Chapter Text
Eddie was pretty certain he was going to freeze to death in the woods. He called his friends names but heard nothing in return. He was lost, there was snow on the ground, and nobody could hear him. He was a dead man. He was going to die before he even got to graduate from high school.
Then Eddie spotted a light and his hopes rose. If it was a flashlight maybe it was one of the others and they still knew how to get back, if it was a street light, he could figure it out by the street and find his way back from there, if it was a house he’s be able to find a street to find his way back with. He ruled out the flashlight as he noticed it wasn’t moving, at all, and kept walking.
As he got closer he came to the conclusion it was a porch light. Unfortunately it was a porch light to a two story house, which probably meant rich people. Thankfully all the inside lights looked like they were off. He got a little closer and noticed the fence on the sides but not the back. Which he thought was kinda stupid but when were rich people smart?
He got up to the spot before he stopped to think about how he was getting out of there without alerting any rich assholes to his presence. Maybe he could just walk down backyard to backyard till the road ended? Unfortunately he didn’t know which side the road ended sooner on and he was slowly freezing to death. This was a stupid idea. Let’s play real life DND in the woods, at night, in February. What was he thinking!?
But as he stood there he noticed the tarped over pool, and the little bit of steam poking out from the edges of the trap. How many people in fucking Hawkins had heated pools!? At least one apparently. He stepped over to it, considering dipping his hand in to warm them up. But as he crouched beside the pool he thought better of it, it might work at first but then his hands would be wet in the cold air and he didn’t have a towel and shouldn’t use his jeans unless he wanted frost bitten thighs. He sighed.
Then he heard a noise and spun his head to watch the slider door slam open. Shit. His presence was perceived. Fuck. He jumped up to run back into the woods but slipped. He fell backwards onto the trap, pulling it down into the pool with him. He kicked and struggled to swim to the surface but he was probably just tangling himself up even more in the tarp. Stupid him for never learning how to fucking swim.
It was kinda fitting that he’d die in some rich asshole's heated pool. Except he felt a tug on his jacket and then his face was above the water. An arm around his waist dragged him over to the side of the pool and pulled him out. He wasn’t dying, not yet anyway. Maybe his savior would even give him a towel before calling the cops for him trespassing.
“Shit, are you okay?” A voice asked. He knew that voice. He slowly looked over at the face of Steve fucking Harrington and took a deep breath.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied as he tried to stand back up, but he stumbled and almost ended up back in the pool if it weren’t for Steve grabbing him.
“Come on, I’ll get you a towel and some dry clothes.” Steve guided him over to the still open back door, Eddie’s shoes squeaking on the tile. He really ran straight for him? Steve had him sit on one of the stools at his counter, leaving the door wide open as he ran out of the room. He came back with a towel, and once he had it draped over Eddie’s shoulders he finally shut his backdoor, as if Eddie had been his main concern. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you, I thought you were an animal when I first saw you.” Steve explained.
“Oh.” Eddie forced out a laugh. Why was he apologizing to the guy who was trespassing in his yard? And more specifically Eddie the freak Munson. Did he seriously not recognize him at all? Was that it?
“Sorry, I’ll go get you some dry clothes now.” Steve quickly left the room, and by the sound it ran upstairs. He came back down carrying dry clothes on his arms, careful to not have them too close to his own, still soaked, clothes. When he handed them to him Eddie took them with the same amount of carefulness.
“Uh, where’s your bathroom?” He asked.
“Out there, it’s the first door on the left.” Steve pointed to the archway leaving the kitchen. Eddie nodded and followed his instructions. The sweatpants Steve had lent him were a little big on him but he tightened the strings and they stayed up so it was good enough. Once he had changed he stumped back into the kitchen and spotted Steve, still in his soaking wet clothes, pacing back and forth between the counter against the wall and the island counter, socks squeaking on the floor.
“Hey.” Eddie raised his hand in a half assed wave.
“Hey.” Steve stopped pacing to smile at him. “That any better?” He asked.
“Um, yeah? I guess.”
“Okay.” Steve nodded. “I’m gonna take you to the hospital now.”
“What!?” Eddie spat back, exasperated. He didn’t need to go to the hospital, he was fine, he even had dry clothes now. And he couldn’t afford a hospital visit even if he wasn’t fine.
“It’s just, a precaution.”
“Why?”
“Have you ever heard of secondary drowning?”
“No?”
“Well you could think your fine, but have water in your lungs that makes it so you can’t breath hours later and then-”
“Wow, just another reason to hate water.” Eddie sighed. “But I’m not going to the hospital, I’m probably fine.” Plus he certainly couldn’t afford a visit for literally nothing. He left that bit out, knowing Mr. Rich Guy wouldn’t get it, and would probably make fun of him too. Steve sighed.
“Fine, is there at least someone back at your house that can keep an eye on you, in case you’re not fine?”
“Nah, my Uncle works nights, but I’m fine, I swear. Besides I really have to get back to my van, my friends are probably there, waiting for a ride.” Eddie explained. But Steve was looking back at him with scrunched up eyebrows “We were playing in the woods, and I got lost.” Eddie added. It sounded childish but he was too tired to care.
“Where’s your van?”
“It’s parked about the end of Cornwallis.”
“Alright.” Steve sighed. “I’ll take you down there, do you think you could stay the night with one of your friends though?”
“Jesus Harrington, why do you care so much?”
“Because you could die!? Why would I not care?”
“Oh, it’s ‘cause I fell in your pool. Pretty sure there wouldn’t be a lawsuit about that, I was trespassing and all.” Eddie waved his hand around in dismissal. Steve’s eyes widened.
“No, dude, I don’t want you to die, period. It has nothing to do with that stupid pool!” Steve yelled back. “Sorry, sorry, that- sorry.”
“You, King Steve, don’t want me, The Freak, to die?” Eddie repeated. Ignoring the flinch Steve had when he said the word ‘king.’
“Exactly.” Steve grunted. “And, for the record, I don’t want anybody to die. I don’t think that’s a normal thought anybody has.”
“Whatever. Can you just give me a ride to my van?”
“Yeah.” Steve sighed. “But if one of your friends doesn't agree to have you stay with them you’re coming back here.”
“That won’t, like, totally freak out your parents?” Eddie asked.
“I mean, it would, if they were here.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, they went to Europe for a month, I don’t know if it’s a vacation or if they’re trying to globalize my father’s company, but they won’t be back till the 20th.” That was kinda depressing.
“Oh. Let’s- let’s just go.”
“Alright.” Steve nodded before he started walking toward his front door.
“You know you're still in your soaking wet clothes, right?” Eddie asked.
“Shit, yeah, just give me a minute.” Steve replied, spinning around to head up the stairs. Eddie stood by the door holding his soaked shoes. They certainly weren’t going to be comfortable. Steve came flying back down the stairs, dressed in dry clothes, a jacket, and shoes. He also was carrying an extra pair of shoes and a jacket in his hands. “I hope these fit.”
“Thanks.” Eddie replied, taking them. The jacket fit just about the same as the yellow sweater Steve had lent him, a little loose but not as bad as the sweatpants. The shoes however, were a little tight, he got them on, but they were a bit uncomfortable.
The ride to his van was silent, other than the pop music playing on the radio, but since the volume was almost all the way down he didn’t really want to count it as noise. Steve pulled up behind Eddie’s van and they both got out. Gareth was leaning against the side of the van and ran up to Eddie.
“Holy shit! Where were you!?” He yelled. “Why are you-” He looked over at Steve, then back to Eddie, “What are you wearing?”
“I- I got lost, stumbled into his backyard,” He pointed at Steve, “Then fell into his pool-”
“Shit.”
“Yeah, so, I have his clothes, and he gave me a ride back here. Where’s Jeff and Joey?”
“Well, when we tried to call you and you weren’t around we went looking for you, but we were unsuccessful so we headed back to the van thinking maybe you went back there, but you weren’t there and then we thought maybe we should just wait here for you to come back, but it was getting late so they headed home. We were gonna call tomorrow morning, and if you didn’t pick up we were gonna call the cops and report you missing.” Gareth explained.
“They… walked home?” Eddie asked. It was quite the walk, for both of them, and in the cold, what were they thinking?
“Well, that or to the nearest payphone to call their parents, I don’t know. Can you just drive me home already? It's freezing.”
“Yeah.” Eddie sighed.
“About that,” Steve interrupted, “Since he fell into my pool and nearly drowned, can he stay at your house tonight? He refused to go to the hospital and there’s such a thing as secondary drowning, I just need to know that someone’s around if he stops breathing.”
“No, I’m not allowed to guests over for another week, I think she mostly meant no band practice but I don’t want to take that chance.” Gareth replied. He’d gotten himself grounded for not doing his chores before practice a week ago. He was still allowed to leave the house though so it was more like half grounded, Eddie really didn’t get it. He nodded though.
“You’re coming back to my house after you drop him off.” Steve ordered.
“You can’t make me.” Eddie teased. He received a glare in response.
“Eddie, please, you can’t die on us man.” Gareth pleaded.
“Fine, whatever, I’ll go to Harrington's house.” Eddie rolled his eyes, flinging his arms into the air. He was definitely not doing that, but he needed to leave already, Gareth was probably going to get hypothermia if they stood out there any longer.
“See you later.” Steve waved to Eddie as he and Gareth climbed into his van.
“Yeah, yeah, see you later.” Eddie waved in dismal before slamming his door shut and driving off. “Can you believe that guy!?” He yelled to Gareth.
“It seemed like he was trying to help.” Gareth muttered.
“I know.” Eddie groaned. “That's the problem. When did Steve Harrington become a nice person who helps people?”
“I don’t know.”
“I mean, seriously, he pulled me out of his pool, brought me inside his house, gave me dry clothes, and now doesn’t want me out of his sight so I don’t drown on dry land.”
“Yeah.”
“What happened to the asshole jock who’s friend threw gum in my hair during math?”
“I don’t know.” Gareth muttered, again. “People change in moments of crisis. Also he stopped talking to Hagen though, didn’t he?”
“I guess, they had some falling out when he started dating Wheeler, but they broke up so I thought maybe they were talking again?”
“I haven’t seen anything.”
“Yeah, me neither.” Eddie sighed. “You really think he changed, completely, because of Nancy Wheeler?”
“Well, no, because if she was fully behind it, he probably would’ve gone back to his old self when she dumped him, but, he didn’t.”
“So, what inspired the change then.”
“I don’t know, why don’t you ask him, you’re spending the night at his house.”
“As fucking if, I am not going back there.”
“Eddie!”
“I said it to shut you both up so I could take you back to your house so you don’t get hypothermia.”
“Eddie, please, I don’t want anything to happen to you.” Gareth begged.
“I am not-”
“Please.”
“Arg, fine.”
“You better.”
“I will, geez.” Eddie rolled his eyes. “Now will you drop it.”
“Promise you’ll go.”
“Okay, I promise.”
“Thank you.”
“Yeah, whatever.” Eddie grunted. “You’re gonna look really dumb though when literally nothing happens.”
“I’d rather look dumb than find out you died.”
“Whatever.”
“Hey, maybe, by the end of the night, you won’t even hate him anymore.”
“Don’t push your luck.” Eddie replied, as he pulled into Gareth’s driveway.
“Technically, that’s your luck, not mine.” Gareth shrugged. “So, I wish you luck.” He opened the door.
“I don’t need luck.”
“That better be just because you’re dead set on hating the guy and not because you’re not going back to his house.”
“I’m going, Jesus.” Eddie rolled his eyes. “Now go inside before you get sick.”
“Okay.” Gareth sighed, but he listened. Eddie watched him close the front door behind him before backing out of his driveway. Eddie did, unfortunately, drive back to Harrington’s house, on the off chance he wasn’t fine, Gareth didn’t deserve that. Did Eddie deserve a sleepover with King Steve? Probably not. But not dying unfortunately came first. He was probably going to wake up in the morning completely fine and regret the whole thing, but he couldn’t take the chance. The second Eddie pulled into the Harrington’s driveway Steve opened the front door. Was he standing by a window waiting to see Eddie’s van?
“I was really worried you weren’t going to come back here and you just said that so I’d shut the fuck up.” Steve told him as Eddie walked twords the door.
“Well, that’s kinda a valid worry cause I almost did that.” Eddie smiled at him, before stepping inside. “It was kinda the plan but Gareth gave me shit about it.”
“Good.”
“Yeah, except when I wake up tomorrow, completely fine, you’re both gonna seem really stupid.”
“I can live with that.” Steve shrugged. “I’m usually pretty stupid. And I’d prefer you to be fine, by the way, it’s just a precaution.”
“Right. So, speaking of waking up, where am I sleeping? Like are you gonna make me sleep on the couch or do you have a guest room or som-”
“No.” Steve interrupted. “You’re here so I can keep an eye on you and make sure you’re still breathing. You’re sleeping in my room.” Shit. That was way worse than a couch.
“Uh, doesn’t that kinda cancel out the second you go to sleep anyway? So what’s the point?” Eddie argued.
“Yeah, I won’t be sleeping.”
“You have to sleep.” Eddie crossed his arms. “That’s ridiculous.”
“No, I have to make sure you don’t die.”
“Bullshit.” Eddie shot back. “You just don’t want to get sued or whatever.” He added, ignoring Steve’s flinch.
“I already told you it has nothing to do with that.”
“Well, I don’t believe you.”
“Whatever, just come upstairs.” Steve turned for the staircase and waved Eddie to follow. He sighed, but followed him up the stairs anyway. He was kinda tired.
“You aren’t going to stay up all night.” Eddie declared, as a fact, because it was. But Steve just sighed, opening a door, and gesturing Eddie inside. The walls were probably the hideous thing Eddie had ever seen in his life. It looked like graph paper. He was going to have math nightmares if he slept within a mile radius of those walls. And the curtains matched too, it was so ugly. Also who frames a picture of a car and hangs it on the wall? Even if it was, like, a dream car, a poster works fine. “Dude, this is the ugliest room I’ve ever seen.”
“That’s fair.” Steve just shrugged in response. There was definitely something wrong with him. Eddie just wanted to piss the guy off so he’d kick him out and then it wasn’t technically his fault if he died, and he didn’t have to feel bad about Gareth. But Steve apparently didn’t know what an insult was.
“You know, if you’d told me we were sleeping together I would’ve invited you to my trailer instead so I don’t have to stare at your math walls.”
“If you really hate the walls that much, I have two guest rooms. We could stay in whichever one insults your eyes less.”
“We- Goddamnit Harrington.”
“What?”
“You were supposed to get pissy over my poor word choice and kick me out.”
“Oh. Sorry, but that’s not happening. I mean, you could keep trying if you want but there really isn’t anything you could say that I’m going to get mad enough to kick you out over. Do you still want to look at the guestrooms or..?”
“No.” Eddie flopped over onto Steve’s bed.
“Okay.”
“Are you sure there’s nothing I could say?” Eddie asked. He wasn’t sure he’d actually go through with it because telling Steve probably meant telling the whole damn town, but it would definitely get him kicked out.
“Yes.” Steve answered, sitting down on the edge of his bed.
“Okay what if, and I’m not saying I am, ‘cause I’m not, this is just definitely kicking out territory-” Yeah, that was totally believable. Eddie coughed. “What if I said I was gay?” He glanced over at Steve, who, shockingly, didn’t look angry. “Again, I’m not, just saying there are definitely things I could say to get kicked out.”
“No.”
“What?”
“No. I still wouldn’t take the chance of you fucking dying just because you told me you’re gay.”
“Even if I hadn’t said I was lying? Like, if you totally believed I was, you’d still let me be in your house, and even worse, share a fucking bed with me?” Eddie asked and Steve nodded. “Okay, you’re crazy.”
“I am not.” Steve argued. “Somebody being gay isn’t worth their fucking life.”
“Firstly, I’m fine. Secondly, guest rooms, you aren’t going to stay up staring at me all night anyway. And thirdly, what? You, Steve Harrington, aren’t homophobic? Are you sure your pool isn’t a fucking portal to another dimension or something.”
“No.” Steve replied but he had a kinda far off look on his face, like he was somewhere else.
“Okay, so, you wouldn’t kick me out but would you, I don’t know, tell anybody?”
“What? No.”
“Oh, come on,” Eddie flopped back down, facing the ceiling as he kept talking. “I heard you called Jonathan Byers gay.”
“I- Yeah, I guess. I said I thought he was, before I saw him in Nancy’s room, but I only said that because then I knew he wasn’t. I never would have said anything if he actually was.”
“Right.” Eddie sighed. “Okay, I’m totally gonna regret this but, uh, I am actually gay.”
“Oh.”
“Yup.” Eddie popped the p. He let there be silence for a few seconds before continuing. “You gonna kick me out now?”
“No.”
“Damn.”
“You should use a blanket though. You were running around in the woods in the cold and then fell in my goddamn pool, you could get hypothermia even if you don’t drown.”
“Yeah, okay.” Eddie sighed, sitting up. He pulled one of the blankets aside and climbed under it. “You jumped in that pool too by the way, and you don’t have a blanket, in fact you’re even wearing a t-shirt right now you psycho.”
“I’m fine.” Steve laughed, Eddie glared at him. Of course he got to say he was fine but Eddie couldn’t. “Okay.” Steve sighed, picking up the other end of the blanket and climbing under. “Happy?” He asked, lying next to Eddie. What the hell had he done?
“Mhm.” Eddie turned away from Steve. Facing the empty space of his room, and those ugly walls, instead. Technically he’d still be facing the ugly walls if he looked at Steve too, but Steve would kind of subtract from the ugliness. The guy had a super power of some kind. Pretty Boy Superpower: make everything look pretty, even those stupid polos. Yeah, Eddie really shouldn’t be sharing a bed with the guy. Then the bed shifted. “Did you just move closer to me?”
“Yeah.” Steve sighed. “To better hear your breathing.”
“I’m good.” Eddie rolled back onto his back.
“Sorry.”
“You’re just a bundle of anxiety, aren’t you?”
“I guess.” Steve sighed. “I just- I’m really sick of people dying, okay?”
“You know, technically, and I know this probably isn’t what you meant, but I think we kinda have to. It’s the whole being mortal thing. You get old and you die.”
“Yeah, but Barb wasn’t old.”
“Yeah. Not what you meant.” Eddie nodded. “You didn’t really even know her though, right?”
“No, I didn’t.” Steve sighed. “I tried, and I like to think I would’ve, she was Nancy’s best friend after all, but then she died in my backyard.”
“Oh shit. She- I didn’t know it was your yard.”
“Yeah, I can barely stand to go out there anymore.” Steve chuckled.
“And then I fall into your pool and bring up all those bad memories.”
“You make it sound like it’s your fault.” Steve replied with a slight teasing tone and a poke to the ribs.
“Of course it is, I should’ve just stayed out of your yard. I should’ve just walked one direction from backyard to backyard until I was finally at a road, but no, I had to step into your yard.”
“Honestly I’m glad you didn’t do that. Remember that point about hypothermia? At least you got out of the cold.”
“Right.” Eddie scoffed.
“I’m worried about your friends.”
“Yeah, me too.” Eddie sighed. “I don’t even know for sure if Jeff and Joey got rides or if they just fucking walked, in the cold, all the way home. And Gareth just stood there, outside the van, I taught that kid his pick locks he should’ve broken in. But he just stood there in the cold, waiting for me.” Eddie buried his face in his hands. “This was all just a stupid idea. Let’s pretend to be our D&D charters and run around the woods in the dark in fucking February.” Eddie mocked himself.
“Was it fun? Before you got lost.”
“What? Yeah. Of course it was.”
“Then don’t beat yourself up so much. How were you supposed to predict getting lost?”
“I guess.” Eddie sighed. “Good night, Harrington.”
“Goodnight.” Steve replied. Eddie shut his eyes, trying to fall asleep, but he could still feel Steve’s eyes in him. He sighed, opening his eyes, and glancing over at Steve, who was indeed staring.
“Okay, you know that’s creepy, right? How am I ever supposed to fall asleep with you staring at me?”
“Sorry.” Steve finally darted his eyes off him, looking at the ceiling. Eddie shut his eyes again. It was only a few more seconds before he felt like he was being watched again. Who knew Steve Harrington was such an anxious person? Despite the starring Eddie did, eventually, doze off.