About a month following Steve Harrington's infamous tumble down the ladder of school hierarchy, Eddie starts leaving notes in his locker.
He just needed to do something. Harrington's been a tragic ghost of his former self. Eddie's not sure on the specifics, but apparently there was a bad breakup with the Wheeler girl, then the fight with that asshole Hargrove, the new top dog of the jock pack; Steve's face bore horrifying marks of that for weeks afterwards. (Honestly, even if Harrington lost? Eddie would respect the fuck out of anyone's attempt to punch Billy Hargrove.)
It's just like with everyone else, Eddie tells himself. Every other lost sheep in this school Eddie's taken under his wing; except with Harrington, things are complicated. He's not even sure Steve would appreciate Eddie's open attempts to approach him. Just because he seems to have had a falling out with the other jocks doesn't necessarily mean he's prepared to become part of the freak circle. Might even laugh in Eddie's face at the offer. Eddie's not sure he could survive that.
What the hell, who is he even kidding. If this was any other jock, Eddie would be secretly gloating at his downfall. But honestly, it's not like he ever had any beef with Steve personally. Sure, Harrington would laugh at his dumb friends' dumb jokes, but was never hostile. Never called him Freak, much less any other names floating around. Eddie still remembers bumping into him last year on accident as he was walking backwards and only hearing "Jeez Munson, watch where you're going", no real bite to it. Eddie replayed those five seconds in his mind an embarrassing number of times.
Yeah. All other justifications aside, the truth is that Eddie's had a massive, completely unbecoming, frankly annoying crush on the guy since sophomore year. And so it upsets Eddie, seeing Harrington moping about the school corridors alone, a whole palette of colors on his face gradually changing and fading as his sour expression stays the same.
The notes are nothing special. Something to cheer the guy up, hopefully, if he can appreciate dumb pun jokes, which are Eddie's specialty.
The first note Eddie drops is just a question, "Why aren’t koalas actual bears?" Eddie very carefully watches from his own locker several feet away as Harrington finds the note, frowns at it, turns it around in his hand; but there's no punchline. Not yet. Steve frowns further, but there's a hint of a smile in the corners of his lips as he starts looking around, likely to figure out where this came from. Eddie makes a show of busying himself with rearranging books in his locker. He almost expects Steve to throw the note in the trash, but he pockets it before walking away.
The next day, Eddie drops the end of the joke. "They don’t meet the koalafications." And it's a bigger success than Eddie could have hoped for. Steve doesn't quite laugh, but Eddie sees him grinning as he shakes his head and rolls his eyes, then turns the paper around to find the next question. "Why shouldn't you trust stairs?"
"They're always up to something" gets an actual chuckle out of Steve the next day. "What’s red and moves up and down?"
"A tomato in an elevator" gets him a frustrated sigh, but still, a smiling one. Eddie tries to hide his grin behind the Monster Manual he pretends to read. Okay, fair, that was a very dumb one. "How do you make a tissue dance?"
"You put a little boogie in it." It's so childish, and yet it makes Steve actually laugh a little. Score.
This goes on for about a month, with a break for holidays, all the way into January. And Eddie's heart lightens as he starts to see a difference in Steve's demeanor. The guy isn't exactly skipping through school corridors, but he no longer looks like he just found out he has a terminal illness, or something.
It's not like Eddie can take full credit for Harrington's mood improvement. Steve doesn't seem to be making any new permanent friends, but Eddie would see him making friendly conversations with people who aren't part of Hawkins High royalty. Some girls from band sure don't mind his company and attention. Eddie tries not to feel jealous. He should be glad the guy's no longer spending all his days at school alone.
And yet... Maybe Eddie's delusional, but to him Steve looks the brightest, laughs the loudest, at one particular time of day. Whenever he finds a new note in his locker.
One time, Eddie sees him sitting on the floor by a classroom, frowning at Eddie's most recent note - holy shit, he's reading it over and over, trying to figure out the answer. Eddie has to turn around and run behind a corner so that when he screams into a fist, it would be out of Harrington's earshot. (Nobody even gives him a second glance as he does. Perks of having the reputation of a certified Freak.)
Sometimes, in the cafeteria or some of their shared classes, he thinks he catches Steve's eyes on him; but he's too chicken to look and confirm. He's definitely being paranoid. There's no way Harrington knows, right? Eddie's been careful about always dropping the note when no one was looking.
Eddie's secret scheme comes crashing down one January afternoon when he opens his own locker. There's a note in it. His eyes widen as he picks it up and reads the answer to his note from this morning, "Why did the teddy bear skip out on dessert?" - "Come on, too easy. Because it was stuffed"
Very slowly, Eddie lifts his head and glances to his right. Steve's by his own locker, leaning against it, looking right at Eddie. Fuck, he knows. Eddie wasn't being as sneaky as he'd like to believe. His heart beats so fast he thinks he might faint. But Harrington doesn't look disappointed at all that Eddie has been his mysterious joke postman all along; he's grinning, clearly proud of himself for knowing the answer.
He winks at Eddie, shuts his locker and walks away. As if that wasn't enough of a bullet to Eddie's heart, Harrington glances back over his shoulder once, still smiling. Eddie ducks his head and bites on his own smile, knees a little rubbery; he's praying his cheeks aren't as red as they feel.
Eddie keeps leaving notes, goes as far as picking all his friends' (and even his uncle's) brains for new ideas, claiming he needs it for a jokey trickster type NPC he's writing. And sometimes, if Steve knows the answer, he drops it into Eddie's locker.
They don't acknowledge it. Well, not verbally. But Harrington now openly notices him when they're in the same space, smiling at Eddie like... like they know each other. Like he's a friend. Something. Eddie's not sure what to do with his entire body at that; he shoves his hands into pockets to stop himself from doing something stupid like wave at Steve. He smiles back in a way that he hopes comes off as friendly and not completely smitten; he makes himself look away so his eyes don't linger, the fluttering of butterflies turning his stomach.
He's got it bad. He regrets nothing. He'll take... whatever this is, over Steve barely even knowing Eddie existed for three whole years.
It's a Friday in early February; Eddie's rummaging through the back of his van for various items for tonight's Hellfire. He notices movement out of the corner of his eye and nearly has a heart attack, thankfully not dropping any of his precious D&D books into the grimy parking lot snow.
Steve Harrington is there, leaning against Eddie's van.
"Come on, Munson, just tell me," he pleads with a smile, eyebrows raised. "It will be driving me up the walls all weekend otherwise." He looks down at a note he's holding. "When a bee is in your hand, what’s in your eye? I'm clueless, man."
No preamble. Not even a hello. Like they're just continuing a conversation they've been having. Like they've been talking this entire time. Except... they kind of were, so it makes sense? Maybe? Eddie doesn't even know anymore, he's too giddy about Steve being within two feet of him. Although he was completely unprepared to give the answer to Steve in person. Why did it have to be this one? Fuck.
"Uhm." He sets the books back down and mirrors Steve's pose, folding his hands on his chest to stop them from fidgeting. "Do you want the whole answer or a hint?"
Steve grins. "Okay, let's go with a hint."
"Beauty." Eddie has to glance away as he says it. He grabs his dice bag and fiddles with it, the familiar clicking calming his nerves a bit.
Steve is still here. He's looking up, frowning, muttering to himself; it doesn't take him very long though, his expression changing to pure delight, eyes wide as he looks at Eddie again.
"Beauty. Oh my god. It's in the eye of the bee-holder!" He giggles. "This is terrible. I love it."
"Well done," Eddie smiles, even though he is a bit upset. He kind of wanted Steve to keep thinking about him all weekend. Even if it was just in the context of a silly pun.
"You know, you're the funniest person I've ever... well, not talked to." Steve chuckles, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm not sure why I haven't. I should have just come over and said hi sooner."
Eddie's not sure what to make of it all. Harrington wanted to talk to him?
"Technically," he teases carefully, "you haven't actually said hi."
Steve's eyes widen. He slaps his own forehead, laughing, then moves a little closer. He's so, so pretty. Eddie's definitely gonna have a heart attack, for a different reason this time.
"Shit, you're right," Steve says, sheepish. "Hi."
"Hi," Eddie parrots, not recognizing his own voice; the butterflies inside him raging and swarming in his chest, clogging his throat.
"And, um. Eddie." Steve fiddles with the zipper of his own jacket. Eddie swallows a yelp at the sound of his name on the guy's lips. "On a serious note... I wanted to say thanks. I've had a lot on my mind lately and... this helped, a lot. To rack my brain over some silly puns. Not to think about..." He trails off, a shadow briefly passing over his face; then shakes his head and tries to smile again. "Never mind. Just wanted to thank you."
Eddie's heart squeezes in his chest. He's long had a hunch that there might have been more to Harrington's gloom than a breakup and one fight; he doesn't feel like he should ask, and doesn't know what to do with all this raw honesty coming from Steve. He guesses the only option is to be sincere in return. Well, as much as he has the guts to.
"Anytime," he says. "I'm just... glad you're feeling better."
Eddie's fingers itch to swipe at the skin below Harrington's eye, the bruise that was there now finally fully faded. He just might do it. Or do something even stupider, if Steve keeps looking at him like that. The full attention of his warm hazel eyes on Eddie. All relaxed and smiley and rosy-cheeked from the chill air.
Thankfully, the moment breaks when Steve giggles again, thunking his head lightly against the side of his van.
"Bee-holder. I still can't believe I didn't get it."
"I'm sure you would have eventually, if you just looked in a mirror."
Eddie freezes the moment the words fall off his lips, mentally slapping himself. What the fuck is his mouth doing?! First ever conversation he's had with the guy and he's already making it weird and gay and he's probably ruined everything with that one line and Harrington's—
He's— He's not punching Eddie. Not calling him out. In fact, his face slowly shifts from brief confusion to realization to absolute amazement at Eddie's words, and then he ducks his head, smiling, very obviously flustered.
"Damn." He sighs, looking up at Eddie, his eyes a little hooded. "And I always thought punny jokes were a bad flirting strategy."
There's no mockery in Steve's expression, not even a hint of disdain. In fact, he looks like he's trying really hard to channel his usual Harrington charm, except his smile looks a bit strained, lips pressed together too tightly. His cheeks are flushed, and as Eddie's stunned silence stretches on, he glances down at his feet again, starts chewing on his lip. He shifts from one foot to the other, like he's nervous. Like he's ready to bolt any second.
Eddie might still be processing what's happening (Steve Harrington fucking acknowledging point blank that they've been flirting, which wasn't even Eddie's intention in the first place; or maybe it was, he doesn't know anymore; also, since when does Harrington flirt with men?!). But he's not a complete moron, he's not letting this impossible chance get away. In the very unlikely case he's completely misread this, Eddie's prepared to accept the consequences.
"Guess I proved you wrong?" He says, smiling shyly, looking around to make sure they're still out of everyone's sight before he lets himself take one step closer.
It was so much easier to just leave notes in his locker. Eddie has no idea what he's supposed to be doing in person; he's, in fact, terrible at this. He flirts and compliments people left and right so easily when there's no stakes, when it can all be chalked up to his quirky humor. He's never had to try when it could be real.
Eddie takes a deep breath before looking Steve square in the eye and putting on his most charming smile.
"Come on, Steve, you gotta know a pun. Hit me. I promise it works."
Steve laughs, the color in his cheeks even brighter now, teeth worrying his lower lip again, but his posture visibly loosens.
"Well, um. I do know one. It's dumb though. Do you like raisins, Eddie?"
Eddie's heart hammers in his chest as he bursts into giggles. Yes, it's dumb, it's so completely stupid, and actually, he hates raisins, but he finds himself nodding anyway, just to see Steve's smile turn absolutely blinding as he delivers the punchline.
