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Will has been hovering around Eddie all day.
First at the arcade, then at family video, and now Steve can see him from the kitchen where he's finishing up calling in their pizza order.
He looks like he has something to say, or maybe ask, this nervous little crease to the upturn of his brow before he closes his mouth again or looks away. Steve hasn't pointed it out, sure Eddie has noticed on his own, and he seems content to let Will get wherever he's going on his own time.
Unfortunately for Will he hasn't been all that subtle.
"Can you ask whatever you wanna ask already!?" Dustin says, with the patience of a wrecking ball. The rest of the kids are looking between Will and Dustin now, waiting to see what happens.
"It's fine Will, you can ask," Eddie says, and ah, Will must have seen something when they went to pick up him and El earlier. It's not that they've been hiding that they're dating from the kids exactly, or well, not really. But they hadn't known how they'd react, and they just knew Dustin would be a smug little shit about them 'getting along' so they were waiting for the right time and then suddenly three months had passed...
They haven't been hiding it though, haven't toned down their affectionate touches or fond looks, Eddie still calls him Sweetheart and Baby and any other little pet name that comes to mind, and Steve still reaches for his hand at every opportunity and is never more than a step or two away from Eddie's personal space unless he has to be.
So when they'd picked up El and Will, Steve definitely remembers leaning through the van's window to plant one on Eddie. He'd known he would be a few minutes, Joyce needing to know their plans and the kids trying to negotiate a last minute sleep over, plus Steve's a clingy guy, sue him.
Eddie's hand had also sat on Steve's thigh all the way to Mike's place, so it's not like Eddie isn't right there with him.
"Are you..." Will starts, glancing at the rest of the party around the table, "are you and Steve dating?"
Silence.
And that would be Steve's cue, distractedly thanking the pizza guy and hanging up he heads into the dining room to stand behind Eddie's chair. They'd already talked about this, so Steve slides a hand onto Eddie's shoulder and has a moment to internally panic before Eddie reaches up to tangle their fingers together and answers.
"Yeah," he lifts their hands and shakes them, and Steve watches as Dustin's mouth flaps soundlessly open and closed.
"WHAT?" Dustin shrieks, and the noise seems to startle Mike out if his frozen shock.
"Ew, why?" Mike's face screws up into a disgusted grimace, Max leans across and punches him in the arm, hard. "Ow what the hell Max- it's- they can't be dating." He turns to Eddie and Steve, "you guys can't date."
He'd practically spit the last word, Eddie flinching and letting go of Steve's hand as it lands.
"Ah..." Steve can see the way Eddie's smile slides off his face, a slightly mean looking cocky smirk taking it's place immediately after that's more suited to the halls of Hawkins high than Steve's dining room. He's not the only one who's expression changes, Will looking stricken as he stares at the side of Mike's head. Eddie stays quiet, and that's the most disconcerting part, let's Steve know how hurt he is.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Steve squares his shoulders, making himself look bigger from his place standing behind Eddie's chair.
"You want to try that again, Wheeler?" Steve's voice comes out even, solid, probably the only thing helping him keep it that way is knowing Eddie is off kilter. Most of the kids still haven't said a word, looking between Steve and Mike like they're watching a tennis match.
"It's gross," Mike says, as if it's helping his case. This does get a reaction from the others, voices loudly overlapping in their haste to tell Mike off. Dustin, Steve notices, is silent.
Mike looks around, frantic at the sudden burst of noise, until he sees Will's face.
"No! I didn't mean- guys can... I didn't mean it like that." Mike stutters out, he looks back to Eddie and Steve, eyes darting between them both. Steve tilts his head to the side and raises a single eyebrow, waiting for more, because his explanation wasn't enough for Eddie's shoulders to relax from the stiff looking position he's sitting in. "Will I didn't- I don't care if someone's gay, it's because it's Steve."
And oh. That feels... not great.
***
Eddie is... stuck.
His words build up behind his teeth, until he has to swallow them back to form a lump in his throat and a heavy stone in his stomach.
He can feel his face contort, an angry mask, in front of these kids that he'd thought- he'd told Steve there was nothing to worry about.
Steve becomes an imposing presence behind him that Eddie can practically feel radiating defense, wants to look because he knows his Steve is striking when he gets all protective, but he can't drag his eyes away from Mike Wheeler. As if this beanpole of a kid is suddenly a threat.
"You want to try that again, Wheeler?" Steve says. And gods his voice, so steady and not quite dangerous, never quite gets there when it's one of his kids he's talking to, but there's something there that Eddie wants to taste. Too bad he's currently busy feeling like all the air is being sucked from the room to follow through.
"It's gross," Mike says, and Eddie manages not to flinch this time, because fuck that. He's had worse spat at him by highschool bullies twice as mean as Wheeler could ever dream of being. So what if it's different coming from someone you thought you could trust not to-
The kids erupt into sound, Eddie lets his eyes dart around at each of them, lingering on Will's devastated face. Well shit.
Mike backtracks, stumbles through explaining until he finally says: "I don't care if someone's gay," and Eddie feels himself exhale, shoulders tentatively collapsing down until: "it's because it's Steve."
He vaguely hears a few angry hisses of Mike's name, but it takes a minute to sink in as he blinks, because now Eddie isn't hurt. He's angry.
And feeling the way Steve practically shrinks behind him, warmth of his hands glancing along Eddie's back as he grips the back of the chair in a no doubt white knuckle grip, just stokes the fire.
"Oh then... never mind I guess." Steve mutters, "it's-"
"You want to try that again, Wheeler?" Eddie interrupts, a mirror of Steve's own defense of him but sharp and shark like, because he knows Steve was about to say it was 'fine'. And it's very much not, as far as Eddie is concerned, thank you very much.
"He so lame, and he's such an asshole, and Eddie is cool!" Mike says, heedless of Eddie's tone, and that sets the kids off squabbling again.
"If you think I won't s-"
"Mike's right," Dustin says, cutting Eddie off, and he feels his heart dump itself into his stomach. Because what? Where's the smug little shit they'd been expecting? "Not about Steve," he waves a hand in dismissal, Eddie thinks these kids should stop giving him heart attacks for at least the rest of the day. "But that you guys can't possibly be dating."
"Just because half of you were too dumb to notice it before now, doesn't mean they can't be dating." Erica says, pure derision in her voice, "El, Max, and I have known for months."
"No! There's no way. They're nothing alike." Eddie reaches back to grab Steve by the sweater sleeve. They'd had this conversation and he's not going to rehash all their insecurities because of some twerps reacting impulsively. "Eddie hates jocks, and rich people, and the music Steve listens to, and the movies he likes, and Steve knows nothing about Dungeons and Dragons." He says the last one like it's a cardinal sin, and something inside Eddie sighs from the depths of the grave the Munson Doctrine had dug him. "He wears polos!"
And Eddie will hear no slander against Steve's preppy little polos.
"Maybe he's the one who shouldn't like me, hmm? I know nothing about sports, my hair care routine involves a 3-in-1 that includes body wash, I live in the trailer park, and all the music I listen to could make someone's brain melt out their ears." Eddie says, and he can practically feel the way Steve is ready to interrupt, reaches back with the hand not stretching the cuff of Steve's sweater to press his fingers blindly against his mouth. "Nope, shush sweetheart, I'm busy teaching some children a lesson." Steve huffs against his fingers, but stays quiet, lets Eddie's fingers stay prodding him in the chin. "Have you considered surface likes and dislikes don't determine compatibility? Or that if all you have in common is the kind of music or hobbies you enjoy your relationship is going to crash and burn?"
Dustin still looks skeptical, but less so now, mouth a flat considering line. Mike though.
"But him and Nancy, he-"
"Yeah yeah Michael, we're all aware he dated your sister. Considering they're friends and they've both moved on maybe you should too, hm?" He stands, placing his hands onto the dining room table, still clutching Steve's sleeve so he's forced to follow along. "You're awfully fixated on something that happened years ago, for someone happy to make use of Steve's car, and eat his pizza, and take up room in his house."
"I can see it," Lucas says, probably an attempt to diffuse the tension, "the opposites attract thing."
"They are not opposites though, not really," El says. "They are both protective and kind, brave, more the same than different."
"It's obvious," Erica says, "that idiot," she points at Steve, "runs himself ragged looking out for everyone. And then that idiot," she points at Eddie, "looks out for him. They've been doing it since before they were even dating."
Observant little shit. That was practically the exact line Eddie had first used to get into Steve's pants and everything. 'Oh Steve, you're all burnt out from looking after everyone, maybe it's time you let someone look after you.' An eyebrow waggle and a belt loop tug later and they'd ended up furiously making out with Eddie's hand down the front of Steve's jeans in the bathroom at the Upside Down family barbecue. Eddie can't meet Erica's eyes, collapses messily back into his chair instead.
It's not Eddie's fault he'd noticed as far back as his first foray into the Upside Down that Steve prioritises literally everyone above himself. God damn selfless shirtless hunks running around Anti Hawkins like they didn't have holes chewed into their stomaches and half their skin missing from their back. But he digresses.
"We're getting away from the point, here," he lets go of Steve so he can steeple his fingers and sprawl on his chair as close to his Hellfire throne as possible. "I love your babysitter, so either get on board," his eyes cut to Mike's, staring him down, "or get out."
"Ugh fine." Dustin says, "but you'd better not break each other's hearts, I'm not choosing sides if you divorce."
"You should apologise." Eddie hears Will say lowly to Mike under the din of the other kids giving Dustin shit. Unfortunately for Eddie- or maybe fortunately, to be determined- what he'd said catches up to him when Steve says, small and hopeful behind him:
"You love me?"
Tilting his head back Steve's awestruck face comes into view, and wow if he'd known it'd put that look on his face he'd have said it sooner instead of agonising over how too soon too fast too intense it was.
"Yeah, Steve, I love you." He reaches up his hands, cradles Steve's cheeks and tries to bring him closer to kiss him but the chair back is too high, and this angle sucks, and-
Suddenly he's tipped backwards along with his chair, biting back the yelp that threatens to burst forth as his fingers dig into Steve's suddenly much closer cheeks.
"I love you, too," Steve speaks practically against his lips right before he kisses him. It stays chaste, likely in deference to all the children around, but man does it get Eddie's heart pounding all the same.
There are still apologies to be heard- Eddie's sure one conversation isn't going to kill the bee in Mike's bonnet, the little asshole, and Dustin could use a talking to about being supportive when your friends come out to you before the whole Will situation presents itself- and he should probably talk to Will... and maaaybe to all of them about letting go of the bitter crap Eddie had spouted during his third senior year.
But right now Eddie is too busy admiring the way the man he love's biceps flex as he holds him up on his chair, and with stopping himself from jumping the guy's bones for basically Spider Man kissing him and making one of his nerdy childhood dreams come true.
So yeah, later, he's busy.