*trigger warning! Fighting, strong language*
More days passed and things between Steve and Eddie couldn't have been better.
They'd been spending every waking moment together and it made Steve's heart beyond happy that he was able to have Eddie with him.
They'd decided to go to Steve's house so he could grab a fresh rotation of clothes so he wasn't wearing the same clothes over and over again and when Steve pulled into the driveway, with Eddie riding passenger, Steve's entire demeanor dropped and so did he heart.
Parked perfectly in the driveway was his fathers car and his throat instantly closed in on itself and restricted his airway, drying his mouth entirely and everything in him went straight into panic mode.
"Babe?" Eddie asks extremely alarmed as he watches Steve's face pale to a concerning shade of white and sees his panicked like state he's in as his eyes stay dead locked on the car in the driveway. His eyes follow his line of sight to the car and he furs his brows in confusion, unsure who's vehicle it was or why it was making Steve panic "Who's car is that Steve?" Eddie asks the man beside him and it's like Steve's brain wasn't working as he relives every horrid memory he'd had whenever his father was around and his hands grip the wheel so hard his knuckles turn the same color white as his face. "Steve, fuck!" Eddie panics making a quick move to get Steve's attention to him, by grabbing his face in his ring covered hands and making him look at him.
His stare is far away and Eddie knows for a fact that Steve's mentally checked out, in the same trance like state he was in the first night he met Wayne, knowing he was in a place that his brain unwillingly took him too when he was thrown into flashbacks or his brain worked against him, his thoughts too far past anything he could control, sending him into this exact state, blank staring and damn near unresponsive while his brain works on auto pilot, torturing him with whatever it was that went through his head when he got like this.
Eddie does all he can think of to help, and smashes his lips to Steve's, hoping it was enough to ground him and bring him back to him. As Eddie holds his lips to Steve's he slowly feels him respond, first by kissing him back and then, by grabbing his hands that are still gently holding his face and then he's pulling away for air.
"I'm sorry." He apologizes and Eddie shakes his head, refusing the apology in an instant.
"Don't ever apologize to me for something you can't control. Look I don't know who's car that is, but I need to know now so I can protect you." Eddie states and Steve swallows harshly, trying to mentally prepare himself for the answer he didn't want to give but knew he needed to tell Eddie.
"My dad." Is all he goes to say at first but then his panic takes over and he starts to ramble. "I-i, i don't know why he's here or how long he's been here but this isn't going to be good for anyone. I know my dad, he's a fucking asshole and if he sees us together, he's going to tear me a new one and I don't want him to hurt you." Steve says as he looks deep into Eddie's eyes, tears brimming his eyes as he worries about this interaction.
"Hey, hey. He's not going to touch either of us." Eddie reassures him and he swallows hard, not sure if he's able to believe those words. "The quicker we get this done, the quicker we can go back to mine and do whatever we want." Eddie says calmly, trying to keep Steve in a level head space. Even in Eddie's mind, he knew this interaction with his lovers father wasn't going to be pleasant and he wasn't too sure himself if he wanted to even do this, but they had too.
"We can't touch at all, as far as he's concerned we're only friends." Steve says and the look that washes over Eddie's face breaks Steve's heart into pieces but despite the look on his face, Eddie nods his head in understanding. "Eddie i'm sorry, but the quicker we can get out of here, the easier it'll be to forget." Steve tells him and again, Eddie nods, trying to compose his feelings about what Steve had just said.
"Nah, Im good, let's go." Eddie says, compartmentalizing all of his emotions into a box in his head for now, and hiding how he feels as this wasn't the time to get into it with Steve as he knew he was already bordering a full blown panic attack. He gets out of the car and after a long moment of hesitation, Steve gets out too. They shut the doors and make their way to the front door.
Steve's hand stays suspended in the air between his body and the door knob to the house for a long time, before he quickly throws his hand forward and opens the door. Instantly he hears familiar heavy footsteps, quickly walking their way to the door and Steve already knows his fathers angry by the weight of his steps but he walks inside despite the fear rising in his chest. He makes it a full two steps into the house before his eyes land on a very pissed off looking Robert Harrington.
"Steven, you want to explain to me why this house looks like a damn barn animal trampled through it and why your room looks like a disaster!" His dad instantly shouts loudly and it makes Steve flinch back just like he'd always done when his dad yelled at him. His brain reverting back to something he hated more than he hated his sexuality, a scared little boy under the lashes of his fathers figurative whip. "Answer me!" His dad screams and he flinches again as he stares down at his fathers shoes, not daring to look him in the eye.
"I haven't been here for a while." Steve answers in a low voice that's shaky and unsteady, not tearing his eyes from the floor.
"Who the fuck is that?" His father rasps, and Steve doesn't need to turn around to know Eddie standing behind him, keeping a safe distance away from Steve.
"I'm Eddie Munson." Eddie introduces himself to try and take some of the heat off Steve but it only angers his father more.
"I didn't ask you, boy." His father seethes, and Steve flinches again. His father takes several steps forward, grabbing ahold of Steve's chin harshly and making him look up from the floor and into his burning brown eyes. "I said, who is that!" His dad screams into his face and Steve's eyes lock hard with his fathers, fear completely taking over his body in that moment.
"My friend, Eddie Munson." Steve answers with as much confidence he can and his father scoffs harshly.
"I leave for a little while and I come back to find my house a fucking pigs-tie and then, you tell me, you're hanging around a Munson." His father says with burning fire in his eyes, his eyes staring menacingly at Steve, waiting for a reaction.
"Yes." Steve says, confirming his fathers works and he releases Steve's chin with a harsh pull and it jerks Steve's face to the side, making his neck crack from the force but Steve's hold the emotionless face he was trying to hard to keep up and turns his eyes back to his fathers, knowing if he looked away now, he'd surely be asking for something he didn't want.
His dad throws his arm back, his hand balled into a fist and punches Steve across the face, making him stumble back several steps from how hard he'd just been hit and Eddie catches him, trying his best to catch him before he hit the floor and stabilizing him as best as he could before his anger flares. Steve's cheek bone stings from where he was punched, and he'd bit his tongue, making it bleed. He tries to swallow the coppery substance and grimaces harshly from the taste in his mouth and the throbbing pain coming from his cheek.
"You live in my house for free, you trash the place and then you show up here with a fucking Munson!" His dad screams as he starts to walk his way toward Steve again but Eddie pulls him back. His attention turns to Eddie and Steve panics instantly as Eddie removes his arms from around Steve and stands his ground in front of Steve. "What the hell do you think your doing?" He father challenges Eddie and his panic surges farther than it ever has before as Eddie squares himself up, standing a few inches taller than his dad and stands himself between Steve and his dad.
"Your not touching him again, you piece of shit." Eddie says confidently, challenging Steve's dad with all the courage he has. Anger pumping through his veins from what he'd just witnessed, fueling the rage building inside of him.
His dad releases a fake laugh of disbelief and fake humor.
"And what's a Munson going to do, huh?" His dad asks, stepping closer to Eddie with his arms raised up, accepting the clear challenge and before Steve can even process what the hell is happening, Eddie throws a right hook straight at his dads face, hitting the unsuspecting man in the jaw making him fall down to the floor.
"Touch him again, and next time, I won't stop." Eddie threatens in a deep tone Steve had never heard before and Eddie leans himself over Steve's father, his voice dropping a little bit. "I'll show you just what a Munson will do." He warns harshly and then stands himself up fully and turns his way to Steve who's staring at him in horror and disbelief.
The look Steve gives him snaps him out of the blind fury filled rage he was in and as his brain catches up with him, his entire demeanor changes and he realizes what he'd done.
He looks down at the man still laying on the floor groaning as he holds his face before turning back to Steve who still is giving him a look of terror, whether it's from what's he'd just done to his dad or from what his dad had said to him or everything all together he couldn't make any of it out in the moment.
He hated the look on Steve's face and wanted more than anything to comfort him but they needed to leave. So on auto pilot, Eddie helps Steve from the floor without a word and they leave the house, completely ignoring the purpose for all of this happening, and Eddie helps Steve into the car who had a gnarly blue and purple bruise already forming on his cheek bone and gets into the drivers seat and speeds his way back to the trailer, his own mind a cluster of emotions and thoughts.
In his blind fury, he saw a glimpse of someone he'd sworn to never be, someone he promised himself more than anything to never become and that was his father.
In the split seconds of watching Steve's dad scream in his face to the moment Steve's father hit him, everything in him went to a place Eddie didn't even know existed, a place that reminded him all too much of his father who beat him until he was black and blue and couldn't even stand properly or see because he'd hit him so much he'd made his eyes swell shut.
Eddie hated himself in that moment for what he'd done and said, but all he could do and think about was protecting Steve. A sudden oncoming sense of both strength and anger turned him into someone he never wanted to see or think about again, but when he'd watched the punch be thrown at the man he cared so much for, an anger entered his body and took over him before he was even able to comprehend what was going on and he was moving and acting before anything else could happen.
They stop in front of the trailer way too soon, neither one of them were paying any sort of attention, both of them caught in a swirling mess of thoughts and emotions that were beyond comprehension and Eddie's getting out of the car before he can think twice, making his way to Steve's side and pulling him from the car and dragging him into a tight hug.
Steve wraps his arms around Eddie instantaneously and both of them are shaking from adrenaline at what had just occurred and before Steve can say anything, he bursts into tears.
What for, he figured was gratitude but he knew himself well enough to know that it was the broken child in him who'd never healed from the harsh lashes of the whip his dad hit him with in verbal abuse and occasional physical as well, just like tonight.
Within a matter of mere seconds, Steve entire world crumbled around him because of the man he was forced to call father, the same man who abandoned him. Berated and hurt him more than he ever could do to himself, every single ill thought that circled its way through Steve's mind rooted from his fathers words and actions that formed the broken man who sat here now, uncontrollably crying into the shoulder of his lover as he reverted back into the little boy being smacked around by his dad for not being the best student with straight A's or being good enough at basketball, being called every single name in the book of verbal torture his father could think of, taking his anger and disappointment out of a boy who only needed compassion and love.
They stood there, Steve crying his pain out into Eddie shoulder as said man held onto him for dear life, whispering sweet nothings into his ear for reassurance that he knew he needed now more than anything, letting him fall apart in his arms because it was what he needed.
No amount of soothing words would ever take Steve's pain away, or wipe the memory and pain away that still ebbed it's way over Steve's cheek, but what Eddie could do was sit here and hold Steve close, being his life line in this moment of weakness and try his best to be there for him through the awful fall out of what had happened.
Somehow Eddie had managed to moved them from beside the car and into the trailer, Steve in a hysteric state of tears and uncontrollable breathing and when Wayne sees the two boys, one in tears and the other a distraught mess trying to keep the other on his feet, he instant stands up from the couch and demands to know what happened.
Through a rambling mess of words and clustered explanation, Eddie tells Wayne what happened and Eddie watches something fall over his uncles body he had only ever see once, and it was the night a cop showed up at his doorstep with a bloody and bruised up 8 year old Eddie, and that was pure rage and fury. The same fury and rage Eddie had seen in his father and felt tonight when Steve's dad hit his son.
Without a single word from Wayne, he makes his way out of the trailer and Eddie is sure he's going to finish off what he'd started but he doesn't say anything as he helps Steve to their room.
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An hour passes and Eddie had calmed Steve down enough for him to fall asleep with tear stained cheeks and a bright blue and purple bruise evident on his cheek bone. He cringes inwardly, unable to tear his eyes from the disgusting thing that had formed on his lovers beautiful face.
He hears the front door open and then steady footsteps walking toward his room and he knows it's Wayne. He opens the door after knocking gently on it twice and peaks his head in.
The door opening makes Steve stir slightly and his eyes open a bit as he looks to the door to see Wayne standing there.
"Wayne, what happened?" Eddie musters up the nerve to ask his uncle the question that had been circling its way through his head for the last hour and his uncle gives him a reassuring smile as he looks at the two boys.
"I had a nice little talk with Robert. Steve is going to live here from now on, and he won't be around any time soon." Wayne tells both boys and Eddie can't help but want to ask his uncle what their conversation really was, as he was sure there wasn't much of a conversation, and more of Wayne's fists connecting with Roberts face repeatedly, but he wasn't going to say anything tonight not in front of Steve at least.
He wasn't stupid to the rage that the Munson name carried or how protective his uncle was when it came to him and now Steve as he seen both of them as his children. Fuck, Eddie had been on the receiving end of the Munson anger and it wasn't pretty, so his mental suspension of the "conversation" wasn't one his mind couldn't come up with. Openly assuming the ending result was Robert being a bloody pulp in the end.
The calmness his uncle held told him just as much as well, as if he was still angry he wouldn't be this calm when addressing the rather astronomical news that Steve would be living here full time now, not that he wasn't here over ninety eight percent of the time anyway. Still, it didn't surprise Eddie one bit.
Wayne says his share of a goodnight and tells Steve to ice his cheek before he shuts the door and leaves Eddie and Steve alone.
"So I get to be with you all the time now huh?" Eddie asks, trying to lighten the mood a bit and Steve shrugs from his place on Eddie's lap, his head resting in his lap.
"Guess so." Steve says. Despite the weight Eddie's words held, he couldn't help but feel a weight lift from his shoulders. He was no longer in a constant state of fear of keeping a shelled house that held no sense of home for him in order, and didn't have to worry about his parents dropping in for an unexpected visit, only repeating the exact events from earlier tonight to happen.
No matter how broken Steve was left by his parents, he had found a family. People who loved him, flaws and all and if it had to count for anything, Steve would pick his chosen family a million and one times over before he ever decided to look at his parents as family.
He had all he needed now, even if he'd been hurt by his fathers words and actions, he wouldn't let it ruin him like it had oh so many times before, no this time he wound stand stronger than his father and move forward like he always did, this time without a months worth of self loathing and self inflicted pain.
Never again was Steve going to let himself fall under the lashes of his father, he was going to rise above the shit expectations his dad had set years ago onto a child's shoulders and throw them far away. No, Steve was going to set his own expectations for himself, and become the person he knew he could be, not someone he was forced to be or told he needed to be.
He was going to become the Steve Harrington he knew himself as, the kind and loving friend and partner he had become over the years, with no rules or guidelines just the person he was.
With a smile on his face at his self revolution he closes his eyes as he lays on Eddie's lap, who's now gently stroking his fingers through his hair and allows himself to fall into a peaceful sleep.