Back in S1 when Steve was one of the 'cool kids' he joked about Jonathen being queer. He was obviously changed his behaviour and his best friend is a literal lesbian, but what if that wasnt the only time he used queerness as an insult? Years ago someone found out about Eddie being gay and he was relentlessly bullied for it by the kids in school. Including Steve's friend group. Eddie gave himself this confident 'freak' persona as a defense mechanism and over time people (including Steve) moved on from bullying for his sexuality and kind of forgot about it, instead focusing on calling him a spawn of satan or something, but Eddie never forgot and completely repressed his sexuality. Now jump forward to S4 when Steve and Eddie work together in the upside down and Eddie talks about how Steve isnt as much of an asshole as he thought (mostly referring to the fact that him and his buddies used to bully him for being gay and now Steve's best friend is very clearly a lesbian). Steve doesnt clock it, in fact he doesnt really remember how his friend group treated Eddie. So after they return from the upside down Steve realises that he has developed a little bit of a crush on Eddie, has a freakout about it and then decides to just see what happens. Cue Eddie, who has also developed a bit of a crush but DEFINITELY still remembers the homophobic bullying, being incredibly confused and suspicious about Steve Harrington trying to flirt with him. Some pointers: -The endgame should be Steddie, so you can choose whether or not Steve was directly participating in the bullying or if it was mostly his friends and he was 'just' a bystander. -Maybe Steve is as some point 'subtly' trying to feel out if Eddie is into guys and Eddie just angrily deadpans "Harrington, i know for a fact that you know i'm gay, what are you doing" cue Steve being confused and slowly realising what has been bothering Eddie -Steve getting advice from Robin and shes like "Yeah, you used to run with a super homophobic group, do you not remember??" -Eddie and Steve having a very open discussion about how much the bullying has hurt eddie -Steve finishing his character arc from casually homophobic popular kid dating the prettiest girl in school to bisexual dweeb babysitter dating the town freak
Steddie, Steve used to be homophobic
He was obviously changed his behaviour and his best friend is a literal lesbian, but what if that wasnt the only time he used queerness as an insult?
Years ago someone found out about Eddie being gay and he was relentlessly bullied for it by the kids in school. Including Steve's friend group.
Eddie gave himself this confident 'freak' persona as a defense mechanism and over time people (including Steve) moved on from bullying for his sexuality and kind of forgot about it, instead focusing on calling him a spawn of satan or something, but Eddie never forgot and completely repressed his sexuality.
Now jump forward to S4 when Steve and Eddie work together in the upside down and Eddie talks about how Steve isnt as much of an asshole as he thought (mostly referring to the fact that him and his buddies used to bully him for being gay and now Steve's best friend is very clearly a lesbian). Steve doesnt clock it, in fact he doesnt really remember how his friend group treated Eddie.
So after they return from the upside down Steve realises that he has developed a little bit of a crush on Eddie, has a freakout about it and then decides to just see what happens.
Cue Eddie, who has also developed a bit of a crush but DEFINITELY still remembers the homophobic bullying, being incredibly confused and suspicious about Steve Harrington trying to flirt with him.
Some pointers:
-The endgame should be Steddie, so you can choose whether or not Steve was directly participating in the bullying or if it was mostly his friends and he was 'just' a bystander.
-Maybe Steve is as some point 'subtly' trying to feel out if Eddie is into guys and Eddie just angrily deadpans "Harrington, i know for a fact that you know i'm gay, what are you doing" cue Steve being confused and slowly realising what has been bothering Eddie
-Steve getting advice from Robin and shes like "Yeah, you used to run with a super homophobic group, do you not remember??"
-Eddie and Steve having a very open discussion about how much the bullying has hurt eddie
-Steve finishing his character arc from casually homophobic popular kid dating the prettiest girl in school to bisexual dweeb babysitter dating the town freak