Chapter Text
"I just don't get it," Steve says again. "Why do you want to spend your free time being reminded of all the monsters and death and nightmare shit we've seen?"
"Because this–" Eddie jabs a finger at the stack of horror videos on the counter, waiting for Steve to ring them up– "doesn't remind me of any of that. This stuff is just make-believe. It’s like Halloween costumes, dressing up as monsters to make a mockery of the real thing.”
Steve just looks at him. Sometimes Eddie starts talking so fast, it makes Steve feel stupid. It doesn’t help that he keeps getting distracted staring at Eddie’s lips.
“It’s cathartic, Steve,” Eddie says. “It’s comforting to go through the motions of being scared when you know you’re not in any real danger.” He grins, and Steve’s chest does that thing it does when Eddie grins. “And it gets your heart rate up.”
“I can think of better ways to get my heart rate up,” Steve grumbles, but he’s smiling, too. He starts scanning the videos.
“Oh, I bet you can, big boy,” says Eddie. He reaches out to take the stack of movies as Steve slides them across the counter toward him. Steve doesn’t take his hand away fast enough, so Eddie’s hand comes down on top of Steve’s. The metal of his rings is cold, but his skin is warm. Steve still doesn’t pull away. They stand there like that, hands touching, for the length of time it takes for Steve’s heart to beat twice, so loudly he’s sure Eddie must hear it.
Then Eddie scoops the videos out from under Steve’s hand. “I’ll bring these by later,” he says.
“What, you think you’re going to watch them at my house?”
Eddie leans across the counter, giving Steve the full-on puppy dog eyes, sticking out his bottom lip like he wants Steve to bite it. Steve maybe gets a little dizzy staring at that lip, which is probably why he misses the first part of what Eddie is saying. “...so much nicer than mine, and your couch is so comfortable, pretty please?”
“Jesus, okay,” Steve says. He means it as a directive to himself, like Jesus, okay, calm down, stop thinking about pinning him down on your couch, but Eddie, of course, takes it as acquiescence.
“Spectacular!” Eddie exclaims with a Judd Nelson fist-pump. If Steve tried that move it would look unbearably cheesy, but on Eddie it’s cool and even kind of metal. “See you tonight, my esteemed host.” And he’s gone, leaving nothing behind but the faint smell of weed and a strange feeling in Steve’s chest.
“Um,” says Robin. She can pack more scorn into an “um” than anyone he’s ever met.
Steve looks at her with his eyebrows raised, but she just keeps scowling at him. Finally, he says, “Um, what?”
“Why are you flirting with Eddie Munson?” There’s no one else in the store, but she pitches her voice low, like they’re discussing a horrible secret, possibly something involving Russians.
Steve shrugs. He’s been waiting for this to come up, but now that it has, he’s more nervous than he expected. “Why do people flirt with anyone?”
Robin looks surprised, and he realizes she thought he was going to deny it. Then she glares again and folds her arms. “Sometimes people flirt because they miss their high school glory days and are so desperate for positive attention they’ll bulldoze right over someone else’s feelings to get it.”
“Well, yeah, I guess some people do that.” She stares at him until it clicks. “You mean me? You think that’s what I’m doing?”
“Is it not?”
“No! God, Robin.” He turns away from her, pretending to look for something to shelve, so she won’t see the hurt on his face.
Robin is instantly contrite. “Hey, shit, Steve, I’m sorry.” He looks away from her, sulking, but she crowds close to him, her chin on his shoulder. “ Steeeeeve. I said I’m sorry. ”
Steve can’t help laughing at her ridiculous, exaggerated sad face. “Okay, okay!” He pushes her away gently. “It’s just… I’m not that guy anymore, you know?”
“I know.” She pokes him with her elbow, which is the Robin equivalent of a heartfelt embrace. “I just think you should be careful how you talk to Eddie.”
He tenses. “Why?” He knows plenty well what could happen to a dude in Hawkins who flirts with other guys, with the wrong guys, but Eddie isn’t like that, is he? After everything he’s been through, the way this shitty town scapegoated and tormented him, there’s no way he’d turn around and kick someone’s ass just for being… you know. But maybe Steve’s wrong, maybe he’s walked into a danger zone without knowing it and Robin is about to drag him back, for his own safety.
Or maybe she just knows he doesn’t have a chance, and she wants to warn him off before he gets his heart broken.
She takes a deep breath. “I think,” she says carefully, and Robin never says anything carefully, so Steve knows this is going to hurt. “I think, and I don’t know this for sure, so please don’t say anything to him. And please don’t get weird, okay, Steve? I really need you to not get weird, because then I’ll have to kill you, and I would hate working here all by myself.”
“Jeez,” he says. “Okay.” He scrunches up his eyes and braces himself.
“I think Eddie is gay,” Robin says.
Steve’s eyes fly open. “You do? Wait, you do? Really?”
Robin nods. “It’s the way he looks at you.”
“At me? ” He feels like the room is spinning. He feels like a kid on Christmas morning. He feels like he could punch the sky, Judd Nelson-style, and fuck worrying about whether it makes him look like a dork. (He doesn’t actually do it though. Because he’d look like a dork.)
“Yeah, I… you’re acting extremely weird right now, Steve.”
He’s feeling extremely weird. “Okay. Right, okay, sorry.” Eddie is gay. Eddie is gay and Robin knows this because of how he looks at Steve. Eddie is gay and maybe… into Steve? Could that be real?
“Anyway. That’s why you should back off,” Robin says. “Because Eddie jokes around with you, but I think it’s actually not a joke to him. And I don’t want him to get hurt.”
Steve gives her a blank look. “Why would I hurt him?”
“Steve!” She leans in close and flicks him on the forehead. Very slowly and loudly, she says, “Eddie is gay and he likes you! Don’t lead him on!”
“Ow!” He rubs his forehead. “Jesus! I’m not leading him on, Robin! I want to fuck him!”
Robin’s jaw drops so hard and so fast he thinks he hears it click. “What,” she says, still too loud.
“You’re hurting my ears, I’m standing right next to you, ” Steve says. Robin doesn’t respond, so he keeps going. “I like Eddie, okay? That’s why I was flirting with him. Just for, like, the regular reasons that people flirt. The classic. I want to date him and hold his hand and have sex with him and stuff.” Robin doesn’t need to know how extensive and detailed the “and stuff” has become, in Steve’s mind. “And I thought you were gonna tell me to back off because he’s not into guys, but you’re saying that he is, so if that’s true, then backing off is definitely the last thing I want to do. Like, ever.”
Robin has finally managed to close her mouth. She holds up one finger, like hold on a second. “Boobies,” she says, very quietly.
“Yes, I like boobies, but I never said I only like boobies! I never said people aren’t allowed to have… not boobies!” Steve realizes that he’s the one getting too loud now, and struggles to bring his volume back down. He runs his hand through his hair, looks away, then back at Robin. She’s looking at him like she doesn’t know him, and oh, Steve hates that. “Hey, it’s okay, right, Robin? Tell me it’s okay.”
She takes a deep breath and lets it out as a sigh. “I want you to know I’m annoyed about this,” she says, and Steve’s heart plummets. But Robin goes on: “Because now I have to give you a hug and tell you that you’re my best friend and I love you no matter what. And you know I hate that shit, Steve.”
Steve bursts out laughing and throws his arms around her. “I love you, Robin,” he says.
“You’re so gay,” she says. He cackles and holds her tighter and maybe there are tears in his eyes, just a little, but he knows Robin will never mention it.
“Okay,” she says after three more seconds, “let go or I’ll bite you.” Steve lets go. “So you, Steve Harrington, have an enormous gay crush on Eddie Munson.”
“Yeah,” Steve says. “It’s his eyes, mostly, but also his mouth? And his hair. I really want to just mess up–”
“No, stop, do not say any more words,” says Robin. “I’m talking now. You have a movie date with Eddie tonight.”
“I do?” In all the excitement of coming out to Robin, he almost lost track of that piece of information. Which, now that he knows–or at least has reason to believe–Eddie’s gay, is an entirely new prospect. “Oh my God, I do.”
“Are you going to make a move ?” she says, with a meaningful eyebrow wiggle.
“Should I?” Anxiety twists his stomach, but the fear is shot through with excitement. Him and Eddie, alone in his big, empty house, watching scary movies. Oh, there’s definitely potential there.
“Well, ask yourself this.” Robin props her elbows on the counter and gives him a mischievous look. “What would Steve Harrington do?”