𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐬

FORTY-FOUR: rest of my life.

     

     AFTER DOING THE dishes and putting away the leftovers in tupperware to put in the fridge, Eddie enters Rhys' bedroom, sort of hesitantly where he found the blond smoking at his window, flicking the cigarette in his hand a few times so he quietly walks over, standing beside him. "So... do you, like, uh, have feelings for Nora or something? You seemed upset--" "what the fuck?" Rhys says right away, looking up at his boyfriend.

"Sorry, you just seemed upset when she brought up moving into a house with Andy and I figured with your past and stuff, you--" "That I fucked the one of the few people that I consider family?" He asked and Eddie raised his brows. "Oh. Sorry..." He quickly turned away and Rhys sighs, looking away.

"This evening's been weird..." He says and Eddie nods. "No kidding." He murmured and Rhys just glanced up at him again. "I'm gonna go talk to Nora for a bit and... we can watch a movie or cuddle and sleep after, okay?" He asked as he got up, putting out his cigarette onto a little ashtray. "Yeah, sure..."

After a short talk with Nora and her opening up about not being able to have children, Rhys now understood her worry about moving with Andy and he just gave her a talk about if Andy loves her so much, he wouldn't mind not having kids biologically and adoption was always an option before finally getting back to his room where Eddie was laying on his bed with his eyes closed. "Eds?" He says, getting into the bed beside his boyfriend.

"Hmm?" Eddie hums, turning to look at him as he fails to keep his eyes open. "Did you mean what you said?" Rhys asked quietly and his boyfriend finally opens his eyes, a bit confused. "What did I say?" He asked and Rhys sighs. "An apartment means this won't last long and that we both know it?" He whispers and Eddie immediately sat up to look at him. "What? No." He shook his head quickly.

"That only applies to straight people." He says and Rhys laughs, looking down. "And... I didn't mean it because I know I wanna be with you for the rest of my life, Rhys, I love you." He says and the blond quickly looks up. "Yeah?" He says and Eddie nods right away, smiling faintly. "I love you." He leans in, cupping Rhys' face as he brings their lips together.

When he pulls back, Rhys smiles softly, "cool." He said and Eddie scrunched up his face. "Sorry?" He says, pulling his hand away and the blond quickly shook his head. "I mean, I love you too! I--I'm sorry, I just... never really say that. But I want to, to you, because I do. I mean, love you, like, I do love you." He sort of becomes a rambling mess and Eddie chuckled, leaning in to give him one more kiss.

Rhys must've said it a million times as they held each other in bed that night, cuddling and making out, in between kisses, into their kisses or against Eddie's soft pale skin, he said it so many times the Munson was way too giddy to even fall asleep even though he had gotten tired while waiting for Rhys.

Meanwhile, James and Steve were on their fifth movie for the night, the Hopper being the little spoon as they faced the tv. "Stevie?" He mumbled quietly and the Harrington hums. "I know me, you and the others are already going on a little trip to Chicago together, but, uh, why don't we go on one of our own too?" He moves to lay on his back and Steve glanced down at him. "Yeah? Where to?" He asked, caressing James' shoulder softly.

"I don't know... anywhere's good with me." He whispers and Steve smiles widely. "I haven't been to Paris in a while--" "oh, my God, you gold digging whore." James says and the Harrington giggled, looking at him. "Anywhere's good with me too, as long as you're there." He reached up to tuck a bit of James' hair behind his ear. Signature Harrington move that made James' heart go a little crazy and his stomach feel like it's been invaded by a bunch of butterflies which he hides by rolling his eyes.

"Then I kind of have a place. It's not, like, the 5 star hotels in Greece or Italy, but we'd have a bit of privacy..." He says and Steve chuckles. "Right, because your dad is totally not discreet with sending El or Will every five minutes to check--" a knock came at the door and Steve nods. "Speak of the devil." He whispers and the door opens to Sara Hopper this time. "Hey bro. And future bro-in-law." The way she phrases it as if it were the most casual thing ever made Steve's face burn bright red.

"Can you drive El, Will and I to 7-11? Ellie says she wants to go grab slushies and snacks for our movie night with our friends." She says as she walks over, crossing her arms and James glanced up at Steve who realized it meant he also had to go, "this is so set-up by your dad." Steve whispers to him and James nods in agreement. "Totally." He says.

But the two comply, taking the kids out to the gas station despite all of them literally being the legal age to literally drive themselves. James blames it on his dad. "You're meddling in their relationship." Joyce says from the doorway of the livingroom where Jim was seated, eating some chips. "No, I'm not!" He denied. "You literally said go ask James when Sara asked you specifically to drive them." She said as she came to sit beside Jim.

"That kid is bad news. I know it, you know it, Jonathan sure as hell knows it and so should James." He says and the Byers woman frowns. "Jim. He's an adult... they're both adults and you can't just protect James forever." She said as she puts her arm on the back of the couch and Jim just loudly munches on a chip. "I can try." He says and she rolls her eyes.

"Steve is different, he's changed and I see a lot of you in him actually." She says and he looks at him. "What, I constantly made my high school boyfriend cry, too? Don't you remember that? Jonathan was so torn up over this guy." He says, frowning and Joyce sighs. "Yeah, that was the past, Jim. And you can't hold something he did a long time ago against him. Even Jon's forgiven him... maybe you should too." She said before getting up, sighing.

authors note
jim "no one's good enough for my children" hopper 🙄 such a diva smh

+ yeah i'm ending this at 50 chapters with maybe an epilogue where it summarizes everything at the end of how it ends up for all of them, bc i have an argyle social media fic planned after this 😁