Hopper had looked kind of constipated when Steve mentioned inviting Eddie's bandmates and fellow Hellfire members over for a DnD campaign. He could understand the reaction, after all, it was a risk, but once he'd explained how close the three were to Eddie, and that they still thought he was most likely dead, Hopper had started to come around. The fact Will and El were also on board definitely helped. 

Also, that they had a plan was clearly a plus in the right column too.

Eddie had declared that he needed another full day to finalise the one-shot, so it was decided the afternoon of the day after that was as good a date as any. The way Eddie was bouncing up and down like an over excited puppy, might also had swayed Hopper in signing off on the whole idea.

After some discussions via the walkies, Dustin, Lucas and Mike readily agreed it was a great idea, while Erica thought it had a little merit. The boys all agreed to take one of Eddie's friends each to invite them to the session in Eddie's honour. They were pretending Will was going to DM.

For his part, Steve began to plan what snacks he needed to stock up on. Luckily, dealing with the kids had him well versed in how much teenagers could eat. He created a list accordingly and spent a good percentage of the spare day grocery shopping and making sure his house was ready with help from Robin. The rest of the day he spent with El and Will.

Hence the morning of the big day dawned bright and clear, and Steve woke up alone in his bed. If he was honest, he was disappointed, he enjoyed waking up cuddled to Eddie. Although he often pretended differently, Steve was never quite sure about cuddling in bed when it came to sleeping. He liked cuddling, loved it actually, but he was hideously aware lots of people liked their space when trying to sleep. So, he never liked to push.

With Eddie it was impossible not to realise that given the chance, Eddie was an octopus. It was becoming almost routine for them to start off the night spooned together. Eddie liked to be the little spoon. Once they were asleep, all bets were off. Steve was getting frighteningly used to waking up with Eddie sprawled across him in some way. He revelled in it, if he was honest. That Eddie was not there this morning made him pout. Not that he was ever admitting that.

Falling out of bed, he used the bathroom as quickly as possible. He had to shower because any thought of doing so the previous evening had been quashed by falling asleep on the couch while Eddie finished his campaign planning. It had been two in the morning when Eddie had woken him to drag him to bed.

As soon as he was dressed, he headed downstairs and was very much not surprised to find Eddie pouring over his notes. He walked over and took a quick look over his boyfriend's shoulder.

"Morning," he said, bending down to place a quick peck on Eddie's cheek.

Eddie turned and gave him a smile before almost immediately getting sucked back by his notebook.

"You're lucky you're pretty," Steve said, smiling to himself and almost certain Eddie didn't hear a word. "I'm going to make breakfast."

He knew Eddie was overcompensating because he was nervous about the afternoon, and he could totally understand that. If it helped Eddie deal with what had to be a lot of emotions, Steve would support it all the way. He simply took it upon himself to make sure Eddie was fed and hydrated.

Walking into the kitchen, he found Wayne, again. It was becoming a thing.

"Morning," he greeted.

"Morning," Wayne replied. "You get more than a grunt out of my nephew?"

"Nope," he said with a smile, "I was hoping to lure him with French Toast."

"That could work," Wayne replied, looking at his paper while sipping coffee. "Always was his favourite."

"I noticed," Steve said as he started on the breakfast. "I've never seen anyone eat so many slices. Can I interest you in some fried goodness?"

"Thanks, but I already ate," Wayne replied. "Just finishing my coffee and then I'm for bed."

They'd explained the whole plan to Wayne the previous day before Eddie's uncle headed off to work, so he was aware the house was going to be invaded. Wayne had even mentioned getting up earlier than usual so he could see Eddie in his element. Apparently, it wasn't something Wayne got to witness very often, and he seemed to be looking forward to it.

"Do you need anything? Fresh towels? An extra pillow?" Steve asked as he broke eggs into a bowl.

"Don't think another pillow would fit on the bed to be honest," Wayne replied and there was a small smile playing at the man's lips when Steve glanced over.

"Yeah," he agreed with a smile of his own. "My mom does have a thing for pillows. The only person I've ever seen use them all is Robin. Not sure how she didn't suffocate, actually."

He scored himself a point in his mental tally when Wayne gave a short bark of a laugh. It may only have been a few days, but he hoped Wayne was warming to him. The man was gruff and said very little a lot of the time, but Eddie had assured him that Wayne liked him. Steve still wasn't quite sure how to read Wayne, so needed some convincing.

"Good way to go," Wayne commented. "Can't say as I ever slept on something my back liked more."

"Glad you're comfortable," he replied, not sure what else to say without coming off as a rich kid who had no clue about people in a different tax bracket. "Just let me know if you need anything."

"Steve," Wayne said after a moment, and he turned to find the man had stood up from the table and was just behind him, "you already done more than I could have asked. If I'm honest, I was wary when you showed up at my hotel with the Henderson kid. Eddie has had a few choice things to say about you in the past."

"Probably deserved at least half of them," he said with a slight smile, hoping to lighten the mood.

Wayne's lips did twitch a little again.

"Maybe, maybe not, we both know how my kid can be dramatic," Wayne replied. "But that's neither here nor there, because he did nothing but gush about you that first afternoon, and ain't done much more since. An' I have eyes. Can't thank you enough for what you done for him and for me. Thought you should know that."

When Wayne lifted a hand and clapped him on the shoulder, Steve thought his heart might beat out of his chest. As Eddie told it, Wayne was most often a man of few words and fewer actions. A shoulder clap was the pinnacle of demonstrability for Wayne outside direct family.

"Keep doing whatever it is you do to the coffee, and we'll call it even," Steve replied, doing his very best not to embarrass himself or Wayne with his response.

"Get my nephew to eat while he's on one of his creating binges and I might even teach you the secret," Wayne replied with a nod of his head.

Steve just stood there with the milk in his hand as he watched Wayne walk away.

"Sleep well," he remembered to say just as the man disappeared through the door.

He got a wave in return.

~*~

Everything was ready for the invasion of nerds, Eddie still had his head in his notes, which left Steve with about half an hour to kill. The previous day, he, Will and El had done some more practicing with their communication abilities, extending their range further with solo tries. Steve was finding it all amazing, frankly, but there was one thing still bothering him.

He was a healer. It seemed to be a fundamental aspect of his nature, which he found ironic given the fact he had always been the muscle. Somehow when he used his abilities, it overloaded his system in a way that made his nosebleed, just as it did with El and Will. Logic dictated, not that he was always so good with logic, that he should be able to fix it.

The thing was, he had been to the library when he'd had the bad nosebleeds after Billy had hit him with a plate. He'd done a bit of research (and he was never admitting that to his family of nerds), so he knew that nosebleeds were sometimes the body's way of preventing something worse. He'd also talked to El about her experiences and what Dr Brenner had had to say about her post Starcourt breakdown. Hence, he was pretty sure just stopping them would be a bad plan.

With that in mind, he found himself a quiet spot in the backyard, sat down and listened to the breeze through the trees for a bit. It helped him put everything else out of his mind, something El had taught him was very important. Once his mind was quiet, he did his best to turn his healing instincts on himself. He wasn't trying to do anything, he simply wanted to be aware of his own body in the same way he had managed to be aware of Max's and Hopper's.

When he'd healed himself, it had mostly been pure instinct. He'd never been as aware as he had with the others, so it was something of a step change. There also wasn't anything wrong with him, so his powers had nothing to latch onto. It was kind of weird.

However, eventually he thought he could feel the underlying currents of his body. The moment he had it, he slipped into the Void, and slipped straight back out again as his awareness tried to split and blew his concentration.

"Fuck," he said to no one in particular, and set about trying again.

It took him another four tries, and a significant number of Kleenex before he finally managed to maintain the dual awareness of the Void and his physical body. He had no doubt it was tenuous, but his instincts were firing the whole time. His brain translated it into something visual for him, as it had when healing others, and the mental image of a pressure cooker flitted through his mind. What was really bizarre was the way a ghostly version of it appeared in front of him in the Void as well.

He couldn't work out if he was really seeing it, or if it was just the way his mind was dealing with the strange situation. Every now and then, the pressure release valve fired, letting off some steam to prevent the cooker being damaged. It made perfect sense in this odd new reality he was living in, and he slipped out of the Void with a new understanding.

The nosebleeds were a release of pressure to prevent damage to the brain, something El had been unable to stop when she had pushed so hard at Starcourt because there was only so much pressure that could be released at one time. It wasn't the nosebleeds that he needed to heal, it was the damage being done by the concentration of pressure that was built up when using their abilities. That in turn would prevent the nosebleeds being necessary.

It felt like something of a breakthrough.

Steve wanted to go back in and make sure, but he glanced at his watch and realised he had been five minutes longer than he had wanted to be. Robin would be arriving any minute. Making a mental note to talk to El about his ideas, he wiped his nose on the tissues, climbed to his feet and jogged back towards the house. He grabbed a candy bar from the refrigerator before heading into the living room to make sure Eddie knew what the time was.

~*~

Eddie looked as if he was about to vibrate out of his skin. So far Steve had watched him try to sit down and all but bounce off the chair, pace every hallway in the house, and almost wreck his carefully put together gaming table. It was half past ten, everyone was due at eleven.

Robin had arrived about twenty minutes before, and Will had already been dropped off by Hopper. Originally El had been supposed to be coming as well, but there had been some good news that morning. Max was due to be released from hospital some time that afternoon, hence, El, who wanted to be there to support her best friend, was waiting at home for the phone call so she could help Max and Max's mom move in to their new, government provided home.

It seemed that the fact a good percentage of the town had up and left town for good meant there were plenty of houses left vacant for Owens to snap up for his own purposes. Not that Steve was going to argue if that meant his surrogate family were well taken care of.

The plan was that El would help Max settle in, then Hopper would bring both of them to Steve's house so everyone could welcome Max back properly. Steve wasn't clear yet on what story Owens had sold Max's mom, or if Susan Hargrove had suddenly found herself signing many NDAs while being brought up to speed. As for everyone else, the story was Max had sustained a head injury during the quake, been in an induced coma for a couple of days, and bounced right back as soon as she had been allowed to wake up.

"Okay," Steve said, gently grabbing Eddie by the wrist, "we're going into the backyard before you start chewing the furniture. Robs, you can hold down the fort with Will, right?"

"No problem-o," Robin replied with a grin.

"Steve," Eddie protested, but did not resist in the slightest.

"Eddie," he replied in kind without pausing.

"Where are we going?" Eddie asked when Steve led him down past the side of the pool shed.

"Here," he replied when they made it to the shady, secluded spot he had had in mind.

"What? Why?" Eddie asked, looking around at the empty area.

"Because you need distracting," Steve replied with a grin, "and I have the perfect way."

He crowded into Eddie's personal space, urging him backwards until Eddie's back hit the shed wall.

"Would have done this inside, but Robin would have heckled and wasn't sure if you wanted to come out to Will yet," he said, before leaning in and catching Eddie's lips in a kiss.

Eddie mumbled something but began kissing back rather too enthusiastically for it to make any sense to Steve.

Making out with Eddie was always so easy. Steve never felt like there was anything he had to be doing, or numbers he had to hit like he had done with some girls. All he had to do was make Eddie feel good, and Eddie was very responsive about letting him know when he was doing well, so it was like a dream. Every little noise Eddie made was music to his ears, and it wasn't as if Eddie didn't give as good as he got.

"Not the hair," he had to say, pulling back as the kiss turned passionate and Eddie's fingers began working up his neck.

Eddie pouted. It amused Steve no end quite how obsessed Eddie could be with his hair at times.

"We have to be able to go back in there not looking like we've been making out," he pointed out with a grin. "So anywhere else, but not the hair."

"Damn, I hate when you're logical," Eddie replied. "But, just so you know, once the group know, I will not be so circumspect."

"I wouldn't expect you to be," he said and leaned back in.

It turned out to be the perfect distraction technique, because even Steve lost track of time until he heard a vehicle and voices coming from the front of the house. He broke away and listened and Dustin's voice carried over all the others.

"Jeeze that kid's loud," he commented before looking back at Eddie.

He took in the pale skin and wide terrified eyes and immediately reached out to cup Eddie's cheek.

"They're your friends," he said, looking Eddie directly in the eyes. "They are going to be overjoyed to see you."

"I wasn't accused of murder last time we were together," Eddie said in a quiet, nervous tone.

"And they knew that was as bullshit as the rest of us," he did his best to be reassuring, "even before the police announced how innocent you actually are."

"I know," Eddie replied, "really I know, I just can't shut up the little voice in my head."

"I get that," Steve told him, stoking his thumb over Eddie's cheek, "I totally do, and nothing I say is going to silence it completely, because I've got one too, and it's not rational. So how about we silently sing wheels on the bus until we get in there and it'll be drowned out by all the love your friends are going to shower on you?"

"Wheels on the bus?" Eddie raised his eyebrows at him. "Oh, you bastard, that's going to be going round and round in my head now."

Steve grinned.

"Works though, doesn't it," he said.

"If I start humming it in the middle of my campaign, I may have to kill you," Eddie replied, but did push himself off the wall.

"Just think of it as sharing the pain," Steve told him, straightening Eddie's shirt so it didn't look as if he'd just had his hand up it.

"Lead on, Sir Knight," Eddie said with a dramatic wave of his hand. "I shall follow thee to my doom."

Steve slipped his hand into Eddie's and headed towards the door to the pool room. He gave Eddie's fingers a quick squeeze before letting go and walking back into the house. The moment he opened the door into the hallway he could clearly hear voices.

"Buckley, didn't expect to see you here," one male voice said.

Steve didn't know Eddie's friends well enough to be able to tell them apart just by sound. He'd spoken to them at Family Video on various occasions and must have heard them in school as some point, but he would be the first to admit he probably hadn't been paying attention at that point.

"I am Steve's translator for nerd speak," Robin replied, which made Steve smile.

"Are you and he..?" another voice asked.

"Oh god no," Robin replied with vehemence, "we are purely platonic."

"With a capital P," who Steve was pretty sure were Mike and Lucas, chorused at the same time.

"Where is the king himself?" the first voice asked.

"Oh, he's in the yard with the special guest," Robin replied. "Will, could you go grab them?"

Steve looked at Eddie.

"You ready?" he asked quietly.

Eddie just nodded, lips a taut line. It was time to face the music.