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Steve could confidently say he hadn’t been expecting what happened; he hadn’t wanted to be dragged into any of this but it was hard to deny his pups or Robin when they’d insisted on trying to find Eddie. He knew deep down that he didn’t really think that Eddie had killed Chrissy, but he’d been clinging to that possibility so he didn’t have to face the adding up evidence that this was something Upside Down related. It felt like he’d never be free of that mess. So of course he’d sucked it up and driven them to Rick’s, desperately tried to get Dustin to stop shouting, and let Max lead them to the boat house. He felt woefully unprepared for danger, but still found himself bickering with Dustin as if he wasn’t feeling some level of terror about the situation.
He yelped when he was suddenly grabbed and pushed along until his back met the wall hard, his breath leaving him in a whoosh, before he managed to actually look at who was pressing a bottle to his neck. Eddie Munson, hair wild around his head and eyes blown wide, he was growling and looked nearly feral, clearly not listening to a thing Dustin was saying, pressing the bottle a little harder into Steve’s neck.
Steve did the only thing he could think of, letting his instincts take over and tipping his head to the side, a sign of submission that at least seemed to marginally relax the other omega enough that he wasn’t pressing the bottle anymore. His mind was racing, trying to figure out what he could do to bring Eddie back to himself, when the panic from Dustin infiltrated past the ringing in his ears. He couldn’t stop the soothing purring or the way he pushed out a calming scent in an attempt to calm down his pups.
He certainly hadn’t expected the way Eddie’s grip loosened entirely, the bottle dropping to the ground before he was suddenly burying his head against Steve’s chest with a scared whimper. He didn’t hesitate though, brought his arms gently around Eddie and slowly lowered them to the ground so they could both be more comfortably as he continued to rumble soothingly, letting himself lean into his instincts, bringing one of his hands up to run fingers through Eddie’s messy hair. He wasn’t particularly surprised when Eddie pushed himself closer, his nose sliding up to press against Steve’s scent gland, his own raspy purr quietly joining Steve’s.
“Steve?” Dustin’s voice was hesitant as he crouched nearby, looking over the scene with worried eyes, “Is he okay?”
“He’s scared.” He murmured back, not pausing in the way he was petting through Eddie’s hair, “He’s kinda…feral at the moment.”
“What should we do?” This time it was Max, taking only a small step closer, she had her arms wrapped around herself like she was trying to comfort herself.
Steve thought about it for a moment, his eyes sweeping around the boat house with distaste, he could feel how desperately he wanted to get his scared omega somewhere safe and warm, surprised to find that what he really wanted was to pull the other boy into his nest until he felt better again. He hesitated before looking down at Eddie the best he could, “Eddie? Can you hear me?” His voice was soft, lilting up into that soothing omega tone he rarely used.
The other boy whined, but it was clear he understood Steve well enough despite the panic that was controlling him. Steve brought his hands up to gently pull Eddie away from his neck so he could meet his eyes, “How does a nest sound, hmm? Somewhere safe.”
Eddie was very twitchy now that wasn’t being held close, but the words had his eyes widening and a desperate whimper falling out of him.
Later, Steve was going to be raking over the memory of this interaction over and over, but in the moment he simply let himself lean forward and rub his nose against Eddie’s, “Okay, we’re going to have to move then. Are you able to do that?”
Eddie nodded, looking a little dazed at the show of affection, and allowed Steve to pull the two of them to their feet. He clearly wanted to push himself close again, but Steve stopped him with a gentle hand, moving to pull his jacket off and pressing it into Eddie’s hands, “I need you to hold onto this.” He murmured, watching the way Eddie buried his face in the fabric, the scent calming the worst of the trembles wracking through him.
It was only a slight challenge to get Eddie out to the car, it was more of a challenge to convince him to lay down on the floor of the back seat, Max and Dustin carefully climbing into the backseat so they weren’t touching him. He watched them with distrust until Steve reached one hand back to let the other press his nose into his wrist. Driving one handed wasn’t the most pleasant but he managed just fine on the long drive back to his home, pulling all the way into the garage so his neighbors wouldn’t see when he coaxed Eddie out of the car.
Once they were inside, Steve paused long enough to look over the other three, “I’m gonna try to get him calm enough to be more coherent, you guys can wait down here, okay?”
Dustin frowned, “What are we supposed to do?”
“See if you can find any music Eddie might like. I don’t have any metal but there might be something, and it might help.” He reached out to run a soothing hand across Dustin’s shoulders, “I will call you up as soon as I can, okay?”
The pup paused for a moment before finally nodding, joining Max and Robin as they searched through the record collection.
Steve led Eddie upstairs to his room, the other was whining quietly again and Steve just hoped that he was right about the nest helping. The other omega seemed to be soothed by his scent, and nests were often the best place to be for distressed omegas in his experience; the addition of all the pack scents were what concerned him. He knew Eddie was close to the pups, so he might not mind those ones, but he didn’t know many of the other pack members, and Steve wasn’t sure how he might react to some of the alpha scents in it.
He hesitated for a moment before kicking his shoes off, “Do you want to get comfortable?”
Eddie didn’t hesitate to quickly remove everything down to his boxers, shivering for a moment now that he was free from all of the fabrics, and then looked expectantly at Steve.
Steve was a little slower to remove his own clothes, “Do you want something soft to wear?”
Eddie shook his head, his hands were twitching like he wanted to hold Steve close again so Steve pushed off his jeans and grabbed the other’s hands, pulling him gently into the nest, laying on his back so Eddie could curl into his side. He couldn’t help but think about how odd of a turn this day had taken, from waking up alone in a nest that felt too big in that moment to now. Their legs tangled together and an arm thrown around his waist, and Eddie Munson’s nose pressed into his scent gland again, letting out a soft sigh of comfort once Steve started purring again, quick to join with his own purrs again.
He wasn’t sure how long it took until Eddie made a soft sleepy sound, pulling back from Steve enough to meet his gaze with his own half-lidded one, “T-Thank you.” his own voice was soft and rough, looking just a little scent drunk, but he clearly wasn’t panicking anymore.
Steve couldn’t help but smile back softly, “You’re welcome. How are you feeling?”
“Uh…it’s like I'm scared and I want to freak out but I can’t, like it’s being pushed down by this fuzzy cloud.”
“That’s not too surprising, I think, but I'm not much of an expert on all of this. Kinda just following my instincts.” He couldn’t help how sheepish he sounded, wishing desperately that he could at least give Eddie more information.
Eddie nodded slowly, “You came to find me…why?”
“Dustin, him and Max want to help you.” He struggled to sit up for a moment, his own sleepy daze fighting against him, “We should probably go get them, there’s a lot to talk about.”
“Can we-” Eddie started, cutting himself off with an embarrassed noise, his cheeks turning a pretty pink, “Sorry, I just…can we stay here for a few more minutes?”
Steve couldn’t deny him, he found, and pulled the other back into their previous embrace, though Eddie simply laid his head on Steve’s chest this time. He was surprised by how quickly he had latched onto Eddie, how deeply he could feel the desire to protect him and keep him safe, and how right it felt to have not just his scent mingling with the pack in his nest but to have the other omega physically in his nest with him. How good it felt to have their skin pressing together, how desperately he wanted to press his lips to Eddie’s cheeks, to see if he could feel the warmth of that pretty flush.
In a few moments they would get up and get dressed and discuss what would become one of the worst of their Upside Down experiences, but for now he allowed himself the peace of being tangled together with Eddie, the both of them purring softly and soaking in each other’s scents.