@puppy-steve added this, and I want to add to it:
Things are a little uncomfortable at first. The Munsons donāt quite know how to make themselves at home in their new house, and Steve, despite his insistence that itās their house, still feels a little territorial of it. Itās the house he grew up in. Hell, itās practically been solely his house since freshman year, when his parents decided to start leaving him in Hawkins for months at a time. So, of course the plates go in the cupboard next to the oven, and the cleaning supplies goes in the downstairs coat closet thatās next to the half bath.
But he tries to remind himself that itās technically their house now, and thereās no way they could have known where things go because the Harringtons had movers clear out all of their belongings, including Steveās, which they had put in storage. (And moving all of that on top of the Munsonsā belongings in the middle of summer is hell on his still healing back, and could have been totally avoided if his parents had even thought for one second to call him. Although, heās grateful that they even left his stuff behind for him. The Munsons were already having to build back from the ground up. Acquiring a third thrifted bedroom set on top of everything would have sent him over the edge.)
So, yeah, it takes all of the self-control and character development he feels like heās gone through over the past few years to not bitch at Wayne when he wants to hang his mug collection from the hanging pot rack over the kitchen island or to tell Eddie, no, the pool house canāt be a smoking lounge, thereās too many toxic chemicals in there.
But itās also really nice to have people making noise in the house again. And the Munsonsā decorating style is far superior than Tiffany Harringtonās showroom style. It actually starts to feel like a real home, with the comfy couch and the various chintzy knick-nacks, and the fading family photos in mismatched picture frames. It inspires him to repaper his room with a wallpaper that doesnāt make his migraines flare up.
Wayne takes his parentsā old bedroom, and Eddie sets up in Richard Harringtonās old office because he canāt quite make it up the stairs yet.
Itās nice having the two men around. Steve finally has someone to watch baseball with, and, although he refuses to admit it, he enjoys the racket Eddie and his band make out in the garage whenever Eddieās finally feeling up to playing the guitar. When they get a big enough fold out table, Eddie starts hosting DND games, which means the kids come over more. And Wayne loves lounging on a pool float with a cold beer after work, so Steve finally has someone else to keep the pool clean for (and maybe he enjoys seeing Eddie in only his swim trunks, and he doesnāt yet want to confront why).
As the months wear on, they fall into a groove together. ļæ¼Soon, Eddie is healed enough to make his move up to the bigger bedrooms upstairs. But just because his wounds are mostly healed, doesnāt mean heās stopped having nightmares. Steve hears him one night and goes into check on him because he knows how awful the post-Upside Down nightmares all, and they stay up all night talking. At first itās about the Upside Down, then itās about the kids, then their shared memories of high school, then their deepest and most personal hopes and regrets, and then because everything got dark and heavy again and they are well into the early hours of the morning, their conversation turns nonsensical and full of sleep-deprived giggles until they finally succumb to their fatigue. And when Wayne comes home from work, itās to find them curled up in Eddieās bed, having good dreams for once.
They donāt mean for it to become a thing, but the next night, the two of them are hanging out in Steveās room chatting about everything and nothing until they fall asleep again, and it just. keeps. happening. It doesnāt matter if they are in one or anotherās bed or on the floor or even on the couch, whenever they have their nightly conversations, they always end up sleeping curled up into each otherās sides. And itās definitely not intentional. They just keep finding ways to drag out their conversations, or Steve was watching a baseball game, or Eddie was reading aloud to him, or the album is better listened to with eyes closed, orā
Okay, so maybe itās intentional.
It takes a full month of these excuses and near sleepless nights and miserable early morning shifts after said sleepless nights, until theyāre finally ready to admit that maybe sleeping side by side is actually what they want. Then it takes another week and a half for them to realize and admit that they want to sleep together. Before they know it, theyāre hopelessly in love.
By the time Christmas rolls around, they are a fully domesticated couple that pretty much the entire town knows about because they are almost always together and just canāt seem to keep their hands off of each other in public (seriously, does a deli trip really necessitate holding hands the entire time?). And the neighbors who were cold to them beforeābecause theyāre a bunch of rich snobs who resent the fact that ātrailer trashā moved into the neighborhoodāgo out of their way to avoid the town queers. And although Wayne hates that people feel some type of way about his boys, honestly, heās relieved that theyāve finally stopped pretended to be nice to him and coming up to talk to him when he just wants to garden in peace.
This kind of got away from me, but just..the three of them living together and building a home.
origamiaround
theartofmadeline
areudirty
gummygunk
prguitarman
vaporwave
romaincrisis
