body-transformation-inspiration

[shares-a-vest]

Eddie might just be the dumbest person Steve has ever met. He's seriously sitting beside him as they remain stationary in the Beemer outside Family Video, mid-argument with Dustin insisting Suzie (of all people) isn't real.

Jesus fucking Christ.

“I do so have a girlfriend!” Dustin argues, jumping forward from his seat and jostling Steve's headrest.

He attempts to swat him away, but the kid just scoots to the middle of the backseat. Despite the fidgeting, he's being surprisingly neutral about the accusation (meaning he isn’t screeching back insults). Anyway, Steve's pissed enough on his behalf. And also ever-so-slightly annoyed that he's in love with an idiot.

How has Dustin not forced Eddie to talk with her on the phone? Jeez, the number of times he's shoved the phone in Steve's face while he has been at the Hendersons while Claudia yells about call charges to Utah. And the sheer amount of time Dustin actually spends talking about Suzie surely makes it impossible for it to be an elaborate lie. The kid is smart. But not that smart.

“Eddie...” Steve finally musters, even though he stops there.

He pinches his nose, certain that mere exposure to this argument is going to permanently rot his brain. And everyone thinks he's a dumbass of the group.

He shakes his head and looks at the store. Squinting, he can see Keith arguing with Robin as they both flail about with VHSs in their hands. He wishes he was in there, refereeing their pretentious movie snobbery as they argue about boring black-and-white movies from a hundred years ago. That would be easy.

“Still don't think Suze is real, dude,” Eddie shrugs and cracks his knuckles, seemingly to punctuate his argument.

“So you think I'm as pathetic as Jan Brady?” Dustin seethes, his voice up-ticking at every word until he's doing that annoying shrill-talking that makes Steve's ears bleed. “Eventing George Fucking Glass out of thin air to save the embarrassment of being single?”

“Stop swearing, dude!” Steve chastises, holding out a frustrated hand in Dustin's direction in hopes of getting him to exercise some volume control. They are in the confines of a car for Christ's sake.

“That's it,” Dustin says, abruptly opening the car door as he gathers up his backpack. “We're going to Cerebro.”

He opens the passenger door and begins tugging on Eddie's sleeve, eliciting incoherent grumbles.

“Cerebro, what? No! Just call her!” Steve yells across his boyfriend, who just yanks his sleeve back from kid's grip.

“No!” Dustin insists, going for Eddie's wrist now.

“What the fuck is Cerebro?” Eddie scoffs, extending an arm to block their young friend from laying another hand on him. “What, are you secretly Professor X, or something?”

The shit-eating smirk Eddie makes is enough for Steve to remove his keys from the ignition and exit the car, resigning himself to walking all the way to fucking Cerebro because Eddie has gone from being a total dumbass to a full-blown jerk in one fell swoop. He waves his hand to beckon Eddie out of the car, fully intending on leaving it parked outside Family Video (which will probably draw questions from Robin, who’ll act like Steve’s missing). But putting his boyfriend in his place is the priority right now.

“Where are we going?” Eddie asks, confused but never the less stepping out of the Beemer and slamming the door.

“Highest point in Hawkins,” Steve grumbles. “Come on pea-brain.”

“You mean Weathertop? That’s halfway across town from here!” Eddie complains as they both begin to follow along as Dustin rushes off far ahead of them.

Before Steve knows it, they are on their way up the hill towards Cerebro, the highest and clearest point in Hawkins. They are all breathless, both unprepared for the walk and exhausted with sheer annoyance at each other after the near-wordless trek, speaking only to bicker about the quickest route to Weathertop.

“Steve?” Eddie says, sickly sweet as he turns around and extends theatrically limp arms with a pout. “Can you carry me?”

Dustin is far enough away to not hear them, already at the top of hill examining his communication device.

“Nope,” Steve replies, smacking his lips at the ‘P’ and placing his hands on his hips. 

The gesture seems to make Eddie chuckle, so he shoots him a glare that promptly shuts him up as he walks straight past him, intentionally bumping into him on the way.

“Stevie,” Eddie repeats, this time cooing, somehow sounding both flirtatious and apologetic.

“I’m annoyed with you,” he shoots back and slows his pace.

He stops, folds his arms and turns to Eddie who looks like a puppy that just got kicked. But it's still likely a part of Eddie's sucking-up-without-actually-apologising routine. Steve narrows his eyes and pouts. That does the trick. Eddie creeps forward, looks around presumably to make sure Dustin isn't watching and snakes an arm around his middle.

“I didn’t think it would go this far!” he laughs, brushing a hand through Steve's hair. “Sorry I ruined our date night, sugarplum.”

“You hurt his feelings,” he retorts, suppressing a satisfied hum at the feeling of Eddie's hand in his hair.

“Serves him right for being an annoying twerp,” Eddie offers, raising an eyebrow. “Besides, can he stop asking me if I have a girlfriend! Of course, I do!”

He thrusts his hips forward but Steve recoils (even if he feels his cheeks burn).

“Not funny, dude.”

Now it’s Eddie’s turn to dramatically pout. He’s even worse than Steve suspects he looks. He steps back and begins twisting his hair up in a makeshift ponytail with his hand, puffing out a breath. Steve wordlessly reaches into his back pocket and produces the communal scrunchie - a forest green one that satisfies Max, El, Robin and Eddie whenever necessary. Eddie takes it and chews at his bottom lip as he ties his hair up, avoiding eye contact.

He always looks so pretty with his hair up. Steve shakes his head and continues up the hill.

“Hey, Henderson,” Eddie calls, staggering up the last of the incline. He pats Dustin on the shoulder. “Dude, I’m sorry.”

Dustin looks between them for a moment. His eyes narrow before he snaps back to the task at hand.

“Nope. Steve told you to apologise, I can tell.”

“Jesus Christ!” Steve laments, slumping down onto the grass and hanging his head in his hands.

Forget a date night. This stupidity is just going to ping-pong back and forward until they wither away on Weathertop and Robin will have to send out a recovery operation. There’s a thud and he turns to find Dustin sitting in defeat on the ground, radio in his hand.

“It isn’t working,” he says, more confused than disappointed.

Steve looks up at Eddie and they have a silent back and forward before Eddie rolls his eyes and couches down.

“I’m sorry, Dustin,” he says earnestly.

Dustin shrugs.

“I just wanted you to talk to Suzie.”

“We can go to my house and you can call her,” Steve suggests, chastising himself for not offering a solution that didn’t involve walking halfway across town sooner.

“Don’t worry about it. You two can go on your date, or whatever,” Dustin says nonchalantly as he lowers his contraption to the ground.

Eddie makes some kind of incoherent gargle of words before standing up and turning away.

“What?” Steve shrieks, digging his fingers into the grass.

Their young friend sighs as he looks out over their surroundings. The sun is setting now.

“I know the two of you are dating," Dustin explains as if it's something they should know. “Have for months actually.”

He stands and begins separating pieces of Cerebro according to size like he hasn't just delivered an earth-shattering revelation.

“Shit,” is all Eddie says, continuing to be so very helpful. He twists at a loose strand of hair with one hand and reaches for a cigarette with the other.

“You two aren’t subtle at all. Pretty gross and obvious, really,” Dustin chuckles before his face drops. “I mean, it isn’t gross that you are two dudes just… Lovey-dovey gross stuff.”

Steve barks a laugh. He’s one to talk.

“You could have told me!” he continues, sounding a little hurt. “Oh and everybody else knows too.”

“What!” Steve yells and Dustin practically falls to the ground in a fit of laughs.

Eddie starts giggling and Steve looks up. They just shrug at each other, accepting their fate of being annoyed to death by the kids. When he recovers, Dustin sits upright, wiping tears from his eyes as he continues pulling the broken Cerebro apart.

“I must warn you,” he begins, shoving the smaller pieces into his backpack. “The guys have been taking bets about when you two got together and who will crack and blab about it first. Now, I didn’t participate, of course.”

He places a hand on his heart and gives them that condescending look he gets when he is, one hundred percent, in on the stupid shenanigans with the rest of the Loser Squad. He hums and looks around, gradually raising his eyebrows, his cap tipping upwards as he smirks.

“Y’know, this would be a romantic spot…” he starts.

Steve shakes his head, “Nope, no, no, no! Absolutely not.”

He waves his hands around to emphasise his point, but it is lost on Dustin, who only laughs. Great, the little shit wasn’t actually fessing up to show his support, it was merely a means to opening another dimension of teasing. And he wasn't about to enter into receiving relationship advice from the kid either.

He looks to Eddie for some kind of assistance, only to find his (now not-so-secret) boyfriend smiling and twirling a strand of hair across his face, barely shielding his too-cute dimples. Steve can’t help but feel giddy at the idea of coming back here for a quiet picnic.

Dustin groans and promptly shoves the broken-up aerial in Steve’s lap making him jump.

“So, you're okay with me dating Mom?” Eddie says, a wolfish smile creeping across his face.

Okay, the bitchiness and malfunctioning is over. Back to utter stupidity.

“Please! Do not say that!” Dustin shrieks, pinching his nose.

Eddie laughs maniacally in the direction of the sunny heavens for far too long. Steve playfully slaps him on the arm and points to his assigned pile of parts. He needs to help. Especially if he was still wanting to go on the date he had to make up for mildly ruining.

As they make their way back down the hill with Dustin’s invention split between Eddie and Steve, he starts on about what might be wrong with Cerebro. Steve isn’t a scientist by any stretch, but he’s sure it is broken from being left out here during an almost-apocalypse. Eddie juggles around the items in his hands enough to link arms with Steve, leaning in close.

“Wanna come back here for a moonlight picnic?” he offers in a flirtatious version of his Dungeons and Dorks voice that makes Steve shiver.

“M’kay,” he smiles back, cheeks flushing as he manoeuvres to hold his hand.

“Ew!” Dustin chimes, scrunching up his nose for just a moment before he smiles and runs for it down the embankment. “On second thought, I shouldn’t have said anything!”