Tell Me You Love Me, Like You Fucking Mean It

Man, I've Really Never Felt The Rain

A/N; Thank you Melanie Martinez for your new album and this lovely fucking song. The most accurate rep of my favorite boys in the whole world. I've included Light Shower as a song Eddie wrote for Steve, but by no means do I take any credit for creating something so perfect.

TW; a buncha fluffy bullshit, some mentions of past trauma, inner self hatred, denial of feels (please let me know if I missed anything!)

Steve's POV

Steve's only really been in true romantic love once. Nancy Wheeler single handedly rewired how he acted in relationships. He used to be selfish. Take what he needs and move on. That's how he thought young relationships worked.

Until he fell in love with Nancy. She was like spring mornings. Warm, bright, sharp. So fucking smart. Exactly the type of person steve could imagine the rest of his life with. Until she wasn't.

Her dreams were bigger than this town, bigger than a white picket fence life Steve pictured for them. And he couldn't keep up. She fell out of love fast. Bullshit.

That's alright. Steve could move on. Pick up where he left off. Keep dating and fucking his way through girls with no feelings. No need for them. No need for anything long term while he's young. Lots of time to figure that out.

Striking out didn't exactly... follow his plan. And he struck out, a lot. Robin Buckley made sure to tell him how many times. Kept track of it as a matter of fact. The 'You Suck' column of that damned white board had more ticks than the 'You Rule' (which was an astounding zero).

And you know what, fuck it. Maybe after falling from the throne of high school hierarchy really knocked him down on the available bachelors list of Hawkins. And now he had Robin.

Platonic with a capital P soulmate. Robin had no interest in Steve, made that clear really quick for him after one night of getting locked in Scoops Ahoy when the mall closed on them. Nothing but weed they found in an employee locker and ice cream to keep them company until the next morning when the mall opened up again.

She spilled her guts to him. And Steve learned there's more than one way you can fall in love with someone. You can love someone without it being romantic. And ever since, they've been attached at the hip.

He also maybe learned that it's okay to be attracted to just the opposite sex, not that there's been anything other than curious looks, and appreciation for men up until this point. But, maybe it's okay that he did find men attractive in their own right. Bisexual, Robin had called it. And yeah, that makes a lot of fucking sense.

They promised each other not to breath a word to another soul. Being from a tiny town in middle of nowhere America being any sort of queer isn't always accepted with open arms. So it remained between the two unless they were in private, able to talk freely on who they saw or thought were worthy of a second glance that day.

New job opportunity in hand, with each other of course at Family Video. Scoops let them both go, something about the smell of weed in the back room after the night they were stuck there. Shit happens, at least they had each other.

Steve graduated last year, and Robin will be graduating this year. The group of kids Steve used to (and still does, who're we kidding) babysit, just started as freshman. Coming into their own right, and figuring out who they all are. It feels something like family. And Steve's good at playing along, even if he is still a little lonely. Wishing for someone to hold at night and to tell about his days. He's got Robin, but his heart still aches a bit for companionship.

Queue in one Eddie 'The Freak' Munson to stumble into their lives like a fucking tornado. Steve thinks he's fucking beautiful. Like some kind of metalhead angel just got kicked off of a cloud and landed right in front of him, taking up space, being a complete and utter train-wreck. But there's something about this man that Steve can't seem to shake.