The government suits, along with Nancy, had come up with added extras to the cover story for Eddie being innocent to explain how he was alive. It had taken a couple of weeks, but everything had been put in place.

Eddie was still the tragic victim, kidnapped, nearly killed defending one Dustin Henderson, so much so he had been reported dead, only now he had miraculously managed to escape, only to be found wandering miles away and falling into catatonic trauma in a small clinic several towns over. This was where Hopper and Steve had tracked him down after Steve had heard a strange rumour and done some investigating. Bringing him back had helped him snap out of it by reuniting him with his uncle. All very dramatic and daytime soap opera like, but this was Hawkins, so no one would question it.

Steve wasn't sure he liked the role of hero for the whole thing, but when Nancy had glared at him, he'd gone with it, since it also gave a decent explanation as to why Eddie could be staying with him if anyone found out.

It was all set to be released that lunchtime so that it would be a big feature on the evening news. Hence, just before twelve, Steve left Eddie with the phone to call his friends to give them advance warning. He didn't know a whole heap about the other members of Corroded Coffin, but he knew they meant a lot to Eddie, letting them find out by media was not an option.

To give Eddie some privacy, Steve was stress baking in the kitchen since it was his day off. He'd asked Eddie if he should stay and Eddie had seemed conflicted, but eventually told him no, so he was doing his best to keep out of the way. It was quite hard to not listen since his hearing was that much sharper now, especially when it came to Eddie. He'd just put in his second batch of chocolate chip cookies when he felt a spike of anxiety come from Eddie's direction. Without his conscious consent he froze.

"Gar, I'm safe, okay," Eddie was saying. "I want to see you too, but ... look I can't."

Steve could literally hear the longing in Eddie's voice. These guys had been Eddie's support system for years, and Eddie might have been part of the Upside Down party now, but he had been one of them longer. Steve knew all about losing your whole social group and he made a very quick decision.

Walking to the door he opened it.

"Eddie," he said, peering round the corner to where Eddie was perching beside the phone, "you can invite them over."

He made sure his voice would not carry over the phone, but Eddie heard him loud and clear. His boyfriend gave him a look that was all furrowed brows and conflicted tightness. For a second Eddie was clearly undecided, before he raised his eyebrows in a questioning manner. Steve nodded back.

"I made cookies," he added, as if that might be a deciding factor.

Eddie sent back a fond smile for that, although it disappeared in nerves pretty quickly.

"Look, Gar," Eddie said, "forget what I just said, but you're going to think I've lost it when I tell you where I am."

"If they need transport, I can pick them up," Steve added, before disappearing back into the kitchen to allow Eddie to continue his conversation.

~*~

"They know about me," Eddie said as they waited for Eddie's friends to arrive.

"You?" Steve asked, because he didn't quite follow.

"They know I'm gay," Eddie expanded. "They might ... um ... us ... they might pick up on it. I'll try, but, sometimes my impulse control is shit around people I trust."

Steve caught on. Rather than saying anything straight away, he reached out and gently pulled Eddie towards him, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend.

"If you trust them, I trust them," he said simply, because that was what it all boiled down to.

"They might be, well, a little hostile at first," Eddie said, searching his face for something Steve couldn't quite guess at. "They don't know you like I do."

"And they only ever saw King Steve," he replied, because he could understand that.

Eddie nodded.

"And we're kind of protective of each other," Eddie explained.

"That I get," Steve said, doing his best to reassure his boyfriend. "I was an asshole for much of my school career even if I was nowhere near as big a dick as Billy Hargrove. They have a right to dislike me. But I have cookies, I will win them over."

Eddie took the hint and grinned at him.

"God, what did I ever do to have such a cute boyfriend who bakes too?" Eddie teased.

"I am not cute," Steve protested. "I am devilishly handsome."

"Well yeah, but I'm going with cute, adorable, beautiful..."

He shut Eddie up by kissing him. It was only supposed to be a quick kiss, but it deepened as Eddie threaded fingers through his hair, pulling him closer. The feeling of Eddie washed through him. It was so easy for Steve to lose himself in the moment as their desires and needs curled around each other, mixing into a heady cocktail.

Only the sound of the doorbell snapped them out of it.

"Fuck, you're intoxicating," Steve said, blinking back to reality.

Eddie gave him a grin, while pulling his shirt straight.

"Right back at ya, Big Boy," Eddie said.

"Ok, go let your friends in," Steve said before he got more ideas. "I'll be in the kitchen with the radio on, so you guys can have some privacy. Just let me know if you need anything."

Eddie leaned back in and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

"Thanks," Eddie said. "I will wait for the cookies to work their magic before introducing you properly."

Eddie's eyes flicked back towards the entry way, biting his lip.

"I can let them in for you, if you want," Steve offered, picking up the fizzle of nerves in the back of his brain from Eddie, as well as the more than obvious body language. "Give you a chance to breathe before disappearing."

"While that sounds very appealing," Eddie said, taking a deep breath, "I think I'd rather get this over with. Let's go with plan A."

"Whatever you need," he said, giving his boyfriend a supportive smile.

As Eddie headed towards the front door, Steve headed for the kitchen as he had promised.

"Gar..." he heard after the sound of the door opening, but the sound was cut off abruptly.

"Eddie, fuck, you really are alive you bastard."

He knew the sound of desperate affection when he heard it and he hurried on his way. He flipped on the radio quickly, just loud enough to cover any sound coming from the other room before setting about preparing things for dinner. Robin was coming over later along with Wayne, and he had no idea if Eddie would want to invite his friends to stay as well, so he was determined to be prepared. He was pretty sure he had his Grandma Lucy's feeding people instincts. No one had ever left her house hungry.

This house had been a bit like that once too, when he was younger, and it was just him and his mom at home. Now he thought about it, it was after his grandmother had collapsed and died from an aneurism (a timebomb waiting to happen no one could have predicted according to the doctors, he remembered hearing them tell his parents) that his mom had started pulling away. Going on business trips with his dad had suddenly been more important than baking cookies for Christmas or cakes for Easter.

Steve understood something about grief now and his thoughts were something of a revelation. Not that he was interested in dwelling on such deep thoughts when he had Eddie to worry about. Pulling out things from the refrigerator and cupboard he began to sing along quietly to the song playing as he went into prep mode.

He'd put together enough lasagne to feed an army (he could put some of it in the freezer if it wasn't needed) when he heard the door open behind him. He turned to find Eddie standing in the doorway looking dishevelled as if he'd been playing with his hair, a bit shellshocked, but otherwise happy.

"You okay?" Steve asked.

"Yeah," Eddie replied. "I've given them the whole story," he made quotes with his hands as he said it, "and the sorry can't tell you all the details speech, there might have been some crying, but we'll all deny it to our dying day. Wanna come meet the guys?"

Steve wiped his hands on the closest cloth and pulled off the apron he was wearing.

"I'd love to," he replied, even as his heartbeat picked up.

Following Eddie back into the living room, he found himself the focus of attention of Eddie's three closest friends. He'd faced the Upside Down and honest to God monsters, but this was right up there with that.

"Hi," he greeted.

"Steve, this is Gareth, Jeff and Frank," Eddie introduced. "Guys, I'm sure you remember Steve."

"We do," Gareth replied.

"But none of us would have guessed The Steve Harrington bakes," Jeff added.

"Awesome cookies, Man," Frank finished.

"One of my grandma's secret recipes," he said, raising a smile at that. "She taught me to make them when I was eight. After she passed, they became my go-to comfort food."

"You could create your own empire with them," Gareth said, returning his smile.

"Nah, Robin would never forgive me," he replied. "She uses them to bribe her mom into letting her stay over. If you could get them everywhere she'd lose her leverage."

"Robin Buckley's mother can be bribed with cookies to let her daughter sleep over at your house?" Jeff asked incredulously.

The cookies were more of a tradition these days than a bribe, but Steve wasn't about to admit that.

"Yeah, or sometimes I sleep over at her house," he replied, falling onto the couch beside Eddie. "We trauma bonded during the Starcourt fire. Sleepovers are way cheaper than the phone bills we were racking up."

"They're platonic soulmates," Eddie offered up. "You should see it, it's adorable."

"Says the man who hides behind his hair when he's embarrassed," Steve countered.

"Well, I didn't say I wasn't adorable too," Eddie replied, batting his eyelashes and deliberately pulling his hair over his face.

Shaking his head and laughing, Steve elbowed his boyfriend in the side, turning back to look at his guests. Jeff and Frank were smiling along too, but Gareth had a worryingly serious expression on his face. Eddie had mentioned that Gareth was his closest friend even though Eddie was significantly older.

"Adorable, yeah, that's the word that first comes to mind with you, Eddie," Jeff said, joining in the teasing.

"You break my heart, Sir Knight," Eddie responded in true dramatic fashion. "I cannot go on."

"Oh no," Steve said firmly, "one dramatic death scene is one too many, so have another cookie and deal."

Eddie giggled at him, but did take the opportunity to grab one of the few remaining cookies on the plate.

"Yeah, definitely one too many," Gareth agreed, sobering the moment. "Look, Harrington, we owe you our thanks for finding Eddie and bringing him back."

"It wasn't just me," Steve replied, because there was no way he was taking all the credit, no matter if they were talking the cover story or reality. "And I was just in the right place at the right time to figure out the truth."

"Yeah, but most of this town wouldn't have bothered," Jeff joined in. "Eddie told us how you and Henderson helped him after what happened to Chrissy too and that it got you all in trouble."

Steve saw Jeff's eyes flick to the pale scar on his throat.

"Dustin's a good kid and a force of nature," he said before Jeff could go on. "He deserves all the credit for that, and Eddie nearly died saving Dustin, so they're the heroes in this."

"You keep telling yourself that," Eddie muttered by his side. "Okay, enough of the deep shit, I want to know everything I've missed."

And Steve was more than happy to go along with that, even if he was pretty sure he wasn't going to understand half the conversation that was coming.

Over the next however long it was, time seemed to fly, he learned a lot about Eddie's dynamic with his friends and found them carefully trying to suss him out along the way. There was none of the hostility Eddie had been afraid of. Apparently returning Eddie to them had overcome that part, but it was clear they still weren't quite sure how to take him. Steve could accept that, after all, they didn't really know him, and he didn't know them.

Gareth was waxing lyrical about an album that had come out while Eddie was missing, by a band Steve had never heard of, when the walkie-talkie sitting on the side table crackled to life.

"Steve," came over the connection, "are you listening? It's Dustin. Over."

"Sorry, guys," he said, standing up and walking over immediately and picking up the device. "Hey, Bud, everything okay?"

"Is Eddie alright? Over." Dustin asked.

"Yeah, he's fine," Steve replied. "He's right here. The rest of his band have come to see him. Did you want to talk to him?"

There was definitely something off about Dustin's tone.

"No, that's okay," Dustin replied, "just ... um ... just needed to check."

When there was no 'over' at the end of that, Steve knew there was definitely something wrong.

"Hey, Dustin," he said, "did something happen? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," came back. "I just ... well ... I heard the news on the radio and ... and ... it kinda brought everything back."

"Where are you?" Steve asked immediately.

"At home," Dustin told him.

"Is your mom there?"

"She has her gardening group today," Dustin replied.

"Okay," Steve told him, "sit tight, I'm coming to get you. You don't need to be alone right now, and we can leave your mom a note."

He was kicking himself for not thinking about it sooner. If he had known Dustin was going to be alone, he would have prepared better. It might only be a fake cover story being released to a disinterested public, but it was likely having an effect on them all.

"Sorry, guys," he said grabbing his keys, "I've got to go. Eds, you know where everything it, just help yourselves. I won't be long."

Eddie leapt off the couch and came over, placing his hand on Steve's arm.

"Need me to get rid of the guys?" Eddie asked quietly.

"No," Steve said quickly, "you need to catch up. If Dustin wants to talk, I can drive him around a bit, or we can go to my room when I get back. In fact, if you want you can invite the guys to dinner. I'm sure it will help Dustin to talk nerd for a few hours and I made way too much lasagne."

The way Eddie smiled at him for that made his heart flutter.

"You are such a momma bear," Eddie said without the slightest hint of malice. "And thanks, now go get your cub."

Then Eddie leaned forward and pecked him on the cheek in what was clearly a totally unconscious gesture. Eddie's brain caught up with what he had done a second too late.

"I just did that didn't I?" he said.

"You did," Steve replied, glancing over at Eddie's friends who looked surprised and confused, except for Gareth who looked vindicated. "I'd stay, but Dustin..."

"Go," Eddie said, ushering him out the door, "I'll deal with this. They'll be fine."

"You're sure?" Steve checked.

"Shoo," Eddie said and all but bodily ejected him from the house.