The Drive-In

10

Steve reaches over to grab one of the many small pre-rolled from the lunch box, and Eddie slaps his hand away.

"OW!" Steve complains, frowning, and trying to shake the sting from his hand, "What was that for?! Geez!"

Eddie is busy extracting several cigarette papers and lining them up, "Those are for when I can no longer roll my own, Harrington." he looks up and grins at Steve.

Steve sits back on his lounger, helping himself to one of Eddie's cigarettes as he does, and observes the master at work.

The blue light from the pool illuminates Eddie's stooped-over form, his worn denim-covered legs on either side of the lounger, and casts his face with a pale glow. The way it lit up his jawline and cheekbones made it look like he was made of the sharpest ice.

Steve watches intensely as his dark void eyes are trained on his masterpiece, the intense concentration forcing Eddie's tongue to press against his top lip as he selects ground-up pieces and moves them around in the paper. Then, occasionally lifting it to his mouth to lick at the strip of gum, delicately rolling the paper before finally inserting the filter carefully.

Steve isn't sure how many beers he's had at this point, maybe that last one had gone straight to his head, but at the moment, Eddie Munson was the most fascinating thing on the planet.

Eddie smiles at it as he moves back to an upright position before raising it to his eyes for a final inspection, turning it around with his dextrous fingers.

"I sure hope you're staring at me for learning purposes, Harrington," Eddie mutters, not tearing his eyes from his creation.

Eddies words break Steve out of his trance, and he feels that nervous feeling again.

Steve laughs. "Learning? Pa-lease! I was looking at you because I thought you might be going for the world record for the slowest roll of all time."

Steve sees a smile spread across Eddie's face as he smooths over the joint "Oooh, nice try, Harrington, but one, you can't rush perfection, and two, I have been waiting all day for this, and none of your catty remarks are gonna take it from me."

Steve watches Eddie light up and put it to his lips as he takes a deep but gentle inhale before flopping back onto the lounger, making a pleasant hum followed by a sigh as he lets out some of the smoke out of his nose and mouth at the same time, like a human dragon. It's almost like Eddie melts into the lounger and the weight of tonight leaves him.

"Ahhh, that's it," Eddie says softly as he closes his eyes for a few seconds.

Eddie takes another hit, and Steve's eyes can't help but follow it to his mouth, and suddenly Steve's lips feel entirely dry, so he quickly runs his tongue over them. It must be some kind of psychological, mirroring thing, something Robin would probably know about.

Eddies hand drapes out to the side of him as he extends it towards Steve, and wordlessly Steve accepts.

"Let me know if you feel woozy or anything, dude. I've got some candy in here, too," Eddie says, closing and moving the lunchbox to the ground so he can kick his feet up onto the lounger.

Steve scoffs out a laugh, "Munson, this is not my first rodeo, ok? I'm good."

Eddie lets out a deep chuckle, "Of course it isn't, buddy."

Steve inhales and holds in the smoke a little while passing the joint back to Eddie before turning back to the night sky. He hadn't felt this relaxed in a long time, but he still had that undercurrent of worry flowing through him and quickly turns around to glance at the nearest phone on the wall through the window.