Chapter Text
Vecna being defeated wasn’t an easy task. Steve’s bloodied and demo-bat eaten torso was evidence of that. But they did it. Somehow, they did it. Again.
Hopper's cabin is in shambles, but the gang decided to head there for the night, not yet ready to face their own families after the events of the evening. It takes them all less than thirty minutes to clean the place up.
The kids joined by Argyle all pile on the couch and recliner, Nancy and Jonathan head for El's old room, Joyce and Hopper are trying to make some kind of meal with the non perishables, and Steve, Eddie and Robin sit awkwardly on what can only be Hopper's very own bed - located off of the living room.
"Where are they going?" Dustin asks, gesturing to the pair headed for the other room.
Steve rolls his eyes and Mike shrugs. Chatter resumes.
Steve couldn't help but be self-loathing, thinking that they were probably going to reunite and Nancy was going to pretend what happened between them never existed. Which is fair really. Nancy and Jonathan always clicked more than them anyway. It still felt like salt in the wound.
As if on cue, Steve feels his side twinge with pain.
“Shit.” Steve hisses and clenches his side.
“Crap,” Robin moves to face him, “you okay, Steve?” she asks.
Steve hisses and moves his vest - Eddie’s vest - out of the way. His makeshift bandages are soaked through with black and red goo.
“I’ll be right back.” Robin says, her voice up an octave or two.
“That bad, huh?” He asks Eddie, who is blinking at the wound.
Eddie clears his throat, “What - uh - nah. I’m sure everything is fine.” he tries to reassure. It doesn’t, and Steve just scoffs, wincing with immediate regret.
He shifts so he’s laying fully on the mattress, his back pressed into the less than soft surface. Eddie is still sitting on the edge of the bed, staring down at his stomach.
“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.” Steve jokes. It doesn’t land.
Robin returns in record time, and plops a surprisingly expansive amount of first-aid materials on the threadbare surface beside him. She rustles to take her soiled button-up off before beginning to sort the bandages and medicine, picking the things she will be using.
“Eddie, can you get me a bowl of warm water and a washcloth please?” She asks. It’s less of a request and more of a demand. Eddie scrambles off the bed and heads to the kitchen.
“Steve, this is going to hurt.” Robin warns him.
“Well, it can’t be much worse than when it happened in the first pla-” He cuts off his own comment with a tiny pained groan. The bandage was half stuck to the freshly scabbing wound. Much or the surface that was beginning to heal was ripped off with the fabric.
“How bad is it?”
Silence.
“Rob-”
“I’m sure it’s not as bad as it looks?” Her voice curves up at the end of the sentence.
Well that’s not reassuring.
“Take one of these.” She says, handing him a bottle of ibuprofen. Steve opens the bottle and dry-swallows two.
Eddie returns with a chipped pyrex bowl full of water and a ratty green wash-cloth.
“This is the best I could do.” He informs.
Robin nods, “That’ll be fine, start cleaning the wounds while I go wash my hands.”
So, then it's just Eddie standing there looking down at Steve for a minute as he blinks up at him. Steve moves to sit up, but Eddie puts a firm hand on his chest and stops him.
"Just lay still." He says. Steve nods.
Steve watches Eddie submerge the cloth into the bowl of visibly warm water. He waits a minute before lifting the cloth and wringing the excess liquid out. The bowl is balancing on the mattress next to Steve's thigh.
Slowly, Eddie lowers the cloth to his torso.
Steve immediately winces, his upper half surging forward. He doesn't get far before Eddie’s hand presses firmly on his chest and pins him down to the bed. Which, okay, yeah that's probably fair.
"It's gonna hurt, but you need to try to stay still, man." Eddie says. If Steve wasn't mistaken, there was genuine remorse behind the words. "You're lucky. I think it’s mostly old blood."
The next attempt to wipe away the blood was gentler. Smooth rhythmic passes of the washcloth warmed Steve's stomach that had only been covered by a vest and bandage for several hours. It feels nice. That is, until Eddie moves toward the center of the bite.
"Shit!" Steve hisses.
Eddie slams him back down to the bed, his hand pressing firmly into Steve’s hairy chest once again.
And, okay, yeah, maybe Steve didn't mind the sensation as much as he thought he should, but really he was more focused on the pulsating pain coming from his abdomen. He decidedly was not feeling butterflies in his stomach as a result of the man above him. This was a natural reaction to pain.
Eddie then moves to the cut around Steve's neck. Tentatively, Eddie brushes away and debris from the cut. Steve feels warmth rush to his cheeks and looks away from the other man.
"Almost done," Eddie assures, "just one last rinse." His voice is firm, but almost sweet.
Robin comes back moments later with freshly scrubbed hands and a headband holding her short hair out of her face.
"Looks good." She assesses.
Eddie nods, and leaves to discard the cloudy red water.
"You're lucky. I don't think these are infected," Robin says, trying to lighten the mood, "but they're going to leave some gnarly scars behind."
Steve closes his eyes and sighs.
"Do what you've gotta do." He says. So, Robin does.
Five minutes later Steve has a fresh coat of antibiotic ointment and new actual bandages wrapped around his stomach. A few other bandages litter his body, but the worst ones still ache.
Eddie comes over with a plate of rice and beans for each of them.
"Figured we should try to eat something." He says, in a hollow way, that Steve doesn't know if he's heard before.
Beans and rice have never tasted so good. Steve shovels down large spoonfuls, pausing to drink some water, and pacing himself so he doesn't get sick. He's learned his lesson from his previous close encounters, and almost warns Eddie, but the other is only nibbling his food.
Everyone has something to eat, and Hopper's small home is filled with the smell of food, sweat, and dirt. The sound of the television playing a copy of Robin Hood faintly lingers in the air. At some point, Nancy and Jonathan join the rest of them and find themselves two bowls of soup.
"I nicked each of us a piece." Eddie says after returning from the kitchen. Discarded from his plate is his remaining food, replaced with three pieces of spam on it, and Steve eats his so fast he feels like tears could fall from his eyes. He groans loudly.
"You just made my day." He says, only half joking.
Eddie chuckles and eats his own piece almost as quickly, Robin isn't far behind.
Jonathan and Will volunteer to do the dishes while everyone tries to get ready for bed.
"The girls can share El's room. I've got some sleeping bags in the closet," Hopper offers, "I don't mind sleeping in the chair if a few people want to pile on my bed," he gives a very injured Steve a pointed look, "the couch pulls out if you kids want to use it, and there's an two air mattresses for the rest of you."
There's way too many people to try and fit in the house, especially now that they're not so little anymore. But, they find a way to make it work.
Crammed like sardines, the boys fall asleep on the pull out couch. Jonathan and Joyce use the two air mattresses, Hopper uses the chair, Argyle snags a sleeping bag, Robin, Nancy, Max, and El use her room, and that leaves Eddie and Steve to share the bed. Which pretty much just means them shifting from an upright to horizontal position.
Nobody is bold enough to turn off all the lights.
They position themselves facing opposite directions of the mattress. After Steve's face gets smacked a few times by Eddie's socked feet, he falls asleep.
---
A squeak of a spring and the click of a door knob shakes Steve abruptly awake from a dreamless sleep. He surges upright and finds that he's alone in the bed. Quickly scanning the room, Steve can't find Eddie anywhere. Everyone else seems to be asleep, likely their bodies gave up on them despite their anxieties, and the bathroom door is ajar.
There being only one door to enter the cabin, Steve shuffles onto his feet and pads over to where he assumes Eddie must have exited. Slowly, Steve opens the door and steps out onto the front porch, barefoot. He closes the door silently.
"Hey," he whispers.
Eddie jolts, "Jesus Christ." He says, startled.
Steve chuckles, "Sorry man."
Steve moves to sit down next to Eddie, who slides over to give him some space on the stoop. Steve looks out into the dark woods, only a slight illumination comes from the windows of Hop's place. A plume of smoke falls into his line of vision.
Glancing over at the man next to him, he finds the source.
"You hogging that all for yourself?" Steve asks, gesturing to the joint in Eddie’s left hand.
Eddie scoffs, "I was planning on it, yeah." He passes it over to Steve anyway.
Steve takes a long and steady hit. He hadn't smoked in a while, but it's not like he forgot how. He inhales the smoke for a few moments and breathes out a wispy stream. His shoulders release tension almost immediately.
He hands the joint back to Eddie. "Reefer Rick must have the good stuff," he jokes, his voice sounds scratchy to his own ears, "thanks."
Eddie nods and lets off a shallow puff. "Couldn't sleep." He explains.
Steve hums.
"Don't know how I seem to be the only one losing my mind over this-"
Steve cuts him off, "Hey - no," he nudges Eddie’s shoulder with his own, "we've all had at least one or two rounds with this bullshit before. You're handling it better than I was the first time, let me tell ya'."
Eddie rolls his eyes and passes the now half-smoked joint back over to Steve, who takes another pull.
"I'm serious!" He says, giggling a bit.
Eddie sighs, "Well I guess that counts for something…" It's silent for a beat, besides the faint sounds of wildlife in the far off distance.
"You're, like, really good at guitar by the way." Steve tells him. He doesn't know why he said that.
Eddie laughs a full laugh at that. He shoves Steve's arm and smiles. Some part of Steve feels like he won something with Eddie’s response.
"Yeah, well, at least I managed to do something besides run away in the end." Eddie says.
Steve frowns, "I mean, you're clearly talented enough to learn how to play Nancy's favorite song in record time. Don't sell yourself short, man."
The joint is passed between them again.
Steve feels the pain in his side slowly fade to the background. Only a dull ache.
“I can’t believe I have to go back to school after this,” Eddie says. He sounds exasperated, and Steve doesn’t blame him. “I mean, how the hell am I supposed to pass Ms. O’Donnell’s class when all I can think about is the fact that our shitty small town is directly tied to a supernatural underworld?”
Steve scoffs, “Yeah man, tell me about it. I would’ve failed O’Donnell if it weren’t for Nance helping me out, and even then it was pretty brutal.”
“Ah yes, Nancy Wheeler,” Eddie says in a tone that Steve isn’t sure he likes. There’s another silence.
“Well y’know, she’s a good friend and really smart.” Steve explains, “And at the time we were dating, so…” the pause is awkward. “Anyway, since Dustin is glued to you these days, I’m sure he could make a special emergency call to his girlfriend to change your grade.”
Eddie looks at him with a raised brow.
“What, the little twerp didn’t tell you? The kid was failing Latin and Suzie hacked into the system or something. She’s crazy smart.” Steve explains
Eddie breathes out a laugh, “And why doesn’t that surprise me?”
They both laugh in agreement before the sound drifts off into the night.
"What would your song have been? If Vecna took over your mind." Eddie asks, seemingly to fill the void.
Steve laughs, "I dunno. Hadn't really thought about it."
He racks his brain for something when Eddie snaps him out of his thoughts. "Mine would probably be Sanctuary," he waits for Steve's reaction. When he gets none he continues, "by Iron Maiden? Never heard of it?"
Steve shakes his head and chuckles.
"Jesus, what's yours then?"
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World." Steve admits.
Eddie blinks at him. "Tears For Fears?" He chides.
Steve mocks offense, "Shut up, like you're any better with your metalhead crap-"
"No, it's not- it's just-" Eddie giggles, "it's cute is all."
"C'mon man, don't be an asshole," Steve groans.
"There's nothing wrong with being cute, Stevie." Eddie says in a placating tone
And Steve's too high and in too much pain for this, because when he sees the way Eddie's big glassy brown eyes look over at him he has the urge to reach out towards the other man. To bring him closer somehow. The feeling in his stomach goes from something light to something rotten at the thought.
Abruptly Steve stands up. He stumbles for a brief moment.
"I'm gonna head back in." He gestures to the front door, "you should too."
"Yeah." Eddie agrees. He stays sitting down.
Steve heads back in, closing the door behind him. He's only been laying on the bed for a few minutes when he feels the surface shift next to him. Steve feels a flat pressure press against his back. After a moment he realizes it's Eddie mirroring his position and facing outward. Steve relaxes a bit into the touch.
They fall asleep in tandem. Back to back. And if they wake up with intertwined legs nobody says anything. Not even Robin, who just gives Steve a curious glance.