#judgy steve my beloved

[livwritesstuff]

“Steve,” Eddie mutters, “Stop it, you’re staring.”

Steve is staring, eyes fixed on a family sitting in a cluster of seats two rows ahead of them on the commuter rail — a mom and dad with three kids, the oldest no older than ten, the youngest four or five. They’re not too much older than Steve and Eddie’s own kids (who are seven, five, and two), and by the looks of the princess dresses and mouse ears and branded souvenir bags they’re also on their way home from the afternoon Disney on Ice show at the TD Garden.

“That mom,” Steve says, addressing Eddie even though his gaze doesn’t shift away from the unsuspecting targets of his relentless judginess, “is upset because her kids are whining and misbehaving, but they asked for food and she said no, and they said they were bored and she ignored them.”

In Steve’s defense (not that Eddie would actually say any of this to him; he doesn’t need the egging on), his assessment isn’t exactly incorrect. All three of those kids are either colossally melting down or just on the verge of doing so, and both of their parents are mostly ignoring them.

“God, and they’re gonna grow up learning they can’t rely on their parents for help,” Steve continues, “I just...I just don’t get why we had to go through all those evals and interviews and home visits and shit before we were deemed suitable parents when any idiot straight couple can just have a kid with no regulation whatsoever.”

“Steve,” Eddie says through gritted teeth as he glances at their own daughters to make sure they aren’t eavesdropping (they’re not – Moe and Robbie are sitting by the window and playing with the toys they’d gotten to pick out during intermission, and Hazel is halfway to asleep in Steve’s lap), “My love — little pitchers.”

Steve only shrugs, but he does drop the subject for the rest of the train ride.

The universe must hate Eddie (or love Steve) because that family gets off at the same station as them. Hazel is completely sacked out by then, and Steve had taken her while Eddie manned the older two and they’re busy running ahead of him to the car so there’s literally nothing he can do when Steve detours away from them to follow a few yards behind the other family.

When he finally makes his way back over to them, it’s with a gleeful grin on his face.

“I knew it.” Steve says with a gleeful grin, “I knew they had to be shitty parents.”

Eddie eyebrows flew up, because – seriously, the fucking audacity on this guy.

“You know what I always say – you can either be a good parent or have a clean car, and that car was fucking spotless.”

“Steve Harrington.”

[spunky-89]

Do You Remember (Part Four)

A/N: Okay this is the last part to my ‘Do you remember’ series. It wraps up this section as well as giving a little insight into the reader. It will also feed into the next part of the overarching series.

Series Masterlist

Word Count: 1100+

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You were shaken from your daydream by arms wrapping around your waist. You realized quickly you'd been up all night as you could see the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon. "What're you doing up? I usually have to drag you out of bed this early. And that's with loads of groaning and complaining." Steve remarked. "I couldn't sleep last night, so I came out here to think. I guess I stayed up all night." You said, just now feeling the exhaustion. "Did you get any sleep?" Steve asked. "Uh, no. Not really." You answered. "Well let’s get you back to bed then,” Steve said, picking you, you wrapped your legs and arms around him like a koala. He carried you back into your bedroom, laid you down next to your sleeping boyfriend, and tucked you under the blankets before leaving you to get a few hours of sleep. Within a moment Bucky had curled around you like a suffocating mass of limbs. You didn’t mind, however, and fell asleep with a smile on your face in minutes. ---------

“Come on you two, it’s passed noon.” Steve sighed as he tried to get you and Bucky out of bed. “Don’t care,” You mumbled. “Wha’ she said,” Bucky murmured in agreement. “Look, I let you two sleep this long. You have to get up at some point.” Steve tried. He’d been attempting to rouse you both for 10 minutes and was thus far unsuccessful. When he had come back from his morning run he figured he’d let you sleep in a little as he knew you were up late, however, he wasn’t about to let you sleep all day. “Why tho, can’t we just take a lazy day.” You whined, looking at him with puppy dog eyes. “No, no no no. Don’t pull that on me.” He said, his voice firm. But you saw it, his resolve was cracking. “But Stebe, pwease?” You pouted, making your eyes extra wide and jutting out your bottom lip. “No, come on. Bucky help me out here pal.” Steve asked. “Hmmm, no. I’m perfectly comfortable.” Bucky said into your neck where his face was nestled. You patted the bed and looked up at him as you burrowed further in the blankets. Steve threw his hands up and sighed. “Fine! Fine, you win.” “Yay!” you cheered lowly, sleep still fogging your mind. You watched as Steve shed his shoes and jeans as he crawled into the bed next to you. “You both suck.” “Language!” Both you and Bucky quipped. “Oh so you can’t get out of bed but you’re awake enough to be assholes.” “Always my love. Now shush, we need more sleep.” You said as you put a finger over Steve’s lips and rested your head in the crook of his arm. He sighed but settled in to nap with his two lazy lovers. ------------------- It was hours later and you and Bucky had woken up, but still refused to leave bed other than for food and potty breaks. You had flipped open your laptop and started going through pictures with the boys. Mostly looking back on your time with them, but eventually coming across pictures of your family and videos of all the various funny moments of your childhood. You narrated them to your boys and they even piped in with stories from their childhood and even some of the happier moments when they were overseas during WWII. The three of you spent what remained of the day reminiscing on your lives, both when you were together and apart. You stopped on one picture and froze momentarily. It was of your whole family at your sister’s wedding. It was such a happy day. One that everyone was shocked that it came before your own. Ever since you were a little girl you had fantasied about your dream wedding with your prince charming. Your family had teased you relentlessly about being the only one who was without a date for the event. “Wow, that’s a lot of you for just the close family,” Steve remarked. “Yeah, it used to just be the ten of us but obviously the family started growing. Lia got married first, straight out of college. Then Zach has had on again off again relationships but he’s been with this girl for a while. We all have bets on how long it’ll take him to propose. Then Tami has been with her husband for nearly 15 years now. They were coming up on 12 years when they finally decided to tie the knot.” You explained. “We were all very close when we were young. This is my mom’s side of the family. We don’t really talk about dad’s. But it was always the ten of us. Weekly game nights, meals out together all the time, vacations. Everything. We started to drift apart once the four of us kids got older, but we eventually started coming back together after a while. It was hard for Tami and I as we are both very different from the rest of our family, but we’ve learned to pick our battles.” “What’d’ya mean?” Bucky asked. It was innocent enough, but it made you edgy. “Uh, well we just have different views on a lot of things.” You said vaguely. You didn’t want to get into detail. Your family was very judgy and a stereotypical privileged white family. You and your sister were the first two to break out of the mold that your family created, and it was not without a serious amount of backlash. You were eventually able to convert your mom as well as a tiny improvement with your grandmother, but for the most part, they just gave you shit for being different. The boys noticed your sudden discomfort and dropped the topic. They were very curious to know more about your family though, so you gladly took them on a trip down memory lane. You even ended up reaching out to your mom for a few more pictures you knew the boys would enjoy. You ordered take out and made a night of it. You told them all about your family. Their quirks and passions. The funny moments where someone fell or hurt themselves being clumsy (one of your favorite memories was when your father fell out of a canoe on a family trip). You told them the sad stuff to. Losing pets that were beloved in the family, and even the rough and now non-existent relationship with your dad’s side of the family. Before you knew it, you’d pretty much told them your whole life story. You never realized how little they knew of your past when you knew so much more about theirs. The night drew to a close when you all realized it was the wee hours of the morning, and Steve threatened you both about waking up before noon tomorrow. And as you slept between them, they started to wonder. If your family was so important to you and such a big part of your life, why hadn’t you told them about your relationship?

[livwritesstuff]

Steve might not be king of Hawkins High anymore, but he gives me king of the PTA vibes and you don’t wanna piss him off because he’ll make your life a living hell.

This 100%

I think it'd be so funny if he was on the PTA, but I think it's even funnier if he isn't because it would definitely drive the other PTA parents completely insane. Obviously they want Steve to join because he's Steve (and a few of them also know for a fact that there're other parents who haven't joined solely because Steve hasn't).

He's still involved with the school though when he can, and while he may not have joined the PTA, he will show up to every budget allocation meetings armed with all kinds of empirical data to support why they can’t just funnel all their money into high school sports.

He is so unafraid to become an absolute living nightmare when he has to.

[livwritesstuff]

inspired by a conversation i walked past during my commute this morning

Eddie is outside when Steve arrives home from work, sitting on the front porch and waiting for their daughters’ bus to drop them off from school.

“Hey!” Eddie grins as Steve makes his way up the steps, “You’re home early.”

“Last client of the day canceled,” he replies, and he grabs Eddie’s hands to pull him to his feet and into a long kiss.

“I love you,” Steve said when he pulled away, snaking his arms around Eddie’s waist to hold him close, “So much.”

“I love you too, Stevie,” Eddie laughed, “Something happen today?”

“Not really. There’s just this guy – the guy who started at my practice last month.”

“The one you don’t like?” Eddie clarifies.

“Ed – I hate him. He came in all smug and smiling today and looked so thrilled to be there, and someone was like dude, what’s your deal? And he had the audacity to say, my wife is home with two sick kids, so…”

Eddie made a face.

“Like, don’t sound so fuckin’ proud of yourself, man,” Steve continued, shaking his head, “Whatever. Anyways, I looked at his schedule and – get this – he had one client today. At three in the afternoon. So he spent the entire day lounging around the office doing jack shit while his wife was home with a sick baby and toddler.”

“What a prick.”

“Right? Anyways, I just want to make sure you know how much I appreciate you and how you stay home with our ridiculous children while I go to work, and that I’m thinking about you guys all day, and all I ever really want is to be home with you.”

“I know you do,” Eddie tells him, because he totally does. He knows it in the way Steve’s week is about as short as it’s allowed to be, and in the way he always checks in on Eddie when he gets home to feel out the day he’d had and to give him a “night off” if he needs one.

Steve nods, and then he adds, “When I was leaving I made a whole point of saying, like, headed home to spend time with my husband and children who I adore more than anything.”

“Of course you did.”

“Kind of forgot he’s also a licensed and practicing therapist so he totally knew I was being passive aggressive.”

[livwritesstuff]

“Papa has to put five dollars in the jar,” Hazel proudly announces the very moment she and Steve arrive home from her evening dance class.

“Jesus Christ,” Eddie groans his place at the stove where he’s cooking dinner, “What’d you do this time?”

The Jar is actually a repurposed animal crackers container – the big plastic kind shaped like a bear. Most people think it’s a swear jar which, honestly, Steve and Eddie are fine with because that’s probably better than the reality of the situation – that they (it’s mostly Steve, actually) need a system to keep in check the petty fights they get into with practically everyone they know.

“I just–” Steve starts, and then he rolls his eyes, “I don’t get why some people have kids if they clearly don’t want to be part of their kids’ lives.”

“Little pitchers,” Eddie reminds him – as in little pitchers have big ears, as in their children hear everything they say, whether they want them to or not.

Steve ignores him.

“So her class was about to wrap up – they had, like, five minutes left – and they all came out of the room looking all excited and they said they wanted to show us their recital dance so far because they’re almost done learning it.”

“Sure,” Eddie comments.

“And this one kid is, like, rushing to put her shoes and coat on over her little tutu thing because her mom’s waiting in the car outside, and she goes to get her, and then, like, five minutes later she comes back inside in tears because her mom didn’t want to come in.”

Eddie shakes his head, equally unimpressed.

“Anyways, they do their little routine and – Ed, they were so excited, and they tripped over each other the entire time and none of them know what they’re doing and it’s so fucking cute, man. I have no idea how anyone wouldn’t want to watch that.”

“Right,” Eddie said slowly, because he knows Steve well enough to start piecing together where The Jar might come into play. 

“So when it was over,” Steve continues, “I walked the kid to her mom’s car and I told her that she missed a good show and that her daughter very obviously wanted her there.”

“Steve.”

“I really don’t think I did anything wrong,” Steve defended.

“Cough it up, big boy. Jar.”

[livwritesstuff]

At forty-five years old, there’s one day out of the entire calendar year that Eddie dreads like none other.

It’s not his birthday, surprising as that is, and it’s not tax day either (though only because Steve, the angel that he is, elected to take charge of their insane finances ages ago so Eddie doesn't even think about it).

No, it's parent-teacher conference day at his children's school.

Eddie wants to have a strong word with whoever's idea it was to have every meeting take place in a single day. Maybe that shit works for the freaks with only one kid, but he and Steve have three hellraisers in the elementary school, so for them it usually goes like this:

Kid 1: Please help us figure out why she is inciting riots on the playground

Kid 2: Your child is taking up class time getting into complex moral debates with the teacher’s aid

Kid 3: She's a pleasure to have in class — that being said, does she ever talk?

– all within the span of 45 minutes.

Kind of whiplash-y, in Eddie's opinion.

Steve is totally in his element for that shit though. He’s good at distinguishing between when their kid is the problem (which is……..often) and when it’s a reflection of something bigger, and when that's the case, he gets to tap into the snarky, mean-girl side of him that doesn’t come out all that often anymore..

Steve, to Hazel's teacher: I don’t know what to tell you. Hazel makes all kinds of noise at home. We’ll talk to her, but maybe this also warrants a conversation about what’s going on in the classroom that’s making her feel like she can’t when she’s here.

It's sexy as all hell in Eddie’s opinion, or so he attempts to communicate to his husband the literal second they're out of the school when he tries to shove him bodily into the backseat of their car without extracting his hands from Steve’s back pockets.

Steve, managing to push Eddie off him for half a second: Dude – no fucking chance are we having car sex in the parking lot of our daughters’ elementary school. You’re crazy.

Eddie: *pauses to think about the layout of their town*

Eddie: Bet there’s no one in the lot for the cemetery.

Steve: No.

Steve: We can’t get cursed today. I’ve got shit to do.

Eddie: What about the hiking trails?

Steve:

Steve: Yeah, okay.

[livwritesstuff]

Something Eddie had learned during his and Steve’s past few years living in mid-western Massachusetts was that nobody parties harder than middle-aged suburbanites with their young children in the next room.

Sure, it’s a different kind of partying than what Eddie had participated in when he was younger, but still just as impressive, or so he's thinking as he stands in the crowded kitchen of a ridiculous McMansion decorated to the holiday nines, fancy IPA in hand (in a matte can and everything), four days before Christmas.

He's mingling.

Well, he’s kind of mingling. He’s had one eye on Steve, who is on the other side of the kitchen, pretty much the entire time, because Hazel, their youngest daughter, is sacked out and Steve is holding her in one arm as if she’s a newborn still and not a couple months past her first birthday like she really is (it’s providing Eddie with yet another reason he needs that kid to stop growing up, already, because he’ll never get tired of watching that man hold a baby).

Moe and Robbie are…honestly, Eddie doesn’t really know what all the kids get up to at these things. They are loud – and with an unending consistency that makes any silence deafening (and a telltale sign that some type of shit went down that they should probably check in on) – and occasionally one or two of them will barrel through the kitchen on some imaginary mission.

Eddie isn’t really even drinking. Steve is certainly doing enough for the both of them, and his way of getting himself into trouble with the other parents once he’s got a couple beers in him is entertaining enough for Eddie to not need alcohol to get through the night.

“Dude, fuckin’ Dan is making drinks,” Steve tells him early in the evening, “If he offers you a dirty Girl Scout, say no. He’s a father.”

“What the fuck is in that?”

“Vodka, creme de menthe, and chocolate whiskey.”

“Shit, that…actually sounds kind of good.”

“I know, but we’re declining in protest.”

Some time after that, Eddie ends up with Hazel. She’s awake and curiously mouthing at a peppermint cookie when Steve makes his way back to him.

“Lisa is mad at me I think,” he says as he sidles up behind Eddie, pressing himself against his back and wrapping an arm around his waist.

“Watch it, handsy,” Eddie warns him, “There’s children present. What did you do to Lisa?”

“All I said was that maybe the start of a recession isn’t the best time to buy a timeshare and suddenly I have a tone.”

“Well, what did you expect?”

Not even twenty five minutes later, Steve returns.

“Evan’s parents probably aren’t gonna invite us to their New Year’s party,” Steve tells him, with the tiniest slur to his voice that might have worried Eddie if he wasn’t also holding a very large bottle of water.

“Why?”

“I dunno, man. All I said was that the fourth Christmas tree might be compensating for something and it was like I said the Armageddon was coming.”

“Alright, I think it’s time for us to head out.”

[livwritesstuff]

So Steve obviously loves Valentine’s Day.

This didn’t ever come as a surprise to Eddie, and in the years between when they started dating and when their kids were born, it was something that never changed.

When Steve walked in the door fresh off the afternoon carpool route with their three daughters in tow and said, “Dude – I swear to god this has gotta be the best Valentine’s Day ever,” Eddie wasn’t exactly taken aback, more just unsure what could have happened so early in the day that had him this confident that V-Day of 2012 would be the best one ever.

“Why?” Eddie asked suspiciously.

“When I dropped off Ava, David invited me over to watch the basketball game,” he replies, still with a massive grin on his face even as their daughters dump their backpacks and jackets and shoes all over the ground instead of hanging them up like they should be doing.

Eddie made a face – David, one of their neighbors and an unfortunate addition to the elementary school carpool circuit, is notably a total fucking loser. 

He’s also obsessed with Steve (and not even in a gay way, which Eddie could at least understand – no, it’s in this weird, loser, ex-jock who peaked in high school kind of way).

“I know, right? I’m pretty sure he’s that fucking desperate for something to do tonight that isn’t his wife,” Steve continued.

“What’s wrong with his wife?”

“Ed, believe it or not, it gets even better.”

“Tell me,” Eddie demanded, finally getting that Steve’s got a whole-ass story for him.

“I’m going to, man, holy shit,” Steve shook his head as he stepped over the mess their kids left behind (because one of them would be corralling them all back downstairs to deal with their shit like they’re supposed to)

So Eddie listens as Steve launches into a retelling of the conversation he apparently had with David, who, predictably, acted like a total fucking loser about how Steve actually wanted to spend time with his family on Valentine’s Day.

“What does this have to do with his wife?” Eddie asked when Steve reached a stopping point, “Other than how incredibly sad it is for her.”

“Right – so get this. David ended up telling me that his wife is going out tonight with Chris, and I figured he meant Chris, like Christine, Liam’s mom, because I know they’re friends, but it’s not. It’s Chris, the divorced dad on the PTA, and apparently they hang out all the time.”

Eddie’s eyes widened as he pieced together what Steve was implying.

“No fucking way.”

“Right?!? And, look, you know I think cheating is wrong, but…I dunno, I really hope she has a fantastic Valentine’s Day.”