#disclaimer: i know absolutely nada of electrical work but thank god for youtube tutorials

[princess-josephina]

Fruity Four Advent Calendar 1-12: Christmas lights

Thought I'd jump straight (HAHA) onto the first wagon of @unclewaynemunson 's Fruity Four Advent Calendar train. Hope it's ok this one's just Steddie, I couldn't fit in the girls without making it ridiculously long and chaotic.

UPD: now also on AO3.

"Steve? What the hell are you doing?"

Eddie's back from the grocery store with some food and finds Steve back on the roof, taking down the enormously long lights string they'd just spent 2 hours putting up (a little too close to potentially breaking their necks several times). Steve turns to look down at him and wobbles for a second, giving Eddie a mini heart attack before he catches his balance again.

"It's broken!" He shouts, sounding frustrated. "It's not lighting up. Guess it might have died, from like, lack of use? We hadn't used this one in years."

"Oh my god, Steve, are you serious?!" Eddie yells back at him. "Leave that and get back down here."

Eddie grabs the cable, sighs with relief when Steve's safely reached the bottom of the ladder, and then follows the cable's length until he reaches the end, lying on the garage floor by the power socket. He crouches next to it. Steve leans over his shoulder to see what he's doing.

"Did you check that the socket's working?" Eddie inquires, and Steve rolls his eyes.

"Ugh… Yes?" He gestures at a small lamp on the counter nearby. "Tried with a lamp. It worked, so the socket's fine." He crosses his arms on his chest, defensive. "I'm not an idiot, Eddie."

"Never said you were, Stevie," Eddie glances at him and replies in that strange, patient tone Steve's never sure what to do with. "Just making sure." He fiddles with the plug in his hand. "Probably just blown fuses. These things die all the time. You got tools here?"

"Like what?" Steve asks, and feels foolish when he understands, a moment later, what Eddie meant.

"I need something small. Like a tiny flathead? Tweezers would work too."

Miraculously, Steve actually produces a dusty toolbox from somewhere in the back of the garage and hands it over to Eddie, who quickly rummages through it and then works to open up the lights plug, sticking out his tongue in concentration as he always does. Steve doesn't ask questions, figuring he shouldn't distract Eddie, but Eddie motions for him to come closer anyway and starts talking.

"See these two tiny things?" He says, and Steve has to lean over to see, resting his hand on Eddie's shoulder for support. Eddie keeps explaining, simple stuff that sounds obvious, really, but no judgement or condescension in his tone. "Those are electrical fuses. They're like… safety measures, to protect the whole cable from overcurrent, you know, so your house doesn't burn down. And yeah," Eddie holds the tiny thing between the fingers and raises it closer to his face. "See how it's all brown inside? Yeah, this baby's dead, rest in peace." Eddie quickly extracts the other fuse, too, and shoves them both in his jeans pocket. "I'm gonna drive to the hardware store and get the replacements." He grins, holding his arm out to Steve from the floor, and Steve grabs it to pull him up to his feet.

"So that's gonna… fix the lights?"

"Well yeah, if it's just the fuses, if that doesn't work then the problem's somewhere in the cable itself, I'd need to borrow a voltage tester from Wayne and…" Eddie stops talking, because Steve is giving him a strange, open-mouthed, awestruck look. "What?"

Steve looks away, shakes his head and laughs.

"Nothing. That's just… awesome. That you know all that. I thought we'd have to buy new lights."

"Jesus, rich people." Eddie rolls his eyes and then narrows them at Steve, his expression somewhere between exasperated and amused. "Do you really just buy new shit every time the old one breaks?"

"Yes?" Steve shrugs and rubs his chin, at least having the decency to look sheepish. "I mean, unless it's big stuff like a fridge or a TV, then my father gets a handyman to have a look…"

"…Who spends 15 minutes intensely looking at its insides and then tells you some super complicated detail needs replacing and it will cost you 80 bucks, when ninety percent of the time it just needs a new power cable?" Eddie grins. "Wayne worked as a handyman for some time, I know the drill. You know, if the rich people of Hawkins were to willingly let the town's satanic freak into their homes, I might consider a career change. Easiest money in the world, apparently."

It's just a short drive to the hardware store and back, and 30 minutes later Eddie's replacing the fuses while Steve sits right by him on the garage floor and watches his hands work, fascinated. As if Eddie was casting some high level wizarding spell, not doing basic household repairs every kid of Eddie's income level learned when they were 10 years old.

"Okay, fingers crossed, Stevie. Here we go."

Eddie plugs the cable into the socket and they glance at each other briefly before jumping up at the same time and racing outside, Eddie slipping on some ice by the garage entrance and Steve catching him, and they both laugh, arms still around each other, as they look up to see Steve's house all brightly illuminated with multicolor lights in the winter dusk.

"You did it!" Steve shouts, shaking Eddie's shoulders and grinning at him, delighted and overjoyed in a way that makes Eddie's stupid heart melt with fondness. "You saved Christmas, Eddie!"

"Uh. I just fixed some stupid lights. No biggie," Eddie flushes, not knowing what to do with himself when Steve looks at him like that. He glances back up at the lights and twirls Steve's scarf between his fingers because he needs to keep his hands busy with something, so they don't do something stupid. Like grab Steve's cheeks, all bright rosy from the cold.

"That's just it", Steve's voice is quieter now, and he keeps looking at Eddie intently. "You always make everything better and act like it's no big deal."

What the hell is Eddie supposed to say to that? Before his brain can even comprehend the words, suddenly it's Steve's hands bracketing his own head, fingers warm against his freezing ears; shit, Eddie might never get to see the best Christmas he'd probably have had in his entire life, because he'll be dead of a heart attack. "You're fucking amazing, Eds, you gotta know that." And then Steve's staring at his lips, and hey, maybe Eddie doesn't need to die.

Feeling stupidly brave, Eddie tugs on Steve's scarf, and Steve moves easily, no resistance. Two clouds of breath mingle into one in the cold air between them. "Stevie. Sweetheart," he murmurs; Steve bites his lip and ducks his head at the endearment, god yes, please let him be right about this. Eddie leans in, heart thundering in his chest.

Steve's lips are cold, but the inside of his mouth is deliciously warm, tastes like cigarettes and mulled wine they'd shared earlier. Eddie shivers and swallows back an embarrassing moan, and thinks fuck, maybe Jesus doesn't actually hate the gays, because Steve is kissing him back, and if that's not an early Christmas miracle, Eddie doesn't know what is. And goddamn, that boy knows how to kiss. Eddie's blood feels like an electric current, and he's all weak in the knees and wobbly, all that stuff straight out of romance novels he never thought was real.

It's almost dark outside, but the Christmas lights are so bright they are both in plain view here, in Steve's front yard, and yet it seems like Steve doesn't even care, doesn't stop kissing him and doesn't hurry at all when he walks them backwards into the garage, until Eddie's back hits the wall; that makes Eddie jump in surprise, and they finally break apart.

Steve looks at him with the brightest smile Eddie's ever seen, all pure wonder and fondness, and Eddie's glad to have the wall for support. He's literally swooning, dammit.

"Just so you know…" Eddie giggles, knuckles brushing Steve's cheek, no longer cold to the touch. "You're fucking amazing too, Stevie. Just a different... area of expertise, so to speak."