brain is liquid because last two weeks of school. please enjoy this near plotless piece of fluff.
Steve waits to go to college until he really knows what he wants to do. Decides he wants to be a nurse. He would have gone off to school with Robin, but because he waited, she's already out and working. Eddie, however, has moved to Chicago and and when Steve applied to University of Illinois Chicago he got accepted. Not wanting to live in the dorms with a kid 6 years younger than him he asks Eddie, "Hey man, listen I got accepted to UIC... yeah! I'm happy about it! ... Nursing. You think I will? ... yeah. Listen, I know you and Greg kinda take up most of your apartment, but if I could just crash with... what?... He broke up with you? what kind of... shit, yeah, I'm sorry man... yeah... well, I was just wondering if I could crash at your place until I find my own? ... Really!? Awesome, Eddie, thank you!"
He moves in a week before his classes start and being around Eddie again shakes off all the dust from living in Hawkins for so long. Eddie is as loud and bright as he used to be. When school starts Steve gets overwhelmed, he's been out of academia for so long and he was never that good in the first place. But Eddie's there. "Don't worry about it Steve, I'll help you." "Ok, Mr. Third year senior." "Hey, it wasn't because I wasn't smart." Eddie replied pointing with a spatula.
Eddie was a help. He would study with Steve, make him food when he was buried by work, tell him to take breaks when it got a little too intense. And in return Steve got a part time job to help pay the rent, picked up the groceries on the way home from school, and listened to Eddie's demos when he finally deemed them good enough for others to hear. They formed a nice symbiotic relationship in their apartment biome.
So nice that Steve stopped looking for another apartment. So nice that neither of them had tried to date anyone in four months. So nice that one night Eddie looked over at Steve, head back on the couch, mouth open and snoring slightly because he fell asleep while they were watching TV, and Eddie just stared. Eddie's toes are tucked under Steve's thigh, warm and grounding and Eddie is suddenly struck by the fact that he loves Steve. Loves him so much it knocks the air out of him for a second.
He wants to tell Steve, wants to ask him out or make him a fancy dinner or curl up to Steve's side, but the timing sucks. Steve's in finals week and Eddie has never seen him so stressed. It's a miracle Eddie got him to sit down and not work for two second and on the third one Steve was lights out.
So Eddie waits, bides his time. It's the day of Steve's last final and he has a plan. "Are you going out with everyone after? Seems like the end of finals is something to drink about." Eddie asks as he's getting ready for work. "Ah... well some of them are, but I don't think I'm going. I don't think I've ever been this tired and I won't be able to keep up with them. Can't drink like I used to, and besides, I have an early shift tomorrow." Steve pops his head in the bathroom to look at Eddie in the mirror. "You gonna be home? Maybe we can just splurge and get takeout from the fancy Chinese place." "Yeah, sounds like a plan Stevie, I'll be here."
Eddie leaves work early that day. He's going to make dinner for Steve and rent his favorite movie and buy a tub of Steve's favorite ice cream because he deserves it. Eddie is proud of him for making it through his first semester. He wants Steve to know.
When Steve opens the apartment door and drops his bag against the wall he's overwhelmed by the smell of food cooking. The apartment is warm, the TV is on in the other room with a basket ball game playing, and he can hear Eddie in the kitchen. "Garlic... Where's the garlic powder..."
Steve stands in the doorway to the kitchen for a minute, watching Eddie go back and forth from the cabinet to the stove, the smell of fajitas (something that Eddie makes every once in a while that Steve absolutely loves) cooking, and he's overwhelmed by a feeling that he barely had any time to process in the last month... He loves Eddie.
"Steve!" Eddie finally turned enough to see him, "I didn't even hear you come in, how'd the final go?" He asks before turning back to the stove. "Went okay." Steve replied, pushing off the wall and coming up behind Eddie, throwing all caution to the wind and wrapping his arms around Eddie's middle, face pressing into Eddie's hair and the bend of his neck. "You're cooking for me?" He feels Eddie freeze for all of three seconds before he's turning in Steve's arms. "Proud of you." He says quietly, as he wraps his arms around Steve's neck, "Wanted to make you something nice." Steve smiles and meets Eddie half way, the kiss slow and sweet, like someone picked them up and dropped them into domesticity, until Eddie breaks away with a "I'm gonna burn the chicken."
Steve stays in the kitchen, stealing kisses and helping Eddie cook. They eat and wash the dishes together, Eddie kissing Steve on the back of the neck any time he goes to put a dish away. They curl up on the couch with Eddie leaning into Steve's side just like he wanted to the other night. And when they go to bed, Steve pulls Eddie into his room, Eddie's head on his chest as they fall asleep.
