Chapter Text
"Hey, Steve?"
Steve turned around and Jonathan frowned. Steve's eyes were puffy and his nose was red. "Oh, hey, man. What's up?"
Jonathan could tell he was trying not to wipe the obvious tears from his face.
As if that wouldn't draw attention to them.
"I wanted to talk to you about you and Eddie's relationship-"
Steve crumpled. That was the only way to describe it. The man was barely holding it together as it was, but it seemed that that was straw that broke the camel's back.
"Look, I get it," Steve snapped. "Don't break Eddie's heart. It sooo soft and I'm suuuuch a bitch. I don't need the shovel talk from you." The last word was said with such venom, Jonathan was forced to take a step back.
"Who's been giving you shovel talks?" he asked.
Steve threw his arms in the air. "It would be easier to list off who hasn't. The Byers family and El, only I can't say that because you're here. So just Will, your mom, and El."
Jonathan frowned. "Even Robin?" Because that didn't sound right. He had seen the two of them together and they were like freakishly close.
"Oh, yeah," Steve snarled bitterly. "That's the latest one. The one that makes me just want to throw myself into the god damn pool."
Well, shit.
"Apparently this is Eddie's first real relationship and since being gay is so hard right now, breaking his heart would be a disservice to humankind," Steve mocked. "I asked her about my heart and my first relationship with a guy. But apparently that isn't as important as Eddie's experience."
Now that? Jonathan didn't believe. But Steve was clearly hurt and was being dramatic about it. Which he was going to allow because holy shit.
But apparently Steve was just getting started. "At least Eddie's friends all showed up together to give one shovel talk so that was nice. Hop and Wayne each did it while cleaning their hunting rifles, like they weren't terrifying enough. I mean Mike's an ass, so his I could brush off, but Dustin and Erica? Why does Eddie get more loyalty from them when I literally saved their lives? But Lucas and Max also double teamed me, so that was all sorts of fun. Nancy casually brought up that she has three guns now. So yeah, just get it over with so I can go back to being the worst boyfriend in Hawkins!"
Jonathan forced him to sit down. "That was a lot to unpack, I'm not going to lie. But take a deep breath for me, can you do that?"
Steve nodded and took a deep breath.
"Now let it out slow," Jonathan continued. Steve followed his instruction.
"Great now keep doing that until your heart no longer feels like it's going to burst out of your chest."
Steve started breathing more normally and Jonathan sat next to him. "I'm not actually here for a shovel talk. I was wondering if you or Eddie would be willing to talk to Will about liking boys."
Steve blinked at him for a moment. "What?"
"Yeah, he's going through a really hard time with it right now," Jonathan explained. "And I'm not really getting through to him because I'm straight and it's pretty much meaningless coming from me."
"Oh."
"But no, I get your reaction, dude," he said. "I really do. Has anyone given Eddie the shovel talk?"
Steve shrugged. "It's not like I can ask, is it? 'Oh hey, Eddie, anyone threaten your life over our relationship lately. No, no, not homophobes, I mean our friends? No? Well that's just peachy!'"
Jonathan barked out a laugh. "Yeah, no matter how you phrase that it's going to come off as bitchy. Especially if no one has."
Steve nodded.
"Look, if you talk to Will for me," Jonathan said, sticking out his hand with an easy smile. "I'll talk to Eddie. Deal?"
Steve looked at the hand for a moment before he shook it. "Deal."
Jonathan knocked on the Munson's door. Eddie opened it with a look of surprise.
"Look, man," Eddie said with a sigh. "I don't sell anymore. And besides your friend from Cali has better stuff."
Jonathan held up his prize. "Oh, I'm aware, I'm offering to share."
Eddie looked at him for a moment and then closed the door behind him.
"Yeah, okay."
Jonathan lit two blunts and passed one to Eddie.
Eddie took a drag and sighed. "Shit this stuff is good."
Jonathan just smiled.
"Not that I don't appreciate the share, man," Eddie said after a few minutes, "but why are you here?"
"I went over to Steve's to ask him if he would be willing to talk to Will for me," he said after taking a drag.
"Because your brother is gayer than the May pole?" Eddie supplied.
"Yup," he replied. "Only our Stevie wasn't doing so good."
Eddie leapt to his feet. "What?!"
Jonathan tugged on his pant leg. "Sit down, dude. Let me explain before you go off half cocked and make things worse."
Eddie sat down with a grumble. "You better start talking and you better do it fast."
"In my experience shovel talks are for people you don't trust, not for people you care about," Jonathan said slowly. "Only it seems our friends didn't get the memo."
"People have been giving Steve the shovel talk?" Eddie asked, eyes wide, jutting his chin forward in shock. "But no one's said shit to me!"
Jonathan winced. "That's kinda what me and Steve were afraid of."
Eddie felt his heart sink to his stomach. "Do you-did he say how long it's been going on?"
Jonathan shook his head. "But the fact that only my house and El haven't given him the shovel talk I would probably bet since you two announced your relationship."
"Shit," Eddie whispered. "I bet the first two were funny, endearing even. Steve likes that kind of stuff. And then as it kept happening..."
"Yeah," Jonathan agreed. "Has he been distant lately?"
Eddie closed his eyes and nodded. "Now I know why." He thought for a moment. "Is there a way to call everyone together without alerting Steve, too?"
Jonathan shrugged. "If his boyfriend were to 'accidentally' turn off the walkie for an hour for some hot makeup sex..."
Eddie laughed. "I can absolutely do that."
"I'll set it up," Jonathan said. He flicked the remainder of his blunt to the ground and stood up to grind it out under his boot.
Eddie knocked on Steve's door bouncing on his toes.
Steve opened the door and then just led Eddie into the front room without a word. Eddie's heart let out a small mewl of distress. Either Jonathan had been underselling it or Steve was worse than when he left. Eddie had a sinking feeling it was the latter.
"I'm guessing Jonathan called you," Steve said, sitting down hard on the sofa.
"Came over and plied me with weed, actually," Eddie said, settling next to him. "I get why you didn't tell me. I can't fault you for being hurt by people who you thought cared. But I can fault me for not noticing you were hurting. Because yeah, maybe you couldn't say why, but I could have been there for you anyway."
Steve's shoulders sagged. "I should have at least told you that I was feeling upset."
"I think the part that upsets me more than anything, love," Eddie murmured, pulling Steve close to his chest, "is that I'm the newbie in all this, shouldn't they be more worried that I'll hurt you? I'm the wild card here, not you."
Steve wrapped his arms around Eddie's waist. "And it's not as though I ended my last major relationship, either. That was all Nancy. I was trying my best, I really was. And I've tried with every other girl I've dated seriously, too. I'm always being broken up with, not the one doing the breaking."
Eddie laid down and pulled Steve flush along the length of his body. "I'm the love and leave 'em type, not you, sweetheart. The reason you are my first real relationship is because I liked not having to worry about get my heart stomped on by straight boys experimenting with gay sex and then fucking off back to their girlfriends."
"So why are they coming after me?" Steve asked piteously, snuggling into Eddie's neck.
"Because I keep myself to myself," Eddie explained. "Even though I'm out and loud, I keep it tucked in my chest. But you sweetheart, wear your heart on your sleeve."
Eddie kissed him and slowly began to rub circles up and down his back. He deepened the kiss. Yes, this was supposed to be a distraction, but he really wanted to make his boyfriend forget about his troubles. They were lost to time for awhile.
They didn't get to sex, not really. Their clothes were still on, but Steve was sleepy and relaxed, so Eddie counted that as a win. He slipped out from under his boyfriend.
"Stay," Steve mumbled into the sofa.
"I'll be right back, darlin'," Eddie assured him. "You need some sleep and I have to run a quick errand. You nap for a bit and I'll be back as soon as I can, okay?"
"'Kay," he replied, mostly asleep. "I love you."
"Love you too, sweetheart," Eddie said, kissing his temple.
Eddie managed to arrive at the Byers house before everyone else. Will let him in.
Will led him to the front room where Joyce and Jonathan were waiting. Jonathan was on the sofa and Joyce was standing up chewing on her thumb.
"I talked to Jim and really chewed him out for scaring Steve like that," she said the second she saw Eddie. "That wasn't fair. Jim is supposed to be like a father to Steve, not be another bully."
Eddie hugged her. "Thanks. I'll talk to Wayne later, too. I didn't even know he owned a shotgun."
El scoffed. "He borrowed Dad's."
Eddie threw his head back and rolled his eyes. "Yup. That makes more sense actually and Steve would be too terrified to realize it was the same gun. He is in so much trouble for that."
Soon everyone had arrived and piled into the small front room.
"What's this about?" Dustin asked. "Jonathan said it was serious on the walkie. Not like Code Red, but bad."
"I think it almost was," Jonathan bit out.
Eddie winced, because he couldn't be one hundred percent sure that if Jonathan hadn't shown up that Steve wouldn't have done what he threw at the older teen.
The room was silent. Eddie could hear his own ragged breaths and rapidly beating heart.
"Someone say something," Robin pleaded. "What's going on?"
"You are all assholes," Will bit out. "Steve wouldn't break Eddie's heart if it was in his power and you all know it. So why the hell would you tell him if he did you would kill him? Not just cause him bodily harm, but actual death. Haven't we seen enough death to last our lifetime?!" He had been sitting on the sofa next to Jonathan when the meeting started but had risen to his feet.
Mike scoffed. "It's not serious."
"It sure the hell wasn't the first time. But what about the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth or even the ninth time?" El asked, her eyes blazing.
"Ninth?" Robin whimpered.
Jonathan nodded. "If my math's right. It could be more or less, but yeah. There were only a small dedicated handful that didn't tell Steve some variation of 'hurt Eddie and I'll hurt you', myself included."
"That can't be right," Dustin said with a frown.
"Oh no, Dusty," Eddie said, tilting his head side to side. "That's absolutely correct. And worse is that none of you shit heads even said boo my direction. Not that I want to be threatened. I get enough of that, which now that I think about it...that's why, isn't it?"
The silence in the room was deafening.
"Oh, that is it!" Eddie crowed. "Can't go after me because I get literal death threats so let's all dogpile on Steve instead!"
"Steve was in a really bad place when I went over there this morning," Jonathan said into the bitter hush.
Joyce stepped forward. "I realize most of you are children and don't quite understand what you did. But actual adults got involved in this mess. Adults that should have known better. So let me put this to you in a way you can understand so this never happens again. You're getting to the age where you're dating yourselves, so think about how you would feel if someone came to your partner and threatened them with violence."
"I'd be pissed," Max said from the corner. "It's no one's business but ours."
Joyce held out her hand to emphasize her point.
"Oh," Nancy said from the corner of the room. She looked over at Jonathan and then ducked her head, crossing her arms over her stomach.
"Steve is so far from the boy that was a dick in his junior year," Jonathan said. "Like that was four years ago. Almost five. And yet you still treat him like he hasn't grown. Are you even his friends at this point or are you just so used to having him around that he's just a tool to you to be used?"
"We don't use him, do we?" Lucas asked, his voice cracking with emotion.
"You tell me," Eddie huffed. "Do you ask anyone else to take you places? Do you have parties anywhere other than his place? Do expect him to be there for you when this shit gets to you, but don't check in on him?"
The room was filled once again with the awkward silence.
"We didn't mean to," Dustin said, near tears.
"I want all of you to apologize to Steve," Joyce said in her best mom voice. "Work on being better friends. Because if you don't, someday you might wake up and wonder how he just slipped away."
They all nodded.
Erica tilted her head to the side. "Wait a minute. Why didn't you give Eddie or Steve the shovel talks? Any of you?"
Jonathan shrugged. "Just didn't care enough. Plus I always thought they were bullshit, anyway. Shit happens. Any of you want Nancy dead because she broke Steve's heart?"
Nancy's head shot up and her jaw dropped.
"I love you," Jonathan said. "But you can't deny that's what happened."
She snapped her jaw shut.
The whole room was shaking their heads. Of course they didn't want to hurt Nancy.
"Friends don't hurt their friends," El said. "And if you've been hurting Steve, maybe he needs to be taken away until you learn to play nicely."
Joyce hid her smile under her hand. That was one way to look at it.
They looked at Will.
He rolled his eyes. "I think I made myself pretty clear when we started this, so yeah. Fuck off."
"William!" Joyce hissed. "Language!"
Will looked up at her completely unrepentant. She sighed. "I'm with my boys, I'm afraid. Shovel talks are bullshit and Steve is a good boy who has continued to go to bat, sometimes quite literally, for all of us. He could have walked away from the Upside Down fuckery at any time, but he came. He stayed. He took hits meant for someone else. Someone weaker. That's a good friend. Maybe you should start treating him like one, too."
Eddie looked around at everyone. "Has everyone learned their lesson?"
Everyone nodded.
"Good," he said. "Now I'm going back to Steve because he's waiting for me. But I want those apologies. I don't care if you call, write, or visit. But you will apologize. And no more shovel talks."