Darling [Steve x Eddie]

Chapter 15

Robin flopped onto her bed, leaving the platter of snacks to rest precariously on her desk.

"C'mon in, don't be shy." She beckoned to Steve and Eddie, who were standing awkwardly by the door, each waiting for the other to go in. "You've both been here plenty of times before!"

Eddie looked to Steve and gestured for him to go first.

"Go on, Steve. You first."

He grinned.

Steve shook his head resolutely, a teasing smile on his lips.

"Absolutely not, you're the guest of honour, Eddie."

He placed his hand lightly on the small of Eddie's back and pushed him over the threshold with a wink.

Eddie almost died.

He could feel the blood rushing to his face and he didn't want Robin to pick up on anything (at the best of times, her gaydar was much, much stronger than his), so he walked to the opposite side of the room, not facing either of them.

He stared at Robin's wall instead, which was covered in vivid posters of Madonna, Prince, Freddie Mercury, and several women whom he didn't know the names of. They look objectively attractive, which even he could acknowledge, and, almost without thinking, he wondered what Steve thought of them.

So he turned to look at Steve, who was organizing the snacks on the tray, and said,

"Which one of them do you like?"

He nodded to the glossy poster girls.

For a split second, and maybe he even imagined it, Steve looked slightly uncomfortable, but the look was gone in a flash and he regarded the women with calm indifference.

"Um, maybe that one?"

He leaned over to point at a dark-haired woman who was dressed in a three piece suit on a beach, and his shoulder brushed against Eddie's. Steve's face was inches from his as well.

Then his eyes darted over and caught Eddie's, who froze and promptly forgot how to act normally.

So Eddie brushed a stray hair out of Steve's face and blindly pointed at a random person on the wall.

"I think I like that one."

Steve turned to look and Eddie heard Robin snort from behind them.

That's when he saw who he was pointing to.

Freddie Mercury.

"Shit," he swore aloud.

Steve's eyes shot back to his in a silent question.

"I—um, well— I didn't mean to point at him," Eddie spluttered. Bile was rising rapidly in his throat. "Oh god, I think I'm gonna throw up!"

Robin wasn't smiling anymore and she pointed out the door and into the hallway beyond.

"Closest bathroom is my parent's ensuite. Go down the hall and it's the very last door."

She sounded concerned, but he didn't have time to tell her that everything was alright.

Actually, he didn't have time for anything, but her instructions were already gone from his mind. He looked around wildly and unfortunately his eyes landed on Steve, who immediately registered the panic on his face and jolted into action.

"I'll take him," he told Robin and then his hand was around Eddie's elbow and they were running down the hallway together.

Once they found the bathroom, Eddie knelt before the toilet and did what he had to do, Steve still holding on to his arm the entire time.

At one point, Eddie even felt Steve's other hand rest on his shoulder blades, but after another shudder raced through his body, the touch was gone.

In the intervals between being sick, Steve flushed the toilet for him and handed him a fresh paper towel each time.

"Are you alright?" he eventually asked, when Eddie finally grew still, slumped against the bathtub.

"Sorry," he mumbled back, to embarrassed to look up at Steve.

"Not your fault or anything."

Steve moved and sat beside him, letting Eddie lean against him.

"I'm just thinking of the last time that we were in a bathroom together, and how it's always you helping to clean me up or saving me," Eddie whispered after a moment. "I don't want this to become our thing."

He looked over at Steve, worried that the boy was incredibly disgusted by him.

But he found that Steve was staring at him in a way that seemed very far from grossed out or repulsed.

"Hopefully someday, we can be in a bathroom doing something much more pleasant with each other," Steve said.

Eddie just sat there, quiet and really confused for a minute.

"I think I may have suffered some brain damage recently, because I am definitely misreading what you just said, Harrington," he offered presently.

"Maybe," Steve responded vaguely.

His tone of voice was the equivalent of a wink in Eddie's book.

"Or maybe you're the one with brain damage, Harrington."

"We should probably get back to Robin."

"Changing the subject?"

"Eddie..."

"What?"

Steve stood up slowly and helped Eddie to his feet.

"I'm gonna pretend this never happened," Eddie said resolutely. "And no more joking, okay?"

Steve smiled.

"Right? No more joking, Harrington, I mean it!"

Steve walked out of the bathroom.

"Steve! You can't play with me like this!"

Eddie rushed out after him.