Ever since Eddie was released from the hospital, Steve has been avoiding him like the plague.
Not that Eddie expected them to strike up a great friendship or bond over their trauma like blood brothers or something (Eddie imagines telling Steve: get it? because my blood was in your mouth, haha...ha), but it gets to a point where, at the very least, he wants to thank him for saving his ass from certain death.
But these days, every time he gets close to the man, he looks like he's seen a ghost. At Family Video, Steve pushes Robin to the front of the counter the moment Eddie enters, then stumbles into a life-size cutout of Tom Cruise in aviator glasses before disappearing into the back room. Or that time when they accidentally bumped into each other at the grocery store, and Steve just left his cart in the middle of the aisle before sprinting to the exit. When Steve picks up the brats from Hellfire, he doesn't even get out of the car, just honks and honks until the whole throttle of kids climbs inside his bimmer with agonized groans.
Eddie, out of his depth here, asks Dustin, "What do you think Harrington would like to receive as a thank-you gift for saving my life?"
And Dustin, clearly not interested in giving this topic more than a couple of his brain cells' attention while reading his newest X-Men comic, answers, "Flowers, I guess. At least that's what he picked up for Nancy whenever he messed up."
Eddie grimaces at that. He can't imagine handing Harrington a bouquet of roses, not that he even has the budget for it.
But there is a place just south of Forest Hill that he knows has a large field of wildflowers. He ends up there that afternoon, and spends several hours finding flowers that he imagines look similar to those you would find in a real bouquet from a fancy florist.
When he's finally satisfied with the colorful collection, his hands are rubbed raw and pink from cutting them at the stems, and it's getting dark. He finds a rubber band in his truck to keep the flowers bound together, then heads to Family Video.
He doesn't make the same mistake as usual, but waits in his truck until he sees Robin and Steve at the doors instead. They're in some kind of deep discussion while they close up based on the way Steve's hand flail about.
Eddie jumps out of the truck, yells, "Harrington!" realizing a moment too late, he sounds unhinged and like he's trying to murder the guy.
Steve freezes the moment he sees Eddie, then he turns to Robin, whispering urgently into her ear. Robin hisses something back, shakes her head, and pries her arm out of Steve's hold.
"That's on you," she says before walking away, ignoring the pleading look in Steve's eyes.
She throws Eddie a grin when she passes him by.
"Hi, Eddie," she says, "got him finally cornered, huh?"
Steve is pressed up against the glass door behind his back, stands as straight and narrow as if he's a soldier waiting for a command.
Eddie huffs a frustrated breath. "What's up with your attitude, Harrington?"
"Attitude? What attitude?" he squeaks, having intense eye contact with the devil printed on the shirt covering Eddie's chest. He's acting insane. And that's saying something coming from Eddie.
Eddie sighs, rubs his face with his free hand, then pulls the flowers from behind his back.
"Here," he says, pushing the bouquet between them. "For you."
Steve looks a little bit like he was struck by lightning. His hair is always standing up, but it seems as if the whole situation has electrified it even more, his cheeks turning ruddy, his mouth open in a small gasp, his eyes wide.
"Take it," Eddie says, losing his patience, then realizes that this is probably the worst thank you anybody has ever received.
"I- I thought you didn't mean it," Steve stammers, eyes flicking up to Eddie's for just a second before he has to look away again.
Eddie frowns, tries to think very hard about why Steve would think Eddie's thank-you would be anything but genuine.
"Of course, I mean it," Eddie barks, bites his tongue, then says a little gentler, "I mean, duh, how could you think I don't?"
"Oh," Steve says, his entire face burning red. He carefully takes the flowers out of Eddie's hands, still looking anywhere but at Eddie. "No, I just mean- I mean I would get it. If it was just a joke. Like you know, how you laughed right after I agreed to your... uh, proposal. Like, haha, ridiculous, don't fret, Harrington, obviously I'm not serious."
Eddie is lost. He can't remember ever laughing at anything in Steve's presence, nor having a conversation in which Steve agreed to any kind of proposal. Eddie hums, scratches his chin, then says something that makes no sense, but that a whirring, humming part inside his chest insists he says,
"I mean, I was not not serious."
Steve ducks his head, presses his lips into a thin smile, skin flushed to the point that Eddie thinks he might burn his fingertips on Steve's cheeks if he touched him. Eddie's brain still hasn't caught up with his body's reaction to the whole situation, he just knows that whatever Steve is assuming, he wants him to keep assuming it.
"Okay," Steve finally says. And then he looks at Eddie, and the entire world narrows down to that pretty smile on Steve's lips. There's no Family Video, no parking lot, no smell of wet asphalt and exhaust.
"Yeah, okay. I mean, I already said so that day in the hospital, but I know you were probably high on all those painkillers, and then you were... laughing, so- I thought, you know what, it might be for the better, right? I mean, there was that whole crisis you threw me into for the last few weeks, but it was just a joke, right? Haha? Steve got the wrong idea again. Not that I'm holding a grudge, or that it would make me-"
"Flee as soon as you see me?"
"Yeah, I guess I did that, huh?"
"Right," Eddie says, carefully arranging the puzzle pieces Steve's laid out for him about painkillers and conversations in the hospital, proposals that were agreed to, and jokes that were made afterwards. His brain feels like it was dipped in molasses, though, and everything makes just kind of sense, but also it really doesn't.
"You're not joking right now?" Steve asks, gesturing around with the flowers. "These are-?"
"Serious flowers," Eddie replies, because that's one thing he knows for sure. "I picked them myself." He lifts his hands, shows off his blistered skin in the spare light.
Steve's nervously chewing on his bottom lip, glancing around the dark, deserted parking lot, and next thing Eddie knows, he's leaning in, and Eddie's mind implodes with a certain, blinding kind of clarity that has him shake in his boots.
It's not even close to how he thought his thank-you flowers would be received, but he takes it, oh, he so fucking takes it. He kisses Steve back just for a millisecond, but Steve laughs against his mouth, and Eddie's heart drops into his stomach. Maybe that's the joke now? Is Eddie the joke?
But Steve doesn't pull away, keeps smiling into the kiss. "I've never been wooed before," he snickers.
"Oh?" Eddie croaks because that's all his brain can provide.
"I like it," Steve says, then leans in to kiss Eddie again, but better.
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