Darling [Steve x Eddie]

Chapter 26

Eddie walked silently down the hallway from the guest bedroom and managed to make it to the bathroom before he started crying.

He leaned against the locked door and covered his face with his hands, allowing tears to roll down his chin.

He was glad that Robin wasn't awake because it would be hard to explain this all to her.

He hoped that she would never find out about what had just happened, as he knew that she really wanted Steve to make him see sense again.

It obviously hadn't worked anyways, because here he was, crouched over himself in a darkened bathroom, and Steve was lying alone in a room down the hall.

Eddie looked up at himself in the mirror and winced in disgust at his splotchy skin and red-rimmed eyes.

"You always have to fuck up everything, don't you?" he hissed at his reflection in abhorrence.

Of course, no answer came and he crumpled again under the silence.

"Why do I do this?" he whispered into the crook of his elbow, curling inward as he spoke.

The tiling on the floor was cool against his skin and he lowered the side of his face onto it, pressing himself to the floor, eyes closed.

He lay still.

There wasn't a sound in the house, aside from the usual creak of wood and plaster between the walls, and he let his breathing steady.

"Maybe I should just sleep in here," he wondered aloud after a pause, voice soft, but crackly with the remains of his outburst.

The house said nothing in response.

He resumed the quiet, instead choosing to look around himself.

It was early enough that the sky was beginning to brighten and through a window above the bathtub, pale light streamed through against the blue of the room.

Eddie could make out the shapes of the treetops along the edges of the sill and they drew his focus as he continued to calm.

Then a small tap flicked against the door.

With a soft groan, he sat up and waited to see if the sound had been merely in his imagination.

It repeated, a little sharper and insistent.

"Hello?" he called, unwilling to turn the knob and let whoever it was in.

Either Robin or Steve stood outside and Eddie didn't think that he could face either of them at the moment.

The flooring creaked beyond the door and it sounded like whoever it was had slid down and sat against it on the other side.

"I can't leave you alone like this, Eddie."

"Steve..."

Eddie noted the hoarse undertone of Harrington's voice.

"I shouldn't have let you leave," Steve continued in a rush.

Eddie bit the inside of his mouth. "None of this is your fault."

"Even if part of it isn't, I agreed to let you go and that's as much my fault as it is yours."

Steve sighed after he spoke.

It was heavy and drifted beneath the door.

"This isn't how I thought it would be," he muttered afterwards.

Eddie let himself chuckle. "At least you were expecting it."

"Come on!" Steve said in exasperation, "I made it so obvious!"

Eddie raised a doubting eyebrow, even though he knew that the other boy couldn't see him.

"Really?" He asked, sounding humorous. "You mean when you were treating me like shit in school, you were just letting me know that you liked me? When you went around kissing Tracy, it was to show that you wanted to kiss me?"

It came off a little bit cruel, but he didn't care.

Maybe he was trying to hurt Steve.

The other boy stumbled for words.

"Well— I can't really excuse that, but just know that I'll never do it again to you," he said eventually.

He sounded more apologetic than ever.

And as much as Eddie didn't want to admit it, he knew that it was true.

"I know you won't," he sighed.

"Then can't we talk about this?" Steve asked desperately.

Eddie fiddled with his rings, aware that he was wasting time, but unable to come up with an answer.

Harrington continued without him.

"I can promise you, Eddie, that this will never stop. I will always be this in love with you. And you're going to find it very hard to get rid of me if you try."