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When Steve found out that four of his “kids” had decided to join a high school club called the Hellfire Club, he knew that the secret he had been keeping for months might come to light. It wasn’t immediate panic, but rather that discomfort that settled in his chest every time something slipped out of his control.
It started like any other Monday, Steve picked Dustin up after classes. Dustin climbed into the passenger seat talking nonstop, tossing his backpack into the back seat, excitement vibrating in his voice. “Steve, you have to meet this guy. He’s incredible. Our DM is… different, dramatic, loud, Awesome.”
Steve drove with one hand on the wheel, the other resting near the cup holder, listening halfway while nodding automatically.
“Uh-huh.”
“He does voices for every character. Seriously, he’s like no one else. His hair is insane, it’s awesome.” That caught Steve’s attention; he smiled with that expression that meant something worried him, but he wouldn’t admit it. Dustin didn’t notice and kept talking. Eddie had mentioned the club, sure, but there could be other D&D club, right? Still, something about Dustin’s whole description bothered him.
It wasn’t until that same night, when he visited Eddie’s trailer, that reality hit him head-on. Eddie was leaning against the doorframe, black T-shirt, rings shining even in the dim outdoor light.
Steve turned off the engine and stayed inside the car for a second before getting out. They went in quickly and closed the door behind them. A hug, a brief but needy kiss. Max lived right across the way; they couldn’t risk it.
“Your kids?”
“The ones from the club?” Steve sighed, lying back on Eddie’s bed.
“They’re my kids.”
The silence that followed was short but heavy. Eddie blinked, then let out an incredulous laugh. Steve mirrored it, more out of nerves than amusement. They decided to take it slow; they could handle it.
They didn’t have to find out about anything… yet. It wasn’t that they didn’t want their friends to know; Steve knew they’d accept it but he also knew they were terrible at keeping secrets, and Hawkins wasn’t exactly a safe place for careless comments.
…
After the Starcourt fire, Steve got a job with Robin at Family Video. Right across the street was the record store where a rebellious guy with wild curls and a defiant attitude worked: Eddie Munson. Steve had developed a crush before he even realized it, first it was curiosity, then excuses to cross the street, then conversations that dragged on longer than they should have.
Eddie was older, still in high school, loved metal, and much to Steve’s surprise, understood and respected the nerdy world of the kids. Little by little, they got to know each other and decided to start a relationship without anyone but Robin knowing. She found out because she had to watch Steve go through every possible sexuality crisis until he finally accepted that he was bisexual and attracted to the metalhead who worked at the record store across the street.
…
The kids admired Eddie. He was confident, unafraid to be himself, and always defended them when someone tried to mess with his club. Even though Max and El didn’t play D&D, the times they all met in Mike’s basement, they got to know Eddie and grew fond of him.
That led them to this moment.
From the first time Dustin saw Eddie, something caught his attention: his clothes, his hair, and above all, his rings. So many rings, too many. He thought they were really cool. Dustin always noticed details, even if he didn’t know why.
He didn’t think much of it until one afternoon when Eddie stretched his arms out, dramatizing a game scene, his hands moving energetically. Dustin found himself staring at one ring in particular: silver, with two cat heads facing each other and a red stone in the center. It felt familiar, like a word on the tip of his tongue. Eddie, of course, noticed Dustin’s distraction.
That same night, when he was alone with Steve, lying on the trailer bed with soft music playing in the background, Eddie mentioned it.
“You know, Dustin was staring at my right hand a lot today.”
“So what?” Steve asked, distractedly playing with Eddie’s curls.
“This” Eddie said, holding up his right hand. A silver ring with two cat heads and a ruby in the center gleamed faintly.
“Do you think he figured it out?” Steve looked at the matching ring to his own, the one he didn’t wear on his hand but instead kept hanging from a chain that almost never showed.
“No… I don’t think so.”
Dustin couldn’t stop thinking about it. That night he tossed and turned in bed, replaying the image over and over. The next day, while they were gathered in the school cafeteria and Eddie talked about the upcoming campaigns, Dustin looked again at Eddie’s hand, the ring, and drifted off in thought.
“Henderson!” Eddie called. No response.
“Henderson, I asked you something” he repeated while Mike and Lucas elbowed Dustin from both sides to snap him out of it.
“You okay?” “Did you stay up late again with your character stories?” Will asked.
“What? No” Dustin replied, pulling his gaze away from Eddie’s hand. This time, everyone noticed.
“Anyway, like I was saying…” Eddie continued.
A few hours later, in the Wheeler basement, while they were in the middle of a pointless argument, Dustin said, “There’s something weird.”
“There’s always something weird” Lucas said without looking up.
“No, different. Eddie’s ring… two cats and a ruby. I’ve seen it before.”
Max raised an interested eyebrow. “Where?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not making it up.”
Will watched Dustin closely.
“Now that you mention it, I think I’ve seen it somewhere too,” Lucas said.
“Maybe you’re overthinking it, it’s nothing important” Mike replied.
“Anyone wears rings” El commented.
“Yeah, but this is different. Someone we know has one just like it,” Dustin said, drifting back into his thoughts.
Days later, like every morning, Steve was waiting to drive Dustin to school. After honking several times, he got distracted by the music on the radio and noticed the ring he had forgotten to put on. He picked up the silver chain with the ring he shared with Eddie and gently slipped it around his neck, he was so distracted that he didn’t notice Dustin approaching the car quietly.
“What were you doing?” Dustin asked, discreetly looking at Steve’s neck.
“I’ve been waiting for you for five minutes, Henderson. What do you think I was doing?” Steve snapped, stressed. “Keep this up and you’re going to be late to school every day.”
“Since when do you wear jewelry?” Dustin asked, ignoring the scolding.
“What? Since forever. Are you even listening to me?” Steve replied, adjusting the collar of his shirt and starting the car.
“Mmh” was all Dustin answered as he stared out the window.
That same night, Dustin couldn’t sleep, he tossed and turned until a thought hit him, that morning, when he approached Steve’s car, he had seen him put on a silver chain that glinted faintly with a red flash.
He jumped out of bed, grabbed his walkie-talkie, and tuned in. “Guys, I figured it out. Do you copy? Guys, wake up!” repeated
“Dustin, do you know what time it is?” Mike said grumpily after a few minutes.
“That doesn’t matter right now. I know where I’d seen Eddie’s ring.”
“And you couldn’t wait until tomorrow to say it?” Max said, her voice sleepy.
“No, this is important. Steve, he has the same ring, just on a chain. I saw it this morning, I’m not one hundred percent sure, but it has to be. It was red.”
“That’s it!” Lucas’s voice suddenly came through. “That’s where I saw it too, once when he was helping me practice basketball.”
“But why would they have matching rings?” Will asked softly.
“Best friend rings” El said.
“No, I don’t think so” Dustin said. “This is something else. We have to figure it out.”
“Tomorrow” the others said decisively.
The next day, gathered again in the basement, it was Max who had the idea, with a slow, dangerous smile. “Pool party.”
Convincing Steve wasn’t easy, it was late February, and the weather wasn’t exactly ideal for a pool party, but in the end, he agreed. As always, he couldn’t win against those kids. He had to make sure they weren’t going to freeze to death in some other pool if they got the idea on their own, besides, everyone needed to relax a little. They invited Robin, Nancy and Jonathan couldn’t make it. Music and snacks, everything seemed normal.
Steve was suspicious because of how much they had insisted. A pool party in early spring?, the conversation with Eddie, the glances at his neck, and Dustin’s questions gave him a clue.
Eddie arrived a little late. When he did, Steve was talking to Robin while the others were already in the pool. He thought they wouldn’t notice, but Steve’s attitude changed the moment Eddie arrived.
“It’s different” El said.
“Yeah” Will agreed.
They tried to distract themselves by playing in the pool, but when they heard Steve say he was getting in, they paused for a few seconds. They kept playing while sneaking glances. When Steve took off his shirt, Dustin held his breath.
Nothing. There was no chain.
“He took it off” Dustin whispered, more certain than he wanted to admit.
Eddie, lounging on a chair, noticed it too. Later, when Steve passed by, Eddie murmured low enough for only him to hear, “Your neck feels empty.”
“Dustin was staring too much” Steve replied quietly.
“Of course he was.”
After the pool party, the kids started obsessing even more over the ring. Steve taking off the chain hadn’t been a coincidence; it meant he was hiding something. They began watching both boys, looking for answers. They needed to know why they shared rings and why they didn’t want anyone to find out.
Subtle plans emerged or not so subtle ones. Going to Steve’s job and staring carefully without actually asking about it. Doing the same with Eddie. Observing, analyzing, waiting for one of them to make a mistake. It didn’t work.
Steve stayed strangely alert, and Eddie kept acting like he had absolutely nothing to hide.
Until Max mentioned something that didn’t add up. She lived right across from Eddie’s traile, she saw people coming and going all the time, but she had never seen Steve show up there unless it was to pick her up. If Eddie and Steve were friends, they should hang out, right? So why didn’t they?
“Maybe they hang out somewhere else?” Mike suggested.
"But what about the rings, and why hide it?” Dustin insisted.
The silence that followed was answer enough.
What they didn’t know was that Steve’s BMW parked outside Eddie’s trailer at midnight and left before seven in the morning, always carefully, always quietly.
The plan came together. Watching them in different places. Max asked Eddie to take her to Mike’s house for a sleepover, he agreed without suspecting anything. Then they convinced Nancy to drive them all back to Max’s house without too many explanations. Nancy didn’t ask questions, she dropped them off near the trailer park and left.
As soon as the car disappeared, the kids ran silently to Max’s house and settled in by the window. They waited, when the clock hit 12:18 a.m., the sound of tires crunching over gravel broke the silence.
“Did you hear that?” Will whispered.
Dustin was already on his feet, pressed to the window. “It’s him.”
Steve stepped out of the BMW with calm movements, like he’d done it hundreds of times before. Eddie was already waiting in the doorway, leaning casually with a smile on his face, as if he knew exactly what time Steve would arrive. There was no surprise.
Steve went inside, Eddie closed the door behind him. They took turns watching for a couple more hours, whispering comments about every noise, every shadow that seemed to move inside the trailer. But exhaustion won, one by one, they fell asleep on the floor of Max’s room.
The alarm went off at 7:15 a.m, they woke up suddenly and looked at each other, the same realization crossing all their faces. They had lost hours of surveillance while Steve had been with Eddie, they ran to the window, but the BMW was gone. They didn’t know when he had left.
“Well, this is definitely weird” Max said as she poured herself a bowl of cereal and sat down with the others.
“Why would he spend time with Eddie so late at night?” Lucas added. “I mean, they both have free time during the day.”
“And it wasn’t a short visit” Will murmured.
Dustin tightened his grip on his spoon. “Now I’m sure they’re hiding something from us.”
From that day on, they couldn’t stop noticing it.
It wasn’t obvious at first or maybe they just hadn’t been paying attention. Small details that had gone unnoticed before, looks that lasted a little too long, comfortable silences.
The way Eddie lowered his voice when Steve was nearby, or how Steve tensed when Eddie entered a room, not like he was uncomfortable, but like he was attentive.
Dustin was the first to point it out.
“Did they always talk to each other like that?” he asked one afternoon in Mike’s basement, while they were going over a campaign no one was really paying attention to.
“Like what?” Lucas replied.
“Like they already know what the other one is going to say.”
The differences piled up quickly. Eddie always found excuses to stay close when Steve showed up. Steve, for his part, let Eddie invade his personal space without complaining.
Neither of them did that with anyone else and the worst part was that once they noticed it, they couldn’t stop seeing it.
“It’s like they’re… different with each other” El said, searching for the right words.
That night, they met again in the basement, no games, no dice, no music. Just theories.
“We can’t keep just watching” Max said, sitting on the back of the couch. “We need to make one of them mess up.”
“How?” Lucas asked.
“Pressure” Dustin replied. “People always make mistakes when they feel watched.”
The plan was put together with the seriousness of an important mission. Dustin took the lead, pacing the basement while the others watched. “We need something they can’t control” he said finally.
“A place where they’re together” Max added, crossing her arms. “And where they can’t just… leave.”
“Hellfire” Lucas said.
“No” Dustin replied immediately. “Eddie’s in his element there. If anyone messes up, it’ll be Steve.”
That led them to the obvious choice. Family Video. “Steve always lets his guard down there” Will said carefully. “He thinks he’s safe.”
“And Eddie goes there a lot” Max added. “Always stops by to ‘bother him.’”
The plan was simple: they’d all go together, like nothing was wrong. Split up around the store, pretending to look at movies, make comments out loud, nothing direct, nothing accusatory.
“Something like ‘nice ring” Lucas suggested.
“But not to Eddie” Dustin corrected. “To Steve.”
Max smiled. “And then we watch what Eddie does.”
The next day after school, the group showed up at Family Video like it was any other afternoon. Too close together, too quiet. Steve saw them come in and frowned immediately.
“Why are you all here?” he asked, leaning on the counter.
“Can’t we rent movies?” Max replied with an innocent smile that fooled no one.
They scattered around the store, or pretended to, Dustin grabbed a random tape and walked in circles near the counter, Lucas and Mike stood by the shelves without really reading the title, Will watched Steve more than the tapes and El waited.
Eddie showed up twenty minutes later, as usual, pushing the door open with his shoulder. “Hey, Harrington” he greeted, leaning a little too close to the counter. Steve looked up and smiled without thinking, not the polite smile, but the soft one he only used with Eddie. As he leaned forward, a bright silver chain slipped into view, Max noticed it first, El noticed it second.
“Nice ring” Dustin blurted out suddenly, staring straight at Steve’s chest. Steve froze. Just for a second, but it was enough, he looked down instinctively, straight to his neck, Eddie did the same.
Silence.
“I thought you didn’t wear jewelry” Dustin added casually.
“I” Steve swallowed. “It’s… old.”
“Dustin” Eddie said sharply, his tone was soft, protective.
Everyone noticed, they exchanged looks. Confirmation.
“Guys, we’re not stupid” Max said, crossing her arms.
“We saw you” Lucas said. “At the trailer. At night.”
Steve and Eddie looked at each other, not panicked, just resigned.
“We weren’t trying to catch you” Will added. “We just wanted to know what was going on.”
The silence that followed was different, not tense, not uncomfortable.
“Since when?” Mike asked.
Steve looked at Eddie. Eddie looked back. Then he sighed. “For a while now” Steve said. “And we didn’t want to hide it from you, it’s just… it’s a lot, and you guys are terrible at keeping secrets.”
“Exactly” Eddie added. “And it wouldn’t be great if people outside our circle found out. Hawkins sucks.”
Steve lifted the chain, letting the ring dangle between his fingers. Eddie raised his right hand at the same time. Two identical rings, there was no point hiding it anymore.
“We knew it” Dustin muttered, more relieved than triumphant. “Well… mostly.”
El was the first to step closer. “You don’t have to hide with us.” Max smiled. “Yeah.”
Steve exhaled. Eddie laced their fingers together this time, not caring who saw.
“So” Dustin said, sitting on the counter, “since when?”
“No. No interrogations” Steve sighed.
“It’s not an interrogation,” Max shot back. “It’s a basic question.”
Eddie grinned, leaning his elbow on the counter. “Since before you decided Hellfire was a good idea.”
“Before?” Mike repeated. “So while we were playing D&D you guys were already”
“No” Steve cut in quickly. “No details.”
“Relax, sweetheart” Eddie murmured, lowering his voice.
Dead silence.
“Did he just call you sweetheart?” Dustin asked, eyes wide.
“He said sweetheart” Max confirmed.
Steve covered his face with one hand. “Eddie.”
“What?” Eddie replied innocently. “It’s not a secret anymore.”
That was the mistake.
“Do you kiss?” Dustin blurted out.
“Dustin!” Mike scolded him.
“Who fell in love first?” El asked at the same time.
“Why cat rings?” Will asked, genuinely curious.
“One at a time!” Steve exclaimed. Eddie laughed, genuinely happy, and slipped an arm around Steve’s shoulders without thinking. Steve tensed for half a second, then relaxed, leaning into him.
Max made an exaggerated face. “Great, now they’re touching.”
“They’re gross” Lucas muttered.
“Disgusting” Max added, even though she was smiling.
Eddie leaned down to whisper in Steve’s ear. “I told you they wouldn’t shut up.”
“I told you this would happen” Steve replied, not moving away.
Eddie smiled and pressed a soft kiss to Steve’s cheek. “They’ll get used to it.”
“God” Lucas groaned. “We never should’ve figured this out.”