Chapter Text
Steve is spending a lot of time at the hospital. Between checking in on the kids who have been in and out for a variety of injuries, visiting Max who is stuck in a hospital bed for at least a few more weeks, and his own frequent appointments to check up on a potential concussion, he’s there…like a lot.
So it’s not that surprising that he happens to walk out the front door at the same time as Eddie Munson is discharged. Eddie hasn’t noticed him and Steve freezes, wondering if he should say something. They’re only really friendly acquaintances via upside down trauma bonding, although that’s admittedly the basis of all of his friendships nowadays. He knows that Dustin has been visiting Eddie religiously and would be less than happy that Eddie seems to have given Wayne the slip, opting to walk home instead despite still being covered in bandages.
“Hey!” Steve calls out, jogging after him.
Eddie turns, eyes widening as he catches sight of Steve. He’s wearing a wary look which is a little bit hurtful because Steve felt like they had gotten along well amidst all the chaos. Instead of a flashy grin, Eddie has his eyebrows raised like he’s questioning Steve’s intentions.
“You don’t have to offer me a ride,” Eddie says bluntly as Steve’s jaw snaps shut, mouth closing around the offer he was about to make.
Steve wants to make a comment about how Eddie is still covered in bandages and will probably pop his stitches walking home. To nag about how worried Dustin will be about Eddie’s safety. But he has the feeling that haranguing Eddie the way he does the kids won’t win him any points here. And if he’s being honest with himself, he wants to win points. Eddie is funny and smart and brave and Dustin practically worships the ground he walks on. He had thought…well, that they might run into each other again and that they could be friends. God knows, Steve needs more friends who aren’t children.
Before Eddie can walk away, Steve blurts out, “Do you want to grab dinner?”
In response, Eddie wrinkles his nose in a cringing gesture, and Steve wonders how he could have managed to ruin an interaction in only two sentences.
“Look, you don’t have to- I don’t need any charity or pity from you, alright? If this is Dustin putting you up to something, then don’t bother.”
“Dustin didn’t put me up to anything.”
“Oh, so you just decided to ask to hangout out of the blue? We don’t really run in the same circles, Harrington.”
Ouch. Steve feels his face sting with embarrassment.
“The feds bribed us too, so I don’t need you to buy me a meal, alright?” Eddie continues, “I’m good.”
“It’s not charity!”
Eddie gives him a condescending look, eyebrow piercing lifting. The embarrassed flush on Steve’s face climbs higher. He can’t remember anyone rejecting his friendship since first grade.
“I want some fucking fries, but I don’t want to sit alone at a diner with my thoughts after all the shit we went through,” Steve says, sudden exclamation reducing his coolness to a solid zero. “So-”
He sighs and presses a hand to his forehead, other hand gesturing vaguely. Eddie shifts on his feet, expression softening.
“Oh, shit. I thought…”
“That I was trying to buy you a pity burger?”
Now it’s Eddie’s turn to flush with embarrassment.
“Well…”
“If it makes you feel better, you can buy me food,” Steve jokes.
Eddie scrubs a hand across his face.
“Sorry for being a dick. It’s just…a lot.”
“No, it’s fine. I get it. The brats are meddlesome,” Steve replies with a laugh.
Finally, Eddie cracks a smile.
“Dustin hasn’t really shut up about you. So I kind of thought…it was a setup.”
Steve rolls his eyes.
“You know why? He’s trying to get me to attend one of your DnD things. He’s hellbent on getting everyone to play. Starting with me because apparently I’m the weak link. It is a setup. But the setup is for me. He’s trying to make you an accomplice.”
“I should probably buy you a pity burger,” Eddie says.
“Oh, you definitely should. I had to listen to him and Mike talk about character sheets for an uninterrupted hour while I waited for my CT scan.”
He chuckles when Eddie gives him a mock salute.
~
Steve wasn’t lying. He really has been craving fries. And after the town was ripped up by an ‘earthquake,’ Robin’s parents haven’t been keen on letting her run around town with Steve. Their mutual bitch sessions have been confined to the telephone calls for the past few weeks.
So he digs in, stuffing fries into his mouth, and notices that Eddie is looking around nervously, shoulders tight. Oh, right. Even if Eddie has been cleared of any charges, the neanderthals around Hawkins probably still have it out for him. Which is why it’s even more bothersome that he was planning on returning home on foot. Eddie catches his gaze and steals a fry from Steve’s basket, still waiting on his food to arrive at the table.
“Will you be alright? I mean-”
Eddie huffs a small laugh, snatching another fry.
“Well, financially, this is the best thing that ever happened to me and Wayne. The trailer was completely totaled so they gave us a modest new one-story house. And a nice payout. Plus they just handed me a GED.”
Steve nods. They had been bribed by the government and given judicious instructions to forget everything they had seen and heard.
“But the rumors…”
“Not like I’m not used to it.”
“Still. It’s shitty.”
Eddie gives him a considering look before changing the subject abruptly.
“So DnD-”
“Yeah, nice try. Henderson hasn’t worn me down yet.”
“I notice there’s a yet at the end of that sentence,” Eddie says, leaning forward with steepled fingers and a grin.
The waitress arrives with Eddie’s food and sets it down quickly with a leery look at Eddie. Steve glares at her and attempts his best imitation of Robin giving a nasty look to a Scoops customer asking for samples. Then stuffs another fry in his mouth. When he glances at Eddie, the other man is holding back a smile like he’s amused.
“It’s nice that you got a new place. My house is a mess,” Steve comments.
“All your sports trophies fell off the wall?”
He chucks a fry in Eddie’s direction.
“Hey man, watch it! I just got out of the hospital.”
“Tell Henderson that I’m a danger and that you absolutely cannot have me at DnD.”
“HA! Very cute, Harrington. We’ll make a paladin out of you yet.”
“Unfortunately, unlike my house, one of the few buildings that stayed undamaged was Family Video. Mine and Robin’s place of employment,” Steve continues.
“When is it reopening? And are you going to give me a discount?”
“Three weeks from now. And I don’t know, are you going to ban me from DnD?”
Eddie clasps his hands to his chest dramatically.
“You’re gonna hurt my feelings. Henderson and I are trying to transform your life here.”
“Oh, you’ve gone full blown accomplice, huh? And after all we’ve been through together, Munson,” Steve replies around a French fry.
“Imagine for a moment: a world where anything is possible,” Eddie declares with an impassioned gesture.
“This is how cults recruit people. Do you know that?” Steve deadpans, pointing at him with a fry.
“Shh, I’m trying to downplay those rumors. Where you can be anyone you want…”
“I heard there was math involved. I hate math.”
“Damn, Henderson. You never lead with the math. Rookie mistake.”
Steve snorts and Eddie looks proud that he’s managed to make Steve laugh.
“So there is math.”
“No, ok, listen. Hear me out!”
When they finish eating, Eddie accepts the ride home without complaint and Steve feels that he’s made a tiny victory.
~
Steve stumbles to the door when he hears the knock, thinking that Robin has finally escaped her parental confinement. But when the door swings open, Eddie is standing on the other side looking much better than when he left the hospital.
“Holy shit.”
“Hi?” Steve replies in confusion.
“Um, Henderson sent me over to drag you to his house for DnD and said you are actually not supposed to be driving because of a concussion. More importantly, your house. When you said mess, did you mean…destroyed?”
“They said it was structurally sound…”
Eddie casts a skeptical look into Steve’s living room.
“There’s broken glass on your floor. And that couch only has three legs?”
“Ok, I’ve been busy!” Steve snaps. “My parents left me money to deal with it before they left, but I haven’t gotten around to it.”
“You haven’t gotten around to the broken glass?” Eddie asks, stepping around Steve to sweep his gaze across the room.
“I was in the hospital. And the kids were in the hospital. And everyone is traumatized. And I can’t find the fucking broom in the rubble, alright?!” Steve rants, irritated that someone has laid eyes on the untouched disaster that has been his residence for weeks.
“Does your phone work?”
“Yes, the phone works, Munson,” Steve barks, while Eddie sidesteps him to grab the phone and dial.
“Hey!”
“Henderson, we gotta cancel. Something can up. Yeah, yeah I know. Next week.”
Steve feels a little ridiculous standing amongst the rubble of his living room, wearing an old t-shirt, pajama shorts, and mismatched socks. So he crosses his arms to try and maintain some semblance of pride. Eddie hangs up the phone.
“Are you pity-opting me out of DnD?”
“No, I’m helping you clean your house. Jesus Christ, man,” Eddie replies with a small laugh.
Steve tries to stop him as he trudges toward the kitchen. There are shattered plates and glasses all over the place.
“No, wait!”
“Harrington, are you living in a salvage yard?!”
~
For some reason, Eddie takes it upon himself to come over periodically and help Steve put his house back in order. Honestly, Steve is glad for the company. It’s been lonely without Robin stuck to his side.
On the first session, they manage to clean up all the broken debris throughout the house. Steve keeps harping on Eddie for trying to bend in ways that could pull on his stitches, and Eddie chastises him for living in a tetanus pit for weeks while taking care of other people. On the second session, Eddie turns out to be surprisingly handy and manages to repair a few items of furniture. Steve is so relieved to have less furniture shopping to do that he mostly lays on the floor and watches Eddie screw things back into place then orders them both pizza.
“You still have to buy a new TV. And honestly probably another couch. I fixed it for now, but who knows how long it will hold.”
Steve groans into his hands from his sprawled position on the floor. The couch is stable, but not yet cleared of potentially hidden broken glass, so the floor is the safe option for them both at the moment.
“What’s wrong with you? I thought rich people loved shopping,” Eddie quips.
Steve scowls at him and grabs the last piece of pizza.
“I don’t want to. I’m going to let Robin order whatever she wants from a catalog. Do you want something for my house? Pick out a chair.”
Eddie cackles and declares, “I’m gonna get a metal throne.”
“Deal. My parents will hate it. It’s perfect. But you have to fight with Robin over whether it suits her design choices.”
“Mmhmm. Hey, what’s the state of your room? If it’s awful, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“There’s no broken glass in it.”
“That’s not a reassuring statement, Steve.”
On the third session, they tackle Steve’s room. Eddie is having entirely too much fun sorting through Steve’s stuff, while Steve attempts to organize his clothes back into dressers. Finally, he gets tired and gives up to join Eddie on the floor of the closet amongst his miscellaneous possessions.
“You would be the kind of kid who collected baseball cards,” Eddie comments.
Steve snatches them away and puts them back on a shelf above his head.
“Ok, I had normal childhood hobbies. What did you collect, huh?”
“The souls of the damned,” Eddie replies casually.
Steve joins him back on the floor and grabs a basketball out of his hands. It’s deflated.
“Liar, I bet you had an ant farm. Like a weirdo.”
Eddie sticks his tongue out at Steve in rejoinder. Out of the corner of his eye, Steve sees a stack of yearbooks in disarray. Grinning, he sifts through until he finds an elementary school album.
“I have to see you before you were metal,” he jokes, flipping through the pages in search of Eddie’s name.
Eddie curses and tries to pry it away. They wrestle, while Steve laughs raucously.
“No, come on. We’re friends now. I deserve this,” Steve begs through bursts of laughter, while Eddie fights him for it.
“This is unfair. You probably had perfect hair, even in elementary school.”
“You’re right. I was adorable,” Steve shoots back, falling over on his side and finally securing the yearbook.
When he finally locates the photo of a young Eddie, he croons.
“You’re so cute! Look, you’re missing your two front teeth.”
Second grade Eddie has floppy hair and a gap-toothed smile. Steve feels a rush of affection for the small child in the picture. The older Eddie next to him is flushed at the teasing. Steve can’t stop grinning even though his cheeks hurt.
“Yeah, yeah. Let me see yours,” Eddie says, stealing the album away.
“Ugh!” Eddie groans in mock disgust. “What is this? You were probably a Gerber baby. Look at your moles. Ridiculous.”
“Why are you being mean to baby me?” Steve accuses through laughter.
“Let me see your middle school photos.”
“Stop!” Steve protests. “Those are classified!”
“Hey man, I got hotter in 8th grade. I don’t know about you.”
Steve slaps a hand on top of the albums and confesses, “I didn’t grow much until the summer before freshman year. Let's not relive my shame era, please.”
Eddie grins manically.
“Oh, a shame era? Now, I have to see it.”