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Ficmas Advent 2025: Why Not Me (Eddie Munson x Poly!Reader)

Summary: You're openly poly and have been dating Steve for a while now. Your best friend Eddie wonders why he hadn't been an option.

Word count: 7,109

Notes/CW: Reader is poly and dating Steve. Both reader and Eddie are kinda clueless. So fluffy oh my god.

A/N: I love this piece so much lol. Cute Eddie cute Eddie cute Eddie (and bonus cute Steve!)-- Anyway, kinda out of place for Ficmas but I've this sitting around for a bit and figured why not especially since I'm a couple days behind oops.

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Steve pulled up to your place slowly, pouting all the way. His non-driving hand kept a strong grip on yours where they rested entwined on the console between the driver and passenger seats. As the car rolled to an actual stop, he threw a literal pout your way: eyes wide and puppy-like, bottom lip poked out just so, hair perfect except for one delicate strand that hung perfectly over one eye. When you smiled, rolled your eyes, and moved to leave the car, he gently pulled you back.

"Are you sure you can’t stay the night?" Steve asked, somehow making his eyes wider and puppier. He tugged your hand to his lips and pressed kisses across your knuckles. "I’m serious, you say you can and I’ll turn this car right back around."

You laughed, letting your thumb brush across his lips as he turned your hand over to kiss the palm as well. "You know I would if I could. I have a job interview tomorrow and I promised to meet Eddie this evening for some school and campaign talk." You paused and glanced over at where your house’s lights were on. "See, looks like he’s already here. I gotta go, you dork."

Steve’s jaw dropped in fake offense at that last comment, before letting out a sigh of defeat. He pressed another kiss to the back of your hand before releasing it, then leaned over to kiss your forehead too. "Fine. Want me to walk you up?"

You rolled your eyes again, but grinned as you returned the forehead kiss. "The walk up is two steps, Steve. I’ll be okay."

Steve let out another pouty grumble. He moved to put the car in park anyway and got out of the driver’s side, tossing a wink at you over his shoulder as he went. He walked over to your side of the car and popped the door open, holding it as you grabbed your things and stepped out.

You remembered you were wearing his jacket and moved to take it off. "Oh, here’s this back."

Steve immediately waved his hand at you. "Keep it." He paused as you leaned in to kiss him properly goodnight and met you halfway. When you parted, he murmured sweetly as your noses bumped together, "Have a good night, hm? Promise?"

You snorted and gave him one last peck for the road. "Promise. G’night, handsome."

"Night," he said after you as you made your way to the front door of your place. He stayed where he was, watching, until you unlocked the door, stepped inside with a wave, and shut the door behind you. Peeking through the window, you saw him offer a final wave back before finally strolling back to his side of the car and getting back in to drive into the night.

Inside, you were greeted with low, warm lighting and soft noises coming from the kitchen. You would have maybe been a little concerned, if it weren’t for Eddie’s bag, that he rarely used, and jacket-vest combo tossed on a nearby chair, and his shoes propped sloppily by your door. Thus you took your time putting away your—well, Steve’s—coat and boots, and grabbing your clunky cell phone and a notebook from your own bag. Then you padded to the kitchen, socks muffling the sound of your feet on hard wood and tile flooring.

A familiar mixtape was playing metal at a low volume from the boombox sitting on your dining room table nearby; Eddie must have gone into your bedroom and snagged the electronic from its usual place on your desk. Spread out across the table was a mess of papers a couple of unopened textbooks, what was probably a vague attempt at studying turned into full-on Dungeons & Dragons brainstorming. Across from the island that separated your dining area from the kitchen itself, Eddie was bent over your stove with his back toward you as he messed with something in a pan. Whatever it was, was causing black smoke to plume around him.

"Jesus. Get off the pan then, ya bastard." He coughed a bit a fanned a hand in front of him, seemingly unaware of your presence.

You grinned and creeped your way over to him. After carefully placing your things on the table, you even added overdramatic creeping T-Rex hands for your own amusement. When you were close enough, Eddie none the wiser, you snuck your arms around his waist and nuzzled your face into his neck.

Well, you thought Eddie had been none the wiser, but he certainly didn’t jump entirely out of his skin like he normally did when he was spooked. Sure, you got a little bit of a bounce, but he quickly adjusted and leaned back into you, keeping busy working at a very burnt grilled cheese with one of your spatulas.

You pouted a bit at the lack of response before shrugging it off and running a hand through his curly mane. "Hey there, pretty boy. How’s it goin’? Honestly expected more of a reaction."

Eddie finally freed the grilled cheese from its hellish prison and moved it over to the nearby plate where three others were resting, each one a little worse looking than the last. Then he pointed the spatula he holding to the nearby window, where you could see yourselves reflected. Eddie’s eyes caught yours briefly in the reflection before dancing away, his cheeks red. He never quite knew how to handle a compliment, you noticed.

"Damn," you mumbled against his shoulder, "here I was, thinking I was sneaky."

Eddie, moving as little as possible to keep himself in your arms, flicked the stove off and nudged the pan and spatula to a different burner. Then he leaned further back against you, letting his hands tap beats in tune with the music playing against your exposed arms. "Hope you didn't eat yet because I have the world’s shittiest grilled cheeses waiting for you."

You snickered and gave his waist a squeeze before releasing him, much to his visible disappointment. You reached around him to snag the plate of grilled cheeses before pulling away completely and walking toward the dining table. Picking up the second most burned sandwich and tearing a bite off one corner with your teeth, you mumbled, "You know I’m a burnt food lover. This is perfectly made cuisine to me."

You pulled out the nearest chair with a foot and plopped down into it. Eddie followed shortly after with a couple of steaming, chocolate-scented mugs.

"Ooh, hot chocolate," you purred, pulling out Eddie’s seat next you for him. "How sweet."

Eddie set the mugs down before sitting and throwing out his arms in a flourish. "Dinner of champions. So, how was Stevie-boy?"

"Pouty," you replied, "but he’s alone in that giant house again and getting a little attention-starved, I think. I mean, I get it. Also, no, told Steve I was hanging with you tonight and had to come hungry."

Eddie nodded. He took two of the grilled cheeses, the worst and second-best, for himself before passing the nicest looking one over to you. So attentive. The sweet domesticity of it all was almost enough to make your teeth ache.

Eddie put on a vaguely European accent as he lamented, "Ah, the rich and their gluttony for much land. Other than that?"

You hummed in agreement as you took another bite of your sandwich. "Can't imagine the why of it. Things were good, though. It was nice!"

"What’d ya do?"

"Well, I helped him format a better resume. He asked if he could let Robin use it, too, and of course, I said sure. Neither of them are really into the movie store scene. Anyway, we also ended up going to a movie. Shit, what was the name…? It had Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson…"

Eddie was as good a listener as he was a talker when he really wanted to be, nodding along while commenting and questioning about your day. He didn’t have too many opportunities for it, being the talky leader of a pack of not super talky younger folks and the only other people involved with him being his quiet uncle, teachers who were none too fond of him, and, well, you. You, talker supreme. You, who matched his energy to a T most of the time and were happy to pick up the reigns whenever he decided to let them loose. He let the reigns go to you quite a lot, especially these days.

You didn’t mind.

"So," you said when you were done rambling, and gave Eddie’s foot a tap with your own, "what about you? This… does not look like studying to me, Mr. Munson."

Those couple of sentences, and maybe the casual footsie, sent an array of emotions flickering across his face. First, his cheeks turned pink and both his gaze and foot darted away from your attention, quickly followed by a scowl at himself as he tried to play it off cool with a rebuttal nudge to your shin. Then he blushed for a different reason—you had set up study hangouts for the purpose of helping him finish school, which he was continuously neglecting in favor of the hanging out part—before his face finally twisted up into a look of clear and visible disgust at being called "Mr. Munson." That last one made you laugh.

"This whole thing is unfair, and also a cruel and unusual punishment," he said, pointing an accusatory finger at you. "How come you're never doing homework?"

You smirked at him. "Because I graduated when we were supposed to."

Eddie’s outstretched hand clapped back to lay over his heart as he gasped at you. Then, in another accented, incredibly offended tone, he said, "Cruel. Very cruel."

You snorted before, deciding to play along, whipping up a character voice of your own. Putting your sandwich aside and leaning over, you slowly walked your fingers up Eddie’s arm nearest to you. "And, now, see, since you’ve defied me and the rules of the game… you owe me not only the two assignments from the previous study sessions where studying didn't happen, plus all of your catch-up work. So—" You paused, moving your hand to catch his jaw in your hand. "—what are we going to do about that, hm?"

You had Eddie squirming in his seat with the walking fingers shenanigan, but the grip on his jaw turned him rigid and beet-red. After a moment of silence and big, pretty awestruck doe eyes staring back at you, he tried to play off his flustered state again, give some kind of quip back. He practically choked on his tongue instead.

You took a moment of your own to admire your handiwork. Then you gave his jaw a tender squeeze and he released him to turn back to your food. As you tore a piece off your sandwich and dipped it into your hot cocoa, you heard Eddie wheeze next to you, "Fucking Christ… You're going to kill me."

"Well, if I do, I’d prefer you to be out of high school when I do it." You tossed a cheeky grin over your shoulder at him before popping the chocolatey piece of sandwich in your mouth. You waved your hand over to your notebook and continued once your mouth was free to talk again. "So, here’s what I’m thinkin’. Those two assignments and a chip into the makeup work. That’s it. Tonight, or you don’t get to see my new D&D sketches."

Eddie scoffed and slumped over onto the table with a clattering thud. Initial embarrassment faded, he wailed, "But that’s so much work!"

You gave him a sympathetic pat on the back but continued on anyway. "Ed, it’s honestly a miracle they keep letting you back in the first place, let alone even giving you makeup work. Makeup work is a big win! And you don’t even have to do it well, you just have to do it. You got this."

Eddie huffed and turned his face toward you. It took some fighting with his hair to get it out of his face, but then he turned to you with a defeated pout. You rolled your eyes. Apparently Hawkins was home ground for pouty boys.

Then the pout turned into something more sincere, visible insecurity, and you found your edges softening. "You really think I got it?"

You reached over to brush his hair back with a hand, a touch that made his eyes flutter as he gratefully leaned into it. "Absolutely you got it."

Eddie sighed, but at least the sound didn't come off defeated this time. Maybe a bit harrowed. Brooding worked for Eddie, though, as little as you saw him act that way. He let the mood sit and settle before sitting back up and pushing his hair back, once again in a dramatic nature. Dropping his head to the side and looking at you, a bit more determined this time, he said, "Fine. Let’s do it, baby."

You threw up a devil horns symbol in celebration as you grinned at him; a smile of his own slowly formed in response. "Woop! Let’s do it, baby!"

~~~~~

After dinner and cleanup, the two of you moved to your living room to properly spread out and work, the kitchen left designated for D&D talk later. A few different textbooks were cracked open and set up in a haphazard semicircle on your living room floor, Eddie stretched out on the carpet in front of them. Also surrounding him were an array of barely used notebooks, uncrumpled pieces of loose paper—both notes and homework printouts—some much more well-kept folders and notecards courtesy of you, and various writing utensils. Currently, Eddie was lying on his back, one foot using his history textbook as a footrest, and tossing your empty notecard holder into the air with one hand to catch it with the other. He was waiting for you while you sat on the couch chewing on the end of a red pen as you graded his work.

"Shit, Eddie," you mumbled with a growing smile as you nudged the paper to the side, "I knew you could do this shit."

Eddie, mid-toss, shot up into a sitting position. The little holder he was throwing came down at the same time, colliding with his forehead and getting flung across the room. You both stared after it, dumbfounded, before Eddie turned to you with eyebrows raised up into his forehead. The movement made him wince and reach up to poke at the reddening spot on his skin. "Seriously?"

You grinned and handed the paper over to him, which he looked over with increasing curiosity. "Seriously! It’s not perfect, obviously, but definitely not an F! Not even a D! I mean, one of your biggest hobbies includes insane amounts of math and writing, it’s really not a surprise. You just needed to find a way to make it stick. And… probably not be in a classroom where people are assholes all the time."

"Well," Eddie murmured, running a hand through his rumpled hair, "it, uh, helps having a good-looking teacher that does their job, too."

You chuckled, watching the way his gaze danced away from yours as you tried to meet his eyes. You would never get tired of flustered Eddie.

"Maybe so," you agreed. You capped your pen and slipped to the floor, picking up another of Eddie’s assignments and a notecard with a fantastical map sketched out on it. Looking over both, you hummed in approval and slid the card over to Eddie. "It helps having the time and space to do things your way, too."

Eddie ran his fingers across the card, over the detailed sketch you did in just a few minutes with red and black pen. You had basically built a campaign around his schoolwork. It actually seemed to be working.

"I don’t know, sometimes I just think it’s you."

It was your turn to blush this evening, but you waved the compliment aside. You weren’t going to let Eddie take his work for granted. "Sweet. Very, very sweet. But everything on these pages is that big, beautiful brain of yours at work, Ed. It just needed a little extra time and a push."

A sound rumbled in Eddie’s chest, a strange mix between a sigh and a groan. He still wasn’t sure about that fact, and you knew it, but he had no chance winning such an argument with you. So he flicked the notecard with a little smile and leaned back on his hands. "Well, how far did we make it? Make up for my indiscretions yet?"

You hummed again, this time thoughtfully and to the tune of the boombox now sitting on the coffee table nearby. You gathered up the assignments scattered around the floor and flicked through them, going through your mental checklist. "It looks like… two assignments that are currently due—check, and O’Donnell can suck it both times—and, damn, at least one makeup assignment for each class. Not bad! If we can knock out some those heavier extra credit ones over the weekend, you might be sitting pretty by Monday, Eds."

Eddie groaned and flopped over. You went to correct yourself, thinking he misunderstood, but stopped when he then threw two fists into the air. A few triumphant air punches followed, then a full-body shake as he half-whooped, half-yelled in celebration, before collapsing completely onto the floor once more.

You watched him and laughed. When he was done with his fit of excitement, you leaned over and clapped a congratulatory hand on his shin. "Nice job, m’love. Told you that you could do it."

Eddie released another grumbly sound. "We did it."

You rolled your eyes and but smiled at the sentiment regardless. Sitting back up proper and starting organize the mess around you, you said, "Yeah, we did it."

There was a comfortable lull in the conversation, the only sounds being the rustling of the papers and the boombox switching over to the next song. Eddie, tapping a toe to the beat of the music, basked in the afterglow of finally doing something academically right while you chipped away at cleaning up. His finished assignments that needed to be turned in went into a highlighter yellow folder that the two of you had agreed upon as something that would be hard to lose and too ugly to forget about. The rest of the notes and chaos got a little less care, being organized into general piles by subject and moved over to their respective textbooks for later use or better pickup in the future, depending on what Eddie decided to do. You had a feeling he would pick the latter, having done his fair share of work for the day.

After a while, Eddie’s voice sounded, loud in the otherwise quiet of your home. "I like we."

You snickered and leaned back against the couch, happy with your cleanup for the time being. "I like we too."

Eddie didn't respond right away but you could see his restlessness kick up in the quicker bouncing of his leg and the way he started fiddling with his rings. You watched him with a quirked brow, curious but wanting to give him his moment.

He piped up again after a bit. "Can I ask you kind of a weird question?"

You nodded even though the way he was laying wouldn’t allow him to see it; it obstructed you from seeing his face as well. "Of course. You can ask me anything, Eddie."

"Why…?" Eddie started, then faltered with a thoughtful hm. He swapped his rings to different fingers before trying again. "So, you don’t owe me anything. Obviously. Just putting it out there. That’s not what this is about. I don’t feel, like, entitled to you or anything like that. I’m just… confused, I guess? Wondering. Seriously. It’s just pure interest. Anyway. You date Steve, and that’s cool. And then you’ve got that girl in… New… York? Jersey? Right?"

You answered slowly. "Yeah. Sure. Why?"

"So—" Eddie cut himself off again, this time to clear his throat. Both legs were jiggling anxiously now, and he had played musical chairs with his rings enough times to make you forget which one was originally on which finger. He apparently got bored of that finally, too, because he switched to tugging on the fraying hem of his long-sleeved band tee. Then he moved to pushing up his sleeves.

Finally, he took a quick, deep breath, and on the exhale, blurted out, "So why not me?"

You blinked at him. "Why not you? Why not you what?"

You watched Eddie raise his arms from his position lying on the floor and wave them around as if it would help conduct the flow of his words. "Like, what’s so different between me and, say, Steve? Or anyone you date? I mean, besides the obvious. Now, again, it’s fine that you don’t pick me. I get it. We’re best friends, that’s weird, whatever, it’s cool. I’m just wondering what… flicks that switch, I guess. Why not me, y’know?"

Eddie sat up suddenly and got to witness the incredulousness blooming across your face, brows furrowed in confused fascination and a little smile playing on your lips. Aside from a slight raise of his own eyebrow, he didn’t comment on it, and instead waved an anxious hand you. "You get what I mean, right?"

"No, Eddie," you said, your smile still slowly growing, "I actually, really, don’t think I do."

Eddie huffed out a breath, getting more flustered the more he rambled on. "Why don’t you pick me?"

"Eddie, I did pick you."

Eddie’s hair fluffed out around him as he shook his head and waved his hands in a you're not getting it manner. "No, no, I don’t mean like— I mean—"

You were fully grinning now. "Eddie, we’ve been on like three dates now."

That statement stopped Eddie in his tracks, quite literally freezing him in place with his hands still mid-wave; it was a full freeze frame in real life. He blinked, bug-eyed, as he looked at you, and it took several tries of opening and closing his mouth before words came out again. "What’s that now?"

You threw your head back in a laugh, the action so fast it caused your head to smack against the couch with a sharp thud. You choked out a gasp and grabbed at your head, but the giggles continued as you then crumpled to the floor. It was a long, loud, deep laughing fit that left you curled up on the carpet, your lungs begging for breath and your stomach muscles burning by the end of it. As the snickers eventually died down, you rolled over onto your back, breathless and wiping tears from your eyes, to see that Eddie had crawled over and was now looking down at you. His eyes were still wide and doe-like, and he was pink from neck to ear tips.

One last giggle escaped you as you reached up to brush his curtain of hair back. You slowly made your way back into a sitting position and Eddie followed your lead, moving back from leaning over you to sit back on his heels. His hands rested awkwardly, restlessly in his lap, back to fiddling with his rings.

"Eddie," you finally breathed, "I asked you out on a date."

Eddie just blinked at you and said in an embarrassingly strained voice, "When?"

Your grin was killing your jaw. Even if you wanted it to, it wasn’t disappearing any time soon. "Last month? I asked you out to dinner at that cute new diner."

Eddie blinked again. His brain was short circuiting.

You went on, equally disbelieving of the situation, "I picked you up? Paid for everything? I told you to dress up nice. Eddie goddamned Munson, I know you knew that I was stressed out the entire time. I bought flowers for the table. There was a candle."

"Wh… when was the second one?" Eddie wheezed out. He had fallen almost entirely still.

"Well, I thought it was when you returned the favor when you took me to the arcade," you admitted. You scratched your cheek as Eddie’s blush became contagious. "You picked me up—"

"I always do that."

"You paid for everything—"

"I was returning the favor!"

You barked another laugh. "You kept trying to win my favorite prize for me! You called it a date! Like twice!"

The blinks of pure shock kept coming. At least you could finally see the gears behind his eyes start turning again as he raised a hand and dragged it through his mane.

Mostly under his breath, he muttered, "Oh my god…"

"And— And then I took you to the record store— Your birthday— I bought you— Eddie. Eddie, I made you a mixtape."

He waved a hand weakly at you. "I’ve… done that for you?"

"It consisted of love songs of the rock variety." Your entire being was a mix of embarrassment-induced pain and general elation from being able to witness Eddie’s realization firsthand. You leaned forward and grabbed Eddie’s face in your hands, forcing his dancy-glance to look at you. "Eddie. I call you my love and tell you I love you all the time. You get baby and pretty eyes and pretty boy and puppyface— Do you think I’m going around calling everybody that? Steve could tell you we’re dating. We’ve cuddled damn near naked more than a couple times, and have definitely showered together at least once. Quick question, Ed, are those things you're doing with just your friends? Does Gareth come around hugging you from behind and digging their hands under your shirt to play with the happy trail you got hidden down there? Just curious."

"Oh my god," Eddie repeated, the puzzle pieces finished clicking into place. You watched, between too much blinking, as the realization—quickly followed by excitement—caused his eyes to light up. He was still blushing and his chest rose and fell like he was out of breath, but a borderline childish grin was crawling its way onto his face. There was suddenly far too much energy wound up in his body again, causing him to shift restlessly in his seated position as he finally reached out to touch you. It was to grasp at your arms, gentle despite everything, as he leaned his face into your cheek and laughed out, "Holy shit, I am… so fuckin’ stupid."

You laughed with him as you relaxed into him, letting your face nuzzle against his. Your hands dropped from his face to drape around his shoulders. As much as you could with Eddie still clinging to them anyway. "Not sure about that but apparently I haven’t been very good with my communication skills. Although… not sure what else I can do outside of asking you to go on a date with me… which I did in fact already do."

Eddie nodded against your face, his flushed skin warm against yours. He used one hand to poke a finger against the side of his head. "No, I am actually a dumbass. Seriously, there might be something wrong with my brain."

You shushed him, Eddie gulping so big you actually heard it, with a light smooch to his temple. "Quiet. I like your brain."

Eddie did quiet, opting to just sit and absorb your attention instead. Eddie had never necessarily shied away from you—he would lean into most of your affections, and even if your handsiness made him flustered, he would play into it; he would even try to fluster you back sometimes, if he was feeling bold—but you noticed the shift in this moment immediately. It was like a total and complete surrender, his lean body curling into and around yours, without a lick of tension, as your fingers dragged through his hair. Keeping your lips pressed into his skin, you suddenly realized you had been silly before. This, this is what it was supposed to feel like.

"So…" Eddie’s voice pulled you out of your thoughts, and he slowly pulled himself back from you. His trailed down your arms to catch your hands in a much shyer action than you were used to when it came to holding hands with him. It was a very strange conflict between that and the half-lidded, mischievous look in his eye as he unabashedly eyed your lips.

You felt your cheeks burn and you looked away. "Here we go again…"

Eddie’s dimpled grin reappeared. You could hear it in his voice, see it shining in your peripherals. "So. We hold hands and cuddle, stuff like that. I guess we’ve been out on a few dates. We really are kinda couple-y, huh?"

"Mhm," you hummed. "So?"

"So—" Eddie suddenly leaned in close enough to let his nose bump against your cheek. "—why haven’t ya kissed me?"

You scoffed. The flush pulled its way up to your ears. "Did I not just kiss you?"

"You know what I mean," Eddie lilted.

Still not looking at him, you quipped back, "Well, why haven’t you kissed me?"

Eddie’s lips moved against your jaw as he grumbled in playful frustration, "Because I just found out we’re dating."

You snorted and pulled farther back from him. Chancing a look his way, it must’ve been your turn to look all soft and flustered, because you watched in real time as Eddie’s brain fogged over momentarily. Pupils blown wide and exhaling all the air in his lungs, Eddie’s lips parted in a silent, wordless Whoa as he stared back. All there was to him, in that moment, was you.

The initial blushing was now gone, replaced by a full-body tingling heat of… embarrassment? Shyness? You weren’t sure. Eddie shooting longing glances or looking at you in a way that you thought was lovingly—perhaps a misunderstanding on your end, at least at the time—was nothing new. The pure, unfaltering look of adoration and infatuation that he gave you now, however, blew any other previous look out of the water. It was like basking in the heat of the sun. Staring directly into it. You had to look away, chewing on your lip.

"Dunno," you said after a bit. You shrugged and slipped one of your hands from his to pull at the suddenly too-tight collar of your shirt. "Thought of kissing you… Kind of intimidating, I guess."

"Me? Me. I’m intimidating." Eddie’s voice was dumbfounded.

You looked at him again from under your lashes as he slumped against the nearby couch, his expression matching his voice as he continued staring back. You smiled a bit and nodded, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head in reaction.

"Not every day you realize you’ve fallen in love with your best friend and kinda wanna kiss ‘em on the mouth. Dunno, it’s just…" You trailed off, waving a hand at his general presence. "I mean, it’s you. It’s… different."

Eddie didn't seem to be taking in any air at this point. Just wheezing out breathless huffs.

Being polyamorous was an interesting thing. Every crush and relationship was a little bit different. With Steve, it was easy. The most natural thing in the world. You had pined after him in high school—because who didn't at one point or another—but only ever really met and became friends after the summer of bouncing around part-time jobs in the mall. He, surprisingly, remembered you from school, and the two of you lamented over having a poor time keeping a job and not being able to get deal with college. Your crush rekindled, he apparently picked one up. He asked you out on single date and was wildly surprised when you asked him out for a second, and a third, and a fourth. It was about a month in when he realized you were serious about him and, more importantly, realized that he was just as serious about you. The rest was history.

Your girlfriend, Jackie, was a little bit trickier. Directly out of high school, you had tried the college route and ended up in Iowa—not New York or New Jersey, but you weren’t going to give Eddie flack for that. You went for half of a semester, had a breakdown, dropped out, and moved back to Hawkins. During this time, though, you met a girl named Jackie, who, despite all this, thought you were cute and wanted to keep in touch. She asked you out mid-panic attack one day, which was so surprising that it actually snapped you out of said attack. A couple weeks and two dates later, you told her that you were moving back home, and the two of you agreed to try out a long-distance thing. Your relationship with Jackie was considerably more low-key and casual, but it was filled with love letters and postcards and gifts and holiday visits. Perfect in its own way.

Eddie was your friend from childhood turned best friend during high school. You had stuck it out and helped him through scraped knees and black eyes and bad parenting until he was eventually turned over to his uncle Wayne’s care in eighth grade. Eddie supported and encouraged you through all your self-exploration, bad ideas, and advancing your art skills when you were at the point of believing they weren’t worth anything. You defended Eddie’s love for Dungeons & Dragons and blossoming metalhead nature with tooth and nail, and Eddie—darling Eddie, "would never hurt a fly" Eddie—went to war with the entire Hawkins sports culture when rumors of slut and whore and fag started spreading around about you in high school, headed by cheer and wrestling captains alike.

There had never been a time where you didn’t love Eddie Munson, and you would continue to love him regardless of whether it was in a platonic or romantic fashion. You were simply each other’s forever and always. It just had happened as a slow shift over the past year or so that your feelings shifted to be more romantically-inclined, and you got lucky that Eddie was feeling the same way these days. Even if the two of you had been a bit clueless about it thus far.

So there you were, a couple of awkward, blushing kids in your early twenties, sitting on your living room floor.

"You do wanna kiss me, though?" The question came out in another exhale. He must be breathing.

"I mean… yeah," you mumbled back. It was the first time you were admitting it aloud, you realized. "I’ve think I’ve kinda always wanted to kiss you. To be fair, though, I think everyone who has ever lived wants to kiss you. Don't see how anyone couldn’t."

Eddie snorted a laugh and rolled his eyes, but you could tell he appreciated the compliment. At this point he was playing with a strand of his hair and eyeing you under his own long, pretty lashes. He was looking bashful in a way that new to you and you were honestly surprised that you hadn’t already completely melted under his gaze.

"I think there’s plenty of people would disagree with you there. Don't really care about them anyway, so…" He continued to eye you, then gave you a little nod as the small smile tugging at his lips pulled a little wider. "Why don’t you then? Kiss me?"

You blinked at him. "… Like now?"

"Yeah."

"Well… why don’t you kiss me?"

Eddie simply shook his head at you. He pushed the hair that he had been playing with back, showing off his full, cheesy grin, as he shuffled closer to you again. Not nearly close enough— He just pushed away from the couch and kneed his way closer until your legs were barely brushing against his own.

You felt the need to yank him the rest of the way to you but something stopped you. One part curiosity and two parts that trouble-making hint to Eddie’s smile. So you let the electric tension vibrate between your bodies for a bit longer. "Why not?"

"I don’t want to kiss you," Eddie answered simply. "I want you to do it. Missed your first move once. Don't wanna again."

You huffed a flustered breath and turned to look away, feeling prickly under his gaze. Your jaw, however, was caught by a ringed hand and maneuvered back to keep you in place, eyes on him.

"It belongs to you, you know," Eddie went on. His voice dropped lower, still playful but also incredibly sincere, as his thumb ever so gently traced a line against your cheek. "Has for a long time."

You raised your eyebrows at him, a bit surprised. "How long?"

Eddie’s restlessness got the better of him again finally, and he shimmied forward. His knees and thighs slotted perfectly into place between yours, and he leaned forward. The movement was a little too excited, causing your noses to knock together in a way that shot a dull pang of pain through you, but it barely registered as Eddie’s hot, chocolate-tinted breath landed on your lips. "Forever, I think. So take it from me. Whatever you what. It all belongs to you."

The sound you made was, simply put, inhuman. You pushed the rest of the way forward and captured Eddie’s lips with your own.

The first touch of contact was an electric pulse. The first chord of a guitar playing into the silence before the rest of song kicks in. It was slow motion, a moment quivering alone in time and space. Then your lips started to move and the dam cracked, shattered, collapsed completely.

Steve’s kisses were usually calm and sweet, sometimes a bit silly and awkward. Jackie's were excited welcome-homes, lipstick marks on postcards, and blowing kisses and you boarded busses and cars. Eddie’s was that of a man starved and waiting for who knows how long.

Not that you were any better. Maybe you should have been a little embarrassed about how hard you threw yourself at him but… oh, well. It was like a shaken champagne bottle finally bursting open, overflowing with light, excited bubbles. Liquid emotions—joy, excitement, want, adoration, love, things you weren’t even sure how to name yet—frothing and mixing together.

If Eddie was bothered by it—hard to believe; you didn’t think there was anything you could do to anger him at this point in your lives—he didn’t show it. Quite the opposite, actually.

Eddie moved with you like a surfer following a wave, a singer’s riff dancing with the notes of their bandmates. When you gripped at his face, awkwardly and shaky in your excitement, fingers scratching cheeks and tangling in the strands of hair framing his face, he just laughed against your mouth and caught handfuls of your waist with ringed fingers that caught on your shirt. His giggly exhales travelled down your throat like oxygen while you traded him giddy gasps and pants in return. His lips followed yours, slotting perfectly into place when flustered teeth weren’t getting in the way, and his tongue chased after yours whenever it tried to dance away, creating a playful push and pull as they flirted from his mouth to yours. When one of you finally had to pull away for a breath, the other retreated like a tide pulling back—only to crash back over the other as soon as an inhale was taken.

For the second time that evening, you felt the fleeting feeling of silliness. How have you been going months thinking you and Eddie were already together when this—whatever this was; power? Passion?—had been missing until now. You couldn’t even remember what things had felt like before. Nothing between you two would ever feel that way again.

Eddie tugged on you. You followed the pull and the two of you tumbled over in a heap on the carpet, entangled in each other. Eventually, the initial exhilaration lessened into something more comfortable and slow as you and Eddie fell into rhythm in movement and kiss. You basked in each other’s touch, Eddie’s fingers leaving tingly trails down your sides and back—and occasionally, almost hesitantly, over the slope of your backside and thighs. When your fingers weren’t playing in his hair, they were taking languid strolls along his jaw, the length of his neck, the exposed parts of his neck and shoulders thanks to the worn out, ill-fitting fabric of his shirt.

The makeout ended with a kiss that was sweet and lingering. Followed by another, quicker smooch. Followed by one more for good measure, edged with a returning giddiness as the moment to speak again was quickly approaching.

When your eyes finally fluttered back open, Eddie was already staring at you with irises of melted copper and pupils twice their natural size. His expression was that of dreamy surprise, a smile of shifting intensities playing on his lips as he tried to figure out whether what had happened was actually real or if he was just in a really fantastic dream.

You leaned in and pressed another kiss against his smile, hopefully proving reality to him.

One of Eddie’s hands moved up to gently caress your cheek and jaw. You snagged it with a hand of your own and entangled your fingers with his, which he welcomed with a squeeze. He continued watching you, starstruck, as you pushed a smooch against the back of his hand too.

Then he finally inhaled, held it a moment, and breathed out, "Go out with me?"

You laughed softly against the skin of his hand before nodding. "Mhm. Where?"

"Movie or somethin’?"

"M‘kay. Sounds fun."

The least tangled of Eddie’s fingers reached up to run along your bottom lip. You caught it in your teeth and gave a gentle bite.

Eddie chuckled, partially to cover the low sound that rumbled in his chest, one that you certainly didn’t miss. "Love you."

You let your combined hands fall to rest on the carpet and you leaned forward to rest your forehead against his. He was pliant underneath you, completely content to simply let his eyes follow you as you did whatever you pleased with him. Right then, all you wanted to do was lay there and watch him back, noses and foreheads nuzzled together.

"Love you too," you softly replied. Eddie’s eyes crinkled at edges, indicating a grin just out of sight. You smiled back.

Those words had been traded between you and Eddie a thousand times before, and would be taken and given a million times more. They just tasted a little bit differently on your tongue now.

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