Steve did not sleep well. Even with Eddie's arms wrapped around him and Robin curled in front of him, anything resembling deep slumber was in short supply. The one and only time he did manage to properly fall asleep, he had a nightmare about the Russian lab and woke up crying. It seemed that his subconscious was perfectly happy to let him doze during the day, but when it came to the night, it had other ideas.

In the end he crawled out of bed at around five, gently coaxing Eddie to go back to sleep and leaving Robin snoring. He grabbed some clothes and used the main bathroom to take a shower, so he didn't disturb the others, before heading downstairs. The coffee pot cooperated, so with a mug in hand he headed outside, sitting on one of the loungers in the pre-dawn twilight.

It was peaceful. There were some enterprising birds already trying out their songs even though dawn was a little way off. There were no cars on the road yet. Sitting there it was possible to imagine that everything was normal, no Upside Down, no Russians, no government spooks. He could even ignore the way the world was louder and brighter than it used to be. For a while he let himself enjoy it.

The coffee was bitter on his tongue, the air temperature was comfortable, and there was a light breeze that brought with it the smell of the woods. He felt at home. After the troubled night, it was settling.

Dawn was just properly breaking when he heard the door behind him open.

"This is where you got to," Eddie said, padding over in bare feet.

"Letting nature set me up for the day," he replied, giving Eddie a smile.

It had been a rough night, but it wasn't like they weren't used to them. There was no point in dwelling on it.

"You're sure that's not the caffeine?" Eddie asked, looking at the mug now sitting on the ground.

"Well that too," Steve agreed with a laugh, catching his boyfriend as Eddie plonked down in his lap. "Good morning," he added, winding his arms around Eddie properly.

"Good morning," Eddie replied, leaning in for a quick kiss. "I hate to break it to you, I think we're either going to need a miracle or the smell of frying bacon to wake Birdie up today. I did try, but she threatened to unman me with her elbows."

"Yeah, she does that," he said. "I only didn't believe her once."

Eddie winced on his behalf.

"A half-asleep Robin is a dangerous thing," he added.

"Never in my life would I have guessed that would be information important to me," Eddie said and leaned back in for another kiss.

Steve just hummed and enjoyed the slightly longer kiss. Eddie was still in the clothes he had slept in so it was easy to get a hand up under the loose shirt to run his fingers over Eddie's back.

"Fuck," Eddie said when they broke apart, leaning his forehead against Steve's, "are you sure you have to work today?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Steve replied, equally as reluctant to stop, but knowing he had to. "Come on, let's go back in and I'll start breakfast before we get completely side-tracked."

"I hate it when you're sensible," Eddie complained, but did climb off. "Can we have French toast?"

"French toast and bacon coming up," Steve said and unfolded from the lounger. "The breakfast of kings."

"My liege is most generous," Eddie said with a deep, theatrical bow.

It was impossible to resist, and Steve slapped him on the ass on the way past.

"That's just taking advantage," Eddie mock complained. "Do it again."

~*~

Steve was on opening, so he and Eddie arrived at Family Video after dropping Robin at school. It was way earlier than his shift, but he figured a little time back after all he had missed wasn't so bad. The way Eddie pushed past him as he opened the door and canvased the whole area like a secret service agent made him smile. Eddie was taking keeping him safe very seriously.

Eddie, usually the rugged individualist, had also decided to dress down for the occasion. The fact Eddie had yet to go out in public was on Steve's mind. He'd tried to bring it up, but Eddie had shut him down. The fact that Eddie's solution was to borrow his clothes and tie the glorious mane of hair into a neat ponytail had Steve conflicted. In no way did he want Eddie ever compromising himself for him, but he couldn't help feeling it was safer.

Hawkins was so predictable that most of them wouldn't remotely recognise Eddie without his metal-head armour. Not even with the pale scar on his cheek.

There was also the matter of Eddie's neck. Steve had a thing for Eddie's neck. All that pale skin on display had him thinking impure thoughts. It would undoubtedly drive him crazy.

"I'm going to start on the returns bin," he said, making sure to lock the door again behind him. "You can help if you like, or y'know keep yourself entertained."

"You might not get any work done if you say things like that," Eddie replied with a broad grin.

"If we try anything like that, I definitely will get fired," he replied and headed over to turn the lights on.

He knew Eddie had brought his notebook and was working on a new campaign, so he wasn't too worried his boyfriend would be bored out of his skull.

In the end, he managed to keep himself busy and not think at all about what had happened last time he was here until he was ready to open. After he had unlocked the door and flipped the sign, he went to stand behind the counter. He took up his habitual position without thinking about it. Then he looked up.

For a second, all he could see was the Russian woman's face smiling at him lecherously as she leaned over the counter. He couldn't move.

"Steve."

His name and a soft touch on his shoulder snapped him back to reality. He gasped in a breath and grabbed the counter as he swayed.

"Hey, Big Boy," Eddie said, looping an arm around his waist to keep him steady, "deep breaths, okay?"

He nodded, doing his best to comply. It took a little while, but with Eddie's calming touch, he gradually got his racing heart under control.

"Want to talk about it?" Eddie asked quietly.

"Saw her standing there," he said, closing his eyes and trying his best to banish the unwanted thoughts. "This is ... this is where I was when they drugged me."

"You going to be okay?" was Eddie's next question while rubbing circles on his back.

He did his best to nod.

"I just wasn't ready," he admitted. "I just did what I always do, and it hit me."

"Can I do anything to help?" Eddie asked.

"You already are," he replied and gave his boyfriend the best smile he could manage. "I'll be fine," he added.

Eddie pursed his lips. Steve was pretty sure Eddie didn't believe him, but, after a moment, Eddie gave in with a sigh.

"If I didn't think it might cause a riot I would stay right here," Eddie said. "I'll be watching, okay?"

Steve reached out and gave Eddie's hand a squeeze.

In the end it was a long, tense shift, but nothing terrible happened. The only events of note were firstly when Keith came in during the afternoon and tried to have an actual conversation with him. It was plain weird, and Steve bluffed his way through it by pretending that everything was perfectly normal. Hideously, as predicted by Robin, Keith did eventually give up and headed for the back room.

The second thing was utterly adorable. An older woman who had to be eighty if she was a day, had been looking over the romance section. She'd accidentally knocked a tape off the shelf and Eddie, being the gentleman most of the town had no idea he was, had swooped in to pick it up for her. The woman had recognised him from the paper, but contrary to all their fears, she had believed the cover story. She had spent half an hour telling him what a lovely boy he was for saving the sweet Henderson boy, while Eddie made 'help me' faces at Steve. He had been able to hear the whole conversation from his position at the counter.

Only when the sweet woman had mentioned she had a granddaughter just Eddie's age had Eddie finally made his escape.

And the third thing was when the Party had decided to invade after school. Dustin's exact words when he had laid eyes on Eddie had been: "Dude, what are you wearing?"

Eddie's response had been: "I'm incognito."

Which had almost satisfied the kids, but not quite. Luckily, they had had Will with them because the Byers had now officially returned from California and introducing Eddie to Will had taken over from any outrage at Eddie voluntarily wearing Steve's clothes. When Max got home at the end of the week, everyone would be back in town.

That thought had set Steve's mind turning about the weekend.

"I know it's graduation on Saturday," Steve said when he, Eddie and Robin were in the car on the way back to his place, "and everyone who's graduating will be doing stuff with their families after, but do you think everyone might enjoy a pool party on Sunday?"

They hadn't all been together since they'd all helped put Vecna down for good, and Eddie had never had a chance to experience everyone in one place at all. It was summer, school was finishing, somewhat late thanks to Vecna, and Steve wanted to see everyone able to relax.

"Steve, you got kidnapped under a week ago," Eddie pointed out, "do you think that's a good idea?"

Glancing sideways he gave Eddie a small smile for that.

"Actually, I think it could be a great idea," he replied.

"Don't even bother, Eddie," Robin said from the back, "he's already made up his mind."

"Have not," he protested. "That's why I asked both of you. If you think it would be a disaster, I can be sensible on occasion. I just think it would be good to all get together when it's not the end of the world. No doubt the Hooper-Byers household will want to host something at some point this summer, but the house isn't quite finished, so not yet. Which leaves our place, which has the added advantage of a pool."

When he took his eyes of the road for a second, he noticed Eddie had a small, pleased smile on his face, but Steve wasn't quite sure why.

"Dingus has a point," Robin commented.

"Can't argue with the logic," Eddie agreed. "But I suggest we come up with more of a plan before inviting everyone."

"That we can do," Steve agreed.