Darling [Steve x Eddie]

Chapter 1

Eddie hated Steve Harrington a lot.

He hated how he strutted around Hawkins like he owned the joint and how there always seemed to be a fan club of barbie dolls giggling at his lame pick-up lines.

He sometimes dreamed about punching him on the nose.

It would be so satisfying, he was sure.

Meanwhile, Eddie was left to the sharks of Hawkins, not a victorious hero like Steve became after the Upside Down.

It was like everything they had been through as a group was forgotten and Steve liked to pretend that he didn't exist.

Eddie still talked to Robin and Nancy every week. He had the Hellfire Cub with Dustin and his friends. Will followed him like a puppy. Life was good.

But Steve dropped him as soon as he could.

Eddie couldn't lie, it had hurt, but if that was the way that Steve wanted things to be, then he wouldn't argue.

It wasn't like they could've been good friends anyways, too many opposite interests. It didn't stop at the fact that Eddie liked boys and Steve liked girls. No, Steve also had shit taste in music and no hobbies.

In the area of hobbies, Eddie was far superior.

He played the guitar, listened to art in the form of Metallica and other rock bands, and read books, which mainly meant rereading Lord of the Rings every year.

He also had his jobs, which were the only other constants in his life.

There was the drug-dealing line and Hellfire, his baby.

Hellfire Club was often the only reason that Eddie was alive, the only motivation that he had to wake, his soul food.

Steve would never find something like that, he daily hoped with all his heart.

Now, the bad blood that flowed between Steve and himself was not purely because of distance and lack of interest.

Steve's little henchmen, that he had the audacity to call friends, were little monsters that plagued Eddie's waking life and made his world a living hell.

Eddie was what you might call a social outcast, a reputation that he was usually quite proud of, but it came with it's ups and downs.

Steve's friends loved to push him around and every week had a new form of torment to boast.

This week's chosen method was tripping Eddie whenever they saw him, both in the halls of school and on the streets of Hawkins.

It was always painfully obvious that Steve didn't give a shit about what his friends did to Eddie and sometimes, he even joined them.

Today, just five minutes ago, he had stuck his foot out when Eddie was bringing his tray to the back of the cafeteria and Eddie stumbled forwards, his food going everywhere. The whole room seemed to vibrate with laughter and insults.

Now Eddie was sitting in the corner, alone and hungry.

The Hellfire Club wasn't being held today, so the members weren't around, and he couldn't be bothered to go back for more of the cafeteria's overpriced stand-in for food.

He sighed into his arms, head slumped down on the table. The fact that Steve could ruin his day in one moment was depressing and he couldn't look up again. He was afraid of the smirk that he knew would find him.

"Get ahold of yourself, Munson," he hissed into his elbow.

There were plenty of things that he could do to exact revenge, but despite Eddie's 'bad boy' exterior, he was too much of a chicken to try anything.

A lot of people thought that he was cold and irresponsible, and while he could be both of those things, Eddie was also deathly shy and afraid of anyone who looked at him the wrong way.

It came with being in the closet.

He was in constant fear of people finding out that he liked boys and it affected how he saw every situation.

When he walked down the street and a man glared at him, Eddie was sick every time. If someone looked even the slightest bit dangerous, he had a habit of completely changing the way he spoke and how he acted.

Eddie was a master of switching from carefree and fluttery to frat-boy, girl-loving creep.

He used the act of being loud to distract from qualities that some people thought were flaws.

Lately, he had been using a deeper voice a lot more around Steve and he tended to hide his rings too.

Habits didn't like to die young.

He was paranoid of the possible things that Steve could use as ammunition against him, and being gay was definitely on the top of the list.

He flattened his nose against the cafeteria table and breathed in the solidified smell of age-old meatloaf and ancient taco Tuesdays.

This was his life.

He hid from Steve and tried to stay innocuous at the same time.

It was going perfectly.