iris. - steddie

18. red handed

sunday march 27, 1986

it was around noon and the two of them had slept the entire time. steve 100% could've been passed out longer until eddie got up.

the longer-haired one stretched with a yawn, steve turning to look at him as the sun from the window gently lit his skin.

'what're you doing?' he asked as eddie grabbed a towel from the bathroom.

'you have a pool, harrington! i'm making the most of it,' eddie said, nodding his head towards the door as he left. 'c'mon,'

steve huffed in amusement but followed, rubbing his face in slight exhaustion.

'how are you still tired?' eddie rolled his eyes as he tossed the towel onto one of the chairs outside.

this felt very similar to the first night he played dnd at steve's with the kids.

steve shrugged, hardly paying attention as eddie took his pants off and tossed them onto the chair, still in his boxers.

eddie grinned, getting a running head start before jumping on steve and tackling him into the pool.

with the momentum he made, the both of them rocketed to the bottom of the pool.

steve coughed as he emerged from under the water after a minute, watching as eddie came up a little later laughing.

'it went up my nose, asshole!' he said, blowing the stinging chlorine out of his nostrils.

'aw, i'm sorry.' eddie gave a sarcastic frown. 'i didn't mean to hurt little stevie,' he swam over, looking at steve with a small grin.

'bite me,' steve groaned at the nickname, pressing his back against the wall of the pool and holding himself up with his arms.

'is that an order?' he arched his brow, putting an arm on either side of the wall behind steve.

'yeah, okay.' he laughed, turning back to see eddie's raised brow not moving.

'i never said i wouldn't,'

'eddie, no!' steve laughed, leaning out of the way as he bit his shoulder with a snort. 'ow, ow!' he hit eddie on the head, tempted to dunk him underwater.

eddie stopped biting him after a second, giggling a little and kissing him. 'i love you so much,' he said happily against his lips.

he smiled, one arm moving off the wall of the pool to drape over eddie's shoulder. 'i love you too.'

'i wish we could just.. leave.' steve added, resting his forehead against eddie's. 'not far, but enough so i could still see the kids and not deal with anyone else.'

'yeah?' he smiled softly.

'yeah.' steve nodded. 'maybe you should try graduating this time,'

eddie's jaw dropped in fake offense. 'wow, coming for my intelligence this time, harrington?'

'no! i just—' he looked down at the water rippling in the small space between them. 'we wouldn't have to put up with anything.'

'sure. if you don't hate me by the time we graduate,' eddie grinned, a hand moving to his cheek. 'we'll look for something small, yeah?'

steve smiled brightly. he was well aware the two of them hadn't been together long, but they'd been practically living together already at steve's for a while now.

them having somewhere out of town just guarantees that if his parents were to ever come back, they wouldn't just have the rug yanked out from under them and become homeless.