A Crack In The Glass (steddie with some Rickie)

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Steve stepped into school, girls trying to flock him as usual and him politely ushering them away, just to make it to his locker. He looked better than yesterday, he looked like his normal color and well-rested. I guess he listened to robins advise after all. Robin was applying her lipstick in the mirror inside her locker with vickie next to her, talking.

“Hello to the only ladies I allow within a 10 feet radius of me when at school, how are we today?” He jokes, combing the side of his hair almost exactly like John Travolta in grease. vickie stifled her laughter with a couple giggles escaping, robin just rolled her eyes.

“Hey dingus.” Steve made sure his appearance was perfect, checking for any hairs out of place, food in between his teeth, stains on his clothes, etc; etc; his eyes adjusted on a boy against the wall behind him, a bloody nose and a black eye. Steve stared at him in the mirror a moment, feeling almost as if something was drawing him to the sorry-looking boy leant against the wall. Perhaps it was the fact that no one had stopped to help, and some even gawked or laughed at him. Or perhaps it was… something else. Something Steve had never felt before.

He shut his locker with an unintentional and uncontrollably loud slam, before walking over and helping the random guy stand. When Steve got closer, he could see the man was unconscious, and had a bruise on his jaw and a busted lip sustained with his other injuries. It looked like he'd lost a fight, and Steve felt compelled to step in and help. He brought the man's body to the males restroom and wetted a paper towel, as the man started to come to.

Steve winced as the boy seemed surprised anyone was helping him. Steve knelt in front of him.

“Hey, are you ok?” Steve asked, slowly patting blood from his lip, nose and anywhere else it was.

“It's pretty bad, eh?” he chuckled, weakly offering a hand. “Eddie the freak.” He says, and Steve slowly shakes his hand. “Steve, right? Harrington?”

“Yeah.” He said, chuckling. He was used to people knowing his name, so Eddie knowing it didn't surprise him.

“I don't think you wanna be helping me, sire.” Eddie says, grabbing the wet paper towel from steve. “Might hurt your reputation, big guy.”

“Ah well, i felt like being nice today.” he took it back from eddie and continued to clean his cuts without another word of protest from eddie. In a way, Eddie enjoyed Steve's attention. Well, Eddie enjoyed any boy's attention, really. “And my rep needs to get taken down a notch, I need to be seen more as a person and not a man-whore.” Steve mentions absent-mindedly, noting how perfectly full Eddie's lips would be if it wasn't for the gnarly cut on the side of it disrupting the natural shape of them. Same with his eyes, if it wasn't for the large, swollen bruise his eyes would be the most captivating steve had seen.

Steve felt a wave of embarrassment and awkwardness wash over him, a pink flush tinting his face.he softly offered a chuckle to fill the silence, throwing out the paper towel and getting a new one. Eddie smiled, he was always told Steve Harrington was confident and charming, but now he seems quiet and soft.

“I like your hair.” Eddie says softly, smiling and making eye contact with steve. Stve didn't break it and smiled. His cheeks stayed red.

“Yeah- thanks,” Steve giggled softly, making sure Eddie was all cleaned up. He then broke eye contact and cleared his throat awkwardly. “There you go, should be good now. Or- well, as good as I could get it.” Steve stood up and showed a hand to help Eddie off the ground. He grabbed it and realized they'd missed the bell for class. For some reason, the bathroom was basically soundproof, and did not have speakers. They glanced at each other, and began jogging down to history, which they had together (whether they knew it or not).

“You want me to be honest, when you picked me up I thought you were gonna beat me up too.” Eddie said, opening the door and holding it for steve. He walked in and locked eyes with robin, who gave a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Steve wasn't able to answer Eddie, not with all the eyeballs of his entire history class. That also included their history teacher, Mrs. sanchez. She stared at the boys and sighed. Eddie watched as the class began to giggle and murmur to each other, including vickie and robin. Eddie ducked his head and tried to walk off to his seat, but the teacher stopped him.

“Ahen, munson, harrington.” She said with annoyance. “Care to share with the class why you're late?” Steve looked to Eddie, who looked to the teacher.

“Steve was um… he drove me to school but his car broke down before we made it to school. So we had to.. Fix it. Right?” Steve nodded frantically, and she let them sit down with the punishment of detention if they did it again. Steve took his seat, the one saved by robin's bag, with a sigh. Her eyes were on him, and he almost didn't notice till he looked over.

“What?” He asked quietly.

“Seriously? Eddie munson?” Steve felt a blush spread across his face as she said the name.

“WHat do you mean?” he whispered in reply.

“She means that she knows that excuse was bullshit.” Vickie adds, and Robin nods. Steve rolled his eyes and scribbled notes from the board on his teacher.

“Yeah, I was helping him. He was beaten to a pulp.”

“Was not!” Eddie mouthed from next to him, making Steve's laugh stifle. Robin ganced to vickie, who was also looking at their in the same way. Their gaydars were in the red, but they said nothing more.