little things; stranger things littlespace oneshots

♡ 12 - truth ♡

cg!nancy, robin
little!eddie (2)
little!steve (5)

Steve sat on the floor, admiring his dog plushie. It was his favorite toy, the first one Nancy had ever bought him when he was revealed to be a little. Though since Eddie had come out as a little, it felt somewhat like "Eddie this" and "Eddie that", and less attention for Stevie. But at least he had his dog. He truly cherished it.
He played with it gently, that is, until someone took it out of his hands.
"Eddie! Give it!" Steve frowned. Eddie was a little bit younger and didn't entirely understand the concept of sharing, or that what he was doing was wrong. Steve snatched the toy back. Steve's aggression triggered it in Eddie and he grabbed the toy back again.

"Eddie, no!" Steve grabbed the plushie, pushing his hand away.
"No!" Eddie shouted, shoving Steve hard enough for his back to hit the floor. Steve arose with an intense stare. He was angry. He stole the plushie back and punched Eddie in the arm. Not enough to seriously hurt, but enough to sting a little. Eddie slapped him in turn, and the two broke out into a fight, hitting and kicking each other. Steve landed a kick to Eddie's stomach, who began to cry aloud.

"What's this about?" Robin asked as she walked in with Nancy, before getting met with the scene. Steve was on top of Eddie with his arm up, visibly about to throw a punch. Both were frozen. Eddie's eyes looked fearful.
"STEVIE, what are you doing?!" Nancy exclaimed, grabbing his wrist and pulling him to stand up.
"I- we- he was stealing my doggy!" Steve defended, pointing over to the plush laying on the floor, and Eddie, who sat on his bottom looking up innocently.

"And that's your excuse for beating him up? You know that's he's younger than you. I thought you were better than this. You're in so much trouble." Nancy scolded him.
"But- he- he started it! He hit me! It's not fair, why-" Steve explained before getting cut off.
"You should have at least shared with him, bud. I'm extremely disappointed in you." Robin said.
All the conflict had frightened Eddie into a younger headspace, and he had gone nonverbal. His heart broke when he saw the miserable look in Steve's eyes. He wished that he could tell them that it really was his own fault, that he had stolen from and pushed Steve. But he didn't have the words.

"I didn't do it!" Steve sobbed into his hands.
"Stevie. We saw it. You couldn't share and you hit Eddie, right?" Nancy said, looking towards Eddie. He could only stare back at her desperately.
"See how sad he is? Go to your room." she told Steve.
"This is all your fault." he spat at Eddie with fire in his eyes. Eddie recoiled at that, and Steve ran off to his room.

Steve threw himself onto his bed and sobbed. A million thoughts ran through his head at once. Why did they have to walk in at that moment? Why did Eddie have to steal from him? Why didn't anyone believe him? Why did they love Eddie more? His intrusive thoughts began to win as he could only rationalize that it was because Eddie simply deserved it more. Eddie was smaller and cuter, while Stevie was bigger and stronger. Eddie was young and well-behaved, while Stevie was older and apparently now a troublemaker. It's no wonder they didn't like Stevie. Stevie didn't even like Stevie.

He cried even harder.

Meanwhile, Nancy and Robin were tending to Eddie. He still couldn't get the words out. They thought he had been crying because of Steve bullying him, but the truth was, he felt guilty. He felt guilty that he didn't tell them the truth, and that Steve took the blame. Somewhere in the mix, Eddie slipped out of his headspace.
"No.. no!" he whispered, looking at the two, who were alerted by his sudden speech.
"What? What's wrong?" Robin asked.

"I'm not little. And.. Stevie didn't do anything." he said regretfully.
"What do you mean?" Nancy pressed.
"I.. I did. I stole the plushie from him. And I attacked him first. I didn't know, I couldn't tell you, and m' sowwy.." Eddie cried, slipping again at the end.
"Oh, honey.." Robin said, hugging him. "You didn't know. It was wrong, but you're sorry, and you learned, so that's all that matters."
"That means Stevie really was telling the truth." Nancy spoke.
"You're right.. we need to fix this. Can you get him?" Robin asked her, with a little Eddie still in her arms.
"Yeah. I'd better go check on him." Nancy answered before running off to Steve's bedroom.

"Stupid Eddie." Steve pouted, kicking his bed. Of course, he didn't really mean it. He loved Eddie, and knew that he never meant to cause him trouble. He felt that ever since Eddie came, sometimes he was second. But he didn't really mind it, he was happy to have him, he just wished they'd believed him.
Steve turned around at the sound of a knock at his door. The door opened to reveal Nancy, walking in and gently shutting the door.

Steve looked down, eyes watering, hugging his knees to his chest and frowning. He begrudgingly awaited a punishment or lecture, but to his surprise, Nancy apologized.
"Stevie, I'm sorry." Nancy said. This caught Steve off-guard. He looked up and met her eyes, still slightly frowning.
"Oh. Um.. s'okay I guess. I kinda deserve it." he replied as he aggressively wiped his eyes, trying to get this over with as soon as he could.
"No, you didn't. You really didn't do anything wrong. You were telling the truth, and I'm.. we're really sorry." she apologized.

"Kay. It's fine." he replied nonchalantly, looking away to hide the tears building up quickly. Those were the only words he could utter without making it obvious he would start crying. He felt himself about to burst into tears.
"It's not, Steve! It was wrong of us to put you in trouble for something you didn't do!" Nancy continued.
Steve broke out in sobs at this.
"Then why'd you do it?" he choked out. "Why do you believe Eddie and not me? What makes him so much better?" he continued to sob.
Nancy felt sick at this. She would never want Steve to feel like this. She knew she messed up.

Nancy pulled Stevie into a hug and held him there. He attached to her embrace and cried.
"Stevie, you're amazing. Robin and I really love you. And, we were really stupid, and we should have listened to you. We're really sorry. But please don't think we like Eddie any more than you. You're a fantastic kid, and so is he." Nancy said.
Steve calmed down at this.
"I want you two to get along, and all of us. Will you ever forgive us?" she pleaded.

Steve was silent for a moment.
"Okay." he sniffled.
Eddie ran in, Robin following behind.
"Friends?" Eddie asked hopefully, throwing himself in a hug with Steve.
"Ack- okay, fine. Best friends!" Steve accepted the hug, a smile on his face.

- 1200 words
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