When they woke up the next morning, both were a little bit more calm about the situation, though this time they were both fully clothed and had been sober the night before and had actually intended to end up in bed together, at least to some degree. After falling asleep, they had both stayed asleep, and nothing more had happened between them, but Walter seemed more comfortable with that.

He was still a bit on edge, but that was understandable, given how new he was to all of this. Eddie certainly couldn't blame him, not when he was the one leading and he didn't have much experience himself. Well, no experience that would be very helpful in this situation.

They went to a small diner for breakfast, because Eddie barely cooked for himself and didn't feel like subjecting Walter to that just yet, but they didn't discuss what was happening between them. He wanted to ask, but he didn't want to ask; he felt like a teenager, afraid of what the answer might be, and he wondered why the hell Walter was the one to get such a reaction out of him.

But when breakfast was over, he knew that it was time for Walter to leave, and he knew that that meant it was time to ask to see him again. Still, he did not want to invite rejection like that, and all he could bring himself to say was, "So, I'll see ya at the club on Thursday, right?"

"Maybe before that," said Walter, looking down. "If that's alright."

Once again, he felt like a teenager, much too excited by the prospect of getting to see him sooner. Funny how it had all changed so fast, how they had barely been friends and then they had suddenly been a lot more. He hadn't expected to catch himself crazy about anyone, but here he was.

"If ya want to," he replied, much more casually than he felt. "I mostly got work in the mornings, so any evening this week would work."

"Tomorrow?"

Damn, he was more eager than he let on! For someone who seemed as much like a loner as he did, he seemed to want to spend as much time with Eddie as possible, and they had only just begun to explore the possibility of a relationship. Whatever they were, it was clear that it was something serious, even if neither had yet found the words to express what they wanted.

He wondered how Dan and Laurie were going to react when they found out what had happened in their absence.

~X~

And that, in itself, was an issue Eddie hadn't considered before. He had went his whole life believing himself to only be attracted to women; he was only just revealing to himself that that was not true and he wasn't sure how he would feel letting other people know about that.

It wasn't even that he was afraid to be open about the relationship. He had never given much of a fuck what strangers thought about him, and had always done his own thing, and, even though it was not something he had ever seen himself doing, if anyone had a problem with it, he wouldn't care.

But then there was Laurie, and he knew that he shouldn't care about her opinion, all things considered, but he did. Even knowing that she probably wouldn't judgmental about such things and that she would hate him no matter what he did and that she didn't even know he was her father, he still couldn't help thinking about it like that. He could only think about it from the perspective of a daughter finding out about their father, even knowing that that didn't apply to her.

When he really thought about it, he shouldn't have anything to worry about, at least not in the people around him. Neither Laurie nor Dan seemed the type to judge, and it wasn't anyone's business what Eddie did or who he did it with, so his fear was completely unfounded. But that didn't change the fact that there was a bit of uneasiness involved, and he was sure that was just because of how things had been in the past, and that he wasn't even sure how he felt about himself now.

There was doubt that he didn't know how to deal with. He had never done anything even remotely like this before, and it had all come on so suddenly that he couldn't deny that he feared it wasn't real. Even knowing that it felt more real than anything he had felt in a while, he had his doubts because he couldn't explain it or where it had come from, and he was not the sort to not understand things.

After all, hadn't he thought about that when this had first started? All the times he had watched what was going on with everyone else and had been in the know about it all, but that there had been something going on within him that he hadn't known and that he couldn't understand. It was only natural that now he would have doubts, and that those doubts would make him wary about making this public.

It was too much for him to think about at once, and too much for him to allow himself to get stressed over. The best response to those sorts of situations was to throw caution to the wind, in his opinion, and he had no intention of slowing things down with Walter to consider this anyway. If any doubt came up along the way, he would just have to face it then, and deal with it however he could.

And whatever happened would happen, but that was down the road. For now, he had something that was good, no matter how difficult it was to explain, and he hadn't been close to anyone in a very long time. It would be nice to not have to be alone, and though it would take some learning and getting used to, Walter seemed to need just as much, if not more, learning and adjustment. They were a good fit, in that way.

They were a good fit in a lot of ways, even if it didn't look that way on the surface. Even if some of their conversations looked one sided, or Walter seemed less enthused than Eddie or Eddie seemed to not notice if Walter was uncomfortable, that didn't mean that was the case. In realty, he just liked to talk and Walter liked to listen, and he could usually tell when the younger man was off and could usually steer the conversation in a better direction. He hadn't ever met someone who liked to listen to him like that, or got his sense of humor like that, and that was something.

So no matter how unsure he was and no matter how doubt might creep up when he let his guard down, Eddie handled things the way he best knew how, and just kept on not caring what problems might arise. He and Walter ended up doing something every evening that both of them were free, and when Thursday rolled around, he arrived alongside Dan and Laurie. They were hand in hand, and though Laurie still gave him the same old glare, she still seemed just as happy as she had been since she and Dan had first gotten together. Eddie knew it would take time, but someday, Laurie might manage to come around.

Everything about them was so normal that he knew that Walter hadn't told them yet. He couldn't blame he; it wasn't like he had any idea how to tell them either. In fact, there didn't really seem to be any way to do it that didn't feel off, and so, when they came up to say hello to them, he just put an arm around Walter like it was something he did every night.

And, as expected, the two looked at them, barely managing to mask their confusion, and Dan stammered out something, trying to start a conversation to hide just how surprised he was. Laurie did a worse job of hiding it, openly gawking at them, and if Dan hadn't been talking, Eddie was sure that she would have asked. But then it was time for his routine, and if his jokes were a little more light-hearted this week, or if there were more romantic undertones to them, he would never admit that that was intentional.

Once he had gone to their usual table, Dan and Laurie both watched him, waiting to see what would happen. Eddie just sat down next to Walter and threw his arm around him like before, while the younger man blushed and looked down and said nothing. For once, Laurie wasn't glaring, too shocked by this turn of events to remember that she hated him, and it was a small start to improving their relationship, but he would take whatever he could get.

"So, how was this week?" he asked, because no one seemed ready to say anything this time.

"It was, uh, it was great like always," Dan said. "You, uh...had some really different material, though. Is there a, um, reason for that?"

"What the hell's going on?" asked Laurie, much less subtle.

"Oh, guess I'm just in a good mood this week," he replied vaguely. "Probably won't be changin' up my material like that anymore, but I had a good reason this time."

They never outright asked if he and Walter were a couple, which Eddie appreciated, considering the fact that they had never addressed it themselves, but as things continued in much the same way over the course of the next few weeks, it became obvious to the for of them that, yes, they were.

Eddie couldn't help but admit to himself that it was hilarious, the way he floundered in this relationship and the way he had managed to surprise himself and the way no one had had to say anything but everyone had known. Maybe there was a joke in there somewhere and maybe he'd make a routine of it. He just wondered if he'd have to give credit to them during his performance, given how much assistance he'd had from the three of them.