iris. - steddie

16. i love you

saturday march 26, 1986

steve woke up, blinking his eyes open to see the inside of eddie's room.

which he didn't really pay attention to the night before, they ended up smoking a joint (or three) and stayed up late, crashing on eddie's bed.

steve was still in the scoops outfit, but only had the shorts on as the trailer tended to get hot.

he glanced down to see eddie's arm draped over his waist, smiling softly as he heard soft snores behind him.

steve brought his hand down, gently playing with some of the rings he wore.

eddie yawned, moving closer to steve so that his chest was against the others' back.

'morning harrington,'

steve wasn't really sure he'd ever get used to how deep eddie's tired morning voice was.

'your rings are cool,' he said, still messing with them.

'yeah? you want one?' eddie said with a small smile, pressing gentle kisses to his bare shoulder.

'yeah, okay.' steve scoffed a little jokingly. 'because your huge rings totally fit how i look,'

'hold on,' he moved his arm off of steve, taking the one ring he had on his right hand off, which was much smaller.

eddie slid it onto steve's ring finger, the silver-detailed ring with a small circular black stone in the middle fitting on his hand perfectly.

steve gave a small gasp, talking in a fake-crying voice. 'oh my god, i do,'

he snorted, flicking steve in the nose. 'no proposals yet dumbass,'

he laughed, looking down at the ring as eddie put his arm back around his waist.

'..i love you.' steve suddenly said, screwing his eyes shut as soon as the 3 words left his mouth.

saying it made it so real. the only other person he'd ever said that to was nancy wheeler, and he knew all too well how that ended.

eddie could feel steve's heart beating faster, and he began to take shorter breaths.

'hey, hey—' he sat up, looking down at him. 'look at me,'

steve slowly sat up also, facing him.

eddie put a hand on his cheek, their eyes meeting as steve's had just begun to water slightly.

'i love you too.'

nancy had never said it back. eddie did.

'really?' he almost sounded surprised.

eddie laughed a little, nodding. 'obviously, idiot. c'mere, it's okay,' he pulled him into a hug, steve's head on his chest.

'hey kid, i—' his door opened, both of them immediately snapping their heads over in surprise to see his uncle standing in the doorway.

shit. he had completely forgotten how early he got off work.

neither of them moved as wayne quickly shut the door again, steve could hear the others' heart rate skyrocket.

'fuck,' eddie got up, rushing to grab a shirt off the ground and pulled it on, leaving his room and shutting the door again behind him.

'shit! wait,' he said, walking down the hall as his uncle stood in the living room. 'it's not—'

'are you..?' wayne said, glancing back towards the bedroom he'd just walked into.

eddie nodded, his hands shaking as he messed with his rings. he was sure he was about to cry, trying to suck anything that welled in his eyes back up.

'please don't kick me out, i—' he cut himself off as wayne wrapped him in a tight hug. he didn't even know what to do, he just stood there in shock.

'..i'm not kicking you out, kid. i'm not my brother.' his uncle said, eddie immediately feeling small tears slip from his eyes at the mention of his dad.

he hugged wayne back, small sobs escaping as he shoved his face into his jacket.

'i'm so sorry,' eddie choked out, his uncle shaking his head.

'nothing to be sorry for.'

steve sat on eddie's bed, eyes locked on the door as he chewed on his bottom lip anxiously.

about 10 minutes had passed before eddie came back, closing the door as he wiped under his eyes.

'what happened?' steve said as he walked over to the bed, sitting down beside him on it.

'he's okay with it,' eddie said in a small laugh, a happy sob escaping at the same time.

he felt a wave of relief and pulled him in for a hug, pressing a small kiss to eddie's forehead.

eddie let himself calm down for a second as steve held him closer, glancing at the blue and white striped shorts steve still had on.

'he said your pants were weird.'

.
a/n: eddie being scared wayne'd disown him like his dad did is the bane of my existence i'm sorry