#stobbin

Kas!Eddie: *running to Steve with his cheeks full like a chipmunk*

Steve: Eds?

Kas!Eddie: *grabs Steve’s face with both hands*

Steve: EDDIE?!? What -

Kas!Eddie: *smooshes their mouths together, invades Steve’s mouth with tongue and too much blood*

Steve: *choking on Eddie’s /tongue/ and /holy shit is this blood/ and /what the fuck are we kissing/*

Kas!Eddie: *pulls away, blood all over his mouth and running down his chin and neck, just smirking*

Steve: *coughing and gagging and /not in the tiniest bit, no absolutely not, turned on/* WHAT THE FUCK EDS?

Kas!Eddie: We bond.

Steve: *drags hand across mouth* Couldn’t we bond over like a game of basketball?

Kas!Eddie: *makes face at /basketball/*

Steve: Or *snaps fingers and points at Eddie* a mixed tape?

Kas!Eddie: *tilts head* Bond like bats. *points to matching scar*

Steve: *sighs*

Robin: Hi. Yeah, since no one else got bit by the demobats then we’re like free for the blood spit bonding right? Cause like, that was disgusting…like where did the blood even come from…

Steve: It is taking everything in me not to figure that out. I don’t even want to know.

Kas!Eddie: *grabbing Steve and pulling him close, arm and wing around his shoulder, smiles at Robin* We bond.

Robin: ….good….?

Kas!Eddie: Mine.

Steve: Yours?

Kas!Eddie: *gasps, nuzzles into Steve’s neck and starts purring*

Robin: Ohhhhhh!

Steve: *genuinely confused but not pushing Eddie off of him quite yet* What? What /ohhhhh/?

Robin: I think he’s asking you out.

Steve: *eyes grow wide*

Robin: And I think you said yes.

Kas!Eddie: *still nuzzling Steve* We bond.

Steve: *blushing*

Robin: Congrats.

Feels it every time the older boy invades his personal space or laughs or twirls a curl on his finger or when he goes on passionate tangents about anything…

But he cannot get a read on Eddie. Can’t determine if he has feelings for him or if Eddie is just naturally a flirt. Because Eddie does flirt. Makes naughty comments and touches Steve endlessly. But he also does the same thing with Robin and Argyle and Gareth and Jonathan…

There are too many mixed signals…and so Steve tells himself to ease up on the crush. To just be friends…

But it’s like Steve can’t stop his crush from growing. Everything Eddie does makes the crush dig itself deeper into Steve. But it’s just a crush. So…

But one day while they are hanging out in Eddie’s room something happens.

Eddie smirks at him and says, “I had a dream about you last night.”

And the butterflies which woke in Steve’s stomach at Eddie’s smirk do somersaults at the idea of Eddie dreaming of him. “Oh really? What was it about?”

And Steve is looking up at Eddie through his lashes, runs a hand through the front of his hair, and gives him an absolutely *royal* smile.

Eddie blinks. He twirls a strand of hair around his index finger and Steve thinks his blood is going to boil from anticipation, because this is it, his dumbass is finally going to admit he has feelings for him.

Nothing could prepare Steve for what Eddie says next.

He drops his hair and readjusts himself on the bed to turn and fully look at Steve, he gestures with his hands and says, “So it was like I knew something crazy was going on in my dream world, but I wasn’t really privy to it. But I found you in this like sewer. And -” he pauses leans in real close to Steve, “it was insane, Dustin was growing from your stomach. AND you had a robotic eye.”

Steve stares at the goofy grin and the excited eyes looking back at him, “Is that all that happened?”

Eddie shrugs, “More or less, sometimes I have a hard time remembering dreams. It’s like I’ll know I had a dream some mornings but can’t remember shit. Or I remember only the strange details. Or it can be like I just watched a life changing movie and it will haunt me the rest of my life and alter everything I do. But those kinds of dreams are very rare.”

“Huh.” Steve smiles.

Eddie goes into a tangent then about his dreams. Telling Steve about some of his movie like dreams…

Later that night he recounts the dream to Robin. He sighs and puts his face in his hands, “And all it really did was make me realize that I…I love him...”

Robin is silent for so long that Steve forces himself to pull his face out of his hands and stare at her.

She has a perplexed expression on her face as if she is trying to translate something from Russian.

She shakes her head and then says flatly, “Unless you were like birthing Dustin, there is no way that he would be the one conjoined with you. That would be me. Your twin flame. Your other half. Doesn’t that dingus know anything?”

“I just told you I am in love with Eddie Munson, and you are more concerned about why you are not the one growing from my stomach in his dream?” Steve asks.

“Well yeah. I already know you love him.” She tilts her head, her expression soft. Then she straightens up, “You didn’t know?!”

“NO!” Steve gestures wildly, “I thought it was just like a crush.”

“Oh babe…” Robin gasps through her laughter, “You realized you were…in love with him…because he told you he had a dream…where Dustin was growing…from your stomach…”

Like we all know Steve, the beautiful single mother of 7, can cook. Has learned to cook a variety of meals and treats. Knows everyone’s favorites.

Max loves roast with mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. Erica loves quiche. El loves French toast with fresh strawberries and lots of syrup. Mike loves tomato soup and grilled cheese made with soft buttered rolls. Dustin loves chicken nuggets with homemade honey mustard sauce, and Steve knows he prefers steamed broccoli even though he won’t admit it. Lucas loves eggplant Parmesan with diced olives in the marinara. And Will loves homemade chicken noodle soup, for which Steve makes fat egg noodles and his own broth.

Steve even knows the older members of The Party’s favorites. Nancy loves vegetarian curry, the spicer the better. Argyle loves chicken pot pie. Jonathan loves meatloaf with buttery peas and roasted sweet potatoes. And Robin, love of his life, loves soft scrambled egg over rice.

He knows all their favorite snacks too. Learns to make potato chips, mini pizzas, pigs-in-a-blanket, popcorn. Always has fresh fruit and veggies with a variety of homemade dips. And when Hellfires starts playing at his house, he learns all of the members favorite snacks too.

He even makes an actual 7 course meal for the end of a Hellfire campaign for Will’s birthday. It impresses everyone.

And none of them complain about the desserts. He learns to bake cookies, brownies, cinnamon rolls, cakes. Anything they ask for, he delivers.

And Eddie, he loves all of it. Will eat anything without fail. Tells Steve after every meal it was his favorite. And when pushed about what is *actually* his favorite food Eddie will say something like, “Babe you could serve me a phone book covered in gravy and I think it would be delicious if you made it.”

So Steve figures Eddie just loves food or there’s something only Wayne knows how to cook a certain way and that’s Eddie’s favorite.

But one night Steve is exhausted. It’s just Eddie and Steve alone for dinner. And Steve just doesn’t have it in him to actually cook. So he makes a box of Kraft mac and cheese. Does the bare minimum. Boils the noodles adds salt. Mixes in the butter, milk, cheese powder. Sprinkles in a tiny bit of nutmeg. Adds cracked pepper. Globs some hot sauce in it. Then serves it.

And Eddie loses his goddamn shit over it.

And Steve can’t comprehend it at first. All of the extravagant meals and this…THIS is what Eddie flips out about.

I’m at work. And I will write this at some point, but I have to vent about it now. It may even appear in my longer work. Who knows. But anyway…

I’d say we’re post S1. So Steve and Nancy are already kind of on the rocks. And in this version Nancy decides to try out for the school play, Romeo & Juliet.

She of course gets the role of Juliet.

But our Eddie, well he was born to play Mercutio.

And just imagine Steve going to see Nancy play Juliet but then is just captivated by Mercutio.

And like he knows who Eddie Munson is but it’s the first time he sees him as not just a dealer, not just “The Freak.”

And after opening night, Steve goes home and he can’t sleep. He stares at his ceiling. Tries to forget about the older boy in red stage lighting, smirking before he challenges Tybalt. And only falling asleep after he gets out of bed and forces himself to do push ups until he exhausts himself.

And Steve tries to tell himself he’s just being a good boyfriend when he attends every performance. Tells himself and anyone else, he’s there for Nancy. (Of course, he’s there for Nancy.) But he can’t ignore the way he waits in nervous anticipation for the scenes with Mercutio.

TW/CW: Light internalized and external homophobia

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Nancy looks back over her shoulder at Steve and Eddie, watches as Eddie leans in and Steve's answering smile at whatever Eddie says. She turns back and looks at the taller girl walking beside her. Robin keeps her eyes on the ground, searching for all the safe places to put her feet - each step hesitating in awkward balance before it touches ground.

"You know," Robin sighs, as if she can feel Nancy's eyes on her, "it doesn't help to have you glaring at me."

"I'm not glaring." Nancy argues.

Robin looks over at her briefly before looking back to her feet, "It feels like a glare."

Nancy chuckles, "It's more of a...a considerate observation."

Robin pauses and looks directly at Nancy. She tries to hide her smile while she repeats, "A considerate observation?"

Nancy continues forward, allows the distance to hide her own smile, "Exactly."

Robin closes the gap so they walk side by side again, "Well, I appreciate your considerate observation to be limited as we navigate Vecna/Henry/One's landmines."

"Yeah, no worries." Nancy looks down at the grey earth and dark vines.

Silence fills the space until Steve's laugh echoes around them. Robin giggles in response as if her and Steve are even connected to each other's joy. Nancy's heart sinks a little.

"You know, I used to be like that with Barb." Nancy says as if she can't keep it in anymore.