Archive of Our Own ^beta

Eddie follows Steve into his bedroom. Normally they'd hang out in the living room, but this is one of those rare times when his parents are home. The first time, actually.

"So I guess smoking a little reefer is off the table then?" Asks Eddie. He falls into the armchair by the window.

"It depends. Do you want me to survive the night or don't you?" Eddie smirks, then wiggles in the chair only to find he landed on some of Steve's piled clothes. He pulls out a polo from beneath him.

"I keep forgetting how square you actually are."

"The word you're looking for is smart. As in I don't want to actively poke the bear," Steve feigns his words from the end of his bed. He's clearly fighting the instinct to rip the polo from Eddie's hands. The straw breaks when Eddie goes to the mirror and holds the shirt in front of his chest as he preens. "Okay, that's enough of that," says Steve. The polo is promptly dunked into the laundry basket. Eddie just shrugs, though he admits to himself that he likes it when Steve gets irritated.

"I gotta piss. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." Steve just rolls his eyes and falls back onto his bed.

Eddie can't really tease the rich boy for having an en suite considering Uncle Wayne gives his nephew the run of the trailer. Naturally, he snoops though. The medicine cabinet is pretty pedestrian. Then again, Eddie doesn't keep the hard stuff in there either.

The counter is sparser than he thought it'd be. A bottle of the famous Farah Fawcett spray Dustin told him about sits alongside some deodorant and cologne. On the opposite side of the sink are the dental hygiene items. There's also a small tube with a gold top that Eddie hadn't noticed before. It looks out of place. Eddie picks it up, twirling it to read the words etched onto the clear glass.

'Kiss-ing Po-tion' he mouths. Eddie's eyebrows shoot up behind his bangs - an expression immediately replaced by an 'oh'. If it wasn't clear before that he had a massive crush on Steve, the pang at the thought of one of his conquests leaving her lip gloss behind certainly cinches it.

Putting the lip gloss back, Eddie returns to Steve. He has a newspaper spread out on the bed open to the movie theatre listings. "Since we can't just chill like usual, I thought we could go see a movie."

It's when Steve looks up at him that it clicks. Something that Eddie saw all along but didn't realize. That lip gloss was Steve's.

Eddie must look gobsmacked with the way Steve looks back at him, brows furrowed. "Umm-uh, yeah. Yeah, that sounds good."

"You sure?" All Eddie can look at is the sheen on Steve's already beautiful lips. Eddie has to give it to the man. Steve has a way of taking the features he's already blessed with up a level. And with simplicity to boot.

Then the worst possible thing that could happen happens. Eddie immediately wants to know what Steve's lips taste like. Shit. Not that Eddie hadn't thought of it before, just feels more pressing now. The stakes a been raised.

Eddie's only knocked back to the current moment thanks to the words 'van' and 'on my back' registering in his mind. Hell no. The last thing Eddie needs right now is Steve Harrington high and sprawled out in the back of his van.

"No!" Eddie half-shouts, stopping at Steve's look of concern. Pull yourself together Munson!

"I mean, nah. Let's do a movie. What's on?" He's pointedly staying where he is. Standing with his hands in his pockets. Willing the universe to put him in a dark theatre sooner rather than later. That is, until Steve is leaping up to stand in front of the man and all Eddie hears is a high-pitched whine. Then Steve steps into his space. All the alarms sound. Steve closes his eyes. Eddie can't think for his life. Then the spell breaks when Steve takes in a couple of exaggerated sniffs.

"What are you doing?" whines Eddie as he steps back.

"What am I doing? What are you doing? You're acting super fucking weird... I was just checking you didn't have a solo party of your own. You were in the bathroom a long time."

"No, I wasn't."

"Uh. Yeah, you were. I was getting ready to send in a search party." Steve chuckles and Eddie knows it's to diffuse the brewing tension that is one hundred percent Eddie's fault. He knows what he has to do.

"Fine! You caught me! I was snooping, okay?" Eddie fiddles with his rings. "Money's been a little tight. Can't get the hard stuff that sells well," he lies.

Steve's visible discomfort is only made worse when he replaces it with forgiveness. "Hey man. Don't worry about it." Steve grabs Eddie's shoulder. "Sorry for freaking out on you. You were just kinda freaking me out."

"No, man. I'm sorry. It felt wrong the second I opened the medicine cabinet." At least the truth of the situation lends itself to Eddie's feigned guilt.

After more consolation from Steve, the man is steadfastly pushing Eddie out the door. He even offers to pay for Eddie's movie ticket. Eddie accepts the offer because money being tight was only a lie in the sense that it was always that way.

Steve had picked the movie before they left. Some inoffensive action flick. The hot buttered popcorn and cokes pass between the two of them. Every now and again Eddie glances over at Steve. He's silhouetted by the flashing light emanating from the screen. Whether pensive or laughing the light always, always hits two places. His eyes and, of course, his lips.

Knowing better, Eddie keeps staring. Imagining what it would be like to just reach over and grab the man by the collar. Pressing their lips together. Is it worth getting punched?

"The movie's over there Munson." Eddie comes back from his yearning daydream to find Steve looking back. He swears Steve smirks at him before turning back to the screen.

Eddie snaps his eyes to the screen and doesn't dare look over to confirm what he thought he saw. The heat in his face has barely faded as the credits roll.

"You coming Munson?"

"Uhuh," sounds Eddie, meeting Steve at the end of the aisle.

They walk to Steve's car. The man keeps glancing back at Eddie as the second silent tension between them hangs in the cool Hawkins night air.

Eddie instinctively goes for the passenger door. He's so focused on not fixating on Steve that he doesn't notice his friend is standing in front of it.

"Okay now, you're gonna tell me what's really up with you." Steve has his arms crossed and an expression of genuine concern turned angry. Eddie wants him so bad it hurts.

"Nothing. Honestly. Why?"

"You were burning a hole into the side of my face for the whole movie, for one." Eddie suddenly found his sneaker toes very interesting. "And then when I pointed it out, you-you looked like someone kicked your puppy."

"I don't have a dog. You're thinking of Max." Eddie kicks his foot out. He feels ridiculous. Why wasn't he at least high?

"Dude. You know what I mean." Steve falls back onto the car door, the metalhead realizing he's not getting out of this easy. "You seemed... Hurt."

"I wasn't hurt. I was embarrassed," blurts Eddie before he can stop himself. He's picked his head up now and swears he can see his own panic reflected back at him in Steve's eyes.

"Embarrassed? For looking at me? Why would you be... Embarrassed for looking at me?"

Eddie tries to think quickly. "Look. I was trying to figure out if I was right about something... Okay, confession time," starts Eddie. Steve visibly flushes and starts twitching. Why does it look like he's holding his breath?

Eddie pushes through the odd behavior of the man blocking his ride home. He's committed to getting this out. "That lip stuff in your bathroom... That's not yours, is it?"

"Sorry. What?!" For some reason, Steve's reaction lacks the anger that Eddie expected. Odd.

"I mean, I guessed it belonged to some chick you're banging. But, have you, I don't know. Used it?"

"Oh. Um..." Steve looks like he's thinking which is never a good sign. Eddie's prepared for whatever the man says, honestly, he's just happy to be out of the hot seat. Steve sighs. "Okay. Fine. Yeah, it's mine. I'm just a guy wearing lip gloss. Just Maybelline-ing it up on the daily." Eddie tries as hard as he can to not laugh, barely keeping composed as Steve continues. "Yeah. Laugh it up. Look, I'm trusting you with some very privileged information here okay? I wouldn't even trust Dustin with this... Oh for the love of God don't tell Dustin!"

"Don't worry," sputters Eddie, "I won't."

"Okay. Good," says Steve, his hands now on his hips, "Are we good now?"

"Yeah, we're good," Eddie lies.

The men arrive at the trailer park. The whole ride over Eddie was going over their exchange in his head. Steve parks and he thinks, what the hell, they've already climbed into the tension bubble, what's a few more steps? Eddie's bored and sober. Sue him. "You seemed surprised that I was asking about the lip gloss."

"Yeah, well, that's just not what I thought you were gonna say."

"What did you think I was gonna say?"

Steve shakes his head, "It's nothing."

"Clearly not. Come on, fess up. It's only fair."

"You just started saying something about a confession and it made me think of something Robin said... Trust me, it's bananas. I don't even know why I thought of it."

"Bananas you say?" asks Eddie, now he's genuinely curious.

"Yeah," says Steve with a huff and a smile. "She was implying shit that just doesn't make sense." At first, Eddie was a little wary considering Robin could say a lot. She knew About him, obviously.

Eddie leans in batting his lashes, putting on his usual show. "Come on! What'd she say about me? Something nice?" It's then that the most bananas thing actually happens. Well, at least it's bananas for Eddie to watch Steve fucking Harrington's gaze fall to his lips. And he's holding his breath again. What the hell is that? And now Eddie's looking at Steve's lips and his breath is caught in his throat.

"She um," Steve clears his throat eyes still locked on Eddie's mouth, "Implied that you're like her."

"Like Robin?"

"Yeah."

Eddie doesn't give a shit anymore. He needs to know. "And what if I were?"

"That would be, uh, fine." Steve only now looks up to meet Eddie's eyes.

"Just fine?" Eddie can see the blush on Steve's cheeks and calculates within a nanosecond that it is indeed worth getting punched.

Eddie leans forward and ghosts the other man's lips, the sound of a single-syllable question mark fills the limited space between them. Steve takes a sharp inhale before surprising Eddie by surging forward. Eddie barely has time to register anything before the sweet-tart flavour of cherry hits his senses - seeming to make its way through all five like a lightning strike. The thunder comes in the form of his and Steve's mutual gasps as they lean into each other over the center console.

Steve pulls away and it's only then that Eddie registers their hands in each other's hair. He imagined kissing Steve many times but nothing comes to reality.

"Of course it's fucking cherry," breathes Eddie - eyes still unopened.

"That's your takeaway?" asks Steve, breathless.

"I'm not gonna lie. It's all I could think about tonight." Eddie can't help his grin as Steve's fingers shift in his curls. Then he's pulling Eddie back in. Lips press. Tongues meet. By now the taste is gone, but that doesn't matter to Eddie anymore. He got his answer.

Steve pulls away, holding Eddie's chin with his thumb. "Glad I could be of service."

"I don't think I got enough of a taste though," says Eddie, chasing back for more. Steve laughs, pushing Eddie away playfully.

"You just had to kiss me the one night I have a curfew, didn't you?"

"I can be helpful in the arena of pissing off parents yah know?" Eddie can tell Steve is trying to restrain himself and enjoying it immensely.

"Okay John Bender, settled down. They're gone tomorrow anyway."

Eddie reluctantly leaves the car after squeezing in one more make-out session. Of course, Steve's a good kisser.

With the memory of cherry lips permanently etched into Eddie's mind, he walks toward his trailer. When he gets to the door Steve hasn't pulled out yet. Eddie turns to him and triumphantly punches his fist in the air in victory.

"Steve Harrington... Damn you."