Chapter Text
“Steve, psst, Steve.”
Steve cracks an eye open to find Eddie wide awake and poking him on the forehead. Steve huffs and pulls him closer, trapping Eddie with his arms. “You’ve been compromised. You have to stay in bed.” Eddie huffs a laugh and doesn’t try to pull away. “What time is it anyways?”
Eddie lifts his head and asks, “Do you really want to know the answer to that question?” Steve gets a bit distracted by how close Eddie’s face is to his so he doesn’t respond. “It’s three AM,” Eddie answers.
Steve stares at him incredulously wondering how he likes him. Eddie smiles and elaborates, “It’s Christmas!”
Steve fires back, “It’s three AM.”
Eddie rolls his eyes. “Okay, it three AM on Christmas morning and we went to bed early. Come on, Wayne will get home at five and I wanted to give you your present before then.”
“He’s working on Christmas?”
Eddie gives him a look. “Yeah, they pay him double, and I usually sleep in anyways.”
Steve bops him on the nose and closes his eyes as if he’s going back to sleep. “Why can’t ‘usually’ be right now?” Steve whines. He’s tired.
“Okay,” Eddie says defeated, resting tensely against Steve’s side.
Yeah, that’s not going to do at all. Steve sits up with a groan, bringing Eddie along with him. He climbs out of the bed and puts his shoes on.
“What are you doing?” Eddie asks sounding slightly scared.
“Getting your present out of my car. After all, it is Christmas,” Steve states with a wink, voice still rough with sleep. There’s no way he’s going to make Eddie upset on Christmas no matter how early it is.
Eddie starts seemingly buzzing with joy and leaps off his mattress to hug Steve. “Merry Christmas,” he says and plants a kiss on his cheek.
“Merry Christmas,” Steve says back, lingering in Eddie’s space. He wants to kiss him. Would that ruin Christmas? He pulls away and starts making his way out of Eddie room. He turns back and says, “Don’t walk into the living room until I tell you that you can. The present is a bit... obvious without wrapping.”
“Okay,” Eddie replies with a small smile and closes his door behind Steve.
Steve runs out and grabs the guitar. It’s fucking freezing out, but he’d do anything for Eddie. He stares at his front seat where the guitar strap lays. Could it ruin Christmas?
He reaches out and grabs it.
When he makes his way inside, he sets the guitar case on the ground. He scoots it around a few times trying to make it look presentable. He realizes there’s really no point in doing that after turning it in about five different directions. He lays the guitar strap on top and his heart thuds in his chest. “You can come out now!”
“You know I’m already out of the closet, Steve!” Eddie jokes then opens his bedroom door. His eyes are shut and as soon as the door is open, he clasps his hands over his eyes.
“Why aren’t you looking?” Steve asks.
“I don’t want to see my present yet,” Eddie replies as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. Steve realizes he might be in love with him.
He grabs the guitar strap off the top of the case and shoves it between the couch cushions quickly. When he’s done, he walks over to Eddie and carefully guides him to the living room until he’s standing in front of his gift. “You can open your eyes now,” Steve says softly, anticipation getting the best of him as his heart beats at the speed of light.
Eddie’s eyes open and land on Steve his eyes trail down expecting for Steve to be holding something out, but then they continue until they land on the guitar case. He freezes. “There’s no way...” Eddie says then sinks to his knees, unlatching the guitar case and slowly opening it up. He takes in a sharp breath when his eyes land on the beauty, then he trails his fingers across the body of the guitar caressing it in a way that almost makes Steve jealous.
Eddie doesn’t say a word. He just stares at the guitar. Steve rushes to say, “It’s from me and Dustin,” hoping to put Eddie at ease.
“You and Dustin?” Eddie clarifies.
Steve swallows hard and says, “Yeah.” It sounds unconvincing even to his own ears.
Eddie stands up not making eye contact with Steve and rushes off to his room. Steve gets worried and before he can wonder if he’s supposed to follow him, Eddie is rushing out of the room with two things in his hands.
Eddie shoves a flash of yellow into Steve’s arms – a perfect replacement for his yellow sweater lost likely at the bottom of Lover’s Lake. Before he can thank him, Eddie is shoving a small photo album into his hands. Steve tucks the sweater under his arm and opens it up.
His heart skips a beat. He flips through the album with page after page filled with pictures that Jonathan had been taking for months. Some pages are dedicated to specific kids, and tucked into those pages are little notes from each one. He keeps flipping through and finds pictures snuck from the past week – in the ice rink of him and Eddie after Jonathan had snuck off with Argyle, one of Eddie diving to protect Steve from the snowball – a little note under that says “I took that picture! - El”, a picture of the Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses, and so many photos of him and Eddie that he had no idea were being taken because Steve was so enraptured by him.
He flips on to find a note from Mike and his eyes land on a line that says “I think you’re actually pretty cool.” which for some reason breaks him. He feels the pressure build behind his eyes, and he pinches his nose – Steve Harrington does not cry. But Steve Harrington does love the person who got him this gift. He glances back up at Edde who stares back nervously at him.
Steve closes the book, knowing he’ll have time to look at it later but he has to say it now, “Eddie, I need to tell you-”
“Steve, please finish the photo album,” Eddie begs.
Steve shakes his head, “No, I have to tell you-”
“Finish it, Steve, please-”
“Just let me-”
“Steve, you don’t understand-”
“I lied!” Steve yells. Eddie freezes. Steve sighs and puts the photo album and yellow sweater down on the couch.
“You lied?” Eddie asks quietly as Steve digs through the couch cushions.
He emerges with the guitar strap and holds it out towards Eddie. “It wasn’t from me and Dustin, it was just from me,” he explains.
Eddie hesitantly takes the guitar strap and stares at it a bit confused. Steve turns the strap around to show him the writing. After he reads it, he looks up with his eyebrows furrowed. “It’s supposed to go over your heart,” Steve states. Eddie stares at him blankly. Steve sighs and continues, “And I lied before. I didn’t want to end the pact to stop us from getting hurt before we got feelings for each other because I already had feelings for you! Have feelings,” Steve clarifies quickly.
He rushes to continue before Eddie can interrupt him, “And I wanted to end it so we could give it a shot at making it real. Making us real. Because Eddie, I really really like you. God, I think I’ve liked you since that damn ‘big boy’ comment which made me question my entire sexuality, and it seemed like a bigger crisis than the world ending.” Eddie snorts in response to that. “But I know that you don’t have feelings for me and that’s fine.”
“Steve-”
“It’s okay, man! Really, it’s fine. I can deal with it-”
“Steve-”
“And I can back off if you need me to-”
“Steve!” Eddie raises his voice and grabs onto Steve’s arms, successfully ending his rant. “Just go to the last page of the photo album and read the last line of the note I wrote for you, okay?”
Steve nods and wordlessly walks over to the photo album and flips to the back, unfolding the note Eddie wrote him. He wonders what type of rejection could be kind enough to put in a Christmas gift. Maybe he just wrote something about what a great friend he is or...
Steve finishes unfolding the note and his eyes land on the last line. You were the perfect Christmas date, but could you stay a while longer – maybe forever? Steve’s head snaps up.
Eddie turns red. “I know it’s unbearably cheesy but-”
Steve doesn’t give him time to finish the sentence, quickly setting the photo album down and rushing to cup Eddie’s face and kiss him. It feels like a Christmas miracle with Eddie’s hands quickly coming up to tug Steve in closer as he kisses him with all the spirit he has. Steve gets butterflies in his stomach as he remembers this is real. It’s all real now.
Steve begins smiling into the kiss, and quickly Eddie begins grinning as well. Eventually they both are breaking the kiss to joyfully laugh with their foreheads pressed together. Steve breaks away to plant a kiss on Eddie’s forehead before pulling him into a hug. “Please tell me that we’ve communicated that we’re dating now, and I didn’t completely misread the situation,” Steve says half-jokingly.
Eddie laughs. “I think Robin and Nancy were onto something with your book on communication.” Steve can feel himself slightly tense up, unsure if Eddie is confirming or denying. Eddie pulls away and looks him in the eye. “Yes, we’re dating, Steve,” Eddie confirms with a laugh.
“Oh, thank Christ,” Steve sighs in relief.
Eddie laughs harder and pulls Steve against him. Steve gives in and joins in on the laughter. One tally to the You Rule board needs to finally be added. Eddie’s laughter dies down as he holds onto Steve, slowly swaying in the living room – it almost feels like a slow dance.
“You know, I think I’ve had a crush on you since the moment I saw King Steve roaming the hallways of Hawkins High School. But I think I knew I loved you when you tore that damn bat’s head off,” Eddie comments as he sways.
Steve pulls back with a cheeky smile. “Loved, huh?”
Eddie’s eyes widen then he dramatically huffs, “You are insufferable; I take it all back!” He starts gathering the photo album and sweatshirt up and awkwardly picks up the guitar and strap too. “But I’m keeping these! Not you!” He makes his way to his room as Steve trails behind him laughing without care.
Eddie carefully puts the things down, and Steve comes up behind him and quickly wraps his arms around his waist. He quietly says, “I love you too, Eddie.” He pulls away and snatches the photo album and sweater back and sits on Eddie’s mattress. He strips off his shirt and puts the yellow sweater on then pats the spot next to him. “Are you coming or what?” Steve asks.
Eddie’s jaw snaps shut, and he nods, then launches himself next to Steve who laughs again. Steve picks up the photo album and sincerely says, “Thank you for this. I think it might be the best present I’ve ever gotten.”
“Are you sure? What about Jonathan and Argyle’s gift?” Eddie asks with pseudo seriousness.
Steve laughs and shoves at him. “Don’t remind me of that. The brief glimpse is scarred into my brain forever.”
“Thank goodness I got a picture of it then,” Eddie says flipping through the book.
“No! Don’t you dare!”
“Look!”
“Eddie!” Steve yells covering his eyes.
Eddie laughs manically and says, “I’m kidding, I’m kidding.” Steve cracks an eye open. “Although I do have extra room in the album for the photos Jonathan took yesterday...”
Steve closes the photo album and moves to kiss Eddie. He quickly smiles into the kiss but tries his best to kiss back. Steve pulls back and lays down. “Please, come back to bed now that you’ve gotten your Christmas fill.”
Eddie cuddles up next to him and says, “I’m not even close to getting my Christmas fill yet.” Steve sighs and plays with Eddie hair. He hums in response.
“Goodnight, Eddie.”
“Goodnight, Steve.”
The pair fall into a comfortable silence, and their breath starts to even out.
“Holy shit, you kissed me to shut me up, and it worked!” Eddie exclaims into the silence sounding extremely defeated.
“I sure did, and I’ll do it again.”
Eddie flirts, “Is that a promise? If so-”
Steve kisses him quickly then says, “Merry Christmas, Eddie.”
“Merry Christmas, Steve.”