Sober Up

Goodbye, I say to my best buds (we say we keep in touch, and we did our best)

That same night, just after Steve had finished cleaning up his blood from the hardwood floors in his living room, the doorbell rang. He slowly and gingerly walked to the door, making sure not to put too much pressure on his left leg, as it was pretty heavily bruised. Steve supposed it must have gotten that way while he was unconscious, but he couldn't be entirely sure.

As he was making his way to the door, the person on the other side began pounding on the wood, rattling the door in its frame and causing Steve to shout, "I'm coming! Calm down!". He huffed to himself and began to limp towards the door a bit quicker, trying to placate the impatient man on the other side of the door. Steve finally reached the door and flung it open, prepared to berate whoever was standing on the other side, until he saw it was Eddie and all his words died in his throat.

Eddie was standing on the doorstep fully decked out in fantasy gear, covered in leather and chains, and the sight took Steve's breath away. His eyes roved over the outfit, and all he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss the man in front of him. Steve was semi-aware of what Eddie must think but at the moment his brain couldn't do anything than marvel at how good Eddie looked.

"Harrington? You there?" Eddie asked, waving a hand in front of Steve's face and causing him to snap out of his Eddie-induced haze.

"Yeah, sorry! Just spaced out a little!" Steve said, knowing full well that the reason he had spaced out was that he was thinking of what Eddie's lips might feel like on his own.

"Oh! Ok! Sorry, it was just...," Eddie trailed off, clearly trying to hide the edge of panic that had crept into his voice after Steve had just stared at him blankly for a full 20 seconds and trying not to admit that Steve had scared him. Ever since Vecna, Eddie had some issues with people staring into space. It reminded him too much of Chrissy, and each time it happened he feared that they wouldn't wake up this time. Steve's bruised face didn't help much either, just further cementing in Eddie's mind that something was wrong.

"Do you want to come in?" Steve questioned, a little furrow between his eyebrows, and Eddie realized two things at once. Number one was that he had just been staring off into space, basically doing the exact thing he had tried to stop Steve from doing, and number two was that Steve was really cute when he was confused.

"Yeah! Yeah, totally," Eddie said hurriedly, trying to distract himself from the fact that he just realized he found Steve Harrington attractive. He stepped over the threshold, allowing Steve to close the door behind him.

"By the way, what happened to your face? I thought you were done with all the fighting man," Eddie asked, sounding unconcerned but feeling very worried for steve's wellbeing.

"Oh, this was nothing," Steve said, with an air of finality, obviously trying to brush off the question. He continued, trying to change the subject, "So, what's the plan for tonight?". Steve clearly didn't want to talk anymore about his injuries, and Eddie wasn't in the mood to press. He was still concerned about Steve, but he decided to ask again after the campaign was done so that they could have a little more privacy, and so that they weren't on a time limit. Instead, Eddie just led Steve into the living room (having been there enough times that he knew the layout), and began moving around furniture, setting up for that night's campaign.

"I'm not going to spoil the campaign for you, but I will say that tonight is going to be extra special!" Eddie exclaimed, a mischievous look in his eyes as he said 'special', indicating that what he meant by special was that this campaign was going to be extra difficult. Steve smiled to himself, secretly excited to watch all of the kids lose their shit over whatever monster story Eddie has cooked up this week.