Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“I’m just saying, you should give him a try, Steve.” Robin’s voice sounded tinny on speakerphone, like she was yelling up at him from the bottom of a metal well, but she was so busy these days with the new baby that he took the chance to talk to her whenever she called, even if he had just gotten home from work and had his hands full.

Steve sighed. It felt like they’d had the same conversation at least once a week over the past few months, Robin pulling some eligible single man out of the woodwork of Chicago to flaunt in front of him.

“Where are you finding all of these single, mid-30’s gay men, Robin?” he asked, glancing at the garden in the front yard; his pumpkins were looking great. He’d planted them on a whim this year, not even sure what he was going to do with them, but they were already huge in late August.

“It’s Nancy who finds them, honestly,” Robin replied. “She has much better gaydar than I do.”

That didn’t surprise Steve. Nancy had figured out he was queer before Steve had known himself. He heard a baby start to cry in the background. 

“I gotta go deal with the little terror, just think about it, okay?” Robin said. “You could come to the city next weekend and meet him!” 

“I’ll think about it,” Steve said, with no intention of actually thinking about it. He went to the living room to hang up the phone, the movement garnering a chorus of meows. 

Four cats approached from various regions of the house, all converging on Steve.

“How was everyone’s day?” Steve asked, leaning down to scritch behind the ears of a long-haired ginger cat. A large tuxedo rubbed himself against Steve’s leg, covering his khakis in black fur. “Good to see all of you, too.”

Steve dropped his bag on the table and pulled his scent patch off, throwing it away and rubbing at the skin over his gland. He found the patches irritating, but they were necessary when spending the day surrounded by pubertal teens who were far too easily triggered by a passing scent. 

He walked to the front door, opening it to grab a package he’d seen on the porch. When he opened the outer screen door, a small piece of paper fell to the ground from where it had been wedged in the door.

He bent to grab the package, then picked up the paper, assuming it was from some company canvassing the area to install new roofs or windows. It was indeed a business card, but the blank side had a note written in very bad handwriting on it, in pencil. It read “want to sell pumkins pls call”. The card had a vague scent clinging to it, sharp and earthy, probably an alpha. 

There was no phone number written, but when he flipped it over he saw a number associated with the business on the card - “Munson’s Curiosities”. The name sounded vaguely familiar, he’d probably seen the company advertised before around town. The aesthetic of the card was… interesting. The background was black, and the lettering was blood red. He wasn’t sure what font had been used, but he could only describe it as angry.

“Huh,” he said to himself, flipping the card back over. The message was confusing. Did this person want to sell him pumpkins? Or did they want Steve to sell them his pumpkins? The lack of punctuation was frustrating.

They were really nice pumpkins, so he could see why they would be getting admirers. And he really didn’t know what he was going to do with eight giant pumpkins. Maybe he should call. 

His train of thought was interrupted by a frantic meow from a small gray tabby. Steve put the card down on his counter and bent to scratch her under the chin. “Sorry, sweetness, I got distracted,” he said, and walked over to the food bowls to give the cats their dinner.

After the cats were fed, he retreated to the bedroom to change into more comfortable clothes. He put on some music and started to make dinner, settling into his nightly routine. Ever since things with Andrew had imploded a little over a year ago, Robin and Nancy had been worried that Steve was lonely, but he liked to think he was managing fine. Nancy had called it a “serious red flag” when Steve acquired two kittens shortly after Andrew moved out, adding them to an already two-cat household, but they really did help with the loneliness so he didn’t see why Nancy was complaining.

He yelped as the small tabby launched herself onto his shoulders from where she had crept up behind him on the counter, and nearly dropped the pot he’d been holding. “What the hell!” he said, setting down the pot and carefully extracting her from where she was perched on his shoulders, placing her back on the ground. 

“That’s very dangerous, young lady,” he scolded, but her only response was a soft meow. 

After dinner, he went out to the garden, harvesting squash and some late tomatoes. Cars drove past occasionally, disturbing his peace. Robin had asked him why he put the garden here, instead of in his massive backyard, but this area got the best sun. He remembered the card that had been stuffed in the door. Whoever left it must have seen the pumpkins while driving by. 

He spent the rest of the evening grading exams while he listened to music. He chuckled a bit when he got to Dustin Henderson’s essay on the Revolutionary War, which did cover the important points in the required word count, but then spent several additional pages on Benjamin Franklin’s contributions to the study of electricity. Dustin had been one of his favorite students last year, and Steve had been glad to see he was in his social studies class again this year, though he had an impressive and at times tedious tendency to turn every essay, no matter the topic, into an essay on science. 

Once he finished his grading, he felt his eyes drift back to the note on the counter. He glanced at the clock. 8pm. Not too late to call, but given that it was a business card he probably wouldn’t get an answer. He’d give it a try anyway. Just so he could say he had tried.

He sat in the recliner next to his phone. Amos, the orange long hair, climbed into his lap like he always did in this chair, draping himself over Steve’s chest and starting to purr. Steve picked up the phone and dialed the number on the card. He was startled when the phone was picked up after two rings, having already decided no one was going to answer.

“Hello?” a man’s voice said. Steve could hear loud music playing in the background. 

“Um, hi,” Steve said. He hadn’t prepared a spiel like he usually did when calling someone, and he froze. Amos meowed loudly.

“Are you a cat?” the man asked, laughter in his voice. “Is a cat calling me? This is wild.”

“N-no,” Steve stammered. “I mean, yes, there is a cat here, but there’s also a person. Me. Steve.”

“Ooooh,” the man said. “The plot thickens. A Steve and a cat. What’s the cat’s name?”

“Amos,” Steve replied automatically. How had this conversation gone off the rails so quickly? Amos lifted up his head at the sound of his name and meowed again.

“Anus? You named your cat anus?” the man asked, incredulous.

Steve rolled his eyes. He hadn’t anticipated how common this response would be when he chose Amos’s name, but a surprising number of people did mishear it as “anus”. “No, no. Amos. With an M as in major. Amos, like the Famous Amos cookies. Or the minor prophet in the Old Testament.”

“That makes a lot more sense,” the man said. “So, Steve and minor prophet slash cookie cat, to what do I owe the pleasure of your call?” 

“Um. I got a card. In my door today. From Munson’s Curiosities. About selling pumpkins.”

“You’re the pumpkin magician!” 

“Well, I don’t know about that. It’s my first time growing them.”

“Even more magical. Those have got to be the most perfect pumpkins I’ve ever seen.”

Steve felt himself blushing. Over praise of his pumpkins. What was going on? “Um, thanks?” he said. “Anyway, I wasn’t sure what you meant, by your message. Did you want to buy my pumpkins, or did you want to sell me some pumpkins?”

“Why would I need to sell you pumpkins when you’re a pumpkin magician?” the man asked. 

“The lack of punctuation on the note made the situation unclear,” Steve explained. 

“Well I feel like the context clues made it very clear,” the man interjected, though he just sounded amused, not annoyed.

“What do you want the pumpkins for?” Steve asked. 

“Need to make sure they’re going to a good home? I get it. I’m doing this Halloween-themed event in a few weeks, and I just thought they would be perfect for decorating.” 

“Hmm. Alright. You can have six,” Steve said. 

“Awesome!” the man replied, seeming genuinely enthused. “How much do you want for them?” 

“Oh, you don’t need to pay me,” Steve said awkwardly. “I just grew them for fun, and wasn’t expecting them to all survive. I don’t actually need eight pumpkins.”

“Let me at least buy you a drink or something, man.” 

Steve thought about it for a second. Did he really want to agree to getting a drink with this rather unconventional stranger? He had grown more introverted in recent years, and generally avoided potentially awkward social situations, preferring to stick with people he knew well. But he had actually been enjoying this odd conversation. “Alright, fine. I can bring the pumpkins with me, and we can meet somewhere for a drink.”

“Fantastic! You doing anything Friday night?” 

“No,” Steve was slightly embarrassed to admit. “I’m free.”

“Great. Meet me at Bobby’s at 8? I have a lot of hair, I’m hard to miss.”

Steve laughed. “Alright. Wait, what’s your name? I never asked.”

“Eddie,” the man said. “Eddie Munson.” Again, Steve felt a vague sense of recognition, like he’d heard the name before, but he couldn’t quite place where.

“Alright, Eddie. I’ll see you Friday.”

“Sure thing, Steve. And don’t forget the pumpkins!”

Steve hung up, a smile on his face. As soon as the phone was out of the way, Amos immediately moved into the space, pressing his face against Steve, rubbing his chin. Steve gave him a quick kiss on the head, and reached up to pet him, gently moving his face away. “Your breath stinks, my man,” he said, but Amos seemed unperturbed, continuing to purr happily.

Steve had a goofy smile on his face for the rest of the evening. Eddie had been fun to talk to, and he found he was excited to spend some actual time with him. He was under no illusions that Eddie meant anything more by this friendly exchange of pumpkins; he was probably a happily mated heterosexual. But maybe Steve would get a new friend out of this. A friend who didn’t live two hours away.  

Steve climbed into his nest a few hours later, followed by four cats who took up their typical places around his body - Amos spooned against his chest, Katara and Sokka pressed against his back and curled in around each other, and Olive at his feet, as far from the other cats as she could get while still touching Steve. He sighed in contentment. He didn’t know what Robin and Nancy were worried about, this was worlds better than going to sleep with Andrew had ever been.

Steve spent the next few days fretting about his pumpkin meet-up. 

“You sure he’s not, like, a serial killer?” Robin asked when he told her about it the next day on the phone.

“Seems like an elaborate ruse for someone who already knows where I live,” Steve replied. “He could have just hidden at my house and killed me instead of leaving a note and orchestrating a pumpkin purchase.”

“Maybe that’s his thing. He can only get his rocks off by killing someone who recently sold him pumpkins at a neutral location.”

Steve sighed. “You’ve been watching Forensic Files all day again, haven’t you?” 

“I can’t help it! Charlie likes it!” 

“Charlie is seven months old, Robin,” Steve reminded her. 

“She’s allowed to have opinions, Steve.” 

“Okay, well, I think I’ll be able to handle myself. But I’ll let you know when I get home safe.” 

“Thank you.”

It wasn’t the possibility of murder that was making Steve fret. It was meeting a new person. He hadn’t gotten out much since he and Andrew had split up, mostly only hanging out with Robin and Nancy when he had the time to take the train into Chicago. The breakup (and entire relationship, if he was being honest with himself) had done a number on his confidence in social situations.

Prior to meeting Andrew, Steve had been outgoing, and loved meeting new people and going to new places. Over the ten years they were together, Andrew had slowly whittled away at his confidence, constantly pointing out things Steve said or did to other people and criticizing them. It had gradually turned Steve into a quieter, shyer version of himself, tending to stay mostly silent at social gatherings. Andrew leaving Steve for a 20-year-old twink Steve walked in on him fucking in their bedroom had done nothing to help Steve’s plummeting self esteem. The only time he felt like his old self was with Robin and Nancy, and since he didn’t particularly like the new self, he avoided people who weren’t them.

But this was just a friendly pumpkin exchange, he reminded himself. If it was horribly awkward, he’d just guzzle his drink as quickly as possible and make up an excuse to leave. 

Friday after he got home from work, he stuck to his evening routine to keep from getting too anxious, feeding the cats and making dinner. He only deviated to shower and put on some different clothes, jeans instead of khakis and a Joy Division shirt instead of a polo. Teens who had recently presented had a tendency to bleed through their scent patches by the end of a school day, and Steve typically came home smelling like a hodge-podge of disgruntled young alphas and omegas. 

He blow dried his hair and put a new scent patch on. There were some bars where it was socially acceptable to go patch-free, the types of bars known as spots to garner a quick hook-up, but Bobby’s was a little neighborhood bar that catered more to the afterwork crowd. 

Steve loaded six of the pumpkins into his trunk, holding back two. He planned to carve those two with Robin, Nancy, and their baby, Charlie, closer to Halloween. He drove into town, parking as close to Bobby’s as he could get and walking inside.

As his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he scanned the room for a man with “a lot of hair”. He should have asked for clarification on that. People said Steve had “a lot of hair” but he didn’t think that would necessarily help someone spot him in a dark bar. 

Eventually, though, he saw someone standing at the bar who did, truly, have a lot of hair. A man about as tall as he was, but much skinnier, making the height seem more pronounced - all long limbs and pointy edges. His defining characteristic was indeed the massive amount of wild, curly brown hair on his head, reaching down to about the middle of his back. The hair gave Steve that odd sense of remembering something again, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. 

He approached the bar, coming to stand next to the man. He’d smelled hints of alpha scent on the card that had been left in his door, but wasn’t getting anything from him right now, so he must also be wearing a scent patch. “Eddie Munson?” he asked, and the man turned to face him, a wide smile on his face that instantly turned into a look of confusion. Steve was also confused. He looked really familiar. 

“Wait, do I know you?” Steve asked. 

Eddie’s mouth dropped open. “Oh my god. The pumpkin magician is King Steve.”

Steve hadn’t been called King Steve by anyone in almost 20 years. Not since he left Hawkins. “Eddie Munson? I thought the name sounded familiar. Holy shit. The heavy metal pot dealer.” Steve remembered him now, from Hawkins High. He’d been a year or so older than Steve, but hadn’t graduated, so had spent his senior year in Steve’s class. He didn’t think they’d ever even interacted, but he remembered his intimidating persona and frequent cafeteria rants.

Eddie threw back his head and laughed, loud and happy. “‘The heavy metal pot dealer’? I love that, I’m gonna put that on my resume.” He seemed to be a much happier man than Steve remembered, with an infectious level of joy that got Steve smiling as well. “Get a drink, I’ve got a tab started. I’m gonna find a table,” Eddie said, starting to walk away from the bar. “Seems we have more to talk about than just pumpkins.” 

Steve complied, ordering himself a beer then following Eddie to the table he’d claimed. Eddie smiled at him again as Steve sat. “So, King Steve, how’s the transition from basketball heartthrob to pumpkin grower going?” 

Steve laughed. “Please, just Steve. I resigned my position as royalty 17 years ago.”

“Crazy that someone else from Hawkins ended up here. Does that Wheeler girl live with you out on your country manse?” 

Steve would hardly consider his tiny two bedroom house a “country manse”, but he supposed he did have a lot of land. “Ah, no. Nancy and I broke up pretty soon after high school. She’s with Robin Buckley now, they actually just had their first kid. They live in Chicago.”

Eddie whistled. “Honestly wouldn’t have seen that coming. So which lucky alpha lady ended up netting King Steve then?”

Steve shifted uncomfortably. This is why he hated seeing people from Hawkins. They always assumed he’d settled into the heterosexual nuclear family he had been hurtling towards in high school. “None of them, actually,” he said, staring down at his beer. “I live alone. Well, not alone. I have four cats.” He looked up at Eddie, whose eyes had widened. “Oh, that makes me sound pathetic, doesn’t it?”

Eddie laughed, but it wasn’t a mean laugh. “No, not at all. I love cats. And I live alone, too. Don’t even have cats, so you’ve got one up on me there.” 

“So what are your curiosities?” Steve asked, wanting to get the conversation steered away from his depressingly single status. 

Eddie looked confused. “My curiosities?” 

“The business card you left, it said “Munson’s Curiosities” on it,” Steve explained.

“Oooooh,” Eddie said, face clearing. “It’s my shop! It’s kind of an everything shop - thrift store, antique shop, record store, art store. Really whatever I feel like selling.” 

“That sounds really cool,” Steve said, intrigued. 

“Yeah, you should come check it out sometime.” Eddie glanced at Steve’s Joy Division shirt. “Though the record selection might leave something to be desired, it’s all heavy metal.”

Steve smiled. “That’s alright. So that’s your job? The shop?” He was always simultaneously jealous of and perplexed by people who ran their own small businesses. It seemed like so much work just to stay afloat. 

“Mostly, though I do odd jobs here and there to help pay the bills. Running a curiosity shop is not exactly lucrative. What do you do for work? Didn’t end up going pro with basketball?” he asked with a smile.

“Ah, no, I did not,” Steve said. “I’m a teacher at the middle school. I do coach the boys’ basketball team, but I don’t actually play anymore. As you can probably tell from my altered physique.” Steve gestured self-deprecatingly at his body, which had taken on a considerable amount of fat in recent years. It seemed like once he hit 30 his metabolism had just quit on him, and no matter what he did to stop it the weight just kept accumulating. Andrew had commented on it constantly, making snide little remarks and buying non-fat alternatives of all of Steve’s favorite foods without asking him. Steve couldn't help but wonder if it was part of what had driven Andrew away.

“Hmm,” Eddie said, eyes running down Steve’s body, then back up to meet Steve’s eyes. “I think you look great.” Steve blushed and fidgeted with his glass. 

“Um, thanks,” Steve mumbled. “You look great, too.” He immediately regretted saying that. Who said that sort of shit? He didn’t even know if Eddie was gay. “I mean, that hair,” he quickly added, trying to make this less awkward. “I was always jealous of it in high school, still am now.” 

Eddie threw back his head and laughed again, that full-throated laugh, with abandon, clearly not giving a shit about the glances the people nearby threw his way at the volume. “Are you seriously telling me that Steve “the Hair” Harrington was jealous of my hair in high school?”

Steve relaxed a little, glad to be back in more neutral territory. “Yes!” he replied, laughing. “I always kind of wished I had curls.”

Eddie shook his head. “If only I could go back in time and tell 19 year old Eddie about this. I don’t think he would believe me.”

Steve spent a lot more time at the bar than he’d thought he would. Talking to Eddie was fun, and they weren’t even talking about Hawkins much. Eddie seemed to have an endless font of interesting and hilarious stories about basically every subject that came up. He also had an uncanny ability to draw Steve out and make him talk, something he hadn’t done much lately. He gave Steve his full attention every time Steve spoke, like he actually cared what Steve was saying. It was so foreign coming from someone other than Robin or Nancy. It made him feel like maybe he actually did have some interesting things to say.

Instead of finding an excuse to leave early, Steve found himself reluctantly telling Eddie he needed to leave sometime close to midnight. He was starting to get sleepy, and it was a 25 minute drive back out to his house. 

“I have the pumpkins in my car, if you want to come get them,” Steve said. 

Eddie looked confused for a moment, then his face cleared. “Oh, right, the pumpkins! I honestly forgot that’s why we met up.” He laughed at himself, and stood. “I actually walked here, my shop is just a couple of blocks away. Do you mind driving around there so we can just unload them straight in?”

“No problem,” Steve said. Eddie followed him out to his car. “What’s the event you’re using the pumpkins for?” Steve asked.

“I got roped into running a Halloween Dungeons and Dragons campaign for kids at the public library. My friend is in charge of their youth programming. Oh, you actually probably remember her! Chrissy Cunningham. Weird how so many Hawkins people ended up here.”

Steve remembered Chrissy. She had been a cheerleader, very popular, a year below him. “Yeah, I remember her,” Steve said. 

“Anyway, I saw your pumpkins when I was driving by and thought to myself, ‘Those are the most perfect pumpkins I have ever seen and I must have them’.”

Steve climbed into his car and motioned to the passenger seat. “Direct me to the curiosity shop, good sir,” he said. 

Eddie smiled and got in, telling Steve where to go. The spots in front of the shop were all empty at this time of night, so Steve pulled right up. He’d driven past the store before, but never been inside. Eddie unlocked the front door then came back to the car to help Steve pull pumpkins out of the trunk. They were big enough that they could each only carry one at a time, so they made three trips in and out to get all six into the shop.

Steve looked around after he set the last pumpkin down. The shop was cluttered, but in a pleasant way. Nearly every surface was covered in interesting objects for sale, and all the surfaces themselves seemed to be furniture for sale. 

“This is a nice place,” Steve said. 

“Thanks.” Eddie smiled at him. 

“Do you want a ride home?” Steve asked, but Eddie shook his head.

“This is home. I live in an apartment upstairs.” 

“Oh, that’s convenient,” Steve said. “Well, I’d better go. It was really nice talking with you.” He felt sad to be leaving Eddie. This had been the most fun he’d had in a long time, but he found he couldn’t make himself ask Eddie to hang out again. He kept running up against the block of his social anxiety.

“It was nice talking to you, too, Steve,” Eddie said, giving Steve a soft smile. Steve smiled back and turned to go. “Hey, listen,” Eddie said, just as Steve got to the door. He turned around. “There’s a record show in town next Saturday. I’m going to try to find more metal for the shop, but judging by your shirt you’re probably also a record person. Any interest in joining me?” 

Steve brightened. “That sounds great. I’d love to.”

Eddie smiled. “Let me give you my number.” 

“Already have it. Pumpkin note, remember?” Steve said, smiling.

“Oh, right! Then can I have yours?” He slid a piece of paper and pen over to Steve, who wrote down his number.

“Awesome,” Eddie said, looking at the paper. “See you next weekend. And thanks for the pumpkins.”

Steve left, smiling to himself the whole way home.

“The pumpkin serial killer is Eddie Munson?” Robin screeched into the phone. Steve had to pull it away from his ear to avoid trauma to his ear drum.

“I’m not dead, Robin, so probably not a serial killer.” 

“He was very scary in high school,” Robin continued, as if she hadn’t heard him. 

“Well, he’s not scary now. He’s funny and nice. Still has really great hair.” Steve regretted this addition instantly.

“Oh my god, do you have a crush on Eddie Munson?” Robin asked. Steve could hear Nancy yelling “WHAT?” in the background.

“Robin, no. I just had a good time, okay?” 

Robin snorted, clearly not believing him. “When’s the last time you’ve had a 'good time' with someone who wasn’t us?” 

“It’s been a while,” Steve admitted, sighing. 

“Well, I’m glad you did. He’s an alpha, right?” she asked. Steve could see where this was going.

“Robin,” he warned. “Stop trying to set me up with everyone. He’s probably not even gay.” 

“Okay, okay, fine!” she said, giving up. For now. He knew it wouldn’t last. “Do you think you’ll hang out with him again? Since you had fun,” she clarified. “Not because I’m trying to set you up.” 

Steve sighed. “The record show is in town again next weekend. He asked if I wanted to go with him.” 

Robin squeaked, clearly trying to rein herself in. “Oh. Cool, cool, sounds very cool.” 

Steve rolled his eyes. He heard a scuffle in the background, and Robin’s muffled voice telling Nancy something, then Nancy’s voice came over the phone.

“Are you going on a date with Eddie Munson?” Nancy asked.

“No!” Steve yelled, exasperated.

“You know he was a drug dealer,” Nancy said, disapprovingly.

Steve hung up the phone. They were both insufferable.

Chapter Text

Steve’s week went by fast, in a haze of back to school shenanigans. He’d worked late multiple days for required back to school nights, meeting with any parents who wanted to meet. He was exhausted by Friday, and anxious about the upcoming trip to the record show with Eddie. He debated coming up with some excuse and flaking out, but he really had enjoyed Eddie’s company, and he did need to beef up his record collection.

He met Eddie outside the conference center in the morning. The record show happened in their town every few months, rotating between the other towns in the region in the interim. It was organized by a regional record store, and was a kind of flea market for records, anyone able to rent a table to sell. Steve loved going, as he had been generally resistant to CDs and had chosen to continue to build his cassette tape and vinyl collection instead, but he had missed the last few. 

Eddie’s face broke out in a huge grin when he saw Steve, and he waved at him wildly. Steve couldn’t help but smile back. Eddie’s enthusiasm was contagious. 

“Hey, Eddie,” he said as he approached, and was shocked to be pulled into a vigorous bear hug. He had noticed that Eddie was a very tactile person at the bar, frequently touching Steve’s arm or hand when making a point, but he hadn’t been expecting a giant hug. He also wasn’t expecting how much he would enjoy it.

“Hi, Steve,” Eddie said, after he let go. “Sorry, I tend to get a little overexcited.” He gave Steve a sheepish grin. 

“That’s alright,” Steve said, smiling. “I don’t mind.” Eddie’s smile got even wider. 

“Let’s go in!” Eddie said, grabbing Steve’s hand and pulling him through the doors. 

“Anything in particular you’re looking for?” Steve said, overwhelmed as always by the number of records in one place. 

Eddie shook his head. “I like to sell heavy metal at the shop, but nothing more specific than that. You?” 

“Lots of things, but what I’m most on the hunt for is Fear of Music by The Talking Heads. Once I have that I’ll have all of his albums.”

“Oh nice. I’ll keep my peepers peeled,” Eddie said, opening his eyes comically wide and making Steve laugh.

They dove into the tables, Eddie’s high energy transferring itself to the browsing process. His attention was fickle, switching focus rapidly, sometimes so fast Steve had trouble catching up. Eddie’s brain seemed to move faster than Steve’s, flitting between topics in a pattern Steve didn’t entirely follow, but Steve found it refreshing. 

“So, are you just a metal type of guy, or do you listen to other stuff?” Steve asked as they browsed the tables, bringing the conversation back to music after a lengthy sidebar Eddie had taken them on about mushrooms. Steve hadn’t followed the entire lecture on electrical impulses in mycelium, but he had thoroughly enjoyed Eddie’s habit of touching his arm every time he wanted to emphasize a point.

“I’ll be honest with you and say I’m mostly a metal guy,” Eddie replied. “Would love to say I have varied and sophisticated tastes, but I really do not. I just like my ear-splitting screams and heavy guitar.” He picked up an Iron Maiden album, took it out of its sleeve to look for scratches, then wrinkled his nose and put it back.

“That’s fair,” Steve said. “Nothing wrong with knowing what you like.”  

“What about you? Joy Division, Talking Heads - I’m sensing distinct music snob vibes here.” 

Steve chuckled. “Robin does like to tell me I’m a bit of a snob about music. But really I like a little bit of all the genres. I just also don’t like a lot of all the genres.”

They continued to chat as they browsed, Eddie slowly accumulating a stack of records to re-sell at his shop, Steve learning about the mating habits of octopuses. “You know I was in a band in high school,” Eddie said, seemingly out of nowhere after he’d finished his explanation of the hectocotylus. 

“Really?” Steve asked, seizing the opportunity to move the focus of the conversation away from sperm transfer tentacles. 

“Really,” Eddie confirmed. “Played guitar and did vocals. Corroded Coffin.”

“Metal, I assume?” Eddie nodded. “Do you still play at all?” 

“Yeah, sometimes I do sub gigs when a band needs a guitar player last minute, I’ll go all the way to Chicago if they’re paying enough and I’m bored enough. I play on my own a lot, too, but I haven’t been in a regular band since high school.”

“That’s cool. You’ll have to let me know if you’re ever playing with someone around here.”

Eddie smiled at him, looking pleased. “Sure. Will do.” 

Between Eddie’s apparently random topics of conversation, he peppered Steve with questions about his life. He seemed to want to know everything Steve had done since he’d left high school, and actually listened to Steve’s answers. Given how rapidly his focus seemed to shift, Steve would have expected his attention to drift while Steve boringly explained getting his teaching degree and working at his first few jobs, but when he asked Steve a question his attention was fully on Steve for the entire answer. It was honestly a bit jarring. Steve couldn’t remember anyone ever having given what he said that much attention.

About an hour into the browsing and conversation, Eddie yelped loudly, jumping into the air. “What?” Steve asked, concerned. “Are you alright?” 

“I found it, Stevie,” he said, turning to Steve with a huge grin and holding up a copy of Fear of Music . 

“Oh, fuck yeah,” Steve said, grabbing it from Eddie and pulling it out of the sleeve. It was in great condition. “Thanks, man,” he said, giving Eddie an awkward pat on the arm. He was trying to mirror Eddie’s ease with casual touch, and finding it difficult. 

They left after Steve bought the record, and went to a diner close by to get lunch, continuing their conversation.  

“So tell me more about your cats,” Eddie said at one point, stealing a fry off of Steve’s plate. Steve hesitated. He knew what it looked like to be a single 35 year old man with four cats. The optics weren’t great. So, he tended to avoid talking about his cats with strangers as much as possible. But Eddie didn’t really feel like a stranger anymore. 

“They’re really great. I’ve had Amos and Olive for a long time, they were both adults when I adopted them, so I’m not sure how old either of them are, but I’ve had Amos for 12 years and Olive for 10. I got Katara and Sokka last year as kittens. They’re from the same litter, and they are little hellions.”

“Avatar the Last Airbender fan?” Eddie asked. Steve blushed. Not only did he have four cats, but he had named two of them after cartoon characters.

“Yeah,” Steve said haltingly. “When you teach a bunch of 13 year olds you have to stay up on things, and I have to say the personalities fit.”

Eddie laughed. “No need to be embarrassed, I fucking love that show.” Steve softened. It seemed like he never had to feel embarrassed with Eddie. It was a new but welcome sensation. “When can I meet them?” 

Steve’s eyebrows shot up. Was Eddie asking to come over to his house? To meet his cats? It sure seemed like it. “Um, you want to meet my cats?” Steve asked, voice a little higher pitched than normal. 

“Yeah, of course. I mean, if you want me to. No worries, though, if you’d rather not.” Eddie looked a little unsure of himself now, and Steve hated that.

“No! No, I definitely want you to meet them. Sorry, I just know a lot of people who don’t like cats very much, I was surprised.”

Eddie scoffed. “People who don’t like cats? Despicable.”

“I know, right?” Steve agreed. “Would you like to come over for dinner sometime this week? To meet them. I mean, you could also just come meet them, you don’t have to have dinner with me.”

Eddie smiled wide. “No, I’d absolutely love to come over for cats and dinner. I’m free Wednesday or Thursday, I close the shop around 5 those days.”

They set a time for Thursday evening, then went their separate ways, Eddie walking toward a motorcycle. Fuck. Steve felt arousal start to build in his lower belly. Eddie looked really good as he threw on a helmet and slung a leg over his motorcycle. Steve turned away, trying to force the image out of his mind. He did not need to develop a crush on a man whose sexual orientation and relationship status he didn’t even know. 

Steve bent down toward the four cats who were staring up at him imploringly, waiting for treats. “Now you’re all going to be on your absolute best behavior, is that clear?” he said, hands on his hips. “No biting, no scratching, no excessive yowling.” 

They continued to look at the box of treats on the counter. He sighed and reached up to grab it, handing out a treat to each cat and giving them all a pat on the head before turning around to stir the sauce. 

Eddie was coming over. For dinner. He tried not to go into full anxiety mode, but he hadn’t had anyone other than Robin and Nancy over since Andrew moved out. He was a baseline neat freak, so hadn’t needed to do too much cleanup to prepare, but he had agonized over what to cook. He loved cooking and enjoyed experimenting in the kitchen, but he didn’t want to do anything too fancy, that might be overwhelming. He settled on a homemade butternut squash ravioli that he could pretend he got at the store if Eddie seemed weird about it.

Steve looked out the window at the sound of an approaching motorcycle, watching Eddie pull into his driveway. He pulled off his helmet, shaking out his wild hair, and Steve swallowed audibly. “Let’s be cool about this, guys,” he whispered to the cats. 

Steve watched as Eddie approached, taking time to look at the garden, which was still producing quite a bit. It had been an unseasonably warm September so far. Finally, Eddie knocked on the door, and Steve took his time answering so as not to seem too eager. 

Eddie smiled wide when Steve opened the door, dimples on full display. “Hey, come in,” Steve said, holding the door open so Eddie could walk in. He brushed against Steve on the way and Steve had to suppress a shiver. He could just get a hint of Eddie’s scent starting to bleed through his patch, which he had presumably been wearing all day. Steve had put on a new patch after showering, but his entire house was saturated in his scent, so Eddie was undoubtedly getting a noseful anyway. 

He saw Eddie’s nostrils flare. “Hey, Steve,” he said. “Smells great in here.” Eddie held protracted eye contact with Steve while he spoke. Steve looked away first. Eddie seemed to really like eye contact, and it was difficult for Steve. 

He laughed nervously. “It’s ravioli,” he said, looking toward the stove. A corner of Eddie’s mouth twitched, and he looked like he wanted to say something, but he just shook his head a little. The tense moment was interrupted by Amos rubbing his face against Eddie’s legs and meowing loudly.

“That’s Amos,” Steve said, as Eddie bent to pet the cat. 

“Ah, yes, I believe we spoke on the phone,” Eddie said as Amos purred into his hand. The other three cats were more skittish, and watched from across the room. Steve pointed to them in turn, giving Eddie each of their names. 

“They’re all lovely,” Eddie said, smiling. Eddie tried to insist on helping him get dinner ready, but Steve shooed him away, telling him to look through his records and pick music to listen to. Eddie kept up a running commentary as he leafed through Steve’s records, asking Steve about his day and telling Steve about his own in turn. 

“Oh, shit, you have a Metallica album?” Eddie asked, holding up Steve’s copy of Master of Puppets. 

“I told you, I like a little bit of everything,” Steve replied, smiling at Eddie’s surprise.

“Hmmm. Probably not the best dinner music, as much as it pains me to admit that. You can never tell my uncle I said that,” Eddie added, glaring at Steve. Eddie picked a Nick Cave album instead, The Boatman’s Call.

“Does your uncle have a problem with Metallica?” Steve asked.

“I mean, not inherently, but I think he probably developed a problem with them after having to live with me through the 80s. I grew up with him, my parents weren’t really in the picture.”

Steve nodded, bringing a few dishes over to the table. “I don’t think my parents were ever really around enough to object to my music choices,” Steve said, then almost immediately wanted to retract the statement. It sounded self-pitying.

Eddie sat at the table. “Did you like that? Not having them around?” He seemed genuinely interested, and not annoyed by Steve’s overshare.

“Not really,” Steve said. “But it was better than the alternative. They’re not great people. Haven’t spoken to them since I left Hawkins.” 

Eddie looked like he might probe further, and Steve didn’t particularly want to go there, so he changed the subject as the soft piano of “Into My Arms” ramped up. “I thought you only listened to metal,” he said, teasing. 

Eddie shrugged. “It would ruin my persona if I admitted it, but I actually do listen to other things on very rare occasions.”

Steve smiled. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“Much appreciated,” Eddie replied, then bit into the ravioli. He moaned around the bite and Steve shifted awkwardly in his seat, suddenly very glad he’d worn the scent patch. “Steve this is fucking fantastic. Did you make this yourself?”

All thoughts of pretending it was store bought flew out the window as he responded instinctively to Eddie’s praise. “Y-yeah. I made it with butternut squash from the garden.”

Eddie reached out and grabbed Steve’s arm. “I think you’re a wizard,” he whispered.

Steve laughed, blushing. “No wizardry here. I just like to cook.”

“The only thing I can cook is macaroni and cheese,” Eddie said, face mock serious. “From a box.”

“Then I’m really sorry for your palate.”

“Thank you for your sympathy, but what I need more than sympathy is for you to cook all of my meals,” Eddie said. He was obviously joking, but Steve felt a shock run through his body at Eddie’s words. His inner omega was thrilled. He wanted to take care of Eddie like that. 

He coughed and stood up, heading for the refrigerator. “Do you want something to drink?” he asked, voice pitched higher than he would have liked. “I have wine, or beer, or just water. I think I have some, like, pop or something somewhere.” He was definitely rambling now, moving things around in the fridge. 

“I’m alright with water,” Eddie said. When Steve turned to hand Eddie some water he found Eddie staring at him with a quizzical look on his face. Had Steve fucked this up already? Could Eddie tell he was being weird? God, he hoped not. But Eddie didn’t say anything, he just took the water from Steve, fingers lightly brushing against Steve’s, and shifted the conversation.

That snafu aside, Steve had a lovely evening. They went outside after dinner, continuing to talk and listen to music. Eddie zeroed in on the pool as soon as they got outside.

“You didn’t tell me you had a pool!” Eddie yelled, accusatory, smacking Steve on the arm.

“You didn’t ask?” Steve said, unsure.

“I love pools!”

Steve laughed. “Well, if you’re not doing anything this Saturday, a couple of friends are coming over - Robin Buckley and Nancy Wheeler, actually - to swim. You can come if you’d like.” The invite was out before Steve could even think about it.

“Really?” Eddie asked, looking excited. “I wouldn’t be crashing the party too much?” 

“No, not at all. There will be a baby, though. If you have a problem with babies.”

Eddie looked confused. “Do you meet a lot of people who have problems with babies?” he asked, perplexed. Andrew had hated babies, and would get horribly bitchy with Steve if he wasn’t warned against their possible presence at any outing Steve organized. Steve had forgotten it wasn’t really normal to hate babies.

“Uh, no, just, you know. Full disclosure.”

“Well, I don’t have a problem with babies, so, we’re good.” 

“So you want to come?” Steve asked, hopeful.

“Yeah, I want to come!” Eddie said with a smile. 

It was late by the time they came back inside for Eddie to say his goodbyes to the cats, much later than Steve typically stayed up during the week. He was tired, and more than ready to go to sleep, but he still felt a little sad to see Eddie go.

Eddie paused by the door and looked like he was about to say something, then stopped. He reached out to touch Steve’s arm, almost a caress. “Thanks so much for dinner, Steve. I had a really great time.”

It took Steve a moment to reply, all of his brain cells trying to travel into the few points of contact between Eddie’s fingers and the skin of his arm. “Thanks for coming,” he finally managed to say. “See you Saturday?” 

Eddie nodded, slowly moving his hand away from Steve and walking out the door. Steve watched him ride away and slumped down into his recliner, Amos immediately jumping onto him and taking up residence in his throne on Steve’s chest.

“What have I gotten myself into?” Steve whispered into his fur. 

“Excuse me, I think something may be wrong with my ears,” Robin said, jiggling baby Charlie in her arms while she sat in a pool chair. “Did you just say Eddie is on his way? Eddie Munson?”

“Yes, I invited him,” Steve said, shooting her a glare. “Can you please not be weird about this?”

“He’s an alpha, right? Is he still kinda cute?” 

“Robin, I said NOT weird.” 

She huffed and settled back in the chair. “Okay, fine. I’ll behave.” Nancy snorted from where she was floating in the pool. “I don’t appreciate your lack of confidence in me, babe,” Robin said to her. 

A little while later, he heard the sound of Eddie’s motorcycle pulling into the driveway. 

“He drives a motorcycle?” Robin asked, eyes wide, and Steve reached over and smacked her lightly on the arm. It would have been a much harder smack if she wasn’t holding Charlie. He went into the house to let Eddie in. He was wearing jeans and his leather jacket even though it was approaching 90 degrees outside. 

“How are you not dying of heat exhaustion right now?” Steve asked when he saw him. 

Eddie laughed. “I kind of am? But you only need to experience the pleasure of road rash once in your life before you start to dress appropriately for motorcycle riding.” Steve was just in his swimming trunks, and Eddie’s eyes moved up and down his body. Steve fought against the urge to wrap his hands around the pudginess of his belly. 

Eddie met his eyes, and Steve wasn’t sure what he saw there. It didn’t look like disgust, but it was intense, whatever it was. Eddie broke eye contact as Amos walked up to him, demanding attention. He bent to pet the cat, then stood up and gestured to the bag he had in his hands. 

“Somewhere I can change?” he asked. 

“Oh, sure, of course!” Steve led him to the guest room. “We’ll be outside, whenever you’re ready. Just don’t let Amos monopolize you,” Steve added as Amos trotted into the guest bedroom behind Eddie. 

Steve walked back outside. “Are you blushing right now?” Robin said immediately.

“Jesus, Robin, can you give me, like, one break in life?” Steve asked, collapsing into a chair beside her with a sigh.

“Where is he?” Nancy asked, looking back at the door. 

“He’s changing. And probably dealing with Amos’s whorish ways.” 

Eddie walked out a few minutes later in only a pair of black swim trunks, with a towel slung over one shoulder. He had quite a few tattoos on his torso and arms, of varying styles and quality. They were mixed with a series of rather impressive scars, presumably the consequences of the aforementioned road rash. 

He smiled, walking over to everyone. “Well, hello, Buckley and Wheeler. A pleasant surprise to once again make your acquaintance.” He gave them a dorky little bow and Robin snorted. 

“Hi Eddie,” Nancy said from the pool. “Good to see you again.”

Eddie sat in the chair beside Robin, walking past Steve to get there. Steve was hit by a wall of Eddie’s scent as he passed, having taken his scent patch off to swim. It was a pleasant alpha scent. Steve could pick out cedar, pine, and something citrus-y, with a hint of vanilla. His own scent was responding, involuntarily, the amber notes that signified his arousal ticking up. Robin shot him a knowing look and he glared at her.

“And who is this lovely young person?” Eddie asked, motioning to Charlie. 

“This is Charlie. She’s mine and Nancy’s, though Steve is her ever-present uncle. Do you want to hold her?” Robin asked, holding the baby out to Eddie. 

Eddie took her immediately, clearly comfortable with babies, and started to coo at her and tell her how beautiful she was. Robin turned to Steve and smirked as Steve shifted uncomfortably, more warm amber pouring into the air around them. 

Charlie reached out to yank on some of his hair, and Eddie made a silly face at her, eliciting a giggle. 

“Do you have any kids of your own?” Robin pried.

Eddie shook his head. “No, I’ve not had the pleasure thus far in life.” 

“Steve, when are you planning to get started on your six kids so you can tour the country with them in your Winnebago?” Nancy asked. 

Steve gave her a look that he hoped she interpreted as “please shut up now”.

Eddie looked up at him and raised his eyebrows. “Six, huh?” 

Steve blushed. “Nancy, I said that to you, like, 15 years ago, when will you let it go? It's very unlikely to actually happen at this point given I’m 35 with no boyfriend, and no Winnebago.”

Nancy shrugged. “Both issues could be easily remedied.”

Eddie was looking at him funny now, and Steve could smell vanilla much more prominently. Great, now he probably thought Steve was a basket case. Steve dealt with his distress by standing up and cannonballing into the pool next to Nancy, upsetting her from her floatie so she dumped into the water.

“What the hell, Steve!” she yelped when she came back up for air, splashing water at him. 

“Would you two behave? You’re gonna splash Charlie!” Robin scolded them. Nancy got out of the pool to dry off, glaring at Steve. 

The rest of the day went better. Eddie got along well with Nancy and Robin, and he clearly had a soft spot for Charlie. Steve was starting to get frazzled, though, by Eddie’s increasing invasion of his personal space. It’s not that he didn’t like it. No, he liked it too much. 

Eddie seemed to take every possible opportunity to get close to Steve - lingering with their shoulders touching after handing him Charlie, brushing a stray leaf off Steve’s face and then keeping his hand on his neck, grabbing Steve around the waist and jumping into the pool with him, holding on long after they surfaced. It was a lot. Steve could smell the traces of Eddie’s scent at multiple points on his body, even through the chlorine. 

Eddie had to leave around dinner time. He was subbing for a band at a bar downtown that evening, but Robin, Nancy, and Charlie were spending the night so they didn’t have to take a late train back into Chicago.

Steve went back inside with Eddie, feeding the cats as Eddie got changed in the guest room. Eddie emerged from the room with clothes back on, and Steve suddenly felt vulnerable in just his swimming trunks. He walked over to the door to say goodbye, and Eddie pulled him into a hug. Steve let out a little squeak at the unexpected contact, but managed to recover and return the hug. 

“Thanks for the invite. I had a lot of fun,” Eddie said, still hugging Steve.

“You’re welcome,” Steve said, voice muffled where his head was pressed against Eddie’s shoulder. He was using every single bit of willpower he had to keep himself from purring at the close contact.  “I’m glad you came.” 

Eddie pulled back, and Steve felt the scent gland on one of Eddie’s wrists graze over his own as he moved away, making Steve shudder involuntarily. If he hadn’t known any better he would think Eddie was scenting him.

“Listen, uh,” Eddie said, hand moving to the back of his neck. He looked nervous. “They’re showing some old monster movies at the theater downtown next weekend, and you mentioned you like those, so I wondered if you might want to go? With me?” 

“Yeah, of course!” Steve said, with probably too much enthusiasm. This isn’t a date, he told himself. Don’t get your hopes up. But he had wanted to go see those anyway, so why not go with Eddie?

Eddie relaxed, smiling. “Okay, great. I’ll call you later in the week, we can work out the details.” 

“Alright. Thanks. Drive safe,” he added, as Eddie walked out the door, and Eddie turned to give him another winning smile before getting on his bike. 

Steve shut the door and walked back out to the pool, where Robin and Nancy were both pretending they hadn’t just been desperately trying to peek through the windows into the house. Robin wrinkled her nose as Steve sat next to her. “Did he scent you? Oh holy shit.”

Steve let out an exasperated sigh. “No, Robin, he just gave me a hug. He’s a touchy person, he gives everybody hugs.”

“We didn’t get hugs,” Nancy pointed out from where she was laying a few chairs down, Charlie napping on her chest. 

“Dude, you reek of him, he must have scented you,” Robin insisted.

“I think it was an accident, he just kind of brushed his wrist against my neck when the hug was ending.”

“Steve, you’re literally just describing scenting right now.”

He rolled his eyes. “Whatever, Robin. Nancy, why did you have to bring up the six kid thing? Why are you so hell bent on embarrassing me?”

“Embarrassing you?” Nancy sounded affronted. “Steve, you cannot be this oblivious. Eddie wants to knock you up, like, yesterday. I was just making sure he knew his advances would be appreciated.”

“I should have known you guys would be absolutely intolerable about this,” Steve said, groaning. “He looked at me like I had two heads when you said that, so I highly doubt he’s into it. Also, he’s probably not even queer, and even if he was, he’s probably not single.”

“How have you gotten through life like this?” Nancy asked, looking at him with amazement. “Did you smell him after I said you wanted six kids? I’m surprised he didn’t just drop Charlie and go over to get started right then. Also, he’s definitely queer.”

“You don’t even know him! How do you know what he smells like when he’s into something?” 

“Steve, you sweet dumb darling,” Nancy said, “no alpha in the history of alphas has ever smelled that sweet unless they were aroused.”

Steve slumped back in his chair. Nancy was usually right about everything. But there was no way she could be right about this.

“What did he say to you before he left?” Robin asked.

“He asked me to go see some movies with him next weekend,” Steve admitted, blushing. 

“You’re going to be so cute pregnant,” Robin said, and Steve smacked her on the arm, able to unleash his full wrath now that Charlie was with Nancy.

Chapter Text

Steve changed his outfit for the fifth time, the cats all staring at him from their various spots on the bed as he threw another shirt down next to them. He kept telling himself that this wasn’t a date, yet here he was wearing his most form-fitting jeans (the “ass jeans” as Robin called them) and fixating on shirt choices. He hadn’t worn the ass jeans since Andrew left.

“What do you guys think?” he asked the cats after he pulled on a soft yellow sweater. The weather had finally cooled off, and it felt like fall. None of the cats responded. Typical. He gave up, settling on the yellow sweater out of sheer mental exhaustion.

He and Eddie were meeting at the theater at 2, and they were planning to stay for all three features - the 1930s versions of Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, and Dracula. 

Eddie was already waiting in the lobby when Steve got there, studying an old poster. He looked a little more put-together than the times Steve had seen him before. His black jeans were amazingly hole-free, and his hair was pulled up into a messy bun. He seemed completely lost in thought, focused intensely on the poster in front of him. “Hi, Eddie,” Steve said when Eddie didn’t react to his approach. Eddie jumped about a foot in the air, yelping.

“Oh, shit, sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you,” Steve said, steadying Eddie reflexively with a hand on his arm. 

Eddie laughed, hand on his chest. “No worries. Sometimes I get a little too in my head.” He put his hand over Steve’s on his arm. “It’s good to see you,” he said, smiling.

Steve’s mouth went dry at the feel of Eddie’s hand on his, and he blushed. What was wrong with him? Had his students infected him with their pubescent angst?

“Good to see you, too,” he managed to get out, and Eddie let go of his hand. 

“I already got the tickets,” Eddie said, waving the pieces of paper in his other hand. “Do you want popcorn? I want popcorn.” Eddie was talking just as fast as usual.

“Oh, I could have gotten my own ticket!” Steve protested. Eddie raised his eyebrows at him. “At least let me get the popcorn,” Steve said. 

“Alright,” Eddie said, motioning to the concession area. “Lead on, my good man.” 

After they acquired an insane amount of popcorn (“the biggest, Steve, it has to be the biggest”) they found seats toward the back. It was a historic theater, with a much smaller screen and less comfortable seats than the newer movie theaters, but the ambiance was way better. There were few enough people spread throughout the theater that they were able to whisper to each other the entire time without being shushed. Eddie, predictably, kept up a running commentary with a truly impressive number of factoids about the production of each of the films. 

“Where do you learn this stuff?” Steve whispered at one point. “And how do you remember it all?”

“I went through an obsessive phase about old Hollywood and monster movies a few years ago,” Eddie explained. “I have a shockingly good memory for all sorts of things that don’t matter, and a very terrible memory for the things that do, if my scholastic performance is to be believed.”

Steve snorted. “If only scholastic performance were an actual indicator of intelligence.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows. “But you’re a teacher. Are you even allowed to say shit like that?” He looked surreptitiously over his shoulders. “What if someone hears and you get put in teacher jail?”

“I’ll take my chances,” Steve said with a laugh, then sobered a little. “It’s hard to see really intelligent kids struggling with school, and it happens a lot. I try to help them as much as I can, but there’s not much I can do about the Indiana state standards.”

“Wish I’d had a teacher like you growing up. Maybe it wouldn’t have taken me three tries to graduate high school.”

Steve had forgotten that Eddie hadn’t graduated with his class. For some reason it made him feel bad. Like he should have helped Eddie, back then. Eddie reached out and touched the skin between Steve’s eyebrows. 

“That’s a mighty ferocious frown,” Eddie said, in a mock Western accent. 

Steve’s mouth twitched up into a smile. “Sorry. I just… feel like I should have helped you. In high school. Though I wasn’t exactly a star pupil either.”

Eddie snorted. “I don’t think we ever even talked, Steve. You’re not allowed to feel guilty about that.” He moved his finger from between Steve’s eyebrows, gently brushing his thumb over Steve’s cheekbone as he removed his hand. Steve could feel every place Eddie touched him like he was trailing capsaicin over him.

Eddie had the most to say about Bride of Frankenstein, which turned out to be one of his all-time favorite movies. Steve had only seen it once, and enjoyed it even more this time around with Eddie’s constant commentary. 

About twenty minutes into the last movie, Dracula, Steve felt something brush against his hand where it was sitting on his thigh, and looked down to see Eddie’s hand. He instinctively flipped his own hand over, brain barely registering what was happening, and Eddie slotted his fingers between Steve’s, holding his hand.

Steve immediately started to panic when his brain finally caught up with what was happening. Eddie was holding his hand. Did he hold hands with all his friends? What was going on? He was worried his palms were going to start sweating.

Eddie squeezed his hand gently and whispered, “Is this alright?” Steve noticed that his shoulders had gone rigid. Eddie must have sensed the tension. He willed himself to relax and nodded.

“Yeah. Totally,” he replied, squeezing Eddie’s hand back but refusing to look at him. They held hands for the rest of the movie, Eddie continuing his commentary like nothing weird was going on at all. Steve was pretty sure he managed to keep his palms from getting too sweaty, but he was also pretty sure he didn’t take in much of what was happening with the movie. 

Eddie let go of his hand finally as the credits started to roll, tracing a finger down Steve’s thigh to his knee lightly in the process, making Steve shiver. They walked out of the theater to find it was already dark outside. Steve motioned to the right when they got to the sidewalk.

“I parked that way,” he said awkwardly, knowing Eddie’s shop was in the opposite direction. 

“I’ll walk with you,” Eddie said, turning to the right. 

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” Steve protested. “It’s just like two blocks away.”

Eddie reached out and grabbed hold of Steve’s hand again. “I want to.” 

Steve swallowed hard and nodded, starting to walk in the direction of his car while Eddie held his hand. This was a lot of hand-holding for a platonic situation, even to his “I-don’t-want-to-get-my-hopes-up” denial brain. 

“This is me,” he said when they got to his car, dropping Eddie’s hand to pull out his keys. He turned toward Eddie, back against his car. “Thanks for today. It was a lot of fun.” 

Eddie was staring at him. The eye contact made Steve anxious and his eyes flitted away, looking at the ground. Eddie’s hand came up to press under his chin, tilting Steve’s face back up so he had to look at him. Eddie leaned forward and pressed his lips to Steve’s, kissing him, hand moving to cup the back of Steve’s head. 

Steve startled for a moment, taking in a tiny gasp of air. Eddie paused, but didn’t move his lips away - an obvious invitation, requiring a response. Steve leaned forward, pressing his lips to Eddie’s, and Eddie sighed. He resumed kissing Steve, tilting his head to get a better angle. Steve fisted a hand in the front of Eddie’s shirt, wrapping the other arm around Eddie’s neck, pulling him closer. 

Eddie wrapped his free arm around Steve’s waist, pulling their bodies together, and Steve could feel Eddie’s erection press against his hip. Steve felt arousal building in his belly as Eddie pressed his tongue to his lips. He opened his mouth, allowing Eddie in, tangling his tongue with Eddie’s. He could smell his own amber and Eddie’s vanilla mixing together in the air around them, bleeding through scent patches.

Eddie pulled back before it got too heated, pressing his forehead to Steve’s. “That was not platonic,” Steve said, like an absolute idiot. 

Eddie huffed a laugh. “No, it wasn’t platonic. Glad you got that message.” He frowned. “Is that okay?”

Steve leaned forward to kiss him again. “Very okay,” he said against Eddie’s lips. Eddie kissed him back, lips soft. Steve could taste popcorn and soda and, underneath all of that, a taste that was uniquely Eddie. As the kiss deepened, he felt slick starting to pool in his boxers, and the scent of it filled the air around them. 

Eddie growled into his mouth, pressing him harder against the car. Steve moaned and bucked his hips up against Eddie’s, the part of him that wanted Eddie to just bend him over the hood of the car and fuck him right here trying to take control. 

Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed. Eddie stepped back abruptly, but kept a hand on Steve’s cheek, moving his thumb back and forth. “If we keep going this is gonna rapidly descend into the territory of public indecency,” Eddie said. Part of Steve wanted to ask Eddie to take him back to his apartment, but he had a feeling that might turn into an all-night thing and he had a hoard of hungry cats to tend to. 

“And I need to feed my cats or I risk retaliatory furniture damage,” Steve said.

“When can I see you again?” Eddie asked.

“I’m free most nights this week,” Steve said, then immediately worried that sounded pathetic and needy. Eddie just smiled, though. 

“What about Wednesday?” 

“Alright,” Steve said. “Do you want to come over for dinner again?”

“Yeah, that sounds fantastic,” Eddie replied, and leaned in to kiss Steve one more time, keeping this one chaste. “Drive safe, Stevie.”

Eddie pulled himself away from Steve and started to walk in the direction of his apartment, turning a few times to look back at Steve with a huge, dopey smile on his face. Steve clambered into his car, heart still racing. 

His first thought, once he was capable of intelligent thought again, was - how the fuck was Nancy always right?

“Mr. Harrington, you seem really distracted. Is everything okay?” 

Steve looked up from the papers he was marking on his desk to see Dustin Henderson standing in front of him. The rest of the class was busy writing an essay (or at least pretending to). Dustin had finished his essay early, as usual.

Steve scrunched up his face in confusion. “What do you mean? I'm fine.”

Dustin gave him a skeptical look. “You didn't even sigh once when I asked too many off topic questions today.” 

“So you admit it was too many and that they were off topic?” Steve asked, raising his eyebrows. Steve had spent his entire lesson today on autopilot with most of his mind trying to decide what the hell he was going to cook for Eddie, who was coming over for dinner tomorrow, but he wasn't about to tell Dustin that.

Dustin rolled his eyes. “That’s not fair. Using my own words against me.” 

“You just handed that one right to me, I couldn’t pass it up,” Steve replied. “I appreciate your concern, but, really, I’m okay. Go back to your seat, Henderson.” 

Dustin grumpily complied, pulling out one of a seemingly endless rotation of books with a knight, dragon, or some sort of other creature on the front. 

Steve spent the rest of the day on a similar sort of autopilot, most of his brain dedicated to freaking out about some aspect of the impending dinner. When he went to the teacher’s lounge for lunch, he had to stifle an audible groan as he saw Mindy, one of the English teachers. He would have turned around and left, eating at his desk, if she hadn’t already caught sight of him, waving him over to her table.

He walked over, unable to avoid it. Mindy had started the year prior, and was on a relentless mission to go out with Steve. If she had ever come out and asked him to date her, he would have been able to tell her he wasn’t interested, but she just kept hinting. If he were a braver man he’d have a frank conversation with her about it, but he was Indiana born and bred, and beating around the bush to avoid hurting anyone’s feelings was hardwired into his psyche. 

Interacting with Mindy was one of the only times he really chafed at the fact that he wasn’t out at work. He’d started his teaching career at a Catholic school, and those few years of having to keep his sexual orientation so deeply hidden in order to keep his job had been difficult to shake. Even once he transitioned to public schools in the mid-1990s, being an openly gay teacher wasn’t great for his job prospects. People were still allowed to fire you for being gay in Indiana. 

So, he had to grind his teeth through many lunches spent trying to ignore pointed comments and searching looks. He used his usual excuse this time when she asked him to hang out over the weekend - babysitting for Robin in Chicago. 

“Do you babysit every weekend?” she asked, eyes wide. He had used the excuse a lot recently. 

“Yeah, you know, just helping my friends out.”

She propped her chin in her hands and gave him a dreamy look. “You’re gonna make a really good father.” 

Steve stood abruptly, gathering his trash, before Mindy could start asking him about his plans for children. “Alright, see you later, Mindy,” he said, making a hasty exit.

It wasn’t just the Mindy-ness of the situation that was making him uncomfortable this time. It was the reminder of the slow rekindling of hopes long buried. When they’d initially gotten together, Andrew had said he definitely wanted kids someday, but that had gradually turned into a “maybe” and then, finally, a “never”. Steve had tried to take it in stride, telling himself that being with Andrew meant more to him than having kids, but he’d always mourned the loss of that dream somewhere deep in his heart. 

Then Nancy had made it clear that Steve wanted kids in front of Eddie, and Eddie apparently hadn’t been scared away. He knew it didn’t mean Eddie for sure wanted kids, but he still felt a little flame reigniting - the thought of having his own baby, not needing to live vicariously through Robin and Nancy’s. 

Steve tried his best to blow out the little flame. He didn’t need to have his hopes crushed again.

In the end, Steve decided to cook something simple for Wednesday night, so he wouldn't have to rush too much to prep it after work - lemon chicken with rice. It was one of his favorite things to make, and even though it wasn't flashy it was pretty good. He'd never had any complaints.

He showered after he got things started. As he caught sight of his naked body in the mirror while drying off after the shower, he felt a spike of anxiety. Eddie was going to want to have sex. Steve had been trying to avoid thinking about this eventuality for the past three days. Even though Steve’s body clearly wanted to have sex, given its response to the kissing, his mind was having some issues getting fully on board.

He and Andrew started dating when Steve was 24, and he, unlike Andrew, hadn’t slept with anyone else during their relationship. Toward the end, he hadn’t even been having sex with Andrew, which should have been a big warning sign, but Steve just thought it was an unfortunate inevitability of an aging relationship. He definitely hadn’t slept with anyone after the breakup. All told, it had been 11 years since he’d slept with anyone other than Andrew, and nearly two years since he’d had sex at all.

It was terrifying to be thinking about having sex with a new person after all this time. What if he wasn’t any good at sex anymore? What if he didn’t even like sex anymore? He certainly hadn’t liked it with Andrew much in the final years of their relationship, but he had hoped that was just because it was Andrew, who had never cared much about Steve’s pleasure. 

Steve leaned against the counter, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down. Amos came into the bathroom, twisting between Steve’s legs and meowing loudly, pulling Steve out of his spiral.

Just after he had finished drying his hair, he heard the sound of Eddie’s motorcycle pulling into his driveway. He hurriedly threw on some clothes, grateful he didn’t have the time to obsess over what he was putting on, and got to the door just as Eddie knocked.

He opened the door to see a smiling Eddie holding a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a bottle of wine in the other. 

“Oh,” Steve said, more an exhalation than a word. No one had ever bought Steve flowers. He’d usually been the flower-buyer. Eddie held out the flowers to him and Steve took them.

“Hi, Steve,” he said, leaning forward to kiss Steve on the cheek. He wasn’t wearing a scent patch today, and Steve was instantly enveloped in his piney scent. “They’re cat friendly.” Steve looked at him, confused. “The flowers,” Eddie clarified. 

“That’s…” The most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me, Steve almost said, but managed to keep that one to himself. “Really thoughtful,” he said instead. “They’re beautiful. Come in.” He stepped aside, letting Eddie in.

Eddie set the wine down on the counter. “I didn’t know what you were cooking, so I just picked the bottle with the best label. Also, full disclosure, I don’t know anything about wine, so even if I had known what you were cooking I would have just picked the bottle with the best label.”

Steve smiled and looked at the bottle. It was a cabernet sauvignon with a silly drawing of a cat on it. “This will definitely work.”

“Oh, good,” Eddie said, then turned to greet all four cats as Steve pulled out a vase for the flowers, putting them in the middle of the kitchen island.

“How was your day?” Eddie asked, once he was done spoiling all the cats. 

Steve shrugged. “Pretty normal,” he said. “You can put your jacket over there, if you want.” Steve pointed to the coat rack hidden behind the door. Eddie took off his jacket, his shirt riding up in the process to show a sliver of pale skin and a trail of dark hair leading down into the waistband of his jeans. Steve almost dropped the wine glass he’d picked up. 

“How was your day?” Steve asked, hoping Eddie hadn’t noticed. He poured them each a glass of wine and took a big gulp of his, trying to calm his nerves a little.

“Fantastic,” Eddie said, walking over to the kitchen island and leaning forward on his elbows. He always seemed so happy, and it was infectious. Steve felt his mood brightening already, not that it had been bad to begin with. 

“That’s good,” Steve said, smiling. He turned back to the stove. The chicken was finally ready, and he moved everything to the plates he’d already pulled out. “Okay, ready!” Steve picked up the plates and brought them to the table, Eddie following behind him.

“This is fucking fantastic, Steve,” Eddie said once he tasted the food, and Steve blushed at the praise. “Where’d you learn to cook like this?” 

“Definitely not from my mother. We had a nanny, Prue, who did all the cooking when I was young,” Steve said. He felt awkward admitting it. Hawkins wasn’t the type of town where nannies were a common occurrence, and it had always made him feel like a spoiled little rich kid when people found out about it, back then. “I didn’t have any siblings, and my parents weren’t particularly interested in me, so I spent a lot of time with her. She taught me how to cook.” 

“Oh?” Eddie asked, raising his eyebrows. “She must have been good, then.”

“Yeah, she was,” Steve said, smiling. 

“So your parents just, what, left you to the nanny all the time?” Eddie asked.

“Yeah, most of the time. When my father figured out I was learning to cook, he tried to pretend he was interested in me for a bit.” Steve remembered the day his father had wandered into the kitchen to find Steve in a little apron kneading dough.  He had been irate. “He wasn’t super pleased about it. He really wanted me to present as an alpha, and he was one of those people that thought the way you treated a kid and what you let them be involved in could affect how they present, you know?”

Eddie nodded. “Yeah, I know the type.”

“Well, he thought cooking was too 'soft' for an alpha, so he kind of threw a fit,” Steve continued. “Almost fired the nanny, though thankfully my mother talked him down from that. But he took more of an interest in me after that, signing me up for just about every sport available for boys my age, making me go hunting with him and his business partners, all that sort of alpha-type shit.”

“That sounds potentially very annoying,” Eddie replied. 

“Yeah, it wasn’t great. I did like the sports, actually, but all the other macho bonding was a bit much. Thankfully he was still gone a lot of the time on business, so I got to keep hanging out with Prue when he wasn’t around. When I presented as an omega, he gave up all semblance of an interest in me.”

“Well that kind of sucks. He sounds like a bit of an asshole,” Eddie said, reaching out to squeeze Steve’s hand where it sat on the table. 

Steve gave him a weak smile. He wasn’t sure how Eddie had managed to draw this all out of him so easily. He usually hated talking about his father, avoided it at all costs, but Eddie seemed like he really wanted to know. So Steve kept going.

“He was. Really an asshole. I haven’t spoken to either of them since I came out my first year of college. Predictably, they didn’t respond well,” Steve said, with a weak laugh.

“I’m really sorry, Steve. That sucks.” Eddie squeezed his hand again, eyes earnest. Steve had to look away, made uncomfortable by the intensity.

“Thanks,” he said quietly. 

“I’ve no idea how my parents would have reacted to me being gay,” Eddie said, thankfully turning the conversation away from Steve. “My mom died when I was young, and I haven’t spoken to my dad since he went to prison, but my uncle was thankfully okay about it.”

“Your uncle sounds like a pretty great guy,” Steve said, and Eddie brightened.

“Wayne is the best. I hope you can meet him sometime soon.”

Steve felt butterflies kick up in his stomach. Eddie wanted him to meet Wayne? Soon? “I’d like that,” he said, and Eddie smiled.

Eddie helped him clean up after they were finished eating, drying dishes as Steve washed. It was pleasant and domestic, in a way that made Steve’s heart hurt. He’d never had anything like this with Andrew, even in the early years. Steve had been in charge of domestic stuff, full stop. 

“Do you want something other than wine?” Steve asked, once they were finished cleaning up. “I’ve got some whiskey, or beer.”

“Oh god please yes,” Eddie said with a sigh. “I was only pretending to like wine because it seemed very cultured.” 

Steve laughed. “You don’t have to pretend to be cultured for my sake, Eddie. I like you uncultured.”

Eddie stepped into Steve’s space, pressing him back against the counter and kissing him. Steve melted into the kiss, his whole body relaxing into Eddie’s as Eddie moved a hand up to cup his cheek, tilting his head to deepen the kiss. Before it could get too heated, Eddie pulled away. 

“I like you, Steve, any way you want to be,” Eddie said against his lips. “Cultured, uncultured, half-cultured. Whatever.” 

“Way to one-up a guy,” Steve said playfully. 

Eddie stepped back. “To answer your previous question, I would absolutely love a beer.” 

Steve rummaged around in the fridge pulling out two beers and handing one to Eddie. “Want to listen to some music?” Steve asked, suddenly feeling nervous. With dinner out of the way, he didn’t exactly know what to expect. “Or did you need to go?” 

Eddie looked at the beer in his hand. “Steve, you just handed me a beer. I wasn’t planning on drinking it while I drove home.” 

Steve smiled sheepishly. “Right.”

“I’d love to listen to some music,” Eddie added, walking over to Steve’s record selection. They bickered for a few minutes over what to listen to, but finally settled on Queen, which Eddie described as “tolerable, unlike some of this high-falutin shit”.

They settled on the couch, conversation bouncing around between wildly different topics as it was wont to do whenever Eddie was involved. Eddie sat close to Steve, with his thigh pressed against Steve’s, who was acutely aware of every inch of the warmth pressed against him. His scent started to take on more amber, Eddie’s responding with an increase in vanilla. The scents of their arousal mixed well, coming together to form a distinctly pleasant scent, which wasn’t always the case. 

“You know what I mean?” Eddie asked, looking at Steve, expecting an answer. Steve’s mind had been wandering, thinking about scents. He had a vague idea that Eddie had been talking about cars, but wasn’t really sure beyond that.

“Um,” Steve said awkwardly. “Gonna have to admit I spent the last few minutes thinking about how you smell and not what you were saying. Sorry,” he said sheepishly.

Eddie smiled. He didn’t look annoyed. “And do you like it?” 

“Like what?” Steve asked, thinking Eddie was still referring to something about the cars.

“The way I smell.” 

“Oh,” Steve said. “Yes,” he admitted. “Very much.” 

“I like the way you smell, too. Love it, in fact,” Eddie said, looking at Steve. “I have since that first time I came over for dinner. Was so frustrated every time I had to see you with a scent patch on after that.” 

Steve blushed and looked away. Eddie reached out a hand to Steve’s chin and turned his face back to look at him. “You have trouble accepting compliments, don’t you?” Eddie asked. 

Steve nodded. 

“Maybe we can try some exposure therapy,” Eddie continued, keeping his hand on Steve’s chin. “You’re beautiful,” he said, and leaned forward to kiss Steve quickly, just a chaste peck on the lips. “You have a wonderful laugh.” Kiss. “Your smile is so bright it hurts my eyes sometimes.” Kiss. “Everything you have to say is fascinating.” Kiss. Steve was blushing bright red at this point, and felt like he was either going to die of embarrassment or melt into a puddle of happy goo. 

“You have the most delectable ass I’ve ever seen on a man.” The kiss that followed this compliment was deeper, Eddie leaning into Steve, pressing him back against the arm of the sofa. Steve opened his mouth, letting Eddie’s tongue in. Eddie moved the hand that had been on Steve’s chin to the back of his head, gently tangling his fingers in Steve’s hair. Steve moaned as Eddie licked into his mouth. 

He shifted slightly, spreading his legs so Eddie could lay half on top of him, his abdomen pressing against Steve’s small omega cock, making him involuntarily press up for more friction. Steve wrapped his arms around Eddie’s neck, pulling him even closer. Eddie’s other hand moved to Steve’s side, snaking up under his shirt to draw little circles on the skin there.

Steve could feel slick leaking into his boxers as his arousal started to build. He felt the rumble of a growl in Eddie’s chest as he moved his mouth to Steve’s neck, gripping Steve’s hair a little tighter to tilt his head back. He kissed and nipped lightly around his neck, not hard enough to leave marks, carefully avoiding Steve’s scent gland where a mating bite would go. 

Steve shifted his hips, trying to get some friction on his cock and cunt. Eddie moved up a little in response, shifting until his hard cock was pressed against Steve’s cunt. Steve could feel it, huge and hard and warm, even through the quadruple layer of underwear and jeans between them. He groaned and pushed his hips up, grinding himself onto Eddie’s cock.

“Fuck,” Eddie said against Steve’s neck, sounding almost like he was in pain, matching Steve’s hip movements with his own thrusts down. He pushed himself up off of Steve abruptly, and Steve whined, trying to pull him back down on top of him. Eddie resisted, and his hands went to the button of Steve’s jeans. 

“Can I?” Eddie asked, and Steve nodded, all worries he’d had about diving back into sex completely gone from his lust-addled brain. Eddie undid the button and zipper, sliding Steve’s jeans and boxers down in one movement. The scent of Steve’s slick was heavy in the air, and Eddie groaned.

“I want to go down on you,” Eddie said, eyes dark with lust. 

Steve nodded again, enthusiastic, and Eddie immediately bent his head down. Steve spread his legs further and Eddie dove straight in, pressing a quick kiss to Steve’s cock on the way to his cunt. 

He collected the pooled slick with his tongue, swiping through Steve’s folds as Steve cried out and pressed himself up into Eddie’s face involuntarily. Eddie licked slowly and thoroughly, exploring the folds around Steve’s cunt for long enough that Steve started to grow impatient, whining, tangling his hands in Eddie’s curls. 

Eddie took the hint, and started to lick deeper into Steve, tongue pressing into his cunt, fucking in and out as Steve moaned above him. He shifted, pulling up his head as Steve felt a finger pressing at his entrance. “Okay?” Eddie asked, voice hoarse, mouth and chin covered in Steve’s slick.

“Yes,” Steve breathed, and Eddie pressed in with a finger as his mouth moved to Steve’s cock. It was on the larger end of the size spectrum for an omega cock, but still small enough that it fit easily in Eddie’s mouth. He sucked and licked as his finger pumped in and out of Steve. He added a second finger, and crooked both up to hit Steve’s g-spot. Steve thrust up into his mouth and Eddie moaned around his cock. He picked up the pace, relentlessly hitting Steve’s g-spot over and over with his fingers.

“Oh my god,” Steve said, feeling an orgasm approaching with a rapidity he hadn’t experienced in years. “I’m gonna come.” Eddie kept going, mouth working on Steve’s cock, fingers in his pussy. Steve took his hands off Eddie’s hair, so he could move his head off his cock, but Eddie kept sucking. He looked up at Steve and his eyes were wild and dark, pupils blown. The eye contact was enough to send Steve over the edge, coming into Eddie’s mouth as slick poured out of his cunt onto Eddie’s fingers and hand. 

Eddie worked him through the orgasm, swallowing every last drop of his cum, fingers continuing a slow caress of the inside of his pussy. Eventually Steve had to pull him off, oversensitive, and Eddie removed his fingers, raising them to his mouth to lick off the slick.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Steve said, spent cock giving a valiant twitch at the sight of Eddie licking his slick off his fingers like it was a priceless delicacy.

Eddie moved up Steve’s body, smiling. He wiped his face on his own shirt. “Can I kiss you? Or does that gross you out?” Eddie asked. 

Steve leaned forward and kissed him in lieu of answering, the taste of himself in Eddie’s mouth thrilling him. Steve wormed an arm between them, trying to get a hand under Eddie’s waistband. He didn’t feel very hard anymore, but Steve could remedy that quickly. 

Eddie pushed himself up and grabbed Steve’s wrist. “Don’t you want me to…?” Steve trailed off, confused.

“This is embarrassing,” Eddie said, blushing a little. It was probably the first time Steve had seen him look embarrassed. “I kind of, um. Came in my pants?” 

Steve pressed a hand against Eddie’s jeans, feeling a patch of wetness. “Oh,” was all Steve could think of to say. No one had ever come in their pants before just from eating him out.

“Sorry,” Eddie said, sheepish. “I haven’t done that since I was in high school, but you taste so fucking good and the noises you were making. Shit. I’m sorry.”

Steve laughed, delighted. “You don’t have to be sorry. We can just consider it a natural extension of the compliment exposure therapy.” 

Eddie frowned. “But I wanted to fuck you. And while I probably could have in an hour or so when I was a teenage boy coming in my pants, I can’t at this age.”

“You’ll have plenty of time to fuck me in the near future,” Steve said. 

“But you have to work tomorrow.”

“Okay, I didn’t mean the near future as in tonight,” Steve clarified. “The near future, like, this weekend maybe?”

Eddie made a disgruntled sound, and had the cutest pout on his face. “Alright. Fine. But this weekend definitely.” 

“Definitely,” Steve agreed. “It’s a date.” He looked at the clock. It was already ten. He needed to wrap things up sometime soon if he didn’t want to be a zombie at work tomorrow. Eddie followed his glance, pushing himself up off of Steve. 

“I’ll head out. Wouldn’t want to interfere with your beauty sleep, which is working so well,” he said waggling his eyebrows.

Steve rolled his eyes. “Where are you even getting all these lines?”

“I’m just a natural wooer,” Eddie said, and Steve laughed.

“Do you want to borrow some of my boxers?” Steve asked, looking at the wet patch on Eddie’s pants. “They’d be big on you, but better than riding home all squelchy.”

Eddie glanced down and winced. “Yeah, probably a good idea.” 

Steve grabbed him a pair, and Eddie went into the bathroom to clean himself off and change. Steve was a little disappointed. He’d kind of been hoping to get a glimpse of Eddie’s cock. 

Eddie came out with a soiled pair of boxers in his hand. “I can wash those for you, just leave them in the hamper,” Steve said, nodding toward the hamper in the bathroom. If he was going to pull them out and sniff them later, no one needed to know. 

Eddie smirked. Okay, Eddie would probably know. “Alright. Thanks,” he said, dropping them into the hamper with a little flourish.

Steve followed him to the door, and Eddie leaned in for a last kiss before leaving, wrapping his arms around Steve and pulling him in close. “Come over Saturday?” Steve asked when Eddie let go. 

“Yes, absolutely,” Eddie said, kissing Steve once more on the tip of his nose. He held up his wrist near Steve’s neck. “Can I scent you?” 

Steve nodded. “Yes, please.” Eddie pressed his wrist to Steve’s scent gland on his neck and Steve chirped when he felt the contact.

“Oh. That’s a little embarrassing,” Steve said, blushing. 

“No, I think it was the cutest thing I’ve ever heard,” Eddie said. He picked up Steve’s left arm. “Will you do me, too?” 

“Of course,” Steve said, pressing his wrist to Eddie’s neck. Eddie kissed over his scent gland as Steve pulled his arm away and Steve shivered. 

“See you Saturday, beautiful,” Eddie said.

Steve crawled into his nest smelling of Eddie that night, rubbing his neck over as many of his blankets and pillows as he could reach, trying to distribute the smell all around him. He knew it would only last for a day or two, but he was going to thoroughly enjoy it while it lasted.

Chapter Text

“I knew the movie thing was a date!” Robin crowed when Steve talked to her the next day. “And I’m honestly pretty pissed at you right now for waiting until Thursday to tell me about it.”

“Okay, that one’s not my fault, Robs,” Steve protested. “Every time I called Nancy said you were sleeping.”

“Then why didn’t you tell Nancy?” 

“Because she would have been insufferable. I hate talking to her when she’s right about something.”

Robin snorted. “Then how do you ever talk to her?” 

“Good question,” Steve said. 

“So tell me about yesterday, then!” she prompted. 

“He brought me flowers, Robin. Cat friendly flowers.” Steve could feel himself blushing, still floored by the sweetness of the gesture.

“Oh my god that’s too sweet. I think I’m going to barf.” 

“I know. Do you think he’s real? Maybe he is a serial killer.” Steve’s brain had been doing some mental gymnastics trying to convince himself that there was no way this could possibly be happening to him and something had to be wrong.

“Okay, now I’m thoroughly regretting saying that,” Robin said. “Yes, he’s real, dingus! We went to high school with him! Also, Nancy and I both met present-day him, and were very convinced he’s into you. And Charlie liked him. Charlie is a great judge of character.”

“She’s seven months old, Robin.”

“And wise beyond her years. Stop trying to convince yourself something is wrong here.”

Steve made a vague noise into the receiver. 

“Tell me about the rest of the night! Is he also great in bed?” Robin asked.

“He’s great at giving head,” Steve admitted, remembering the way Eddie had made him feel. 

Robin squealed. “Does he have a huge dick? He probably does.”

“I didn’t get to see it,” Steve said, disappointment in his voice. “He kind of… came in his pants while he was eating me out.”

“He what ?” Robin yelped. “Jesus Christ, Steve, this one’s a keeper. Lock that shit down post haste.”

Steve sighed. “I know. It’s making me really anxious, actually. How much I like him.”

Robin sobered immediately. “Steve, darling. You don’t need to be anxious about this. I only had to spend a few hours with you two to see that he is so into you.”

“I just feel like it’s too good to be true.”

“You deserve nice things, Steve,” Robin said. “How many times do I have to tell you that? Andrew tried to make you think you didn’t, but you do .”

Steve took a deep breath. “I’m really gonna try to believe you, Robs.”

“Good. When are you gonna see him again?” 

“Saturday,” Steve said. “He’s coming over.” 

“I can’t wait to hear all about it. I’m really proud of you, dingus. For taking this chance.”

Steve blushed. It was always so weird when Robin got earnest with him. “Thanks, Robbie. Love you.”

“Love you, too, Steve.”

Friday crept by at a snail’s pace, Steve looking at the clock so often his neck started to hurt from the odd angle. Things didn’t get any better once he was home from work. Eddie wasn’t free until mid-afternoon Saturday, so he still had almost 24 hours to wait. He cleaned his house, even though it didn’t really need it. He spent some time harvesting the last of the squash and clearing out the garden a bit. That still left him with way too much time on his hands. 

He was beyond keyed up by the time he finally heard Eddie’s motorcycle pulling into his driveway. 

“Hi, Steve!” Eddie said when he opened the door. He held up a Ziploc bag full of herbs. “I got this catnip at the farmer’s market this morning. Do your cats like catnip?” Eddie mistook Steve’s expression, which was a side effect of Steve trying to keep himself from yanking Eddie straight to his bedroom, for disapproval. “Oh, shit, is this a cat-drug-free household?” 

Steve laughed, grabbing the bag. “No, it’s not, they’ll love it. Thank you.” Steve put the bag to the side then pressed Eddie up against the door, kissing him. 

Eddie made a surprised noise, but quickly melted into the kiss, opening his mouth to let Steve’s tongue in. His hands roamed up and down Steve’s sides, pressing up under Steve’s shirt to feel his skin. Steve’s hands were met with the barrier of Eddie’s leather jacket.

He pushed himself back, tugging at the zipper of Eddie’s jacket. Eddie got the message, quickly taking it off and throwing it onto the coat rack. Eddie pulled Steve back in against him, cupping his face with one hand and tangling the other in Steve’s shirt. 

The kiss got heated fast, Steve moaning into Eddie’s mouth as Eddie slotted a thigh between Steve’s legs, pushing it up to provide friction. They were already enveloped in a heady cloud of amber and vanilla. Steve broke the kiss, panting against Eddie’s mouth. “Bedroom?” he asked, and Eddie nodded.

Steve grabbed Eddie’s hand and pulled him toward the bedroom, turning to kiss him again when they got there. Eddie pressed him back against the bed, Steve falling back onto it easily as Eddie laid himself on top of him, continuing to kiss him.

Steve could feel Eddie’s cock pressing against his hip as Eddie pushed himself back to pull off his own shirt, then tugged at the hem of Steve’s. Steve adjusted so Eddie could take it off, then Eddie bent his head to Steve’s chest, pulling a nipple into his mouth. Steve’s hips bucked up and he moaned as Eddie licked and sucked at the nipple, hand coming up to pinch at the other. 

Eddie moved from Steve’s nipples down to his belly, and Steve was too turned on to even be embarrassed as Eddie kissed over his stretch marks, lovingly squeezing his extra fat with a hand. As he started to undo the button on Steve’s jeans, though, Steve stopped him with a hand. Eddie looked up, raising his eyebrows. 

“You are absolutely not allowed to go down on me and come in your pants again,” Steve said. “I need you to fuck me.” 

Eddie growled and nipped at the skin of Steve’s hip. “But I want to taste you,” he whined, looking up at Steve with pleading eyes. And how was Steve supposed to say no to that? He could compromise. 

“Only if I get to suck your cock while you go down on me,” Steve said. 

Eddie’s eyes went even darker. He stood up, undoing the button and fly on his own jeans and pulling down his pants and boxers in one go. Steve’s eyes were immediately drawn to his cock, fully erect. It was long and thick, the biggest cock Steve had ever seen. His mouth started to water. 

“Fuck,” he said, and Eddie smirked, reaching for Steve’s pants. He quickly divested Steve of both jeans and boxers, then climbed back on top of him, kissing him. 

“How do you want to do this?” Eddie asked. 

“You lay down, I’ll be on top,” Steve said, and Eddie hastened to comply, laying on his back on the bed. Steve turned himself around so he was facing Eddie’s feet and clambered on top of him, positioning himself so his face was right in front of Eddie’s cock. He felt Eddie’s hands come up to his hips, pulling Steve back a little.

Eddie’s breath ghosted over his cunt for only a moment before he dove in, licking at Steve like he was starving for him. It punched a groan out of Steve, and it took him a second to recover and lean toward Eddie’s cock. He pressed a kiss to the tip, licking a bead of precum from the slit. Eddie moaned against his pussy and Steve pressed his hips back into his face. 

He took Eddie into his mouth, just the first few inches, and started to explore the glans with his tongue, moving it around in his mouth. Slowly, he worked more of Eddie into his mouth, bobbing his head up and down, saliva dripping out the sides of his mouth and into Eddie’s pubes. The smell of Eddie was so much stronger here and it was driving Steve wild. 

The feel of Eddie’s cock on his tongue was amazing. Paired with the feeling of Eddie’s tongue licking into his cunt, it was positively euphoric. He pressed his hips down into Eddie’s face and Eddie growled. Steve could feel the rumble coming from his chest. 

Eddie shifted his mouth, pulling Steve’s cock all the way in and sucking hard. That was all Steve needed, the sensation sending him over the edge as he came into Eddie’s mouth. As soon as Steve was done, Eddie pulled his cock from Steve’s mouth and grabbed him around his waist, flipping Steve over onto his back with remarkable ease. 

Eddie was on top of him now, face covered in Steve’s slick, a wild look in his eyes. Steve could feel Eddie’s cock pressed against the folds of his pussy and he rocked his hips down, pressing himself into his cock. Eddie kissed him hard, teeth clacking against Steve’s. “Condom?” Eddie growled, and Steve reluctantly pointed to the bedside table. A huge part of him wanted to let Eddie fuck him raw, even though they’d just met a few weeks prior, but he reeled himself in. 

Eddie opened the drawer, pulling out a condom and hastily unwrapping it, sliding it down onto his cock. He lined himself up at Steve’s entrance and looked at him. “Ready?” he asked. Steve reached up and pulled Eddie down onto him as he tilted his hips up, impaling himself on Eddie’s cock.

“Fuck, yes!” Steve yelled as Eddie slid in, filling Steve up better than anyone ever had before. “Shit, your cock is perfect .” He was babbling now but he couldn’t stop himself. Eddie growled again and Steve opened his eyes. Eddie’s eyes were almost completely black, pupils entirely obscuring the brown irises. Steve could see his alpha fangs poking out against his lower lip.

As Steve met his eyes, Eddie started to move, thrusting into Steve slowly at first but gradually picking up the pace. He bent his head to capture Steve’s lips in a filthy kiss, tongue thrusting into Steve’s mouth in time with the thrusts of his hips. Steve wrapped his legs around Eddie’s waist, moaning into his mouth with every thrust.

Eddie reached a hand between them, pulling away from the kiss, and started to work Steve’s cock, hard again already, between his fingers and thumb. He tilted his hips just slightly, changing the angle of his thrust to hit Steve’s g-spot as he pulled on his cock. Steve had no chance against the double onslaught, and was coming again in seconds, yelling Eddie’s name.

Eddie let go of his cock and started to thrust even harder than before. Steve could feel him so deep, deeper than anyone had ever been before. “Fuck, baby, you’re so perfect,” Eddie said, panting. “Never been inside a pussy this perfect.” He kissed Steve again, as his breathing and thrusts got more erratic. He pushed into Steve as deep as he could go and let out a strangled moan, face coming down to the pillow beside Steve’s head as he came. 

Steve could feel the slight bulge at the base of Eddie’s cock against his entrance where his knot would pop when he was in rut or if he was with an omega in heat. He wanted to feel it splitting him open, wanted to feel Eddie’s cum fill him up so full. Hopefully he would, eventually. 

Eddie collapsed on top of him for a few moments, breathing heavily, face still in the pillow. Eventually he pushed himself up, frowning at the pillow. “Sorry,” he muttered, and Steve turned to see that Eddie had torn the pillow, biting into it with his fangs.  

Steve laughed. “It’s okay. I never liked those pillows anyway.” 

Eddie smiled, pushing himself all the way off of Steve, pulling out. He sat up, tying off the condom and throwing it in the bin near the bed, then laid back down, pulling Steve against his chest. Steve laid his head on Eddie’s chest, feeling the deep alpha purr rumbling there, coaxing out his own omega purr. 

“Was that okay?” Eddie asked after a few minutes. 

“Best sex I’ve ever had,” Steve admitted, his brain to mouth filter shot after two orgasms. 

Eddie purred louder. “Me, too.” 

“Really?” Steve asked, intrigued, pushing himself up a little to look at Eddie.

“Really,” Eddie replied, kissing him on the nose. “You’re perfect.” 

Steve blushed and hid his face in Eddie’s neck. Eddie stroked a hand up and down Steve’s back. “Why do you have pillows you don’t even like?” Eddie asked, looking at the ruined pillow. 

“Andrew bought them. I have my own pillow that I like to sleep on, but I haven't gotten around to replacing the extras.”

“Who’s Andrew?” Eddie asked, hand pausing. His purring had stopped. Shit. Had Steve never even mentioned Andrew to Eddie? Steve pushed back up again to look at Eddie.

“He’s my ex,” he explained. “We were together for a long time, about ten years. We split up a little over a year ago.” Eddie was frowning. “Wow, sorry, this is an awkward time to be talking about an ex.”

“Is this why you have trouble accepting compliments? Because you lived with a man for ten years who bought pillows you didn’t even like?” 

Steve blinked. Eddie didn’t seem upset with him . Was he mad at Andrew? “I mean, that probably has something to do with it, though I’m guessing Freud was right and it probably also has something to do with my relationship with my father.”

Eddie smiled at Steve’s attempt at levity. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to sound judgy. I just don’t like the thought of someone not treating you well.” 

“It’s okay,” Steve said, settling his head back on Eddie’s chest. Steve started to purr again, trying to soothe Eddie. A few seconds later, Eddie’s purr started back up as well. 

“I guess I have this dumbass to thank for the most gorgeous and perfect man I’ve ever met still being single at 35,” Eddie said. 

Steve laughed. “And who do I have to thank for the most gorgeous and perfect man I’ve ever met still being single?”

“Oh, mostly just me,” Eddie said. “I was… kind of a mess for quite a few years after high school. Got into some heavy shit, spent a lot of time with really unsavory people.” 

Steve traced the constellation of little scars he’d noticed earlier on the inside of Eddie’s elbow. He’d assumed there was a history there, but hadn’t wanted to be the first to bring it up. Eddie looked at Steve’s hand on his skin. 

“Yeah, really heavy shit, like I said.” Eddie sounded nervous, in a way he typically wasn’t when he was talking to Steve. “Heroin, mostly. After the second time I OD’d and ended up in the hospital, Wayne forced me into rehab, made me live with him after I got out. He got me a job at the factory where he works until I reconnected with Chrissy and we started the shop. That was all in my early to mid-twenties. Just got my ten-year chip at NA a few months ago.”

Steve pressed himself up on an elbow so he could look at Eddie. “That’s awesome. Congrats.”

Eddie smiled weakly. “Thanks.” He looked away for a moment, furrowing his brow, then looked back up. “Are you mad at me? For not telling you until now?” 

“Why would I be mad at you?” Steve was confused. “You don’t have to tell me all the bad things in your life the first few weeks we know each other. I mean, you can, that’s totally fine,” he hastened to add, not wanting Eddie to feel bad about sharing. “But you don’t have to.”

Eddie shrugged. “Sometimes people get weird about it and think I’m, like, riddled with diseases or something. Which I’m thankfully not, to be clear. I’ve been tested many times since I’ve been sober.”

“I trust you, Eddie,” Steve said, reaching up to push some hair out of Eddie’s face. “I know you would have told me if there was anything like that I needed to know.” Eddie nuzzled his face into Steve’s hand, pressing a kiss to his palm. 

“You never cease to amaze me, Stevie,” Eddie said. 

Steve smiled, tracing Eddie’s lips with his thumb. “Since we’re on that topic, I’ve also been tested since the whole being cheated on thing, and I don’t have any of the STDs. Nary a one.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows. “Does that mean we can…?” Eddie trailed off.

“What? Fuck raw?” Steve laughed as Eddie made a face. 

“So uncouth,” Eddie said.

“We could,” Steve said, still smiling. “But I’m not on birth control. That’s fine for now, but I’ll have to restart it before I go into heat again.”

“When’s that going to be?” Eddie asked. 

Steve frowned. “I’m not sure. They used to happen regularly, every 3 months, but they haven’t been that regular since the break-up. I think it’s been, like, four months now, actually.” He looked up at Eddie, whose face was very serious now. “Sorry, I shouldn’t assume you want to spend a heat with me. If you don’t, then I won’t even need birth control.” 

Eddie shook his head vigorously. “No, I really, really want to spend your heat with you. But I don’t think I’d be able to stop myself from coming inside you if you asked, which I’m assuming you would once you went fully under, so probably birth control is a good idea.” 

Steve felt a frisson of pleasure race down to his cunt at the thought of Eddie’s knot buried inside him, filling him up. “Yeah,” he replied, a little breathy. “Probably a very good idea.” 

“Would you want to spend a rut with me?” Eddie asked, and Steve nodded. “Mine are regular,” Eddie continued, “the next should be early November. I can get kind of intense, though.” He looked worried.

“Pretty sure I’ll like that level of intensity from you,” Steve said, and leaned forward to kiss Eddie. The kiss was interrupted by a wobbly meow from the doorway. They both looked up to see Amos staggering into the bedroom, fur covered in flakes of catnip. “Oh, shit,” Steve said, laughing. “They got into the goods.” He reluctantly pushed himself off Eddie and hurried into his discarded boxers, walking out into the living room to find the bag on the floor ripped open, catnip spread everywhere. The cats were all in various states of intoxication.

Eddie followed him, stumbling into his own boxers. “I really should have known this would happen,” Steve said, hands on his hips as he surveyed the mess. “Typically catnip goes straight into the highest cabinet. You’re very distracting.” He looked at Eddie, smiling so he would know Steve wasn’t actually upset.

“Deepest apologies,” Eddie said, giving Steve a little bow. “Do you have a broom?” 

Steve grabbed the broom, and he and Eddie cleaned up the majority of the mess as the cats lolled around on the floor. “Do you want to stay for dinner?” Steve asked, once they were done. 

“I was planning to stay as long as you’ll let me,” Eddie said, pulling Steve in for a kiss. Steve smiled against his lips. 

“Good,” he said. He shivered. It was too chilly to be walking around the house in boxers. “I’m gonna put a few more clothes on so I don’t freeze.” 

Eddie sighed, fake pouting. “I could keep you warm,” he said, following Steve back to the bedroom. 

Steve looked over his shoulder at him, raising his eyebrows. “While I cook?”

“Sure,” Eddie said, shrugging. “I can, like, drape myself over your back like a big blanket.” He came up behind Steve to give him a demonstration, and Steve laughed, gently pushing him away. 

“I think that would make cooking difficult.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he said as he rummaged around for his own clothes, putting his jeans and shirt back on. Steve opted for sweats instead of his jeans. 

“You gonna be comfortable enough in those?” Steve asked, eying Eddie’s skin-tight jeans. “I mean, I appreciate the look, don’t get me wrong. But you can borrow some of my sweats if you want. You’ll be swimming in them but they have drawstrings.”

Eddie smiled. “Are you just trying to get me to take my pants off again?” 

“I’m getting the impression I wouldn’t have to work quite that hard to get them off,” Steve said, pulling out a pair of sweats and throwing them at Eddie. “There, if you want them.” 

Eddie pulled them up to his face and sniffed them, wrinkling his nose in displeasure. “They don’t smell like you. They smell like laundry detergent.”

“Because they’re clean,” Steve said.

“Well, then I don’t want them.” He held them back out to Steve. 

Steve sighed, pretending to be exasperated while inwardly feeling thrilled, and took the sweats back. He rubbed them vigorously over his scent gland and handed them back to Eddie. “Better?”

“Much,” Eddie said, inhaling the smell. “Thanks.” He shimmied back out of his jeans and into the sweats, pulling the drawstring tight where they sagged around his tiny hips and waist. 

Eddie hung around in the kitchen while Steve made dinner, helping whenever Steve would let him, otherwise just sitting at the island and talking to Steve. It was easy, in the way everything seemed to be easy with Eddie.

After dinner they decided to watch a movie, though it took them almost 20 minutes of bickering to decide. They finally settled on Alien, and Steve was treated to another round of extensive movie trivia, though this time he was curled up against Eddie’s side, head on his chest. 

About halfway through the movie, Eddie’s hands started to wander, moving under Steve’s shirt, petting his sides. His commentary stalled as his fingers trailed along Steve’s waistband. Steve tilted his head up, pressing a kiss to the underside of Eddie’s chin. Eddie shifted so that he and Steve were face to face, pressing his lips to Steve’s as his hand slid past the waistband, into Steve’s boxers.

Steve sighed into Eddie’s mouth when his fingers brushed past Steve’s cock and dipped lower, running gently through Steve’s folds, already getting wet with slick. Steve deepened the kiss as Eddie slowly stroked back and forth, making Steve whine and shift his hips, wanting more. 

Eddie complied, shifting them so that Steve was laying back on the couch and Eddie was leaning over him, one hand still in Steve’s pants as he used the other to balance himself. He slid two fingers into Steve, still so open from being fucked earlier, and Steve canted his hips up, moaning. Eddie quickly found his g-spot, rubbing it at a furious pace. Steve bucked involuntarily and started chirping, a loud chirp coming out each time Eddie hit the spot.

Eddie smiled and leaned forward to kiss him, continuing to fuck Steve with his fingers while he swallowed all of Steve’s chirps, until Steve was coming so hard his vision whited out, gushing slick all over Eddie’s hand and his boxers.

It took him a few moments to come back down, Eddie kissing him lightly and running his fingers gently around Steve’s entrance before pulling his hand back out. He licked his hand and Steve felt another pulse of arousal in his belly. Eddie looked like he was eating the most delicious ice cream on a hot summer day. 

“It can’t actually taste that good,” Steve said. 

“I beg to differ,” Eddie said, finishing cleaning his hand with his tongue, maintaining eye contact with Steve. 

Steve shivered and sat up, reaching for the pants Eddie was wearing. “I want to sit on your cock now,” Steve said. 

“I’m very okay with that,” Eddie said. 

Steve pulled at the waistband of the sweats Eddie was wearing, tugging them down with his boxers as Eddie pulled off his own shirt. Steve stood, pulling down his own pants and looking at Eddie as Eddie reached a hand down to wrap around his cock, stroking. “Still okay with no condom?” Steve asked, climbing onto Eddie’s lap. 

“Yes, absolutely,” Eddie said as Steve replaced Eddie’s hand with his own, lining Eddie’s cock up at his entrance. He sank down onto it fast, taking Eddie all the way in in one quick movement of his hips. Eddie groaned and leaned forward to mouth at Steve’s chest, taking a nipple into his mouth as Steve started to move. 

He was suddenly very glad he’d started going back to the gym recently. The muscles he’d been working in his legs allowed him to set a fast pace, moving himself up and down on Eddie’s cock as Eddie bit at his nipples and pecs. 

Eddie started to meet his thrusts, pushing up into Steve. The angle was fantastic, Eddie pressing deeply into him, Steve’s cock getting friction from where their bellies were pressed together. He wasn’t going to be able to come again yet, but the feeling was delightful. 

Eddie started to thrust harder and Steve was really bouncing now, feeling Eddie’s cock bump his cervix with every thrust. Steve could sense Eddie’s thrusts getting more erratic. “Want you to come in me, Eddie, please,” Steve pleaded, clenching down on Eddie’s cock. Eddie threw his head back, eyes closed, and groaned as he thrust deep into Steve and came. Steve could feel the warmth spreading inside of him, making him moan. He slowed down his bouncing, grinding himself into Eddie several more times as he finished, then he paused and laid his head on Eddie’s chest. 

In the quiet, they heard the loud sounds of Parker and Lambert getting killed by the alien, and Steve huffed a laugh.

“Really great mood movie for fucking,” Steve said. 

 Eddie laughed. “I can’t help it. You’re so sexy I think I’d want to fuck you even if we were watching, like, Sophie’s Choice.”

“Oh my god, absolutely not,” Steve said, pushing himself up to look at Eddie. “I have some hard stops, and fucking during Sophie’s Choice is definitely one of them.”

Eddie pulled Steve in for a kiss. “Alright, then we can just never watch it together,” he said. 

Steve rolled his eyes and slowly pushed himself up off of Eddie, legs a little wobbly. He could feel Eddie’s cum dripping down the insides of his thighs. Eddie stood as well, and they went to the bathroom to clean themselves off. 

Steve glanced at the little clock on the wall. It was almost midnight. “Do you need to go?” Steve asked as Eddie finished drying off his cock. 

“Not unless you need me to go. I don’t have any cats, I can sleep here.” He looked up at Steve. “Only if you want, though,” he added. “I won’t be offended if you don’t want me to stay over.” 

“No, I’d love for you to stay over,” Steve said. “Just, uh. There will be four cats in the bed.” Andrew had never let any of the cats sleep in the bed, even when there had only been two, but Steve was refusing to let that happen this time. 

“That’s okay,” Eddie said, smiling. “I wouldn’t dream of interfering with your cats’ sleeping habits.” Steve’s heart melted a little as Eddie followed him into the bedroom. 

As they got settled, Amos firmly planted himself in his usual spot, waiting for Steve to lay down and spoon him. Katara and Sokka were more confused by Eddie’s presence, staring at them from the foot of the bed. Olive was nowhere to be found, but would probably join them later.

Steve laid down on his side, putting an arm around Amos. “I have to do it this way, or he won’t let me sleep,” he said over his shoulder to Eddie, and Eddie laughed. He pressed himself against Steve’s back, reaching an arm around his waist to give Amos a pat on the head. 

A few seconds later, Eddie jumped a little, turning his head to look over his shoulder. “Oh my god, they’re so freaking cute,” he whispered. Katara and Sokka must have curled up against his back with each other. He settled back down, giving Steve a kiss on his cheek. Steve felt the weight of Olive jumping onto the bed, settling near his feet. 

He sighed deeply, content in a way he hadn’t been in a long time. Maybe ever.

“G’night, Stevie,” Eddie whispered.

“Good night,” Steve said, swiftly drifting off to sleep.

Steve woke up feeling much warmer than usual. Had he forgotten to leave the window open last night? He stirred, trying to turn over onto his back but feeling his progress impeded by a warm body. A warm human body. 

Eddie had spent the night. Steve stilled, feeling the arm still wrapped around his waist, Eddie’s naked body pressed tight against his back. The cats were long gone, having vacated the bed as usual to get up to their nightly shenanigans at some point, then sleeping those off elsewhere. 

Eddie seemed to still be asleep, his breathing deep and even. Steve gradually became aware of Eddie’s erection pressed against his lower back, and was unable to suppress a shiver of delight as a bolt of arousal raced through his body. Heavy notes of amber bled into the air around them, which Eddie must have noticed in his sleep. He started to slowly move his hips, grinding himself into Steve’s back, a little whimper coming from his mouth. 

Steve took hold of Eddie’s hand where it was draped over his waist and gave it a squeeze. Eddie shifted and took in a deep breath. 

“Steve,” he said, voice heavy with sleep. Then he seemed to notice the grinding of his hips. “Oh. Sorry, that’s… my bad.” He tried to move away but Steve held tight to his arm, pressing his ass back into Eddie’s hips. 

“Don’t stop,” Steve said, and Eddie melted back into him, pressing himself against his back. He kissed the side of Steve’s head and shifted his body slightly, moving down.

“Lift up your leg a little for a second,” Eddie whispered to him, patting his top leg, and Steve complied. Eddie slid his cock between Steve’s thighs, the top of it pressing against Steve’s folds, sliding easily through the slick building between Steve’s legs. 

“Oh,” Steve said, squeezing his thighs together and pressing himself down on Eddie, moving his hips in little circles to get the friction he needed. Eddie pushed himself up on an elbow so he could lean forward and kiss Steve. They both had morning breath, but neither seemed to care. Eddie licked into his mouth as he slowly thrust between his thighs, heat building between them. 

Eddie reached a hand down to cradle Steve’s cock, rubbing it at first, then stroking in time with his own thrusts. Steve moaned into Eddie’s mouth as an orgasm hit him seemingly out of nowhere. He fell apart under Eddie, shaking as he came all over his stomach and the sheets, slick coating Eddie’s cock between his thighs. 

“So pretty, Stevie,” Eddie whispered against his lips, continuing to fuck his thighs. “Think you can squeeze together real tight for me, baby?” 

Steve nodded and clenched his legs together as tightly as he could. Eddie moaned in response, the pace of his thrusts picking up until he was coming between Steve’s legs. Steve reached a hand down to swipe through Eddie’s cum, desperately wanting a taste. He raised a finger to his lips and licked, and Eddie’s dick twitched between his legs as Eddie gasped, watching Steve.

“I like the way you taste,” Steve said, turning his neck to face Eddie. 

Eddie kissed him. “You’re perfect,” he said. 

They kissed for a few minutes, until the rapidly drying cum on Steve’s legs and belly started to itch. Eddie joined Steve in the shower, insisting on washing his hair. 

“When do you need to leave?” Steve asked, leaning back as Eddie’s strong hands massaged conditioner into his scalp.

“Around ten. Need to open the store at 11.”

“Can I make you breakfast before you go?” Steve asked, reaching out to grab the soap.

“I’d love that,” Eddie said, kissing the skin behind Steve’s ear, then making a grossed-out noise. “Your conditioner doesn’t taste very good.” Steve laughed, turning around to wash Eddie’s hair.  

Eddie put yesterday’s clothes on after the shower, Steve opting for his typical Sunday garb of sweatpants and a hoodie. It was already nine by the time they were done, so Steve started some coffee brewing and made a quick breakfast. 

After they were finished eating, Steve noticed Eddie fidgeting, and Steve started to anxiety-spiral. Was Eddie working up the nerve to say he’d had a great nightlong fuckfest but this was a one-time thing and he didn’t want to see Steve again? Thankfully, Steve didn’t have too long to catastrophize. 

“Can I ask you something?” Eddie said, finally looking up from where he was fidgeting with a napkin. 

“Yeah, of course,” Steve said. 

“Would you…” Eddie trailed off and looked away, frowning at himself as he tried to find the words he wanted. “Would you entertain the possibility of being in an exclusive relationship with me? I mean, I know we just met, or, well, re-met, I guess, like, two weeks ago, but I’m kind of crazy about you already, and the idea of you being with other people while also being with me makes me feel a little wonky, so I figured I might as well ask.” Eddie looked back up at Steve, eyes wide. 

Steve was speechless for a moment. That wasn’t what he’d been expecting.

“It’s okay, if you don’t want to,” Eddie continued. “And that makes me sound really weird, the part about feeling wonky about you being with other people. I realize I’m a bit much. I can wait until you’re ready to make that sort of choice, if you ever are, I really can, I swear, we don’t have to be exclusive. Oh, fuck, I’ve ruined it, haven’t I?” He looked panicked now, and Steve reached out a hand, grabbing hold of one of Eddie’s.

“Eddie, it’s okay,” Steve said, squeezing Eddie’s hand. “I want that, too. An exclusive relationship with you.” 

Eddie sighed, slumping back in his chair. “Oh, thank god.” He still looked a little shaken, so Steve stood up and went to his chair, straddling his lap and sitting down. Eddie put his hands on Steve’s waist, steadying him, and Steve leaned forward and kissed him, soft and slow.

“I’m so happy you left me that note,” Steve said, stroking Eddie’s cheek with a thumb. 

“Oh, believe me, so am I. Thought I was just getting a few pumpkins, but ended up with the most gourd-geous pumpkin in the patch.” 

It took Steve a second to get it but then he groaned. “Where the fuck do you even get lines like that? That is so bad.”

Eddie threw back his head and laughed, poking Steve’s side. “You love it.” 

Steve kissed Eddie senseless once he was done laughing, trying to find a home for all this happiness bouncing around in his chest.

“Is it alright if I call you tonight?” Eddie asked, as he was kissing Steve goodbye at the door. 

“Yeah, I’d like that,” Steve said, smiling. 

He watched from the door as Eddie drove away, smiling so hard his face hurt.

Chapter Text

Steve was only able to see Eddie in person a few times over the following weeks due to both of their busy schedules, but he talked to him on the phone almost every night regardless. Sometimes the conversations were short, when they were both too busy, but more often than not they were long conversations about everything and nothing. 

Eddie had been out of town for most of the past week, going to various antique shows with Chrissy to acquire more stock for the shop, but had still been calling Steve from hotel rooms every night. Steve was surprised at how much he missed Eddie, after having only really known him for a few weeks. It led him to the inevitable conclusion that he was falling for Eddie, fast, and it terrified him.

“Steve, he’s your boyfriend ,” Robin said after hearing Steve complain about his nascent feelings for the umpteenth time over the past few weeks. “You’re allowed to be really into him. In fact, I think that’s kind of preferred. I don’t understand what the problem is.”

“It’s happening too fast, Robin,” Steve said, sighing and pulling a hand down his face. 

“Well, I mean, what can you really do about that, babe? You can’t make yourself stop feeling what you’re feeling.” She sounded exasperated.

“Why not?” Steve whined. “Why hasn’t anyone invented a ‘just be chill about this shit for once in your life, Harrington’ drug?”  

“Truly a tragedy. Science is letting you down.”

Steve sighed again. 

“I know it must be really scary to let yourself be vulnerable like this again,” Robin said, getting more serious. “But you also need to let yourself enjoy it a little. Is he going to be back in time to join us for carving the pumpkins Sunday?” 

“Yeah, he is,” Steve said. “Can you and Nancy try to refrain from saying anything too embarrassing?” 

“Oh, hell no,” Robin replied. “We’re pretty sure Nancy bringing up the six kids thing was the reason he decided to take you on a date in the first place, so we’re taking full credit for this relationship and we’re also going to double down on embarrassing you.” 

Steve sputtered. “Wh- you can’t - Robin!” 

She cackled at him. “Just calm the fuck down and go to sleep, dingus.” She hung up, and Steve tried to follow her advice. 

Robin and family arrived early on Sunday, giving Steve a good amount of time to spend with just them. Charlie was growing and changing so fast, and Steve was more than a little in love with her already. She had recently started to crawl, and was enjoying chasing Amos around the floor. The other cats were a bit afraid of the tiny wobbly being that made frequent and sudden loud noises.

Eddie pulled up after lunch, having just returned to town that morning. He pulled Steve in for a kiss as soon as he came in through the door. 

“Missed you, Stevie,” he whispered against Steve’s lips, bringing his wrist up to scent Steve. 

“Missed you, too,” Steve replied, kissing him with more fervor. 

Robin wolf-whistled from behind them, and Eddie pulled away from Steve to turn and greet the girls.

“Hello, ladies! Good to see you all again. How’s the littlest lady doing?” he asked, sitting on the floor next to Charlie, who was staring at him suspiciously, unsure of the status of this interloper. 

“She’s doing great,” Nancy answered. “Making fast friends with Amos.”

“Who wouldn’t make fast friends with Amos?” Eddie asked, reaching out to pet the fuzzy ginger.

They set up the pumpkins on the kitchen table and got to work, Eddie and Nancy doing most of the work while Robin and Steve gave them suggestions that were largely impossible to execute.

“Are you going to carve the pumpkins for your Dungeons and Dragons thing?” Steve asked Eddie.

“Yes, though you’re gonna be drafted into helping me,” Eddie said, flashing him a smile. 

When they were done with the pumpkins, they started a fire in the living room, Steve dutifully sitting in front of it to run interference if Charlie tried to get too close. Eddie was sitting next to him, shoulder pressed against Steve’s, holding his hand. 

“This place is so much nicer without Andrew in it,” Nancy said, looking around. Steve had changed the decor quite a bit since Andrew moved out. It had a cozier feel, as opposed to Andrew’s preferred minimalist style. 

“It was kind of boring before,” Steve admitted. 

“No, I don’t even mean the decor. I mean just not having him here. He was the worst, Steve.”

“It’s true,” Robin said, nodding sagely. “He sucked away the joy of your best years.”

“You didn’t tell me he was that bad,” Eddie said, nudging Steve with a shoulder.

“Robin is just being hyperbolic,” Steve said, rolling his eyes and dropping Eddie’s hand to pick Charlie up as she made a beeline for the fire grate.

“I am not!” Robin said. “He was so mean to you, like, all the time. And then he just decided out of nowhere he didn’t want kids after stringing you along for seven years with a ‘maybe’.” Eddie stiffened a little beside Steve. 

“I thought we were going to have to kill him to get rid of him, since you wouldn’t listen to us about how awful he was,” Nancy said, and Steve didn’t think she was joking.

“Thankfully he solved the problem for us by cheating on you.” Robin said. “That little shit for brains.”

“He what ?” Eddie said, turning to look at Steve.

Steve glared at Robin and Nancy. “Why are you airing all of my past relationship dirty laundry in front of my new boyfriend?” he asked, exasperated.

Robin shrugged. “Because we figured you probably hadn’t told him any of it. And it looks like we were right.” 

“I was going to tell him eventually ,” Steve hissed, and then Charlie sneezed fully in his face, covering him in snot but effectively cutting the tension of the moment. 

Eddie started to laugh at the shocked expression on Steve’s face, followed by Robin and Nancy. Charlie seemed very pleased with herself, cooing at Steve and patting his chest. Eddie got up to get some paper towels as Robin grabbed Charlie from Steve.

The girls left around 3 to head back into the city, and as soon as they were gone Steve found himself pressed against the door as Eddie kissed him, his hands roving up beneath Steve’s shirt, gripping his waist. 

“Do you know how hard it was to not do this immediately when I saw you?” Eddie asked, panting between kisses.

Steve laughed as Eddie kissed down his neck. “I applaud your restraint.” He wrapped his arms around Eddie’s neck, thoroughly scenting him and trying to pull him even closer. He could feel Eddie’s cock already hard against his thigh, and Eddie shifted to press a thigh between Steve’s legs. 

Steve groaned, grinding down onto Eddie’s thigh, feeling himself getting obscenely wet already. 

“A week away from you was too much,” Eddie said, giving voice to thoughts Steve had been too scared to admit. He pulled the collar of Steve’s shirt to the side, exposing his collarbone and sucking a bruise onto the skin there as Steve squirmed beneath him.

Eddie worked one of his hands between them, sliding into the waistband of Steve’s pants and boxers and rubbing over Steve’s cock.

“Fuck, Eddie,” Steve yelled, bucking into his hand. He dipped a finger briefly lower to gather some of Steve’s slick and then started to rub fast and hard on his cock while he kissed him, tongue-fucking his mouth. 

Steve felt an orgasm building faster than he would have thought possible. “I’m gonna come,” he moaned into Eddie’s mouth, gripping onto Eddie’s shoulders for dear life. Eddie didn’t stop, he just picked up the pace even more and Steve’s orgasm ripped through his body as he spilled all over Eddie’s hand. 

Eddie kept rubbing, more slowly, until Steve started to whine, oversensitive. He removed his hand from Steve’s pants and licked his fingers slowly, maintaining eye contact with Steve the whole time. Steve felt desire coiling again in his gut. “I need you to fuck me right now,” Steve said, pushing against Eddie.  

Eddie pulled Steve over to the couch, refusing to stop kissing him, almost falling over multiple times. He bent Steve over the arm of the couch when they got there, pulling down Steve’s pants and running his hands reverently over Steve’s ass and upper thighs. 

“Now!” Steve said, looking over his shoulder when Eddie seemed content to just keep looking at him. 

Eddie smirked and smacked his ass. “Patience, baby,” he said. “I’m enjoying the view.” Steve huffed and turned his head back toward the couch. Eddie ran his hands up and down Steve’s back and sides under his shirt, his touch featherlight, making Steve shiver. 

Finally, he pulled his hands away and Steve heard him undoing his jeans. He put his hands on Steve’s hips and pulled him back to get in position. Steve felt the tip of his cock pressed against his folds and moaned, trying to push back onto it, but Eddie was holding him firmly in place by the hips. Slowly, Eddie moved forward and slid into Steve.

Steve groaned and buried his face in the couch cushions, pressing his ass back against Eddie’s pelvis. “Fuck, I missed you,” Eddie said, setting a brutal pace after giving Steve only a moment to adjust. Steve loved it, loved the feeling of Eddie splitting him open, filling him up more than anyone ever had before. 

“You’re so fucking perfect,” Eddie said, pulling a chirp out of Steve. “So beautiful. So sweet. Smell so good. It’s like you were made for me.” 

“I think I was,” Steve whispered, not even sure if Eddie heard. He shifted slightly, angling his pelvis so Eddie was pummeling his g-spot with every thrust. “Holy shit,” he mumbled into the cushion right before a second orgasm rolled over him, making him scream. 

“Oh my god,” Eddie said as Steve’s cunt clenched around his dick, his thrusts getting more erratic until he finally let out a low moan and buried himself as deep as he could possibly go inside Steve, coming.

He leaned over so he was fully blanketing Steve’s back, pressing kisses to the back of Steve’s neck. After a few moments to catch his breath, he pushed himself up, pulling out of Steve and helping him stand. 

“I have a bed you know,” Steve said as he shook out his legs. 

“Yes, but I needed to try out the couch,” Eddie replied. He looked around the room. “I’ll have to try all the surfaces here at some point. Just to be thorough.” 

Steve laughed. “We’re not twenty anymore, Eddie.’

“Don’t try to pull that decrepit old man shit on me, Harrington. I’ve felt those muscles, I know you work out.” He reached down to grab at one of Steve’s thighs. 

Steve pushed his hand away, smiling, and walked to the bathroom to clean himself off. Afterwards, Eddie helped Steve clean up the pumpkin carving mess. They sat on the couch once they were done, Steve leaning against Eddie’s side, Amos draped across his chest, as Eddie carded through his hair. 

“I’m sorry Robin and Nancy dumped a ton of random info about my ex on you,” Steve said, feeling weird about the situation.

“You don’t have to be sorry about that, baby,” Eddie said. “I’m just sorry if they told me things you weren’t ready for me to know.” 

Steve turned a little so he could see Eddie’s face. “No, it’s not that. It’s just, like, how does that come up organically in a conversation? The laundry list of bad shit about a past relationship. I don’t wanna be that person, constantly bringing up an ex.”

“That’s fair,” Eddie said. “But you can talk to me about anything, Steve, even him. I wanna know everything about you, even the bad shit, if you wanna tell me.” 

Steve shrugged. “I think they covered most of it. The no kids stuff, the cheating, those were the big things. And they’re right, he wasn’t very nice to me, I can see that now.”

Eddie kissed him on the forehead. “I’m sorry you had to deal with that for so long.” 

Steve’s eyes closed, lashes fluttering. Eddie was such a stark contrast to Andrew, it was finally making Steve admit to himself how bad Andrew had been for him. How much time he’d wasted on someone who treated him like shit. He started to feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes and shut them tighter, trying to keep them in, but one of them got free, falling down his cheek.

“Oh, baby,” Eddie said, swiping the tear away with a thumb. Steve started crying in earnest then, dislodging Amos to fall forward onto Eddie’s chest and sob, soaking his shirt with tears. Eddie rubbed circles onto his back and pressed kisses to the top of his head as Steve cried himself out, pausing several times to bring a wrist to Steve’s neck and scent him.

It all helped to calm him down, and Steve’s sobs slowly petered out. He looked up at Eddie. “I’m sorry, I - didn’t expect that,” Steve said, voice sounding nasal. 

Eddie smiled sadly. “That’s okay. You never have to apologize for crying. Are you alright?” 

Steve nodded. “Yeah, just, like - sad for past Steve, I guess?” 

“That makes sense,” Eddie said, tucking a strand of hair behind Steve’s ear. “Can I stay with you tonight? I know you have to work in the morning, so I’ll behave myself, I swear. I just don’t want you to be alone.” 

Steve put his head back on Eddie’s chest and wrapped his arms around his waist, sniffling. “I’d like that. If you’re sure it won’t mess things up for you.” 

“Not at all,” Eddie said. He started to purr, the vibrations in his chest soothing Steve even further. 

“You’re kind of perfect,” Steve mumbled, and Eddie laughed. 

“I don’t think anyone’s ever claimed that before.”

“Well they’re all stupid,” Steve insisted. 

Eddie led Steve to bed, taking off his clothes and curling up around Steve, the cats taking up their places. Steve felt exhausted, but like he’d been washed clean, ready to start something new. He snuggled Amos to his chest and pressed back into the warm weight of Eddie, content. 

He woke up some time later, glancing at the clock. 5am. He had about an hour before he needed to get up and start getting ready for work. Eddie was still wrapped around him, snoring lightly on the pillow behind his head. Steve closed his eyes, only to find all thoughts of sleep fleeing his mind as he replayed the memories of Eddie bending him over the couch and fucking him.

He squirmed a bit in Eddie’s arms, feeling his arousal build, slick starting to pool between his legs. Eddie shifted in his sleep, arm tightening around Steve’s waist. Steve shifted his hips, rolling them back against Eddie’s pelvis. He felt Eddie’s cock start to harden slowly against his lower back, and then felt Eddie’s body tighten against him as Eddie woke up.

“Steve, you’re making it really hard to behave myself,” Eddie said, hand moving to grip Steve’s hip, stilling him. Steve turned over so he was facing Eddie. 

“I never said I was going to behave,” Steve replied. “I have an hour until I need to get up. Can I blow you?” 

Eddie let out a wounded little noise, like Steve had just punched him in the stomach. “Fuck, how am I supposed to say no to that?”

“You’re not,” Steve replied, kissing Eddie’s chest and starting to move down his abdomen. The scars from his road rash incident were prominent on his sides, rough patches on his otherwise soft skin. Steve got to Eddie’s pelvis and buried his face in the crease where his thigh met his body, breathing in the musky scent of Eddie. 

Eddie’s cock was already fully erect at this point, and Steve leaned forward to stick out his tongue and lick up the bead of precum that had collected at the tip. Eddie gasped, putting a hand gently in Steve’s hair. 

Steve sank down onto Eddie’s cock, taking him in about halfway, using his hand on the rest. This angle was better than the first time he’d given Eddie head, and he was able to gradually take more of Eddie into his mouth, licking and sucking as his head bobbed up and down. 

Eddie was gently patting Steve’s hair as he moaned, murmuring words Steve couldn’t quite understand. Steve pulled off of Eddie with an obscene popping noise to look up at him and say, “You can pull my hair. I like it.” 

He couldn’t see Eddie’s face in the dark, but he did hear him suck in a gasp of air as he fisted his hand in Steve’s hair and pulled. Steve moaned, moving forward again to take Eddie into his mouth. Steve worked Eddie in and out of his mouth, applying firm suction the whole time. He wasn’t able to fit all of Eddie into his mouth. Having never been with someone as big as Eddie, he’d have to work up to that. 

Eddie started to gently thrust his hips up into Steve’s mouth. “Shit, sorry,” he mumbled, trying to keep himself still. 

“It’s alright,” Steve said, pulling off for a second. “You can move. I want you to come in my mouth.”

“Fuck,” Eddie said, head thumping back against the pillow as Steve sucked him down again. Eddie started to thrust, keeping the movements small, clearly worried about going too hard for Steve. 

Steve started to move with more vigor and Eddie gave his hair another tug. “Gonna come, pretty baby,” Eddie said, right before Steve felt warm liquid hit his tongue and the back of his throat. He swallowed it all, reveling in the taste of Eddie. 

He crawled up Eddie’s body, kissing his way back up his abdomen. Eddie flipped him onto his back and practically nose-dived into his cunt, pulling Steve’s legs open and licking vigorously at all the slick that had collected at the entrance there.

“Fuck, Eddie!” Steve yelped. Eddie pressed his tongue as deep into Steve as it would go, fucking into him as Steve moaned above him. He eventually moved his face up to Steve’s cock, swallowing it down. The second he was all the way in Eddie’s mouth Steve was coming all over Eddie’s face, fisting his hands in Eddie’s curls. No one had ever been able to make him come as fast as Eddie could. 

Steve’s body was still shaking as Eddie moved back up the bed, taking Steve into his arms. Steve laid his head against Eddie’s chest, catching his breath. “You’re really good at that,” Steve said. 

“So are you,” Eddie replied, a smile in his voice.

They lay in silence for a while, and Steve thought Eddie had fallen back asleep. His mind drifted to the conversation from the night before, and all his thoughts about Andrew. “Do you want to have kids?” he whispered, trying it out while Eddie was asleep. 

Only Eddie apparently wasn’t asleep. “Yes,” he said into Steve’s hair. 

Steve jumped, looking at Eddie. He could just make out his face in the low light from the alarm clock. “Oh, shit, I thought you were asleep,” Steve said. 

Eddie laughed. “Then why were you asking me a question?” 

Steve shrugged. “Just to, like, practice.”

“Okay. Do you need me to pretend I’m asleep so you can practice more?” Eddie was smiling. 

Steve groaned and leaned forward to hide his head in Eddie’s neck. “That was embarrassing.” 

Eddie rubbed his hands over Steve’s back. “Were you afraid I’d say no? Or were you just afraid of what I’d think of you asking?” 

“Both,” Steve mumbled. 

“Well, to allay your latter concerns,” Eddie said, putting a finger under Steve’s chin to make him look up at him. “I think it’s a really reasonable thing to ask a romantic partner, even early on. In fact, I would have asked you already if Nancy and Robin hadn’t told me all about your plans before I even asked you out. Assuming they aren’t just lying, about you wanting six kids.”

“Oh,” Steve said. “They weren’t lying. I mean, I’m not, like, dead set on six, that was just a rough estimate.”

“I’m good with six,” Eddie said. “But could be talked down to five. What about the Winnebago? Is that a non-negotiable?” Eddie asked.

Steve laughed, hope unfurling in his chest like one of those time lapse videos of a seed growing into a flower. “No, I can compromise on the Winnebago.”

“Okay, good. I’m more of a tent person.”

Steve leaned forward and kissed Eddie just as his 6am alarm started to blare. 

Chapter Text

Thursday night found Steve at Eddie’s apartment, “helping” him carve the six pumpkins for the D&D campaign at the library on Saturday. Steve hadn’t realized that Eddie’s aspirations had been quite as high as they were for the pumpkins. Steve’s pumpkin carving capabilities were limited to very basic faces, but Eddie had found some stencils online for carving various spooky D&D creatures into pumpkins. This meant that Steve was mostly just sitting at the table watching and occasionally distracting Eddie. 

“There is no way you’re gonna finish all of these tonight,” Steve said, as Eddie put the finishing touches on the first pumpkin, two hours into their carving session.

Eddie sighed and ran a hand through his hair, rubbing a bunch of pumpkin guts into it. “Ew,” he said, trying to pull them out of his hair. 

“Here, let me,” Steve said, walking over to Eddie and leaning down to pluck the slimy strings out of Eddie’s hair. Eddie reached out and grabbed his waist before Steve could walk away, and pressed his face into Steve’s belly, hugging him. His hands slowly moved down to cup Steve’s ass through his jeans. 

“You’re definitely not gonna finish if you keep that up,” Steve said laughing.

“Might not finish the pumpkins, but I can finish something else,” Eddie mumbled into his shirt. He pulled his face away from Steve’s stomach and reached for the buttons of his jeans. He looked up at Steve, eyes dark and hungry, and Steve’s breath caught in his throat, surprised by the naked desire in Eddie’s face.

Eddie maneuvered Steve back towards the table as he undid his jeans, pulling them down with his boxers as he pushed Steve to perch on the table. Eddie pressed a kiss to each of Steve’s thighs and gently parted his legs, running a finger through the slick collecting at Steve’s entrance as Steve shuddered above him. 

Eddie slid a finger into Steve and bent his head to kiss lightly over Steve’s cock. Steve’s hands came to the edge of the table, gripping hard. Eddie’s mouth joined his finger for a bit, licking up the slick pooling around it, before he returned to Steve’s cock, pulling it into his mouth and sucking lightly. 

Steve moaned and shifted his hips up, fucking into Eddie’s mouth as Eddie worked a second finger into him. He moved his fingers and mouth slowly, less frantic than he usually was, as if he wanted to draw it out. Steve slumped back onto the table, jostling one of the pumpkins as he propped himself up on his elbows so he could keep watching Eddie.

Eventually, Eddie shifted his fingers to stroke against Steve’s g-spot at the same time as he increased the pace and intensity of his mouth on Steve’s cock. “Fuck, Eddie,” Steve said, feeling his orgasm coiling in his lower belly as Eddie kept working him over. He laid back fully on the table, arm coming over his face, as he came with a loud shout, pouring into Eddie’s mouth. Eddie swallowed everything and removed his fingers, moving his mouth to lick the slick from Steve’s folds. 

Steve heard the chair creak as Eddie sat back once he was done, and then Eddie was removing the arm from over Steve’s eyes and leaning over him, smiling.

“How’s it going sweetheart?” Eddie asked, and Steve gave him a weak thumbs up. 

Eddie laughed and helped Steve stand back up, pulling his pants up for him. He turned to the next pumpkin in line. “Alright, back to work,” he said.

“What, seriously?” Steve asked, hands on his hips. He’d been expecting to be taken to the bedroom and thoroughly fucked.

“Yes, seriously!” Eddie said, smirking. “There’s a lot of carving to do. Why, is there something else you needed, princess?” He picked up the carving knife, already starting in on the pumpkin, not waiting for an answer. Steve let out an exaggerated huff and sat down in the chair next to Eddie.

Eddie only lasted one more pumpkin before he was leading Steve back to his bedroom, pulling off his own clothes and tugging at Steve’s as he went. He was naked by the time they reached the bedroom, and Steve only had his boxers remaining.

Steve pushed Eddie back onto the bed and knelt between his legs, leaning down to press kisses all over his abdomen and upper thighs. Eddie moaned when Steve finally took his cock into his mouth, tonguing the precum out of the slit. He played with the head for a while, running his tongue along the edge of his glans.

Steve moved a hand up to lightly grab Eddie’s balls, massaging them gently. He slipped a finger back to gently stroke over the furl of Eddie’s asshole once, then looked up to gauge the reaction. Eddie was looking down at Steve, his eyes hooded. 

“You can, if you want. I like it,” Eddie said, giving Steve permission. He disentangled himself from Steve for a moment and grabbed something from the drawer of his bedside table - a bottle of lube. He handed it to Steve and laid back down.  

Steve bent towards Eddie’s cock again, pressing a quick kiss to it before moving lower to pull the skin around his balls into his mouth. He pulled off for a moment and said, “Can you flip over, onto your stomach?” 

Eddie did, keeping his legs open for Steve to sit between. Steve ran his hands up Eddie’s thighs, over his tiny ass, and up his back, drawing a shiver out of Eddie. He bent forward, pulling Eddie’s cheeks open and licking over his asshole. 

Eddie jumped, not expecting it. “Oh, fuck,” he said as Steve licked harder, tongue pressing against his hole. He squeezed Eddie’s ass hard, probably leaving marks, and Eddie moaned loudly, pressing himself back up into Steve’s face. 

Steve pressed his tongue in past the tight rim of muscle, fucking it gently in and out as Eddie writhed beneath him, making incoherent noises. Eventually he sat up, grabbing the lube and drizzling some on his fingers and over Eddie’s asshole.

He pressed one finger in easily, Eddie having been partially opened up on his tongue. He worked the finger in and out up to the second knuckle. “Feels so good, baby,” Eddie said, voice breathy. 

Steve added his second finger, angling toward the front of Eddie’s body, until Eddie yelped beneath him. “Fuck, right there,” he said, panting, and Steve started to rub faster, pressing his fingers into Eddie’s prostate. Eddie was rubbing his own cock into the mattress on each stroke. “Yes, shit, that’s perfect Stevie.” Steve kept going until he felt Eddie tighten around him, almost pushing his fingers out as he came into the mattress, yelling incoherently.

Steve pulled his fingers out once Eddie was done, gently stroking his lower back with his clean hand as Eddie shook with the force of his orgasm. 

“Fuck me,” Eddie said, and it sounded like a command, not an exclamation. Steve’s hand stilled. 

“What?” he said, thinking he must have misheard.

“Fuck me. Please.” Eddie turned to look at Steve over his shoulder. “Want you to come inside me.”

Steve had never fucked an alpha before. He’d fucked a few other omegas, and once a beta. His cock was big enough for an omega that it wasn’t necessary to go straight to a dildo in those situations to get someone off. An omega fucking an alpha, though, that was… weird, and kind of a niche kink thing. But looking at Eddie below him, he realized he wanted to. He wanted to feel Eddie in every way he possibly could. 

“Alright,” Steve said, voice shaky. “I’ve never done this with an alpha, though. And it’s not very big, you know.” He motioned at his cock. “It might not be… great.” 

Eddie flipped back over onto his back. “Want to look at you while you fuck me,” he explained, ignoring Steve’s rambling. Steve let out a shaky exhale and grabbed the lube, slicking up his cock. Eddie put his hands behind his knees and pulled his legs up, and Steve shuffled forward between his legs, lining himself up. 

“Ready?” he asked, and Eddie nodded. Steve slid in easily; the width of his cock was less than two of his fingers. Eddie was so tight around him, squeezing him like a vise. He leaned forward, putting a hand on either side of Eddie’s head.

“Fuck, Eddie, you feel amazing,” Steve said, bending to kiss Eddie. Steve started to thrust into Eddie, reveling in the heat of him. Eddie let out a moan, his spent cock twitching against his belly, and kissed Steve back, wrapping his arms around Steve’s waist to pull him closer.

Steve didn’t last long, feeling his orgasm build after only a few minutes of thrusting. “Come in me, baby,” Eddie whispered against his lips. Steve couldn’t deny him anything. He buried himself inside of Eddie and came, moaning Eddie’s name and collapsing on top of him. Eddie’s arms stayed wrapped around his waist, holding him tight. 

Steve eventually disentangled himself from Eddie’s arms and slid off, softening cock pulling out as he did. Eddie didn’t let him go far, pulling him in for a kiss.

“Was that alright?” Steve asked, feeling nervous. 

“It was fucking perfect,” Eddie said. Steve blushed. 

Eddie got up for a moment to grab a wet washcloth and clean them both up, then fell back into bed, pulling Steve against his chest. 

“You only finished two pumpkins,” Steve said, stroking his fingers lightly over one of Eddie’s shoulder tattoos. 

Eddie waved a hand dismissively. “It’ll be fine. Want to come over tomorrow again to help finish them? You could spend the night, if you can get Roger to feed the cats. And if you want to. No pressure.” Roger was Steve’s neighbor who took care of the cats whenever he went into Chicago to see Robin and Nancy.

“I’d like that,” Steve said. He glanced at the clock. It was only 8, he could spend a little more time with Eddie before he had to head home. 

“It’s almost November,” Eddie said, like he was just realizing it. 

“True,” Steve said. “November typically comes after Halloween.”

Eddie ignored the sarcasm. “My rut is due to come the second week of November. Shit. I forgot.”

“Oh, right,” Steve said. He’d forgotten Eddie had said it was due in early November. 

“Do you still want to spend it with me?” Eddie asked.  

“Of course,” Steve said, already feeling excited about the prospect. “I went back on birth control after we talked.” 

“Will you be okay to take time off work?” 

“Yeah, our teacher’s union thankfully doesn’t require proof of bonded status to take time off for a partner’s heat or rut, as long as you don’t do it more than once a quarter.” The Catholic school had been a different story. 

“That’s good,” Eddie said, smiling. “It’s been a long time since I’ve spent a rut with someone.” He looked so happy. Steve had done that. It made him feel all warm and fuzzy. He rubbed the scent gland on his neck against Eddie’s, mixing their scents together, and started to purr. Eddie kissed the top of his head, his own purr rumbling in his chest. 

Steve and Eddie spent most of Friday night fucking instead of carving pumpkins, so Saturday morning was spent frantically attempting to finish the pumpkins. Steve woke up feeling a bit under the weather, exhausted and achy and slightly nauseous, but attempted to help as much as he could. 

“Just put some sort of face on it!” Eddie said, motioning with pumpkin goo-covered hands at the pumpkin Steve was glaring at.

“Really, I think it would be better to just have one uncarved pumpkin,” Steve said. “I’m telling you, Eddie, I don’t have an artistic bone in my body.” 

Eddie finally agreed to leave the final pumpkin unmolested, and Steve helped him load the pumpkins into the truck Eddie drove in the winters. Steve was going with him to help with the unloading, but was planning to head back home after to try to sleep off whatever he was coming down with. 

This was Steve’s first time seeing Chrissy since high school. Their social circles had overlapped much more than his and Eddie’s in high school, and he’d actually spent a fair amount of time with her back then. She had been an oddity, a petite blonde cheerleader who was an alpha, and Steve, the muscular jock who was an omega, had sensed a kindred spirit. They hadn’t kept in touch, he hadn’t even known she lived in the same town as him until Eddie mentioned her, but he was glad to see her again. She volunteered at the library helping out with youth programming when she wasn’t working at the shop with Eddie, and had set all of this up.

“Steve!” she said joyfully when she saw him, pulling him into a hug. “It’s been a really long time!” 

“Good to see you, Chrissy,” he said, meaning it.  

“I’ve been hearing a lot about you the past few weeks,” Chrissy said, smiling, and Steve blushed. 

Eddie set up his pumpkins and started pulling out a bunch of books and papers, and a big grid he put on the table with a handful of tiny figurines. 

They heard the door open and turned as a group of boys poured in, talking loudly. Steve froze. They were all from his class. Dustin Henderson, Mike Wheeler, Lucas Sinclair, and Will Byers. From his class at his job where he was not out, a fact he hadn’t actually mentioned to Eddie. He moved subtly away from where Eddie was standing as the boys recognized him. 

“Mr. Harrington?” Dustin looked at him like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “You play Dungeons and Dragons?”

Steve laughed awkwardly. “No, I was just helping get set up. About to head out now, actually.” He needed to get out of here. “See you guys later,” he said, waving at Eddie and Chrissy. 

Eddie reached for him, leaning in to give him a kiss. Steve couldn’t blame him, he’d never given Eddie any reason to believe he wasn’t receptive to PDAs. Steve flinched, pulling away, and a hurt look crossed Eddie’s face briefly before it was replaced by confusion.

“Uh, bye,” he said, awkwardness levels dialed up to 5,000 as he turned and fled. He burst out of the library doors, power walking away as he heard Chrissy yell his name from the steps of the library. He ignored her, almost jogging the few blocks to where his car was parked outside Eddie’s apartment. 

He slid into his car and put his head on the steering wheel. “Fuck,” he said to himself. He’d really blown it now. He felt his emotions ramping up, shame a heavy weight in his chest, swirling together with the nausea he’d been feeling all morning. No way Eddie was going to want to be with someone still partially in the closet. Eddie was so unabashedly himself, and Steve couldn’t imagine him ever hiding part of what he was. 

He didn’t remember much of his drive home. He collapsed onto the couch when he got there, pressing his face against the cushion. The cushion, which still smelled like Eddie. He felt an emptiness building inside of his core at the sense of loss, and he started to cry then. 

What the hell was wrong with him? He should have just come out right there, let Eddie plant one on him, fuck it if he got fired. Eddie was too important to him already to lose for something like that. His nausea started to get worse, accompanied by a vague cramping pain, which he attributed to the uncontrollable sobbing.

He called Robin during a lull in the sobs, but immediately started sobbing again as soon as she picked up.

“Steve, what’s going on?” she asked, worried.

“I fucked it all up, Robbie,” he got out between hiccuping sobs. “Eddie found out I’m still in the closet at work.”

“Oh, Steve. Are you sure he’s not okay with that? It’s not like Indiana is a bastion of tolerance.”

“He looked so hurt, Robin. I can’t be the reason he looks hurt like that.” 

Robin hmmed to herself. “Maybe he just needs a minute to process everything. I just really can’t imagine this being a non-negotiable for him.”

Steve started crying some more. “You weren’t there,” he yelled. “You didn’t see!” 

“Steve, are you okay?” Robin asked. “This seems like an out of proportion freak-out even for you. Is something else going on?” 

“No, Robin,” Steve yelled, even as part of him somewhere deep down thought maybe she had a point. 

“When was the last time you had a heat?” Robin asked.

“What do you think this is, some sort of omega hysteria?” Steve yelled at her, voice rising. “I wouldn’t have thought you would be the one to try to brush off my feelings because of my designation.” 

“Steve, I’m not trying to brush off your feelings, you’re just being really weird.”

“Well, fuck you, Robin!” he yelled, hanging up the phone.  

It started ringing a few seconds later, and he yanked the cord out of the wall. He tried to lay down in his nest, but it smelled like Eddie. He stumbled into the guest bedroom, sobbing, and lay on top of the covers curled up in a little ball. His stomach hurt so bad and he felt like he was on fire. 

He must have dozed off at some point, and felt himself yanked awake by increasing pain in his stomach. He stumbled to the bathroom, retching into the toilet, only bringing up bile. He hadn’t felt this awful outside of a heat in a long time.

“Oh,” he said to himself. “Shit.” Robin was right. He was going into heat, and it was going to fucking suck without Eddie. He’d already gotten so attached to him, and he couldn’t even imagine how miserable his Omega was going to make him feel when it realized Eddie wasn’t here. 

He started to frantically gather the supplies he would need, unearthing his knotting dildo and throwing it on the bed, grabbing a few gallon jugs of water and some towels. The cramping was getting intense, he would be under soon. 

He heard a knock on the door. Oh, Jesus, he hoped it wasn’t Roger from next door. Just what he needed right now. He tried to ignore it, but whoever it was just kept knocking. He went to the door and tore it open, ready to tell Roger off, only to find Eddie on his doorstep. 

“Steve. You weren’t answering your phone,” Eddie looked confused, and unsure of himself. He took a closer look at Steve and sniffed the air. “Shit. You’re in heat.” Eddie stepped forward and Steve let him in, breathing in his scent deeply, his Omega trilling somewhere inside him, closer to the surface this close to his heat.

“Almost,” Steve managed to say. 

“Fuck. Why weren’t you answering the phone? How was I supposed to know? What happened back there?” 

Steve shook his head miserably, unable to handle the rapid-fire questions in his current mental state. 

“Okay, sorry. Too much. I’ll start with the most important question, before it’s too late - do you want me here for your heat?”

Steve whimpered. “Yes, but… you don’t want to be here.” 

“No, Stevie, that’s not true. This is the only place I wanna be right now.” He stepped forward and pulled Steve into his arms. Steve went, slumping against Eddie’s chest, pressing his nose to Eddie’s scent gland. 

“Those were your students,” Eddie said. Steve nodded, even though it hadn’t been a question. “You’re not out at work, are you?” Eddie asked.

“I’m not,” Steve whispered, crying again. 

“Baby, I’m so sorry,” Eddie said, tilting Steve’s head up so he was looking at him. “I should have figured, and not tried to kiss you in front of a bunch of students.” 

“I’m sorry,” Steve said. “Shouldn’t have to hide for me. Bad.” His vocabulary at this point left something to be desired.

“No, Steve, it’s not bad. I mean, it’s bad that the world is the way it is, but I understand. This is totally fine, you’ve done nothing wrong.” He kept hold of Steve’s chin. “Do you believe me?” 

“No,” Steve said forlornly.

“Okay, well, we can continue this conversation when you’re not in heat. I just want to clarify one more time, before you go under - are you sure you want me to spend this heat with you?”

Steve locked eyes with Eddie, nodded, and made his voice as strong as he could to say, “Yes.” Steve's Omega was waking up fully now, Eddie's presence bringing the heat on even faster. He tried to nuzzle back into Eddie's neck, but Eddie kept a firm grip on his chin, making Steve look at him.

“Okay,” Eddie said. “Any hard no’s I need to know about?”

Steve tried to think through the fog of impending heat. “No mating bite. Yet.” 

Eddie nodded. “Of course. Can I bite you near but not on your scent gland?” 

Steve nodded.

“Anything else?” Eddie asked.

Steve shook his head and pressed his body against Eddie’s, keening. “No. Trust you. Need you now, Alpha.”

Eddie growled, letting Steve move his head back to his scent gland. Steve started to lick at it, trying to get as much of Eddie’s scent as possible, and Eddie grabbed Steve by his upper thighs right under his ass and lifted him, strength increasing as his Alpha responded to the scent of Steve’s heat.

Steve’s boxers were already completely soaked with slick as he pressed himself against Eddie, squirming. The sensation of heat was painful now, burning inside his cunt and lower belly. “It hurts,” he whined against Eddie’s neck.

“Don’t worry, baby, I’ll take care of you,” Eddie said, his voice much deeper than usual.

He walked to the bedroom and lowered Steve down onto the bed, grabbing the knotting dildo with a frustrated huff and throwing it out the door. “Don’t need that,” Eddie growled.

“Need you,” Steve said, doubling over as another wave of pain hit him. 

Eddie made quick working of taking off his own clothes and was climbing into the bed naked before Steve even noticed. He helped Steve peel off his sweat soaked shirt, Steve in too much pain to manage it himself, followed by his sweatpants.

Eddie reached up to cup Steve’s cheek. “Can you present for me, Omega?” Eddie asked. It was the first time he’d addressed Steve’s Omega directly, and it sent a thrill through Steve’s entire body, quieting the pain. He scrambled out from beneath Eddie and onto all fours, arching his back and putting himself on display for Eddie.

Eddie breathed in sharply, a hand coming to one of Steve’s hips, stroking lightly. Steve could feel slick running down the insides of his thighs, filling the room with the scent of his heat. He whined and wiggled his hips, pain building again in his belly. 

“Sorry,” Eddie said, moving quickly to line himself up at Steve’s entrance. “You’re too beautiful. It’s distracting.” Eddie thrust into him fast, much faster than usual, burying himself inside of Steve to the hilt in one thrust. Steve cried out in relief, the feeling of Eddie’s cock taking the edge off of the pain. 

Eddie draped himself fully over Steve’s back, pressing his body down into the bed, only Steve’s hips still up in the air. His thrusts were fast and hard, exactly what Steve needed. Pushing Steve’s hair to the side, he bit down lightly just below Steve’s scent gland and held on as he fucked him. 

Steve was reduced to incoherent babbling as Eddie’s thrusts soothed the ache deep in his core. He felt an orgasm building rapidly, with nothing even touching his cock, and with Eddie’s next thrust he came with a loud groan, slick pulsing out around Eddie’s cock. 

Eddie released his neck to whisper in his ear, “I’m gonna knot you now, baby, okay? Fill you up, make you feel good.” 

Steve keened, nodding his head vigorously, unable to find any words. He could feel Eddie’s knot starting to swell, pulling his entrance open even further and catching slightly on each thrust. It was the biggest he’d ever taken, and it felt amazing. Steve never wanted it to end, but then it swelled enough to catch, locking Eddie in place as Eddie bit down again on his neck and came inside of him.

It was so much more cum than normal. Steve could feel the warm pulses inside of him, banking the fire of the heat and taking away the throbbing pain in his core. His hips collapsed onto the bed, pulling Eddie down with him now that they were locked together. The tug of Eddie’s knot at his entrance made him groan. It was painful in a very pleasurable sort of way.

Eddie let go of his neck again, licking over the bite he’d left. He moved to shift off of Steve but Steve grabbed onto his arm, stopping him. 

“You want me to stay like this?” Eddie asked.

Steve nodded, not quite feeling capable of speech yet. The fog of the heat was receding a little now that Eddie had knotted him and the pain had gone away, but he was still overwhelmed.

“Alright,” Eddie said, kissing the back of Steve’s head and running a hand up and down his side. “You did so great, baby. You were perfect.” 

Steve chirped and started to purr, content. Eddie stayed on top of him for another ten minutes or so, until Steve finally started to shift beneath him. “Okay,” Steve said. “Sides?” 

Eddie gently shifted them so he was spooning Steve, trying his best not to jostle his knot. “How are you feeling?” Eddie asked.

“Much better now,” Steve replied. “Sleepy.” 

Eddie kissed the back of his head again. “Sleep, then. I’ll be here.” 

Steve felt himself drifting off before Eddie’s knot had even gone down.

The first thing he noticed when he woke was that Eddie was no longer inside of him. The second thing was that the pain was back in his lower belly. And the third was that Eddie’s scent had changed - it smelled almost like someone had started a fire out of pine tree branches, and then thrown a bunch of vanilla in his face.

Steve heard a groan from the other side of the bed and sat up. Eddie sat hunched over a few feet from Steve, and he didn’t look good. His skin was covered in a sheen of sweat and he was flushed red all over. He looked up at Steve, and Steve caught sight of a flash of red moving over his irises for a moment before Eddie blinked, eyes shifting back to brown. 

“I’m going into rut,” Eddie said, voice gravelly. 

“Oh,” Steve said, reaching for him. It wasn’t unheard of for a heat to trigger an alpha’s rut, especially since Eddie had been so close to his rut anyway. Steve shivered in excitement. He’d rarely experienced a heat in sync with an alpha’s rut. It had only happened to him and Andrew twice in their whole relationship, their bodies knowing inherently what it took their minds so long to realize - that they weren’t compatible.

“Steve,” Eddie said, reaching out a hand blindly for him. Steve took it and pushed Eddie back onto the bed, climbing onto his lap and sinking down onto his already very hard cock. 

“I’ll take care of you, Alpha,” Steve said, feeling the heat fully take hold of him again as he started to move himself up and down frantically on Eddie’s cock. 

Eddie’s eyes snapped open, the irises fully red now, and grabbed Steve’s hips, stilling him as he flipped them over and started to pound into Steve with abandon. He pulled Steve’s legs up over his shoulders and propped one of his own legs on the bed beside them for more leverage, pushing deeper into Steve than he’d ever been.

“Alphaaaaaa,” Steve moaned, the a’s coming out choppy with Eddie’s thrusts. Eddie leaned forward, not pausing his thrusts, and started to bite Steve’s chest everywhere he could reach, leaving marks and occasional little pools of blood where he broke the skin. Steve, so deep in the heat, didn’t even register it as pain, only as the pleasure of being marked by his alpha, the pleasure of being owned.

Eddie’s knot swelled, catching a little on every thrust, an exquisite sort of discomfort. “I’m gonna fill you up so full, Omega. Gonna give you so many pups, one after another, gonna keep you in this nest forever.”

Steve cried out and came as Eddie’s knot locked inside him, pressing deliciously against his g-spot as Eddie ground himself in and also came. Steve could feel the warmth of his cum spilling inside of him, coating his insides, and shuddered, another orgasm washing over him.

Eddie shifted them onto their sides, facing each other this time, as they both tried to catch their breath. Steve looked up to see that the red had left his eyes, the rut receding for a bit after being momentarily satisfied. He looked down at all the bite marks on Steve’s chest and his face fell.

“Shit, Steve, I’m sorry,” he said, hand running over one that was still oozing a little on Steve’s pec. “Once we can move I’ll clean them all for you.” 

Steve kissed him, tangling his hand in Eddie’s hair. “I liked it,” Steve said against his mouth. “Made me feel like yours.” 

Eddie sighed and shivered. “Do you like that thought? Being mine.”

“Yes,” Steve replied. “Want to be yours, only yours.” He licked into Eddie’s mouth, pressing his tongue in deep. It was sloppy and uncoordinated but he felt Eddie’s cock pulse inside of him, letting out a little more cum. He moaned into Eddie’s mouth.

“You are mine,” Eddie said, breaking the kiss. “My omega.” 

Steve chirped and buried his face in Eddie’s neck, licking up the oil from his scent gland, the fiery pine scent coating his tongue. 

Once Eddie’s knot had finally gone down, Eddie shifted down the bed, pushing Steve’s legs open.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked, confused. 

“I just want to check and make sure you’re okay. I was going pretty hard for a while there.” Eddie reached out to touch Steve, gently parting his folds. Steve felt cum and slick dripping out of him as Eddie ran his fingers around his entrance. 

“Hard to see, with all the mess,” Eddie said, then bent his face to Steve’s cunt and started to lick. Steve yelped, still oversensitive, but Eddie kept the pressure light, lapping up his own cum and Steve’s slick until he was satisfied, then pulling back to look at Steve again. He pressed his finger around Steve’s entrance and looked up at him. “That all feel alright? No pain?” he asked.

Steve sighed. “Fucking hell, Eddie. Yes, it all feels alright. More than alright.” 

Eddie smirked, standing up and holding out a hand for Steve. “Let me clean up those bites.” Steve took his hand and followed him to the bathroom.  

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Eddie asked, dabbing rubbing alcohol on one of the worst bites. “I know I’m not going to be able to stop myself from doing it when the rut takes over again, but I could wear, like, a muzzle or something.” 

Steve shook his head vigorously. “Absolutely not. I want every single one of your bites.”

Eddie raised his eyebrows. “Except a mating bite.” 

Steve shifted uncomfortably. Had Eddie asked him that again when his heat was in the forefront of his mind, he would have absolutely let him give him a mating bite. But his heat was banked enough at the moment that he knew he wasn’t ready for that yet. “Yes, except that.” 

Eddie nodded. “It’s going to be a little more difficult, with both of us under. We should put something over it,” Eddie said, touching Steve’s scent gland where a mating bite would go. “That should be enough to remind me not to bite there.”  

Steve rifled through the cupboards, pulling out some gauze and paper tape, holding it out to Eddie, who put it gently over his scent gland. 

They heard a knock at the door and Eddie instantly growled, his fangs popping back out and eyes flashing red. The knock came again, more insistent. “Stay here,” Eddie said, then grabbed Steve’s robe from the back of the bathroom door and put it on. 

Steve heard Eddie open the door and growl, “Go away,” at whatever poor individual had chosen that moment to knock on Steve’s door.

“Oh, thank god you’re here,” Chrissy’s voice said, loud enough for Steve to hear.

“Why are you here?” Eddie sounded suspicious and hostile. 

“Shit,” Steve mumbled to himself as he remembered that Chrissy was an alpha, and she was dangerously close to Steve while Eddie was in rut.

“Robin Buckley has been calling the shop non-stop. She said Steve called her and was acting really weird, then he hung up and hasn’t answered any of her calls since. When I couldn’t find you either, I told her I’d come out here and make sure he was okay.”

“He’s fine,” Eddie growled. “Go. Away.” 

“Shit, Eddie, are you in rut?” Chrissy asked. 

Steve grabbed a towel, wrapping it around himself so he could approach the scene at the door. “I’m okay, Chrissy,” he said, glancing over at where he’d yanked the phone cord out of the wall. “I’ll plug my phone back in and call Robin.” 

Chrissy smiled weakly at him as Eddie loomed over her, blocking the door, posturing. His scent had soured and he was growling. “Thanks, Steve,” Chrissy said. 

Steve pressed a wrist to Eddie’s neck, scenting him, and gently pulled him back from the door. “C’mon, Alpha, come back inside with me.” Eddie came when he pulled and Chrissy shot Steve a relieved look as he shut the door. 

Eddie was immediately on him, pressing him back up against the closed door and kissing him, sloppy and wet, his tongue going deep into Steve’s mouth as he undid the towel around Steve’s waist. Eddie unbelted the robe he was wearing, and picked Steve up around the tops of his thighs as his cock slid into Steve and Steve wrapped his legs around Eddie.

“You’re mine,” Eddie said as he fucked into Steve, bending his head down to place more bites onto Steve’s shoulders.

“Yours,” Steve echoed, baring his neck for Eddie. 

“Don’t want them anywhere near you,” Eddie was babbling now, and Steve had no idea who “them” even referred to, though given how deep Eddie was in the rut it probably referred to every other human on the planet. “Gonna keep you here in our nest forever.” 

Steve’s heart skipped a beat hearing Eddie refer to it as “our” nest. “Please,” he said, unable to string together multiple words. Eddie’s knot locked into him again and he filled Steve, whole body shaking as he came. Eddie continued to mouth at Steve’s shoulder for a few moments, licking at the bite marks, soothing them. 

“Okay, this is definitely the most awkward position I’ve found myself locked in,” Steve said once he felt like he could speak again.

Eddie laughed. “Sorry. I can carry you to the bedroom.” He started to move.

“Wait. I need to plug the phone back in or Robin’s going to try to come here with Nancy and I don’t want you to kill her.”

Eddie growled, presumably at the mention of Nancy’s name, who was not only another alpha, but an alpha who had dated Steve in the past. 

“Yeah, exactly,” Steve said. “Walk me over to the chair by the phone and sit down. I’ll call her.”

Eddie managed to do as Steve instructed, Steve perched in his lap. Steve bent over to plug the phone back in. He dialed Robin’s number, acutely aware Eddie’s cock was still buried inside him, but not wanting to delay and forget to call.

“Hello?” Robin sounded worried.

“Hey, Robs, it’s me.”

“Oh my god, Steve!” she shrieked. “What the fuck, dingus? I’ve been calling you non-stop for hours. You can’t just say weird shit like that to me then disappear, you fucking asshole.”

Steve winced. “I’m sorry. You were right, I was going into heat.”

“Shit. Are you okay?” 

“Yeah. Eddie’s here.” Steve shifted a little, feeling Eddie’s knot. He didn’t have to tell Robin exactly how “here” Eddie was.

Robin sighed in relief. “Okay, good. Chrissy couldn’t find him, so I hoped he was with you.” 

Eddie leaned forward to kiss Steve’s neck, thrusting up into him a little, and Steve couldn’t help but let out a breathy moan.

“Oh my god, Steven, please tell me you did not call me while he was inside of you?” 

“Uhhh,” Steve said, and Eddie smirked at him and moved his hips again, making Steve moan. 

“For fuck’s sake. Goodbye, Steve, please call me when you’re done with your heat, definitely not before.”

“Bye, Robs,” he said, hanging up the phone. He smiled at Eddie. “That was very naughty,” he said, leaning forward to kiss him.

Eddie met the kiss, sliding his tongue lazily into Steve’s mouth, one hand coming up to cup the back of Steve’s head. Steve melted into him, leaning heavily on Eddie’s chest as they slowly kissed, exploring each other’s mouths until Eddie’s knot finally went down enough for Steve to get off of him. 

Steve sat back and looked at Eddie. His lips were swollen from kissing Steve for nearly twenty minutes straight, and there was a flush in his cheeks. His pupils were so wide Steve could barely see any iris remaining. 

“You’re gorgeous,” Steve whispered.

“Mmm, not as gorgeous as you,” Eddie replied, raising up a hand to brush a thumb over Steve’s cheekbone. 

“We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that point,” Steve said, pushing himself out of the chair, groaning a little at the tightness in his legs from the awkward position. 

Eddie stood, ushering Steve back to the bedroom. “Lay down. I’ll get you some food and water.” 

“Oh, let me,” Steve protested, turning toward the kitchen, only to hear Eddie growl and forcibly push Steve into the mess of blankets making up his nest. 

“No,” Eddie said, eyes flashing red. “Stay here. You’re going to let me take care of you.” 

“Alright, alright,” Steve conceded, holding up his hands and getting into the bed, snuggling into the blankets that smelled of their mingled scents. He wasn’t used to letting anyone take care of him, even during a heat. It was a little uncomfortable, but mostly just really nice. 

Eddie came back a few minutes later with water and a plate of cheese and fruit. He sat next to Steve, holding out the glass of water.

“Drink,” he said, and Steve complied, realizing he was actually quite thirsty. He drained the whole glass, and reached for the plate, but Eddie shook his head. He picked up a strawberry and held it up to Steve’s mouth. Eddie was going to hand-feed him. Steve shivered, a bolt of desire shooting through his body as he opened his mouth. He closed around the strawberry, lips brushing Eddie’s fingers where they were holding the leaves. 

They maintained eye contact as Eddie continued to feed him, both gradually getting more and more turned on, until Steve finally grabbed Eddie’s wrist as he held up a grape. “Enough,” he said, and Eddie put the plate to the side and was on Steve in a second, pinning him to the bed and biting down his neck to his chest.

“Fuck me, Alpha, please,” Steve whined, feeling painfully empty already. He sighed in ecstasy when he felt Eddie slide inside him, fucking him slower this time, able to draw it out more having just knotted Steve twice in the past two hours. 

Steve kissed him, keening into his mouth as Eddie fucked him. He was laying fully on top of Steve, so every movement of his body pressed against Steve’s cock, providing delightful friction. He was coming before he even felt the approach of his orgasm, and he felt his tiny omega fangs pop out for the first time as he bit down on Eddie where his neck met his shoulder. 

Eddie cried out, knot popping almost immediately after Steve bit down, and Steve could feel his insides getting coated once more in Eddie’s cum. He wanted so badly for it to take, and was suddenly overcome by an intense sadness when he remembered he was on birth control. 

He let go of Eddie’s neck and started to sob uncontrollably. Eddie pressed himself up on his hands so he was looking down at Steve, concerned.

“Baby, did I hurt you?” he asked. Steve tried to shake his head, but he couldn’t speak through the tears, his whole body shaking. 

“Omega,” Eddie said, using a particular alpha tone of voice that went straight to Steve’s hindbrain, calming him down and commanding a response. “What’s wrong?”

Steve’s sobs slowed at the command in Eddie’s voice until he could speak again, though he wasn’t even able to form full sentences. “Want pups. Want them so bad. Can’t get them now. Birth control.” 

Eddie’s face softened and he cupped Steve’s cheek with one hand. “Oh, baby, I’m so sorry. I know I can’t give them to you this time, but as soon as you’re ready, I’ll give you as many as you want.”

“Promise?” Steve asked, nuzzling into Eddie’s hand. 

“Promise,” Eddie confirmed, capturing Steve’s lips in a kiss. Steve sighed into the kiss and eventually let Eddie shift them back onto their sides. He buried his face in Eddie’s neck and drifted off to sleep.

He woke to the feeling of Eddie’s cock still inside him, half hard. Eddie must have fallen asleep with his knot still in Steve. He was asleep now and Steve studied his face while he slept. He reached out to trace the laugh lines around Eddie’s eyes, fingers tracing down to his full lips. He was so pretty.

He could feel Eddie’s cock slowly getting harder inside of him, his rut ramping back up while he slept. Steve reached down to touch his own cock, wrapping his hand around it and stroking. He let out a moan and Eddie’s eyes blinked open, already red. 

He batted Steve’s hand away from his cock and replaced it with his own, jerking him off vigorously as Steve ground down on his cock. Steve was coming in seconds, yelling incoherently as he spilled over Eddie’s hand, clenching down on his cock. 

Eddie shifted so he was laying on top of Steve again and started to fuck into him, leaning his head down to bite at Steve’s skin directly below the gauze covering his scent gland, breaking the skin and making Steve come again, barely anything coming out of his cock this time. Eddie’s knot swelled and he bullied it into Steve, coming again as he yelled Steve’s name. 

He stayed on top of Steve, licking over the bite mark. “You’re mine,” he mumbled into Steve’s skin. 

“Mmmhmm,” Steve agreed, petting Eddie’s hair. “And you’re mine.” 

Eddie pushed up to look at him. “All yours. Never wanted anyone else the way I want you.” He was earnest, and the red had bled away from his eyes, so Steve knew it wasn’t just the rut talking. He smiled and kissed Eddie, slow and sweet. 

The next 36 hours passed in a similar flurry. Steve thought he probably spent at least a third of those hours with Eddie’s knot locked inside him. He’d never had quite so much sex during a heat, even the few times he’d had one synced with an alpha’s rut. Something about Eddie made his inner Omega absolutely insatiable, and it seemed the same was true for Eddie with Steve. 

By the end of the heat, they were both exhausted and sore, but their bodies demanded one more time. 

“I’m sorry, baby,” Eddie said, looking heartbroken as Steve winced when he sank down onto Eddie’s cock. Eddie was sitting with his back against the headboard, letting Steve take control now that he was so sore. 

Steve shook his head and kissed Eddie to shut him up. “I need this. Not your fault,” Steve said against his lips. He could feel the heat starting to recede, and he had a feeling this would be the last time he needed Eddie to knot him. He moved on Eddie’s cock, grinding himself slowly down, trying to keep from wincing to make Eddie less concerned.

It hurt, but it hurt less than the empty screaming pain in his core from not being filled while in heat. He moved a little faster as his body adjusted, bouncing up and down in Eddie’s lap. “Just one more time, Alpha,” he panted. “Please, fill me up one more time.”

Eddie gasped and Steve felt his knot start to swell. The stretch was painful, but it didn’t feel like anything was tearing. It locked inside of Steve, Eddie filling him up for the last time, finally fully quenching the fire of the heat in his gut. 

Steve collapsed, body leaning fully into Eddie as he buried his face in Eddie’s neck. Eddie ran his hands up and down Steve’s sides and pressed kisses to the top of his head. 

“Is it over?” Eddie asked. “My rut feels like it is.”

Steve nodded weakly and mumbled, “Yes.” 

They sat like that until Eddie’s knot went down, and he pulled out of Steve, gently maneuvering Steve so he was laying on his back on the bed. He went to the bathroom and returned with a wet washcloth, cleaning his cum and Steve’s slick off of him and then probing Steve gently with a finger around his entrance.

“How does that feel?” Eddie asked. Steve managed to drum up the energy to lift his head up and look down at Eddie sitting between his legs. 

“It’s sore, but not horrible,” Steve replied. 

“Good,” Eddie said. “It looks alright, just red. Do you have any heat cream?” 

Steve nodded. “In the second drawer down.” 

Eddie went to the bathroom again and returned with a small tube, rubbing some of the cream around Steve’s entrance. Steve sighed in relief at the cooling and analgesic effect. 

He looked down at Eddie’s cock, which was an angry sort of red that stood out more now that he was no longer hard. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked. 

Eddie looked down at himself. “Yeah, I’ll be alright,” he said, and rubbed a little of the cream onto himself then laid down next to Steve, pulling him against his chest. He stroked a hand through Steve’s hair, scratching his scalp as Steve started to purr. “That was… more intense than a rut has ever been for me.”

“Me, too. For a heat,” Steve said. “Is that - is that alright?” Steve asked, feeling self-conscious.

Eddie pulled back, hand under Steve’s chin, tilting his face up to look into his eyes. “It’s more than alright, baby. I loved it.”

Steve smiled. “I did, too.” He finally peeled the gauze off of his scent gland, setting it aside as Eddie leaned forward to kiss the uncovered gland. 

“Sorry you had to have that on the whole time. I wasn’t expecting to go into rut so soon. I would have been able to control myself if I hadn’t.”

“It’s okay. It’s not like I had any control over myself either,” Steve replied. “I would have let you bite me there in a heartbeat.”  

They took a short nap in the bed, but both felt unbelievably gross when they woke up. They were covered in a truly insane amount of bodily fluids. Steve ran a bath, and Eddie joined him in the tub, Steve sitting between his legs with his back to Eddie’s chest.

Eddie washed Steve’s hair, massaging his scalp for what felt like hours, then paid the same amount of attention to the rest of Steve’s body, washing and massaging in turns, until Steve felt like jelly in his arms. Eddie wouldn’t even let him return the favor, just held Steve in his arms, kissing him and muttering a stream of nonsense to him about how perfect and beautiful he was. 

He started to doze, and barely noticed when Eddie lifted him from the tub, drying him off as much as he could in Steve’s loose-limbed state, then carrying him to the bed. He curled himself around Steve, pulling the covers over them as Steve cuddled into his chest.

Steve heard a familiar meow, and felt the dips in the mattress as multiple cats joined them. They always stayed away when Steve was in heat, the smell bothered them, but Steve was glad they were back now. He fell asleep quickly, surrounded by comfort.

Chapter Text

Steve found it difficult to go back to his life separate from Eddie in the days following his heat. Eddie had stayed an entire extra day with Steve, but they both needed to get back to work. Steve was busy when he got back, trying to make up for a lackluster substitute teacher in his absence, and didn’t get to see Eddie again until the weekend. 

It worried him a little, just how much he missed Eddie’s presence in the days they spent apart, but they both had their jobs, and Steve needed to be home in the evenings for the cats. What he wanted to do was invite Eddie to stay over every night, but he tried to be reasonable and keep himself to a few nights a week. He didn’t want to seem clingy. 

A few weeks after the heat, he almost felt like he was in some sort of Eddie withdrawal. Their schedules hadn’t synced up all week, and Steve was feeling moody and irritable, as well as slightly nauseous. He was talking to Eddie on the phone on a Friday night and trying not to sound too desperate. Eddie had kept the shop open late for some sort of neighborhood small business event, so it was already 10pm. 

“What are you doing the rest of this weekend?” Steve asked.

“I’m playing guitar with a band at the Landing,” Eddie said, and Steve could hear him rustling around in the background, probably opening takeout containers. “Wanna come? Chrissy’s gonna come, so you wouldn’t have to just sit by yourself while I play.” 

Steve had made Eddie play his guitar for just him in his apartment several times, but he still hadn’t gotten a chance to see him actually play with a band and an audience.

“That sounds great,” Steve said, smiling. 

“Maybe I could come back to your place after?” Eddie asked, sounding a little apprehensive, like there was some universe in which Steve wouldn’t want him there. “I’m not opening the shop until noon Sunday.” 

Amos meowed into the receiver from where he was laying on Steve’s chest. “That’s a yes from Amos,” Steve said. 

Eddie laughed. “And what about from you, beautiful?”

It still startled Steve when Eddie just casually called him things like “beautiful” or “sweetheart” or “baby”. 

“A yes from me, too,” Steve said. 

He found Chrissy easily once he got to the bar the next day. She was wearing a bright pink dress, standing out like a sore thumb in an otherwise very beige crowd. Eddie had described this particular band as “boring dad music”, which seemed to be born out by the crowd they’d drawn. 

“Hey, Steve!” Chrissy said, standing up to give him a hug as he approached. “How’s it going? Recovered since the last time I saw you?” She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. 

Steve returned the hug, laughing. “Yes, I have.”

“Have you ever seen Eddie play before?” Chrissy asked after they exchanged some more small talk.

Steve shook his head. “Not with an actual band. Do you come see him a lot?”

Chrissy looked a little sheepish. “Not really. He actually just asked me to come tonight because he thought it would make you more likely to come.” 

Steve laughed. “Really? I would have come even if I had to sit here alone all night.”

“That’s what I told him,” Chrissy said, smiling. “But he can be a bit dense where his own attributes are concerned.” 

The band came on shortly after. Eddie looked different on stage. He was still dressed the same, in his characteristic torn black jeans with a Metallica shirt, but his whole demeanor was more serious than Steve was used to. It was weird and hot at the same time. 

The music wasn’t really to Steve’s liking, but watching Eddie’s hands move over the guitar was an experience. Steve loved Eddie’s hands. 

Chrissy leaned toward him after the first song. “It was a lot different, when he was in his own band,” she said. “Did you ever see them play at the Hideout?” 

Steve hadn’t frequented the Hideout much in high school, and was honestly surprised Chrissy had. “No, I never did.” 

“He had a lot more energy. He was the vocalist and played guitar for Corroded Coffin, that was his band. So much screaming and wild flailing.” She smiled fondly. “Now he kind of just has to behave the same way whatever band he’s playing with is behaving.”

“Has he ever tried to start a band of his own here?” Steve asked. 

“Yeah, he tried a few times, but hasn’t really found anyone he clicks with enough. He’s a bit picky.”

“He can’t be that picky,” Steve said with a self-deprecating laugh, and Chrissy glared at him.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Steve. You’re still just as much of a snack as you ever were. You’re the first person he’s even dated in, like, two years.”

Steve blushed, and turned back to look at Eddie on the stage. Eddie glanced up at almost the same moment and gave Steve a wide smile. 

He and Chrissy stayed standing around the high-top table they’d commandeered for the show after the band finished, waiting for Eddie. Steve looked over as someone walked up, a smile already on his face to greet Eddie, only to see Andrew. His face fell.

“What are you doing here?” Steve asked before he could think of anything less catty to say.

“Hello to you, too, Steve,” Andrew said, in his stupid smarmy voice. He had a very young man with him, a different one from the man he’d cheated on Steve with.  “How have you been?”

“Peachy,” Steve said, bristling. Chrissy was catching on that Steve’s feelings for Andrew were less than friendly. 

“Hi, I’m Chrissy,” she said, holding a hand out and breaking the building tension. Andrew grudgingly turned away from Steve and shook her hand. 

“Andrew,” he said, then promptly turned back to Steve. “Back to women, I see. Done playing at being queer?” Steve stiffened, telling himself not to let Andrew get to him. He’d always been so judgy about Steve being bisexual.

“I’m not dating Chrissy,” Steve said, annoyed that he rose to the bait. “I am capable of just being friends with an alpha.”

Andrew snorted, like he didn’t quite believe that. 

Eddie walked up just then, and Chrissy shot him an apprehensive look. He didn’t touch Steve; he’d been very careful about PDAs since the Dungeons and Dragons incident, always letting Steve take the lead in case there was someone around from Steve’s school. He looked quizzically at Andrew and the guy with him, then at Steve’s and Chrissy’s annoyed faces, and raised his eyebrows. 

“Hey, everyone,” Eddie said carefully. 

Steve tried his best to give him a smile, reaching for his hand and stepping close. “Hey, Eddie. You did great!”

“Thanks, Steve,” Eddie said, taking Steve’s hand-holding as permission to touch. He wrapped an arm around Steve’s waist and pulled him to his side. “Who’s this?” he asked, nodding at Andrew and friend. 

“I’m Andrew,” Andrew said, holding out his hand. Eddie’s smile sharpened as he squeezed Andrew’s hand a little too hard. 

“Oh, Andrew,” Eddie said. “I’ve heard a lot about you. Absolutely none of it was good.” 

Andrew scoffed. “Steve’s always been one for getting a little too emotional and holding an unnecessary grudge.” 

The man with Andrew started to look like he was having second thoughts about the whole situation. 

“‘Unnecessary grudge’?” Eddie said, growling a little. “You cheated on him.”

“Is this your ex?” the guy next to Andrew said. “You told me you, and I quote, ‘parted amicably’.” He didn’t look pleased. 

Steve snorted. “It was a lot of things, but amicable wasn’t one of them.”

Andrew glared at him, and tried to wrest control of the conversation back. “Surprised you were able to even find someone new.” He raked his eyes up and down Steve’s body. “Continuing to let yourself go, I see. At least there are chubby chasers out there.” 

“Oh, hell no,” Eddie said, moving toward Andrew. Steve tried to pull him back, unsuccessfully, but thankfully it seemed Chrissy had been expecting this, because she was there to catch Eddie before he could take a swing at Andrew. She pressed Eddie back at Steve hard, with more force than one would expect from her tiny frame, then pointed at Andrew, who had shrunk back from Eddie’s approach.

“You are a fucking prick who definitely deserves to get punched,” Chrissy said, “but I don’t want to have to bail Eddie out of jail, so I’m doing you this one solid. Get the fuck out of here, now, or I’ll punch you myself.”

Andrew glared at them all and grabbed his date’s hand. “Come on, let’s go.”

“What the fuck, Andrew?” they heard the other guy whispering angrily as they walked away.

Eddie and Chrissy were both livid, angry scents bleeding through their patches. Steve was just annoyed. Andrew couldn’t even really make him mad anymore, it seemed. He was more like a mosquito, buzzing near his ear.

“Are you alright, Steve?” Eddie asked, wrapping an arm around him again. “I’m sorry I rose to the bait, there, wasn’t great of me.”

Steve let out a tired laugh. “It’s alright, he’s an expert at riling people up, I don’t hold it against you.”

“Jesus Christ, Steve,” Chrissy said. “I can’t believe you came out of ten years with him and you’re still such a sweetheart. He’s a real piece of work.” 

Steve smiled weakly. “Thanks, guys. Sorry that kind of ruined the night.” 

Eddie kissed Steve on the cheek. “Not ruined at all.”

“I didn’t even get to tell you how hot you looked playing guitar!” 

“You just did, though, so, once again, night not ruined at all.” Eddie smiled at him and gave his side a squeeze, letting him know everything was okay. “Thanks for saving me from myself, Chrissy.” 

Chrissy smiled. “Of course. I consider it my second career at this point.” She hugged Eddie on his free side. “I’m gonna head out, you guys have a good night!” 

Steve and Eddie left not too long after Chrissy, heading back to Steve’s place. After Steve fed all the cats, they settled on the couch, Eddie pulling Steve’s legs onto his lap and rubbing one of his ankles. As soon as he and Eddie were touching, he felt the moodiness and nausea he’d been feeling the whole week start to melt away.

“You know I think you’re really hot, right?” Eddie asked.

Steve laughed. “Yeah, I got the message,” he said, poking Eddie’s leg with his foot. “Is this about Andrew’s jab at my weight?”

Eddie nodded. “Was he always an asshole about that?” 

Steve shrugged. “He wasn’t great about it. Definitely think me gaining weight had something to do with him cheating on me.” 

Eddie growled. “He’s the stupidest man that ever lived.” He shifted, pushing Steve to lay back against the arm of the couch. “Every part of your body is beautiful.” He pushed Steve’s shirt up and started to kiss over his stomach, gently nipping over some of his stretchmarks. He pushed the shirt up further, high enough that Steve was forced to raise his arms over his head and let Eddie take it off.

Eddie focused in on Steve’s chest next, taking his right nipple into his mouth as he raised up a hand to play with the left nipple. He bit down gently on the right, twisting on the left, and Steve moaned, arching up into his mouth. Eddie switched eventually, mouth on the left, hand on the right, continuing to toy with both of them until Steve was writhing under him. 

“So beautiful,” Eddie whispered against his skin after he let go, the cool puff of air against his wet nipple making Steve shiver. He looked up at Steve, who was surprised to see the naked desire on his face, just from this. “Do you believe me?” Eddie asked.

“I do when you look at me like that,” Steve answered.

Eddie smiled, then started to kiss down Steve’s belly again, taking his time until he got to Steve’s jeans. He unbuttoned them slowly, looking up at Steve for permission. He nodded, and lifted his hips as Eddie pulled his jeans and boxers down. 

Instead of going straight for Steve’s pussy like he usually did in these situations, he focused his attention on the skin around Steve’s hips, kissing and sucking little bruises into the skin, moving down to apply the same treatment to his thighs. After a few minutes, Steve started to squirm, desperately aroused at this point and needing some friction.

“Eddie, please,” he whispered, shifting his hips up.

“Please what?” Eddie asked, smiling up at him from between Steve’s legs.

Steve groaned in annoyance, leaning his head back and blushing as he said, “Please lick my cunt.” 

“As you wish,” Eddie said, Steve able to hear the smirk in his voice.

Steve felt Eddie’s fingers touch his folds, pulling them apart as his breath ghosted over Steve’s entrance. He leaned forward and licked slowly, covering every inch of the area, no doubt collecting all of Steve’s slick in his mouth. Steve made a whiny noise and shifted his hips up into Eddie’s face.

Eddie looked up, grabbing Steve’s hands and putting them both in his hair. “Use me how you want,” Eddie said, making Steve shudder, and bent his head back down. He pressed his tongue slowly into Steve, and Steve threaded his fingers through his curls, pushing Eddie’s head further into him as he tilted his hips up to grind against his face. 

He moved his hips in little circles, as Eddie moved his tongue in and out. Eddie reached up, and wrapped his hand around Steve’s cock, stroking as Steve fucked himself on his face. Eddie’s other hand pressed between his legs, sliding two fingers into Steve alongside his tongue, crooking them up to press on Steve’s g-spot. Steve came almost as soon as he started to press, spilling over his stomach and Eddie’s hand. 

Eddie lifted his head up when Steve released his hold on his hair, taking a hand off of Steve’s cock but not removing the hand in his cunt. “Have you ever squirted?” Eddie asked. 

Steve shook his head. “I don’t think so.” 

“Do you want to try?” 

“Okay,” Steve said, still catching his breath from his first orgasm. Eddie started to move his fingers again, pressing up into Steve’s g-spot. He gradually picked up the pace and increased the pressure, fucking his fingers into Steve with a loud squelching sound. Steve started to feel almost like he had to pee, but in a really pleasurable way.

“Oh,” was all Steve managed to say as his whole body clenched around Eddie’s hand and a clear liquid started to dribble out of his cock. Eddie let up for a moment, fingers still inside of Steve, and let Steve catch his breath. 

“More?” Eddie asked, and Steve nodded, laying back as Eddie started to pound his fingers into his g-spot again. 

Three more orgasms later, Steve was a puddle of goo on the couch. He reached out a hand for Eddie, pulling him on top of him and kissing him. “Want you to fuck me,” Steve whispered against his lips, and Eddie laughed. 

“I’ve been fucking you.”

Steve rolled his eyes and yanked on the waistband of Eddie’s jeans. “With your cock,” he said.

Eddie grinned and sat up to shimmy out of his jeans and boxers, throwing them on the floor, followed by his shirt. “Happy to oblige,” he said, sinking back on top of Steve and kissing him. His tongue slid into Steve’s mouth, licking against his teeth, and Steve could taste himself on it. 

He squirmed when it seemed like Eddie was just going to keep kissing him and not get to the point. Eddie laughed against his mouth and reached between them to guide his cock into Steve, but didn’t stop kissing him.

Steve sighed in relief and tilted his hips up to meet Eddie’s thrusts. He was a little sore from all the fingering, but Eddie still felt so good gliding in and out of his cunt. Steve’s dick was already starting to get hard again where it was pressed between their stomachs. He moaned into Eddie’s mouth and sucked on his tongue.

Eddie broke the kiss, looking at Steve while he fucked into him, pace gentle and slow. “Steve, you’re so fucking perfect,” he said, and looked almost like he was in pain. He pressed their foreheads together, grinding his hips into Steve’s. 

Eddie’s cock felt just as good as always, filling Steve up to the perfect point. He let out a chirp and Eddie kissed him, picking up the pace a little, Steve’s chirps coming with every thrust now. 

“Do you want me to come inside of you?” Eddie asked, panting now. 

Steve nodded, pressing his hips up to meet each of Eddie’s thrusts. Eddie fucked into him harder, burying himself as deep as he could go as his face screwed up and Steve felt the warmth of his cum spilling inside of him. 

Eddie collapsed on top of Steve, purring. Steve traced little patterns on his back, his own purr kicking in. 

The next few weeks passed in the same sort of pattern, with Eddie and Steve only getting to see each other a few times due to work schedules and Steve’s insistence on not being too clingy. He kept his promise to himself of only asking Eddie to come over two times a week. Eddie always seemed excited when Steve asked him, but never pushed for more, so Steve figured this was how he liked it. 

The problem was that it wasn’t how Steve liked it. He craved Eddie’s physical presence all the time, pining after him like some sort of lovesick hormonal teenager. It had gotten to the point where he felt like he had a mild stomach bug all the time, except when he was with Eddie. He’d never experienced anything like this before with another alpha. 

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” he said to Robin on the phone one night. “I just want him around all the time, but I haven’t even known him very long! Am I crazy?”

“You’re not crazy, Steve,” Robin responded. “Weird shit happens all the time with bodies in these situations. Maybe you should stop fighting it and ask him to come over more, then you’ll feel less like shit.”

“I don’t want to be too clingy,” Steve said, quietly.

Robin sighed. “Steve, it’s not clingy to want to be around your boyfriend a lot. And your body is clearly telling you that you need to see him more. So can you please stop being weird about this and talk to him about it?” 

“But…” Steve paused, voice getting softer and more unsure. “I don’t wanna scare him away.” 

“Dingus, wild fucking horses couldn’t drag that man away.”

“You don’t know that.” 

Robin sighed again, more exaggerated this time. “None of us really know anything, Steve, but we still have to take some chances, especially when the odds are pretty good.”

The next time he saw Eddie, it had been a week since they’d been able to spend any time together, and Steve felt like absolute shit. He was constantly nauseous and his whole body ached. He walked up to open his door to Eddie, who looked about as bad as Steve felt.

“Are you okay?” they both asked each other at the same time. Eddie laughed and Steve smiled, opening the door so Eddie could come in. 

“Truthfully, I feel like shit,” Eddie said, taking off his boots and slumping down on the couch. 

“Me, too,” Steve said, sighing and sitting down next to him. Eddie pulled Steve into his lap, burying his face in Steve’s neck and inhaling his scent as he rubbed the scent glands on his wrists on every piece of Steve’s skin he could reach.

Steve melted into Eddie, the nausea and achiness rapidly disappearing as he acclimated to Eddie’s presence. Eddie’s body relaxed under him as he clung to Steve. “I think there might be something weird going on,” Eddie whispered. 

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, nodding against him, unable to deny it now that he was faced with his miraculous recovery in Eddie’s physical presence. “I feel fine now.” 

“Me, too,” Eddie said. He gently pushed Steve back and tilted his head so he could look at his neck, running a finger over the unbroken skin of his scent gland. “I didn’t accidentally bite you at some point during my rut, right?” 

Steve shook his head. “No. Maybe it’s some sort of pseudo-bond or something?” he said, a little miserably. “I’m sorry.” 

Eddie looked confused. “What? Why?”

“Because of whatever this is,” he motioned between them with his hand. 

Eddie grabbed his hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing Steve’s palm. “Firstly, ‘whatever this is’ isn’t your fault. But also, why do you think I’m upset about it?” 

“Because we both feel like shit when we’re apart, so now you’re kind of stuck with me, unless you want to be really uncomfortable.” 

“Is that a bad thing?” Eddie asked. “Because I’m going to be honest with you, baby, I would spend every night with you even if it didn’t make me feel like shit to be away from you, but you seem to want to keep a little distance.”

“Oh,” Steve said. “I thought -” He stopped for a moment, trying to collect his thoughts amidst the overwhelming relief of his physical discomfort lifting. “I thought it would be too clingy, to ask you to spend the night more than a few times a week.” 

“I’d love it if you’d cling to me,” Eddie said, reaching out a hand to stroke Steve’s cheek. “Like a sexy little limpet.”

Steve laughed. “What are you in this situation? A sexy little rock?”

“Yes. The sexiest rock.” 

Steve leaned forward and kissed him. “So you’re not mad?” Steve asked.

“No, not at all,” Eddie said. “I know we haven’t known each other long, Steve, and this is probably me coming on too strong, but I’ve already known I wanted to bond with you since about the second time I saw you. It doesn’t have to be any time soon, or even ever, but I’m honestly ready whenever you are. So needing to be close to you? It doesn’t freak me out.”

Steve was overwhelmed, and buried his face in Eddie’s neck. He’d always been the idiot falling for people hopelessly fast and hard; this was the first time the feeling was reciprocated. It felt amazing and terrifying all at the same time. Eddie didn’t pressure him to say anything, just lightly rubbed his back as Steve nuzzled himself into Eddie’s neck. 

“So you want to stay over here more often?” Steve asked after a few minutes, pushing himself up to look at Eddie again. 

“As often as you’ll have me,” Eddie replied, kissing Steve’s nose. 

“What if that’s every night?” 

“Then I’ll stay here every night, and be exceedingly happy about it.”

Steve nodded. “Let’s start with a trial run, see if you still think that after Amos bites your nostril at 4am the first time.”

Eddie laughed and kissed Steve, pulling him back in close. 

A few weeks later, Eddie was still spending almost every night at Steve’s, even after Amos predictably bit his nostril at 4am one night. It had made Steve’s physical discomfort lessen, but he still had some rough days at work while he was away from Eddie, especially in the mornings.

It was getting close to the holidays, and Eddie had convinced Steve to go back to Hawkins with him for Christmas to meet Wayne. He only had a few more days of school to get through before they left. 

Steve groaned internally when he walked into the teacher’s lounge on Wednesday to see Mindy at the table he typically ate at, taking lunch earlier than usual. Steve had been able to avoid her lately following a schedule change that had moved his lunch up, but it seemed she’d somehow managed to finagle her way into an early lunch. She waved delightedly at him, motioning him over, and he sat down with a sigh. 

“Steve! It’s been so long since I’ve had a chance to talk with you!” She reached out and gently touched his hand with her own. “How have you been?”

“Fine,” he said, trying not to be too terse. “A bit busy.” 

She nodded. “Always such a busy time of year! Will you be around for the holidays?” 

His usual lie (babysitting in Chicago) was on the tip of his tongue when he stopped himself. Why was he still doing this? It wasn’t like there were no queer teachers in Indiana. Sure, they could technically fire him for being gay and he wouldn’t be able to take legal action, but it wasn’t like being gay was actually against the rules. He didn’t want to hide this part of himself anymore. He wanted to be able to have a disgustingly sappy picture of himself and Eddie on his desk. He wanted to be a role model for kids who were just figuring out they might be queer. 

“I’m going to Hawkins, to meet my boyfriend’s uncle,” he said. It took a moment for the sentence to register, but when it did Mindy’s mouth dropped open.

“You’re…” she trailed off.

“Gay?” Steve prodded. “Yeah. Well, technically bisexual, though I lean much further toward the homosexual side of the spectrum.” His palms started to sweat as he waited for Mindy’s reaction. He couldn’t really believe the first person he came out to at work was Mindy .

“Oh,” she said, but she seemed to get over her shock quickly and slid back into Midwest niceties. “How long have you been together?” 

“Only a few months,” Steve said.

“Worried to be meeting the family?” she asked. She was taking this really well. Maybe Steve had underestimated Mindy amid his annoyance.

“A little bit,” Steve said. “Eddie swears it will all be fine and Wayne will love me, but it’s hard not to be at least a little nervous.”

The conversation continued smoothly, and Steve found Mindy was actually pleasant to talk to when she wasn’t trying to come on to him. She also didn’t seem like she was about to go tell the whole PTA and start a witch hunt. He should have done this ages ago. He felt a little freer the rest of the day, like a weight had been lifted off his chest.

Chapter Text

“I’m not getting your uncle a case of Coors Light for Christmas, Eddie!” Steve argued for the fifth time that day. Eddie was sitting on the couch watching TV as Steve frantically scrolled through his phone, trying to decide on what he could bring Eddie’s uncle for Christmas.

“I’m telling you, Stevie,” Eddie said, turning toward Steve. “I know the man better than anyone, and he would truly appreciate a case of Coors Light for Christmas.”

Steve groaned and buried his face in his hands. “I’m not showing up to meet the man who raised you with a case of Coors Light as my only offering.” 

Eddie shrugged. “Then get him two.”

Steve threw a pillow at him. Eddie laughed, but quickly sobered at Steve’s stormy look.

“Are you really worried about this, baby?” Eddie asked. 

Steve nodded miserably and Eddie held out his arms. Steve crept forward on the couch, plastering himself against Eddie and burying his face in his neck. 

“Wayne is gonna fucking love you. Do you know why?” Eddie asked.

Steve shook his head. 

“Because you make me happier than anyone else ever has, and he’s gonna be able to see that.” 

Steve pushed himself up to look at Eddie. “You’re sure?” Steve asked, lip wobbling a little.

“I’m sure,” Eddie said, kissing Steve on the forehead. “But, if you insist on refusing to get him a case or two of Coors Light, you should buy him a mug. A really kitschy one. He has a collection.”

Steve punched Eddie lightly on the shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me that, like, two hours ago? That’s perfect!”

Eddie shrugged, looking a little sheepish. “I forgot about the mugs. I don’t know how, they occupy a very prominent space in the trailer.”

Steve’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I’ll get him the collectible mug from this year’s Christkindlmarket!” 

Eddie smiled. “You’re brilliant. An absolute genius. And a smokeshow.”

Steve kissed him, and Eddie buried his face back in Steve’s neck. “You smell a little different,” he mumbled into Steve’s skin. 

“Oh?” Steve prodded. “Like, different bad?” 

“No,” Eddie said, shaking his head. “Just different. Like there’s something extra, in your scent.” 

“Hmm,” Steve said, sniffing Eddie. “You don’t smell any different to me.” 

Eddie shrugged. “Maybe I’m just getting a cold.” 

They planned to meet Robin, Nancy, and Charlie in downtown Chicago to visit the Christmas market the next day, and then head down to Hawkins the day after, Christmas Eve. They caught one of the morning commuter trains, and Steve had a much better time than usual on the two hour trip, listening to a constant stream of Eddie’s interesting thoughts and holding hands.

They got off the train at Millenium Station, walking the few blocks through the frigid, windy air. Steve saw Nancy first, huddled around one of the fires holding a bundle that was presumably Charlie to her chest. 

Robin was close by, manning the empty stroller for whenever Charlie would let them put her down. “Dingus!” she called, when she caught sight of Steve. “And dingus’s dingus!” she said to Eddie. She gave them both hugs, and they went on to walk through the market.

Steve bought a few more last minute presents, and Eddie spent most of his time holding Charlie, alternating between talking nonsense to her and pointing out cool things to Steve. Steve acquired his gluhwein in the year’s collectible mug, which he would take home and wash so he could give it to Wayne.

It was a really wonderful morning, spent with all of Steve’s favorite people. It started to snow around noon and they decided to retreat to Robin and Nancy’s apartment so they could put Charlie down for a nap.

“So you’re finally going back to Hawkins, Steve?” Nancy asked after Charlie was asleep and they were all gathered in the living room. “I’m pretty sure I remember the words ‘I will never return to that noxious hellhole’ coming out of your mouth on multiple occasions.” 

Steve blushed as Eddie shot him a look. He hadn’t actually told Eddie how deadset he’d been on not returning. “Yeah, well, priorities change,” he mumbled. Eddie reached for his hand and gave it a squeeze. 

“We’re not going to really go anywhere except my uncle’s trailer, and I get the impression we would be highly unlikely to catch sight of Steve’s parents there,” Eddie said. 

Robin snorted. “I think they would implode into a fine bougie mist the minute they stepped foot into a trailer park.”

When Steve and Eddie got back home that night, exhausted from walking around in the cold and 4 hours of train time, they both fell onto the couch, cats crowding in around them. 

“I didn’t realize how much you didn’t want to go back to Hawkins,” Eddie said quietly, reaching for Steve’s hand. “I’m sorry if I pressured you into it.”

Steve crawled into Eddie’s lap, holding his face between his hands. “You absolutely did not pressure me into it. I didn’t know I’d end up falling in love with someone from Hawkins when I said I was never going back.” 

He realized what he’d said a few seconds too late. He’d known he was in love with Eddie almost since their first date, but it felt like it was way too soon to say that. Eddie’s eyes widened and Steve slapped a hand over his mouth. 

“You’re in love with me?” Eddie asked. He didn’t look upset, really. Just kind of surprised.

Steve sighed and looked away. He couldn’t take it back now. “Yes, I am. But I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say it so soon. It’s really okay, I won’t be weird about it. Take all the time you need, or never say it, that’s fine, too.”

Eddie put his fingers under Steve’s chin, forcing him to look up at him. “Stevie, baby, I’ve been in love with you since you made me dinner that first time. You really don’t need to feel self-conscious about this.” 

“You - you have?” Steve asked, voice tremulous. 

“Now I see where Robin’s getting the ‘dingus’ from,” Eddie said. “Of course I have! You’re sweet and funny and beautiful and a spectacular lay. What’s not to love?” 

Steve leaned forward and kissed Eddie, just a chaste peck on the lips. “You’re amazing,” Steve said. “I love you.” He said it just because he could now.

Eddie’s huge grin made Steve beam back in return. “I love you, too.”

The drive to Hawkins was uneventful, until they passed the “Welcome to Hawkins” sign and Steve’s anxiety ticked up to very high levels. He was glad they weren’t going near his parents’ neighborhood, veering off to head to Forest Hills Trailer Park. He pulled in beside the trailer Eddie indicated, and they jumped out of the car. They’d check into their hotel later, Eddie was too excited to see Wayne. 

Eddie rushed up the steps and knocked on the door, which was promptly opened by a grumpy looking man who bore very little resemblance to Eddie. 

“Wayne!” Eddie cried, pulling the man into a tight hug. 

“Good to see you, son,” Wayne said, patting Eddie on the back. Eddie stepped back, motioning to Steve.

“This is Steve Harrington, my boyfriend.” 

Steve held out a hand, which Wayne took in a firm grip. “Welcome, Steve. Harrington, huh? You guys gonna be heading over to see your parents?”

Steve shifted awkwardly. “Ah, no. They’re not particularly accepting of my lifestyle choices. I haven’t spoken to them since I left town.” 

Wayne’s face softened a little, and he patted Steve on the arm, ushering him in. “Well, you’re always welcome here.” 

Eddie smiled at Steve behind Wayne’s back as they walked in, reaching out to give Steve’s hand a squeeze. 

The mug was a huge hit with Wayne. He made a big deal of finding a spot for it in the mug display right away. “Collectibles are the best for a mug wall,” he said, straightening a few of the other mugs as his hand drew away.

They had a late lunch with Wayne, and Steve found him surprisingly easy to talk to for all of his gruff exterior. He was interested to hear about Steve’s job, especially the basketball coach part of it. Wayne turned out to be a big basketball fan, and Eddie had to interrupt multiple times when he got bored in the middle of a lengthy discussion of college teams. Steve and Eddie left around 7, heading for their hotel. 

“See?” Eddie said, once they were in their room. “You had nothing to be worried about. That man is crazy about you. Think he might like you more than me already.” 

Steve rolled his eyes. “That’s definitely not true. But I will admit I was pleasantly surprised to be talking with a basketball fan after having to spend so much time with Mister ‘now which sportsball is this one’ over here.” 

“You wound me,” Eddie said dramatically, holding a hand to his chest. 

Steve collapsed onto the bed, sighing, and Eddie crawled on top of him. “It is a true testament to my willpower that I managed to keep everything PG that whole time we were with Wayne,” Eddie said, sneaking his hands up beneath Steve’s shirt and kissing his neck. He licked at his scent gland, tasting the oil. Steve could feel Eddie’s cock, already hard, pressing against his hip.

“Well, I’m very proud of you,” Steve said, kissing the top of Eddie’s head.

“Do I get a reward?” Eddie asked, lifting up his head and grinning at Steve.

Steve laughed. “Sure. What do you want for your reward, my horny friend?” 

Eddie paused to think about it. “How do you feel about anal?” 

Steve blinked. He hadn’t actually had much anal sex. People tended to go for the option that required less work. But he had enjoyed it, the few times he’d done it. “I’m up for it.” Steve said.

“You sure?” Eddie asked, picking up one of Steve’s palms and kissing it. 

Steve nodded. “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“Alright,” Eddie said, getting up. “Come shower with me.” Steve would never say no to showering with Eddie.

They undressed and stepped into the spacious shower, Eddie immediately drawing Steve against his body and kissing him before reaching for the shampoo. He washed Steve’s hair, massaging into his scalp, then moved on to his body, holding Steve flush against his own body as he lathered soap all over his front, then turning him around to get his back. 

He wouldn’t let Steve take much time washing him, much to Steve’s annoyance. As soon as he was done washing himself, he pressed Steve against the tiles, face-first, then bent to his knees behind him, pulling open his cheeks. Steve groaned when he felt the first press of Eddie’s tongue against his rim, licking lightly over him at first, then slowly starting to press in. 

Eddie licked into him, hands tightly gripping Steve’s hips as Steve tried as hard as he could not to shove his ass into Eddie’s face like he wanted to. Steve was achingly hard, cock pressed against the cold tiles of the shower stall. Eddie eventually pulled away, and Steve looked over his shoulder at him.

“As much as I’m loving this,” Eddie said, “my knees would prefer we take this to the bed.”

“Alright, old man,” Steve said with a grin, and Eddie smacked his ass. 

They dried off quickly, falling into the bed kissing each other, hands roaming everywhere. Eddie stood up for a moment to rifle through his bag, pulling out the lube. “You want to be on your back or your front?” he asked. 

“On my back. I like to look at you,” Steve said, and Eddie smiled. 

Steve laid down, Eddie grabbing a pillow to put beneath his lower back, tilting his hips up. Eddie squirted some lube onto his fingers and pressed a kiss to Steve’s hips, fingers grazing over his asshole. 

He was loose enough from the rimming that Eddie was able to slide in his first finger easily, just a bit of a stretch when it went deep. He moved the finger in and out slowly, watching Steve’s face the whole time.

“Okay?” he asked, and Steve nodded.

“You can add another.” 

Eddie complied, sliding a second finger slowly into Steve as he bent forward to take Steve’s cock into his mouth. Steve groaned and put his hands in Eddie’s hair, tangling his fingers in the curls. Eddie shifted his fingers up, hitting Steve’s prostate.

“Oh, fuck, that’s good,” Steve said, squirming beneath Eddie. He’d forgotten how good that felt. Eddie worked over Steve’s prostate, scissoring his fingers apart every few strokes to stretch Steve out, until Steve was begging for his cock. 

“Want you inside me now, Eddie,” Steve said. Eddie lifted off of his cock, removing his fingers and grabbing the lube, spreading some on his cock. He bent down to kiss Steve then lined himself up.

“Ready?” he asked, and Steve nodded vigorously. 

Eddie started to push in, and Steve felt the stretch acutely. Eddie was big. He went slow, sinking in by small increments, letting Steve adjust. Once he was fully inside of Steve, he bent to kiss him again.

“You feel so good, baby,” he said against Steve’s lips.

“You, too,” was all Steve could manage. Steve moved his hips a small amount, encouraging Eddie, who took the hint and pulled out slightly, pushing back in slowly. 

“I’m not gonna break, Eddie,” Steve said, wiggling his hips again. Eddie laughed and held Steve’s hips in place. 

“Let me take my time. This is my reward,” Eddie reminded him. 

Finally, after what felt like a lifetime of small, slow thrusts, Eddie started to move faster, pulling out further to thrust in deeper on each stroke. His cock grazed Steve’s prostate, making Steve let out a little “ngh” noise with each thrust.

Eddie reached between them with his clean hand, pressing down to stroke at Steve’s cunt. “Oh my god,” Steve said, as Eddie slipped two fingers into his pussy, crooking them up expertly to hit his g-spot. “What the fuck.” 

Steve unraveled quickly under the dual assault, Eddie’s cock pressing into his prostate as his fingers hit Steve’s g-spot. He was coming in seconds without even a hand on his cock, an orgasm so intense he felt like he was going to black out. 

When his vision cleared, Eddie was smirking down at him, cock still buried in his ass and fingers in his pussy. He gave Steve a few seconds, then started to thrust again, with cock and fingers. “Oh, shit,” Steve said as Eddie started to thrust hard and fast with his fingers, keeping pace with his cock, until Steve was squirting all over his belly, mostly flaccid cock twitching in a valiant effort to keep coming.

“Fuck fuck fuck, Eddieeeeeeee,” he yelled as he came, not caring that they were in a hotel with paper thin walls. Eddie let up for a second after this orgasm, peppering Steve’s chest and face with kisses, but still buried in both of Steve’s holes.

“You think you have one more in you, baby?” Eddie asked. 

Steve nodded weakly. “I might die, but it will be a good death.’

Eddie laughed, but the next second started to thrust again with his fingers and cock, pummeling Steve’s prostate and g-spot in tandem as Steve shook apart around him, squirting even more onto his stomach as he screamed and clenched around Eddie. Eddie pulled his hand from Steve’s cunt and thrust several more times into his ass, coming with a loud grunt. 

He collapsed on top of Steve for a moment, catching his breath. Steve didn’t think he would be capable of coherent speech for some time, so he didn’t mind. Eventually, Eddie got up, pulling out of Steve and getting a wet washcloth to clean them up, then bundling Steve under the covers with him.

“Was that okay, sweetheart?” Eddie asked, kissing the top of Steve’s head. 

“It was so good,” Steve mumbled from where his face was smashed against Eddie’s chest. “I didn’t know I could feel that good. How did you even get your hand to bend like that?”

Eddie laughed. “I do think I pulled a few forearm muscles. But it was worth it.” 

“You’re so good to me,” Steve whispered, and Eddie tilted his head up to kiss him.

“You deserve it, baby.”

Steve woke to an empty bed, grumbling and throwing his arm out to confirm that Eddie wasn’t there. Just as he was about to get up, Eddie jumped on top of him, kissing his face all over. Steve laughed, half-heartedly trying to push Eddie off.

“What are you doing?” Steve asked, gasping. 

“I was waiting for you to wake up,” Eddie said. Steve could see him smiling gleefully in the light seeping in through the drapes. “Merry Christmas, baby.”

“Merry Christmas, Eddie,” Steve said, pulling him in for a proper kiss.

“Can I give you your present?” Eddie asked, looking excited. 

“Let me at least pee first. You’re laying on my bladder.” 

Eddie got up, letting Steve out of the bed, and rifled around in his bag. When Steve returned from the bathroom, Eddie was holding out a wrapped present which was large, flat, and rectangular. 

“This is for you!” he said, looking excited. Steve opened it to reveal a beautiful framed drawing of himself with his four cats, standing in his garden, stylized to look like something from a Miyazaki film. Steve had made Eddie sit through all of the Studio Ghibli Miyazaki movies with him after he’d found out he hadn’t seen a single one. 

“Holy shit, Eddie, this is beautiful,” Steve said, staring at it in awe. “Where did you even get this?” 

“Chrissy’s got some real artsy friends, and one of them takes commissions. You really like it?” 

“I love it,” Steve said, holding it to his chest. “I think it might be the best present anyone’s ever given me.”

“Oh, wow, well I seriously have to up my game then to make up for the years of lackluster gift-giving in your life,” Eddie said.

Steve put the drawing down and pulled Eddie into a hug. “Thank you, baby. It’s perfect.” He pushed himself back, getting up to look through his own bag. He pulled out an envelope and held it out to Eddie, who opened it so fast Steve was afraid he was going to tear what was inside. 

He pulled out two tickets, and screamed when he saw what was on them. “You got me tickets to see Ozzy ?” he yelled, pulling Steve into a hug. “You’re fucking amazing, Stevie. The absolute best. Are you coming with me, or is this a ‘find your own friend who doesn’t care about their eardrums’ situation?” He looked hopeful.

“I’m coming with you,” Steve said. Eddie yelped and tackled him to the bed. 

They made it to Wayne’s around noon, after a round of gratitude sex. Christmas with Wayne was a wonderfully low-key affair, so different from the fancy, extravagant dinners Steve had dealt with in his childhood. They watched a bunch of old Christmas movies and had a delicious dinner that Steve insisted on helping with. Wayne unearthed some hilarious photos of Eddie as a kid and teenager.

“Look at you! You were so moody!” Steve crowed as he came to a picture of Eddie frowning at the camera, wearing all black and enough chains to make him sink if he got in a body of water. Eddie grabbed the picture from Steve. 

“This isn’t fair!” Eddie said, pouting. “You need to reciprocate and show me embarrassing little Stevie pictures.” 

“I think Robin actually has some, don’t ask me why. Because I don’t know. No idea where or when she stole them from my parents.” 

Eddie laughed. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?” 

Steve felt relaxed and comfortable the whole day, in a way he never had with his own family. They were driving back to Steve’s place that night, and Wayne gave Steve a hug as they were getting ready to go, while Eddie was in the bathroom.

“You make him real happy, Steve,” Wayne said as he pulled away. “Hope I get to see a lot more of you in the future.”  

Steve smiled. He got the impression that Wayne Munson didn’t give out his approval lightly. “Oh, you definitely will, if I have anything to say about it.”

“Please tell me you’re not saying anything embarrassing, Wayne,” Eddie said as he approached from the hallway. 

Wayne didn’t answer, just pulled Eddie into a hug. “Don’t be a stranger, son.” 

They didn’t talk much on the way home, just sat in a companionable silence, holding hands on and off whenever the driving was easy. When they got back to Steve’s, the cats were very happy to see them, weaving in and out of their legs. 

“Do you need to go back to your place?” Steve asked. He wasn’t excited about the prospect of the nausea and malaise returning, but Eddie had been at his place or at the hotel with him pretty much every night for the past one, or maybe even two, weeks. He went back to his apartment to get things while he was working, given it was just above the shop, but Steve still felt a little bad about the situation.

“Nah,” Eddie shook his head. “Not unless you need me to go back there. No hard feelings, though, if that's the case.” 

Steve reached for his hand, pulling him in for a kiss. “No, I want you here.” Amos meowed and rubbed himself on Eddie’s leg. “So does he,” Steve added, motioning down to Amos. 

Eddie bent down to scoop him up. Steve had been the only person Amos would tolerate that treatment from prior to Eddie entering their lives, but Amos had warmed to Eddie so fast Steve was almost jealous. “Missed you, old man,” Eddie said, giving Amos a kiss on the nose. Amos rubbed his face against Eddie’s cheek and Eddie groaned. “You’re drooling on me!” he said, putting Amos back on the ground. 

Steve insisted that they hang up the drawing Eddie had given him before they could even unpack, admiring it with a big smile on his face while Eddie pressed kisses into his neck from behind.

A few days later, Steve was getting ready for bed when he heard Eddie let out a loud groan from the living room. “Dammit, I forgot my book at the shop again. I was at a really good part!” He typically stayed up later than Steve, reading in bed for a few hours while Steve slept.

Steve made a sympathetic noise, walking out into the living room, and spent a few moments warring with himself, trying to decide if he wanted to voice a thought he’d been having a lot recently. He took a deep breath and plunged in. Even if Eddie said no, Steve knew he would be kind about it. “Maybe you should just move in.”

Eddie looked up sharply, face softening, and held out a hand for Steve. He sank down onto the couch next to Eddie. “You’d want that?” Eddie asked, looking hopeful and a little scared.

Steve nodded. “You’re here every night anyway, and I have plenty of space for your stuff.”

“You don’t think you’d get tired of me?” 

Steve laughed, squeezing Eddie’s hand. “No, absolutely not. I don’t think I could ever get tired of you.” 

Eddie’s smile was huge and bright. “Then, yes, I want to move in.”

Eddie slowly started to pack up his apartment and bring things over in the following days, able to take his time since he hadn’t started trying to find someone to rent the apartment over the shop from him. Steve enjoyed watching Eddie unpack and find spaces for all of his things in the house. It made him happy in a way he wasn’t sure he’d ever been before. 

Even with Eddie starting to move in, Steve was having increasing trouble with nausea when he school started back up after the holiday. He started to spend time in the store with Eddie whenever it was open and Steve wasn’t working, sometimes helping, but mostly just reading or grading papers on an antique chaise lounge that he’d told Eddie he was no longer allowed to sell. 

He was laying back on the chaise reading a book one day when the door of the shop opened and a group of loud boys walked in. He looked up, immediately recognizing the loudest voice - Dustin Henderson and his group of miscreants.

“We need to find the perfect table, I’m telling you. It will make everything else go more smoothly,” Dustin was saying. 

“Dude, this place looks way too fancy. We’ve only got, like, twenty dollars between us.” This came from Lucas Sinclair, who Steve had noticed was often the voice of reason in the group. 

“Mr. Harrington?” Will Byers asked, confused, the first to catch sight of Steve sitting on the chaise a few feet away from where they were arguing. All four of the boys turned to him. Steve put his book down, sitting up. 

“Hey, guys. What are you looking for?” he asked.

“Are they really paying our public school teachers so little that you have to have a second job?” Dustin asked, sounding scandalized. 

Steve laughed. “No, I don’t work here.” He thought about it for a moment, then decided now was as good a time as any. No need to be weird about it. “The owner is my boyfriend.” 

Mike Wheeler’s mouth dropped open. “You’re gay?” he asked. Dustin elbowed him in the side. 

“Well, technically bisexual,” Steve replied, as Eddie came back from whatever he was doing in the back room to see the boys clustered around Steve.

“You’re gay with the Dungeonmaster?” Mike asked, voice rising. “He’s way too cool for you.” 

“Mike,” Dustin whispered to him, elbowing him in the side again. 

Eddie looked between them, raising his eyebrows at Steve, who nodded, letting him know everything was alright. 

“I think he’s way too cool for me, actually,” Eddie said, smiling at them. “Can I help you young lads find anything?” 

They launched into a spirited and lengthy discussion of the perfect table they were trying to find as Eddie listened and nodded along. Will was staring at Steve with something almost like hope on his face. He gave the kid an inviting smile. He’d always had his suspicions about Will Byers, and hoped maybe this would give him the onus he needed to start realizing things about himself.

Eddie managed to locate an old table in the backroom that he had been planning to just donate to Goodwill, as it was far below the quality of his usual wares, but it was perfect for four kids with only twenty dollars. After they left, he sat down on the chaise next to Steve, looping an arm around his shoulders.

“You alright?” he asked, pressing a kiss into Steve’s hair.

“Yes. Very alright.” 

Nancy, Robin, and Charlie came for a visit in mid-January, and it caused more trouble for Steve than he would have anticipated. He felt himself getting increasingly agitated as the visit progressed, wanting to be holding Charlie all the time, feeling bereft when he wasn’t. He tried to keep it under control, but Robin of course noticed. 

She pulled him aside in the kitchen as they were cooking, Nancy and Eddie in the living room with Charlie. Robin grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him in the eyes. “Steve. Dingus. You need to have a baby soon.” 

He shook her off, turning away and crossing his arms over his middle. “What are you talking about, Robin? Eddie and I have only been together for, like, four months.”

“I don’t care, you need to have a baby pronto,” Robin said. “I see the way you’re looking at Charlie, the way you never want to let her go. I’ve been there, Steve, believe me. When I was finally ready to have a baby it was like a switch flipped and the thought took over my entire brain. Every time I saw a baby I felt like I was getting increasingly feral until Nancy finally agreed to knock me up.”

Steve brushed off her concern. “I’m fine. Really. I’m fine. Also, I’m already so nauseous whenever I’m away from Eddie, I don’t want to add morning sickness to that.”

Robin’s gaze sharpened. “That’s still happening? You didn’t tell me that was still happening.” 

“Yeah, it has been since my heat. It’s like the only thing that calms my stomach down is Eddie. It’s much worse in the mornings, but kind of there all day if I’m not with him.”

“Oh, shit. Why did it take me so long to figure this out?” Robin asked herself.

“Figure what out, Robin?” 

“Steve, I think you’re already pregnant,” she said. 

“No. That’s not possible,” Steve said, scoffing. “I was on birth control during my heat.”

“Birth control doesn’t have a 100% success rate,” she said, rolling her eyes at him. “I think you’re feeling the effects of being pregnant while unbonded. Your body’s freaking out and the only thing that makes it better without the bond is Eddie’s physical presence.”

“Oh,” Steve said, stomach sinking. “That’s - is that a thing?” 

“Yes, that’s a thing, for some omegas! Did you pay any attention in health class?”

“Not really, no,” Steve said. 

“Truly amazing that you’ve made it this far.”

“I still don’t think you’re right,” Steve said. “I would know if I was pregnant.”

“I mean, your body is basically screaming it at you right now, but, fine, don’t believe me. Just do me a solid and take a pregnancy test. Prove me wrong.” She knew that was his weakness. He could never pass up an opportunity to try to prove her wrong. 

“Fine,” Steve said. 

Nancy walked in as they were glaring at each other, looked between the two of them, and then walked back out muttering, “I don’t even wanna know.” 

After the girls headed back to Chicago Sunday afternoon, Steve couldn’t stop thinking about his conversation with Robin. He decided to buy several pregnancy tests after work on Monday and go home instead of to Eddie’s shop. 

He pulled out three tests. “Just to be sure,” he said to himself, knowing he wouldn’t trust just one. After he peed on the sticks, he stood in the bathroom staring daggers at the tests sitting on the toilet lid. 

“Oh my god, I can’t do this,” Steve said, turning away in disgust and walking out of the bathroom. Amos lifted his head up from his nap on the couch and let out an annoyed noise at being disturbed. Steve sat next to him, scratching him behind the ears to make up for it. 

A few minutes of nail-biting later, Steve picked Amos up, clutching him to his chest. “I need you to be my emotional support cat,” he whispered. Amos rubbed his face against Steve’s chin in response. 

Steve crept into the bathroom, approaching the toilet slowly, like maybe the pregnancy tests were going to bite him. He closed his eyes as he got close, squeezing Amos tightly enough that he let out a little squawk. 

Steve took a few deep breaths then opened his eyes. Three plus signs. He sank to the floor, burying his face in Amos’s fur and letting out a sob. It was real. He was gonna have a baby. Amos tolerated his squeezing for about another minute, then wriggled his way out of his arms, dashing out of the bathroom.

Steve followed, picking up the phone and automatically dialing Robin’s number. She answered after a few rings.

“Robin, I’m pregnant,” he said, not even bothering with a greeting. She screamed so loud he dropped the receiver.

“Oh my god, I fucking knew it! Steve, this is amazing,” she said when she finally stopped screaming. “Is Eddie, like, freaking out levels of excited?” 

“I haven’t told him,” Steve admitted. 

“You told me before you told Eddie?” Robin asked.

“Robbie, what if this is too soon for him?” Steve asked, voice cracking a little. “I know he wants kids but that doesn’t mean he wants them now.”

“I know you’re not going to believe me,” Robin replied, “because you never do, but that man wants you knocked up pronto. He’s gonna be stoked.” 

“I don’t know…” Steve said, fidgeting with the hem of his shirt. 

“What are you gonna do, just not tell him? I don’t think that’s gonna work.”

“Ugh, no, Robin, I’m gonna tell him. I’m just nervous,” Steve admitted.

“My darling dingus, you have nothing to be nervous about. He’s gonna be thrilled. I’m thrilled. Soon, you’ll allow yourself to be thrilled. Everything’s gonna be okay.”

He hung up feeling slightly better than when he’d called her, but was a bundle of nervous energy waiting for Eddie to get home. When he finally heard the sound of Eddie’s truck, he ran into the bathroom to grab one of the tests, putting it in his pocket and waiting for Eddie at the door into the house from the garage.

Eddie opened the door, jumping and yelping when he found Steve standing directly in front of him. “Jesus, Stevie! What is this, a horror movie?”

Steve was about to show him the test, but chickened out at the last second. “Sorry, I was just… going out into the garage for something,” he said, pushing past Eddie into the garage. He panicked, grabbing a box that was sitting there waiting to be broken down.

Eddie gave him a weird look. “A box? What do you need a box for?” 

Steve shrugged. “Just some things,” he said, walking back into the house and putting the box on the table, then sitting down on the couch. Eddie sat next to him.

“Steve, is everything okay?” he asked. 

“Yeah. Everything’s great,” Steve said, attempting a smile. 

Eddie gave him a skeptical look. “That wasn’t very convincing,” he said, frowning.

Steve sighed and put his head in his hands, then looked up at Eddie. He looked concerned, and reached out a hand, placing it on Steve’s arm and rubbing soothing circles into it. 

Steve took a deep breath, then fished the test out of his pocket and handed it to Eddie, who gave it a very confused look until he figured it out, brow clearing. “Oh my fucking god. We did it already,” he said, staring at Steve in awe. He reached out and pulled Steve into a hug, pushing him down onto the couch and covering his face with kisses.

Steve laughed, pleased to be getting a positive reaction, and half-heartedly pushed at Eddie’s shoulder. “That tickles!” he protested. Eddie pushed himself up on his hands, moving down Steve’s body and pulling his shirt up, baring his belly. Eddie kissed the skin just under his belly button.

“They’re in there? Already?” he asked, looking up at Steve. 

Steve nodded. “Hopefully ‘they’ in a gender neutral sense and not a twin sense,” Steve said. 

Eddie shrugged. “We need six, might as well start with a double.”

Steve rolled his eyes, pulling Eddie back up to kiss him on the mouth. “This is why we’ve been feeling so weird then?” Eddie asked. 

“Robin thinks so,” Steve said. “She’s the one that told me I needed to take a test. She thinks me being pregnant without us being bonded is making us both feel not great when we’re apart.”

Eddie nodded. “That makes sense. So when are we going to bond?” 

Steve felt like he was going to get whiplash. “So you’re okay with this? Even though I was on birth control, and we weren’t trying.” 

“The birth control was your idea,” Eddie said. “I would have been more than happy to spend that cycle with you even if you hadn’t been on birth control, knowing full well what that would lead to. Are you okay with this?” Eddie looked apprehensive for the first time since he’d found out.

“Yes,” Steve said quickly. “More than okay with it.”

Eddie’s smile returned, and he bent to kiss Steve.

“And you’re ready to bond with me?” Steve asked when they broke the kiss. 

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Eddie replied. “But if you need to wait, we can. I can carry you around on my back in a little harness all day so you never have to be away from me and feel like shit.” Eddie’s voice changed slightly to what Steve thought of as his dork voice. “I can’t carry the baby for you, Mr. Frodo, but I can carry you!” 

Steve snorted. “Not necessary, Samwise. I’m ready, too.”

Later that evening, they lay in bed together, naked, kissing slowly. Eddie had his arms wrapped around Steve’s waist, pulling him in close to his body. Steve could feel his cock, hard and pressed against his hip. The sensation had slick pooling between Steve’s legs.

“It will probably be easiest if we’re both sitting up,” Eddie said, breaking the kiss. Steve nodded, and Eddie shifted up the bed, back against the headboard. Steve climbed into his lap, grabbing hold of his cock and sliding it into his pussy, sinking down. 

Eddie gasped. “Ooookay, unexpected but that’s good, too,” he said, voice a little breathy, and Steve smirked, moving his hips in little circles. Eddie reached out his hands to still him. “I need to concentrate!” he protested. “It’s hard to get my fangs out when I’m not pissed off or in a rut.” Steve rolled his eyes but stopped moving. 

Eddie closed his eyes and his face screwed up in concentration, his mouth moving a little. When he opened his eyes and smiled, Steve could see his fangs poking out over his bottom lip.

“Ready?” he asked. 

“Yes. Bite me,” Steve said, tilting his head to the side and moving his hair. Eddie leaned forward, one hand going into Steve’s hair to hold his head still, and licked over Steve’s scent gland. Steve felt Eddie’s mouth open wider, then felt the sharp sting of his fangs breaking his skin. It was only a little painful, and mostly just turned Steve on, making him grind his hips down onto Eddie’s cock as Eddie whimpered against his neck.

Eddie kept his fangs in Steve’s neck for a few moments, tongue coming out to lick at the skin there, collecting Steve’s scent mixed with blood. Eventually he let go, licking over the mark to soothe. 

Steve let out a shaky breath. He felt floaty, like his head was full of clouds. Something had shifted into place inside of him, something that had been just slightly off for his entire life, and now was in perfect harmony. 

“Feel alright?” Eddie asked, looking at Steve with concern.

Steve nodded. “Feel fucking fantastic,” he said. 

Eddie kissed over the bite again. “Do me now?” 

“Of course, baby,” Steve said, grabbing Eddie’s one of Eddie’s hands and squeezing. 

Eddie pushed his hair to the side and tilted his head to give Steve access to his own scent gland. Steve’s little fangs popped out easily, his body seeming to know what was required of it.

“Ready?” he asked, and Eddie nodded. Steve bent forward and pressed a light kiss to Eddie’s scent gland before he bit down. He tasted Eddie’s blood and the oil that made up his scent, reveling in the combination. Eddie’s hips bucked up, fucking into Steve for a few thrusts before he stilled himself. After a few moments, Steve pulled back, licking up the blood, then pushing back to look at Eddie.

Eddie’s pupils were blown and he had a goofy smile on his face. “Feeling good?” Steve asked.

“Perfect,” Eddie murmured. “I feel… right. In a way I don’t think I ever have before.”

Steve nodded. “Me, too.” He’d heard of bonds gone wrong, or bonds that were just sort of neutral, so he was relieved that theirs seemed to be a true mating bond. 

“Love you, baby,” Eddie said, leaning forward to kiss Steve. 

“Love you, too.” 

Eddie’s hands started to wander, cupping Steve’s ass and squeezing. Steve shifted his hips, fucking himself down onto Eddie’s cock and leaning forward to keep kissing him. Eddie grabbed Steve’s hips and flipped them over so he was laying on top of Steve, starting to slowly and gently thrust into him.

He continued at the same pace for a few minutes, and it was nice, but not what Steve needed. “I’m not gonna break, Eddie. Fuck me,” Steve demanded.

“But… the baby,” Eddie said, looking concerned.

“The baby will be fine,” Steve assured him. “There are a lot of protections in place down there.”

Eddie didn’t look convinced, continuing his slow pace. 

“I’ve got almost seven more months of this, and if this is how you’re gonna fuck me for the whole thing, it’s absolutely not going to work,” Steve said, shifting his hips to try to meet Eddie’s thrusts with more force.

Eddie rolled his eyes. “You’re really bratty sometimes, you know,” he said, but started to pick up the pace of his thrusts, reaching down to pull one of Steve’s legs over his shoulder and deepen the angle, hitting Steve’s g-spot now. 

“Much better,” Steve said, sighing out a moan.

“‘M not gonna last very long, baby,” Eddie admitted, panting. He reached down for Steve’s cock, wrapping his hand around it and stroking. Steve felt his own orgasm building, pleasure heightened by the new sensation of the bond between them. Eddie thrust harder, the way he knew Steve liked, face scrunched up with the effort of keeping himself from coming before Steve.

A few thrusts like that were all it took, and Steve felt himself unraveling, clenching down on Eddie’s cock as he came. Eddie followed closely, Steve feeling the warmth of Eddie’s cum spilling into him as he groaned and buried himself in Steve.

Eddie slid to the side, wrapping an arm around Steve’s waist and pressing kisses into his chest. He gradually moved down, licking Steve’s cum off his belly as he went, then laying his head down on his lower belly.

“Can’t wait to meet them with you,” Eddie said, kissing the skin there. 

Steve felt tears start to build in his eyes. “Me neither,” he said.

Eddie turned his head to look up at Steve, smiling so bright Steve was surprised it didn’t hurt his eyes, and said, “This is gonna be so awesome.”