brutally soft | st agere one shots

. caught in the middle with you

little!eddie
cg!steve and robin (dustin, lucas, and will briefly)
requested by: my idea

realistically speaking, dustin knew he shouldn't have drug eddie to the mall today. after the amount of horror the citizens of hawkins put him through, it made sense he wouldn't want to spend his day in a crowded mall.
nonethless, eddie was still standing in the doorway of the star court mall with a nervous look on his face. he turned to face the three teens behind him, inhaling shakily as he ushered them into the door.
"man, you look really pale...and clammy..." lucas grimaced, wiping his hand against his jeans after feeling's eddie's sweaty one.
"i'm fine, my little sheepies." eddie grinned, patting each of the boy's backs as they made their way towards the game store.
despite eddie being the only adult of the group, he was the most socially awkward and definitely the most sensitive out of all the others.
the boys couldn't have cared less, either. they thought eddie was the most badass dude in the world, even if he was somewhat of an awkward-soggy-wet-cat type of person. (forgive me i thought this was funny)
will took notice of the way eddie concentrated on taking his steps, stumbling ever so slightly a few times on the way. when he seen the nervous look on dustin's face, he decided to step in before the other made it worse.
"hey, eddie..you look really nervous, man. are you okay? if you don't wanna tell the others, we can go somewhere else." will offered sympathetically, patting eddie's shoulder firmly a few times as he waited for the male's response.
"'m okay, i promise. i just...didn't get a lot of sleep last night.." eddie half shrugged, smiling sheepishly as he stopped in front of the game store inside the mall.
he ushered the three younger teens in first, all of them running straight for the dungeons and dragons section of the store.
dustin and eddie seemed to have the same idea, however. when dustin went to run for the display of the new dice they'd gotten, eddie had decided to do the same.
despite the height difference in the two, dustin's absolute lack of coordination mixed with eddie's left them bumping heads so hard they both fell straight down against the floor.
eddie landed clumsily against the tile, a smacking sound coming from the force of his hands trying to catch himself.
dustin, on the other hand, steadied himself before he fell too harshly.
he was quick to rush to eddie's side, grimacing slightly when he seen the look of panic in eddie's eyes. he knew what he had just caused, and they had to fix it quick.
will and lucas shared a look, will deciding to intervene and kneel beside eddie with a concerned expression.
"hey, eds...are you alright?" will asked sheepishly, earning an owlish look from the older boy sitting on the floor.
eddie said nothing. blinking back tears, he took the hand will offered and allowed himself to be pulled up.
when dustin inevitably tried to apologize, eddie shuffled closer to will and locked pinkies with the boy.
though the gesture was absolutely heartwarming for will, lucas and dustin knew it meant something more. something far worse than eddie just being petty.
——-
as the trip progressed, it was apparent eddie had regressed. he had slipped, and hard too.
lucas was currently carrying eddie on his back, listening as will carried a conversation with their regressed friend.
lucas sighed in defeat after a moment, gently placing eddie feet first onto the floor. he raised an eyebrow at eddie, who scrambled to cling to dustin's side almost immediately.
"dude, i really need to go to foot locker." lucas groaned, growing more impatient as dustin comforted a cranky eddie.
will glared momentarily at lucas's attitude, perking up when an idea popped into his head. he was quick to run to dustin, tapping his shoulder quickly.
"why don't we leave eddie with steve and robin? they're working today, and i'm sure they wouldn't mind watching him." he shrugged.
dustin hummed in agreement, nodding as he basically peeled eddie off him.
"hey, bubba..you wanna go hangout with stevie and robin for awhile? i bet they'll let you have some ice cream." dustin tried to keep his tone full of faux excitement, as to not make eddie sad he wouldn't be staying with them.
as much as dustin and will would love to watch eddie while they shopped, they knew that would never happen realistically. he was too tiny and too dependent, and truly the three teens were too irresponsible to care for a baby alone.
eddie stumbled back a bit, tilting his head in confusion as he stared at dustin. "s'evie?" he slurred, nodding in excitement when dustin smiled in conformation.
"yeah! stevie and robin!" will cheered, watching as eddie giggled wildly and clapped his hands. as most toddlers would, eddie tried to make a run for it to scoops.
he, of course, was stopped by lucas, who held his hand out to eddie and shook his head. "nope, none of that. hold my hand." he spoke gently, but stern enough eddie would listen without question.
the little shakily grasped lucas's hand, sleeve finding it's way into his mouth as they walked towards scoops ahoy.
as soon as the entrance was in view, eddie was babbling frantically.
dustin shushed him, ushering the regressor and the two teens into the small ice cream shop. he was quick to ring the service bell, smiling in relief when robin appeared behind the counter.
she looked annoyed at first, her face only softening when she seen eddie's arms outstretched toward her.
"what is going on?" robin asked exasperatedly, pulling eddie into a hug as she awaited an explanation.
"well, dustin and eddie bumped into each other and tripped in the game store...and eddie just...became baby?" dustin shrugged in unsureness, watching as steve appeared behind robin.
hands on his hips, eyes locked on dustin, steve sighed.
"what's wrong dipshits?"
robin grimaced as she watched eddie's expression change from excited to "kicked puppy".
steve realized his mistake quickly, running across the counter to scoop eddie into his arms. he was quick to shush eddie's whining, patting the male's bottom lovingly as he carried him behind the counter.
eddie only smiled, wrapping his fingers around steve's hand as he babbled intently.
steve chuckled, nodding in fake understatement as he gasped. "oh, i know!" he cooed, laughing at the way eddie's babbling picked up when steve would pretend to understand.
robin returned moments later, a small cup of strawberry ice cream in hand.
"i know strawberry ice cream will make a certain dragon slayer feel extra betterrrr.." she chanted in a sing song voice, watching as eddie's eyes lit up.
he tried to wiggle free of steve's grasp, whining and grabbing for his frozen treat.
"stebe!" he whined, pouting up at the man as he carefully began feeding the boy his ice cream.
eddie hummed in approval at the first bite, clapping excitedly.
he reached a hand out to robin, wrapping his fingers around her smaller ones. he blinked slowly up at her, yawning softly. "wuv 'ou.." he mumbled quietly, giving the two best friends a sloppy kiss on the cheek each.
robin giggled, planting a kiss on eddie's nose.
"we love you too, sleepyhead."
eddie just whined, burying his face as far into steve's chest as physics would possibly allow.
steve didn't say a word either, carding his fingers through eddie's hair as he answered orders.
though it wasn't ideal to scoop ice cream with a giant baby on your hip, steve and robin sure weren't complaining at the chance to spend the day with their boy.

a/n
pls this sucks and it took forever to get out i'm so sorry