Archive of Our Own

Steve knows it’s a bad idea.

“Hey, Steve, could you come, uh… zip me up, man?”

That doesn’t stop him from hopping off the couch and going to Eddie’s room as soon as he calls out for him.

When Steve cracks the door open, he expects to see Eddie in some dork costume for the D&D club he goes to, or maybe he’s trying out something new to wear on stage, but tonight doesn’t track with all his show dates Steve marked on the kitchen calendar.

No, tonight is a different night. An eyeliner and leather and harness kinda night.

It’s a little funny, seeing Eddie all tangled up in the leather straps and metal loops, his arms sticking out every way. Not funny enough for Steve to ignore the heat suddenly simmering under his skin at the sight of Eddie standing in his tiny briefs, half tied-up and half-naked. It’s not the first time he’s had to temper a feeling like this around Eddie either.

“Don’t see a zipper anywhere.” Steve’s laugh comes out shaky.

“Yeah ha ha. C’mon, help me.” Eddie sulks over, practically running into Steve because his arms are trapped over his line of sight.

Steve reaches out, tutting in playful disappointment as he gets to work untangling Eddie. It looks like he just tried to squeeze right into the tiny thing instead of adjusting it first, so Steve has to find the loops and buckles to unfasten.

“What are you all dressed up for?” Steve asks, ignoring the tiny thrills coursing through him that are just ecstatic to be touching Eddie’s warm, bare skin.

“Oh you know,” Eddie’s grinning when Steve finally frees his head from the tangle of limbs and leather and hair, “Bible study.”

Steve squints, moving in a circle around Eddie as he straightens the various straps across his chest. “So, a club or a sex party thing?”

“Both, kinda. But for business, not pleasure. Helping out Big Willy, he’s having this private party thing and he asked if I could host. More like a ‘look sexy at a party’ kinda thing. Gettin’ paid, so.”

Something else courses through Steve that he ignores. It’s a quick and nasty twist that feels suspiciously like jealousy tightening his guts, leaving him a little sick with guilt for feeling it in the first place. Whatever Eddie does, with whoever, isn’t his business. Steve shouldn’t care.

But he does.

He was worried he was being a prude or just his overprotective self, so he talked to Robin. Since then, all the implications that come with realizing he’s just jealous of Eddie being with other men have been kicking his ass.

Now his chest fucking aches helping Eddie get all done up for someone else.

Though Eddie said it’s not that kinda night, it could turn into one. Steve knows how it goes. Eddie comes home late, his pretty clothes ripped sometimes, fresh bruises and welts blooming on his skin. Steve never really understood why Eddie would be into any of that. Then it all began to connect around the time Steve started wishing it was his fingertips bruised into Eddie’s skin that he got to kiss better.

“Well, you look really, uh,” Steve gently tugs the last strap in place around Eddie’s waist, mumbling, “Nice to look at.”

Eddie snorts, turning so Steve gets a full devastating view of him. He’s smiling, the edge a little marred from the scars on his cheek that suit him so well. There’s smudgy black around his eyes, a tiny sliver of lamplight glimmering in the center. Traces of ink peek between the leather laced over his milky skin, just coaxing Steve’s gaze to follow and find them all.

Eddie poses, running his ringed fingers over his scarred waist, showing off for Steve’s attention. It took him a couple years away from Hawkins to start strutting again, but Eddie wears his patchwork skin and missing pieces so confidently now. It’s so attractive, enough to redefine what the word even meant to Steve before.

“Nice?” Eddie mocks, “Well I gotta fucking change then.”

“Fine. You look like a dirty slut, is that better?” Steve playfully rolls his eyes when Eddie clasps his hands over his heart.

“Oh, what a sweet talker.”

“Shut up.”

Steve dips his head, turning away so Eddie doesn’t see the flush rising on his cheeks. He goes over to Eddie’s bed, seeing another small spiral of leather straps there.

“Did you forget this piece of the harness?” Steve asks, picking it up and trying to untangle it, but it’s different from the other part, heavier with more metal pieces.

“Those are the restraints you can attach, see the cuffs on the end? Haven’t tried them on yet.”

Steve ignores the heat swooping in his stomach.

“Shouldn’t you try them now first?” That’s the reasonable thing, and not just because Steve is suddenly dying to put them on Eddie.

“Those leather cuffs are mostly for show, kinda flimsy. Not that kinda night anyway, I’d need more than that to hold me down.” Eddie winks. “But yeah sure, if you wanna tie me up so bad.”

Steve puts on a fake unimpressed look and he can feel how Eddie sees right through it, down to the eagerness buzzing in Steve’s bones. There’s a knowing tilt on Eddie’s lips as he turns around, putting his wrists behind him.

Steve manages to steady his hands enough, hooking the clasps onto the center metal loop over Eddie’s lower back, attaching the leads with the cuffs at the end.

“Okay, not too tight around my wrists and then adjust the straps for me,” Eddie says, “I like a little wiggle room. No fun being tied down if I can’t try to get away.”

Steve can hear the grin in his voice, tips of his ears burning as he carefully puts the cuffs on Eddie. His skin is extra warm beneath the pads of Steve’s fingers as he makes sure Eddie can move a bit at that length. Eddie says it’s good and Steve steps around to give him another look over.

It’s indulgent, less checking on Eddie and more just checking him out. All tied up, Eddie has this wild look in his eyes, knowing Steve could do whatever he wanted to him now, and he’s just as thrilled about it as Steve is.

Steve feels a flash of guilt, but it only feeds the nameless hunger that’s been growing inside him and it’s fucking good.

“Anything else to try on?” Steve’s voice roars through the blood rushing in his ears.

He can’t deal with Eddie looking at him like that, so he turns back to all the stuff on Eddie’s messy bed. There’s a box sticking out from underneath it. There’s more leather and chains but it doesn’t look like anything to wear, apart from a thick necklace with what looks suspiciously like nipple clamps dangling from it. Overall, it’s just a box of sex toys that Steve’s only ever really seen in porn tapes.

“What’s all this?”

A low chuckle comes from Eddie, rumbling up the base of Steve’s spine.

“Oh, my beauties.” Eddie starts explaining the array of black handles with fringe or braided leather on the ends. “That flogger is my little guy. That whip is my dragon’s tongue, the other is the tail, and that— Oh you like that one, huh?” At some point, Steve’s hand decided to reach for the biggest flogger. “That’s my big girl. She’s my favorite too. Did all the leatherwork myself. Feels nice right?”

Steve flexes his grip around the handle, feeling the weight of it. He gives his wrist a couple flicks. The fringe swishes heavily and Steve imagines how it would land across skin. Then he flicks it again because he likes the way Eddie’s watching him, eyes dark, teeth bared in a grin. Like he's hungry too.

“She’s a beauty alright,” Steve agrees.

“Wanna see what she can do?” Eddie asks, practically salivating for Steve to say yes. “Take a little swing at me.”

Steve taps the handle against his other palm, considering it.

It’s all just a game to Eddie, whenever Steve’s curiosity comes out to play. Nothing but a little fun, though the tension filling the air is almost bloodthirsty.

“You’re asking me to hurt you, Eddie?”

“You think you can hurt me? That’s cute.”

Steve wants to take a bite out of him.

“I just need a yes or no,” Steve says, reaching out and dragging the leather fringe over Eddie’s chest and down to his nipple, the tiny nub perking up from the teasingly light touch.

“Ooh, demanding,” Eddie leans into it for more. “I like that, so I’ll give you a yes and I’ll even throw in a please.”

Steve just does it, lashes right across Eddie’s nipple.

There wasn’t much power behind it, but Steve’s never done anything like that before and he felt it crack through his whole body. His heart thundered with the impact, like lightning struck and he’s waiting for the ground to shake, but Eddie doesn’t even budge.

“Well, what are you waiting for? I said yes.” Eddie grins. “Get a good grip, kinda swing your wrist and just let her do the rest. But don’t go for my ribs, or the jewels. Just tits, thighs, ass, all the fun places y’know.”

It’s posed as a challenge, making Steve’s blood hot in his veins.

He brings the leather tails down across Eddie’s chest again, over his nipple and the other side, and again. A little harder, getting used to the weight of it, to the stinging sounds that make his ears burn, to the blooming red lines where Steve can see what he’s doing to Eddie.

He didn’t expect it to affect him like this, feeling himself get hard from marking up the skin he’s dreamed of sucking bruises into. It’s like an entirely new world is waking up inside him.

Meanwhile, Eddie’s laughing.

A low, taunting thing that’s daring Steve to ruin him.

Without warning, Steve swats down at Eddie’s thigh.

“That tickles,” he laughs again in response to the hit.

It’s breathy though, and when Steve looks at Eddie’s face, he sees pink starting to dust his cheeks and he’s biting down on his smile. So Steve keeps going until Eddie’s thighs are the same color as his chest, blushing red and breathing harder. Steve resists the urge to stare at Eddie’s dark underwear and see if he’s as affected by this as Steve is.

Instead, he walks around behind Eddie, circling him. He feels Eddie anticipating his move, seeing his wrists twitch against the cuffs and goosebumps spreading on his arms, it builds up inside Steve. It satisfies the new need growing in him and makes it ravenous at the same time too.

“Is that all you got, sweetheart?” Eddie taunts but it’s shaky, out of breath.

Steve smirks behind him, swinging the flogger at the back of his thighs.

It’s just hard enough now for the leather tails to leave pretty trails of raised, pink skin between Eddie’s inner thighs. Steve wants to trace them with his fingers— with his fucking tongue.

He wouldn’t like this so much if Eddie wasn’t so clearly into it. It’s not really about hurting Eddie, but getting a rise out of him. He’s making these small gasps that sound like whines building in his throat, bending over slightly in a clear sign of wanting more.

So Steve aims a little higher, and when the leather lashes across the thin briefs on Eddie’s ass, he jolts with a long, low moan.

Steve’s blood rushes with thrill. “Yeah, that’s it, hm?”

“Holy shit,” Eddie says when Steve gives him another thrash.

Steve hears his own voice rough in his ears, “You’re not gonna thank me for giving you what you need?”

Steve has no idea where that came from, but his mouth is suddenly watering for Eddie to say it.

When Eddie practically moans the words thank you, they go straight to Steve’s dick.

He gives Eddie’s ass another few hits, watching him shiver with each one, hearing his noises get more sloppy. This doesn’t feel like enough to make tears come to Eddie’s eyes, but as soon as Steve wonders, he wants it more than anything. Part of him aches to comfort the crying image of Eddie, despite how pretty he is like that, but he’s got a new craving to lick Eddie’s tears as they roll down his cheek.

He also wants to see what Eddie’s ass looks like beneath his underwear, all red and bruised. He wants to feel the hot skin under his fingertips, cup Eddie’s cheek in his hand to soothe the sting away and squeeze to make it worse.

Just the thought is too good, distracting Steve. The flogger almost slips out of his sweaty hand, so he decides that’s a sign to stop.

“You good?” He asks Eddie, “Can I touch you?”

Eddie straightens up again, Steve can’t see his face but he hears him catching his breath, steadying his voice.

“Yeah that was— Yeah, good. Really good.”

Steve gently takes the cuffs off Eddie and detaches them from his harness. Then without a second thought he’s massaging Eddie’s wrists, rubbing his thumbs into the thin bones. Eddie’s body language feels a little surprised, but he doesn’t say anything, still taking deep breaths.

Steve keeps massaging for a bit, though it couldn’t have been long enough or tight enough to restrict Eddie’s blood flow, it just soothes something in Steve to do it. All the while, his eyes keep falling to Eddie’s fresh red marks, looking at them with an admitted feeling of awe. It gets all twisted up in his gut, tight possessiveness, thinking about everyone at the party seeing Eddie with Steve’s marks on him.

Steve’s hand can’t resist reaching between Eddie’s thighs, brushing the back of his knuckles along the feverishly hot, sensitive looking skin.

Eddie hisses a little and flinches away, turning around with a shaky laugh.

The sight of him, messy haired and wild-eyed and blushing down his chest and between his legs, just stirs Steve’s insides.

“You sure you’re good?” Steve checks, worried despite how turned on he is.

Eddie seems a little stunned by the question, asking instead, “Are you?”

“As long as you are,” Steve nods, wanting to make sure he didn’t actually hurt Eddie. He only wishes they could’ve kept going, and maybe he could spend a couple hours rubbing lotion on Eddie’s sore skin, but he’s not sure how to say that.

“That was just some fun, alright?” Eddie assures him, composing himself with smooth confidence as if he wasn’t letting Steve wreck him moments before. “You didn’t do anything I didn’t like, you were good to me. Really great start to my night, actually, thanks.”

As glad as Steve is to hear that, his stomach sinks, remembering that this was nothing. Just a bit of fun before Eddie goes off to have his real fun with someone else.

“Yeah,” Steve tosses the flogger back onto Eddie’s bed. “So you’re okay? I didn’t, like, hit you too hard or anything?”

“Hey, my ass may not have a lot of cushion, but it does the job, I’m good. You were perfect.”

So Eddie’s well enough to joke, but Steve still feels uneasy about it. Maybe he’s just being his overbearing self, but he has to be sure. “You don’t need anything?”

An unreadable expression passes over Eddie’s face as he just stares at Steve for a moment. Something faintly surprised, something soft, something that assures Steve he’s not about to get snapped at for being too clingy.

“Oh, I see, you wanna baby me.” Eddie says, teasing but Steve’s cheeks heat up anyway. “I promise I’m fine, but if it’ll make you feel better to be sure, I’ve got like twenty minutes to spare.”

Eddie unceremoniously starts clearing off his bed, while Steve watches as he lays himself down against the pillows and stretches his arms out invitingly.

“What’s it gonna be? Are you a cuddler, Harrington? Do your worst.”

Steve swallows thickly. His dick is still slightly hard inside his sweats, which he hopes Eddie doesn’t notice, and even more warmth pulls low in his gut at the idea of getting in bed with Eddie. That probably means it’s a bad idea, but Steve’s feet are taking him toward the bed anyway.

Eddie keeps the air from getting tense with awkwardness, making light chat under his breath as Steve climbs in next to him. Steve’s hesitant to reach out first, knowing that wherever he touches Eddie he’ll find bare skin because Eddie’s still mostly naked. So he’s relieved when Eddie just tucks himself into Steve’s side and hugs his arms around his middle.

Turns out, it’s exactly what Steve needed. The uneasy feeling from before just subsides when Eddie rests his head on Steve’s chest, feeling Eddie’s rabbiting heartbeat settle against him. Everything clicks into place when Steve wraps his arm around Eddie’s shoulders and just holds him.

“Wow, who knew this is all it took to get in bed with Steve Harrington?” Eddie quips and Steve feels him smiling against the soft material of his shirt.

“Oh shut up,” Steve mutters, feeling the hair at the crown of Eddie’s head tickle his lips. “What do you like about this stuff anyway?” He asks conversationally.

“What kind of a freak would I be if I wasn’t into getting smacked around?” Eddie snorts, then continues with a real answer, his voice a soothing rumble against Steve’s chest. “It’s just a rush, man. The escape part, especially. My brain is a notoriously shitty place and this stuff takes me out of it, puts me in a headspace where everything feels… I don’t know, just good. That subspace shit is like getting high for free.”

Steve thinks he gets it, but his brows draw together curiously. “Subspace?”

Eddie starts explaining everything to him, subs, doms, things about BDSM that Steve was vaguely aware of, but never had it all broken down for him the way Eddie’s so good at doing. He approaches everything in a fantasy nerd way, which amazingly, still doesn’t kill Steve’s boner. He’s got it bad.

By the end, Steve gets it. Eddie’s always got this riot of energy around him, must be hectic inside too. He always feels like he’s got static buzzing under his skin when Steve touches him. Eddie says pain and submission just make his mind float, it’s nice to let someone else break him down and think for him. Also, it’s just fucking hot, he says.

Of course, Steve’s mind drifts to imagining himself doing that for Eddie. He imagines it would be like a high too, turning Eddie Munson’s loud brain to mush, making all his big words melt in his mouth. It’s a scorching hot thought, having the absolute hell of a boy underneath him, wanting to be good for him, writhing in pleasure-pain as Steve—

Okay, it’s too hot of a thought for Steve, who’s trying not to get fully hard.

And he only likes the fantasy if it ends like this, getting to hold Eddie and take care of him, make sure everything was good.

“Could I, uh,” Steve starts to ask. His free hand is already reaching for Eddie’s thigh before he forces it to pause, wait for him to actually ask the question.

Eddie chuckles against him, “Yeah sure.” Again, he already knows what Steve wants. “Kiss it all better, if you must.”

Heat licks down the back of Steve’s neck at that suggestion.

“There’s lotion on the nightstand if you wanna oil me up.”

Another lick of heat. Eddie has no idea what he’s doing to Steve. What Steve wants to do to him.

Steve gets the aforementioned lotion and then gingerly places his hand on Eddie’s leg, his heart thudding as he gathers the courage to move it. He cups around Eddie’s thigh and slowly pulls it across his lap. The position shifts Eddie, half-drapes his body over Steve’s front, his nose now pressed into Steve’s neck when a tiny warm breath of surprise spills out.

Steve gives Eddie time to adjust before he moves his hand again, and time for his own heart to slow. Eddie’s just so warm against him, wearing nothing but leather straps and so much skin. He’s all soft on Steve’s chest, hair pillowed out and breathing deep, letting Steve hold him. The smell of weed and cologne and Eddie is clouding his mind.

The only thing that would make it more perfect is touching him, so Steve slowly slides his hand up Eddie’s thigh.

There’s silky smooth patches of scars on the way up that Steve wants to memorize the shape of. For now, he traces the faintly raised welts fanning down to Eddie’s inner thigh. He follows the path of heated sensitive skin upwards, his fingertips brushing beneath Eddie’s shorts.

“Oh,” Eddie says into the crook of Steve’s neck, then murmurs, “S’good,” when Steve pauses for a moment.

He pulls away only to squirt some lotion into his palm, and he can’t touch Eddie again soon enough. Steve knows this is indulgent. Not just for Eddie, but for himself too. Getting to rub and soothe Eddie there, somehow it feels just as viscerally satisfying as putting the marks on him in the first place.

Eddie makes another noise against him when he squeezes just the slightest bit, a pleased noise. So Steve repeats the motion. He caresses with the nice glide of the lotion, gets Eddie’s other thigh too, dipping his palm into the fleshy skin in between. He wants to get into Eddie’s boxers too, his fingers getting closer and closer to brushing his cheek with every stroke upwards.

It feels so intimate, so hot when he presses his thumb down slightly too hard and Eddie shivers against him.

Eddie starts shifting around a bit, seeking out more of Steve’s touch. Which is so good, but then his thigh slides right up against Steve’s dick.

Of course, Steve’s hard. How could he not be with Eddie making soft noises and nuzzling into his neck? Eddie feels amazing on his aching cock, so good that Steve can’t hide the breathy noise that slips out of him. There’s no way Eddie didn’t hear, there’s no way he can’t feel Steve hard against him.

He doesn’t say anything, he doesn’t look down like he so easily could. He just goes quiet and still, his body radiating with anticipation for something that Steve can’t figure out.

All he wants to do is roll his hips up and rub his cock against Eddie’s thigh some more, but he gathers the willpower to subtly shift it away instead.

After another minute or so, much longer after the lotion is already rubbed in, Eddie’s at ease again.

“All good?” Steve checks.

Eddie pulls back, doesn’t look down, but smiles at Steve. “Peachy.”

Steve doesn’t know how to read that as anything other than a pass to pretend that nothing happened. It seems like Eddie wants him to take it, so he does, gently untangling himself from Eddie and getting off the bed.

“Have fun tonight, man.”

—

It’s like all the unlucky stars aligned just to fuck with them, really.

Steve was supposed to be on a plane, but now Robin’s on her way to Boston with an empty seat next to her, while Steve was caught in an insane traffic jam. Of course, he waited around the airport for hours in case a ticket opened up for another flight, but of course, the soonest one wasn’t available until the next day.

He’s supposed to be in an entirely different state with Robin, catching up with Nancy and maybe having a shitty overpriced hotdog somewhere on a busy street. With the two of them gone, Eddie was supposed to have the house to himself for a week.

Of course Eddie made plans.

Steve just wasn’t expecting him to get right to it so soon. Nor was he expecting to walk right into those plans in action, but there they were.

In retrospect, those worrying “pained” noises Steve heard Eddie making through the door should’ve tipped him off. Instead, they drove him to put the key in the hole and fling the door open even faster.

“Holy shit!”

What follows is a barrage of yelling and frantic shuffling.

It’s not the amount of skin Steve sees that makes him jerk his head away with embarrassment flaming on his cheeks. It’s the predicament Eddie is in.

Before turning away, Steve saw him standing there completely naked at the kitchen bar. There was some guy Steve’s never met fully dressed behind him, going at Eddie with the same flogger Steve used on him a couple weeks ago. He tries not to feel insane about that.

“What the hell, Harrington!” Eddie balks from across the room.

“Sorry! Fuck, I’m so sorry,” Steve says with his back turned.

He hears even more shuffling among Eddie’s frustrated groans. It’s followed by a clipped, rushed apology from a voice he doesn’t know. Then someone’s shoving past him.

“You don’t have to— What the fuck, you’re just gonna leave Eddie like that?” Steve tries to call after the stranger, cutting himself off when he feels a wry twist in his gut. Maybe it’s guilt from interrupting, or anger that this guy’s just running out on Eddie.

Steve blames the adrenaline clouding his veins, but he knows it’s nothing more than bitter jealousy.

“Eddie, man, I’m sorry,” he’s still facing the door, locking it shut and trying to give Eddie time to get dressed.

There’s a heavy exhale somewhere behind him. “What are you doing here?”

The roughness of Eddie’s voice sends tingles down Steve’s spine for some reason. It’s different from his sleepy rasp in the mornings. Eddie sounds wrecked… because he is. It’s different from when Eddie let Steve try out the flogger on him. Eddie wasn’t fully naked or hard— Steve’s trying to dispel the image of what he saw, trying not to feel anything else about it, but it’s hard to ignore.

“I missed my flight,” Steve admits.

Another beat of tense silence, Steve’s wondering why he hasn’t just bolted right back out the door. As guilty as he feels for interrupting, he thinks he’d feel even worse to leave Eddie alone now.

“You can turn around,” Eddie’s voice comes even lower.

“No, it's fine. You can just go to your room, I won’t look— Or you can stay and I’ll go,” Steve offers, a touch frantic and still so apologetic, “I’ll just keep my eyes closed and go upstairs and we’ll forget this ever happened.”

Eddie sighs, sounding defeated. “You have to open your eyes, man. You can’t get me out of these without looking.”

Steve’s curiosity makes him turn around faster than he can even think.

“Get you out of what— oh.”

Handcuffs.

Eddie’s not just standing naked at the kitchen bar, he’s handcuffed to it.

Steve didn’t notice that before, now he’s even more pissed at the guy for leaving Eddie like that.

“Okay, uh,” Steve puts his feelings aside and springs into action.

There’s several things laid out on the coffee table. Steve looks for a key to the handcuffs amid the array of sex toys that raise so many questions, along with his blood pressure.

“I have the key on my necklace,” Eddie says, sounding strained and embarrassed now.

On Steve’s way over to Eddie, he grabs what he thinks is a blanket lying on the couch, but it’s actually a black silk robe that Eddie must’ve set out for himself before, which is even better.

Steve gently drapes it across Eddie’s bare shoulders. He reaches for Eddie’s necklace, trying not to stare at his exposed chest underneath it, or where his dick is still standing hard between his legs. Steve gets the key off, pretending not to feel Eddie’s deep breaths puffing warmly across his face as he works on unlocking the cuffs.

“Hey, you alright?” Steve asks when he notices Eddie’s hands shaking.

The lock clicks open and once Eddie’s free, he pulls away without answering. That’s fair, he’s probably mortified out of his mind and pissed at Steve for ruining his hook up.

Steve should go now, but once he sees Eddie sit gingerly on the couch, looking a little faint as he pulls his robe around him with trembling hands, Steve just can’t leave him like that.

“Eddie, hey,” Steve keeps his tone level despite all his instincts going code red right now. He goes over slowly, kneeling in front of Eddie on the couch. “Did he hurt you? Did he do something you didn’t want?”

Eddie’s blinking too fast, eyes wide and a little red around the rim, shaking his head unconvincingly.

“No, no just— Going from really high to feeling like shit. It’s heavy, man. Like crashing,” Eddie explains in a rush. Thankfully, he goes to lie down on his stomach without Steve having to ask him. He looks rattled and unsteady, like a panic attack, which Steve knows from experience fucking bites.

“Damn, that’s my fault, sorry.” Steve apologizes, scooting closer on his knees. “I would’ve left as soon as I walked in, but that guy ran off and I wasn’t gonna leave you.” Steve’s temper flares just thinking about it, but he tries to keep it under control. “You should fucking dump him, you know.” He fails a little.

“Not my boyfriend,” Eddie mumbles.

“Good, he shouldn’t be,” Steve says, too quickly, too adamantly, barely containing how he really feels about it.

“Big Willy’s a nice guy…” Eddie doesn’t even seem to believe himself.

Steve wants to say he’s going to hunt Big Willy down and turn him into No Willy, but Eddie doesn’t need that drama right now. So instead he asks, “Can I get you anything to help?”

Eddie half-grimaces a smile. “Wanna baby me, hm?”

Steve loves the sound of that.

This part comes like second nature to him. He may not know all the ins and outs of this kinky sex stuff, but he knows how to take care of people. He loves it, probably too much.

He reaches out, soothing his palm down Eddie’s back, feeling his overly-warm body through the silk robe.

“Just take deep breaths and relax for me, okay? I got you.”

Eddie’s eyelids flutter, letting out a hum that doesn’t sound so distressed anymore.

Steve keeps doing that for a bit, murmuring soft words, letting his hand drift up to card his fingers through Eddie’s sweaty hair. Eddie seems to melt under the touch. Slowly, his trembling hands ease, his stiff spine relaxing into the couch.

Then Steve turns to the table where he remembers seeing some personal clean-up stuff among the sex toy assortment. He takes a couple of moist baby wipes and turns to Eddie, gently dabbing away the sweat on his forehead. Then he rubs the cool towel on the back of his neck. Soft, pleased noises come from Eddie and Steve’s chest flutters, feeling lucky to hear them, feeling special to be the reason for them.

It’s sort of like how Steve felt bruising up Eddie’s skin, peeling back a different layer of satisfaction he’d never reached before.

He turns back to grab one of the water bottles on the table, along with a bright yellow straw that was left over from Robin’s birthday party. Steve looks a little closer, seeing the first-aid kit from the bathroom, Eddie’s massage stick he uses on bad joint days, snacks from the kitchen…

That’s when Steve realizes it’s not just stuff to clean up with, it’s stuff for Eddie to take care of himself with.

It sets Steve’s teeth on edge, thinking of Eddie alone, he shouldn’t have to tend to himself after something as intense as what Steve walked in on. Surely, the guy who was swinging the whip should know that. Surely Eddie knows that.

It occurs to Steve that maybe he doesn’t, thinking back to how Eddie’s always so quick to assure Steve he doesn’t need anything. The way that he framed the whole cuddling thing as being more for Steve’s sake. Oh God, he really has no idea how he deserves to be treated.

“Here, drink this.” Steve holds the straw to Eddie’s lips while he takes a couple sips.

They stay there for a long while like that, until Eddie mutters, “Shit, that was rough for a minute there. Endorphins crashing, fuckin’ blows.”

“Feeling better?” Steve checks.

“Seems you nursed me back to health, big boy.”

“So, did you uh, set all this out for yourself?”

Eddie shrugs, tucking himself between his shoulder and the couch. “Always take care of myself after.”

“You shouldn’t have to, you know. And you deserve better than some creep that just left you in handcuffs.”

“I’m a big boy, Stevie.” Eddie props up his elbow, color returned to his cheeks, enough composure to put on a half-hearted smirk. “Besides, it’s hard for someone like me to find a decent dom. I’m gay, in case you forgot. And I’m a lot to handle, you know. I can be a bratty needy little bitch, so if no one wants to stick around holding my hand after, I get it.”

“I could handle you,” Steve blurts, heart in his throat and he can’t seem to swallow it back down. “Just saying, it wouldn’t be hard to treat you right, only hurt you in the ways that make you feel good. You know it wouldn’t be some huge burden to stay with you after and hold you and kiss everything better, right? Any guy that made you think you’re not worth doing that for is so full of shit.”

Steve’s mouth snaps shut, but it’s too late. He just coughed up his heart right there for Eddie to see. Steve was tired of holding it in anyway, he can only swallow his feelings for so long before they tear him up inside.

Eddie doesn’t look disgusted by the outpour, maybe a little stunned.

“Careful, Steve,” he says slowly, “Almost sounds like you think you’re the right guy for me.”

Steve’s chest clenches tight, empty, nowhere to shove his feelings down, no way to stop them from slipping out of his mouth. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“Steve, you don’t know what—”

“Yes I do. I’ve had a big gay crush on you for months. Bisexual crush, whatever. I know I want you. I know it kills me seeing you with anyone else. If you don’t feel the same, fine, but don’t tell me how I feel about you.”

The words run dry, almost painful as Steve lets the last bit run out, throat burning as he waits for Eddie to say something.

There’s nothing on his face but hesitant shock for a long moment, before a smile timidly dares to spread over his lips. “Can I tell you I feel the same?”

Steve’s breath rushes out of him in relief, his stomach bursting with ecstatic heat.

“If you let me kiss you,” he says, mostly joking, but Eddie reaches for a handful of his shirt, and there’s no way Steve wouldn’t go when Eddie tugs him down into a kiss.

Their lips meet in a gentle greeting.

It’s so light at first, so simple, like they’ve finally found each other and they have to gently touch to make sure it’s real. After a moment, it’s more than real.

Eddie kisses exactly like Steve knew he would. Greedy and messy with a hint of scruff and teeth. It balances with the way he’s eager to open up for Steve’s more indulgent, deeper kisses.

Eddie lets Steve lick over his lips and dip into his mouth, suck on his tongue like he’s savoring him, eating him right up. Eddie only pulls back to moan, hot breath over wet lips, until Steve crushes them back together with an encouraging hum.

“I knew it,” Eddie murmurs into the kiss, “You got so hard when I let you welt me up that night… thought it was just curiosity, mhn… didn’t know you were hard for me.”

Steve groans back, “You looked so good, all marked up for me. Kinda fucked me up, Eddie.” His hands have slipped down Eddie’s silky robe, punctuating the statement by lightly squeezing a small handful of Eddie’s ass, mindful of the soreness.

Eddie hisses, pulling back from the kiss with a look of overwhelmed pleasure-pain that fogs Steve’s mind with lust. He lets go, of course, wanting to see the damage before he does anymore.

“Can I see?” Steve asks, picking up the bottom of Eddie’s robe between two fingers. “I just wanna make sure you’re okay.”

Eddie nods loosely, half-lidded eyes watching Steve slowly lift the dark silk, like unwrapping a package he’s been dying to get his hands on.

Eddie’s lying on his stomach so Steve gets a perfect view of his ass, wanting to shove his face between his cute flat cheeks. His pale skin is freshly welted with leather tail tracks, flushed all down to his thighs. Gorgeous red. But not Steve’s red.

He ignores the flare of jealousy, soothing his palm across the feverish skin. He can’t help but give a tiny claiming squeeze that draws a shivery breath out of Eddie, head tipping forward, hair messy over his dark eyes. It’s not quite a pained hiss, but Steve still lets up.

“Want me to rub on some lotion?” Steve offers.

Eddie shakes his head, humming approval, always eager. “Keep touching, feels good.”

So Steve keeps going, especially with the breathless please Eddie murmurs too. Steve kneels closer to the couch so he can touch Eddie better, properly palming his ass and even trailing down to slip between his naked thighs. The bristle of boyish body hair is new and addicting.

Steve runs his thumb along the sensitive raised lines of skin. Eddie gives a tiny jolt, somewhere between flinching away and pushing into the touch.

“Does it hurt?” Steve checks, though he already sort of knows the answer.

It still makes his dick throb when Eddie says with a grin, “Yeah, hurts good. You can be rough with me, I won’t break.” He kicks his feet up behind him, like a naughty kitten twirling its tail. “I’d love it if you tried though.”

Steve’s hand clamps down on Eddie’s tender skin hard enough to make his eyes roll back a little. Eddie’s smug grin falls into a broken moan that spurs Steve on more. He keeps rubbing and squeezing and running his blunt nails along the welt marks.

Eddie’s hips start to roll down against the couch. Steve catches sight of the wet pink tip of Eddie’s cock against his stomach, and God, he wants to lick his tongue over it. Instead, his other palm goes down to press his heel to the front of his jeans, groaning in relief.

Eddie arches into Steve’s hand and humps the couch harder, making hisses of pain and tight little whines of pleasure that melt Steve’s brain out of his ears.

“You just need me to fuck you up real good, don’t you?” Steve hears himself, raspy and thirsty for the same thing he’s asking Eddie.

Getting to touch Eddie, getting to take handfuls of him feels amazing, but it doesn’t feel like enough. It doesn’t match the desperation slamming around inside Steve’s ribs. He wants to do more. His palm is tingling hotly to feel Eddie more, and to make him feel Steve more. Harder. Steve needs to— he needs to—

“Yeah c’mon, spank me, Steve,” Eddie reads his mind, giving Steve’s hand permission to draw back and smack across his cheek like he was raring to do.

The hit sets something off inside Steve, like a million little fireworks in the palm of his hand. Burning and bright. He’s given a girl a spank or two, but never that hard, never with intent. This is an explosive new feeling. He barely stops to have an “oh” moment before he has to do it again, feel it again.

Eddie shakes beautifully when the second hit lands, silk robe riding up his back. He’s gripping the arm of the couch, still rutting against it and getting louder when Steve’s hand lands on the other cheek.

“Yeah, Steve, oh you sweetheart— fuck, yeah please,” Eddie rambles, head rolling to look at Steve with pleading eyes. There’s a hint of wetness shining in them that’s just enough to make Steve squeeze himself in his jeans.

“Please, what?” Steve asks, despite giving Eddie another spank because he can’t resist.

Eddie groans and begs, “Hurt me good, Steve.”

Another hit. Another squeeze. Another gorgeous shudder through Eddie’s sweaty, blushing body that sends Steve out of his mind.

“Say it again, baby.”

Eddie fucking moans at Steve calling him that.

“Please— hurt me, Steve, need to feel you.”

Steve gives it his all, wanting Eddie to feel every hit down to his bones, trying to make every nerve inside him feel Steve.

The sounds of spanking flesh fill the room. Sweat drips down Steve’s hair from all the strength he’s using, but everything is muffled and distant outside of him and Eddie.

Eddie’s just mesmerizing like this.

He’s moaning and gasping and pushing back into Steve’s hand like he’s getting fucked instead of spanked. He’s shamelessly humping into the growing wet spot underneath him. His skin is so pretty with Steve’s handprints blooming on him, covering the angry red welts. There’s pink shadows of Steve’s touch all over his thighs. Every time Steve checks if he’s still okay, Eddie’s just needy for more, more, more.

Steve’s palm is on fire and he feels alive with it. So much better than doing this with a toy. Steve likes using his own hand, feeling the same stinging heat that Eddie feels, sharing the impact of pleasure-shock through his body, Steve’s never felt so close to someone.

“Love when you put your hands on me like that,” Eddie’s breathless voice comes, like he’s reading Steve’s mind again. “Feels like I’m yours.”

And that— yeah that snaps yet another thing awake inside Steve.

Something just compels him to lean down, headed teeth first for Eddie’s ass and biting into it.

Eddie lets out a mix of moaning and sobbing, nothing short of drowning in ecstasy.

Steve only does it hard enough to add a pretty bite mark to the splotchy red canvas of skin, murmuring as he lathers his tongue over it, “Mine, baby, all mine.” He keeps saying it mindlessly, and biting too. “Gonna mark you up. Wanna stay on your skin. Make you mine.”

Eddie’s back is really working now, rutting furiously into the couch and even reaching a hand down to finish himself off.

But Steve’s not ready for this to end, so he manages the willpower to pull back from Eddie’s ass and grip his hips to a stop.

Eddie’s noise of protest gets caught in his throat when Steve knocks his hand away from his cock. He reaches to swirl his own fingers over the shiny wet tip.

Once Eddie’s done moaning about it, he’s watching Steve in a flushed-face, parted-mouth haze. His eyes widen as they follow Steve’s fingers to his lips, and Steve’s not sure which one of them lets out a whine as he slips them inside and the taste of Eddie fills his mouth. Briny and heady.

Then, Steve’s not sure who kisses who, but suddenly they’re swapping the taste back and forth on each others’ tongues.

“Don’t you wanna fuck me, Steve?” Eddie’s question falls in hot breaths against Steve’s lips, between licks and groans and bites. “Fuck me and make me yours.”

At that, Steve deepens the kiss, slipping his fingers into Eddie’s hair to hold him as close as he can. And if he could just swallow Eddie whole for saying that, he would.

Eventually, he wills himself to pull back with a few apologetic pecks to Eddie’s frowning lips, with the promise of something better now.

Eddie starts to crawl off the couch, repositioning himself for what’s next, saying softly to Steve, “All the stuff’s on the table, just lube and—”

“Yeah, got it, I know.” Steve turns around and gets what he needs, avoiding the explanation of how he knows anything about anal sex. He doesn’t want to talk about Catholic girls’ back doors right now, or admit that Robin subjected him to the most unsexy research on the slim chance that this exact moment ever came.

Thankfully, while Steve is tugging his jeans down and putting on a condom, Eddie doesn’t ask. He’s busy situating himself on his knees on the floor, between Steve and the couch so he can be easily bent over it.

Which is exactly what Steve does, after sliding off Eddie’s robe and dotting kisses along the sturdy, smooth lines of his shoulders. Eddie lets Steve guide him down, front lying on the cushion while his ass is exposed to Steve and—

“Oh, what’s uh,” Steve doesn’t know how to ask, but there’s definitely some kind of sex toy in Eddie’s ass right now. The black, flared base of it is nestled between his cheeks, and Steve wonders how deep it’s buried inside his hole.

“It’s a plug, y’know, keeping me ready for you,” Eddie explains casually as if this isn’t mind-numbingly hot information that Steve wishes he would’ve known the entire time he was spanking him. “Just pull it out, nice and easy. Opposite of how I like my hair pulled, just so you know.”

Cute, but not enough to stifle the jealousy rising again because Steve knows Eddie wasn’t actually getting ready for him in the beginning.

“And you can leave your jeans on,” Eddie says, “I like being the naked one, y’know, the attention, the power play, it’s hot.”

Steve hums and gingerly slides the plug out, using the round end to toy with Eddie’s rim and coax less words out of him and more pretty noises.

He teases as he digs his fingers into Eddie’s waist and lines up behind him, “You gonna tell me how to fuck you too?”

Eddie smirks, “You need me to? Still think you can handle me?”

Steve answers by pressing forward, slowly sinking into the hot little opening into Eddie’s body. Through shivers and rumbling moans and his thrumming inner pulse, Steve feels Eddie stretching around him and adjusting.

He hears him mutter, “So big. Fuckin’ knew it. Ruining me for anyone else.”

Steve shushes him by slipping his fingers into his hair, just petting at first and then gripping tight at the roots. Eddie likes it even more than Steve expected him too, his spine arching and body bearing down on Steve’s cock.

“I know what you need, baby,” Steve says as he starts to move his hips.

The sight of himself gliding in and out of Eddie, feeling the wet heat of him douses pleasure over Steve, pouring all the way through him down to his toes. Eddie was right about leaving his jeans halfway on, it adds this frantic edge like he wanted Eddie so bad he couldn’t wait to undress. Like Eddie’s this precious thing Steve gets to have, soft naked skin against rough denim when Steve presses all the way into him.

Eddie’s hips move back in greedy little thrusts, begging from kiss-bitten lips, “Need it harder, Stevie, need you to make me come.”

Steve gives him what he wants, smacking his hand down to heat up the color already on Eddie’s ass. Then he grips his waist and starts really fucking into him at a punishing pace. “You wanna be my little brat, don’t you? That’s okay, just gonna fuck all this attitude out of you, make you my baby.”

“Steve— please.”

Eddie lets Steve tug him by the hair to look back over his shoulder. He wants to see Eddie’s face, the glowy pink splashed over his cheeks, lashes wet and heavy when he blinks, loose curls of hair swaying with every slam of Steve’s body into his. God, he’s unreal.

Steve moans at the sight of him, “Look at me, Eddie. So gorgeous letting me fuck you up, baby, so good for me.”

Eddie’s eyes roll back a little at being called that, but he listens, looking up at Steve with a pretty daze in his eyes. His plush mouth is parted, still smirking somewhat because he’s Eddie, tight little breaths and low noises falling freely from him. He must be in that headspace he told Steve about, mind floating, trusting Steve to think for him.

A protective feeling clenches inside Steve’s chest, never wanting anyone else to have Eddie like this again, trusting only himself to take care of him and ruin him in the best way.

Eddie’s head drops forward when Steve somehow drives into him even more furiously. Eddie has to hold onto the couch for balance. Steve’s never fucked someone this hard in his life. He can already feel bruises forming on his pelvis with every loud smack of his hips into Eddie. It even drowns out the thunder of Steve’s heartbeat in his ears.

One hand grips Eddie’s hair and the other is digging into the scars on his waist, like he never wants to let him get away. He only lets go to spank Eddie again, loves feeling Eddie jolt and clench on his cock.

It’s the roughest Steve’s ever allowed himself to be during sex. It’s the deep connection he’s always craved, so passionate that it’s violent, showing Eddie how hard he loves.

“Gonna make you feel me for days,” Steve says, out of his mind.

“Mm, yeah, make me feel you forever.”

Something about Eddie saying that makes Steve haul him upwards, suddenly dying to be closer to him.

Eddie makes a garbled noise of surprise at the change in position, but it’s muffled when Steve tugs him by the hair into a crushing kiss. Eddie’s hands fly up for purchase, cupping around the back of Steve’s neck and jaw, pulling him close like he wants to devour Steve as much as Steve wants to do the same to him.

It’s sideways, all desperate teeth and tongue and the salt of Eddie’s tears that Steve finally fucked out of him. The taste almost makes Steve come on the spot, if not for his driving need to make Eddie finish first.

The rhythm of his hips slows down like this, but at this angle, he hits the spot that makes Eddie’s whole body tremble with pleasure.

“Right there, oh yeah, right there,” Eddie begs against his lips, so of course Steve keeps driving into that spot. He can feel Eddie tightening up, getting as close as Steve is, so he reaches around for Eddie’s cock, stroking in time with his thrusts. Eddie’s so wet with pre-come, letting out moan after moan as Steve smears it down his length and circles the sensitive tip on the upstroke.

Then Eddie pulls back from the kiss, just enough to look at Steve half-lidded as he whispers the hottest thing Steve’s ever heard, “Wanna come on your cock so bad, Steve, can I?”

All Steve can do is groan and drop his mouth to Eddie’s neck and bite, hoping that’s a clear answer.

Eddie cries out, long shudders coursing through his body. His cock throbs in Steve’s fist as thick warm spurts of come land on his belly, the couch, Steve’s hand, everywhere. It’s just fucking beautiful.

Steve strokes him through it, kisses him through it, fucks him through it, then holds him up when Eddie’s knees turn to jelly.

“Oh fuck,” Eddie curses breathlessly, pulling away to bend over the couch again, both of them groaning when Steve’s cock slips out of him. “Keep going, you can— want you to use me.”

Each of those words turn Steve’s blood up a degree.

He reaches out, hot palms on Eddie’s scarred waist and eagerly pushes back into his hole. Not as fast or hard as before, but still deep, still desperate to be inside him.

Eddie’s so pliant after his orgasm, letting Steve trace the bite marks and bruises staining his cheeks. He whines when Steve can’t resist pressing into them again and smacking across them, deepening the color, hoping it makes them last.

“You look so fucking good, all marked up,” Steve breathes harshly between thrusts, “Gonna make you mine.”

Eddie hums encouragingly, like there’s nowhere else he’d rather be than lying right there letting Steve wreck him. “Yeah, you wanna— come on me, make me yours?”

And oh fuck, that’s it.

Steve barely pulls out and gets the condom off in time.

He strokes his dick once, twice, then his belly is full of filthy little curls of heat as he comes all over Eddie’s ass.

It feels like a more lasting mark than any bite or bruise.

He thought Eddie looked like a wet dream with Steve’s handprints spanked into his skin, he looks even better covered in Steve’s come, dripping all the way down, glistening wet between his thighs.

The thrill of it all makes Steve so dizzy, really hoping that Eddie will marry him after this because he doesn’t think he’ll ever feel this strongly about anyone else.

Eddie looks over his shoulder, a wicked pleased little grin on his lips as Steve drags his fingers through the wetness.

They both sort of admire the mess for a minute before Steve turns to get a towel off the table and starts getting them cleaned up.

Eddie doesn’t try to insist on doing everything himself, which is good, but Steve’s chest clenches thinking about the times before when Eddie had to do this part alone.

So, Steve gently wipes Eddie all clean, then himself before murmuring to Eddie that he’s going to move him now. Eddie’s limbs are lax, easy for Steve to lift him onto the couch and lay him down, dropping a kiss to Eddie’s blissed out smile because he can’t resist. Then he sets some soothing lotion close by because he’s going to spend all night rubbing every sore spot Eddie has, but for now, Steve crawls onto the couch with him.

When Steve carefully wraps his arms around Eddie’s waist, Eddie fully reacts, going from a little dazed to eagerly burying his fingers in Steve’s hair and drawing him into a kiss.

It’s more gentle than anything they’ve done so far. Somehow that hits Steve even harder.

He tries to kiss Eddie’s breath away. He tries to lick into his mouth until he can’t even taste himself anymore, just Steve. He tries to roll on top of Eddie, make him safe and warm and just keep him right there.

Eventually, Eddie pulls back to breathe and whispers a question between them.

“Did you really mean it?”

“Mean what?”

Eddie makes a teasing face, but there’s an unsure hesitation to say what he says next, “Well, in your words, you want me to be your baby?”

Steve can’t even put into words how badly he wants Eddie to be his, so he puts it all into the next kiss, and makes Eddie feel it.