Chapter Text
This was Eddie’s favourite way to spend a Saturday morning. Cuddling in bed together, limbs entangled as sunlight streams in through the window. Steve was lazily drawing circles on his shoulder with the tip of his finger, placing soft open-mouthed kisses against the nape of his neck.
While he’d been dating Steve for a few months, they had to be covert with their relationship, which made every minute they spent together that much sweeter. In front of Robin, they could be open but it was a dangerous world, and the town was only starting to forget about him. He wondered how long they could get away with staying here. He felt so peaceful here, he didn’t think he could bring himself to leave Steve’s embrace.
Until he heard voices bickering outside the window. He completely forgot the kids decided to spend the night at Max’s house after her mother had left for rehab abruptly. When he saw Max’s mother driving off last night, he immediately called Steve in alarm. He had dropped the munchkins off to keep Max company before staying over in his trailer. Luckily, they were too distracted to realise Steve never went home. Damnit, they must be close by if he can already hear them.
“Eddie,” Max called out, pushing into the trailer, just as he opened his mouth to warn Steve, “Can you drive us to the arcade? Steve’s not picking up.”
“Oh fuck,” Eddie said, quickly pulling up sheets to cover them up. There was nowhere for Steve to hide unless he wanted to jump out the window, and by the panicked look on his face that was an appealing option. It would be okay, Max could keep a secret, and they could trust her with the truth. Robin already knew, and Steve asked to tell Will about them a week ago. He felt mostly ready to start telling other people too. Although he knew Steve was planning to tell Nancy first, this would be alright.
Max shrieked at the sight of them and the rest of the kids streamed into the room at once, looking around for danger. Oh great.
Dustin pointed at Steve and screeched out, “What are you doing here?”
“Well, when a man and a man love each other very much-” Eddie started but was interrupted by Steve’s hand flying over to muffle his mouth. It was too late, Dustin had already blushed bright red. It was too fun to fuck with him.
“What would Robin think?” Mike said, sounding disappointed and looking at them with wide eyes. Max solemnly nodded along, her arms crossed as she looked sorrowfully on. Eddie felt like something sharp was piercing his heart, found it a little hard to breathe, he knew Steve must be terrified too. He grasped Steve’s hand reassuringly, letting him know he was here. This was one of his worst fears, that some of the kids wouldn’t be supportive of them being together. He knew how much they meant to Steve, and he was quite close with Dustin and Mike too, making this statement especially hurtful.
“Ow,” Max said, as Will elbowed them both fiercely, shaking his head. Eddie smiled a little at Will’s uncharacteristic gesture. He’d have to remember to thank him for it later.
“What the hell, Will,” Mike said, looking surprised, “You can’t possibly support this.”
“Don’t be a dick to Steve,” Lucas said, his voice serious as he looked at Max sharply, “Robin wouldn’t judge him for this.”
“Not cool, Mike,” Will agreed.
“She wouldn’t judge that her boyfriend is cheating on her?” Max said, getting increasingly higher pitched. Oh shit, Eddie totally forgot about that. Steve told Max he was dating Robin in a fit of concern worried that she was onto them. Well, it was nice to know they were more upset that they thought Steve was cheating on Robin than who he was doing it with.
“Exactly! I don’t care that Eddie and Steve are both guys. But Robin loves Steve so much! How could you?” Mike said, looking up at Steve. Will let out an audible sigh of relief that was reflected in Steve’s face.
“Robin and Steve are dating?” El asked, eyebrows scrunched up in confusion.
“Robin and Steve are not dating,” Lucas proclaimed correctly. Finally, someone with some sense around here.
“Oh, you and Robin really aren’t dating, are you?” Dustin said thoughtfully, parroting Lucas. Dustin, of all the kids, spent the most time with both him and Steve, so he was surprised he didn’t already know. In fact, while they weren’t a fan of PDA, he was sure he’d held Steve’s hand a few times in front of Dustin at some point. Eddie was almost tempted to see how long the kids would debate this for but Steve was no fun.
“We’ve never dated and never will,” Steve confirmed with a sigh. Robin would get a kick out of this. If she was here, she would probably play this up as a torrid affair, until the dramatics gave it away that they were kidding. He couldn’t wait to call her and inform her that her fake boyfriend was fake cheating on her.
Although Max had a legitimate reason to think that they were together since Steve led her to believe that, the rest of them weren’t in the clear. El and Lucas were his new favourites.
“Oh, that conversation makes so much more sense in hindsight,” Will said, looking introspective. He was never going to let Steve live this down. What had he told Will that could’ve been so ambiguous? They had even gone through what to say to him, Robin had even written out detailed points to get across during the conversation on cue cards.
“What did you think I was saying,” Steve said confused.
“I’m not sure,” Will admitted sheepishly.
“Wait. So you’re really not dating Robin,” Mike asked. Lucas sighed heavily, already done with this conversation.
“Robin is the most important person in my life. I love her to pieces. Platonically. She’s my best friend. But that’s all she is. Nothing less, nothing more,” Steve said for what felt like the billionth time. Eddie has a feeling this one will stick though. Nothing like the irrevocable proof of being caught in bed with someone else.
“Could be worse,” he whispered into Steve’s ear, “They could’ve walked in an hour earlier.”
Steve shuddered at the thought. This was bad enough.
“But Eddie could do so much better,” Mike cried out, seemingly having moved on from his earlier hysteria from thinking that Steve of all people was cheating.
“Hey, Steve’s the best! Take that back,” Max said, gearing up for a fight, her hands already clenched up into fists. Steve was tensing up, clearly preparing to intervene in case this escalated. Mike and Max were incredibly close, but were always the fastest of the kids to get worked up. El got there first, holding Max back and talking Mike down.
“If anything, Steve could do better,” Will loyally defended before looking back apologetically at Eddie. He smiled to reassure him that he didn’t take it personally.
“Well this was flattering all around, but I think we’re good as we are,” Eddie said, looking at Steve softly.
“I’m perfectly content like this,” Steve agreed, pressing a light kiss against Eddie’s cheek.
“Oh great, now they’re going to be all sappy and affectionate,” Max groaned.
“I think they’re super cute together,” Dustin said, finally realising this meant two of his favourite people were together, “And you’re one to talk. You and Lucas are always making out everywhere.”
Eddie tuned out the bickering kids, laying his head back down against Steve’s chest. While it was not quite the relaxing morning they had hoped for, this was good too.