Max had given him a smile and a wave as he and El were ushered out of the hospital room. The doctors had been discussing removing one of Max's casts so they could x-ray her arm to see if splints were necessary anymore. It wasn't as if he could just step in and tell them anything, so he just hoped they didn't keep her waiting too long. Max was likely to find some power tools and do it herself if the professionals took too much time. 

Joyce had also invited him back to the Hopper/Byers residence for a large breakfast, but he had politely declined. He was flying high and he was kind of hoping that maybe Eddie would be interested in celebrating his success. He'd vaguely planned on food in there somewhere as well, but he'd taken one of his shakes with him and hadn't needed to use anywhere near the energy he had the previous day, so that was secondary on his agenda.

"Thanks, Joyce," he said as she pulled up in front of his house. "See you later, El."

"Bye, Steve," El replied with a big smile.

"Make sure to eat something," Joyce told him in her motherly tone.

"First thing on the list," he fibbed with a smile of his own.

He gave them a wave as he let himself in, kicking his shoes off and heading for the kitchen, hoping to find Eddie where he had left him a couple of hours previously. Who he actually found was Wayne, sitting at the table reading a newspaper.

"Good morning, Mr ... Wayne," he greeted, correcting himself at the last second.

"Mornin'," Wayne replied, taking a sip from a mug Steve was sure did not come from his house.

"Find everything you need?" he asked, placing his backpack on one of the chairs, and taking out the sports bottle from inside.

Moving over to the sink, he turned on the tap so he could wash it out.

"Eddie showed me," Wayne replied. "Nice kitchen you have here."

"Both my grandmas are big on food," Steve explained as he used a little dish soap on his bottle. "My mom likes to cook too, she just doesn't get much time these days. I guess I inherited the gene too, so the kitchen gets a lot of use."

Wayne made a humming sound.

"Eddie not around?" Steve asked as he walked over to where the coffee pot was three-quarters full.

"Went a bit of a funny colour and said he needed to lie down," Wayne replied. "Told me not to worry, it was just an after effect of something that happened that he couldn't talk about, an' the doctors had given him a clean bill of health. That true?"

Steve did his very best not to let his instant worry show, grabbing himself a mug and filling it from the coffee pot before turning round.

"If it's what I think it is, then yes," he replied, hoping that he was pulling off nonchalant. "But I'm guessing that isn't going to stop either of us worrying anyway."

"Yep," Wayne said.

Steve took a sip of the coffee and was thrown out of his worry by the shock of the taste.

"Did you change out the coffee?" he asked, taking another sip. "God this is good."

"Nope," Wayne said, "just did what I always do."

"Then I think you worked a miracle," he decided. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go check on Eddie."

"Be seein' ya," Wayne replied, going back to his paper.

Taking his coffee, Steve walked out of the room trying to look as if he was in no hurry. Once he was through the door, he sped up. He left the coffee on the table on the landing at the top of the stairs and hurried into his bedroom.

"Eddie?" he said when he found his boyfriend sitting on the bed, knees pulled up and head down.

As Eddie lifted his head, dark, almost black eyes met his own. He shut the door behind him.

"Thirsty again?" he asked, even though he was pretty sure of the answer.

"Like a man in a desert," Eddie replied. "I was about to cook Wayne some breakfast and it just hit."

"I'm sorry I wasn't here," he said, walking across and sitting down close to Eddie.

"Max all okay?" Eddie asked.

"Fit as a fiddle and ready to chew off her casts," he replied with a smile. "I think if El wanted to take over the world we'd all be in trouble because she does innocent amazingly well. Owens bought the story hook line and sinker. He has people dealing with everything to get Max sorted as soon as possible, but it's probably going to take a couple of days because they have to do tests to confirm what we already know."

"How are you feeling?" was Eddie's next question.

"Really good, honestly," he said. "I was hungry again after, but my shake sorted that out and it didn't take even half as much energy as before. It felt easier too, like doing something I'd already practiced."

"Maybe you learn people," Eddie suggested.

"Maybe," he agreed with a small shrug. "So, shall we get you sorted?"

Eddie gave him an unimpressed look.

"Steve," Eddie said, "it may not have been as hard as yesterday, but you healed Max this morning. I don't think donating blood is a good idea."

"Honestly, I'm good," he promised. "Not that I don't intend to go downstairs and eat a whole second breakfast as soon as we're done. But I refuse to leave you up here suffering."

"I'm not suffering, I'm just really, really thirsty," Eddie protested.

"Tell me it's not driving you crazy," he countered.

Eddie didn't say anything.

"Look, I know what thirst is like," he decided to come clean. "When we were in the Upside Down, after those damn bats got me, I was so thirsty when we got back right side up, I wanted to stick my head under a faucet. And after the Russians, oh god, whatever they pumped into me and Robin, it made my mouth like the Sahara. We almost fought over the water fountain, which was funny, because two teenagers in sailor outfits stoned out of their brains fighting over a source of water, but so frustrating. And I'm pretty sure those two experiences are just a reflection of what you're feeling right now. So, please let me help."

Eddie still didn't say anything.

"I don't want to put you through that again," Eddie finally admitted, voice so small Steve could barely hear him. "I hurt you."

Reaching out, Steve took his boyfriend's hand.

"Okay, confession time," he said. "I wasn't kidding about the kink stuff. When you bit me last time, I liked it, I really, really liked it, if you get my drift. And I think if you hadn't been so overwhelmed by the whole thing, you probably would have noticed how much I liked it so quickly."

He was pretty sure he was blushing like a schoolgirl with her first crush by the time he finished speaking.

"You liked the pain?" Eddie asked, eyes wide.

"Not specifically," he admitted. "The pain was pretty irrelevant actually, but you sucking on my wrist. that was definitely, very much not irrelevant. If you'd kept going, I probably would have embarrassed myself."

He did not want Eddie getting the wrong impression, so he spoke very plainly.

"Really?" Eddie asked, because tact was not always one of his finer points.

"Yes, absolutely yes," he replied. "And at some point, I'd really like to explore that further, but your uncle's currently downstairs, so please can we postpone that?"

"Wayne's half deaf from working with heavy machinery his whole life," Eddie said, and Steve could have sworn his eyes sparkled.

"Still seems rude to leave..."

Steve shut up when Eddie's lips covered his own. He was only human, and Eddie kissed like a drowning man in search of oxygen. Who was he to argue.

"Please let me make you feel as good as you make me," Eddie whispered against his mouth.

He moaned as Eddie climbed into his lap.

"You're incorrigible," was the best he could do as a comeback.

"Is that a yes?" Eddie asked, kissing along his jaw and down his neck.

"It's your fault if I can't look your uncle in the eye ever again," he replied, well aware he had already lost this round, "but yes."

"Can I touch you?" Eddie asked, running one hand down his front between them with very obvious intent.

"God yes," Steve said, already hardening in his jeans at Eddie's actions.

So much for sensible conversations. Steve rested one hand on Eddie's waist and used one to prop himself up on the bed. At which point, Eddie made very short work of getting into his pants.

"Holy fuck," Steve whined as Eddie's hand slipped into his boxers.

"Let me know when you're gonna go," Eddie said, leaning back and looking at him, eyes dark and red-ringed, and fangs showing in his pleased grin.

Steve had no idea what Eddie had in mind, but he could follow instructions. He was going to warn Eddie it was unlikely to take long, but Eddie moved his hand in such a way he forgot how to speak for a couple of seconds. He hadn't been touched by anyone else in a while now, most of his recent dates having been abandoned long before anything hotter than kissing, and then the apocalypse making survival the only thing on his mind. He was sensitive and responsive, and that it was Eddie's hand on him was making it that much more.

Biting his lip and counting backwards from one hundred were the only things between him and this being over embarrassingly quickly.

When Eddie started nibbling on his neck, teasing him with blunt incisors and licking over the same spot, he almost lost it straight away.

"Now," he managed to stutter out before his body completely betrayed him.

As his orgasm hit, Eddie bit and everything whited out. The pain wasn't irrelevant this time as it joined with the overloading nerve impulses running through his body and he gasped, barely able to breathe. He had never in his life felt anything like it and it went on and on and on as Eddie sucked on his neck. Never had he imagined anything could feel this good.

Thought vanished from his head as all he could do was feel.

When Eddie pulled back, instincts fired and the soreness on the side of his neck disappeared without him consciously thinking about it. Which was a good thing, because sensible brain function was still beyond him.

"Wow," Eddie said, and Steve opened his eyes to find his boyfriend staring at his neck.

"Yeah," he agreed, as he scraped together the few braincells he had not just completely blown.

There was blood on Eddie's lips and chin, and his pupils were blown wide and dark, and Steve thought he had never seen anything more inviting.

"Come here," he said, bringing both his hands to either side of Eddie's face.

He didn't care that he was tasting his own blood as he claimed Eddie's mouth with his. They began to fall towards the bed because he was no longer bracing them, but he kept on kissing. He never wanted to stop.

Ten minutes later he was reluctantly back downstairs, all cleaned up, making excuses and doing his very best not to look Wayne Munson in the face. He wasn't sure how well he was pulling it off.

~*~

Steve was expecting a phone call for arrangements for later in the day when he had agreed with El he would do some more experimenting with her and Will. What he was not expecting was for Hopper to arrive in what looked like a new truck, with El and Will in tow.

"Hi," he said, opening the door.

"Our house smells funny," El said as she walked in. "Hello, Steve."

She gave him a quick hug.

"Argyle accidentally smoked in the house," Will offered the explanation. "Is it alright if we practice here?"

"Yeah, sure," he replied, "come on in. We'll just have to be careful once Wayne gets up though. He's sleeping at the moment."

"Hey Supergirl, Will the Wise, Chief," Eddie greeted from behind him.

"Still not the chief of police anymore," Hopper said, entering with a plain brown box in his hands.

"Looks like you have a nice new truck though," Steve said as he closed the door.

"It's a bribe," Hopper said with a grin.

"For what?" Eddie asked before Steve got there.

"Owens offered me a job as head of security at the lab," Hopper replied. "I told him I'd think about it and he gave me the truck to sweeten the deal."

"They're going to keep the lab open then?" Steve asked following everyone into the main living area.

"The way Owens tells it, it's too risky not to, what with the Russians knowing about the Upside Down," Hopper explained. "It's going to be a monitoring station."

"So, no more experiments on kids?" Eddie said.

"Only me," El replied. "I wish to understand more about my powers."

"Okay," Steve said, because he really hadn't expected El to sound so happy about something like that. "So, you'll be taking the job then?" he added, looking at Hopper.

"Oh yeah," the ex-Chief replied with a grin. "No way my daughter is going in there without me watching every damn thing they're doing."

That did go some way to explaining why El seemed perfectly happy with the idea.

"Just don't want Owens taking me for granted, so I'll keep him on the hook for a while," Hopper added. "Munson, this belongs to you," the man went on, placing the box on the coffee table.

"It does?" Eddie said, stepping past Steve.

"Picked it up from Powell this morning," was the short explanation.

"My books?" Eddie asked, eyes lighting up with hope.

"Take a look," Hopper said, looking very pleased with himself.

Eddie flipped the lid off the box like a kid on Christmas morning.

"Hell yes," he said, joyfully, "come to me my pretties."

Several Dungeons and Dragons manuals came out of the box first, being placed reverently on the table, before Eddie paused. Steve watched, fascinated as Eddie pulled out a dark blue, spiral bound notebook, treating it as if it was the holy grail. He even lifted it up and kissed it, before pulling it to his chest and wrapping both his arms around it. That was when Steve caught sight of the hand-drawn Hellfire logo on the front.

"Thank you, Chief," Eddie said without a flicker of playfulness in his tone. "You don't know what these mean to me."

"I think I can see, Kid," Hopper said in a surprisingly fatherly tone.

Steve really wanted to wrap his arms around Eddie but had to suffice with smiling and putting a hand on his shoulder instead.

"I need to plan a new campaign," Eddie decided with an overexcited gleam in his eyes. "A campaign to end all campaigns in honour of our triumph."

"Awesome," was Will's reaction to the announcement.

"Dining room table is all yours for planning and playing, if you want it," Steve offered. "I would offer to steal your DM throne from the school, but that might be a bit obvious."

"How do you know about my throne?" Eddie asked.

"Dustin never shut up about it," Steve replied with a grin. "Do you know how many coolness points a throne gets you with Henderson."

Eddie's grin at that was utterly infectious. Steve had to sit on his desire to kiss it off his boyfriend's face.

"Right, well that's my delivery job done," Hopper said before Steve could make an idiot out of himself. "Give me a call when you want rid of these two terrors, and I'll swing by to pick them up."

"Dad," El protested as being called a terror, whereas Will just laughed.

"I can drop them back," Steve immediately offered.

"After what they've been planning, I think I'd rather you didn't get behind the wheel," Hopper replied, heading back for the door. "Good luck with them."

Steve was suddenly nervous at the look of glee in El and Will's eyes.