#(slap fight over dessert textures in the comments)

[scoops-aboy86]

(Continued from this, in which Eddie tried to cast a love spell to snag Steve Harrington but it didn’t go right and just made Steve inexplicably popular.)

Anyway, once Steve starts that Scoops Ahoy job, any hopes of retaining his jock figure are toast.

Whenever Eddie visits, Steve sets him up in a booth with a guess-the-mystery flavor milkshake. Every once in a while Steve will swing by during table wiping duties (which his cranky coworker Robin is more than happy to let him take more often than not) and ask what his guess is, and Eddie being Eddie gives the most off the wall answers he can think of. To which Steve will tilt his head, take a sip of the milkshake himself as if to refresh his memory, set it down while smacking his lips thoughtfully (Eddie’s favorite part, he always zeros in on it), and say, “Nope, better luck next guess.” Needless to say, he ends up drinking most of the milkshake, especially since Eddie is a slow drinker and doesn’t like it as much once it’s all melted. (Steve, who has developed quite the sweet tooth, thinks it’s endearing when Eddie insists that ice cream should be chewed.)

Employees can get up to one complimentary item every shift, so Steve also eats at least one full serving of ice cream a day.

There’s a toping limit on that deal, but what management seems to have failed to take into account is that the workers aren’t terribly well supervised in the absence of paying customers. Both Steve and Robin each have their own “spilled toppings” cup under the front counter, although the latter refills his more frequently and sometimes pours chocolate sauce on top before eating it all in one sitting with a spoon.

Meanwhile, Steve. Is. Loving this. He understands Eddie’s cafeteria table ramblings more, he thinks, now that he’s eating like this after years conforming and shoehorning his appetite into an athlete’s diet.

Also, like… Eddie is totally different from any friend can remember ever having before. Thinking back to their earliest interactions, he doesn’t think Eddie even wanted anything to do with him at first, and doesn’t seem to want anything from him now besides company, even if it’s just in the form of Eddie writing his campaigns in the Scoops parlor while Steve’s working. For another, Eddie’s eyes sometimes follow him the way all the high school girls’ used to, only instead of feeling on the spot or nervous Steve is just… comfortable with it. He’d never been able to figure out why he got all that attention in high school because it had started before he’d even done anything, but with Eddie every step towards becoming friends had been a conscious struggle.

So if Steve starts leaning into whatever gets Eddie’s eyes on him like that, is that really so big a deal? He’s always liked attention, so sue him—and when he ends up realizing that it happens whenever he’s being most himself, well. He’s never felt like anyone really liked him for him anymore, not even Nancy since ‘bullshit’ and ‘tell me you love me.’ The fact that Eddie does drives him wild.

And Steve likes to eat. He feels more grounded in this bigger version of himself. Eddie’s always watching his mouth, his hands, his fingers (especially when he’s licking drips of ice cream off them)—so Steve happily keeps indulging however he feels like.

One day Steve is wiping down tables and bends down a little too far to grab some fallen napkins off the floor. He feels more than hears the fabric of his blue uniform shorts rip, and all but leaps into the booth Eddie is haunting before anyone else sees, sits close to him because he likes the proximity. One glance is enough to know that Eddie definitely saw, his big Bambi eyes open wide, eyebrows anll the way up his forehead… and hair pulled across his face in an attempt to hide flushed cheeks, caught in the act of staring at Steve’s ass.

That’s what gives Steve the confidence to lean in a little bit and flirt, ask to borrow Eddie’s jacket (no one else in this town would wear leather in summer) so he can get back behind the counter and change. Eddie hands it over immediately, and flushes even harder when Steve grins and says, “My hero.”

It doesn’t have to mean anything, but he wants it to.

Part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, part 10, part 11