Chapter Text
“I need you to go to that thing with Dustin.”
Eddie gasped when Steve bit his shoulder, distracted for a second before responding, “Huh? What thing?”
“The Open House,” Steve said casually, so very casually, when that was not a casual thing. Hell, he was trying to gloss over it and immediately go back to kissing the marks that he had made on Eddie’s back!
Was Steve trying to distract him from the bomb that he had dropped? Eddie carefully shifted his face into a neutral expression before turning around. Steve looked so earnest, he was even doing that little endearing lip bite. Still, Eddie couldn’t help but ask, “You’re serious?”
“Yeah? I’m driving in for that dinner with my parents and I am not taking Dustin with me again, I’m not letting a thirteen-year-old get slandered to his face! Claudia is not going, she’s always a bitch about it and doesn’t let me know anything. You’re his…” Steve hesitated slightly, “You’re my best option.”
A familiar brick of disappointment settled in the pit of his stomach. Starting from the beginning of their relationship, Steve had always avoided referring to Eddie as anything remotely close to Dustin’s parent. It was a constant reminder that Eddie was still a bad influence, that Steve didn’t think he was good enough for Dustin, that he didn’t deserve to be a parent to Dustin! But what hurt the most was that he had really thought that Steve was the one, from the moment they first met. Steve was it for him and if Steve couldn’t fully trust him, then who could? And yeah, maybe it would take time, maybe two years of dating was too soon to be considered a second parent.
But fuck, it had been two years! Steve knew that he was around the kids a lot, he straight up lived with the Harringtons, he even took Dustin to school most mornings! So, what could Steve hold against Eddie so much that he couldn’t even approach officially being a stepparent?
At this point, he couldn’t even tell if Steve created the distance consciously or not. If it was conscious, why even tease him with a relationship with Dustin? And if it wasn’t conscious, what did that say about Eddie?
He knew he had been silent for too long when Steve started rambling, “You totally have a choice, I didn’t mean to make it sound like you didn’t! It’s fine if you’re not free, I can just cancel on my parents again. It’s just that my check got lost in the mail last time and I’d rather not worry about that again! Maybe I can just ask the Sinclairs to take him or something?”
“Nah, the kid would probably be disappointed by that. I’ll go with him.”
“Really?” Steve’s whole face lit up with a smile as Eddie nodded. He was quickly grabbed by his hair and pulled into a searing kiss, completely forgetting the conversation until the next morning.
He broke the news to Dustin while he made breakfast. “Hey, kid?”
“Hm?”
Eddie rolled his eyes, not surprised by the noncommittal response. “They elected Frodo as king of Hawkins.”
“Yep.”
“They discovered a UFO in Canada.”
“Definitely.”
“Lucas is at the door.”
“What!” Dustin finally looked up from his comic book just as Eddie picked it up and set down a plate of pancakes in its place. “Hey!”
“We talked about reading at the table, Dust,” Steve reprimanded as he made his way into the kitchen. He grabbed a pancake, pecked Eddie on the cheek, kissed Dustin on the top of his head, and was out the door with a final call of “Love you!”
Eddie made his own plate and sat down across from Dustin at the table. “Kid.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m taking you to the open house tonight.” The kid’s brow furrowed and he stared at Eddie with his mouth half open. “Fuck, kid, close your mouth when you have food in it!”
“Why isn’t Dad taking me?”
“He’s got to go see your grandparents, he’s pretty close to paying off that loan.”
“Thank god he’s not making me go, I hate seeing those old assholes!”
“Language,” he muttered noncommittally.
“Hypocrite.”
Eddie just sighed. “Finish and go get dressed, you know that we’ve got to leave in ten.”
It was a weirdly normal day, almost too normal. He dropped Dustin off at school, called Steve during his lunch break, and headed home at five o’clock, everything that he usually did. But today, today Eddie was nervous! This was the first time that he was going out in public with Dustin one on one. No Party, no Steve, just the kid and him. Putting aside the residual hurt about Steve not thinking he’d be a good parent, he was also just nervous that he would manage to fuck something up. He usually did, after all.
Dustin barged into his and Steve’s bedroom, not even bothering to knock. “It’s almost six, are you ready to go yet? What are you wearing?”
Eddie looked down at his outfit, internally grimacing when he did. Some jeans that he had stolen from Steve, a flannel over a gray tee, no jewelry but his rings, and his hair thrown up in a ponytail. It was so boring, it was more like something Robin would wear than him. Still, he approached Dustin and laid a hand on each of his shoulders.
“I’m going to teach you a valuable lesson, kid. Always dress as cool as you want to, in fact, dress as cool as possible. Always dress for you, and you alone. However, there come times when you need to dress down, to play to the crowd you’re around. Does that make sense?”
Dustin nodded solemnly before practically pushing him out the door. They made their way to Hawkins Middle, Eddie spending the drive building his confidence and listening to Dustin chatter about his classes. It was over way too quickly and before he knew it, he was back. Middle school hadn't been the hellhole that high school was, but it was pretty close. Thankfully, Eddie didn’t have time to dwell, he was already being ushered into the classroom of Dustin’s favorite teacher.
“Just be nice, you’ll like him,” Dustin hissed as they made their way into earshot.
The brunet man was about his height and pale with a remarkably ugly mustache. Still, he had the type of smile that instantly put Eddie at ease. Well, as much as he could be when his nerves were literally on fire.
“Hey there, Dustin! Hello, Mister…” He trailed off and looked to Dustin for help.
Eddie offered a hand and smiled. “Eddie Munson.”
“I’m Mr. Clarke, Dustin’s science teacher!” Suddenly, the man’s eyes lit up and Eddie had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. He knew what was coming. “You’re not the Eddie Munson that snuck into the school after hours and held a concert? That was a couple years before me, but that was about a decade ago, right?”
Eddie could tell what was really being asked but was saved from an immediate explanation by Dustin. Fuck, he loved that kid.
“You snuck in to hold a concert?” Dustin looked awestruck, Eddie could actually see the stars in his eyes. Fuck, Steve was going to kill him.
“I’ll tell you about it if you keep it a secret, okay?” Turning back to the teacher, he went with the easiest explanation. And yeah, maybe it was a little bit out of spite, but it was still the easiest. “I’m Dustin’s stepdad.”
“Oh! Well, he’s doing great, no surprise there, of course! But we do need to work on keeping the talking during class to a minimum, right?”
They suffered through a bit more small talk before they finally left and Eddie felt like he could breathe again. There was just something about teachers, he always felt like they were breathing down his neck. Especially the well-intentioned ones.
“So, Dad, english is next.”
“Huh?” Eddie’s heart sped up, had he heard Dustin right? Had he actually been called that? Dustin thought he deserved that?
“You said you were my stepdad, which is basically true. You pretty much live with us at this point and you make me breakfast, like, every morning. So come on, Dad.”
Still reeling, Eddie let himself be pulled from class to class and get acquainted with all of Dustin’s teachers, two of which had taught him. Those were the most awkward, obviously. But finally, they were in the home stretch. School spirit shit was on sale in the cafeteria, and that was where the little nerds had decided to meet up. Ten more minutes and they could go home.
Eddie kept his distance and leaned against a wall as he sent a wave The Party’s way. He hadn’t really been around their parents without one of the girls at his side and he wasn’t going to throw himself to the wolves now. Despite how long he had babysat their children, they all still regarded him with a bit of suspicion. Occupied by his thoughts, he was a second too late in realizing where he was standing.
“Hey there! Is your mom here with you? Do you think that she’d want to sign up for the PTA?” It took him a second to realize that the overzealous woman was talking to him and when he did, he snorted. He instantly backpedaled when he saw the look on her face.
“Shit, sorry! I’m here with my stepson. But I’d be happy to take a flier?”
The woman’s smile strained but she handed him one anyway, dragging him into suburban mom world with it. “There are a lot of different positions, which you can see on the back. There are leadership positions, so who’s in charge of fundraising or school dances, etcetera. Then we’ve got the people in each department under them. We’ve also got miscellaneous volunteers, who we give a call a week or two before events when we don’t have enough people.”
Fuck, this woman clearly had nothing else going on in her life. He managed a weak grin, actively feeling his soul being drained out of him. He had to get out of this. “My son is in eighth grade, would it even be any help if I signed up now?”
“Of course it would! We always need more help!”
He came to when Dustin tugged on his arm. “We’re going.”
“Is this your stepson? He’s such a little cutie,” the woman cooed. Fuck, he still didn’t even know her name. Mrs. Blondedeprivedhousewife would have to do for now.
“Well, it was nice to meet you, ma’m. But I think the little slugger is ready to go.” Dustin waved and when they were down the hall Eddie turned to him, face ashen.
“Are you okay?”
“I completely blacked out! That woman somehow talked me into signing up for the PTA and I still don’t know her name. I’m serious, kid! I just have ten minutes of darkness and bakesale talk when you were talking to the other nerds! Stop laughing!”