Steve needs an excuse to hang out with Eddie so Dustin will stop nagging him about “giving Eddie a chance.” He thinks fast and asks Eddie to teach him guitar, playing dumb about the whole thing. The thing is Steve’s uncle taught him years ago and he actually knows basic chords and can keep a rhythm.
Eddie’s a jerk about it at first. He rolls his eyes and calls Steve a “hopeless prep,” and mutters that this is going be a waste of time. He’s convinced Steve has no ear for music and basically no hope. But he agrees.
Steve soaks up every second. He “messes up” on purpose just to have Eddie lean in and grab his hands to fix the finger placement and grumble “no, like this, Harrington.” Their knees bump the whole time on Eddie’s couch and Steve realizes he’s not just doing this for Dustin anymore. He likes Eddie he likes the ranting, the focused face he makes when he plays, the way his trailer feels safer than Steve’s own house.
Eddie eventually catches on that Steve’s not as clueless as he acts, but by then he’s already let his guard down. And Steve already in way too deep because he started this wanting a friend for Dustin and ended up wanting Eddie for himself.
Eddie has been a wreck with overthinking so much lately he’s convinced Steve will leave him. And one day as he lays his head on Steve’s chest his voice cracks. “Sometimes I wish I’d been born a girl. So I could give you the family you want. I love you that much. And I’m scared you’ll leave, because I’ve never he bites his lip to try to stop him self from crying then continues I’ve never felt like this. You could be with anyone.”
And Steve just goes still for a second . Then he cups Eddie’s face, thumb swiping under his eye and his voice goes low. Almost angry, but not at Eddie.
“Don’t do that. Don’t act like you’re something I have to settle for.” He presses their foreheads together. “You’re what I chose, Eddie. You.”
They’re in Steve’s parents’ bathroom. It’s the only room with good light, and now there’s blood on the bathroom tile and Both of them are banged up, but Steve insisted on Eddie first. Steve has Eddie perched on the edge of the tub with the first aid kit open on the sink. His hands are way steadier than they should be for a guy who almost watched Eddie almost got killed.
Eddie hisses when the antiseptic hits the gash on his forearm. “Jesus— ow, ow, nurse Harrington, careful—”
“Quit squirming or I’ll make it worse,” Steve mutters but he’s already easing up and blowing on the cut like that’ll actually help. Somehow for Eddie it does. Eddie watches him work. Steve’s brow is furrowed, lip caught between his teeth in concentration. There’s a bruise blooming on Steve’s own jaw that he’s completely ignoring.
Steve shifts to check Eddie’s ribs and fingers ghosting over a nasty purple splotch. He lingers and Eddie’s mouth runs before his brain can stop it “You gonna kiss it better, big boy?”
It’s meant as a joke. Deflection. His usual armor. But Steve doesn’t laugh. He doesn’t roll his eyes. He just looks up through his lashes, and his voice goes quiet.
“Would that help?”
Eddie’s brain short circuits right there All the smartass replies die in his throat.
“Steve—”
Steve’s thumb brushes the unbruised skin just beside the bruise, careful as ever . “‘Cause I would. If you asked me too.”
The bathroom’s too small. The air’s too thick. Eddie realizes Steve’s hands are shaking now too, and it’s not from adrenaline from the fight earrlier.
When Eddie’s next Corroded Coffin gig comes up, Steve decides merch should be a priority. He drags Will into a late night screen printing session in the garage, determined to make shirts that don’t look like arts and crafts. Between ruined blanks and ink everywhere steve secretly adds a small “Property of Harrington” print on the back. Just big enough for Eddie to see.
At Show night, Steve shows up before they go on. “Got a surprise for you,” he says with a huge grin.
Eddie cups his face and kisses him. “What’s that, Stevie?”
And Steve beams and pulls the shirts out of the bag.
Eddie stares. “No way. Holy shit.”
“You like it? Now you’re a real band,” Steve says.
“I love it. Are you kidding me?” Eddie flips the shirt and reads the back. Property of Steve Harrington. He barks out a laugh and yanks Steve in by the collar, kissing him.
Steve kisses him back, smiling against his mouth. “So everyone knows.”
Eddie pulls away, eyes glinting. “Fair’s fair, Steve. If I’m branded, you’re getting branded too.”
Steve raises an eyebrow, already flustered. “Oh yeah?”
“Yeah,” Eddie says, dragging him toward the back table where there’s a sharpie. He pops the cap and scrawls across Steve’s chest, right over his heart Property of Eddie Munson.
“So now everyone knows you’re mine, baby.”
Steve looks down bright red then back at Eddie. “Always.”
Modern AU fic idea titled “I Want Your Video” where Eddie Munson deals with bullies who harass him, his friends, or his sheepies by seducing them, taking videos of the sex, and blackmailing them into fucking off. So far it has a hundred percent success rate.
Enter Steve Harrington. He’s the most popular guy in school. Girls love him, teachers love him. Eddie doesn’t think about him much at all beyond selling at the parties he throws in his big house (no parents). But Steve has been watching Eddie, curious and eventually knowing once Tommy starts suddenly leaving the freaks and nerds of Hawkins High alone. When it comes to Steve, Tommy has no poker face; they’ve known each other for too long, and vice versa.
“Don’t,” Tommy warns when he catches Steve eyeing Eddie in the hallway. “He’ll only—It’s not worth it, man.”
But Tommy’s worst fear is being outed, and Steve isn’t sure he cares. Not now that he’s noticed Eddie’s dimpled grin, or the way he talks faster and faster and with his hands when he’s excited about something. Do you know how long it’s been since Steve’s been around someone who let themselves get properly excited about anything beyond who’s dating who or what happened on the court? Which, fine, he gets into that stuff too, but that’s not all he wants to feel engaged in.
He starts getting Eddie’s attention with mild jabs in the hallway—the verbal equivalent of pulling the guy’s pigtails. Nothing particularly cutting, but Eddie’s made his way through most of the popular guys at this point so he zeros in on it like a shark tasting blood in the water. (Maybe he’s bored. Maybe he wants a challenge—Steve likes to think of himself as a challenge. All the girls vying for his attention seem to have the same idea too, judging by how they stop returning his calls after a couple of dates.)
Eddie does his thing: drive-by flirting in the halls, taunting with just enough innuendo to titillate while still retaining plausible deniability. He’s fishing, seeing if Steve will take the bait. And Steve, feeling the thrill of the game in a way he hasn’t in a long time, takes it.
They hook up, and (because Steve knows what to look for) Eddie isn’t even that slick about setting his phone up to record it. He sucks Steve’s soul out through his dick, then looks comically shocked when Steve sits up, says “I’ve never done this before, so feel free to call out any pointers you might have,” and inexpertly but enthusiastically returns the favor.
The next time Steve taunts Eddie in the hallway, Eddie tugs him into the bathroom despite the ring of the tardy bell and lays out his usual terms: cut it out, or the video goes all over social media. But Steve interrupts his spiel to ask, “Did you watch it?”
Eddie’s cheeks start to color. “Well. I mean. To make sure it was obviously you, yeah.”
Steve hums in faux sympathy. “So sometimes you have to do this more than once for it to work? If they’re not recognizable in the video.” Eddie’s jaw drops, and Steve laughs. “Hey man, don’t worry about it. It’s pretty funny, actually. And I had a really good time. Actually, could you send it to me? Or come over again sometime, whatever you’re comfortable with. My parents really aren’t around much, as long as the front porch light is off the coast is clear.”
“… You’re bluffing,” Eddie tries, flustered. Trying for but not really achieving his usual bad boy bravado.
Steve responds by locking the bathroom door, snagging Eddie’s phone from his jacket pocket (the obligatory “I already backed up the file” goes duly ignored), and setting it up to record before putting it back in Eddie’s hand. Then he gets on his knees with a wink and a cheeky “Be sure to get my good side,” before making surprisingly quick work of Eddie’s complicated belt and going gloriously to town.
By lunchtime, Eddie plops down in his usual spot in the cafeteria still feeling shaken to his very core. After blowing him, Steve had persuaded him to unlock his phone so the dude could send himself both videos, and saved his own contact info as “Steve 🍆😜.” In the middle of second period, Steve had texted him an “Eddplant” joke. After third, it had been, “Hey, do you want to hang out sometime? Maybe a movie. Let me know what you like.”
Eddie can’t tell if the game has been turned around on him or if Steve is for real. He doesn’t know if Steve is asking about his preference in movies, associated snacks, or sex. Part of him hopes it’s sex, because Steve is a real quick study. Maybe he should start carrying condoms and lube around, just in case—no, that’s just his horny brain talking.
Or is it?
(It’s not, and Steve thinks it was a genius idea when it pays off later in the week.)
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Steve never knew being in love could feel this good. He thought he had it with Nancy, but this isn’t even close. It’s the small touches, the inside jokes he and Eddie share the giddy rush of just being near each other. He misses Eddie when he’s not around and always searching for him in a crowded room. Now they’re lying in bed together. They agreed it’s better to share just in case the nightmares come back. And Eddie’s fingers find Steve’s without thinking about it. He laces them together and stares at their joined hands like they might disappear if he blinks. Steve’s thumb brushes against Eddie’s catching on his rings and Eddie’s breath hitches.
“You make me feel brave,” Eddie mumbles, then immediately groans and buries his face behind his free hand. “God, I sound like a dork.” He expects Steve to just laugh but then he surprises him. Steve just shakes his head a small smile tugging at his mouth. Not the Harrington charm but the real one. He reaches up and gently pulls Eddie’s hand away from his face.
“No,” Steve says voice low and certain. “You make me feel the same, Eds.”
Eddie blinks at him, startled and soft. “Really?” A shy smile breaks through all his usual bravado. But Steve doesn’t answer with words. He nods then bites his lip, and leans in slow enough that Eddie could stop him. But he doesn’t.
And when their lips meet, Eddie’s last coherent thought is that he’s the luckiest guy in the world.
Eddie has a habit when he gets high, he “rescues” any neighborhood cat he sees wandering around. Steve keeps coming home to find their apartment filled with cats that definitely belong to other people. Every time Steve’s just stunned and just says.” Babe. Where did these cats keep coming from?” Then he sighs, grabs them making his very sheepish, very stoned boyfriend do the walk of shame to return every single one to their rightful owners. After the third time this month, Steve’s starting to think maybe it’s time to just adopt a cat for Eddie before he cat-naps the whole block.
steve who runs incredibly hot, hardly sleeps with a shirt or pj pants, and eddie who runs so damn cold & takes his job of shoving his freezing feet under steve's legs very seriously.
Eddie coming out to Robin, and by inescapable extension Steve… as bi. He’s totally gay, but figures this will help make his attraction to Steve less obvious. Less inevitable-seeming to the token straight guy of their trio, with how much time they spend together now.
What he gets instead is a double-barrel blast of hazel Bambi eyes and, “You can like both? That’s… a thing?”
Suddenly Eddie’s plan to soft-launch his coming out with an “easier” sexuality to swallow and working his way up to admitting that it’s really just guys for him doesn’t seem so smart, because Steve is realizing he’s bi right in front of him and at some point Eddie is going to have to deal with the fact that it was a lie.
Eddie’s got a song stuck in his head. One he wrote about Steve. It’s just him and a guitar in their living room. He messes up twice because his hands won’t stop shaking. By the second verse, Steve’s crying. Eddie stares at the floor. “It’s stupid, I know—”
Missing when Eddie wearing Steve’s yellow sweater and Steve wearing Eddie’s hellfire shirt was the most revolutionary thing to happen for the ship and was popping up everywhere.
If steddie have a kid, at some point someone will ask said kid what their parents names are. and the child will scrunch up their face in deep thought, and eventually confidently reply "Babe and Sweetheart"
Eddie doesn’t say “my boyfriend.” He says “my Steve.” Always to everyone even to Wayne saying “My Steve made waffles.” To the gas station clerk he says “ my Steve said the pump’s busted.”
