
He tentatively opens one eye, shielding his face with what turns out to be a towel. Not his, though, Harrington's. But he doesn't dare question it.
"Uh, thanks."
They flag down Nancy, Argyle and Jonathan, who are lagging behind while Jon takes nature shots, and together they agree it's time for a break. Eddie undresses happily, to leave his wet clothes in the sun, and wraps Steve's fluffy towel around himself.
"I gotta pee," Robin announces to the public, and Eddie's head snaps up to meet Chrissy's startled gaze.
Girls pee together, right? He tries to telepathically tell her to take the chance and offer her services, whatever they might be. Eddie isn't that well versed in female rituals and even less in girl-on-girl courtship.
"You coming?"
Chrissy almost opens her mouth to answer, but as she and Eddie look at Robin, they find her looking at someone else.
"You still need help?" Steve bitches back at her, but drops the bag he's been going through.
"Maybe," she answers half defensively, crossing her arms.
"Fine." Steve shrugs, following her towards the dilapidated toilets in the far end of the clearing.
Seeing those, Eddie thanks the gods for being born with a dick. He can just find a secluded, clean bush later.
"Well, I guess that makes sense," Chrissy murmurs as the two best friends walk away to pee in tandem. Eddie has to agree—even a bathroom door couldn't stop these two from bitching about their current job or a failed date, apparently.
He's focusing on detangling his drying hair with the brush Chrissy hands him, when he hears a loud lough that makes him look up. Just as expected, he can see his friends continuously talking while peeing by the line of tall weeds behind the toilets.
It doesn't register at first, but eventually, he does a double take.
"Do you see what I'm seeing?" he asks without looking at his friend, too afraid the sight before his eyes could vanish if he turned his head.
"What are you seeing?" Chrissy picks up without much thought, and as she follows his line of sights, it also takes her a moment to register what the issue is. "Huh."
"Yeah," Eddie nods, glad he's not losing his mind. "Does Robin—? You know."
"I don't know," Chrissy answers to whatever Eddie had in mind.
They both watch as Robin looks down to Steve's dick where, assuming from the motion of his shoulders, he's shaking it off, and mirrors the same movement with whatever is between her...his?...legs.
The unbreakable duo seems to be zipping up their pants so Eddie turns hastily to his best friend.
"Should we ask about it?" he whispers heatedly, eyes darting worriedly to see how much time they have left before they risk getting overheard.
"I don't think it's polite?" Chrissy cracks her knuckles nervously and he reaches out to stop her.
"Yeah, but it's not like they're hiding?" he points out. Whatever the deal is, Robin could have used the toilets, or go further away not to be seen.
"I guess so..." Chrissy trails off. She's playing with Eddie's fingers now, squeezing them beyond the comfortable levels of pain, but he lets it slide for now. "I mean, asking means we care, right?"
Eddie doesn't know the intricacies of gender issues that well, but nods his head nevertheless.
"Probably?" is all he can offer. Then, the Robin and Steve duo is walking back, and the Cali threesome is at the dock, and they aren't sure what would be a good timing to ask.
Steve holds his hands up to him and Eddie knows they were holding his dick minutes ago. He wants to bury his face in them.
He obviously doesn't register what Steve says, but Chrissy is the best and presses hand sanitizer into his palm. Eddie quickly gets the clue and squirts a generous amount on his friend's extended hands.
"Thank you," Steve smiles, rubbing the gel between his fingers. Without a word, Robin holds out her hands too, so Eddie squeezes out some for them as well.
"Hey, Robbie?" Chrissy pipes up, the brave girl. Eddie is too focused on the sounds the sanitizing gel makes between Steve's fingers. "If there's anything we should know, you can safely tell us, we won't judge."
"Yeah," Eddie nods.
"I mean, we're friends with Eddie."
"Yeah!" he nods more vigorously. "And don't forget the throuple over there," he throws a thumb at where their friends are unpacking their paddle boat.
Robin's face falls, going pale in the process as well. Eddie can sense his friend's panic so he squeezes her knee, letting her know she didn't do anything wrong.
Similarly, Steve lays a hand on Robin's shoulder. It calms down their jittering, and they look up to see the rest of their group arriving to the clearing.
"Well, since everyone is here," they murmur, inching closer to their best friend. Steve dutifully wraps his arm around his platonic soulmate for support. He gets elbowed for his efforts but miraculously, reads it as the call for help that it is.
He coughs, motioning for the last three to join.
"A quick group meeting, guys!" Steve calls out, calm as a cucumber so the others know no inter-dimensional demons are lurking in the shadows.
"What's up?" Nancy asks, leading the boys behind her.
"Rob has something to share," he says, nudging his friend gently.
"Uh, yeah," Robin stammers. "So you know how boys can pee easily wherever they want, right?" they ask somewhat rethoretically, but a few of them nod in acknowledgment. "So, I got a stand to pee packer, which is a silicone dick with peeing option, usually used by trans guys," Robin explains, avoiding everyone's gaze. "It was for convenience at first, but the more I thought about it and talked with Steve," their friend squeezes them tighter when mentioned in the rant, "while he was teaching me the intricacies of using a dick and keeping me company on bathroom breaks, I realized…" They take a quick breath. "It's actually nice to be perceived as a guy."
The silence stretches, but before it can get uncomfortable, Chrissy speaks up.
"So, how do you want to be addressed?" she asks.
"Uh, Robin is already gender-neutral, so I like that," Robin says. "And when it comes to pronouns, I don't think I mind any? He, she, they, all sound okay to me. The only thing, I still consider myself a lesbian?" Robin admits hesitantly. "Like, it's a community I feel comfortable in and associate with, and it might sound wrong when I'm—"
"Hey." Nancy stops them with a raise of her palm. "I don't think it's that weird, you don't have to explain. You just wouldn't want your relationship with a woman to be considered heterosexual, yeah?"
"Yeah," Robin smiles, relieved to be understood. "That's a part of it."
"So can I call you bro?" Argyle pipes up, to which Nancy scoffs.
"You call me bro all the time!" she points out.
"Yeah, but like, as a pet-name, you know?"
Everyone not involved in their little polycule look at them curiously. They are used to the weirdness, but every time something like this pops up, it's weirder than the last one.
"Yeah, do not call me bro," Robin decides quickly.
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I has been an absolute pleasure working on this fic over the last few months and working with @alicetallula and talking about the art at he worked on it! I am so excited to have it completed and to share it! Featuring nonbinary Robin Buckley and Lesbian Chrissy Cunningham who doesn't know she's a lesbian.
Check out my fic and @alicetallula 's work on Ao3 (and their tumblr) for the Stranger Things Sapphic Mini Bang hosted by @sapphicstevents!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
