Second Chances (ON HOLD)

Chapter Ten

"Any idea where they are, Henderson?" Steve asked as he helped Eddie stand up from the stairs even though the slightly older man protested. He clearly still felt bad for throwing Steve against the door but Steve was already over it.

"El mentioned Hoppers old cabin. They said they haven't had any contact with Joyce so they are going to fix it up a bit and stay there for a while." Dustin replied, gathering his backpack ready to leave. Robin ran upstairs to Steve's room, probably to retrieve the backpack with all their supplies inside.

"That's where we'll go then. Eddie, grab what you need. And maybe borrow one of my old hats. We're not leaving you here!" Steve said, not liking the idea of leaving Eddie alone again. With this new voice coming onto the scene they couldn't take any chances. Steve couldn't take any chances. He just knew he needed to protect Eddie.

Eddie immediately ran up the stairs to his room to change into a hoodie. He then made his way to Steve's room reluctantly, not knowing where he kept his old hats and not wanting to snoop. Okay, he wanted to snoop a little bit but one, there wasn't time and two, he wanted to respect Steve's privacy. Steve was letting him stay after all.

As he entered the big bedroom his eyes scanned the room, taking everything in. He had been in there that morning but he had been too distracted by Steve's magical healing hands to take notice. It definitely wasn't what he had expected. He had expected it to be preppy but it was quite bare. No posters on the walls at all apart from a movie one which he was pretty sure Dustin would have chosen.

"Are you going to go in or are you just going to stand here and admire my boring bedroom?"

Eddie jumped at Steve's voice, mentally cursing the man for sneaking up on him. Eddie turned his head a little to find that the other man was standing very close, close enough for Eddie to feel his warm breath fanning his neck.

"Er, yeah. Sorry, man!" Eddie babbled, hastily stepping into the room. He felt slightly embarrassed about being caught but Steve just chuckled and walked past him to his closet.

"Don't worry about it, Munson. Not what you were expecting?" Steve asked as he grabbed something from the closet and turned back to Eddie.

"It's really not. I expected it to be more preppy if I'm being honest." Eddie answered, feeling more at ease with how calm Steve was being.

"It used to be. And then everything happened and I just didn't want to be reminded of the asshole jock that I was, you know?"

"I get it. You were a bit of a dick but you never bothered me so you couldn't have been that bad." Eddie said, giving Steve a small smile. He watched as Steve walked towards him, returning the smile.

Steve lifted his hand up and revealed a plain, black baseball cap. "Didn't think you'd want a bright, green Hawkins one."

"Oh Steve, you're a babe! You're too good to me." Eddie said, ignoring his nerves and giving Steve a flirty wink. He was sure Steve blushed a little but the man moved away quickly.

Steve stopped in the doorway and turned out, leaning against the frame. "Babe? You could at least take me out to dinner before you give me a pet name." He grinned and gave Eddie a cheeky wink before pushing off the frame and disappearing down the hallway.

Eddie was relieved he had left, not wanting Steve to see his reaction. He could feel his cheeks heating up and a warm, fuzzy feeling in his chest. He hated how the man had such an affect on him when he knew he had no affect on Steve. He cursed himself out for even thinking Steve could possibly ever feel the same. Little did he know that Steve was feeling exactly the same, except he was frantically trying to calm himself down so Robin and Dustin wouldn't notice.