#someone write this i don't have the d&d metalhead cred to pull this off in a million years

[atmilliways]

for the “send me a made-up fic title and i'll tell you what i would write to go with it” ask meme: my title is Let Me Make the Most of Us (from the song Runner by Tennis)

(fic title meme)

Okay, stick with me while I demonstrate why nothing I want to write ever ends up short.

Let Me Make the Most of Us is mostly about Steve throwing himself entirely into becoming Eddie's Perfect Boyfriend. He learns how to play D&D. He gets into Lord of the Rings. He gets into metal music, going to all of Eddie's shows and getting them tickets to any concert with a band Eddie likes that's within a reasonable driving distance, saving up his days off specifically so he can always be able to go with him. He learns how to do his own eyeliner and sew patches, and eventually makes a battle jacket to give to Eddie, since he wears the one Eddie made. And their sex life? Eddie is the first guy Steve has ever been with, but god as his witness he is a dedicated and enthusiastic learner.

They're basically inseparable, and it's amazing, but Eddie is dying a little bit.

Because Wayne makes an idle comment about Steve not seeming to have any hobbies of his own, and it's All. Eddie. Can think about.

He realizes that Steve never talks about basketball anymore and skips watching important games (which he used to do with Wayne) in favor of campaigns and concerts and tagging along to Eddie's rehearsals. (Unnamed Freak is leaving town for college soon, but Steve is getting pretty good at playing bass.) Eddie tries to ask him about his old interests but Steve keeps insisting that everything's fine, he just wants to be with Eddie and he likes what Eddie likes now, what's the big deal?

Eddie is slowly becoming less and less sure that this Steve is the Steve Harrington he fell in love with. Which is weird, because preppy jocks had never really been his type, but... he can't help feeling that Steve is turning himself into someone else. These thoughts keep taking him out of the moment. He tries to talk to Robin about it, but honestly she's just as puzzled as he is. He tries to talk to Nancy about it, but despite being friends now Nancy prefers to avoid the topic of her and Steve entirely; she still feels guilty about the way she broke his heart and cheated on him at the end. So she's no help.

Steve, Eddie realizes, has been diligently soaking up everything he's said about the evils of conformity and how boring the "normal" people can be, and has reshaped himself. But in doing so, he's wallpapered over so many personal quirks that Eddie finds himself genuinely missing—like doing funny little dance moves around the kitchen and singing quietly along to top 40s hits while making breakfast, or being incredibly fussy about getting the perfect swoop to his hair in that classic 'drives the ladies crazy' way that Eddie secretly always swooned for, or wearing soft yellow sweaters in the fall and the most ridiculously fluffy scarves all winter. Now he headbangs and knows who Ozzy is and is a sexy hot mess in band tees and black and denim and he has a tongue piercing (and some other piercings too, and a few tats)—all of which is very hot, but Eddie misses the soft things too. He starts to feel like he's dating himself, which... bleh. (And fine, maybe he needs to work on his own self-esteem a bit, but that's not the issue here.)

But Steve keeps insisting everything is great, and Eddie keeps looking back at the past, feeling like he's losing his mind a little bit and like it's his own fault. Or maybe it isn't, but he still doesn't know how to square with it, how to make things feel right again.

... I don't actually know how to solve this either, but I desperately want it to have a happy ending somehow where Steve figures out a good balance between his old and new interests, and Eddie, idk. Takes up jogging with him, or something. They compromise on what time of day, though, because Eddie is a night owl while Steve (despite months of valiantly trying to be a night owl) is very much a morning person. Instead of jogging in the morning, Steve agrees that they can jog at dusk after they both get out of work.

And whenever Eddie can afford to he showers Steve in soft pastel sweaters and colorful clothes, takes his boyfriend and his uncle to sportsball games to see teams he knows they like (and only makes embarrassing mixups where he gets seats in the wrong team section sometimes), and goes to every game for the community basketball and baseball teams Steve signs up for. Robin approves of all of this, pointing out to Steve that he seems so much lighter and happier now, to which he sheepishly agrees and Eddie gives him a kiss on the cheek because d'awww, bashful Steve.

If Eddie also hires Jonathan at some point to take swimsuit pinup shots of Steve as Eddie's birthday present to himself one year, that is between the three of them and the full ounce of weed that made up part of Jonathan's payment.

#steddie brainrot #what if a fic #someone write this i don't have the d&d metalhead cred to pull this off in a million years #jean rambles