#Out | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eddieunbanished · 1 year

Text

Steve comes home to a sacrificial ritual being set up in his living room.

Or that’s what it looks like.

He kicks the door closed and chucks his keys and wallet in the little bowl by the door like always, pushes his glasses up- they always slip down when he fiddles with the lock- and rounds the corner to head for the kitchen via the living room.

Except there’s a bunch of candles, a mix of black and cream colors, set up in the living room. Most are in plastic candelabras- bought from the DollarTree, maybe- and a big black blanket is spread in the center of the room, the couches pushed back from their usual center placement.

“What the fuck?” Steve calls, knowing exactly who’s going to answer because only one person could have done this-

“Steve!” Eddie rounds the corner from the other hall, his arms full. “You’re home early.”

“Uh- yeah-“ Eddie side steps past him, sparing a quick kiss on the cheek, which Steve returns, confused. “Are we.. sacrificing something? Or is this like a dark-themed romantic surprise because you know how I feel about wax-“

Eddie laughs and starts laying the things in his arms down on the blanket, forming a perfect semi-circle on the floor in the center of the room. A little plastic axe, a fake plastic branch, a mini ukelele, a toy sword, among others.

“No, definitely not-“

Steve cuts him off and, realizing something is missing, whips his head around in minor panic. “Where’s-“

“Heeeeeere she comes!” A voice calls from the same hall Eddie appeared from a moment ago and Steve recognizes the voice before he sees who it is, heart unclenching from his momentary panic. He’s relieved to see Gareth- a chubby little baby in his hands, held high above his head like he’s Rafiki taking Simba to Pride Rock. “The lady of the hour!”

Behind Gareth, shuffling and staring up at the baby he’s holding aloft are Dustin, Will, and Jeff, looking like occultists following their sacred baby-leader to the altar.

“Hi Gareth- hi guys,” Steve pushes down crazy helicopter dad mode and reaches up. When she sees Steve, Sam’s eyes light up with recognition- a smile breaks out on her round little face, all dribble and just one or two teeth that recently started coming in. She screeches in excitement m and reaches back to Steve with her tiny, tiny little hands- tiny little hands that might as well have Steve’s heart in a vice grip.

“Hi hi hi, Sammy,” Steve coos, taking the squealing, arm flailing ball of excitement from Gareth’s hands.

Steve will literally never get tired of how excited she is to see him, how even when he goes for a two minute bathroom break Sam screeches at the sight of him returning- will wiggle out of Eddie’s arms or bang on her high chair until Steve picks her up.

(Much to his husbands dismay- Eddie jokes that he’s nothing but a source of bottles to Sam and while they both know that’s not actually true… Steve can’t help feeling a little itty bitty bit smug when she kicks her way out of Eddie’s grip and reaches for his nose or glasses to tug on in delight).

Steve settles the smiley little butterball on his hip, rubbing little circles on her side as she grabs at the collar of his t-shirt. It only takes a couple seconds for Eddie to drift toward them both, attaching himself with an arm around Steve’s waist and Sam tucked between them.

Steve leans into the warmth of Eddie and the way he’s wedging Sam close to them both.

Around them, Gareth and Jeff light the candles around the room while Will and Dustin find a spot to set up Will’s phone.

It dawns on Steve- “Oh! Is this the Gundam and Gadgets thing for Sam’s first birthday?”

Eddie can’t hold back his laugh and he knocks Steve’s head gently with his own. “You know it’s Dungeons and Dragons, you old coot,” he says lightly, his breath tickling Steve’s cheek.

Steve smirks. He knows, but he likes to hear Eddie’s exasperated laughter when he calls Orcs “Shrek guys” or asks if the scores work like golf. He bonks Eddie’s head back lightly.

Eddie had mentioned it- said he’d seen a thing online but Steve had imagined picking papers out of a hat or something, maybe spinning a wheel.

Eddie twists a finger in Sam’s curls, his mouth pursed. “Paper in a hat? That would hardly be appropriate for such a tremendous occasion.”

Sam slaps at Eddie’s finger, grabbing it and yanking it down to her mouth. Eddie lets her slobber on it with the indifference of a man who’s had way, way worse than baby slobber on his hands.

“Our little Samwise is choosing her class- her lifelong craft that she’ll work to perfect. You can’t choose that with paper.”

Steve glances up from where he’s watching Sam gnaw on Eddie with her little ridiculously tiny hands wrapped around his. He knows the rings are non-toxic, made Eddie get them all checked, but still wonders if the metal is good for her teething gums.

“Isn’t that right, Sammy-fries?,” Eddie wiggles the baby- still gumming on his finger- into his arms. “This way she gets to choose what she gravitat- OW, fff-“

“Language,” Steve chides.

“-forks, Sammy, those teeth are deadly! Jesus, what’re you gonna do when you have a full set?” Eddie shakes his hand, inspecting his finger where two little red indents mark where Sam had bitten down. Hard.

She never touches her expensive doctor recommended teething rings, but biting on hands and fingers til they bleed? Her specialty.

Sam giggles as Eddie shows her his boo-boo and pretends to be fatally wounded.

“Candles are all done,” Jeff announces. “And Erica texted. She wants us to Skype her in after.

“Oh- Lucas and Mike made us promise to record it, too,” Will finally steps back from where he and Dustin have carefully propped the phone against a teddy bear elevated by books on a side table, looking like it could fall any second and angled perfectly at where Eddie is setting Sam down, equidistant on the blanket from each of the symbols surrounding her.

Steve recognizes some of the things- the sword is probably fighter, the little branch is probably meant to be a mage staff? Or maybe the other magic class, Druid? There might be more classes that use staffs or branches though. The ukelele is easy, that one’s a bard- Steve knows it’s Eddie’s favorite class- and a few other things that are obviously to do with fighting or something but he can’t really tell what’s meant to symbolize what.

Behind him, Gareth dims the lights just a little and saddles up next to Steve “This is gonna be so fuckin-“

“-Language!” Chorus Will and Dustin at the same time-

“Sorry- fricken awesome.”

The excitement among all the guys is palpable and Steve finds himself getting wrapped up in it too- they’re all sitting down around the special little blanket, Dustin and Jeff leaning across Will to make bets (Jeff’s money is on fighter but Dustin’s heart is set on Rogue) and Eddie sets Sam up, smoothing her hair down and gently explaining to her the sacred ritual they’ve set up for her. She barely understands much more than “yes” “no” or “dinner” but she looks up at Eddie with the biggest, most interested eyes a baby can have. Steve gets it- that’s probably how he looks at Eddie too, most of the time. Wide-eyed and love-struck.

A little ‘ping’ sounds softly as Dustin hits record on the phone and Eddie holds Sam up.

“Today,” he says like he’s making a speech to a crowd of several hundred rather than a living room of five dudes and a baby, “marks a special day in the young life of Samantha Munson-Harrington. Also known as Sam, Sammy, Spammy, Samwise, Samfries or Spud. She has reached the end of her first calendar year and it is time to choose the path down which she will walk for the years to come.”

He sets her down carefully equidistant from all of the symbols and scoots back among light cheers from the guys- including Steve, who gives a little ‘woo!’

“Aaah-oo,” Sam claps.

The guys start beckoning Sam this way or that- Gareth trying to get her attention towards the little axe and Will tapping the floor in front of the little play sword.

After a lot of looking around the room at all the crazy grown adults yelling at her, Sam surveys the items in front of her. Gareth’s little calls of “over here! Sam! Sam-erino, look at the cute little deadly weapon!” get more insistent and Will’s tapping is almost drowned out by Dustin making weird bird noises, as though cawing like a raven is gonna do anything but weird the kid out.

Finally, she crawls forward and reaches out her hand-

She grabs the ukelele.

Everyone goes wild.

Steve laughs at the way they all cheer anyway, even though Sam didn’t choose what they wanted, and Eddie scoops her up with the ukelele in hand, smothering her plump little cheeks with kisses.

“A bard,” Dustin bounces from where he sits cross cross applesauce. “She’s a little bard!”

They Skype Erica in- after, of course, they spend some time passing the baby around so they each get their turn cooing and snuggling their new little bard. Jeff holds Sam and plucks the ukelele in her arms, making her eyes go wide at the sound it makes. They laugh as she searches for what made the noise and aww appropriately as she discovers that instruments make sounds, slapping her little fingers against the strings with Jeff’s help.

Erica’s busy with her life as a new lawyer, as always, but never too busy for Hellfire. She answers on the second ring.

“Okay, nerds, I have a case in about fifteen so don’t waste my time-“

“Bard!” Eddie announces, holding Sam up to the phone so Erica can see her. She still hasn’t let go of the ukelele- it has, as all things must inevitably, ended up in her mouth. She’s chewing on the frets and smiling at the phone like she knows the camera’s on her.

(She always smiles for the camera. She’s a little show-boater like that.)

Erica makes a couple snarky comments about how she knew Dustin’s as gonna lose their bet- which, not surprising; they always have some kind of bet going and Dustin’s always losing- and she blows Sam a few kisses before she has to head out.

Will sends the video off to the group chat Hellfire has and spends the next few minutes laughing over Lucas and Dustins responses.

Sam ends up in Steve’s lap, doing her new little tick where she stands and bounces up and down. Steve keeps his hands on her arms for support and showers her with little kisses every few minutes- both as a little congratulations and because he can’t help it.

Jeff breaks out the beers. Eddie takes up the little ukelele, which definitely still has some Sam-spit on it- and plays a couple songs. He starts with her current favorite- one he and Steve play around the house for her to make her smile.

“I wanna rock n’ roll all night, and party every day-“

Sam goes nuts, squealing and dancing until she falls back into Steve’s lap and gets up to do it again.

The guys join in- all six of them singing (at different stages of off-key) to this bright little light, the center of Steve and Eddie’s whole world, of all of their worlds, really, who’s pulled them all in and made their lives a little warmer. Made their rag-tag family a little bigger.

“Happy birthday, Sam.” Steve whispers into her curls. “Little bard baby.”

#i actually hate this LOL #not all of it but I haven’t been able to write #and I wanted to and I saw a cute little video so- why not right? inspo!#but then I couldn’t like. express anything right and it wasn’t working out but I NEEDED to get AOMETHINF #SOMETHING #out #so it’s not my favorite I don’t like it but it’s SOMETHING #steddie #steddie fic #it is… 5 am 😭#mine

2K notes · View notes