“Is he whining about Eddie being mean to him again?” Robin is leaning in the doorway, eating a leftover slice that’s probably cold by now. “You talk about him more than you talk about girls, Steve, it’s getting concerning. Anyone would think you had a crush.”

or, steve is pretty convinced eddie now hates him. turns out eddie has the opposite problem.

“Hold on,” Robin interrupts. “Hold on, is this— are you, like. Do you know what masochism is?”

“I know I act like it sometimes, Robin, but I’m not actually fucking twelve,” Steve says.

OR: Eddie has a black hanky in his back pocket.

Eddie won’t stop touching anyone and everyone, except for Steve. He has a plan to change that.

“You can touch me.” That was not how Steve intended for it to come out. He opened his mouth and closed it a few times.

Eddie had frozen with his fingers halfway to his mouth. Smoke curled from his cigarette between them. He raised his eyebrows, then frowned, then bit his lip.

“I can-” Eddie said slowly, his face still rolling through several emotions without landing on one- “touch you?”

Eddie Munson doesn’t mind working at the Family Video Store. It’s a nice sense of normalcy (not to mention money) and he gets to see Robin more because of it. However, between working together and sharing the same best friend, he’s also been seeing a lot more of Steve Harrington.

He wants nothing more than to enjoy mindless fun with his friends now that everything with Vecna is over, but Eddie’s finding it hard to move on from what happened. Even if the strangest thing in his life right now was simply the fact he and Steve Harrington might actually be friends.

Vecna is dead. It’s the summer after the party’s freshman year. Steve Harrington spends it in the Family Video Store, and Eddie Munson is spending post-graduate life bothering him. And maybe Steve isn’t as bothered as he used to be.

In the dark space of the boat house, dust motes twirling around her, she asked time a question. And time said yes.

Or: Steve Harrington is given a chance to save Eddie months before all the shit with Vecna goes down.

“You know,” Robin tells Mike, her voice low and calm and soothing. “You can like both girls and boys.”

Steve jerks in his seat like someone slapped him.

“What!?” he splutters, and it comes out as something halfway between a yelp and a squawk.

Dustin’s concerned Steve’s going to die alone. Steve’s concerned Dustin won’t ever understand the concept of boundaries.

Or: Dustin attempts to save Steve’s love-life.

“Your heart’s racing,” Steve noted, quietly.

Eddie laughed. It was more of a shaky exhale, lashes fluttering as he struggled to keep his composure. “Stevie,” he whispered, fingers cradling Steve’s side like he was precious. “Yeah, no fucking shit.”

OR: Ma Henderson & Wayne Munson get cosy, Dustin makes an off-hand remark, and Steve spirals. It works out in the end.

“Just relax.” Eddie runs his fingers through Steve’s hair and okay, that actually feels kind of nice. “This is happening, so you might as well enjoy it.”

Robin laughs. “You’re gonna look so pretty, Steve.”

“I’m gonna kill all of you,” Steve mutters but he sits still and lets Eddie muss up his hair probably beyond all recognition. “Seriously, none of this better leave this room.”

Even though Eddie’s name has been cleared legally, he’s still very much on trial in the court of public opinion. Dealing drugs isn’t a lucrative occupation anymore, and getting a legitimate job in a town who still considers him a killer isn’t much of an option, either. Eddie is beginning to think skipping town and starting over somewhere no one knows his name is the only chance he has left. Steve has another idea.

AKA: Steve gets Eddie a job as an anonymous columnist at a local newspaper.

It’s been six years since Eddie died. Steve manages a sporting goods store at the mall, and everyone else has moved on and left town. He’s twenty-five and he’s tired and alone.

But the Upside Down is shut away and he’s alive and that’s what really matters.

Until Eleven calls and says she feels something. Something in Hawkins.

And then Something shows up in Steve’s living room and flashes sharp teeth.

Steve shows up to play DnD.

Eddie decides Steve can stay. IF ‘King Steve’ recognizes the real lord and master of Hellfire.

Every date Steve has gone to lately has been horrible. It’s impossible that there’s something wrong with the entire female population of Hawkins, so surely there must be something wrong with him.

“Why don’t you take me on a date then?”

“Wh— what?”

“Take me on a date, pretend, of course, and then I’ll tell you if there’s something wrong with you or not.”

Or: Eddie proposes a crazy idea to see if there’s something wrong with him, Steve finds the fact that it works is even crazier.

It’s not even the nightmares most of the time. At this point, Steve would totally settle for some up close and personal time in his brainpan with the Upside Down if it meant he could actually fucking sleep.

‘Please?’

Eddie stops him again, this time by holding his face. Steve feels Eddie’s thumb moving over his cheek, he feels the cool metal of his rings. He feels everything except what he needs.

‘I’ve never loved anything the way I love you, Steve Harrington,’ Eddie says, dark brown eyes moving between Steve’s own. ‘This isn’t the moment, sweetheart.’

It’s not a rejection, but it’s not a kiss. Steve quietly cries, insides cut up on the broken shards of his stupid little heart and Eddie holds him, he holds him all night until they fall asleep together.

It all starts with Steve finding Eddie Munson in Alison Brown’s bathtub. Or, how one night leads to a conversation, leads to shotgunning, leads to confessions, leads to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Steve’s just along for the ride.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Steve leans over and snags the flannel Eddie had been wearing out from behind him, shrugging it on quickly before Eddie realizes what he’s doing.

Annoyingly enough, it takes several minutes for Eddie to notice.

“No, not the flannel,” Eddie warns when he finally glances over, closing his notebook slowly and putting it to the side. “You’re holding half my wardrobe hostage already!”

Steve snickers, standing up and backing away a few feet.

“I guess you’re just going to have to come get it, then.”

(Or: 5 times Steve steals Eddie’s clothes, and one time Eddie returns the favor.)

“It looks good.” Steve takes in the fine black lines, notes how the skin is raised and red. Figures it must be new. “When did you get it?”

“Oh, I did it last night.”

Steve looks back up to Eddie in surprise. “You did it? Like to yourself?”

He laughs, tosses his empty into the sink. “Hell yeah. Why not?”

Steve drains his own and leans back. “I could never.”

“I could ink you up.” Eddie looks at him like he’s assessing, eyes trailing from fingertips back up to shoulders and then up to his eyes. “Would be a good look for you.”

(Eddie does his own tattoos. Steve would look hot with some ink.)

Soul flowers aren’t a ticket to true love, he knows that well enough, but they do mean importance, significance, permanence. And so far no one has ever loved Steve significantly or permanently enough to leave some. Maybe that means he’s broken. Maybe that’s why he can’t leave any for her.

So Steve lets Jonathan take Nancy home that night, and tries not to feel too bitter about the matching bracelet of roses on Jonathan’s hand.