Chapter Text
Thursday mornings were Eddie’s least favorites. He had math at the very first period and it was truly hell.
But right now, he had other things occupying his mind. He wandered the school halls, his internal debate tumbling through his brain, for the last three days he’s been actively leaving Steve alone, as he was told to do.
It was harder than he anticipated, the last days Steve was still not back with his friends (dare he say ex friends?) and Eddie was feeling hopeful they were done for good but still, every time he saw Steve he had the urge to throw himself at him.
Steve’s been looking better, his bruises were starting to fade, and he didn’t looked as miserable as before, but he still looked rough and as if he needed a friend.
Oh, and Eddie dream he could be that someone.
As Eddie was fighting with everything in his mind, he lost track of time until he ran into something solid.
“Oof,” the person let out a soft, surprised sound as Eddie stumbled back a step.
“Are you okey?” the girl asked.
Eddie, still tangled in his thoughts, barely processed the words at first. He turned slowly, ready to mutter a rushed apology, until he actually looked at her.
“Oh,” he said, blinking. “Chrissy?” she smiled politely at him.
“Yep,” she said. “But you didn’t answer my question.”
“Oh, yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. Totally fine,” Eddie replied quickly, nodding a little too fast. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Chrissy said softly. “You looked… distracted.”
“Yeah, uh, something like that,” he muttered, forcing a small smile back at her.
There was a brief, awkward pause. Chrissy Cunningham didn’t talk to him. Not really. They shared a couple of classes, they existed in the same hallways, but that was it.
“Well, um… Sorry, again,” Eddie said quickly.
And then he almost sprinted away.
Before he realized he was standing outside his classroom, he went inside and sat down at his usual spot. Eddie then looked around, there were only two other guys already there and one of them was, unfortunately, Steve.
Eddie fought every single part of his body that encouraged him to go and talk to him, go and poke the bear but he wasn’t so sure now.
Follow his gut or Robin’s?
What if Steve actually hated him? And if he goes and try to talk to him, will he snap again at him or do something else? Was he capable of beating him? But how is he sure that would happen if he doesn’t give it a try?
Eddie was spiraling. Literally, he felt lightheaded.
The snap of fingers took him out of his trance. He blinked rapidly trying to focus on the person in front of him.
And that was none other than Steve Harrington, he was looking at him with a weird look and keeping a safe distance between them.
Eddie almost jumped back by the surprise of seeing him so close.
“You good there?” Steve spoke quietly.
Eddie swallowed, the joke, already halfway up his throat and dying there when he clocked Steve’s expression. He looked like a guy approaching a skittish animal and trying not to spook it.
“Uh, yeah,” Eddie said, which was a lie so obvious it almost felt rude. He pushed his hair back, fingers catching in the curls. “Just, y’know. Existing.”
Steve didn’t smile. That alone threw Eddie more than if he had snapped again. He just nodded once, slow, like he was filing the information away, then glanced over Eddie’s shoulder.
Eddie knew that look, checking if someone was watching him interact with him.
“Look,” Steve said, voice low, clipped. “I’m not here to… whatever the hell last time was.” His jaw tightened, like even acknowledging it annoyed him. “I just need something. That’s it.”
Oh. Straight to business. Eddie could work with that. Probably.
“Right,” Eddie said quickly. “Yeah. Capitalism, baby.” He winced. Too much. Dial it back. “What do you, uh, need?”
Steve hesitated, and for half a second Eddie thought he might bolt. Instead, Steve shifted his weight, shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket, and stared at the ground.
“Weed,” he said. Then, like he hated that it sounded like a request, he added, “If you’ve got it.”
There it was. Eddie felt something in his chest loosen, relief, maybe. Or the thrill of being needed, even if it was just for this.
“Yeah,” Eddie said, softer now. “Yeah, I’ve got some.”
And this was the moment he thanked whatever demon possess him to always carry some with him.
He reached into his jacket slowly, deliberately, like he was trying to show Steve he wasn’t about to pull anything stupid. When he looked back up, Steve was watching his hands, eyes sharp, shoulders still tense.
“You don’t have to stand like I’m gonna jump you, Harrington,” Eddie tried, a half-smile tugging at his mouth. “I bite, but only if asked nicely.”
Steve’s eyes flicked up, annoyed. “I’m not.”
“It’s okay. I get it.”
That seemed to throw Steve off more than any joke. He frowned, lips parting like he was about to argue, then stopping himself. Whatever he’d been ready to say, he swallowed it.
“Just, how much?” Steve asked.
Eddie told him, named a price that was fair, maybe even a little generous. He handed over the baggie, their fingers brushing for the briefest second. Steve’s hand was warm. Solid. Real.
Steve flinched like he hadn’t expected the contact.
And that movement made Eddie’s chest ache.
“Thanks,” he muttered, already pulling his hand back, already retreating a step.
“No problem,” Eddie said.
Steve lingered anyway, just for a beat. Long enough to look at Eddie again.
“Hey,” Steve said finally, awkward, rough around the edges. “About before. I didn’t…” He stopped, shook his head. “Never mind.”
Then he turned and walked away to his stop.
Eddie was trying to decide whether or not he should say something else, anything. Steve seemed more relaxed, maybe it was his chance.
But just then the bell rang and people started to swarm into the room.
After hours of boring lessons that Eddie should make an extra effort to understand if he wants to finally graduate, the bell rang, announcing his so needed lunch break.
Eddie sprinted to the cafeteria ready to join the Hellfire Club as per usual but then he remembered that there was something more important he needed to do first.
Changing his direction, Eddie slipped past the cafeteria doors and headed outside instead, toward the benches near the back of the school where the smokers, skippers, and especially the band members liked to congregate.
Eddie spotted his target almost immediately: Robin Buckley.
She was sitting sideways on the bench, one knee pulled up, notebook balanced against her thigh, chewing absentmindedly on the end of a pen like it had personally wronged her. When she spotted Eddie, her eyes lit up in immediate recognition and concern.
“Oh, fuck. What did you do?” Robin said as soon as Eddie was within earshot.
Eddie pretended to be hurt by the accusation, bringing a hand to his chest and gasping loudly, “I am deeply hurt by your perception of me.”
Robin snorted. “You look like you’re about to either confess something illegal or start screaming.”
“Why not both?” Eddie scrubbed a hand down his face, fingers hooking into his rings. “Jesus, Buckley, I am, I am not okay.”
She tilted toward him, instantly serious now. “Okay. Start talking. Slowly. Preferably without implicating either of us in something that gets us expelled.”
Eddie huffed out a breath. “So. Harrington.” He said quietly.
Even though they were far from the other students out here.
Robin stiffened. Not much. Just enough that Eddie clocked it immediately.
“I swear I did follow your advice,” Eddie was quick to say. “He talked to me,” he then blurted. “Like, he came up to me. During class. Just walked right over like he wasn’t actively wrecking my mental stability.” He whispered-shouted.
Robin stared at him for a beat. Then another.
“So,” she said finally, very deliberately, “he approached you? You didn’t do anything to initiated it?”
“That’s what I’m saying!” Eddie threw his hands up. “I was minding my business. Spiraling internally. Respecting your whole ‘give him space’ thing. And then bam, Steve Harrington, right in my face, asking me if I’m good.”
Okey, maybe he wasn’t really telling it as it was. But it was nice to think it happened that way.
Robin’s eyebrows shot up, as if sensing the lie. “He asked if you were good?”
Ah, she knew him so well.
“Well, I was zooning out and he was trying to get my attention but, that is not my point! He talked to me,” Eddie shook his arms dramatically. “And then,” Eddie rushed on, “he asked me for weed.”
“There it is,” she said, pointing at him. “That was the catch.”
“That’s not the point!” Eddie groaned. “The point is, we talked. Our hands touched. Briefly. But, like, meaningfully.”
Robin squinted. “You’re projecting.”
“I am perceiving,” Eddie shot back. “And he flinched, okay? Like he didn’t expect it. Like it surprised him.”
Robin leaned back, her gaze drifting to the school doors. “Isn’t that like, not a good sign?”
Eddie deflated a little at that, shoulders sagging. “Yeah. I know.” He picked at a splinter in the bench.
Robin sighed.
“Okay. So, he buys weed. He didn’t bite your head off. That’s… progress.”
“And then,” Eddie added quietly, “he almost apologized.”
That snapped her attention back fast. “Almost?”
“He started to. About before. And then he bailed.” Eddie’s jaw tightened.
“Eddie,” she said finally, lowering her voice, “you need to not—”
“I know,” he cut in. “I know. Don’t read into it. Don’t get hopeful. Don’t do anything stupid.”
She softened. “That’s not what I was going to say.”
He looked at her.
“Look, he approached you, for drugs yeah but it was something. It was one of your plans to lure him anyways.”
That made Eddie laugh softly.
“But maybe that gives you a way in? I am not saying you should start poking the bear,” she gave him a playful glare. “But maybe he will come back for more and there you can start small talk.”
Eddie slumped back against the bench, staring up at the cloudy sky. “It just feels like this will end up in him pulling the thread and then dropping it. And I will be the idiot unraveling over here.”
Robin nudged his shoulder with hers. “I mean, you are crushing over someone very particular, you should know better than anyone else that it is a deeply inconvenient experience.”
Eddie laughed despite himself, then groaned. “You think he hates me?”
“No,” she said immediately. Too fast to be a lie. “I think he’s confused. And hurting. And very bad at feelings.”
“Shocking,” Eddie muttered.
“And,” Robin added, glancing at him sideways, “it’s 1985. He doesn’t get to explore whatever the hell this is even if he wanted to.”
That landed heavy.
Eddie’s bounce stilled. “Yeah,” he said quietly. “That’s the part that’s killing me.”
Robin broke the silence with a sigh. “Okay. Here’s the deal. You don’t push. You don’t disappear completely. You exist. Calmly. Non-threateningly.”
Eddie snorted. “I am inherently threatening.”
“You wear rings shaped like skulls,” she said dryly. “You’ll manage.”
“And if he comes to me again?”
Robin met his eyes. “Then you let him. On his terms.”
Eddie nodded slowly. “Yeah.”
He paused, then added, miserable, “I hate this.”
“Again, you will manage,” Robin smiled, sympathetic.
And yeah, maybe Eddie could.