Boys Don't Cry - Steddie

Chapter 13

The rain started around twelve in the morning, just a light sprinkle. It woke Eddie up first. He sat up in the lounge chair, contemplating why he had been sleeping outside for a second before he shook Steve's shoulder gently to get him up as well. He stirred a bit, but stayed where he was, so Eddie ran his hand up and down his arm lightly instead.

"Steve, honey, we have to go inside."

He opened his eyes slowly to look at Eddie, "Did you just call me h-" Eddie didn't hear the rest of the sentence over the loud crack of thunder that echoed through the air. It was followed by almost immediate downpour. If Steve wasn't fully awake before, he definitely was now. "Shit!"

Eddie didn't even have time to laugh at his reaction before Steve was grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the house. "Wait wait wait-" Eddie pulled away from him to grab his lunchbox that they had abandoned earlier next to the pool before rejoining Steve. He was more than happy when Steve took his hand again, as if Eddie wouldn't be able to make it two yards back to the sliding glass door without guidance.

The sky flashed, followed by another roll of thunder as they stepped inside. Steve practically slammed the door closed, locking it before he looked at Eddie, whose hair was as flat as it could probably get, bangs stuck to his forehead, nearly covering his eyes. Steve was sure his own hair didn't look much better, but he couldn't help but laugh at the sight.

Eddie set the box down before peeling his bangs away from his face to look at Steve. And, yeah, he didn't have any right to be laughing at Eddie because he looked like a drowned rat. Eddie would have said something, but of course he got distracted by those little things. He hated Steve for that. All those miniscule details that Eddie would have glossed over on anyone else but that stood out so prominently when it was him and left Eddie breathless and weak. Like the water that was dripping off his eyelashes, or the feeling of Steve's hand around his own because he still hadn't let go, or the way that the sudden rain had made Steve's shirt cling to his body. Yeah, those weren't fair at all.

And it wasn't like Eddie was looking on purpose, he just... couldn't look away. It was stupid. It was so stupid because he had seen Steve shirtless before. It wasn't a big deal. He had spent practically an entire day with him shirtless. Granted, the conditions weren't ideal, but Eddie definitely hadn't hated it. At the same time, it was different now. And he wanted to see it again. He wanted to see Steve shirtless again. He wanted to do more than just look. He really should have made more of an effort to go to swim meets. He had missed out.

"Do you have extra towels?"

"Yeah," Steve let go of his hand, much to Eddie's disappointment. "I'll go get them."

He watched Steve head to the stairs and waited for him to come back, wrapping his arms around himself in a temporary attempt to keep warm. It didn't take more than a few minutes for Steve to return with towels for both of them, but Eddie was already shivering by then.

"I was thinking," Steve handed Eddie one of the towels and wrapped the other around himself. "Would you want to sleep in my room again? I mean, you don't have to if you're good. You just made it sound like it helped last time and I don't mind, you know. And it might be warmer because-"

"You saying you want to warm me up, Harrington?" Eddie smirked at him as he wrung out his hair with the towel.

Steve felt his face heat up, "No. I just... because of the rain. I don't know you don't have to, it was just a suggestion."

"I'm just teasing you." Eddie smiled. "Let me go get changed first."

Steve simply nodded and watched Eddie go upstairs. He followed shortly after and headed to his own room. The guest door was shut down the hall, and Steve quickly stripped off his rain-soaked clothes, replacing them with clean, dry ones. As he unfolded his shirt, he paused to look in the mirror. He thought back to what Eddie had said to him the other day. 'I'm just bummed your scars are gonna look cooler than mine.' He had been thinking about that a lot lately to be honest. Any time he would take a shower or change or look in the mirror. He tossed the shirt onto his bed and stared at himself.

Steve didn't think his scars looked cool. He hated them, actually. They seemed jarring and alien to him. It was like a taunt from the upside down permanently plastered on his skin, and he couldn't get rid of it. A reminder of pain and suffering that he would carry with him for the rest of his life. He frowned in the mirror as he stared at himself, pulling uncomfortably at the areas where the raised scar tissue was. They were so ugly. They were so ugly and he hated them.

Eddie had finished changing and was standing in the doorway now, watching Steve analyze himself in the mirror. Okay so it might have been a little creepy, but he wasn't planning on standing there and staring, he was planning on going to bed. He could tell Steve wasn't happy, not that it was that difficult to figure out.

He could almost see what was going on in his mind, because Eddie was sure Steve was feeling the same way that he did throughout his (extended) high school career. Inadequate. Repulsive. Disgusting. It was basically slapped across Steve's face in bright red letters. Of course, Eddie had been called those things, in one way or another. Steve on the other hand, had basically been worshipped, and now he had the rug pulled out from under his feet and Eddie felt like he was watching him struggle to stand back up.

Maybe part of it was good, because Steve had changed a lot since when Eddie first knew him. Not that they ever interacted with each other much before he had been roped into this interdimensional shit, but he had changed. Eddie could tell. And he really was a good person now. Better than most that Eddie knew, actually, as crazy as it was to admit. And now that he was better, now that he had grown, he didn't deserve to struggle anymore. He didn't deserve the pain. Eddie wanted to take it all away from him. He didn't want to watch Steve look at himself in the mirror like he was something gross.

Steve didn't even see Eddie come into the room. He just felt him behind him, his arms wrapping around him, his chin on his shoulder. He met Eddie's eyes in the mirror briefly before glancing back down and seeing that Eddie had covered the scars with his arms.

"I'm so happy you're alive." Eddie said quietly, still looking at Steve in the mirror. Steve leaned into the touch and even smiled when Eddie kissed his shoulder softly before turning Steve around to face him and to avoid the mirror.
"Come on," he grabbed the shirt from where Steve had left it abandoned on the bed earlier. "Let's get your shirt on. I want to go to bed."

Steve smiled at him, "I don't need you to help me get dressed, I'm not six."

"Fine," Eddie tossed his hands up in exaggerated defeat. "I'll go fuck myself then."

"You're so dramatic."

"Put your shirt on," he tugged it over Steve's head before sitting on the edge of the bed and watching Steve struggle with getting his arms through it.

"You didn't help. You made it like ten times more difficult."

"I think you just don't know how to dress yourself. Does your maid usually do that for you?"

"I'll kick you out of my bed," Steve stood right in front of him now, looking down at Eddie.