Exalted

Eddie sat forward in his seat, his face lighting up with glee. “He does,” he practically shouted. “And you know about it,” he added, feeling his joy falter a little.

“Well, I mean,” Steve stumbled, and Eddie thought he looked adorable all flustered and blushing. “He asked me out once,” Steve admitted. “So that was sort of a clue.”

Eddie felt the skin on the back of his neck tighten, and had the sudden realization that if humans had hackles, that would be where they were. “Did you go out with him?” He asked, leaning back in his chair and trying to look nonchalant.

“Um, no,” Steve rubbed the back of his neck, still looking bashful, and Eddie gripped his beer so hard the label slipped. “He’s a nice guy and everything, but he’s a little young.” Steve grimaced. “Like - just out of high school young. Can you imagine?” He shook his head. “What would we even talk about.”

Eddie bit his lip, feral joy filling him again. “I would guess he wasn’t asking you out just for conversation,” he suggested.

Steve went from adorably pink to bright red. “Shut up,” he said, pushing Eddie lightly. “I’m too old for a kid that young to be into me for that.”

“I promise that you are not,” Eddie told him. “And a kid that age would not be having some chaste little innocent crush on you,” he added, laughing. This man is too cute to be real, he thought.

Steve shook his head, his blush fading. “Don’t joke about it, it makes me feel like I’m some kind of weird old man, hanging out at the back of the club.”

Eddie took another gulp of his beer. “No, you didn’t actually go out with the kid,” he demurred. “You’re fine.” He took another drink and looked back at Steve. “So you’ve sworn off dating for a while, then?” He asked, trying not to look as on-the-edge-of-his-seat as he felt.

“Well, no, not on purpose,” Steve said, propping his feet up on the railing of the balcony. “As you’ve gathered, I am not good at picking up on when people are interested in me, and I was busy with school and working through some stuff.”

“I didn’t date all through high school, really,” Eddie said. “It took me two tries to graduate, and you can imagine how well being a gay, metal-head, long-haired guy with fashion ambitions went over in a small town.” 

“Small towns can really suck,” Steve sympathized. “I dated a lot in high school,” he said with a wry expression. “Then hit my introverted phase later.”

Eddie huffed an incredulous laugh. “You chose a library to get you out of your shell?” 

“No,” Steve denied, laughing. “I chose therapy for that.” 

“Oh, hey, same club,” Eddie said lightly. He tilted his head, considering. “Probably too soon to share our tragic backstories, huh?”

“I will need something stronger than beer,” Steve deflected. “But I don’t mind talking about it sometime.” His attention was caught by a car slowly cruising through the parking lot. “Oh, hey - there he is.” Steve started to stand, but Eddie pulled him back down.

“No cheating,” he pointed at Steve. “There’s a bet on the line; I want to see how long it takes.” The car parked in the lot closest to them, and Eddie thought for sure the bet was over, but the driver wandered to another building on the other side of the lot and rang a bell, seemingly at random. 

“That building is all even numbers,” Steve murmured, shaking his head. “What bell does he even think he’s ringing?”

Eddie stifled a laugh at how disappointed Steve sounded. “Liking you does not prove someone is smart,” Eddie said. Case in point, self, he thought. 

“Okay, okay, but maybe he could do a little better,” Steve groused. “Oh, he’s back. Come on, just right across the lot… Wait, no, where is he going?”

The driver veered to the side and rang the bell at the building next door, and Eddie snorted. “Maybe he’s working his way around?” He offered.

“At least that one is odd numbers,” Steve flopped back in his chair. “I can’t tell if this is sad or funny,” he mused.

“Funny.” Eddie said decisively as he watched the driver wander to the center of the lot and look around. “I promise: funny. How many times has he been here?”

“A dozen, at least,” Steve said, hiding his face in his hands. “Probably more. I have no idea why he wasn’t gotten fired; he’s so bad at this.”

The driver headed to the correct building this time and disappeared from sight into the building entrance where the stairs were. Eddie stood. “I’ll go,” he said, and waved away Steve’s protest. “I’ll get it, you got the food last time.” 

Eddie sauntered down the hall, letting a cocky grin settle on his face. Robin and Chrissy were hunched over Chrissy’s laptop as he crossed the living room, Robin apparently advising on a paper Chrissy was writing, and they didn’t even look up as he leaned his shoulder against the wall and waited. The doorbell rang seconds later, and he opened the door without moving to unblock the entrance. “Hey, dinner for Steve?” He asked, reaching out for the bag. “Thanks, man, how much do I owe you?” 

The driver blinked at him, nonplussed, and Eddie waited, wallet in hand. “Oh. $47,” the driver managed at last, and then his expression brightened and Eddie knew Steve must have come into sight. 

Eddie flashed him a knowing grin, and turned to hand Steve the bag. “Here you go, babe,” he said casually, pulling cash out of his wallet and making sure he’d added a decent tip - he knew he was being a shit, but he wasn’t that much of an asshole.

“Thanks, Dan,” he said closing the door. 

“Don,” the kid corrected automatically as the door clicked shut, and Eddie turned to see the other three looking at him, expressions ranging from mildly surprised (Robin) to exasperated (Chrissy), with Steve falling somewhere between amused and interested.

“Mean,” Steve said, shaking his head as he set the bag down on the coffee table.

“Well, maybe a little,” Eddie admitted, ego rocketing from the suspicion that Steve might be calling him mean, but he still seemed pleased. Pleased about what, exactly, was open to interpretation, but Eddie would take it. “I gave him a good tip, though. That makes up for it.”

“I’ll go get more wine,” Robin hopped up, and grabbed the back of Steve’s shirt to pull him after her. “Steve will get more beer,” she ordered, and he twisted loose with an ease that spoke of frequent practice. 

“I’ll get more beer,” he told Eddie as he cast his eyes to the ceiling and followed Robin.

Eddie looked at Chrissy out of the corner of his eye, and saw that she had folded her arms and was staring at him, her mouth pursed up into her ‘not amused’ face. “Eddie.”

“What, Chris?” He asked, spreading his hands. “I really didn’t do anything.”

“Are you going to ‘really not do anything’ to everyone that comes anywhere near Steve? Because he might think it’s cute now, but it’ll get old,” she warned him.

“He thinks it’s cute?” Eddie asked, then cringed when she glared at him. “Okay, I know.” He glanced toward the kitchen, where what looked like a similar conversation was going on. “I’m just having fun.”

Her face softened. “The playing around is really cute,” she told him, and he blushed. “Really, you guys are cute together, and Robin said he’s never just silly like that with people. It’s nice. But first it was the bartender and now the delivery guy, and it’s just not like you to be jealous. Especially since you two aren’t even dating.”

Eddie deflated. “I’m not being jealous.” He crossed his arms. “He’s just so - oblivious to it, I guess. It’s like everywhere he goes people are looking at him and thinking stuff about him, and he just has no idea.”

The shadow of a frown touched her face. “And that makes you… Mad?”

“No,” Eddie grimaced, trying to track down the feeling. “Uncomfortable? Nervous?” He sat down across the coffee table from her. “Worried. Like he’s not safe.”

Robin and Steve came back into the room, and Chrissy gave him a ‘we’ll talk later’ look, that he returned with a solemn nod before turning back to Steve, who was tearing open the bag and passing out the containers.

“Here’s your bribery rangoon,” he said handing Eddie the carton. “Though it really doesn’t count as bribery if you paid for it yourself, does it?”

“You’ll have to think of something else to make me forgive your gambling ways,” Eddie said, splitting the appetizer between them. “Here, have some.” He offered the carton to the girls. “Anybody else?”

Chrissy wrinkled her nose. “Hot cream cheese makes me gag,” she announced, and Robin laughed, also shaking her head to decline.

“Your loss,” Eddie said, and shoveled lo mein onto his plate before standing. “Why don’t we head back to the balcony?” He asked Steve, holding out his hand to help him up. “Let the girls keep talking about intellectual stuff.”

Steve took his hand and got to his feet smoothly, squeezing it before letting go. “Sure, I’m a little scared of what Chrissy is writing about, anyway.” He winked at Chrissy, who grinned.

“You sure you don’t want to take a survey? Maybe let me interview you?” She pulled a notebook out of her bag. “Just a few questions?”

“Move, go, go,” Eddie laughed, pushing Steve down the hall, followed by the girls laughter. “She roped me into a sleep study once - she did not tell me it involved listening to weird stuff while I slept. I almost wet the bed when she played something she found on the internet.”

Steve laughed as they sat at the little table on the balcony again. “Thanks for the warning, I’ll know to say no,” he pretended to wipe sweat from his brow.

The conversation drifted into where they grew up, what they did for hobbies, and Eddie pulled out his phone to play some music he had thought Steve might like and probably didn’t know while they ate. 

“Is Robin your only sibling?” Eddie asked, maneuvering his last bite of noodles carefully into his mouth. “I’m an only child,” he added.

“Well, now she is,” Steve said, and Eddie froze. Oh, shit. Oh, shit, what do I say? Eddie almost choked on his noodles and looked at Steve with wide, frantic eyes. “Oh!” Steve shook his head quickly. “No, not like that. Sorry! I was an only child, growing up, too. The Buckley’s adopted me.”

Eddie relaxed, and then stiffened again. Growing up? “Were you older when you got adopted?” He asked tentatively. “I was nine when my uncle took me in,” he added, taking a long drink of his beer. “We didn’t actually do an adoption, he just became my legal guardian, but it amounted to the same thing for us.”

“I was twenty-one,” Steve said, his face impassive. 

“Sorry, this is too personal, isn’t it?” Eddie scrambled for a topic change. “Why don’t I know anything about sports? Read any good books lately? Wait - you’re a librarian. I don’t know what I’m saying,” he babbled, mortified by the words flowing out of his mouth.

“Eddie, it’s fine,” Steve’s face had softened again, and Eddie felt relief ease through him. “My parents got mixed up in some stuff, starting when I was a senior, and it got worse after I graduated. I eventually met the Buckley’s, and they took me into their family. Adoption and a name change made everything easier with school and emergency contacts, and Robin and I went to college together.” He grinned. “We used to dye our hair the same color, people thought we were twins.”

“So Robin is younger?” Eddie asked hesitantly, and Steve nodded. 

“Almost four years,” he replied. “I’m taking classes for my Master’s here and there, and Robin is in school part-time for hers. Different majors,” he clarified. “We’re not actually twins.”

“I never would have guessed you weren’t born siblings,” Eddie told him, and was rewarded with those warm, amber eyes looking into his. “Chrissy and I are kind of the same way, but we just adopted each other. Wayne thinks she’s great, though. He would probably rather have her as a kid than me.”

“I doubt it,” Steve said. “I mean, she’s great, but so are you.” He looked so earnest, so serious about making sure Eddie knew he was great, that Eddie’s heart flipped over. 

“I was a rough kid,” Eddie confessed. “My parents used to fight all the time when I was really little, and then when I got old enough for them to start suspecting that I might not be headed for a wife and a bunch of little kiddos it got really bad.” He drained his beer and opened another, avoiding Steve’s eyes. “CPS pulled me out, and Wayne came and got me. The last time I saw either one of them was when my dad showed up at the door and Wayne told him if he ever came back they’d never find the body.” His lips compressed into a grim line. “I was ten.”

Steve was silent, and Eddie forced a laugh. “Sorry, I guess I unloaded the tragic backstory after all.” Shit, scared him off. Eddie thought, his heart plummeting. What the hell was I even thinking? I knew this was going too well.

Warm hands gripped his forearms suddenly, pulling him from his seat and into an encompassing hug. As he stood there in shock, one of Steve’s hands gently stroked his hair, and the other held him close. “You were just a little kid,” Steve ground out, his voice thick by Eddie’s ear, and Eddie tried to swallow the lump that had leapt into his throat. “You weren’t a rough kid, you were a kid whose parents hurt them, and you were scared.”

Eddie’s hands found the front of Steve’s shirt and twisted into it, and he buried his face in Steve’s neck and let hot tears stream onto his skin. “Sorry,” he muttered after a minute, trying to let go and step back, but Steve’s arms didn’t loosen. 

“You never - I mean it, Eddie, never - need to apologize to me for how what happened to you as a kid affected you.” Steve pulled back far enough to wipe the tears from Eddie’s cheeks. “Okay?” He asked, searching Eddie’s eyes.

He’s so close, he’s so close. “Okay,” he gave Steve a wobbly smile. “But I don’t usually handle it by wiping snot all over people when they try to be nice to me,” he hedged, and Steve giggled. 

“Okay, you can apologize for the snot,” Steve gave him a gentle smile.

“Um, hey, guys?” A voice sounded tentatively behind Steve, and they turned to look without letting go of each other. “Sorry to interrupt… whatever this is, but do you want to watch a movie?”

Chrissy’s head popped over Robin’s shoulder, and she looked at Eddie with the beginnings of a grin that quickly faded. “Are you okay?” She mouthed, and he dropped his chin in a single nod.

“Movie?” Steve asked, looking back at Eddie.

“Movie sounds good,” he said, “but not a Chrissy special. I can stomach a lot, but no splatter-fests tonight, I’m begging you.”

“Let’s see what Netflix has to offer,” Steve said, releasing his hold on Eddie and sliding his hand down to grip his hand instead. 

“We’ll set up the movie and Eddie can clean the food up,” Robin cackled, bolting for the living room and pulling Chrissy behind her.

“Stinker,” Steve said fondly. “Come on, I’ll grab this, you get the beer. I could use another one, and I bet you could, too.” 

Eddie trailed contentedly after him, suspended in a warm bubble after his emotional moment. It’s fine, he thought. This is going to be fine. I’ll have another beer, watch a movie, head for home, and not make more of an ass out of myself.