#eddie dearest

[donnyssupper]

WH! Spoilers!

i had to draw this quick

[cornkernelcorp]

..So about that old post of mine- I found the file of the uncolored comic. This was supposed to be the first of many polyship comics I was planning to do for WH. I ended up finding a new hyperfixation.. but you can have it. Why not? The context is just an old headcanon from how I thought the neighborhood would operate. Frank would sometimes help Howdy with his store's stock and keeping things organized. In a later comic, Eddie would help with deliveries and it'd end up being a trio ship between the three <:')

That's it for now, I have more to post for my latest interest.. Cookierun.

[esteemed-excellency]

a tiny Frostbitten Rose for @eddie-dearest ❄️🌹

(phone camera version under the cut because my scanner deleted the pastel blue pen)

[missunhinged]

AAAALL RIGHTLY THEN ROOOUND 2!💕 The lovely WH Community voted last time for my Love Cult AU design for Howdy Pillar so you all know what that means! Time for our next neighbor to get a chance! Who will it be next I wonder? only you guys get to decide!👁💕

[ugh-my-back]

A precious puppy eyed angel appeared

@minilev I'M SCREAMING!! I love this so much, you captured him so well 🖤

[idraw5ometimes]

So I heard from the grapevine that Eddie Dearest is a Drag Queen and like Instantly, I thought ✨Jessica Rabbit✨ Eddie Dressed like Jessica Rabbit I have no idea how much I needed it in my life!

Wip coming sooon!!!!!

[chronicowboy]

but when i tried to love him i loved at the wrong time

this is a two for one spec inspired by this post and my long lost love trapped dads

any complaints about this fic can and should be directed to @evankinard who bullied me into writing this for her after i ruined her day with a single dm. love you bby <3

Eddie breaks apart a little the moment Buck disappears from view, lets himself feel the wound in his side as an excuse not to feel the big unwieldy thing unfolding in his chest like a colonising panic. He hadn't wanted to leave him, not after half an hour trapped in that smoky room clinging to each other to ground themselves in the reality they were trapped in, but Buck had made several stubborn and convincing arguments about Christopher before announcing he wouldn't move if Eddie didn't. Eddie had tried, had tried to get Buck out first, Buck who had just found happiness with—with Tommy, Buck who has always deserved to live. But Hen and Chim had come in with the clinical wisdom of paramedics and said a rebar through the abdomen was always going to take priority over a fractured leg.

Now, Eddie is rolled out of a collapsing building, leaving behind Buck—a bird with a broken wing, incapable of moving.

God, the noises Buck had made when he'd dragged himself over to Eddie's side. They'll be haunting him for years, for whatever lifetime he has left. Worse somehow than the first time with an entire engine on top of him. Except this time, Eddie couldn't hold his hand. Not now, but not before either because... Because that was someone else's job now. And like a laugh from the universe, Tommy appears just as Eddie reaches down to put the brakes on the gurney before Hen and Chim can get him into the ambulance.

"Kinard?" Bobby greets him with a grim-faced nod. "What are you doing here?"

"Heard you might need an assist from air support." He shrugs, but the breathlessness in the voice and the way his eyes keep jumping around the gathered 118 like he's only counting the one man not there reveals his nonchalance as the act it is. "Thought I'd swing by."

"Isn't that a conflict of interest?" Chimney asks.

"Fine, so I stole a helicopter again. Sue me for wanting to offer a hand." Tommy's face draws as soon as he stops speaking, and he glances back at the building waiting to swallow Eddie's heart whole. "How is he?"

"Holding in there," Eddie answers, voice tight enough to have Tommy really seeing him for the first time. "Think his bad leg is fractured."

"Shit," Tommy hisses, clenching his fists at his side.

"Yeah," Eddie breathes out. "Can't get himself out because of it. I wouldn't have left him, but—"

"He insisted," Tommy says, something entirely too knowing in his voice and his eyes. Eddie swallows thickly.

"And, well..." He gestures weakly to the rebar in his side, Buck's undershirt, now soaked through with Eddie's blood, wrapped around it as a makeshift bandage.

"Shit, Diaz." Tommy grimaces. "Shouldn't you be getting to the hospital?"

"He's refusing care until Buck is out too," Hen deadpans, pressing a new pad of gauze to his wound a little too firmly for it not to be intentional. Eddie just grits his teeth.

"Of course he is," Tommy murmurs. Eddie is too much of a coward to face up to whatever expression is on Tommy's face when he says it, so instead he focuses on the Incident Commander approaching Bobby.

"Site's been deemed too unstable," he announces. "No more personnel are to enter until we've found a way to stabilise it."

"My..." Bobby calms himself when his voice comes out in a growl. "My man is in there."

"And sending another man in there would be a suicide mission." The Incident Commander grimaces apologetically. "Sorry, Captain. That's an order."

Bobby turns his gaze back to the building, something so tightly drawn in him that it makes Eddie hurt all the worse. He knows without a shadow of a doubt what Bobby's thinking. He can't lose another son to a burning building.

And here, maybe this would be where Eddie runs back into the building and drags Buck out all on his own, maybe this would be where he finally gets to repay the favour for the gravel burn on his back, maybe this is where he'd get to redeem himself from the helplessness he'd felt just lowering Buck down to the ground. Except. There's a rebar in his side. Even with the adrenaline, even with the love... Eddie doesn't think he'd make it three steps before falling to his knees—a prayer in and of itself.

Instead, Eddie turns to look at Tommy. Tommy who is already looking at him, something determined and understanding and loving trapped behind the wildness of his eyes. A beat passes between them, silence saying more than they ever could.

"Bring him back to—" Me. But. Not to me.

Because that's not Eddie's place anymore. Eddie doesn't get to ask that of Buck's boyfriend. Eddie doesn't get to ask that at all. He's no longer the person that will be shaking Buck's pain pills into his hand and fetching him a bottle of water. He's no longer the person that will be wrapping Buck's cast in a bin bag for a shower and listening to him lament about the indignity of it. He's no longer the person that will be pulling Buck out of bed on his worst days to remind him that he's real and valued and loved. No, that's not his job anymore. But, fuck, Tommy's the only better man for the job.

"Bring him back to us," Eddie tells him then, and it feels like he's finally let go of the baton in the relay race, sure Tommy's got a hold of it now. And Tommy looks as wrongfooted by this as Eddie feels, but he nods anyway and grabs Eddie's discarded helmet from his lap, strapping it on.

"Kinard, no one goes in," Bobby warns him. "That's an order."

"You're not my captain anymore." Tommy only smiles and shrugs before sprinting towards the doors.

Bobby curses, but there's relief in it. Hen and Chim just watch him go with something hopeful on their faces. And Eddie. Eddie's eyes start to droop.

"Hey, hey, Eddie." Chim snaps his fingers in front of his face, jolting Eddie back into semi-consciousness.

"Eddie, we need to get you to a hospital," Hen says calmly, reaching for the brakes.

"Move me an inch and I rip this rebar out of my side," he says lowly.

"Jesus, anyone ever tell you you're a drama queen?" Chim huffs.

"Yeah." Eddie chokes on his next breath a little. "The man trapped in that building."

A solemn silence settles over them then. They redirect their attention to the doors Tommy had disappeared into, and Hen lays a grounding hand on his shoulder as they wait.

It's not long before Tommy comes stumbling out of the building, looking every bit the action hero Eddie has never gotten to be for Buck what with his soot-stained face and Buck himself slung over his shoulder, splinted leg bouncing against his sternum. Hen and Bobby spring into action immediately, racing to meet them. Chim just unlocks Eddie's gurney and loads him into the ambulance, raising him up just enough to catch a perfect view of Tommy lowering Buck onto his own stretcher with a kiss to his forehead. The ambulance doors close, Chim knocks twice, the sirens begin to whine, and they lurch into motion.

"Did you draw the drama queen straw?" Eddie asks to distract himself from the tenderness of Tommy's kiss.

"Higher ups are a little more serious about conflicts of interest now Buck is officially my brother-in-law," Chim mumbles as he works on getting Eddie's IV in. "But also I'm better acquainted with rebars than Hen, so..."

Eddie huffs a weak laugh as his eyes drift to the ceiling, the clean white of it stinging his eyes.

"Chim?"

"Yeah?"

"Tomorrow isn't promised to anyone, right?" he chokes out. He doesn't take his eyes off the ceiling, but the sudden silence in the ambulance is as deafening as the siren overhead.

"No," Chim says eventually. "No, it's not."

"But what happens if the person you love..." Here, his voice breaks. An almighty crack right through the middle. It sounds like the building behind them just came crumbling down in his throat. "What happens if someone told them first?" He turns to face Chim's wide eyes. "Should you still tell them?"

"I-I don't know..." Chim opens his mouth a few times, a fish out of water, before he makes a decision. He takes a deep breath and squares his shoulders. "But what I do know is." He clears his throat. "If you let a wound like that fester... It'll kill you, Eddie."

"Yeah." Eddie lets his eyes fall shut.

I can feel it already.

[crayolascribblz]

hello tumblr. doodles be apon thee! :3

[accecakes]

I’M MAKING SOMETHING!!

May or may not be Eddie stickers for a giveaway 👀

[donnyssupper]

Just putting this here cause it blew up on tiktok n i dont got content to post now

[lengthofropes]

STRANGER THINGS SHIPS FEST 2023 #️⃣1️⃣ (314 votes) - Eddie Munson/Chrissy Cunningham

[lemonsacolor]

Did these around three months ago and never posted them.

love how Poppy came out

[capn-twitchery]

good evening fallen londoners!

this is a new blog for my FL ocs & ramblings & whatnots! meet twitch, who is just here for a laugh, and grace, who hasn't had a single laugh since he got here

(feel free to drop me an ask or a message, i look forward to wiggling my way into the FL community and meeting you all!! :D)

[sidekick-hero]

Until I found you

(steddie | 1.5k | mature | AO3 | Collection with wedding fics)

My dearest @thefreakandthehair, you were the first person I really interacted with in this fandom and your Winter Challenge was the reason I wrote my very first ST fanfic. You have a special place in my heart Lex and I am so glad, that I and all the others, were able to show you how much you mean to us with our wedding gifts.

I wish you and Billiam a life filled with love and happiness and the knowledge that you found something special within each other 💜

Most of the time, Eddie doesn’t mind being poor. Hell, he grew up with no money to his name, and as with so many things, you can't really miss what you've never had.

But sometimes he wishes that he wasn't.

Not even for himself, but for Steve. Because Steve? Steve knows what he's missing.

Before he came out to his parents, involuntarily, when they caught them making out on the floor of their living room, and they kicked him out of their house and their family, Steve had money. He could buy anything he wanted and never had to worry about affording rent and groceries.

Now, Eddie and Steve were living together in a small but cozy apartment in Indianapolis with their cats, Merry and Pippin. Steve was studying to be an EMT, and Eddie was working as a bartender where his band played regularly. They got by just fine, even though most of their furniture was second-hand, and they went grocery shopping on a weekly budget.

Their life was good. Perfect, in fact, if you asked Eddie. They had everything they needed, especially each other, which was the most important thing, a fact Steve never tired of reminding him of.

But that never stopped Eddie from wanting to give Steve more. Steve deserved the world and Eddie hated that he couldn't give it to him. He couldn't even give him the honeymoon he deserved.

If he's honest, he still can't believe Steve said yes. Especially after Eddie proposed at the worst possible time. Not during sex, which would have been bad, but not the worst. No, he proposed during a fight.

Steve was yelling at him, probably about something inane because he was tired and frustrated at the time, Eddie doesn’t even remember. And all he could think was that he would do anything to have Steve yell at him and smile at him and kiss him and tease him for the rest of his life.

"If you don't care, fine, but some of us —"

"Marry me."

"What - are you kidding me?"

"No, I have never been more serious in my life. Marry me, Steve."

"Are you asking me to marry you so I’ll stop yelling at you? Because I won't."

"Oh, I know. You don't have to. Just say yes before you go on?"

Steve had stopped yelling at him after that, too busy kissing him. They fucked right there on their kitchen floor, and Steve bitched about it the whole next day when his knees hurt. It was perfect.

Eddie wants their honeymoon to be just as perfect. But even though his uncle pitched in as much as he could, their wedding ate up what little savings they had. So instead of going to a beach somewhere and enjoying the sight of his husband in nothing but his swim trunks and lathering his gorgeous skin in sunscreen, they stayed home.

"Come on, it's not that bad. You know us. We wouldn't have left the hotel room anyway." Steve tries to cheer him up as Eddie sulks on their bed, wiggling his eyebrows in the way he knows makes Eddie laugh every time. It has the desired effect when Eddie snorts, but the thought of letting Steve down still lingers on his mind.

"Seriously, Eds. I know we don't have much right now, but we can always go on vacation together later. Right now, I really want to enjoy some quality time with my husband. So could you please tell him to stop moping?"

It's said with a teasing smile, so Eddie knows that Steve isn't really annoyed with him. But he's right, this is their honeymoon, even if they have to spend it at home. He shouldn't sit around and mope. He's failing at being a husband. He should probably prepare himself for the inevitable moment when Steve realizes that too and asks him for a divorce. Maybe they can at least stay friends. The thought hurts, a pang in his chest that he knows has nothing on how much the real thing would hurt. Like a supernova imploding in his chest, a black hole that would suck the life out of him. But he would try anyway. Not right away, but maybe someday, because Eddie can't imagine a life without Steve in it, even if it won't be the way he hoped it would be —

"I see you spiraling from here, Eddie."

Steve's voice is soft, as is his touch, as he cups Eddie's cheek with the palm of his hand. When Eddie looks up into his eyes, they are soft as well, filled with nothing but love. They look exactly the same as they did when Steve said "I do.” Just before he kissed Eddie with so much tenderness that Eddie could feel it in his toes.

"I just want to make you happy, Stevie. I don't want to disappoint you."

It's painfully honest, but they both worked hard at being honest with each other. Even when they screw up or when they think it might hurt the other. Honesty is the foundation on which they built their relationship, along with trust, respect, and, of course, love. And fantastic sex.

Steve smiles at him, and something about the look on his face actually brings tears to Eddie's eyes and his heart clenches in his chest. Fuck. He never thought you could love someone so much that it physically hurts until he met Steve. "I know, baby. I know. Wanna know a secret?"

Eddie hums and presses a small kiss to Steve's palm. Steve's thumb reaches up to gently stroke his cheekbones, wiping away the wetness that has begun to gather. "You make me happy every day in so many ways."

Steve kisses the tender skin under Eddie's eye, first left, then right. "When I wake up in the morning, way before you, sleepyhead, and you always kiss me, even when you're not awake yet."

He kisses Eddie's nose next, adding a little nip to the tip that makes Eddie smile. "When you text me throughout the day, just to share your thoughts and hear mine. Just to show me you were thinking about me."

Next, Steve's lips find Eddie's forehead, lingering, pressing his love into Eddie's skin, wanting it to get through Eddie's thick skull. "When you come home after a long shift, tiptoeing through the apartment, and making a ruckus anyway because you couldn't be quiet to save your life. And you slide into bed next to me, wrap me up in your arms, kiss the side of my face, and tell me you love me.”

Finally, Steve kisses him on the lips, first taking his upper lip between his own, then his lower, before slowly dragging his tongue along the seam. Eddie opens his mouth and Steve's tongue slips in, just like that, just a tease, not as a prelude to anything, but because he can. Because what's Eddie's is his and what's Steve's is Eddie's. Everything he has and everything he is belongs to Steve. His husband.

"You made me the happiest man in the world when you asked me to marry you. When you said yes in front of our friends, our family." Steve whispers in the minimal space between their lips, and Eddie sniffles, too happy to be embarrassed.

"I love you, Stevie. So goddamn much." Another kiss, as gentle as the last.

Steve pulls away, both hands cupping Eddie's face, his thumbs wiping away the last of the tears. "I love you too. So how about we start with the whole honeymoon business, huh?"

"What do you have in mind?"

Steve's smile is sweet, innocent, but Eddie knows his husband well enough to see the gleam in his eyes. He's in for a treat, his stomach fluttering in anticipation.

"Well," Steve begins, letting go of Eddie's face to tap his chin, "I thought we'd take our mattress into the living room, put it in front of the TV and put on Lord of the Rings. Extended Edition." The words sound like music to his ears, the perfect way to spend the day in his book, but it's hardly a gift for the two of them.

Steve is not finished, however. "That's 686 minutes. Wanna show me how many times you can make me come in 11 hours?"

Standing up so fast he almost knocks Steve over, Eddie pulls Steve into a deep, heated kiss. "Marry me, Steve."

Steve laughs. "I already did, stupid. I take it you like the idea?"

"I love it. Almost as much as you." They kiss again, unable to keep their hands off each other.

Eddie wonders if the impromptu blowjob that follows on their bed can be added to the final count at the end of the day. If so, it's nine times. Not bad at all, if he says so himself.

Steve seems to agree as they cuddle on the couch, both naked, satiated and sleepy, their legs intertwined and Steve's head resting on Eddie's chest, their mattress beyond saving ("Good thing the new one gets delivered tomorrow.").

"Are you happy, Stevie?"

"Never been happier in my life, Mr. Munson-Harrington."

[plistommy]

I always love a jealous tommy fic. There's so much to explore there. Did he and steve "practice" when they were younger? How does he feel now seeing steve almost blatantly hanging off of another man (eddie or billy, or both hehe)? It's so delicious that tommy in canon obviously assumed steve would always be His, that he was bound to be asshole king steve with tommy forver, and then steve went and changed. Replaced him with someone else. Discarded him. I love when it's so obvious that tommy didnt even maybe respect steve as a person, just the roll steve "the hair" harrington was and now, seeing steve be allowed to just be himself, shamelessly, with another man must make tommy's blood boil. He missed his chance

Tommy felt like he would puke.

There Steve was, laughing so loudly and sweetly with Billy Hargrove and Eddie Munson on both sides of him, looking at him with such loving eyes that Tommy would love to rip them off and spit on them.

The three of them were hanging at their schools parking lot, Steve perched on top of his beemer as the other two leaned on it. The freak had clearly made some type of joke, because Steve was letting out a ’You’re so funny, Eds!’ as he tried to catch his breath.

The nickname made Tommy fume with rage.

Eds? What the actual fuck was Tommy hearing?

Four years back he and Steve would make fun of that guy, even bullying him a little when he started to wear those freaky ass clothes. People rumored him being into Satan or some shit and Steve and Tommy totally bought it as they laughed at him in the hallways.

And now Steve was throwing himself at the guy as he leaned towards him, hand lingering a little bit too long on the older man’s shoulder.

Tommy saw how Billy, the asshole who had dropped him almost immediately once he got to know Steve, moved his hand to rest on Steve’s thigh in a friendly way from other curious eyes, but Tommy could see through the bullshit.

He knows what those three are. What they do together.

They aren’t just friendly buddies who come together about sports and music and talk about hitting on girls.

They’re together. Partners of some sort which makes Tommy fucking sick in his stomach.

He knew Eddie was into guys the second he saw the freak, Billy probably too, but he wasn’t that sure.

It was only confirmed when he saw the way Billy looked at Steve the first time they showered together after PE.

Everyone looked at Steve once that way. With desire and want.

Wanting to have a taste of The Steve Harrington. Of the King. The rich pretty boy with the charm no one had.

Tommy knew it the best, because that’s how he had felt.

He had felt it when him and Steve had kissed for the first time, hands lingering on each other’s body when Steve had carefully leaned down and put those soft lips onto his.

Or when he had fucked Steve the first time. Those eyes so huge as they stared up at him when Tommy had clumsily lined his dick into the other’s waiting hole. And oh did those eyes go huge as Steve took him in so well, like no one has after him. How he had begged for Tommy’s name, told him he loved him.

And Tommy had loved him back.

Still fucking did.

But then he had fucked it up. Played with the other’s feelings, fucking up with his head which eventually made Steve leave him, his best friend, for fucking Nancy Wheeler. Things had broken that little head of Steve’s too many times and he had finally shattered, showing that sensitive and humane side of him that Tommy knew he was always hiding behind his King Steve persona.

The side he had hated. Because he liked it when Steve was mean.

He blamed the hits Jonathan Byers had given him.

That maybe those made a screw inside Steve’s head loose because how could he ever even think about leaving Tommy like that? After everything?

But he had.

And it made Tommy furious. Sad. Jealous.

Because that should’ve been him up there with Steve right now. Holding onto the boy's thigh and maybe kiss a little if no one was around.

Tommy would give him all the attention he needed. Would’ve fucked him so good no one else would’ve mattered. Steve would’ve never even thought about spreading his legs to Eddie Munson or Billy fucking Hargrove.

Just for Tommy.

”What’s up your ass?” Carol asked, focused on putting her disgustingly sweet lip gloss on, but not enough to not catch Tommy’s suddenly grumpy vibes.

”Nothing.” Tommy groaned out and took a bite of his sandwich.

It tasted bitter now.

Carol brushed it off, going back to chatting with Tina who was sitting beside her, oblivious to whatever Tommy was doing. Not like she really cared. Tommy was sure they’d break up soon, again.

Not that he’d mind.

He glanced back towards Steve and gritted his teeth when he saw the trio start to get in Steve’s car, all happy and smiley because they had ’so much fun’ together.

Ugh.

He didn’t miss how Munson patted Steve’s ass softly when he was bending down to the passenger seat and wait… what the fuck?

Was Billy fucking driving Steve’s car?

Steve never let anyone else drive it. He was too afraid to. Never trusted anyone else with it because his Daddy would get mad if it had even a small scratch on it.

Tommy never drove it.

And that pissed him the hell off, because Billy Hargrove of all people can?

The man with three fucking speeding tickets?

His blood was boiling.

He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the car.

Not even when his eyes locked with those big brown ones that suddenly looked worried when Tommy didn’t look away.

[suspiciouslackofclowns]

I’m having a lot of thoughts about super protective Steve right now, but I’m also having a lot of writer’s block so I don’t have the energy to actually set the whole scene.

I need Billy and Steve delivering pizzas and snacks to The Party (including the Corroded Coffin guys) to wherever they’re holding their campaign. Maybe somewhere in the woods because it’s aesthetic and the weather is nice, like out by Castle Byers.

The kids are fine with Harringroveson for the most part by now, though a couple of them (namely Dustin) don’t always get along the best with Billy. He tries really hard so it’s getting better, but progress is slow. He’s still detested by the Corroded Coffin guys (namely Gareth).

I love the misunderstood character trope for some reason. I love the idea of other characters hating Billy’s image, the idea of him, but when they get to know him as more than the asshole jock they peg him as, they realize he isn’t all that bad.

Maybe Gareth makes one too many comments about not wanting Billy there. Calls him an asshole and provokes him with the intention of validating his own perception of the blond. Maybe even goes as far as to insinuate that the only reason Eddie or Steve are with him is because of his looks. Something mean that’s said in a teasing tone, but hits just as hard despite it.

Billy doesn’t react with white hot rage like everyone’s expecting. He turns away and walks through the woods back to the car with a look of shame on his face, and Steve immediately jogs to catch up with him, lacing their fingers together as they weave through the trees.

Eddie stands there anxiously, wondering if he should follow them or if it’ll overwhelm his already upset boyfriend. He turns back to the group and looks pointedly at Gareth. Not angry. Just disappointed.

Which some could argue is worse.

“C’mon, man,” he sighs, gesturing vaguely. “You couldn’t be cordial until they left? He didn’t even do anything.”

“Made ‘em leave faster, didn’t it?”

Gareth’s tone is less sure than before, because after all, he isn’t a malicious person at his core. He’s clearly at odds with himself about hurting Billy’s feelings — he didn’t even think it was something that could happen.

Eddie just shakes his head and sighs.

“Well, you’ve poked the bear, so now shit’s gonna get testy.”

“What, like—“ Gareth gulps and his eyes blow wide. “Like Hargrove’s gonna kick my ass or something?”

At the words, Eddie laughs. Crosses his arms and sobers when he hears twigs crunch in the distance, a set of footsteps approaching once again.

“Not Billy,” Eddie whispers.

As if on queue, Steve emerges from between the trees. His jaw is clenched and his shoulders are squared. He gets eyes on Gareth before anything else, which has him scurrying up out of his seat on the floor. Ready to bolt.

Steve stops beside Eddie. Shrugs his hand off of his shoulder when Eddie sets it there and points an accusatory finger at Gareth. The movement makes him flinch even though he’s still a handful of feet away.

“I dunno what your fucking problem is, but you don’t say shit like that about my boyfriend when I’m around, you hear me?” Steve seethes. He eyes Gareth up and down like he’s sizing him up before he simply tsks and shakes his head. “You can find your way home in the dark for all I care, so don’t bother asking for a ride when the game’s over.”

He stares until Gareth nods, at which point some of the rage relaxes out of him. Only slightly.

Then he turns to Eddie.

“Get on the radio when you’re done?” he says much more softly. “I’m gonna go ahead and take him home.”

“Is he alright?”

“Yeah, but you know how he is.”

Eddie nods and cracks a smile.

“Big ol’ softie.”

“Mhmm.”

Steve mirrors his expression. Leans in for a quick kiss, then casts Gareth a final glare before he takes his leave.

Once he’s gone, Eddie huffs a laugh and intertwines his fingers over the back of his head.

“Jesus. Give him a while, he’ll get over it,” he dismisses. Glances over at Gareth, who looks about as startled as a mouse that’s been dropped into a snake pit. “Maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“I dunno, you could probably speed up the process by making Billy a cake or something.” When Gareth furrows his eyebrows, Eddie shrugs and laughs again. “I’ve never pissed Steve off that bad, but I have hurt Billy’s feelings before. My boy loves him some chocolate cake.”

There’s a beat of silence. Then two.

They wind up having to wrap the game up faster than they anticipated, because the nice weather becomes a drizzle which becomes a pour.

Steve goes against his word and gives Gareth a ride home.

The next day, he’s standing on their porch with a Tupperware container full of chocolate cupcakes that say srry 4 b-ing an a-hole in blue icing on top.

Billy immediately shoves one into his mouth and Steve reluctantly forgives Gareth, meanwhile Eddie is laughing his ass off because he didn’t really expect him to take his suggestion seriously.