Latest Posts by ohtobefightingthefoos - Page 9

It Takes a Muscle to Fall In Love - Part 3

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

“Dude, it was so epic. We spent all weekend at Mike’s. Eddie’s campaign was one for the ages. I wish we could do that every weekend.” Dustin trails behind Steve while he restocks the shelves with returns.

“I’m sure Ted Wheeler loved you being there all day.” Steve wasn’t completely listening but trying to capture enough to stay engaged. 

When Dustin got on his D&D rants, Steve’s brain always wanted to go into shutdown mode, and it takes active effort to pay attention.

“Not just during the day, Steve. We all spent the night too. Even Eddie and Eddie never does that. Started Friday, and I only got home at 8 pm on Sunday. I’m telling you, EPIC!” Dustin bounces around and misses when Steve pauses, slamming their bodies together.

Steve hits his elbow on the nearby shelves and groans. “Damnit, dude.”

“Sorry, sorry, shit.” Dustin helps Steve into a standing position. “You ok?”

“Yeah, just watch where you’re going.” Steve straightens his vest. “What do you mean all weekend?”

“All weekend.” Dustin shrugs. “We played all night at Mike’s after school on Friday. Then had a sleepover and played all day Saturday. Slept over again, and the only reason we stopped when we did was ‘cause Eddie had to get home and have Sunday dinner with Wayne.”

Steve absorbs that timeline information and tries to figure out when Eddie would’ve had a date interspersed in there. He knows about Sunday dinner. It’s the only time Wayne and Eddie’s schedules line up, so definitely not a lie to get away for a date.

“Did Eddie leave at any time?”

“No? Like in the middle of the campaign?”

“Yeah, for an hour or two? Just at any time?” Steve can feel a prickle crawl up the back of his neck.

“No,” Dustin furrows his brow. “That would’ve been weird.”

“Ha, yeah, yeah, weird. For sure. But… uh, did he mention plans of his getting canceled or something? For this weekend?” Steve’s stomach twists at the implication he’s uncovering.

“No, he’d been building that campaign for weeks and on the Hellfire calendar just as long. We were forbidden to make plans on those days. He would’ve banned us for life. There’s no way he had plans.”

“Oh,” Steve’s stomach drops, and he suddenly needs to escape.

He shoulders around Dustin, slams the videos in his hands down on the counter, surprising Robin where she stands, and stomps toward the employee-only door in the back.

“Steve?” Robin’s voice floats through the door before it shuts behind him.

He paces in the tiny cramped space trying to parce his thoughts together.

He feels so stupid.

Eddie hated it so much that he lied.

His blood boils as frustration seeps through his veins. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. As the back door creeps open, he kicks a nearby folding chair, sending it toppling against the locker-lined back wall.

“Fuck.” He covers his face and huffs in anger.

“Steve?” Robin’s voice is soft and cautious.

“He lied, Rob.” Steve tosses his hands to his sides and stumbles back, leaning against the wall.

“Who?” She props the door open to listen for any customers and slides up to Steve’s side.

Steve nervously glances at the open doorway while chewing on his bottom lip.

“I kicked Dustin out. What happened? I thought you two were talking about his D&D thing this weekend.” She nudges his shoulder with her own.

“Eddie,” his voice wobbles. “He-he lied to me. He told me he had this…thing this weekend. But he didn’t. Why would he do that?” He wraps his arms around himself, trying to ignore the burning in his chest.

“What thing? That doesn’t seem like him.” 

“I know, um…just this thing.” He pushes himself away from the wall and starts pacing again. “I thought we were…I don’t understand why he would lie. I mean, he coulda talked to me. Told me he wasn’t interested. But instead, making up this whole thing as if I couldn’t figure it out. Shit.”

“Dingus, I’m gonna need a bit more context here to give valuable advice.” Robin’s eyes follow Steve back and forth.

“No, you know what? It doesn’t matter. Screw it.” He shakes his head and hears the tinkle of the front door. “Perfect, a distraction.” 

Steve plasters his fake customer service smile on his face and strides through the back door when his eyes take in the customer.

“Stevie!” Eddie throws his arms up and smiles wide.

“Get out.” Steve keeps his voice calm even though his fingers are itching to grab the man by the shirt collar and scream at him for an explanation.

“What?” Eddie’s smile slips from his face.

“Eddie, maybe the two of you should talk later.” Robin appears behind Steve.

“I don’t understand.” Eddie looks between the pair anxiously.

“I don’t want to see you right now.” Steve’s entire body is shaking.

“W-what?”

“Don’t you have a…date to get to?”

Eddie’s eyes widen. He glances at Robin, seeing a look of confusion strewn across her face, and then he reflects back at Steve. If Steve weren’t so honed in on Eddie’s movements, he would’ve missed the exact moment Eddie felt the weight of his lie crumble down on him.

Eddie nods nervously and backs away. “I didn’t-“

Steve shakes his head, his jaw clenched tightly, trying to bite back his anger.

The bell above the front door cuts through all three of them when a mother and child enter the store, breaking the moment. Eddie bows around them and nods to Steve, glancing apologetically at Robin before heading outside.

Steve’s eyes track Eddie until his van has pulled out of the parking lot and driven away.

Tag list (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @sunfloweringstories @solalasoforth @blackpanzy @gw3n-st4cy @starman-jpg @sofadofax @goodolefashionedloverboi @stxrcrossed186 @loguine-linguine @vampireinthesun @unclewaynemunson @saganarojanaolt 

The birthday gift Robin gets from her parents is that they’re gonna help her fund a three month solo trip to Paris. Steve thinks she should be delivering this news with much more excitement than she currently is.

“Okay, but you’re going, right?” he says, as she bites her nails for the third time. When she doesn’t reply, he lifts his eyes to the heavens, despairing. “Oh my god, are you kidding? Robin, you’ve wanted this for—”

“Years,” she confirms, so quietly. “I want—” She swallows. “I want it so badly, Steve.”

He pauses, drops their usual teasing schtick. “Okay,” he says, a little softer. “What’s going on?”

“It’s just…” She moves her hand away from her mouth, tugs on a hangnail. “What if—what if something… happens. And I’m not…” She gestures vaguely. “Not here.”

Steve slings an arm over her shoulder. “Rob,” he says, “nothing’s gonna happen.”

Robin nods. “I know, I know.”

But then she sighs, and Steve understands: it’s one thing to know something objectively, another thing to feel the certainty in your bones.

He has a wave of gratitude for Robin’s parents, for them knowing that she needs this, for letting her have a year out, maybe even two, without judgement. It’s something they all need, really, in different ways: some time to let the weight of everything settle, to catch their breath.

Steve’s honestly been relishing the mundanity of it all, the comfort of routine—easy days where the biggest ‘disaster’ is him being late for their opening shift at Family Video.

“Keith’s keeping your job open for you, right?” Steve asks, just in case that’s a sticking point.

Robin nods again, laughing. “Yeah, mom arranged that all before she even booked the flights. Well, I think she just basically told him that—”

“So it’s gonna be a super long vacation.” Steve gives her knee a reassuring little shake, before tickling the back of it. “Jesus, Robin, if you don’t go, I’ll go for you.”

Robin snorts and wiggles out of his grip. “Shut up.”

“And I’ll speak French so badly that I’ll just get banned for life, like, right outta the gate, it’ll be tragic—”

“I’ve got the picture, dingus,” she says, and she’s smiling—finally, finally there’s a spark of excitement in her eyes.

And that excitement only grows as her flight date gets closer, as she calls Steve the week before, begging him to be the one to take her to the airport, because, “My dad took one look at my suitcase and burst into tears, please Steve, the man can’t do this.”

And then Steve’s pulling up to her driveway, and she’s already waiting for him, perched on her suitcase. She’s wearing a cobalt blue beret, and Steve loves her so much he thinks his heart might burst with it.

For a while, it’s all grins and laughter, Steve giggling every time he edges out of the driveway, and Robin’s mom stops him, frantically waving, asking if Robin’s got everything, did you pack that other coat, honey?

Then it feels like time rushes forward—they’re at the airport, and Steve gets out of the car to fetch Robin’s case from the trunk, but she’s already got it, is already standing in the parking lot, eyes wide.

“What’s gonna happen now?” she whispers.

Steve’s heart clenches; the last time she’d asked that had been as they sped to the hospital, Robin gripping his hand so tightly as Eddie lay unconscious.

Steve puts both hands on her shoulders. “You’re gonna have the best time,” he says, deadly serious, “and then you’re gonna come back and tell me all about it.”

She laughs, right on the edge of becoming tearful. “O-okay.” She blinks several times.

“Don’t,” Steve says, faux-warningly, “or you’ll set me off, too.”

And it’s only partly a joke.

“Okay,” Robin says again, and then she’s hugging Steve tight, pressing a damp kiss to his cheek. “I’ll miss you.”

“God, me too. Every day.” Steve rocks her back and forth, makes sure her beret doesn’t get dislodged with the force of the hug.

When they break apart, Robin picks up her case—she pauses, then grins.

“Now, if you’ll just point me in the right direction…”

Steve chuckles. He spins her around so she’s facing the airport, then pats her on the back.

She starts walking.

Steve stays right where he is; he knows she’ll look back right at the last second—ah, there she goes. He shakes his head, laughs. Waves.

He drives back alone.

When he gets home, he barely has time to even think about it, because the kids have biked over after school, clamouring for him to order pizza from the moment he opens the front door, and Eddie’s shrugging apologetically with a grin, and it’s only later that Steve realises that the whole thing was probably coordinated beforehand.

And he’s fine, really, he’s absolutely fine until he steps into the hall to use the phone, and he unthinkingly orders the pizza him and Robin usually share: one half with pepperoni, the other half with mushrooms.

And then he has to finish the rest of the phone call with a lump in his throat, and when he hangs up, Eddie is watching him with a sad kind of smile.

“Oh, sweetheart.”

“Don’t. Don’t be nice to me, goddamn it.” Steve shuts his eyes. “I was fine, I was fine.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Eddie knocks their foreheads together gently. “I’ll miss her, too.”

And God, missing Robin does hurt, but it’s nothing compared to the joy Steve feels whenever he receives a letter from her. He laughs himself stupid the first time, because instead of just using sheets of paper, she’s sent multiple postcards wrapped in an elastic band, her handwriting all squished so she can fit everything in.

She writes like she talks, all rambling enthusiasm, and Steve cherishes every word.

He can tell she’s having so much fun. She enthuses about little cafés she’s found, a bookstore near Notre Dame; she spends multiple pages on art galleries, how she has the time to wander, to look at a painting again and again until the meaning reveals itself, it was like when I solved that ‘crossword’ in the mall, it suddenly just clicked, you know? I need you here next time, you’ll look at it from another angle, I wanna know what you think.

She sends Polaroids, too. There’s one of her in a white shirt with a trilby hat at a jaunty angle—Steve can tell she’s been in the sun, because there’s freckles all over the bridge of her nose. On the back of the photograph, she’s written Had a carefree kiss!

And Steve cries when he reads it, because he knows what it means: that Robin’s often spoken wistfully about how she’s never got to have that fleeting summer kind of love, where nothing is all that serious.

But she’s still so young, and life is finally light, and she gets to have it now.

Other photographs are sent to Eddie, with instructions that he should translate the French Robin’s written on them, à force de pratique, on y arrive, mon cher Édouard!

“I said literally once that French at school wasn’t, like, the worst,” Eddie says, pouting. “Didn’t realise that meant she was gonna torture me from across the world.” He frowns at a picture of Robin petting a grey cat, a bowl of food at its little paws. “And I tried translating whatever the fuck she’s written here, but I can’t work it out.”

“Not even a guess?” Steve says.

“I mean, yeah, but it sounds so stilted, man, I know it’s wrong. Like, who actually says where the silver cat feeds—you dick, stop laughing! What’s so funny?”

Two months pass, and Robin’s back soon, but not soon enough to catch Steve’s birthday. It’s not like he wants to have a huge party, anyway—he goes to Wayne and Eddie’s for dinner, and discovers Dustin leading a not-so successful ‘secretly bake a birthday cake,’ meeting at Max’s.

Everyone’s on their second slice of cake when the phone rings, and Steve knows instantly who it is from the way Eddie shouts, “Huh? What?”, like there’s a delay on the line. Then he beams and shouts, “Steve! Got a long distance call for you.”

Steve’s over in a flash.

“I promise I’ve got you something,” Robin says, slightly muffled—every so often a word will cut out, but Steve gets the gist. “I swear, I’m not awful, I was gonna post it, but then I had no idea how many stamps I’d need, and I didn’t wanna risk losing it forever to, like, the nightmare limbo of customs, so I thought when I come back, I can—”

“Oh my god, shut up,” Steve laughs, “you didn’t need to get me anything. This is the best present ever.”

“Oh, gross,” Robin says cheerfully. “You’re all sentimental in your old age. Happy Birthday, Steve.”

“Thanks,” Steve says, and the lump in his throat is back, but it’s not so bad; he can breathe through it. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

And then there’s a sound that Steve at first thinks is just from the bad quality of the line, but then he realises it’s Robin trying to stifle a yawn; “Wait, Jesus, isn’t it, like, two in the morning over there? Go to bed!”

She doesn’t listen, of course—they keep chatting, everyone in the room wants a turn on the phone, Robin teasing Eddie relentlessly for his French pronunciation.

And as Steve ends the call, he finds that the hurt of missing her has faded away into something else—knowing that there’ll be comings and goings in their lives all the time, adventures they’ll share and adventures they won’t. But they’ll always, always find their way back to one another.

Steve sets the phone into its cradle, pictures Robin doing the very same so many miles away.

Yeah, we’re gonna be just fine, you and me, Steve thinks, and feels the certainty of it right in his bones.

eddie munson has no game and he’s delusional about it, you’ve heard it here first folks!

whoooo

more eddie textposts bc i'm addicted to making them

I love The Golden Girls.

Eddie posts a Tiktok of old home video. In the video, Steve is standing in the kitchen at the trailer with the phone wedged between his shoulder and his ear as he made coffee for two.

Someone must’ve answered because Steve perks up and says, “Hi, yes. I’d like to request a song. It’s - yes, the new Corroded Coffin song called….well, how was I supposed to know you have caller ID, Christine? Can you play the song or not?”

Steve hangs up the phone and immediately picks up his walkie-talkie like, “Earth to Dustin, use *67 when you call. They’re memorizing phone numbers. Over.”

Eddie behind the camera says with so much amusement, “You do this often?”

Steve smiles at him, finally bringing the coffees over to Eddie, “Every day. Gotta get your song out there so more people can hear it.”

Ow

hit me like a slow bullet (munseth, 7k, explicit)

Eddie is fine, but he's kinda fucked up, Gareth is guilty and he's definitely fucked up

in which i put gareth through the horrors of longing, and eddie is in recovery

my fave part of the steddie woods scene is when eddie starts pushing steve to get back with nancy in what is probably supposed to be this romantic little "she's the perfect girl for you <3" moment but eddie keeps giving steve crazy eyes. he looks insane. why is standing so close to steve and looking at him so intense with his eyes bulging out their sockets? totally normal hetero behaviour.

@steddie-week

Day four: familiar