Dustin was waiting for him when Steve pulled up outside the Henderson residence. He leaned over and opened the door from the inside without even thinking about it as Dustin stepped towards the car.

"Hey," Dustin said, shuffling his feet in embarrassment, but looking kind of relieved as well.

"Hey," Steve replied, "get in."

"I'm sorr..." Dustin started even before the kid had his belt on.

"None of that," Steve interrupted him. "Shit happens, we deal. I will pull out the rule book like you nerds do if you come at me on this one."

They all had trauma. They all needed help from time to time. None of them would call any of the others out for things like that. Steve was not letting Dustin feel guilty about this. Their rules were all unwritten, but if he had to come up with a book on the fly, he damn well would.

"So, what do you need?" he asked. "We can drive around and talk if you want. We can go back to my place and talk. Or I can just get you back to Eddie as fast as possible, so you can make sure he is okay with your own eyes and kick the hell out of the irrational voice at the back of your mind which is telling you he might not be."

Dustin half looked at him from the passenger seat. The poor kid was clearly still embarrassed, but he appeared to have got the message.

"The last one," Dustin said.

"Can do," Steve assured him. "Just so you know, I called him twice from work yesterday because I had to make sure too, and he's in my head, so I have absolutely no excuse."

"Really?" Dustin asked.

"Yes, really," he replied. "He was gone for months, Dustin. We thought he was dead. That would do a number on anyone and especially you. He died in your arms, even if it didn't stick. So, I will get you back to my house as quickly as legally possible and you can hug him and check he's still in one piece. Then you can join in whatever nerdy talk he has going on with the other nerds he calls friends too. How does that sound?"

He managed to get a small smile out of Dustin at that.

"Thanks, Steve," the kid said.

"Not a problem," he replied. "You left your mom a note, right?"

"Yes, Steve," Dustin replied with a huff, which was far more in character and made Steve smile.

He might bitch about always ending up the babysitter, but the world could drag that title from his cold dead hands.

~*~

Everything had gone pretty smoothly with getting Dustin back to his house and letting the kid make sure Eddie was in one piece. Gareth, Jeff, and Frank had all accepted the offer to stay for dinner. They seemed perfectly cool with him and Eddie, and had clearly been warned that Dustin did not know about this situation, so that did not come up and all was plain sailing. He was, however, expecting there to be threats against his life at a later date, but he would worry about that when it happened.

Robin and Wayne had arrived as expected, Wayne having graciously offered to pick Robin up on his way over. It was Wayne's night off, so for once he didn't have to rush off to work. Everything was surprisingly relaxed, even when they turned on the local evening news to see how the story was being reported.

"Oh my god no," Eddie wailed when his picture came up on screen.

Gareth all but fell off the couch laughing, and Steve was a bit confused. The picture of Eddie was clearly a school photo day photograph with his hair in a neat ponytail. Steve wasn't sure why his boyfriend was complaining.

"At least they didn't use a mug shot," Jeff commented, which made Gareth laugh harder.

"Um, what's wrong with the photo?" Steve had to ask.

Eddie stared at him as if he had asked if the earth was flat.

"Look at what I'm wearing!" Eddie said, waving his hand at the screen. "A mug shot would have been better. And they made me put my hair up. That is so far from metal. That was the first time I was trying to graduate, and they forced me to conform, said if I could adapt then I might have a chance. Lying assholes."

"Okay," Steve said in his best placating tone. "But think of it this way, people will see that picture of you and think you have a normal side, which will help convince their tiny minds that the news story is, in fact true, rather than all the horrible lies Jason was telling about you, so it's a net win. And since apparently your friends will just laugh uncontrollably, there's no chance any of them will get the wrong idea."

"He's got a point, kid," Wayne commented.

"But it's so embarrassing," Eddie complained.

"There, there," Robin said and patted Eddie's arm, which set Gareth off again and Steve had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop from joining in.

Sometimes Eddie could be very dramatic.

"Who wants dessert?" he asked before he could attract his boyfriend's ire.

Everyone eagerly agreed so Steve headed off to find the ice cream he had somewhere, hoping the kids hadn't managed to consume it all while he wasn't looking. He was leaning into the chest freezer in the utility room just off the kitchen when cold lanced up his spin. As he stood up rapidly, he narrowly missed hitting his head on freezer lid. It thudded back into place as instinct sent him running back towards the living room.

"What?" he asked before he could stop himself as he burst through the kitchen door.

Luckily, no one was looking at him, so he didn't have to explain why he was panicking when he hadn't even been in the room. Everyone had their eyes on Eddie, who was apparently holding an official looking letter. From the way Wayne was sitting forward, Steve was pretty sure who had given it to him.

"You okay, kid?" Wayne asked as Eddie just stared at the paper he was holding.

"Yeah," Eddie said before cracking the smallest smile and Steve remembered how to breathe. "I'm graduating."

"What?" Robin asked and he handed her the letter. "Dear Mr Munson," she read, "in light of the exceptional circumstances of your absence for the end of your third senior year, the school board has been persuaded to assess all three of your senior years as a whole. Taking this into consideration we are delighted to inform you, you have enough credits to graduate. It gives us great pleasure to invite you to be part of the graduating class of 1986."

"Holy shit," Jeff said. "Eddie, that's awesome."

"No way they just decided to be nice to me," Eddie responded, smiling, but shaking his head in disbelief. "Most of the teachers hate my guts."

"You're a hero, Eds," Steve said because he couldn't just blurt out that it was likely Owens had pulled some strings, "maybe someone felt guilty enough to put on some pressure. I'm sure Nancy would love to run the headline 'School spurns local hero' so I guess some others might too."

"My boy's a high school graduate," Wayne said, standing up and dragging Eddie out of his seat for a bear hug. "Congratulations, son."

"Forget ice cream," Steve said, "this calls for a celebration. I'm making milkshakes. Everyone in the kitchen so you can pick your flavour."

It would mean breaking into the hoard of extra things he had squirreled away for special occasions where the kids could not find them, but the situation most definitely deserved it.

~*~

It had been an incredibly boring day, with virtually no customers during his shift, and Steve was determined to enjoy a relaxing evening with his boyfriend. They had dinner, enjoyed a gentle make-out session on the couch, and were just sitting around. It was nice and calm, which really should have given Steve a clue it couldn't last.

"So," Eddie said as Steve was flicking through channels on the TV, "Wayne asked me today when I was moving back in with him."

The remote slid out of Steve's hand and hit the carpet with a thud.

"You want to?" he asked, refusing to look over at his boyfriend.

It had honestly never occurred to him, but of course Eddie was now free to go back to his life. The cover story was out, had been for four days, there was no reason for Eddie to stay anymore. Eddie was only still holed up at Steve's house to give plenty of time for the story to circulate. Technically, Eddie could venture out any time.

Steve realised he had become so comfortable with Eddie in his home, he had forgotten that that wasn't the way things were supposed to be. One of his spare rooms had all of Eddie's stuff in it, brought over bit by bit by Wayne, even though Eddie slept in his room every night.

The idea of going back to living by himself chilled him to the bone.

When arms wound around him, he remained stiff in the embrace.

"No," Eddie whispered in his ear.

"But?" Steve said.

"But what if your parents come home?" Eddie asked.

"They haven't been here in months," he replied, "and they always call first. They like the house pristine and seem to think I never clean it unless they tell me to."

"But what if they don't?" Eddie insisted.

"Then we tell them I'm doing my civic duty," he said. "You're a hero, you put your life on the line to save other people, and you needed somewhere to stay while you're still recovering and getting back on your feet. It's good for the Harrington name. What would it have looked like if I'd just kicked you out? My dad couldn't argue with that."

Eddie's arms tightened a little.

"They'd really buy that?" was the quiet question.

"When the alternative is that their son is associating with what they consider trailer trash because he wants to," he replied, unable to keep the bitterness out of his tone, "yes, they'd buy that."

A light kiss on the side of his neck was Eddie's response to that unfortunate truth.

"You're sure you don't want me out of your hair?" Eddie asked.

"I'd rather go live in the Upside Down," he replied, folding his hand over Eddie's against his chest.

It was all backwards. They were living in each other's pockets, sleeping in the same bed every night, existing in domestic harmony, well mostly, when their physical relationship had barely progressed from kissing into some heavy petting. They were taking it slowly, getting comfortable with each other even as they orbited each other like two moons. Yet it felt right to Steve. The thought of it ending filled him with dread.

"Been there, do not recommend," Eddie said, going for the obvious joke.

Steve wished he could smile, but he was too far down the rabbit hole.

"I can't do this without you," he confessed. "I go out there and I feel like an alien. Don't move too fast. Don't be too strong. Keep everything inside. And then I come back here ... and ... and ..."

He ran out of words.

"It's okay," Eddie said, pulling him closer. "You don't have to explain. I get it."

And that was the crux of it all. Eddie did get it. Robin was doing her best, being a wonderful support, but the only person who could really understand everything was Eddie.

"I'm not going anywhere," Eddie told him. "I don't want to leave any more than you want me to go."

"Then why ..?" Steve asked.

"Because I'm an insecure fuckup and the demons in my head kept whispering that I do not get to have this, that I'm too much, too loud, too everything, and you will get fed up of me," Eddie admitted.

Steve finally turned in Eddie's embrace, so they were looking at each other.

"I've got those too," he confessed.

Eddie leaned their foreheads against one another.

"Then let's exorcise them together," he said.

"What will you tell Wayne?" Steve asked, wrapping his arms around Eddie, and trying to relax into the closeness.

The whole conversation had him on edge.

"That I'm staying here," Eddie replied. "If I keep it vague, he won't push it."

"But you want to tell him about us, that we're more than friends," Steve did not need to ask, he knew.

Eddie was silent for a few moments.

"He knows I'm gay," Eddie finally said. "Think he had me pegged before I even admitted it to myself. He wouldn't judge, but if you don't want me to tell him, if this is all still too new, I ..."

Steve touched his lips to Eddie's, bringing the rambling to a halt.

"Guess I should get ready for the shovel talk from your uncle then," he said, finally managing a tiny smile.

There were so many questions, so much to figure out and deal with, but Eddie was the least frightening part of it all.