There's a beat of silence where they just stare at each other. Eddie's face wavers for a second before he snorts, running his hand down his face. "What are we even doing here, man?"
Steve falters, the inanity of the situation hitting him. "I, uh, I think we're about to actually fistfight over-- over who a bunch of 14-year-olds think is cooler."
Eddie considers that briefly, tapping his fingers against his mouth before nodding. "Yeah, okay, I've heard of worst causes. Dukes up, Harrington, let's go!" Eddie pushes up his sleeves and waves his fists in the air cartoonishly as he starts to circle Steve.
Steve laughs, following Eddie as he goes like a compass drawn north. "Oh yeah, man? To the death, right?"
"Of course. Is there any other kind of fight?" Eddie says, overly serious, and abruptly tackles Steve.
They wrestle for a moment, and it's playful and stupid, but it still takes Steve an embarrassingly short amount of time to get Eddie in a headlock.
"This is just sad, man," Steve teases as Eddie struggles. "Those guns just for show, then?"
"Oh shit oh shit not the hair please, please have mercy O King Steve," Eddie laughs breathlessly.
Steve considers it-- Eddie seems to take as much care in his hair as Steve does, and real respects real-- and in that moment of hesitation, Eddie hooks his leg around Steve's and pulls.
Steve yelps as Eddie cackles, dragging them both down into the grass.
He hits the ground with a choked gasp, breath knocked out of him, and he squints up at the sky, unsuccessfully trying to hold back a grin.
He turns his head to say something to Eddie but loses his breath a second time for a very different reason.
Eddie's still giggling to himself in little fits, winding down, and there's a lightness to him at this moment that Steve's never seen, only heard described by the kids pre-Vecna. Laughter suits Eddie Munson, much better than terror or guilt or seriousness, and Steve's suddenly aware that he would do anything in this moment to keep that surprised look of happiness on his face a second longer.
Eddie catches his eyes and turns his head toward him. He's got grass stuck in his hair, and Steve doesn't think before he reaches over.
It's soft. Softer than he was expecting. He's careful not to catch any of Eddie's hair as he pulls out the grass and ends up lingering longer than he means to, setting a curl back to rights before realizing that this is, like, maybe a little weird.
He jerks back, and the back of his hand brushes Eddie's cheek, which is-- which is--
Warm. Soft, too, but with the rough start to stubble, and the feeling of it lingers against his hand like a brand.
Eddie's eyes, dark and impossibly wide, watch him, quiet for once. He wets his lips before speaking, and Steve's eyes catch on that, too, before darting back up to Eddie's. Which, god, what even was that? Why-- why is he--?
"A draw, then," Eddie says, turning over onto his stomach and kicking up his feet, and the weird atmosphere vanishes like it never was. "You are a worthier opponent than I realized, Steve Harrington."
"Oh yeah?" Steve says, relieved and disappointed. "Well, you're not so bad yourself."
Eddie clicks his tongue and fans himself. "You're too kind."
Steve looks away, tracking the clouds passing overhead. "No, really. I know I haven't exactly been, y'know, the world's best welcoming committee-"
"Was pretty convinced you hated my guts, yup." Eddie agrees, nodding.
"I don't. I never did. You're just--" Steve wracks his brain, trying to fit a word to the squirming feeling in his chest that Eddie inspires. "You're really good, y'know?"
"I... don't know, actually." Eddie's voice goes flat, and when Steve turns back to look at him, he's looking at Steve like he's a live snake, or something else dangerous and close to his vulnerable bits.
"You're good with the kids. Good for the kids, too. God, Will's really opened up since he joined your dumb nerdfest. You're good with and to the girls, too, and Jonathan, and Argyle, and probably anyone else that crosses your path. You are, patently, a good dude."
Eddie's mouth opens and closes, but Steve barrels on, feeling electric and more than a little crazy. "And, and it's just-- I don't know, I just--"
"Harrington, if you're about to tell me you think I'm a better man than you, I will lose it," Eddie interrupts regardless, voice high and reedy. "I know you're being, like, genuine and honest right now, but I will laugh in your goddamn face-"
"No, it's not that."
"Okay, I know this directly contradicts what I just said, but the speed with which you said that... Ouch."
"No," Steve shakes his head, frustrated. "I didn't mean it like that. It's-- it's not a competition."
Eddie's eyebrows leap up. "It's not? I invite you to remember what we've spent the last few weeks on."
"That was just an excuse," He snaps his mouth closed the second the words leave his mouth.
"Excuse?" Eddie repeats slowly.
"I just. I don't know, man. Maybe," he swallows. "Maybe I just couldn't handle the thought of you being good to me."
"... Why not?" Eddie asks, eyes focused on him, open, not judging, and god, this is exactly what Steve was worried about.
Eddie looks at him, and Steve--
Kisses him. Can't really do anything else but kiss him.
And when Eddie, after the longest moment of Steve's life, starts kissing him back? It's like the answer to a question he hadn't realized he'd been asking.
Turns out it's not the kids' attention he'd wanted-- or not just the kids' attention, anyway.
When Eddie pulls back, lips red and wet, eyes dark and focused just on him, Steve knows he's finally won it.
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