Darling [Steve x Eddie]

Chapter 29

They woke up, still slumped against each other on the bathroom floor, but awash in sun beam.

Steve's hand was curled around Eddie's wrist, holding it to his sternum.

When he noticed, he released the skin and Eddie felt feverish from the removal.

"Don't..." he whispered.

"You've been telling me that a lot lately," Steve murmured. "I don't know what to believe."

"I only mean it this time."

As he spoke, Eddie offered his wrist to the other boy.

He held it out like it was something to be given.

Steve tried his best to hide the smile that was teasing his face, but Eddie picked up on the soft crinkles that danced along his mouth and smiled back.

"I think you mean it," he finished.

Steve took his wrist, gently closing his fingers around the empty skin.

"Mean what?" he asked.

"Liking me."

Eddie paused after he said it and Steve almost dropped him.

Eddie felt the exact moment when the boy's fingers loosened from their circle, the half-plunge of his own body to the bathroom floor, before all was held again.

There was so much of him pressed into the space of his wrist.

Holding onto Steve.

"It's a lot more than that." Harrington began.

"I doubt it. Never usually is with me."

"I don't know how you can say that."

"Easier than you think."

Eddie felt his smile dim.

Steve must have seen it, because he brought Eddie's knuckles to his mouth in a single breath.

"You make me delirious. Maddened. Gorgeous. Breathless."

Eddie blushed furiously.

"I think you might have an unaddressed kink, Harrington."

He covered it up with a sharp laugh.

"If you're talking about your rings, maybe." Steve was blatant, unblinking.

"The average human would be embarrassed about saying that."

Steve kissed Eddie's knuckles, drawing out a hiccup of breath.

"Are we average humans now?" he asked in a whisper. "You aren't."

"Sweet of you to say."

"I'm serious!" Steve exclaimed. "When did we decide to play the part?"

Eddie tilted his head as he watched the other boy speak.

This was his favourite part.

Passionate Steve.

He knew this version existed somewhere.

"When did we decide to marry girls and have three sets of twins in the big city, instead of running away with my mother's Sunday spending money and finding the largest field to sleep in?"

"I didn't know that you wanted all of that," Eddie murmured.

"All of that?" Steve repeated. "I just want me and you."

"I don't know if I would be enough."

"You are."

The two of them watched each other, breathless and pink from the thought of being alone with each other forever.

"When did I turn into my dad?"

The question was abrupt, ready to spoil the dream, but Eddie could hear the raw frustration in Steve's voice.

This was real.

He inched closer, taking his wrist from the other boy's mouth.

He brought his hands close to Steve's face and cupped his jaw.

He thought back to the thundering voice that he sometimes heard when he walked by the Harrington's house.

How it always sounded accusing and uncontrollable.

"I've never met your dad, but you don't sound like him."

Steve looked surprised.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

Eddie shrugged.

"I've heard your father before, from the drive outside of your house."

"I've never seen you there."

"I hid."

Steve frowned.

"Why?"

"Because I kept wanting to ask you what went wrong with us, but I couldn't do it whenever I got there."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Eddie threw on a smile.

"It's alright, because we have this now."

He moved his face until it was directly in front of Steve's.

Their noses hovered between them.

Then nothing did.

Eddie pressed his mouth against the other boy.

Then his hands trailed down spine.

And other hands tugged at his own shirt.

He felt all of his thoughts and exhales bursting through his fingertips and eyelashes.

He swore that he felt Steve's too.

"This is perfect, isn't it?" he mumbled into shoulder blade.

"I think so."

"Let's never end."

He felt his shirt slide over his head, nothing but blur.

He fumbled with Steve's, fingers catching on the fabric.

"I love you," Steve whispered finally.

"I've only ever loved you."

They collapsed into each other.