found an old reddit AMA with brennan and discovered this gem
every so often, i think, and it might be so selfish of me, but i crave to be someone's first choice. i want to be the person that someone sees fun things to do and their first thought is to ask me to go with them. i want someone to be willing to inconvenience themselves a little bit sometimes for me as i would do for them. i want to be looked at in a list of people and to have someone pick me out of all of them. i want to be held at the same level as a romantic partner in terms of effort and closeness. i want someone to want me as much as i want them, even though it's not in a romantic sense. i want to be important to someone.
People think Steve doesn’t like Mike because Mike is mean to him but that’s not true. Steve loves that Mike is mean because it means that Steve can be mean back.
Steve, raised since childhood on a strict diet of tax forms, utility bills, and neatly labeled folders, handles Love with capital L the only way he knows how—logistically.
So the moment he realizes things with Eddie are serious-serious, he doesn’t make a big speech or even breathe a word.
He just quietly opens a joint savings account.
Then a trust fund.
Lists himself as Eddie’s emergency contact.
Buys a gold ring (simple, tasteful, suspiciously the right size). He knows Eddie likes silver, but that's not what it's for. Gold is in any case an investment in the future, if something happens.
And—because, well, they’ve survived four apocalypses—he updates his will.
Steve wrote it after Apocalypse #2.
The BMW had been bought with his money and, should anything happen, was legally designated to go to Dustin.
Everything else—his personal savings, the shared funds, and whatever compensation the government might cough up for the next end-of-the-world scenario—was to go to Eddie.
Nobody knows this but Steve. It’s filed in a folder marked “just in case”.
Eddie, on the other hand, doesn’t do paperwork.
When he realizes things are serious, he gives Steve his favorite band t-short. Then changes the tires on Steve’s BMW from summer to winter without being asked. Fixes the bookshelf Steve’s been threatening to burn for a month. And starts making him sandwiches in the morning — the kind his mom used to make for him, with just the right amount of mustard and that one slice of tomato Steve always forgets he likes. Uses his entire vocabulary of cute nicknames on Steve and comes up with a couple of new ones.
Miraculously, it works.
Because Eddie gets this strange, unfamiliar feeling of being safe. And Steve? Steve finally feels understood. And cared for, in a way he didn’t know he needed.
Dick: okay so we all agreed we're gonna focus all of our trauma healing, the skills we have gotten by our pain and suffering, and pass those tools along to Damian so maybe impossibly he'll end up a functioning adult
Jason: you really think this will work?
Steph: give him the stability of a family we never got? Damn if you're sure
Tim: idk he was already so traumatized when he got here it could be too late-
Dick: yeah but believe me Bruce is a wayyy better dad than he was with me, he was like 21 and encouraged me to jump chandelier from chandelier in the mansion because he thought it was funny
Jason: all the gentle parenting in the world isn't going to fix the demon brat's crazy genes-
Duke, rushing into the room: everyone shut up and look at this! Damian, tell them what you just told me!
Damian: -tt- I don't see why the fuss-
Duke: Tell them!
Damian: I am planning to retire Robin and instead focus my efforts on becoming a doctor.
Tim:
Jason:
Steph:
Dick: holy shit it actually worked
Eddie decides that he can’t stand another second of Steve Harrington looking like the saddest wettest puppy left out in the rain after he got beat up and had to quit basketball. He’s going to do something about it.
Steve, realizing that he’s suddenly being followed around by a bunch of weird nerds, is like, “No, stop it! I don’t need any more nerds trying to get me to join their club.”
“You already have nerds recruiting you?”