(Beauty and the beast au steddie)
"Alright, everyone— gather up! No, wait— spread out, we need the space!"
Eddie stands in the center of the living room, with a crinkled box in hand. Everyone—Nancy included— is sitting in a circle around him, nervously waiting for Eddie to open the box.
The box contains many mysteries, untold to the audience— this is Steve's Box of Photos. Eddie feels a bit excited himself, as he eyes Steve awkwardly sitting in the corner of the room.
With a final look towards the crowd gathered around him, Eddie plops down too, examining the box. It's a fairly neat one, except for the crumpled corner that makes the box look like it's been thrown to the ground.
Eddie gulps, opening the box, and stares at the contents inside. He thought it'd be just a pile of pictures. Well, if photos are not plastered to walls or put inside albums, that's how they're kept, right? But it's not. They are wrapped in colored paper, with names written on. They look like—
"Alright, seems like a distribution is in need," Eddie announces. The kids look curious, trying to look inside. Eddie grabs a package, squinting at the name.
"Okay, the first is... 'Wheelers'?"
"That's us," Nancy quickly answers. And as Eddie hands her the photos, she notices the wrapping and asks, "Actually, do you mind opening them for us? I think it might be a bit hard to..."
"Of course. Uh, do you want me to spread them out, too?"
At the Wheelers' nods Eddie quickly starts spreading out the pictures, one by one. It's fun, getting a glimpse into their old lives. All the photos are of the siblings, depicting various moments of their happiness. As he lays down the last one, he turns to the box again and picks up another package.
"The next is- may I present... 'Henderson.' I know that's you, Dustin."
"They seem very organized," Eddie comments.
He has now moved away from the center of the living room to the corner of it, leaving the others to reminisce. He tilts his head towards Steve, who's sitting next to him.
"Mm-hm," Steve hums an affirmation.
"Like they're supposed to be shown to others."
Eddie gently hums in return, encouraging Steve to continue.
"They were supposed to be a gift, I guess. Before... before everything happened, I planned to give them out. Little memoirs, you know? 'Cause I was graduating and thought it'd be great for the party. But then, yeah, it happened and I never got around to it."
"Can I ask you about the damaged box?"
Steve hesitates at his question, picking at the floor a bit.
"I think I was angry," he starts. "Right after everything happened, I was angry that it had happened to me and angry that nothing was going to be the same. I stayed like that for a while, and I still had problems adjusting to this... form when I bumped into the box while trying to move. It pissed me off, I guess, being reminded of before. So I just threw it into the basement. Not the smartest choice— I didn't know the kids might have missed having pictures."
"Well, they were your gifts to give out. And sometimes a little suspension is needed for the element of surprise," Eddie mentions.
Steve just huffs, muttering, "Some suspension it was, going on for more than two decades."
Eddie shrugs, and suddenly a thought comes to him.
"Is that why you don't have a packet? 'Cause they're gifts for others?"
"You know, your pack of photos. I didn't see one in there."
"Oh, yeah. I mean, there's no need to wrap it up if I just have them in the house, right?"
"So... do you have them? In the house?"
Eddie doesn't know why he is so curious about the photos. But the blurred figure he saw in the picture of the fair doesn't leave his thoughts— he wants to see Steve clearly.
Steve takes a moment to ponder, rubbing his neck with his claws.
"Uh... I'm not sure? I don't remember what I did with them, or where I put them. They're probably somewhere."
Eddie tries not to let his disappointment show — why is he even disappointed? — and just answers with a "Oh."
It's late at night, when Eddie hears a noise from the door.
"Hey, Eddie, Eddie? I'm coming in–, can I come in?"
The voice is muffled, so it takes a moment to realize that it's Robin's. And as soon as he hears her, the door opens by its own and reveals the crow sitting on the door handle, with something in her beak.
"I'm glad you invited yourself in, Rob. What's the hurry?"
Robin is not even affected by the tone of his annoyed voice—he was getting ready for sleep, you know— and just hops over to the bed. She sets the piece she had in her beak down in front of him, and Eddie sees that it's a photo, one of Robin's.
"Well, you helped us a lot today, and we all got gifts but you didn't— So it's a gift. Wait, maybe it's not a permanent gift. More like a rental gift, for only a while, because I do like that picture. But yeah, I thought you might want to see this one. I'm lending this photo to you for a few days."
"...A photo rental for a gift," Eddie questions, trying to figure out what it is that Robin's doing. Robin doesn't even catch his suspicion and just answers smugly with a "Yup."
"Tell me why I would want to see this photo?"
The photo is one of the pictures that Eddie had passed by earlier, of Robin and two other people who are probably her friends. Robin and the girl on her left are wearing some sort of band uniforms with instruments in their hands, and the boy on her right is wearing a basketball uniform. They're all grinning widely at the camera, clearly excited.
"Oh, I don't know," and Eddie can hear the sparkle in her voice as she continues, "This one was actually the first photo taken with Steve's new camera. He brought it to school because we had band practice and basketball practice nearby each other, and he wanted to show it to me first.
"He offered to take my photo first, with Vickie because— well, that's a story for another time. So, anyway, he had us in front of the camera but then Scott came and offered to take all of us so that Steve could be in the first photo, too. And this was it."
Eddie isn't sure he heard the last part of Robin's rambling. He's trying to look engaged in her story, but it feels like all his senses are directed towards the laid down photo.
The photo, which apparently has Steve in it. He curses himself for not having paid enough attention to the pictures earlier because, how did he miss it? Of course there'd be Steve in Robin's pictures. They're together almost all the time.
He's so engrossed in trying (and failing) to sneak a look at the photo without Robin noticing that he almost misses her starting to leave. She's at the door, glancing back at Eddie before muttering out something that definitely sounds like "another dingus." Eddie just mindlessly nods her a goodbye, now not even trying to hide his inattention.
As soon as Robin is out of his sight, Eddie delves into the photo.
The first thing he notices is the moles scattered along his cheeks like constellations, noticeable even with the low resolution. Second is his hair, because— yeah, Eddie can definitely see Steve giving Dustin his hairspray. It's set perfectly even after having run around the court, and Eddie chuckles at that part.
Then, he is drawn into Steve's wide smile. Eddie stares for a moment, taking in the curve of his lips and all. Steve looks so carefree, with his arm slung around Robin. Carefree like any other teenager who is excited about his new camera.
And Eddie wishes he could have seen that smile for real.
