a/n: Any typos or weirdness, kindly forgive. I forgot about stuff I had agreed to do and I kind of ran out of time before having to post this. Also, be gentle with me over the scene below. You'll know which one. It's my first go of writing anything like it and I hope I did okay at least.

CHAPTER SEVEN

JUST WHAT I NEEDED

Steve sighed as he fell into the seat. It had been way too long since he and Robin had hung out. Just them. He missed their movie nights where they would just sit together watching horrible films, berating the actors or the plot. He leaned against her side with a smile.

"We need to start doing this more often. How many new releases have we missed?"

"We really do. God, probably a dozen or more!" Robin laughed, flicking a piece of popcorn at him. She wasn't used to him so happy any more. It was almost the way he was back when she'd seen him in class…when he was with Nancy. She narrowed her eyes at him. He wouldn't keep something like that from her. Would he? If Robin didn't know any better she'd think he had a girlfriend. She'd know if he had one. He couldn't keep that a secret from her if he'd tried. Right? "Hey, Dingus?"

He glanced up from picking the popcorn out of his shirt, "What?"

"Is there anything you want to tell me?"

"Um. You have mustard stains on your shirt?" He tilted his head curiously. There wasn't anything particularly on his mind that he could think of to want to tell her. "Why?"

"No reason." She went back to the movie. Maybe he would tell her later. She was sure he was still single. Maybe he'd just become more comfortable with it. Robin was definitely wary of him now. This mood change wasn't like him. "No wait, definitely a reason. You're acting like you got a girlfriend."

Steve turned to her, popcorn half up to his mouth. He squinted, not sure how he should answer it. Technically he didn't have a girlfriend. He also knew Eddie wouldn't want him to tell Robin without him there. Steve didn't think he was acting all that differently from normal. It was the same as he always was. He thought she must have been losing her mind.

"Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you have no idea what I'm talking about. You're not super depressed right now. Like, you used to be all mopey. Just sighing and not even wanting to watch movies with me. You were like a whole different person and I didn't like it." She shook her head at him. "It wasn't like you at all."

He rolled his eyes, "I wasn't that bad and you know it."

"Yes, you were."

"No."

"Yes."

"Tell me one thing."

"Movie night. You kept turning down movie night because you just didn't feel like it. I thought we were going to have to call someone to get you some kind of help." Robin nudged her best friend. They had talked about it for a few days, wondering if someone had to actually do something. Steve had been staying in more often than not and it was worrying them all. "You only started coming back out again and seemed to get happier in the last like two weeks. What happened?"

"Nothing happened. I promise, Robs, you're making a big deal out of nothing. I hit a rough patch, but I'm okay now."

She narrowed her eyes at him, not believing, "Answer me honestly Stephen Andrew."

"What, Robin Marie?"

"Do you or do you not have a girlfriend?"

He sighed, pausing the movie and turning to her and taking her hand and sighing. I do have a partner."

Robin's eyes widened. She wasn't expecting him to actually have someone. He hadn't gone out looking in so long that they thought he'd stopped even bothering. She grabbed his hand, eyes wide, mouth open to start asking thousands of questions. Too many of them came to her mind at once and locked it up. She wanted to know all of the details. She had no idea how to politely ask him though.

"What. What's on your mind? Just ask."

"Who is your partner?"

"I can't tell you." He held up his hand to stop her. "It's not because I don't want to. Believe me, I do. My partner, however, asked that we don't talk about our relationship just between us for now. It sucks for all of the people that I would love to tell. I just can't yet."

"Oh." She nodded. Something stuck in her mind. Steve hadn't said girlfriend. Steve had said partner. She had a good idea now why they wanted to keep it a secret from the others. It made a lot of sense now. She leaned against his side, ready to support him until they were ready to come out.

Steve paced around the living room. He and Eddie were going out again. This would be their…third, he thought, date since going up to Cortland together. Eddie wanted to go back to the Diner. He wanted to try that burger Eddie had had. It looked good. He couldn't believe that he was going on what amounted to a third date. He was so focused on what was going on around him that he nearly missed Eddie coming down the stairs.

"Ready?"

He looked up, poised to answer, and all thought fled his mind. Eddie was dressed in his normal enough metalhead clothes, but his jeans were tighter than usual. Steve had to focus very hard to not just stare directly at his crotch. How could anyone who looked like that not have people falling over themselves to get with them? He didn't understand. He swallowed thickly, trying to get enough saliva into his mouth that he could even reply at all.

"You okay, Steve? Cat got your tongue?"

"Something does…." Billy leaned over the railing from the doorway. "Come on, just rip his pants off right here. For all the looks you're giving him. Jeez. I've seen fewer sparks coming from two teenagers going at it in the park."

"Oh shut up. You have no idea what you're talking about."

"Like I'm not supposed to know what a horny dude looks like? Oh Princess, sometimes I am a horny dude. Not sure if you forgot that. Now take your idiot out of here so I can stop listening to him talk about the damn diner."

Steve would have said something else. A snarky response to being called princess, which Billy knew he hated, except Eddie pulled him from the house. He didn't give Steve the chance to say a word.

"A fight between you two right now is the last thing we need."

"Come off it." Steve adjusted his shirt. "You know how much I can't stand when he calls me that. I swear he does it just to piss me off."

Eddie rolled his eyes, "Of course he does! Why do you think he says that shit? It's because he knows how you're going to react and you just feed right into it."

Steve knew that. He couldn't help rising to the bait, though. He sulked in the passenger seat of the car. Eddie was taking a turn to drive them out. No one recognized them in Cortland. As long as he didn't break any laws too bad, they would be fine. No one would be the wiser. He glanced out the window, watching the trees zip by.

"Am I going too fast?"

"I don't even know how fast you're going." Steve glanced over at the speedometer. "No. If anything you're going too slow. We're in the sixty-five and you're only doing sixty."

"Kay." Eddie focused on the road, taking them up toward Cortland and the diner. He flipped the radio on, singing along with the songs he knew. He was still surprised about Steve having tapes for the metal bands in the car. It was weird to think about. Steve's vibe wasn't exactly heavy metal. He was more pop.

He turned them into the parking lot. It wasn't nearly as busy there today as it had been the first time they were there. It was also a random Tuesday afternoon. He found a spot right outside the door and put the car into park. Eddie grinned at his boyfriend.

"Ready?"

"Yeah. Let's go get those burgers."

"Fuck yeah!"

Steve laughed, following him in and sitting in the same booth as before. This time they both ordered the French Onion Burger. He couldn't wait. He was actually enjoying himself this time. Much more than normal. He was tempted to reach across the table and hold Eddie's hand. Steve wished they could be open about their relationship. He wasn't used to hiding it. Maybe one day in the future it wouldn't matter, if they were still together. They could be as open as they wanted and no one could do anything about it.

Eddie had paid for their meal and drove them home in near silence. It drove Steve mad. He didn't know what was on the metalhead's mind and he was not used to Eddie being so damned quiet. They had pulled into the garage before it was finally too much and he had to know.

"What is going on?"

"Huh?" Eddie turned, keys still held in his hand. "What're you talking about?"

"You!"

"Me?"

"You've been quiet the whole way back home, Eds. What's got you so silent?" Steve gave Eddie the best puppy dog eyes he could. He wasn't upset or anything. He was worried about his boyfriend. It was not like him to be so quiet.

Eddie smiled. He pulled his hand up Steve's arm, watching the goose bumps rise after his fingers, "I was thinking about going up to our room."

"Why would you go up there?"

"No…not just me. Us." He twirled his hair in front of his face. Eddie couldn't believe Steve didn't understand. What else would he be talking about? "Me and you? Up in our room? Where our bed is?"

"I don't…."

"Of course you don't." Eddie pinched his brows. "I'm trying to ask you to sleep with me."

"You want to take a nap?"

"No…." He didn't know how he could get his point across without outright saying it. Eddie realized there wasn't a way. He'd tried to be coy about it, but that just wouldn't work with someone as direct as Harrington. Sometimes you just had to be blunt. "Sex. Steve. I want us to have sex."

Steve's eyes widened almost comically. Heat crawled up his cheeks as he took a half-step backwards. He'd never done that with a guy before. He'd barely done so with girls. Steve had a hard time even imagining what sex between guys would look like. Who put what where? Was there stuff he was supposed to just know? It was all very new to him and absolutely terrifying. He was embarrassed to ask or to tell Eddie that he didn't know what to do. He was afraid Eddie would think less of him.

"Okay. Um. Wait." Eddie thought about it. "I keep forgetting that the great Steve Harrington has never been with a dude. You don't know the ins and…well…mostly it's ins. Why don't we start slow? Hmmm? Sound fair to you?"

"Yeah…" Steve let Eddie take his hand and lead him up the stairs. Since they'd started dating, Eddie had moved his things into the master bedroom where Steve had been sleeping. It made life easier to sleep together. They were already going back and forth to each others' rooms to stay the night, so it only made sense to just move them into the same room. He followed Eddie up the stairs and into their room, which now was taking on a whole new meaning in his head. Their room. It was odd for him to ever think of anyone else sleeping in his bed with him more than once. No one ever had that he could remember. At least not consecutively.

He watched in awe as Eddie started taking off his rings. He'd never seen the brunette without them.

"Makes it less likely I'll pinch someone by accident while we have a little fun."

"Oh. Okay." Steve didn't understand. What would Eddie be pinching? Especially by accident? There wasn't anything down there that would be…oh. Oh no. Eddie couldn't possibly mean pinching his…oh that wasn't right. Steve blinked a few times, processing what Eddie was telling him. "What…uh, are we going to do?"

"I'm gonna start with touches. You're not used to the touch of a dude, right?"

"Only if my own hand doesn't count?"

Eddie laughed, "No. It doesn't. It's a totally different sensation when its someone else's rough hands on you. You'll definitely notice the difference."

Steve nodded. He didn't know where Eddie wanted him to be. He'd let the older male take the lead and show him what to do. He tried to keep from smiling when he was led to the bed and made to lay down. He wanted this. So much more than he thought he would. He watched Eddie slowly peel out of his layers until he was standing there in all his scarred glory in just his boxers.

"Should I….?" He didn't even know what he was asking.

Eddie gave him a once over, "Yes. You should. Take it all off for me."

He nodded, getting up onto his knees and slowly taking off his shirt. He threw it onto the floor somewhere. Steve's gaze was stuck on his Eddie. He didn't want to look anywhere else. Almost couldn't. It was like there was some kind of spell keeping their eyes connected. He fumbled through undoing his belt, kicking his shoes off at the same time. He slid everything down at once. Steve resisted the urge to cover himself up. He was already half hard, just watching the way Eddie moved. It was absolutely mesmerizing.

"Eddie…."

"I know, baby…." Eddie crawled up onto the bed, penning Steve in on either side. He was proud of the brunette for not immediately taking off. He traced a soft pattern over Steve's hip. He wanted to touch, but he didn't know how far Steve was comfortable. He'd settle for naked cuddles if that was all he could get.

Steve had other plans. He shifted his hips to the side, looking for the hand that was driving him nuts with the ticklish spirals. He wanted to feel it on him. Around him. Anything. He didn't even know what anything would be.

"Eddie. Please."

"Please what?" He paused, halfway down Steve's body, leaving a trail of wet kisses. He stroked the skin along Steve's thigh. "What do you want, pretty baby?"

He pushed his hips toward Eddie instinctively. Steve didn't have the words.

"Hmmmm I think I have a good idea of what you want. You've never done anything with a dude, yeah? Not even experimenting? Let me show you how it feels to get a blow from a cocksucker like me."

"Stop talking. God. Fuck. Eddie." He groaned. That asshole was dragging it out and he knew it. He had nearly missed the devious fingers wrapping around his shaft, stroking him the rest of the way hard. Steve was quickly losing his ability to even form coherent sentences and he wanted to be all the way aware of what Eddie was about to do.

The older brunette grinned, sliding the rest of the way down. He pressed a light kiss to the head. He pressed his tongue flat against the skin, taking his time to register how Steve tasted. Eddie moaned lightly. He pressed the flat of his tongue down the length from tip to root then back again. He loved the way he felt Steve shudder under him. He pulled the head into his mouth, swirling his tongue around it.

"Is that….Eddie….what?" Steve had felt something hard against his skin, where nothing like that should have been. It sent shivers up his spine.

"Oh, this?" Eddie pulled back with a light pop. He stuck out his tongue to reveal a silver ball. He'd forgotten to tell Steve that he'd pierced his tongue and that he might feel something unusual. He watched with pride as Steve's pupils completely swallowed the irises. He liked it? Eddie swiped his tongue along the shaft again, careful to have the silver pressing into it. His gaze never left Steve's.

"Nnnn….don't stop…."

Eddie wasn't planning on it now. He pulled the shaft into his mouth once more. He bobbed his head, pretending he couldn't feel Steve's fingers in his hair, gripping it to keep him from moving. He knew Steve wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. Just the way Steve was shaking from the effort of keeping himself from bucking up. He swallowed around Steve, encouraging movement.

"Fuck, Eddie…" Steve managed two awkward thrusts before his orgasm washed over him. He didn't even have time to warn Eddie. Steve lay back, panting. He'd never experienced one quite so fast before. It took him several seconds before he could form a proper second. "Does it…does it always happen that fast?"

Eddie swallowed as much as he could, sliding back up to kiss Steve, "Heh, no."

"Oh." He blinked. "What about you?"

"I'll be okay. We're gonna take this nice and slow. For now, the focus is on you." He traced spirals all over Steve's skin, humming to himself. He lay his head down right next to the younger brunette's. He was content to let his own erection fade on its own. He closed his eyes, half asleep. They stayed curled up together for the rest of the night.

Steve stared at the road ahead as he drove toward the Hopper-Byers residence. Jim and Joyce had finally just admitted what everyone else knew. They were an item. Once the Byers had officially moved back to Hawkins, they had all just gone together into one place. It was better for Jane. He was pretty much on autopilot at that point. Not thinking as he drove. It was better if he didn't, he'd likely crash if he thought about it for more than a minute or two.

Could he do this?

Could he actually be a police officer?

Even for a town as small as Hawkins, he didn't know if he had the ability. He'd talked to the rest of the Troop about it, and they were all on board. Steve just still didn't know for himself. He didn't want to let them down again. Like he'd done so many times in the past. Being responsible for the safety of six teenagers and Eddie had almost been too much. He had no idea how he'd done it. His father had always told him he'd never amount to much, and he'd believed it.

"Steve?" Joyce saw his BMW sitting out in front of the house and came out to see if he was okay. She was worried. He'd been sitting there for twenty minutes, easily. She tapped on the window to get his attention. "Are you okay, honey?"

He jolted, turning to her. He'd been so lost in his own thoughts he'd never even seen her. Steve got out of the car and stuffed his hands into his pockets. He didn't know where else to turn.

"Is Hop home?"

"Yeah. Of course, come on in. Let me get you something to drink. I'll send one of the boys up to get Jim."

"Thanks." He followed her into the house. It was different from the last one they'd lived in. A two-story this time, with space for the five of them. Steve followed her through a hall with pictures of them all at various points, even one of what he assumed was a young Jonathon, all over the walls. He sat in the dining room. Steve put his head in his hands.

"Hey, Will, can you go upstairs and get Jim for me?" Joyce patted her son on his shoulder as she passed. She poured a glass of Kool-Aid from the pitcher in her fridge and brought it over. "I'm afraid it's this or disgusting tap water."

"This is fine."

"Jim should be down soon. Can I get you anything else?" She was very worried.

Steve shook his head, "No. Thanks. This is fine."

She left him to wait for Jim. Joyce wondered if it were about whatever it was that Steve had visited him over at the station for. They had talked about it, but Jim hadn't said much more than Steve had come to see him. She worried for them both. After everything that happened with Jane, and Brenner, and all of that. She wanted to help them all.

Jim passed her in the living room, nodding. He had a feeling he knew what it was Steve wanted to talk about. It had been weighing on his mind, too. He got a beer from the fridge and sat opposite the young man. He waited to see if Steve would start first. He figured he might.

"I…." He stared at Hopper, unsure where to start. "About the thing, you know."

"Mmm."

"Do you think I can even do this? I don't know. I feel like I'm not really going to be a good cop." Steve twisted the end of his shirt in his hands. He had been feeling terrible about it for the better part of a week. He knew he could apply for the position, and that he'd probably get it. That didn't help the panic that surged every time he thought about it. Steve looked up at the older man. He needed some kind of guidance.

"What makes you think you can't do it?"

"I don't know."

"You scared that you don't got the spirit or something? Trust me, you have it. In spades. You're braver than half the people currently on the force. You and the kids, both. I've never seen anyone more courageous who wasn't in a movie. Not one. So don't you dare tell me that you aren't able to be the best damn police officer Hawkins has ever seen. I'll drive you to Plainfield right now myself if I thought that would make it clearer."

"Hop…"

"No. Don't you 'Hop' me. You are good enough, Steve. You deserve this."

Steve really could only hope that Hopper was right. He stared at his hands for a while longer, trying to find the words to even thank the chief for giving him this chance. For supporting him when his own parents hadn't. He sighed.

"What now?"

"Nothing. Just realizing you've been a better father to me than my own. I don't think I've seen the bastard since 1983. He left when Will went missing and hasn't been back since." Steve shrugged. He wasn't used to being vocal about it. "Anyway. I think that talk just now actually helped out a lot. I'm going to go make the appointment or whatever it is I need to do for the testing? That you told me about."

Jim nodded, "The physical test is usually first. They won't waste effort on someone to get a psych done and start training unless they can pass the physical. Which I'm sure you could do in your sleep."

"Yeah." Steve felt the flush crawl up his neck. He'd gotten a lot stronger since the start of this whole thing. ""When can we go for the physical? I wanna get it over with."

"Come back in like two days. I'll make the calls and get you in." Hop pat his back.

Steve nodded. He left, feeling like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Something that had been bothering him. He liked his job at the video place in Rockford as much as anyone who'd spent as long as he had in the industry could. Which was to say not at all. He was looking forward to doing literally anything else. He waved his goodbyes to the others as he left.