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do I only draw eddie in cutoff tees to show his binder? perhaps

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Tommy has three brothers.

You may think that this would have taught him how to share, but it didn’t. It taught him that if he wanted something to grab it quick and hold it tight.

Which is to say that he does not like Carol.

He is not thrilled when Steve asks their teacher if Carol can sit with them during snack time because Steve is his best friend. He found him first and he’s not letting go of him.

Especially not to some dumb girl that plays with dolls.

“Mr. Whiskers isn’t a doll. He’s a cat.”

“Mr. Whiskers is a dumb toy,” Tommy grouses, pulling on Steve’s backpack strap so he follows him. Steve says he likes toys and Tommy concedes because he likes toys too just - “Not dumb toys. I have cool toys. I can show you.”

And Tommy does. He drags Steve onto the bus with him. None of his brothers mention it when Steve gets off at their stop.

In fact, no one mentions it at all. Especially not to their mother so it’s something of a surprise when she turns around to find a boy in her kitchen. Not one of her boys but - “Hello?”

The little boy looks away from the pot boiling on the stove and asks, “How come you don’t have a microwave?”

“Mama says that I can’t use the stove ‘cause I’m not big enough,” He continues while Maria stares dumbfounded at him. “Tommy’s not big either and you don’t got a microwave. Does he just eat cereal?”

The boy blinks at her, “I’m Steve, by the way.”

“Steve,” She says slowly, connecting the name to Tommy’s friend from school. “Does anyone know you’re here?”

“I know I’m here.”

“Anyone else?”

“Tommy knows,” He says. “He’s in his room. We’re playing nascar.”

“That sounds fun,” She says, slipping into mom mode. She crouches down so they’re eye-level and smiles, “Why don’t I call your mom and let her know that you’re having fun?”

She can see the clogs turning in his head before Sleve slumps his shoulders. His bottom lip juts out and his eyes get shiny. She’s about to ask him what’s wrong when Tommy slides into the room on his socks and Steve tells him in a sad little voice, “Your mama wants me to go home now.”

Tommy promptly bursts into tears.

He doesn’t want Steve to leave. He’ll miss him and he hasn’t even showed him his GI Joe yet.

It takes a lot of soothing words, many reassurances that she’s not kicking Steve out, and the recruitment of her husband before the situation was calmed down. It’s only then that Steve - dry-eyed now - suggests, “I can call my mama.”

This is what Maria was trying to accomplish in the first place.

She takes Steve into the living room where their landline was. He dials his phone number carefully as her, her husband David, and Tommy watch. He gives her a reassuring smile, holding the phone to his ear.

“Hi, Mama! It’s Steve,” He says into the receiver. “I’m at Tommy’s. He’s my best friend and his mama said I can stay the night. Love you. Bye. Love you.”

He hangs up the phone before Maria could ask for it and informs her, “Mama is a super busy lady. She’s goin’ to the - to the store. She says she loves you.”

The boys run off to continue playing while Maria processes what the hell just happened. She’s still processing when David picks up the phone and presses the same buttons Steve had.

He holds the phone to his ear and gets the answering machine for, “The fucking Harringtons?”

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Shel Silverstein predicting ChatGPT in 1981

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*if you know/have confirmed from multiple sources, pick the first one you experienced

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kid steddie cuz that’s all I can seem to draw rn

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You seat a table of three for breakfast and the woman says hmm yes I will have a loaded waffle tower please and you say ma'am that's a children's item and she says so and you say okay fine and the man who brought a whole laptop in says ah, I will have what the lady is having and an orange soda and you say for breakfast and he says of course and then the guy who is clearly a criminal says what kind of bread do you use for your French toast and you say ... White and he says can I sub brioche and you say we don't have brioche and he sighs and says I'll get the rooty tooty... Whatever the cowboy omelette and the other two start razzing him about being a cowboy and when you come to check up on them the woman is playing airplane with the loaded waffle tower trying to get the criminal to eat it and they tip $200 and your watch has been replaced with a better watch

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au where steve/eddie/robin are hanging out at eddie’s and out of the blue robin asks the room “how long is your ideal hug?”

and with zero hesitation steve replies “at least 45 minutes. probably a good hour or two if i could swing it”

eddie and robin blink.

robin: …i don’t think that’s very realistic, dingus

steve, still reading his magazine and not at all paying attention to the way robin and eddie are Looking at him: *scoffs bitchily* you said ideal, rob, not realistic

and this is where steve will swear that robin and eddie have developed their own psychic link because the next thing he knows, eddie is yanking steve down so he’s laying on top of eddie on the couch and robin is laying down on top of him and: “guys what the fUck”

robin and eddie, in unison: steve sandwich

steve, softly but with feeling: what the fuck

eddie: let us give you your ideal hug, okay sweetheart?

steve, dying inside but also fucking Living: …okay c:

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(originally posted on bluesky here)

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underrated stobin screencap

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The bar started playing one of Steve’s favorite songs as they walked in, so he immediately pulled his date onto the dance floor, not even stopping to order drinks.

“So what do you do for work?” Steve leaned in and asked over the music. It was a cliche first date question, but you’ve gotta get the basics out of the way.

Eddie laughed and then admitted, “I don't actually know yet. I just got hired and my first day is next Monday. It's some type of office work I guess?”

“You don't know the position you interviewed for?” Steve asked, thoroughly amused.

“Dude, I was applying for every job available. I think I applied to four different positions at that same company alone, not to mention everywhere else hiring in a five mile radius!”

“I guess it does increase your odds, yeah,” Steve laughed, charmed. “What is the company?”

“Harrington and Sons.”

Steve blinked. “...It's Harrington and Son. Son is singular.”

“How would you know that?” Eddie asked, now the one leading the dance, since Steve had stopped.

“I'm Son in Harrington and Son,” Steve admitted. 

“Oh. OH… Oh, so you're, like, my boss probably, then, huh?” 

“Yeah, it would seem so.”

They both stood there, arms still loosely slung around each other's bodies but not dancing anymore. A few other couples bumped into them as they stood still on the dance floor, but they ignored them.

“This is probably considered a conflict of interest,” Steve admitted.

“Yeah,” Eddie said. He started to reluctantly remove his hands, but Steve stopped him.

“Unless! Unless we were already dating before I became your boss. And since you asked me out before we knew, I think it would be morally correct to just say we started dating earlier and we both forgot to mention it to my dad. I mean, if you want to.”

A mischievous smile started to bloom on Eddie’s face and he restarted their dancing. “Plus, we have a full eight days until I officially start. We could really hammer home this relationship in eight days. If you’re interested, of course.”

“Tomorrow morning I’ll call my parents and set up a dinner to introduce them to my boyfriend, finally, who I just forgot to mention before now. Too bad he doesn’t do interviews or hiring himself, it would be fun to watch him sweat when he saw you at dinner. Guess I’ll get to see that next Monday instead.”

“Oh,” Eddie exclaimed, “I’m gonna like you a lot!”

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Eddie is the fun parent and Steve is the strict one, sure. But let’s talk about the times Eddie gets mad.

Their kids would be throwing tantrums or being difficult for the sake of being difficult and Steve would try to deal with them. A teenage daughter getting frustrated because Steve won’t let her go to a party everybody is going to that weekend because they’re supposed to visit grandpa Wayne back in Hawkins.

She tries to argue, to plead, but Steve keeps saying no. It’s been three months since they paid Wayne a visit and it’s his freaking birthday so, no, she can’t miss the trip and go to a party. And in the middle of their argument, their daughter screams “I HATE YOU!!” to Steve with such rage that Steve stops, stunned.

When he recovers from the shock, he just says, “Hate me all you want, you’re still not going to that party,” then leaves their daughter’s room.

Five minutes later Eddie comes in and closes the door quietly behind him. Their daughter is about to snap at him too, but she closes her mouth when she sees her Papa’s dead serious expression. He crosses the room and stops right before the bed, where their daughter is sitting, and looks her straight in the eye.

“Listen here, darling, you’re gonna put on the best regretful face you can, apologize to your father and you’re gonna mean it. Do you understand?”

“But—”

“Nah, ah. I don't think you're understanding. This is not a discussion, so I'm gonna say it again. You're gonna go downstairs right now, you're gonna apologize to your father and you're gonna mean it. Do. You. Understand?”

“Yes, Papa.”

“Good. You’re also grounded for however long I’m still pissed. So, if I were you, I’d be in my best behavior when we visit Wayne this weekend.”

(Nobody makes Eddie’s husband cry. Not even their own daughter.)

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He's just a little guy

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One of the worst things about being Steve’s platonic soulmate is that he talks so lovingly of Tommy and Carol. He tells her these lovely little stories about the things they got up to when they were kids and…

It makes Robin fond of them. She doesn’t want to be fond of them. She wants to think badly of them. Carol used to purposely trip her in the hallway. She wants to hate them!

Then Steve tells her about how he’d spend Christmas with Tommy’s family or how Carol called him every night for a week after his grandma died because she knew they were close.

And now Robin is fond! She hears things about them and is like, good! She’s happy for them. Ugghhhhh.

She’s getting offended on their behalf and Steve’s when Nancy and Jonathan make a snide comment about Steve’s old friends and like, “At least they never cheated on him with each other, right? That’s really shitty, isn’t it?”

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Eddie confesses his love for Steve who very awkwardly explains he’s straight and not into him like that. Eddie is surprisingly okay with this, like he didn’t expect anything else, claiming he just wanted to tell him so he knew how loved he was. That sentiment does things to Steve but he doesn’t really know what, just knows it makes him warm and almost wish he wasn’t straight just so he could accept all the love Eddie clearly has to give. At first Steve thinks they’ll go back to normal and they kind of do, now with the shadow of Eddie’s love peeking through but not a hinderance, until Eddie tells them he’s going on a date with a cute guy and Steve? Steve sees green. Had no idea he was even capable of being this jealous but suddenly he realizes that lingering bad feeling has been regret. He regrets turning Eddie down, he regrets not taking what was his when he had the chance, he regrets not realizing he isn’t straight fast enough. Steve does his absolute best not to speed on his way over to Eddie’s and is so relieved to see him through his window still home. He practically stumbles into the house in his haste.

“Don’t go on that date,” Steve says before the door even closes behind him.

“Why?” Eddie asks in complete confusion.

“I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what?”

“I didn’t know I loved you.”

“Oh.”

“Do you…did you stop loving me?”

“Never.”

“Then don’t go on that date.”

“Canceled. You’re serious?”

“Come here please,” Steve says and draws him into his arms.

When Eddie kisses him he truly doesn’t understand how he could have ended up anywhere but here, like this, with someone he loves. Someone who loves him back.

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evan buckley + wide angle uniform shots for @buckweek day one: scenery