Chapter Text
Ding!
Steve couldn’t believe his misfortune. Of course, the rugrats decided that this would be the best moment to drop in on him unannounced. Of course, Eddie had to be standing there staring at him, expecting him to start talking before being very rudely pushed out of the way by Dustin and Mike. Eddie, in his leather jacket covered in pins for bands Steve didn’t know, looked out of place in Scoops, but so perfect. With hair so effortlessly messy with curls spilling down his shoulders, and chocolate brown eyes looking amused by the children coming to likely demand something from Steve. Steve must have something wrong with him because he feels suddenly hotter even with the freezer open in front of him blasting cold air.
There are only two of his kids here currently, which is strange; they travel in packs, ‘like hyenas’, Steve's brain supplies.’Maybe this is an upside-down thing?’ Steve starts internally panicking over the idea of something bad happening yet again. He can’t deal with another crisis when he’s already dealing with one that is standing right next to him, leaning against the counter, no longer making eye contact with him. Then the door dings again, and Steve can let go of some of the worry as three more of the kids come barreling in, Lucas, Max, and Will. Before Steve can say a word, Dustin starts speaking in the way he does when they want something.
“Steve, my best friend in the whole wide world, could you pleeeeasssse drive us to the arcade tomorrow? It's your day off, and they are having a Dig Dug championship. Mike says he’s going to win, but I know that it's going to be me.” Dustin puffs out his chest, and Steve spots Max rolling her eyes; even he knows if anyone was going to win, it would be her. Steve looks over at Eddie, who's looking more and more amused by the second. Eddie raises an eyebrow at Steve and gestures to the kids, and Steve can’t help but shake his head to let Eddie know this is not the first or last time he’s been begged for rides. He wouldn’t mind taking them, and he’s about to say so when Dustin starts up again. “Anyway, you’ll never meet any girls your age if all you ever do is stay at home and go to your job. You need to find your Suzie Steve; she’s out there. Maybe she's even playing Dig Dug. And we’re-” Dustin is cut off by Mike.
“You’re taking us because you still owe me from dating my sister.” That is just not true. Mike attempts to send Steve a threatening look, but Steve has faced down literal monsters; a bratty look from an annoying child is not going to sway him. If anything, it makes him less likely to be driving these twerps anywhere.
Steve looks over at Eddie and wishes he could be talking with him instead of dealing with the kids; he may love them, but god, are they annoying. “Firstly-” He points at Wheeler. “I don’t owe YOU anything, seeing as your sister broke up with me and I'm now basically your personal chauffeur, so even if I had some sort of debt, I have DEFINITELY paid it off by now.” Mike almost speaks up again until Steve sends him the look that the party calls his disappointed mother look. “Secondly- How do you guys know I’m not busy tomorrow?” Steve may not have any plans, but he won’t tell them that, especially not with Eddie watching. Steve wants to seem interesting and like he still has friends who aren’t children and a codependent lesbian around him. Eddie is effortlessly cool; he would have the ladies throwing themselves at him if they didn’t live in such a small-minded town. Honestly, with the way Steve's stomach has been erupting in butterflies, he might even throw himself at Eddie- IN A NORMAL FRIENDLY WAY. The kids obviously don’t take a hint and scrutinize him with looks of exasperation.
Like usual, they don’t keep their thoughts to their selves. Friends don’t lie, not even to help me win someone over.’ Steve internally sighs as Max lets herself be heard saying, “You never have plans, we’re your only friends.” Steve feels slightly offended. He knows he's not the most active in the social scene, but he at least has Robin. He displays this by gesturing to where he knows Robin is listening from the back. She is probably taking notes to make fun of him later when the kids leave.
“Robin exists, maybe I should make plans with her just because you said that!” He sticks his tongue out at her in a very sophisticated and not at all childish way before remembering he has a crowd and, without thinking, says, “Eddie is my age, maybe he would want to hang out with me!” After the words leave his mouth, Steve has a wave of mortification wash over him, feeling his ears grow hotter from embarrassment. Eddie has made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t want to be Steve's friend, no matter how much Steve craves it. If only he didn’t- “...If he didn’t hate me that is…” He accidentally lets his internal thought slip out in a mumble, and he fidgets with his hair, hoping Eddie and the kids hadn’t heard that. He lets himself glance at Eddie's face; the expression he’s sporting is unreadable. ‘Shit, he did hear. ’
“Well, Steve-o do I have some news for you. Firstly-” Eddie starts speaking, and Steve is almost unable to hear what he’s saying over the ringing in his ears and the worry of what he might be about to say. Likely something about how he’d never stoop so low as to befriend a jock who had bullied him. Steve tries to keep his past away from the kids, to set a good example for them now, instead of the worst type that his past self would be. The party may not be the type to get sucked into the popularity black hole, but Steve knows that they are still impressionable, no matter how mature they are convinced they are. The downward spiral continues getting darker and darker. Eddie has so much to hate him for, but all Steve wants is to make up for how douchy he had been. “I actually don’t hate you-” ‘WHAT’ Steves mind blanks, his mouth drops open if it was possible it would be touching the floor like in a cartoon because after all that had happened, how is Eddie going to claim to not hate him. He thought he would never have a chance of befriending him because of the past, but now so many doors had opened. SO many doors, Steve wasn’t sure how to go down. “Secondly-” He sends a genuine grin towards Steve, which causes Steve's mind to flatline; he shines so brightly, and Steve's heart picks up, pounding so hard it might be concerning to a medical professional. “If you need to prove a point to all these little sheepies you seem to have flocking to you, I suppose you could come with me to that spot- you know the one- tomorrow. At say 2?” ‘YES!’ is all Steve can think, and he is locked into staring at Eddie's cheeks where they dimple while he’s smiling, they slowly fade though as Eddie starts to frown. Steve hates it; he wants to see him smile all the time. Eddie starts speaking again less confidently, “We don’t have too, of course,”
Steve realizes he's supposed to answer and blurts out an overexcited, “YES! I mean, I’d- I’d like that.” The group of kids looks between them in confusion as they stare at each other over the sticky counter.
“But Steeeeveee.” The Dustin whines, “Dig dug!”
“Dustin, hush, I’ll take you next week- anyway, half of you have older siblings. Ask Johnathon. Or go play DnD or something, I have paying customers to tend to.” These kids need to ask other people for help sometimes; he’s not even related to any of them. It doesn’t matter how much he thinks of Dustin as his little know-it-all brother.
“Finnnnnneeee, you’re never going to find your Suzie if you keep avoiding going anywhere besides your job, though.” Dustin groans, and Steve, for once, doesn’t feel hurt by the fact he will likely be single forever; he’s still running on the high of not being hated by Eddie. The rest of the party also groan before filing out the door, each throwing a half-hearted bye to him, except for Will (who is secretly his favorite for this exact reason), who smiles and thanks him even though he didn’t agree to do anything before leaving with a ding of the door.
Steve clears his throat before looking back at Eddie. He mentally prepares himself for the idea that Eddie may not have been genuine in his offer. No matter how nice his smile had been. “Thank you, those gremlins have no manners. I know your offer was probably just to get them to leave, so you don’t have to bother hanging out with me if you don’t want to.” He looks down and studies his shoes against the sticky grim coating the floor that he should clean at some point. He then nervously plays with the hat that is very obviously killing his ability to charm anyone. He doesn’t look at Eddie, knowing he will likely be letting him down any second now. Besides, what could they possibly do out in the woods? Smoke? Discuss how horrible he had been in the past? It wouldn’t be good for his self-esteem if all Eddie wanted to talk about was how mean and kingly he was.
“No, Princess, my offer was a real one.”THAT NICKNAME, Steve thinks he might be having a heart attack. He had never liked the king nickname, but for some reason, this one didn’t bother him at all; if anything, it had the exact opposite effect. And he had meant it. Tomorrow at 2… they would hang out together… alone… as friends? Or at least not people who hate each other? Not that Steve ever hated Eddie, he just was jealous.
He doesn’t know how to respond; all he can come up with is “C-cool. So cool, the coolest. Um… ICE CREAM!” and abruptly remembers the real reason Eddie would be here to begin with. He puts together the cone without even thinking; he knows what Eddie had ordered in the past, and he memorized it specifically for a moment like this. “Here you go!” He hands it to Eddie over the counter and looks slightly up at him through his lashes. Eddie starts to grab for his wallet, and Steve can’t let that happen. He touches Eddie's hand, allowing himself to notice how many rings are there and how long his fingers are, before softly saying. “It's on me… as a thank you for the other day and just now with the kids, I know they can be a lot.” Steve smiles, truly thankful for his help. Without Eddie, his panic attack could have been much worse. Something he had done must have scared Eddie off, though, because he is suddenly thanking Steve with a small flush and running out the door without saying goodbye. Steve feels a disappointment tug at his sternum. ‘Always scaring them off, aren’t you?’ Who knows if Eddie will even show up tomorrow anymore.
Steve watches him go before retreating to the back, finding Robin once again gawking at him. He looks over at the board, expecting a new ‘You Suck’ mark, only to find a fresh tally of black in the ‘You Rule’ column. “Dumbass, you just got a date!” Robin has a teasing hilt to her voice; she's not even being serious, but it sets something off in Steve. It's like a dam that had been stopped off, finally bursting and letting a whole new wave of feelings flood Steve's senses. ‘A date! A real date…wait… a WHAT?’ Eddie's a dude, he’s a dude. He’s not supposed to like dudes. ‘Girls are amazing and perfect and… BOOBIES.’ But… if Eddie were a girl, all these feelings would make sense. It’s a crush. A HUGE crush. Steve's head is reeling; he’s on the verge of a panic attack. He can see Robin noticing the panic in real time, her eyes widening, and her teasing smile is wiped off her face. She reaches out as if she's expecting him to faint. Instead, his breathing shallows, and he runs to the bathroom to heave into the disgusting toilet bowl. He can distantly hear Robin's hurried footsteps following him. He just stares at the ceiling, feeling like his entire world has been thrown off its axis. Everything in him wants to deny what he just realized, but he can’t shove it back into its box and categorize it along with the childhood memories he doesn’t like to remember. It isn’t going away. It's just coming faster and faster as if his entire life its been building. All the small things like watching Tommy a little too intently when they were sitting near each other at parties, noticing how he had looked getting out of the pool. The way Billy Hargrove's jeans had contorted perfectly to his body. Even how Johnathon had been attractive while throwing a punch, it may have hurt, but he was way stronger than his build gave off. All these things he had brushed off, thinking they were normal; everyone has thoughts like that every once in a while. Now though? Steve is having a hard time pretending.
“Steve, my platonic soulmate, light of my life, I need to know what's happening right now.” Robin's hand is on his shoulder, and she's leaning over him, worried eyes digging into his own. “You don’t have rabies, right?!” She jerks his head and looks at his neck, searching for what Steve guesses are bite marks. While looking at her, he thanks all the gods that he has a best friend like her. His eyes well up with tears, and Robin starts looking frantic, coming to sit on the ground next to him before leaning his head onto her shoulder and running her fingers through his hair in a comforting manner.
They sit in silence for a few moments as Steve collects what he’s about to say. “How did you know?” Robin looks confused for a moment before her eyes soften, and he knows she understands where this conversation is going.
“I think I was about 12 and all my friends wanted to talk about were the cute boys in our class, and I couldn’t think of a single reason anyone would think a boy was cute. My best friend, though, I couldn’t stop thinking about how soft her hands were and how much I wanted to be the one holding them. I didn’t have a word for it then, but I knew I was different, so I hid behind pretending to think boys were cute. I just chose one and pretended to be obsessed because I didn’t know what the appeal actually was. At a little bit older, maybe 14, there was this older girl who had been outed for kissing a girl behind the bleachers, and that was the first time I heard the word Lesbian and some other not-so-savory words about being a lesbian. I finally had a word to describe myself, but I also had the knowledge that everyone thought being like me was a bad thing. It was hard to accept. Yet I knew that if I didn’t, I would never be happy with myself. Now I have a wonderful accepting best friend who listens to my woes without complaining, and while I can’t exactly be out because we live in Hawkins, at least I’m not alone.” Steve takes in the story, and it almost makes him start crying again. He knew being queer in Hawkins is hard and it makes him want to shove everything down again, but Robin is right, this thing, whatever it is, will not stop him from being happy. Especially when he has a beautiful, amazing, perfect platonic soulmate to be some type of gay fairy godmother to tell him why this is happening.
Steve lets her words sink in and then finally says, “I think I like him, Robin, more the a friend.” At this, Robin pulls him closer and hugs him tightly. He mumbles against her, “I love you so much, Robs, what would I do without you?”
“Probably have a much more boring life.” He snickers slightly and nods to let her know he agrees.
He pulls away from the hug, still having questions, “I still like girls, Rob.” He sniffs again, not sure how to phrase this. He thought it was one or the other; this thing with Eddie had to be a fluke because he’s always liked girls. Soft skin, plush lips, long silky hair, but Eddie has all those things too, well, he looks like he has those things. Steve hasn’t gotten to test the lips theory yet.
“Steve,” She turns his head so he's looking at her, “You can like both, it's called being bisexual. Like Bowie.” ‘You can like both? BOWIE LIKES BOTH?’ Steve needs to listen to more of his music. He can like both. Eddie and Nancy. He’s over Nancy, but he’s slowly coming to a realization that he might have a type. Curly brown hair, check; big brown eyes, check; badass personality, check. Steve groans and puts his head in his hands.
“Robin, I have a date and I don’t even know if he likes guys! And I don’t know what to wear!” Robin looks exasperated but endeared to Steve's problems.
“You sure got by the panicking stage fast. I was definitely in that stage for a full month before I even thought about checking out girls, let alone going out with the one I had a crush on.” She giggles and then looks serious, “You just need to treat this like a hangout but also look for signs he’s into you, I think you might find them, believe me.” Robin seems to know something but isn’t letting Steve in on it.
Steve nods at this sagely advice and says, “You better help me pick out my outfit.”
“You know I will.”