Steve tries to stay quiet while he gets ready for work, but Eddie hears him. He keeps his eyes closed and just listens- to Steve grumbling to himself when his hair doesn’t sit quite right, who starts to hum and whisper some catchy song. Eddie turns his sleepy gaze onto Steve as he shuffles around their room- watching quietly as he slips on his clothes, his shoes, a simple chain with Eddie’s ring around his neck. A warm, affectionate smile breaks across his face. Before he leaves, Steve glances at what he expects to be a sleeping Eddie, but instead, he’s met with a rasped, ‘Hey.’ Eddie sits himself up, stretches his arm across Steve’s side of the bed, and reaches, fingers wiggling. Steve crosses the room to cradle his face.
Their foreheads press, noses bump, and Steve brushes his fingers across scars and dimples.
He breathes a quiet,
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.’
Eddie huffs a tired laugh,
‘You know I never mind.’
Because, yeah.
Every morning Steve tries to stay quiet while he gets ready for work, but Eddie always hears him.
( another one from the poll | WIP )
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it doesn't happen as a revelation. there's no jolting pain in his chest that sends steve reeling, no internal crisis that has him shaking on the bathroom floor, no shocking sense of guilt or desperation or fire licking in his veins. nothing that makes the world stop spinning and making him trip over his feet.
it's a normal moment when he realizes he's in love with eddie.
they're sitting in steve's car, ac blasting and music on low for once, waiting for a handful of the kids to get done with their final exams. they don't pick them up as much anymore and steve pointedly ignores how much he misses the times of carting them all around before mike started a ripple effect and got his license. but they're taking the kids to the lake after school to try and enjoy the last bits of non-suffocating sunshine before summer really hits, just like old times.
it isn't a revelation in the sense that it's some earth shattering event, but more like a moment of clarity. eddie's hair blows back for a second and he's blabbering about something from the dnd game he played the night before with his shop buddies with a wide grin and animated hands and the sun glints off the puckered pink scar on the side of his face in the most perfect way and he's beautiful and-
oh.
oh.
steve's vision seems clearer than it has in a while. his lungs feel a bit more shaky but not in a bad way, his heart stumbles against his ribcage like it's tripped over itself and the butterflies in his chest are the only things catching it. he laughs to himself because of course this has to happen when he wasn't expecting it, when he doesn't have a plan, but then eddie's looking at him and he knows he doesn't need one. not yet, anyway.
"you good, man?" eddie asks, eyebrows crinkled together and smirk on his face. he's painted golden in the afternoon sun, shining as bright as the north star. steve's always liked gold.
it's taken steve years to get here. the two of them have grown up together in the way that teenagers do while they figure out the roads laid out before them. they've learned each other's ins and outs through long nights and early mornings and everything in between. he knows his breathing, the way his footsteps sound, the smell of his aftershave, the feeling of his hands on his shoulders. it all comes together in this perfect package wrapped up in a perfect bow and for once, steve lets himself hope like he's a kid on christmas morning.
"yeah," he shakes his head to clear out the eddie-shaped stars in his vision, offers up a smirk of his own. it's taken years to get here so he still has time to do this right. "perfect."
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so. . .angry rant is angry
but
this is. . .the WEIRDEST fucking fandom I have EVER been a part of.
like. . .most other ships would be justifiably upset by a ship they were into that had 0 love triangles suddenly having not 1, but two. every ship I have been a part of has loved both their characters. every ship I have ever been a part of would be fucking FURIOUS that some random OC was created SPECIFICALLY to spite half the pairing.
and y'all were SO mad about Marina that hate fics are STILL being written about her, but y'all will slobber all over this white man OC like he's the best fucking thing that ever happened to Penelope, as if Colin, the guy who has cared about her without ANY expectation or pressure, is somehow The Worst. But let's hype up the OC. Yeah. Let's justify why it's GOOD, actually, that we got yet another triangle (sorry, HINGE, because if it was an actual triangle, Debling would be trying to get into Colin's pants, too!). One that is even more cozy than the S2 one was (what's the closest Anthony even GOT to Edwina? certainly not with his hand on her waist leaning in all up on her business).
Noooo, we need Pen to be DESIRED! We need Pen to be the DIAMOND! We ship Pen with OPTIONS!
I ship Pen with COLIN, though. And I thought that's what we were doing here, but evidently not, because all these posts? Not Polin. But they're tagged Polin. Pebling is a tag. Use it. Spare those of us who actually ship this pairing. Because we're MAD.
Debling didn't have to happen. His existence isn't good writing. He's there because Shonda doesn't even LIKE Colin, but she HAS to have Polin as endgame because they have such an enormous fanbase, and the backlash would be career ruining. They kept the season on the shelf for two entire years, have relegated one of our leads to the sidelines (don't even TRY to tell me they haven't shoved Colin off to the side), posted promotions of this OC/Penelope bullshit (half for rage-bait, congrats, I'm there, and half to appease all the fans who have talked shit about Colin for 2+ years), and we are EATING IT UP.
Oh, this fanbase HATES Colin. You can't convince me otherwise. Y'all have spent 2 years talking about how you want him to grovel for ONE STATEMENT, how he's the worst guy in the entire show because he's entitled and takes Pen for granted, you haven't talked about ANY of his good traits, you want him jealous, you want him punished, you want him miserable, and you want Pen to be rubbing it in his face. You don't even want these things for his GROWTH, but instead for Penelope to have 'vindication'. His own love story isn't even about him. Some of y'all out here like 'oh, Colin's off screening doing something dumb in that still'. Flooded the POLIN tag with other Pen pairings, talked down to people who actually like Colin and have been concerned about him having a storyline or proper promotion (which he has no real evidence of getting, the man isn't even on the POSTER), say this is. . .what? retribution? for when Colin was interested in someone in S1, except, hm, oh yeah, NO ONE WAS ASKING FOR COLIN TO DO THAT!! No one was out here like 'Hope Marina makes Penelope sooooo jealous that she just HAS to step in and have him for herself'. No one was out here fucking SHIPPING THEM. But y'all are. In our tag. Without any push back.
AND IT WASN'T EVEN HIS STORY!!! It became PEN'S! Pen pining. Pen aching. Pen trying to break them up. Pen talking to Marina. Pen scheming. Pen agonizing. And we didn't fucking like it.
But this Debling bullshit? STILL NOT COLIN'S STORY!!! Still Pen's! Pen being pursued. Pen getting attention. Pen making decisions. Pen having a narrative.
Colin gets nothing. Has gotten nothing in this fandom and the writing for YEARS. Will continue to get nothing.
Y'all say you ship Polin but the instant any other dude walks into her line of sight, it's 'Colin whomst?'. Y'all say you ship Polin, but you also ship her with Debling, Michael, Dankworth, Anthony, Benedict, Anderson, Fife, random potted plant, dude in the background, Phillip, Jesus Christ himself, etc etc. She is this fandom's OOC Bicycle whenever it happens to suit us, so I'm not surprised.
Yeah, fucking block me for that, I don't care.
Most of y'all don't ship this couple. You say you do but you don't, not really. Because if you did, you'd be upset that Polin is losing screentime for this. You'd be asking where half your ship is. You wouldn't be settling for 'oh, he's off screen somewhere'. You'd want more of Polin's moments. Their tenderness. Their messiness. Their alone time. You'd be asking why this was necessary. You'd be wondering where Colin's growth is, where his story is. Y'all are content with crumbs. Colin could be a disembodied hand jilling Pen off at this point and you'd be happier for it because you clearly don't care that he isn't here.
The reality is- I have been SCREAMING about how this fandom doesn't give a shit about Colin for years now. Friends of mine have been bullied off this fandom. Story after story that was about punishment and revenge was written. Anything outside the status quo? Instantly spammed by mean ass anons. Luke Newton was harassed. His ex partner was harassed. His friends are being harassed. Luke Newton has said this fandom has taken their frustrations out on him. A real life person. Just trying to do a job.
And being shafted whilst doing so.
Why should he promo this shit? Huh? It was meant to be his season and it isn't. That's clear. It's so clear that to say otherwise like y'all are kidding yourselves.
I'm tired of this fandom culture. I'm tired of the Pen Standom being a placeholder for Polin.
I SHIP POLIN!!! Polin! As in Penelope AND Colin. As in MY OTP!!! As in the couple I want seasons and seasons of! I want Penelope to grow outside of Male Validation. I want Colin to be a fully rounded character who exists outside of Penelope. I want them to grow TOGETHER. I don't want this random suitor ass nonsense. I didn't want it from jump and I don't want it now. I will never want it. I do not care.
I continue to be the polin black sheep, but I CALLED THIS. I called it. And I hate that I did. I hate it. I saw this was the direction it was going back when our 'can't wait to see him groveling, screaming, crying, throwing up for Pen' bullshit was blowing up. Other ships see it. Other fans see it. Shonda calls him stupid, we call him stupid (yeah, you can say it's 'affectionately' all you want, I don't believe you), every damn time it's 'omggggg chill outttttt Colin will have his time'
Y'all don't WANT him to have his time. You want him to be a sexy prop. And congrats, that's evidently what you're getting.
Just like. . . just finally acknowledge it. Y'all aren't here for the pairing. You're here for Pen. And fine, that's your prerogative, but then just stop acting like you're here for the ship. Stop posting shit in the tag for the eyes and attention. You ship Pebling. Whoopdee doo. Use. Their. Tag. Pen/Someone Else is endgame in your fic. DON'T TAG POLIN. Colin sucks, he doesn't deserve her, he should grovel- You. Don't. Ship. Polin.
I am tired. I love Colin as a character, and a few of us do, too, and we deserve a safe place for that. And we can't even get it in his own fandom. We can't even get it in his own tag.
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