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Steve was laying on Robin's bed with his face shoved into a pillow. He’d requested a sleepover after having a particularly fun dream the night before. But the plan had never been to actually sleep, he just needed to talk to her. “How’d you know you liked girls?” He asked, hoping his muffled voice would be understandable because even though she was his best friend he still couldn’t bring himself to actually look at her when he asked.
“Uh, well I never got a crush on a guy like all my friends did and then, well I thought girls were pretty, like really pretty, and at first I thought that was normal cause girls call each other pretty all the time, right? But- well, in eighth grade everyone was jealous of the pretty ones cause they got to date the guy, right? So that must be the butterflies in my stomach. Except, jealousy doesn’t feel like that, because Jennifer described jealousy to me early in my freshman year. So then, what could it possibly be? And then in like November of that year I realized it. A crush, I was feeling all the symptoms of crushing on a guy but towards girls. Plus, you know, I wanted to kiss Tammy Tompson which definitely wasn’t very straight of me.”
“Oh.” Steve muttered into the pillow.
“Why?” Robin asked.
“I don’t- um- Eddie.” Steve struggled.
“What about Eddie?”
“I think I have a crush on him.” Steve answered, this time hoping the pillow would muffle his voice so bad he wasn’t at all comprehensible.
“Oh.”
“Yeah.” Steve sighed, rolling into his back. “I thought I should tell you, since you told me and all. Also I kinda dreamed about… kissing him last night.”
“You don’t have to tell me, or anyone, you don’t owe that information, it’s yours to tell when you feel like it and you’re ready. But I’m glad you did. And that’s awesome, I’m really happy to know you occasionally have good dreams and not always nightmares.” Steve groaned, rolling back into the pillow as a response. “What, you get a lot of nightmares.”
“It’s not that bad.” Steve sat up.
“It is.”
“Whatever.”
“So, when are you gonna ask him out?”
“I’m not.”
“Oh, but I should really ask out Vickie?” Robin asked sarcastically.
“It’s- that’s not-” Steve sighed. “He’s probably-”
“If you even try to tell me that guy’s straight I’ll slap you.”
“Okay, yeah that’s fair, he’s not, he’s definitely not.”
“Yeah, and he’s been flirting with you since the lake.”
“He-“ Steve tried to argue but as he thought back Robin was right. “Oh shit he has. How did I not notice that, it’s so obvious now.” Steve dropped his face into his hands and Robin laughed.
“Yeah.”
“I’m gonna go ask him out.” Steve stood up.
“Now?” Robin looked at him like he had three heads.
“Yeah.”
“It’s one in the morning.” Robin argued, like that changed anything.
“And? That guy never sleeps.” Robin shook her head but didn’t argue so Steve climbed out her window, walked down the road to his car, and drove to Eddie’s trailer. He ran up the porch steps and raised his hand to knock before he finally realized how stupid he was being. It was one in the morning. Yeah, he didn’t sleep, but that didn’t mean he wanted guests. And what if they were wrong? What if Eddie wasn’t actually flirting with him. What if Eddie was flirting with him but only because he found it funny that Steve hadn’t noticed?
Steve took a deep breath. Why did he rush over here? What was wrong with him? He turned around. Eddie didn’t have any reason to like him. They’d barely even talked since Eddie got back from the hospital and Hopper cleared his name. It was stupid for Steve to drive down there. All he’d do was anger Eddie and ruin any chance he had at even being friends with the guy. Steve headed for his car, but as he grabbed the handle he heard a voice behind him.
“Steve?” He turned around. Eddie was standing in the doorway holding the door open and staring at him. Shit. “What- What the hell are you doing?”
“Uh… leaving?” Steve gave Eddie a wide smile.
“Why’d you come here?”
“Nothing.” Steve looked back at his car door’s handle. “It’s stupid.”
“Are you okay?” Eddie asked. Steve nodded. “Steve, it’s one thirty, and not only did you come here, but you didn’t even knock. You’re clearly not okay, so what the fuck are you doing, and do you need help?”
“I’m fine. I just- it’s stupid.” Steve addressed his car door.
“Stevie.” Eddie sighed. “Come in, please.”
“I- okay.” Steve sighed. He didn’t look at Eddie as he turned around and walked up the porch steps and into the trailer.
“What’s wrong?” Eddie asked.
“Nothing’s wrong, it’s- I just got a stupid idea and acted too fast.” Steve replied, still avoiding Eddie’s gaze.
“What was the idea?”
“Nothing.”
“That’s a lie.”
“I- Okay fine, just please don’t hate me for this.” Steve finally looked at Eddie and he nodded. Steve took a deep breath. “I came here to ask you out.” Eddie’s eyebrows scrunched together.
“You… what?”
“I came here to ask you out, like, on a date.”
“A date? You- What?”
“I had a dream about kissing you so I broke into Robin's room to talk about it with her and she asked when I was going to ask you out to which I said ‘never’ and should have stuck with but then she said they you’ve been flirting with me since the lake, which is actually true, and I rushed over here before considering that it was probably a stupid joke to you because why the hell would you ever like me, so then I was going to leave but-” Steve was cut off by Eddie kissing him. “Oh.”
“Oh? That’s all you’ve got?” Eddie smirked at him. Steve grabbed the back of Eddie’s head and leaned in for another kiss.