Beyond the Battle: Action & Consequence (Steddie, Stranger Things)

Chapter 11: Conversations

Morning had arrived fully, bright and cheerful through the edges of the curtains when Steve heard the squeaky board on the landing and someone swearing quietly. He carefully extracted himself from beside Robin and tiptoed out of the room. The sounds of someone going through a morning routine in the main bathroom made it to his ears. It could only be Eddie. 

He made a dash for his own room and went through his own routine except for the shower, as quickly as possible. The sound of the sink running was still coming from the other bathroom by the time he made it back to the landing. He wanted to catch Eddie casually, as if by accident to hopefully negate some of the awkwardness.

When he heard the door latch go, he pretended to be coming out of Robin's room.

"Hey," he said as Eddie kind of froze.

So much for it not being awkward.

"Hi," Eddie replied.

"Did you sleep okay after the blood stuff?" Steve asked and internally winced at his choice of words.

Apparently, he had lost any ability to be smooth somewhere along the way. At least Eddie nodded. The way Eddie was holding a towel in front of himself in a stiff, defensive stance felt completely wrong.

"Look," he said at exactly the same time Eddie said something similar. "You go first," he added after an awkward pause.

"I know I made it weird," Eddie said after a moment. "I can get out of your hair if you need me to."

"What? Why?" Steve asked before his brain caught up with his mouth.

"Steve," Eddie said, "I know you're not that dense. The things I said, and you weren't there when I woke up..."

"Oh, I just have to go have a small freak-out to Robin," Steve said and Eddie's face went completely blank. "No, not about you, well yes about you but ... shit I am saying this all wrong. Why am I suddenly Robin?"

He took a deep breath and centred himself.

"Bisexual freak-out," he said carefully and slowly. "I had to have a small bisexual freak-out at Robin. And you only get one guess as to who caused that."

Eddie had such beautiful brown eyes, and they did utterly astonished so amazingly well. They were big and round and Steve really wanted to get lost in them, but he mentally kicked himself because this was kind of an important conversation. He bit his lip and kept his mouth shut to give Eddie time to process what he had just said.

"It's Hopper isn't it," Eddie finally said, a big grin breaking across his face. "I mean he's got that action hero thing going on now."

The laugh burst out of Steve without his conscious consent.

"God, I hate you, you're the worst," he said, rolling his eyes.

"No, you don't," Eddie said, grin only growing, "you think I'm a catch, don't you Big Boy."

The way Eddie pulled some of his hair across his face implied he wasn't as confident as he was trying to sound, but it didn't stop the heat rising in Steve's cheeks either. He felt like he was on his first ever date or something.

"Yeah," he said, going for brutal honesty rather than continuing the game, "I think you're a catch, Eds."

The grin slipped off Eddie's face as they stared at each other.

"I've had a crush on you since I was thirteen," Eddie blurted out after a few moments silence. "Thought I got over it when I went on to High School, but nope, soon as you popped up, there it was again."

It was Steve's turn to be unable to hide his amazement.

"Then why did you try and get me and Nancy back together in the Upside Down?" he asked, since it was the first thing that popped into his head.