The time had finally come for everyone to leave the Byers residence, much to Hopper's relief. Having upwards of ten extra people crammed into the cabin did absolutely nothing for his patience. Now that Eddie had been - cautiously - deemed not a threat, there was no need to keep him locked up.
It was decided, however, that he couldn't return to Wayne's trailer. Not with what he'd become. The thought of Eddie putting his uncle into harm's way was simply out of the question. It was decided, then, that Eddie would stay with Steve. His parents were never home anyways and sometimes left for weeks or months at a time on business trips throughout the year. This didn't bother Harrington like it used to when he was little and constantly in the care of one babysitter after another. His relationship with his father had always been rough, so a little reprieve from him was always welcome. This solution would be easy enough until they found him a more permanent place to stay.
"Are you sure you don't mind?" Eddie asked, messing with the rings on his fingers. He didn't love the idea that he was someone to be pitied, but he didn't have much of a choice.
Steve turned the ignition and looked over at him. "What? Yeah, of course." He smirked. "You having second thoughts or something?"
"No." Eddie scoffed. "King Eddie does not have second thoughts. I'm just making sure."
Steve chuckled and pulled off out of the driveway. "Well in that case, your highness. I don't mind."
The living room was spacious and filled with nice, expensive looking furniture. It was completely different from what Eddie was used to. He looked around in awe, but it occurred to him, strangely, that he didn't see a single family photo.
"You can stay in here." Steve dropped a pillow on the sofa.
Eddie raised an eyebrow, taking a blanket from him. "And your parents are cool with this?"
"They'll never know. They don't get back until the 13th. We should be able to find you a place by then."
Eddie frowned as Steve walked into the hallway. He followed after him. "That's a month from now. Do they usually leave for that long?"
"Yeah." Steve entered his room and started rifling through his closet. "Business trips. 'They'll sleep when they're dead' and all that."
Eddie nodded a bit in thought. He glanced around. "I guess that explains the nice house and fancy cars. You're lucky."
Steve paused a moment and chuckled lightly.
"'Lucky'." He muttered.
After a minute or two of searching, he turned around and held up a few options. "I think we're the same size. You can raid my closet if you need until we can grab your stuff from Wayne's."
"Access to all the polos and bell bottoms I could ever want?" Eddie placed a hand on his chest and pretended to swoon. "Still my beating heart."
Steve rolled his eyes and chuckled. He shoved the clothes into his friend's hands and turned to find more things for Eddie to wear. Suddenly, his smile dropped. "Oh… you're going to hate me for this."
"What?" Eddie peered over his shoulder curiously. Steve looked back and winced. "I haven't done laundry. I only have one extra thing to wear to sleep."
"So? How bad could it be?"
According to Eddie, it was bad .
When he emerged from the bathroom, his cheeks were burning red. He wore a Madonna tank top with cutout sleeves wide enough to barely qualify as a shirt anymore, as well as tiny red lifeguard shorts that only just covered the important areas.
"Steve." He said, clenching his jaw. "You've got to be kidding me."
Steve looked up to see Eddie standing at the door. He could have been the poster boy for embarrassment right now. His face was flushed and he had his arms folded, as if he were trying to make himself smaller. It was adorable.
Wait… adorable? Why did Steve think of that word? He was talking about Eddie Munson here. Nothing about him was adorable. He was loud and brash and could really rub you the wrong way. It didn't matter that he was wearing Steve's clothes right now or that he was showing quite a lot of skin. And, wow, he was showing… a lot of skin. When Steve wore that outfit, he didn't look like that did he? Like something sculpted from marble? He'd have to wear that more often.
"Uh, Earth to Steve?" Eddie muttered. "You in there?"
Steve blinked and looked up at his face. He'd been staring. Why the hell had he been staring?
"Uh… lost my train of thought." Steve looked away, flustered. "Sorry, it's all I had. Would you rather I wear that and you take these?" He gestured to the sweatpants and T-shirt he wore.
Eddie thought of Steve wearing the shorts + tank top combo and his brain almost short circuited. "No!" He blurted. "Uh, I - I mean, no. It's fine."
Just then, the doorbell rang.
"Oh, Robin and Nancy are here." Steve said, standing up.
Eddie drained of color almost immediately. "What? Robin and Nancy? Here?"
"Yeah, they're staying the night. They said they wanted to keep an eye on you."
"I can't see them dressed like this!" Eddie whined, backing into the bathroom again. Steve rolled his eyes and waved him off as he went to the door. "You look fine. It's just clothes."
" These barely qualify as clothes, Steve!" Eddie hissed. He opened his mouth to protest more, but Steve opened the door and the girls walked in.
"Hey guys, I brought you some groceries so we can - " Nancy stopped immediately and stared at Eddie. "Oh… my god."
Robin walked in after her. "What?" She looked over at Eddie and her jaw dropped. She covered her mouth and tried to contain her laughter. "Eddie, what the hell are you wearing?"
He shot a death glare at Steve, who tried to hide a smirk. Trying to save face, he decided to lean into it. He walked over and gave them a little twirl.
" This, my good ladies, is apparently Steve Harrington's idea of night clothes." He mock curtseyed, making the girls laugh.
"Ah, that definitely tracks." Nancy chuckled, nudging Steve. She walked passed them and placed the groceries on the table. Steve looked at her incredulously but didn't put up a fight.
"How have you guys been? Any updates?" Robin asked. She walked over to Eddie and began examining him way too close like he was some lab experiment; checking his eyes, his hands, pulling up his lips to see his fangs, etc. "You look pale. Do you need to drink blood again?"
Eddie stepped back and held up his hands in defense. "Whoa, Robin, I'm good." She looked unconvinced, so he held up a pinky. "Scout's honor."
She sighed and linked her pinky with his. "Fine. But if you start feeling weird or anything let us know."
"Weird?" He smirked.
She rolled her eyes. "I don't know! Whatever the bad vampire feelings are. You know what I mean."
He chuckled. "I will."
In truth, he hadn't had anything to drink since the incident with Steve four days ago. He could feel himself getting hungrier, but it's not like it was an immediate issue. The idea of drinking someone's blood made him feel sick at the same time it was all he could think about. He craved it like nothing else before. Sometimes it felt like a slight craving; other times it was sickeningly on his mind.
So, while it wasn't immediately a problem, he'd chosen to just… ignore it. Some part of him hoped it would just go away, but logic knew better. He elected to cross that bridge when he got there. And he was getting closer and closer to that bridge with each day he didn't drink.
"Jonathan and Argyle are on the way." Robin said as she helped Nancy put a few groceries away.
Nancy raised her eyebrows. "What? Since when?"
"Since I invited them. They're bringing pizza."
Nancy held up her hands incredulously. "What? Robin, why did I buy all these groceries? We were going to make dinner."
"We'll have them for tomorrow." Robin shrugged. Nancy still seemed annoyed, so Robin took her hand and placed the bag of celery in it, smirking. "It's okay , Wheeler. All this will still be good in the morning. Besides, we barely have enough to make a full dinner with all the kids coming, so we'll have to make another trip anyways."
"I'm sorry, did you say the kids were coming?" Steve interjected. "Why the hell are the kids coming?"
"They insisted, apparently they want all the Eddie time they can get. What, was I supposed to tell them 'no'?"
"Yes!"
She just shrugged again and turned back to help Nancy. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
Great. No really. It's not like he was looking forward to a quiet night with just adults or anything. Totally cool.
"Okay, fine. Whatever. But since you invited them, you're in charge of corralling them. I'm off duty tonight."
Robin snorted but held her hands up in defeat. "Deal."
Eddie was not exactly thrilled that everyone and their mother would get to see him in the scraps of clothing Steve called sleep wear. However, he had to admit that he was excited to see them and finally catch up.
They weren't even kids anymore, were they? All of them were finally in their mid teens, though Eddie had only known them as budding young adults. Despite their age difference, he saw them all as some of his best friends and equally good D&D players. Even if they made fun of his outfit the microsecond they walked through the door. The little shits.
Argyle and Jonathan had brought the kids and about seven extra large pizzas, as if anyone was going to be able to finish that. Argyle's reasoning was that they'd need the sustenance for when the munchies got bad.
Thankfully, Robin kept true to her promise and made sure everyone was taken care of and fed. Steve was able to sit back and relax. He sipped a beer while everyone else had a good time, and he'd even let the kids look through his parent's records to find something to play.
Unfortunately, all they found of worth was an old Sinatra record. So while they ate their pizza and laughed, they were serenaded by Sinatra's lilting voice and grand orchestral sounds.
Robin walked over and sat on Steve's lap, beer in hand. "What's up, Harrington? You're being antisocial again. That's not like you."
He put his arm around her and chuckled. "I'm not antisocial. I'm just tired. It's been a long couple of days."
"Fair enough." She clinked their bottles together. "It was nice of you to let Munson stay here."
"To be fair, I'm pretty sure it was the only option. But I'll take all the glory, thank you." He chuckled when she rolled her eyes. "What's going on with you and Nancy, by the way? You guys are hanging out a lot."
Her cheeks flushed. "What? We're not - nothing is going on. We're cool - I mean, wait, what do you mean?"
Steve raised his eyebrows. "I just sort of meant… as friends, but now I'm deadly curious."
Robin groaned.
"Do you have a crush on Nancy?" He whispered, a shit eating grin on his face. She smacked his arm.
"Shush! Keep your voice down!"
"No way. I had no idea she was your type." He whispered.
"I'm going to kill you, Steve, I swear." Robin sighed. "It's just an innocent little crush, okay? That's it. Not like anything will come out of it."
"I wouldn't be so sure. She's pretty attached to the Olivia Newton John poster in her bedroom." He teased. "Plus, Nancy's always been cool about that kind of thing. I know if you just asked her, she wouldn't judge you."
Robin took his beer from him and drank from it, rolling her eyes. "Yeah, never gonna happen. The day I ask Nancy Wheeler out is the day you and Eddie Munson French kiss under the stars."
Steve laughed and stole the beer back. "Fine. Your secret is safe with me."
