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Bloom & Break P3.5

Small interlude chapter with our plantboi and his chaos goblin

cw: nothing

P3<- 🌹P3.5🌹 -> P4 / Ao3

Chapter 3.5 - Moss Growing in the Cracks

Steve found Eddie in the kitchen.

He was wild-haired, wearing mismatched socks, blasting Slayer through the speakers of a tiny cassette player that almost certainly came from the trash, and attempting to make waffles that appeared to have way too much cinnamon.

Steve didn’t own a waffle iron.

Powdered sugar was everywhere. On Eddie. On the plants. On the ceiling.

“Is this a war crime or breakfast?” Steve cautiously asked.

“Yes!”Eddie exclaimed, lips still faintly red and puffy from the incident. The poison kiss that would live forever in Eddie’s mind as the Botanical Babe Betrayal.

He brandished a fork in Steve’s direction, “You gonna help me whisk? Or are you only here to supervise and silently judge?”

“I can do both.”

Later, after a surprisingly edible breakfast, Eddie was licking the last of the powdered sugar off his thumb and pretending he had no idea who spilled batter into the basil planter.

(It was pointless. The basil snitched on him immediately.)

Steve made himself a cup of tea and casually pointed out, “Y’know, that wasn’t a real allergic reaction, right?”

“I think the hives on my face would beg to differ, Pennyroyal.”

“Don’t call me that. You weren’t actually poisoned.”

“I was swollen." Eddie pointed out, “Like a balloon animal. A hella sexy balloon animal.”

“Animal, yes. Sexy, no.”

“Uh, who kissed who, again?”

“To shut you up!” Steve defended.

Eddie narrowed his eyes at a sudden thought. “Does this mean every time we make out, I’m going to need an EPI-PEN?” he questioned.

Steve decided not to mention that he could suppress the poison. That he hadn’t meant to kiss him in the first place.

“You’ll never find out,” he said instead, sipping his tea.

Eddie groaned, “Ugh, so what you’re saying is that you’re toxic in every sense of the word.”

“And yet, you still make me surprisingly non-terrible waffles.”

“Yeah, but that’s because I’m terrible at boundaries.”

That afternoon, Eddie sat on a small, moss-covered bench, the letter on his lap.

He didn’t open it, just stared.

His name in Wayne’s handwriting stared back at him.

Steve hovered nearby, pretending to arrange a few flowerpots.

When Eddie still made no move, he said, “You could read it.”

Eddie kept his eyes on that familiar writing. “I know. It’s not that I’m afraid to find out he hasn’t forgiven me. It’s that I’m afraid that he has. I don’t know what to do with that.”

He picked it up and tapped it against his thigh. “It feels like if I open this, it means I have to forgive myself.”

Silence.

“He said I didn’t have to be fixed. Just to come back alive.”

Steve’s hands stayed still. “Then you should.”

“Yeah,” Eddie agreed quietly. “Maybe.”

He made no move to open the letter.

He didn’t throw it away either.

Later, Steve washed dishes while Eddie perched on the counter like a gargoyle, narrating the process like a documentary:

“The stunning Pennyroyal performs the domestic tasks in an attempt to lure the visiting Oddity into a mating arrangement. He sensually caresses the sponge-”

“He can also drown him in the sink.”

“You’d miss me.”

“You assume I’d notice.” Eddie flicked a fork at him.

In the corner, the vines rustled with amusement.

That night, Steve sat idly for once, reading a book.

Eddie was asleep in his usual place on the couch, head buried under one arm and wrapped in a stolen blanket.

Robin’s words came back: He’s better here. So are you.

Steve had dismissed it. Her. But now…

The plants were calmer, the air softer. He had actually slept.

And Eddie, half-feral glittery disaster that he is, was still here.

That had to mean something.

Steve mutters to himself, “You’re not the worst invasive species to deal with.”

“I heard that.” Eddie’s voice came from across the room, making him startle slightly.

“No, you didn’t. Go back to sleep.”

“Say it again, but slower.”

“Goodnight, Eddie.”

Eddie had a half-asleep smile of contentment on his face when he replied. “Goodnight, Dandelion.”

tags: @dame-zoom-a-latte @queenie-ofthe-void @eriquin @val-from-lawrence @stripey82

#cici writes #steve harrington #eddie munson #steddie #steddie fanfic #steddie fic #bloom & break #steve doesnt know where eddie got the waffle iron and is afraid to ask #he should be