Chapter 3
Steve certainly wasn't a cook by any means but he could follow directions on a box of mac and cheese and grill a few hotdogs. When he had finished he set down a massive steaming bowl in front of Eddie.
"A feast fit for a king. Just like mom used to make." Eddie joked as he grabbed a fork to start eating.
"Hey it may not be five stars but it's better than that green jello bullshit you get at the hospital." Steve replied, sitting down with his own bowl of food.
"They must have run out of the far superior red jello." Eddie quipped back, shoveling a fork full into his mouth and grinning like an idiot.
"Oh come on, it's orange all the way." Steve matched his grin with a mouth full of mac and cheese.
"Orange? The blasphemy!" Eddie replied in mock terror. He liked teasing Harrington far too much.
Steve couldn't help but giggle at Eddie's reaction. "What? It's good!"
"Dude orange tastes like a memory of an orange you ate like ten years ago." Eddie said, stabbing a hot dog and taking a bite off the end.
"Well red tastes like cough syrup." Steve taunted, mimicking Eddie and taking a bite of his own hot dog with a mock ferocity. This kind of back and forth made Steve feel normal again. Like he was just a typical teenager again. No fighting monsters, no frantic clue searches. Just stupid debates with a friend who kept the quips coming.
"It's a classic cherry flavor you heathen." Eddie retorted, pretending to clutch at his pearls like a white woman at church. "And they say I'm the satanist." Eddie joked.
Steve cracked at that and started laughing, holding his tender side as it ached. "Fine if liking orange jello makes me a satanist then so be it." he snorted before taking another bite of hot dog. "You know, I'm glad you're here. Everything has just been so dull without you around." Steve mused, looking down at his food with a grin before glancing up to Eddie's face.
"It certainly beats the hospital." Eddie jabbed, lightly nudging Steve with his elbow before taking another bite. Eddie was doing his best to not pour the whole bowl of mac and cheese into his mouth. He was so hungry and this food seemed to just be making him more aware of how little he'd eaten. It was like the more he ate the hungrier he became.
"Well that's not saying much. But seriously, it's nice to have you back dude." Steve said softly, clapping Eddie softly on the back as he finished eating his much smaller portion of food.
Eddie couldn't help but smile at the sincerity of Steve's comment, his bimple making an appearence.
"Good to be back." he replied, flashing that dimple at steve before eating some more food.
After the boys finished dinner Steve did the dishes and loaded them onto the drying rack before walking towards the TV in the living room.
"Hey do you wanna watch a movie? I have a couple I rented from work a while ago and seeing as the shop isn't back open yet I figure I can keep 'em for a bit longer." He made his way over to the small stack of 3 movies he had gotten from work. "I've got The Outsiders, Fast Times at Ridgemont high, and The Hunger." he raised his eyebrows suggestively at the final option. "They're all pretty new releases this year. I haven't seen any of them yet."
Eddie's eyes lit up. "Dude it's been ages since I've had a proper movie night!" he ran over to look over the movies Steve had in his hand and chose The Outsiders.
Steve prepped the movie and got to making some popcorn. "Well then we better make sure to do a real movie night." He yelled from the kitchen, taking out a bag of microwave popcorn and tossed it in the microwave for a couple minutes and set to looking for movie night snacks in the pantry. He found a bag of m&ms and some cookies and set them on the counter as the microwave beeped.
Eddie waited patiently on the couch as his host put together a movie snack feast for the two of them. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself at his childlike excitement at the prospect of something as simple as a movie night. The last time He'd sat down to watch a movie he had been eleven or twelve and it was Somewhere Over the Rainbow. His mom had liked that movie a lot. It had been her favorite thing to watch when she got sick.
That somber thought dampened his excitement as Steve came around the corner with a tray of goodies.
"You ready to watch this shit?" Steve asked, smiling excitedly. "I've heard really good things about this one in particular."
"Yeah, start her up." Eddie replied, coming back to the present and blinking away the thoughts of his mom. He sat up and tucked his legs up on to the couch.
Steve strode over to the tv and pressed play on the VCR, making sure the tape was fully rewound. As the opening ads started he made his way back to Eddie and collapsed on the couch next to him.
Eddie watched him, biting his lip as he considered how much he liked Steve's smile. It made his heart skip whenever it flashed his way. Like a giddy love struck teen girl. The thought made him cringe. What the hell was wrong with him?
They watched their movie, eating their snacks, occasionally bumping hands while reaching for popcorn and making jokes about the movie back and forth.
Eddie couldn't remember a time where he was happier just fucking around doing nothing.
Once the end credits started rolling Steve turned to Eddie and gave a small smile. "I know it's getting late but I'm gonna go for a swim before bed if you wanna come out and chat. Probably not a good idea for you to get in till your stitches get taken out, but we can just hang. Maybe just dip your feet in?" He gave a small shrug and a smirk.
"Yeah sure. I could use a cool off before bed." Eddie replied with a nod.
"Cool. I'll go get into my trunks and grab a towel." Steve hurriedly got up off the couch and made to head upstairs. "Oh! The pool is out back just through that door." he said pointing to the back door as he started up the stairs.
Eddie got himself up off the couch with a small groan and made his way outside.
"You've gotta be fucking kidding me." Eddie mumbled to himself. The pool was a huge 8ft deep pool with a little bar area, in the fucking pool. This little rich boy was gonna be the end of him.
"What?" Steve questioned as he came down in trunks with a towel thrown over his shoulder.
"This is fucking ridiculous is what." Eddie replied, gesturing to the pool. "Are you serious?" he said with a disbelieving chuckle.
Steve rolled his eyes at that and pushed past Eddie, who suddenly had a different reason to be in disbelief. Harrington was shirtless and his torso was muscular in a way that Eddie hadn't expected. Of course he was though, he was the athletic type and with a pool like that at his disposal he probably didn't even need a gym. his trunks hugged his legs, which were also well built. His eye trailed up to Harrington's back were he had some fresh scars that Eddie took note of before averting his gaze.
Why was his heart suddenly beating fast? It was just Herrington. Not like it was something he hadn't seen before during a summer at the lake. It shouldn't be something special, but it was and he didn't understand why that was. He'd never taken notice of another guy's body like that before. Girls, sure. He'd had his fair share of little flings with the occasional girl looking to piss off her parents by dating the local 'bad boy', but this was entirely different.
Eddie breathed out, looking up at the sky to recenter himself and try to get his thoughts to shift to literally anything else.
"You okay there Ed?" Steve called, throwing his towel onto the back of a chair and walking into the pool's shallow end. Eddie caught a glimps of the large fading bruise on Steve's side, and the fine pink scar there too. Damn he'd taken quite the beating, and still forced himself to cary Eddie out. He was one determined son of a bitch.
"Uh yeah, fine." Eddie murmured and followed Steve to the edge of the pool. He sat down and rolled up his pant legs before dangling his feet into the frigid water. "You must swim a lot huh?" he asked distantly. Still memorizing the scars and countours of Steve's torso.
"What makes you say that? Steve asked inquisitively as he submerged his body up to his shoulders and gave a small shiver at the water's cool temperature. Eddie was just staring at him, he must have noticed all the new scars he had. Steve hoped Eddie didn't feel guilty for it. He'd gotten all these scars on his own, they weren't anyone's fault but Vecna's.
"I mean if I had a pool like this I'd be in it all day." Eddie replied with a nervous chuckle, running his fingers through his hair on the back of his neck nervously.
"I usually swim a couple times a week. Helps me destress, you know?" Steve replied nonchalantly as he dipped fully into the pool and came back up, throwing his hair back out of his face and running his hand down his face to wipe off the water.
"Yeah I can't wait to get these stitches out so I can go for a dip." Eddie answered, slowly moving his feet back and forth in the water, looking down at his hands.
Steve slowly swam to the edge next to Eddie and laid his arms, crossed, on the poolside.
"Don't worry, it's just a few days away dude." He said. Running his palm over his mouth to get rid of more water.
"Yeah." Eddie whispered, glancing over at Steve, then back to his hands.
"are you sure you're okay Munson?" Steve inquired, his brows drawing together.
"Yeah, just realizing how much stuff I almost missed because I fucked up so hard in the upside down." he mumbled, his thumb rubbing the palm of his other hand as he sat there.
"You didn't fuck up Eddie. You saved our lives." Steve replied, pushing himself out of the pool to sit next to Eddie. He lightly knocked his elbow against Eddie's and gave a small half smile. "We really owe you one." he noted sincerely.
"It was a stupid plan. I nearly got Dustin killed." Eddie's voice cracked. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, but he couldn't stop them from coming.
"It was a better plan than any of us could've come up with, and Dustin is alive and well." Steve posited. "Everyone feels guilty about what they could've or should've done, but the fact is we all just did the best we could." Steve looked down at Eddie's hand and grabbed the one closest to him.
"You're not alone in feeling like that. There's a reason I haven't been able to sleep well. A reason I've made myself as busy as possible." Steve sighed and continued, "I don't wanna think about all the shit I should have done better to keep everyone safe…. To keep you safe." He studied Eddie's hand for a moment before giving it a gentle squeeze. Eddie's signature rings were gone, they'd taken them off at the hospital and Steve had packed them in the dufflebag upstairs. He made a mental note not to mention it to Eddie at some point. "This never should have been your fight Eddie, but we needed you and you got sucked into our mess."
Eddie couldn't help the tears falling down his face in small rivers. He just felt like a failure. They hadn't even fully defeated Vecna. He was still out there somewhere, he could feel it. It was just a matter of time before they had to fight him again.
Eddie, still looking down, moved his head limply toward Steve. "I guess, it just feels like it was all for nothing. People still died and the upside down is still there."
Steve sighed and brought his hand up to Eddie's cheek, moving his head to his own shoulder and resting his head utop it. "We're just kids Eddie. Nobody expected us to even get this far. This isn't something we could have ever prepared ourselves for." Steve bushed his lips across the top of Eddie's head and sighed into his hair.
At that Eddie heaved and the tears burst from his eyes with a sob. Steve wrapped his arm around Eddie, and squeezed. It felt good to be here for Eddie. To give him someone to be vulnerable with. "It's okay. Let it out." Steve whispered into Eddie's hair, rocking him gently and patting his back.
Eddie felt like a waterfall, spewing out every emotion he'd ever had all at once. His body convulsed as he wailed into Steve's shoulder. His only comfort the spicy smell of Steve and the arms gently wrapped around him.
They sat like that for a few moments just enveloped in the heartache of the moment and being what eachother needed. A leash, grounding them to reality.
After Eddie's sobs quieted he leaned into Steve and sighed into his shoulder and looked up.
"What do we do?" he asked, hopelessness in his voice.
"What we can." Steve answered simply with a shrug and a small smile down at the other boy.
He broke eye contact and looked out over the pool. "At least we still have this." He murmured, almost to himself.
"What?" Eddie asked, straightening up and wiping his cheeks free of tears.
"Eachother." Steve answered simply.