Chapter 23. Repercussions
"Steve, darling," his mother's voice cut through his concentration on doing his hair.
"Yes, Mom," he said, turning to where she was standing in the bathroom doorway.
Eddie had been using the shower in his ensuite, so he'd gone to the main one to finish getting ready. While he was sure Eddie would not have minded sharing the bathroom, explaining why he and Eddie were perfectly happy being naked together was not a conversation he wanted to have with his parents yet. His mom had mentioned him and Eddie sharing a bed once over the four days his parents had been home, and he had reiterated the nightmares explanation. She had accepted it and been sympathetic and Steve had taken the win for what it was.
"Your father and I would like a quick word before you head to work once you're ready, if that's alright," she said with a smile.
"Okay," he replied, doing his best to smile back even though those words filled him with dread. "I'll be down in a minute."
"Thank you," his mom said and disappeared.
Steve walked quickly back to his bedroom where Eddie was still only half dressed.
"My mom and dad want to talk to me," he said, doing his best not to panic.
"Did they say why?" Eddie asked, stopping with one leg in his jeans.
Steve shook his head.
"Do you want me to come too?" was Eddie's next question.
Part of Steve wanted to say yes most emphatically, but he could also see that not going down very well.
"No," he said after a few moments thought, "I think I just need you to tell me I'm overreacting."
"Well how were they when they asked?" Eddie said in a reasonable tone.
"Mom was smiling," he admitted.
"Then it's probably not bad," Eddie said, waddling over while trying not to trip over his pants. "And you can always yell if you need help, okay?"
Steve nodded and took a deep breath. He was being ridiculous, he was pretty sure, but the way his parents had been over the last few days was strange to him. The men in black suits had come in and given them the official not-quite-the-truth run down of everything and made them sign paperwork, but that didn't seem to have been a problem. His dad hadn't said much, but what he had said had been calm and polite. His mom on the other hand had seemed to be trying to win parent of the year. He couldn't help thinking it was all going to blow up in his face.
"Yeah, right," he said, mostly to himself. "I best go down."
"Remember, I'm only a scream away," Eddie said with his usual dramatic flair, which at least made him smile.
"You're an idiot, but I love you," Steve said rolling his eyes, at which point he caught up with what he had said.
Eddie blinked at him.
"Was that a slip of the tongue?" Eddie asked.
That was his out right there, but Steve chose not to take it.
"No," he said even though he hadn't planned to say it out loud quite yet, "no slip, but I ... um ... my parents ... I really have to."
"Yes, go," Eddie told him, "but we are talking about this later, even if I have to hunt you down."
Steve nodded and fled with his heart beating a mile a minute for two reasons instead of one.
He took the stairs two at a time, hoping that the exertion would get him out of his head. It didn't really help. The door to his dad's office was open and he walked in hesitantly.
"Hello, Darling, come and sit down," his mom invited, patting the seat next to her on the small couch to the left of the desk.
"Your mother and I have been talking," his father said as Steve took the offered seat, "and we've decided to make a few changes."
Steve's heartrate began to pick up again.
"The last few days have given us a lot to think about," his mom added, "and we realise we have been underestimating you for a long time."
"You didn't know..." he started to say, but his mom put a hand over his.
"We should have known," his mom said with finality.
The look she exchanged with his dad was telling at that.
"With the expansion of the company going on, we can't leave New York," his dad said.
"We always intended to come back here more permanently at some point," his mom told him, "but we've been fooling ourselves. That's why we've decided to sign the house in Hawkins over to you."
For a few seconds, Steve didn't believe what he had heard.
"What?" he asked, so shocked that it just did not make sense.
"This is far more your home than it is ours," his mom said, patting his hand, "and we think it's time it was legally as well. You don't have to worry, the lawyers are working it all out so you won't have to do more than sign a few papers."
"But, this is your house," Steve said, still having trouble taking it in.
"Not for long," his mom said. "Of course, we'd still like to come and visit on occasion, if that's okay with you."
He nodded dumbly as he tried to process all the information.
"And so you don't have to worry about expenses," his dad said, "we've arranged for you to have access to the trust fund your mother's father left you."
"What trust fund?" he asked.
No one had ever mentioned a trust fund. He knew his grandfather had been ridiculously wealthy from very old money, but he thought that had passed to his grandmother then all gone to his mom and into his dad's business when they had lost Grandma Lucy. He'd only been four when his grandfather died.
"It would have come to you when you were twenty-five anyway," his mom told him. "Your father and I never told you about it because we wanted you to understand the value of earning for yourself first."
Translated he was pretty sure that meant his dad had thought he'd sit on his backside and blow all the money as soon as he got his hands on it. Not that he regretted his stints in the retail industry. It had taught him a lot, both personally and fiscally.
"The trustees will provide you with an allowance every month while also dealing with household bills," his father told him, "and if you need to access any larger amounts you'll have to petition them in writing, until you turn twenty-one, when it will be turned over to you. Then you'll be able to decide how the accountants manage the funds."
Steve nodded, even though he took in about half of what his dad said.
"It should be plenty to make sure you can look after your little flock," his mom said, giving him a knowing smile. "I can only imagine the chaos if you run out of chips and Coke."
A bark of a laugh escaped him at that.
"World war III," he agreed because he couldn't quite get his head round the rest.
"We're proud of you, Darling," his mom told him and gathered him into a hug.
Five minutes later Steve walked out of the office with his head still spinning and a handful of paperwork. He headed into the kitchen to find Eddie pouring coffee, sitting down on one of the stools at the breakfast bar.
"You look like you saw a ghost," Eddie said, "and it must be a bad one because I know what you look like fighting monsters."
"I have a trust fund," was probably not the best thing to say first, but he was still mentally flailing.
"Which is ... good?" Eddie asked.
Steve nodded.
"And my parents are signing the house over to me when they go back to New York," he said, still dazed by the whole thing.
"Wow," Eddie said.
"They ... they said they are proud of me," he said, his voice falling to a whisper.
Eddie put down the coffee pot and walked over, pulling him into a hug.
"About time," Eddie told him.
~*~
When he went to work, he took the paperwork with him, because he wanted someone else to take a look at it to see if he had missed anything. Given the way everything was going he didn't think his parents would have put any clauses in to trip him up, but he couldn't quite shift the doubt. Robin's speciality might have been languages and codes, but he was pretty sure she could turn her hand to anything.
"Hi, Dingus," she greeted him as normal, "better get your vest on, you're almost late."
"Yeah," he agreed, heading quickly into the break room.
"You okay?" Robin asked as soon as he came back.
"Yeah," he replied, "just family stuff. Let's get going on these returns and I'll tell you all about it."
It wasn't as if they ever had many customers first thing, so they spent the next half an hour sorting and rewinding, while Steve explained about his morning chat. Robin squealed and hugged him when he told her about the house.
"Does this mean we can finally fix your monstrosity of a bedroom?" was her first question.
That wasn't even something that had occurred to Steve.
"Yeah, I guess it does," he said, a smile slowly blooming on his face as he thought about it. "Or I could just move into Mom and Dad's old room and turn mine into a guest room. After all, the bed's bigger. No more squishing up when we all share."
"Are you trying to tempt me with a soft downy mattress and room to turn over, Mr Harrington?" Robin asked in a bad put-on English accent.
"I may be, Miss Buckley," Steve replied with an even worse accent, "I may be."
"I may faint away at the very suggestion," Robin continued.
The door opened while they were still laughing and for once a customer got a perfectly real smile from Robin.
"Hello, welcome to Family Video," she said sweetly. "Is there anything I can help you with today?"
Steve went back to the tapes he was sorting. It wasn't for a couple of hours they had a chance to talk about anything else but work, since they had people going in and out.
"I told Eddie I love him," Steve finally said when they were alone again.
When there was no immediate response, he had no choice but to look away from what he was doing and meet Robin's gaze.
"And you meant love, love, right?" Robin asked.
He nodded.
"What did he say?" she asked next.
"He asked me if it was a slip of the tongue and I told him no, but it was just after my mom and dad had asked to see me about everything, so we didn't have time to talk," he revealed. "But he said we were definitely going to talk about it. Just with me being so stunned by my parents' news, we decided to leave it until tonight. Dad and Mom are going out to dinner with some of their friends, so we'll have the house to ourselves."
"Your timing sucks," Robin pointed out.
"I know," he admitted, "but it just slipped out. I've been thinking it for a while."
Robin smiled at him then, not the big beaming smile she often shared around liberally, but the special small one she used just for him.
"I'm happy for you, Dingus," she said, bumping her shoulder into his. "Just so you know, I will want a complete rendition of how Eddie reciprocates, because I am in no doubt he will, but whatever you get up to after that had better stay between you two. I never want to hear about what you do with your boy parts."
Steve had the choice between being outraged by her choice of words, or finding it ridiculously funny, so of course he laughed. It was Robin after all.
"This from the girl who goes into detail about her cramps every month," he countered.
"That's purely a matter of survival. You always find the best chocolate, of course I tell you. When your insides feel like they are trying to be on the outside you get to talk about them," Robin replied and placed a smacking great kiss on his forehead. "Until then, no go. Now I am going to reshelve these babies. If I don't return, remember me."
And with that she pushed the cart off down the aisle. Steve snorted another laugh, shaking his head and going back to the rewind pile.
~*~
When he made it home, Steve kept himself busy by grabbing something from the freezer to put on for dinner and preparing some sides to go with it. His parents were still home, so he and Eddie couldn't talk yet. Eddie, for his part, had books and papers and other things strewn across the dining room table and had barely looked up other than giving him a wave when he first arrived back. Eddie was clearly in creative mode since he'd promised a new campaign for the kids.
"So, how was your day with Robin?" Eddie asked as they finally sat down to dinner in the kitchen.
Steve's parents had left ten minutes previously.
"Mostly boring," he replied. "You are intimately familiar with how stunningly interesting Family Video is by now."
"You could have had someone famous swan through town," Eddie said with a grin. "It's Hawkins, so anything can happen."
"Hopefully not for much longer," Steve replied. "And you, how's the campaign going?"
"I think I'm almost there," Eddie said around a forkful of meatloaf. "Oh my god, what did you put in this, it's amazing?"
"Just some Mexican spices," Steve told him. "I got the recipe off the back of a magazine and added a few things."
He wasn't the most creative person on the planet, but he loved playing with recipes. Whereas he had learned the hard way that baking was very much a keep to the recipe thing, cooking was all about experimenting.
"Just one of the things I love about you," Eddie said, and Steve stopped, fork halfway to his mouth.
"You do?" he asked.
Eddie smiled at him.
"I do," his boyfriend replied. "Had a crush on you for years, but you're not allowed to hold that against me, then found out about the real you and fell head over heels. Hook, line and sinker. The whole nine yards."
He reached out and took Eddie's hand before the word salad could continue.
"Think I've been in love with you since you collapsed in my arms in the Upside Down," he admitted. "Didn't want to frighten you away by coming on too strong."
"It would take another swarm of demobats to fight me off, Sweetheart," Eddie told him.
And there it was, cards on the table from both of them. For a conversation Steve had been worrying about all day, it was ridiculously easy.
"I love you," he said, because he just needed to.
"Love you too," Eddie replied.
Steve was pretty sure his heart was about to burst. He couldn't remotely stop smiling.
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