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The top of the radio tower swayed ominously with the wind, metal creaking in a way that sent shivers down Steve's spine. He glared at Jonathan as they reached for the switch, shoulders jostling as they forced it into the correct position. Jonathan shoved him, and ran towards the edge of the platform, leaning over far enough for Steve to wonder if he was going to save them all the trouble of continuing this feud by toppling over the side, and shouted down to the others that he'd fixed it.
"We fixed it, asshole," Steve grumbled, making his way to the railing. He snagged Jon's shirt and pulled him back until he wasn't leaning so far over the rail. None of the three figures on the ground were even looking up at them; Murray and Wayne were back, and they'd crowded around the truck to see the new deliveries. Steve wished he was down there too. "And I'd've been done two minutes ago if you hadn't made it a race. What the fuck was that about, Byers?" He asked the question as if he didn't know exactly what the fuck it was about, but he was tired of the months of passive aggressive sniping from Jonathan (among others) and wanted the guy to actually say it. Maybe then they could get past it and Steve could just get on with the business of, you know, helping to save the world. "I had this handled."
"You know exactly what it was about," Jonathan snapped, turning away from the railing to glare at him. "It's you. Always showing off. This seems like a job for good ole Steve Harrington." Byers' voice took on a mocking tone. Steve tried not to show how much it hurt. "She's not going to fall for it again, Harrington. She's with me now."
And there it was. The Nancy-shaped elephant that had been there since spring break '86. And yeah, maybe there had been a couple of weeks that March that Steve had thought…well, he didn't know what he'd thought, but there'd been. Something. Maybe. Between him and Nancy, or people (Eddie and Robin, mostly) had said there had been, but it had fizzled out pretty fucking quickly when Jonathan rolled back into Hawkins and he and Nancy had been Nancy-and-Jonathan again just like that.
It hadn't stopped Jonathan from making almost constant digs at him over the last year and a half. It hadn't stopped other people either. Even Robin was constantly on his ass about getting over Nancy, giving her space, respecting her choice. As if he hadn't done that since she'd cheated on him! It was exhausting and the more he protested he just thought of her as a friend, the more everyone accused him of wanting to get between her and Jonathan. He was done with all the…bullshit.
"Jesus Christ, Byers, you've got to stop using me as a skategoat-"was that the word? He'd thought so, but Jon's smirk told him maybe not-"for whatever issues you and Nance have going between you. It's not my fault the two of you can't fucking talk to each other, even when you're living in the same house, working together day after day, together almost all the time. I don't want to get back with her! I'm not in love with her. She's my friend, and I care about her, but I don't want to date her." And then, because he'd said some variation of this a dozen times and it hadn't stuck, a plot unfolded before him, fully planned out, that might just be the answer to an entire year of headaches. "Besides, I'm dating someone else."
Jonathan made a noise like he knew Steve was lying. "Oh yeah? Who? Robin?"
And the thing was, Robin would have play acted his fake girlfriend if the circumstances were right, but he wouldn't do that to her or Vickie, and even if he did, there was no way Jonathan would actually buy it. Robin and Vickie weren't officially out to anyone but Steve, but it was a pretty open secret, at least among the older teens at that point. He was pretty sure Eddie knew, at least, and Nancy. And, Steve hated to admit it, but Jonathan was pretty perceptive. But that did leave a complication on who exactly could be the fake girlfriend.
Or. He supposed it didn't have to be a girlfriend, did it? He could be reasonably certain no one would be outright disgusted at the alternative, and it wasn't like Steve was opposed to the idea of a boyfriend. He'd made out with Argyle last summer, and he'd finally admitted to Robin that maybe there had been something weird between him and Tommy and Carol before their friendship breakup. (Actually, it was probably weird to think of a friendship falling out as a breakup in the first place, but that was another problem for another time.) But Steve couldn't name Argyle, even if they had made out before, because Argyle was hardly ever in town, usually off on supply runs with Wayne or Murray, and anyway Jon was as weird about Argyle as he was about Nancy, so a fake relationship would be, well, hard to fake. So that left him with only one choice.
"No, asshole. Not Robin," Steve said. His heart was beating painfully hard in his chest, and he realized with sudden clarity that he wished he wasn't lying about this. Fuck. He was an idiot. This was going to blow up in his face. He hadn't thought any of this through. He was the worst at plans.
"Eddie. I'm dating Eddie."
***
"Wanna run that by me again, Harrington?"
It was just the two of them down in the bunker that doubled as their living space, and Steve had rushed through the entire humiliating scene from earlier without looking Eddie in the eyes once. He'd ended it with, "So, yeah, I finally got tired of him being an asshole and blurted out that I'm dating someone new. You."
Eddie had been silent for a long time—longer than Steve had known Eddie could be silent—and then asked Steve to run it through again. So Steve did. From the beginning, all the way back to spring break and the months since, all the times people had accused him of trying to "steal" Nancy or get her back, or whatever the fuck it was they thought he was trying to do and—
"I'm just tired, man. I'm trying to do my best here. Help out where I can, and it's like it doesn't matter. Whatever I do, everyone thinks it's only to impress Nancy, or help Nancy, or because Nancy needs it, and I'm exhausted defending myself. She's one of my best friends, and I loved her when we were kids but I don't want her back. I haven't for a long time, but no one believes me and I don't know what to do to make that clear, and I just." He ran a hand through his hair, and finally made himself look at Eddie. "I'm sorry. I dragged you into this, and now everyone's going to think you're into guys—"
"Harrington. Shut up. It's okay. I don't care if people know I'm into dudes. They're not going to be assholes about it." Eddie's voice didn't sound as sure as his words did, but Steve thought they were true. They had more important things to worry about—the Upside Down, the government, Vecna—than people being gay or straight. Probably. "I'm still stuck on the part where you told Byers that you and I are dating. He bought that?"
Steve winced, ran a hand through his hair again. "Well. Not…exactly. He didn't not buy it, but he didn't buy it outright, either. He half bought it? He bought it on layaway, or maybe exchange. Credit?" He frowned and shook his head. "I think the metaphor is getting away from me. What matters, he didn't call me a liar to my face, but I can't say he was all the way convinced about it either." In fact, Steve was pretty sure Jon had been seconds from calling the whole thing nothing but bullshit if the walkie on Steve's hip hadn't squawked at them, Nancy's voice ringing out to get their asses down to the ground, there was news.
Now, after Murray had briefed them on what he'd heard about the burn, and they'd talked through the plan for the Crawl, Steve had taken the opportunity to explain the con to Eddie.
It wasn't going well.
"Harrington, I don't know what you're asking me here."
Steve ran a hand through his hair, snarling when it snagged against uncharacteristic knots. He'd been doing a lot of hands through his hair the last hour. His hair was paying for it.
"I need you to fake date me. Be my boyfriend…around everyone."
More silence. "This is a terrible idea. It's the worst idea I've ever heard, and I just sat through Henderson trying to convince you that he and Wheeler could handle the van on their own tonight for the crawl. That was a better idea than this."
Steve risked another look at Eddie's face, and hated that he couldn't tell exactly what Eddie was thinking. Eddie was always so expressive. He wore every thought on his face, right out there in the open, except now he was a closed fucking book. It was driving Steve up the wall.
Was it really such a horrible idea? Dating Steve? Being his boyfriend? Did Eddie have to sound so horrified at the idea?
"But yeah, fuck it. Let's do it. I'll be the best fake boyfriend you've ever had, Harrington. I'm going to fake woo your feet off."
"If you're going to be my boyfriend, you shouldn't call me Harrington." Steve's talked without processing the words until a few moments later. Had he heard that right? "Wait. What? Eddie, you just said that it's a terrible idea. Now you want to do it?" How had he changed his mind so fast? Steve was going to get fucking whiplash from the change in tone.
"Steve. Stevie. Sweetheart—oh, I like that one, it's perfect for one fake boyfriend to call another fake boyfriend, don't you think?—who are you talking to here? I love a bad plan. Bad plans are my specialty." Eddie grinned at him like a maniac, and truly Steve didn't know why he'd expected anything different. Eddie was right. He was the master of bad plans. "All right. We have thirty minutes before we were expected upstairs. Let's get this fake dating off to the right start."
Steve stared at Eddie, suddenly concerned. "What…uh. What did you have in mind?"
Eddie's maniac grin grew even bigger. "Oh sweetheart. If you have to ask, I'm not being a very good fake boyfriend. It's better if I show you."
***
As it turned out, what Eddie had in mind was simple—they swapped shirts, Eddie messed his hair up even more, and Steve put Eddie's borrowed shirt on inside out. It was junior high level shit, but Steve decided it was good enough for a first step. At the very least, they'd have the start of a defense strategy against anyone crying foul play when they announced their relationship. If they came out strong on offense, they could get ahead of anything Jonathan—or anyone else—might decide to throw at them.
They'd decided to keep things simple as far as the story of their relationship went. That had been Steve's idea—Eddie had pitched something that rivaled Lord of the Rings in confusing narratives, and Steve had quickly shut him up by throwing his t-shirt at his head. Eventually, they'd settled on this: they'd started fooling around a couple months ago, after Robin had moved back into her parents' house, leaving Eddie and Steve alone at the station most nights, but it had only recently moved from fooling around to something they wanted to put a name to, and since Steve had spilled the beans to Jonathan today, they thought everyone else should know too.
"Halloween," Eddie decided, blocking the stairs as Steve started to go up. "That's when we went from fooling around to boyfriends."
"Why Halloween?" Steve asked, but he knew the answer.
He flashed back to that night, a rare quiet stretch with no burns and no crawls, the kids were all gathered at the table in the break room at the station, running their dragon game and laughing, Robin was dancing in a dark corner with Vickie. Nancy and Jonathan were whispering over something, not even fighting—or pretending not to fight—for once, and he and Eddie had been lying at each end of the couch, legs tangled together, passing a joint back and forth.
It'd been…perfect, actually. Steve hadn't wanted that night to end.
"Yeah," he said, before Eddie could answer the question. "Halloween."
Eddie grinned at him, and reached out his hand. Steve hesitated, then reached out and linked their fingers together. They had to sell this, after all, and hand holding was another box on the very junior high list of relationship milestones he and Eddie were checking off today. He tried not to notice how good Eddie's hand felt in his. He couldn't let himself think about that. Not when this was fake.
"There you are! I thought I was going to have to come down and drag you up, do you know what time it is? Your children are about to take the vans out by themselves—what the hell, why are you holding hands?" Robin's voice had raised about two octaves by the end of her question, and she looked between Steve and Eddie, took in the inside out shirt, the messed up hair, and Steve knew his face was bright red. So was Eddie's. "Dingus and Dingus Two, do you have something to tell me?"
Eddie had asked, briefly, if they were going to let Robin in on the scheme. Steve had hesitated, before saying no. It wasn't that he wanted to lie to her, it was just, sometimes, okay a lot of the time, Robin was almost as bad as Jonathan with the whole Steve you have to get over Nancy, stop being a Neanderthal around her thing, and it sucked but she had a blind spot or something when it came to Nance and Steve's supposed feelings for her, and he was tired of fighting about it. So.
"Eddie and I are dating," he blurted out, all at once, so the words blurred together and he had to repeat himself a second time when all she did was stare at him in confusion. "We're dating. Since Halloween."
Robin's eyes narrowed, and she looked between them like she was considering dissecting them underneath a microscope. "No you're not—holy shit. But, Steve. What about Nancy?" Robin's look of shock turned to one of confusion, as she seemed to reevaluate the entire last year of interactions.
"For fuck's sake, Robin! There is no me-and-Nancy. There hasn't been for a long time! I've been crazy about Eddie for months, and you missed it because you were too busy looking for something that didn't exist with Nancy." That was maybe a little too close to the actual truth, but as long as Steve didn't look at Eddie, maybe the guy wouldn't catch on to the slip-up. "Eddie and I have been hooking up since last summer, but we just made it official at Halloween, and you know I don't fool around with someone while secretly pining for someone else."
Robin gasped. "Oh my god! That's why you keep striking out when you ask girls out! It's on purpose!" Steve hadn't been striking out on purpose, but if it helped sell the lie Steve wasn't going to protest.
And maybe, he admitted to himself with a quick look at Eddie, he'd been striking out on purpose a little bit. Eddie had been there for most of the failures, and seeing him laugh at Steve's epic flubs had been it's own sort of reward.
Robin looked between them a few more times, at their interlocked hands, then sighed. "I'm really sorry, Steve. I…I should have seen it. I shouldn't have kept on you about Nancy. This makes so much sense now." She started to grin, and Steve tried not to let his own confusion show.
What did she mean, it made so much sense? What made sense? Nothing about this made sense, but it wasn't like he could ask her.
"Steve let it slip to Jonathan earlier. We decided we might as well tell everyone," Eddie said, speaking up for the first time. "We of course had to start with you, Madame Birdie."
Then he did something that left Steve even more confused and off-footed. He raised their linked hands to his lips, and pressed a gentle kiss against Steve's knuckles. Steve felt it all the way to his toes. He didn't think that was physically possible, actually, but it was the best way to describe the feeling that went through him at the feeling of Eddie's lips against his skin.
"Shit. You two are going to be even cuter than me and Vickie. That should be illegal."
It would hit Steve later that Robin had just come out to Eddie, but right now Steve was still stuck on the instant replay of Eddie's lips on his skin. He lived there now, probably.
"You're damn right. C'mon, Sweetheart. We better go rescue the vans from your children. Argyle and Jon can't keep them corralled forever. Stay safe Birdie."
"You guys too." Robin gave them each a hug, then headed for the studio where she'd coordinate the crawl and keep track of the teams' location.
Steve, Eddie and Dustin would be in the stations' van, following Hopper and Wayne on their crawl. Will, Jonathan and Argyle—in town, and happy to join a crawl for once—would keep track of Joyce and Murray on theirs, using Eddie's van. Max, Nancy and a furious El (who thought she should be with Hopper) would be support for Robin, with Lucas and Mike keeping tabs of the military activity in the town square. It was all routine, except for how nothing about any of this was routine. "Wheels up in five."
***
Steve tried to stop his hands from shaking as he pulled himself back into the driver's seat. It always shocked him how quickly things went to shit. It was supposed to be a simple crawl. That's what Murray's information said—backed up by Wayne, and Steve trusted Wayne more than almost anyone in this town—a simple burn, with time for two teams to complete a Crawl, and for Hopper and the older adults to do their thing.
It should have been simple.
Now, his team was broken down on the side of the road. Battery fried. Radio fried. Unable to contact Robin, find out what happened to the other teams. To Hopper and Wayne. Joyce and Murray too, because the other van probably hadn't fared any better than theirs. To the Wheelers. Fuck. He hated this. Everything always went from Fine to Fucking Fuck Shit Fuck Fuck in what seemed like five minutes or less.
At least he'd gotten a battery jump from Jessica, even though he'd stood her sister up a few weeks ago—Eddie had come by with a joint and a movie, and Steve had sort of forgotten he had a date—so they could get on the road again. Do something. Steve hadn't not doing something. Not doing something usually meant someone was going to die.
"Any luck with the radio, Henderson?" he asked, turning in his seat. "We gotta get going. Hopper and Wayne need us."
"I'm not unaware of that, Steve," Dustin said, annoyance clear in his tone. "I'm working as fast as I can. It's not magic."
Steve glanced at Eddie, who rolled his eyes, and Steve felt a little of the tension release. At least he could always count on Eddie to be there as support during Henderson's science tantrums.
"Jesus, sorry. Just asking." He turned to Eddie fully. "Any news from Nancy?"
Eddie nodded. "Yeah, Robin came through on the walkie a minute ago. Her parents are at Hawkins General. Both really rough shape, going into surgery. Vickie promises to update when she can. Nancy and Mike are there. At the hospital. Lucas too, I think."
Eddie looked wrecked, pale and worried, and Steve reached out and linked their fingers again. He knew how much Eddie hated that Wayne had been brought into this, and worse, went on crawls with Jim 'Suicide Mission Is My Specialty' Hopper. Steve hated it too, but that was kind of the point. Wayne was just about the only person aside from Joyce who had any chance of talking sense into Hopper, and if he couldn't…well, Steve hoped he Wayne knew when to cut and run. He hated himself for thinking that, but he knew Eddie couldn't lose his uncle. He realized he'd zoned out a little, as Eddie was still talking. He had to ask him to repeat what he'd said.
"Holly…Holly's gone. El followed her through a portal."
Fuck. This was…bad. Really really bad. And he couldn't do anything about it. Not when the radio was busted.
"Should we go there? To the hospital? Bring Nance, I don't know…" Steve didn't really know what he was saying, he was just vomiting out words to keep from screaming at Dustin to hurry the fuck up with the radio. "Flowers, or something?"
"Fuck, Steve. Can you think with something besides your dick for five minutes? She doesn't need you trying to get back with her right now!" Dustin burst out, frustration and stress clear in his voice. Steve twisted around, shocked, because of all the people who accused him of wanting Nancy back, it wasn't usually Dustin. He was typically too busy nagging Steve to stop denying how in love with Robin he was. "She's with Jonathan! Are you so stupid you don't know she's over you?"
Steve opened his mouth to say something, but found he didn't think he could talk at the moment. His eyes burned as hot as his face, and he blinked rapidly, trying to push away the hurt. He wasn't sure where Dustin's anger was coming from, and couldn't find the words to ask.
Thankfully, he didn't have to. Eddie was there.
"Henderson, take a breath and watch the tone, dude. Steve doesn't deserve that and you know it." Eddie's voice was harsher than usual, stress and worry clear, but he spoke calmly. "You wanna walk that back? Our friend Nancy is in the hospital, terrified out of her mind, and our other friend Steve is suggesting maybe we head over there, support her. No one's thinking with their dick right now."
Dustin was quiet for a minute, and Steve used the momentary silence to take a breath himself, try to fight back the queasy feeling in his stomach. When he finally turned around, he saw that Dustin's eyes were bright with unshed tears, dark smudges of exhaustion evident under his eyes, and Steve felt punched in the stomach for an entirely different reason.
"Hey, Henderson. C'mere," he said, and held out his arms. The kid had been working so hard, and Steve knew school hadn't been easy lately. It wasn't like the town had suddenly stopped thinking Eddie was a murderer, and Dustin hadn't suddenly stopped being his number one supporter. Steve knew how high school bullies worked, and eighteen months wasn't actually that long in high school years. Not in a small town like Hawkins. "It's okay."
"No! Steve, it's not! I'm sorry, I didn't mean it," Dustin said, and threw himself into Steve's arms. He felt Eddie's arms come around them both. Steve closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to look into Eddie's eyes right now. He didn't think he could handle it. "I shouldn't have said that. I'm just…really worried, and I can't figure out how to fix the radio, and Will walkie'd too, and their radio is down as well. There was a power surge at the station, and Robin can't figure out how to fix it, and everyone's counting on me and what if I can't figure it out? What if let everyone down, and Nancy and Mike's parents die, and we lose Holly and El, and Hopper and Wayne and Murray and Joyce." His voice broke on Joyce's name. Steve patted his back and finally met Eddie's eyes. He looked as wrecked as Steve felt. Then Dustin wailed. "And I know you're not in love with Nancy! You're in love wi—with Robin!"
"Actually, I'm in love with Eddie," Steve said, and it shocked Dustin enough that the tears stopped instantly as Dustin wrenched backwards, which sent Eddie back into the passenger seat, and left them all in a tangle of limbs. "Uh. And we're dating."
"Holy. Fucking. Shit. Balls." Dustin's voice was calm, face streaked with tears, and he still looked exhausted and scared, but there was the smallest of grins on his face as he breathing started to steady. "I owe Erica five dollars."
Of all the things Steve expected Dustin to say, that had to rank at about the lowest. "What? What do you mean?"
"Oh my god, Steve, it's not important right now, this is the best thing to ever happen to me and how could you do this to me on the worst day ever? I'm taking the five dollars out of your wallet." Dustin wiped his face, with his shirt, then punched Steve harder than was necessary in the shoulder. "Okay, I need an assistant and Eddie is worse with the radio than you are, so Eddie, you drive from here and Steve, you've just been promoted. Let's get this on the road. We're not going to the hospital, because Nancy's got Mike and Lucas, and probably Vickie—holy shit, Vickie and Robin are dating too aren't they? Everything makes sense now, what the fuck—and we need to get this back on-line and find Hopper and Wayne."
Dustin was talking a hundred words a second and Steve could hardly keep up. Instead, he glanced at Eddie, who hadn't moved from the passenger seat. He was staring at Steve in shock. And, maybe, something else. Hope? Wonder? Fear? Steve wasn't sure.
"You're in love with me?" Eddie whispered, and Dustin's stream of chatter faded as Steve could only focus on Eddie. "Like…in love, in love?"
Steve glanced back, saw that Dustin was lost in his work and no longer paying attention to what was happening in the front steats, then whispered, "Uh, sorry. I panicked. I didn't…mean it." His voice sounded weak to his own ears, because the thing was…he had meant it, he was pretty sure. He wasn't sure exactly when or how, but somewhere along the way he'd gone and done the thing everyone had accused him of. Fallen in love with someone who didn't want him. Only it wasn't Nancy or Robin. It was Eddie.
"Your timing is unbelievable, you know that right?" Eddie said, and he sounded like he was torn between laughing and crying and Steve finally risked looking at him again. Eddie was grinning that maniac grin again, the one that should look ridiculous but just looked hot. "You're also an idiot. Who the fuck comes up with a stupid as fuck fake dating scheme that includes lying to all our friends and leads to a real love confession all the while we're in the midst of another Upside Down crisis, all in less than six hours?"
"What—"
"I love you too, you absolute moron," Eddie said, before surging forward and kissing Steve fiercely on the mouth, tangling his hand in Steve's hair and pulling him into his lap for a long moment until Dustin's outraged shriek made them pull apart.
"I just said no thinking with dicks, you dicks! We have work to do. Eddie, drive. Steve, hand me those pliers. We've got a world to save. Let's go."
"You heard the kid, sweetheart," Eddie said, giving Steve one last, devastating, kiss. "Let's go."
***
Hours—days?—later, Steve watched as Joyce took a machete and ruthlessly separated Vecna's head from his body, and it was done. They'd saved the kids, closed the portal to the Abyss or whatever it was called, and whatever Wayne and Hopper had done to Dr. Kay and the army had shut them down too. Entirely, completely, and forever.
They'd almost lost El—had lost her sister—and Will, but somehow, miraculously, they'd all made it out alive, mostly in one piece. They all had new scars. But they were alive. The kids were alive.
And it was done.
They were all gathered in the break room at the station. It wasn't comfortable, and it was crowded, but somehow it had called them all together after the debriefs and showers and reassurances to families who still didn't know the full truths, but knew enough not to ask questions.
Steve was crowded into one corner of the couch, Robin against his shoulder, Eddie in his lap. Vickie was curled up on Robin's other side, and Nancy leaned against their legs. Across the room, Jonathan and Argyle shared an armchair, and Steve knew something had gone down there but he'd missed some of it—too busy saving Dustin from floor goo and Eddie from demobats—but they all seemed happier than he'd seen them in months, and he didn't think it was all from the victory.
The kids were piled up together: Max was sprawled half across Lucas and half across El. El had her legs in Mike's lap, and Mike had his head on Will's shoulder. Will's hand was smoothing down Dustin's curls, and Dustin had his head in El's lap. Erica was somewhere in the middle, complaining she was too hot, but making no move to get out of the puppy pile. They were all talking quietly, laughing together, and the sight was enough to make Steve's eyes burn. He hid his face in Eddie's hair.
The adults—the real adults, as Steve thought of them—were drinking coffee at the table, not talking, just watching over them all.
It was nice.
Steve let his eyes close for real, and felt himself drifting off.
Just as he was about to fall asleep for real, Erica's voice rang out loudly, "What the heck? Harrington, do you and that rat-haired son of a bitch who calls himself a DM have something to share with the rest of us?" She sounded irate, but Steve could tell it was (mostly) an act.
"Yes, we're dating. No, I'm not in love with Robin or Nancy. Yes, I am in love with Eddie. I'm not going to comment on whether or not there was a fake dating scheme involved at one point," Steve said, without opening his eyes. "Because only two of those things matters, and I think you're all smart enough to figure out which of those that is."
"I love you too, sweetheart," Eddie said, sleepily. "Now, some of us were sleeping or trying to. So go the fuck to sleep."
There were some grumbled complaints, some whispers, and Steve was pretty sure he heard Wayne tell Murray to pay up, but just pressed a kiss against Eddie's head, closed his eyes, and went the fuck to sleep.