-On The Road- (A Steddie and Ronance Story)

The Quiet Gay Panic

(Hey y'all! Sorry for the short chapter, but I'm putting out two today, so hopefully that makes up for it!)

The girls eventually returned to a walking pace about 5 minutes into their race, and began to chat, enjoying the view of the lovely forest around them (and occasionally exchanging glances at each other). It was a wonderfully warm day, not too warm to make it uncomfortable, but also just warm enough to warrant a couple stops to enjoy just how lovely the rays of sun felt on their skin. It was almost ethereal, how quietly beautiful it was.

This was heavily contrasted by the boys, who were stumbling their way through the trees, both fully soaked in lake water. As they made their way to their camp, they had managed to take about twice as long, to the surprise of neither of them. After all, neither had brought along any sort of map, and it wasn't exactly like either had any innate sense of direction. By the time the two had made it back, the girls were already sat down near the fire pit, Nancy with her nose in her notepad and Robin, unaware and talking about whatever came to her mind. The guys paused before making themselves known, observing the other two interact.

"Not gonna lie.. That's pretty gay." Eddie said, and Steve looked over at him, glaring.

"Hey, don't talk about Robin like that. Being gay is cool. It's not a bad thing." Steve defended, not liking that Eddie was making fun of his friend. Even if he was right. They were indeed, being pretty gay. Eddie looked back, pausing, and sighing.

"One day, you're gonna realize, and it's gonna be so funny when you do, Harrington." He replied, patting Steve's back, and walking to meet up with the girls. He knew Steve wasn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, but he never failed to surprise Eddie with his absolute obliviousness. Steve furrowed his brow, not sure what he meant, but decided to just ignore it and move on. Eddie didn't make sense, and he was sure he wasn't going to make sense to him any time soon.

"Jesus, what the hell happened to you? You know you guys were only supposed to wash the jacket, right?" Robin said, looking at Eddie, who was still quite damp from the lake.

"Sorry we know how to have a good time, Rob. Next time we'll build some flower crowns too." Steve retorted, and Eddie nodded jokingly. However, the thought of Steve in a flower crown did give him pause. Steve would look quite nice in a flower crown. With little yellow dandelions. Definitely would compliment his eyes. And if he didn't style his hair and just left it all messy, with a flower crown, that really would be a beautiful sight.

"...Eddie? Are you good?" Robin asked, and he quickly snapped out of his trance, looking around. As it turned out, while he had been lost in thought, he had zoned out staring at Steve for much longer then one would consider normal.

"He's just distracted by how good I look today. It's okay, Munson, I know it's hard to take your eyes off of me." Steve joked, and Eddie, in an attempt to hide the fact that he absolutely was, in fact, distracted, decided to play into the joke.

"Oh, you're making me blush, Stevie." Eddie said, faking a swoon before walking to grab something from the car. He did catch a glance of Steve turning a bit red, and laughed a little to himself. He was so easy to mess with.

"Steve, that would require you to look good today." Nancy said, not looking up from her notepad, causing Steve to gasp.

"Wheeler, you wound me."

"She isn't wrong though, swamp water isn't really a good look on you." Robin added, making Nancy giggle.

"At least Eddie can appreciate my good looks." Steve huffed jokingly, sitting next to Robin. He had thought about sitting between Robin and Nancy, but he wouldn't want to interrupt the vibe the two had going. Eddie had returned, having also pulled out a notepad of sorts, though his was much less nice looking. The cover had been torn off, and a lot of the pages seemed to have a coffee stain of some sort on them.

"Hey Stevie?" Robin turned to face him, jokingly using the new nickname, and Steve rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Robin?"

"Let's go for a walk. I wanna show you something Nance and I found while we were walking."

Nancy, confused at what she could possibly mean, looked up to say something, but saw that Robin had already grabbed Steve by the wrist, dragging him away, not even in the direction the two girls had came from. Odd.

"..Alright then, guess it's just us then." Eddie said, watching his poor friend being dragged off, most likely to be subjected to the frantic homosexual rants of Robin.

And then, there were two.