#but also thinking about eddie convincing richie not to get a nose job because his nose is hot | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

thoughtfullyyoungduck · 4 years ago

Text

And he said, I hope you know how to swim

A/N: this is for the gift exchange from @itfandomprompts! My giftee is @iheartthoreau who asked for shy skinny dipping lovers and jealous Eddie. I’m sorry it’s out so late, I hope you enjoy it anyway!

Summary: The Derry midnight breeze is freezing, Eddie notes, still dressed in a shirt and pants and dreading having to get rid of them. He’s bare foot now, standing on top of the quarry and peering down into the glinting lake. Next to him, also bare foot, Richie looks over his shoulder, and laughs, bright and innocent.

warnings: skinny dipping, mentioned of nudity (but nothing graphic)

read on a3o

The atmosphere of six best friends who’ve just moved past the worst stages in their life cackles in Eddie’s brain.

He’s buzzed up, energized beyond all logic by the laughter and loving gestures so carelessly tossed around in their group. Pennywise is dead, and with it the looming threat following each of them around and the teasing unhappiness hinting at what they were missing but not giving any clues as to what.

It’s all over now, and a road full of new opportunities lays ahead of them. Everyone is acting loose, ecstatic with the weight that fell off their shoulders. Eddie’s feeling a tad guilty too, for calling Myra and informing her that way about their upcoming divorce that he’s going to set in motion as soon as he’s had a good night sleep, but he felt so brave after surviving a literal killer clown, that he wanted to get it over with as soon as possible.

A part of him was also frightful that he’d lose his courage, between now and getting home, that he’d look around his house and accept that this was all he was destined for, a mediocre life with a wife he didn’t love and a job that sucked the joy out of all employees. Myra deserved better though, and that’s why Eddie’s guilty eyeing his phone, debating on calling her back. He won’t take back what he said, because he’s relieved to have put it out in the open, but he’s unsure if he should have been more empathetic towards her feelings in all of this. If he should have ended the call after telling her to take care.

Bev notices his wandering eyes from where she seated beside him on the couch, the woman still laughing a stitch, shifting forward and hiding his phone in between seat cushions. Out of sight out of mind so to speak.

‘We’ve got time to worry about it tomorrow Eddie.’ She says, and she’s right. Tomorrow both him and Bev will have to deal with the intricacies of divorce and separating a company and a home. Tonight is reserved for the losers only.

‘Yeah Eds, and here I was assuming that after twenty years we’d have some stuff to catch up on.’

Richie regards him from the floor, legs tossed up upon the couch with his body upside down. His glasses are sliding off, but he’s lazy to fix them, so he looks like even more of a goofball than normal. If Eddie could, if he didn’t feel like his intentions would be even more noticeable if he did, he’d scoot over to Richie, adjusting his glasses and letting his fingers trail his cheek and bask in the skin to skin contact.

‘You never did anything interesting before we went to college, what makes you think you’ve done something interesting after?’ Eddie’s tongue is sharp, a façade he builds to stop speculation about his feelings towards Richie, though the truth is that he is intrigued and he craves to know every small detail about his life outside of Derry.

‘No you guys are not starting this again. I’m sick of your bickering,’ Bill interjects, rolling his eyes at the pair.

‘I reject that big Bill, we’re hilarious, you can’t be sick of us bickering when you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing it for the last twenty years. Michael, back me up here buddy.’

‘Sorry Rich, I’m not getting involved in the slightest.’

‘Yeah guys come on, can’t we have one quiet night in?’

‘What so Eddie can just call me boring and I’m supposed to let it slide? Me? I’m the fireworks on the Fourth of July, the highest roller coaster in the park and the whipped cream on strawberries, but I am not boring.’ Richie changes positions, almost accidentally knocking over his beer bottle. He theatrically waves his arms back and forth, trying to animate his words and add conviction.

‘Okay, okay you’re not boring, but don’t overrate yourself either. The most adventurous thing you ever did in high school was skip a class to read a comic book in the school’s bathroom. Not exactly daredevil behavior.’

Bev sips from her whiskey, winking at Richie whose face turns beet red for a reason Eddie can’t decipher. It’s not until Bev conspicuously blows out a gust of air with her lips puckered that Eddie connects the dots.

‘Didn’t you say you ditched because you were smoking with Beverly? Dude did you fucking lie about that? I was worried you’d die and get cancer ever since that day you piece of shit.’

‘No I definitely did smoke. I swear.’

‘You’re not kidding anyone Rich, I vouched for you all those years ago, but I’m not doing it again. Little Richie was a comic book nerd who just pretended to be really cool. We never ever smoked together.’

The losers all holler, clapping their hands together and cheering on the exposure of their foulmouthed friend, debunking all the story Richie apparently made up where he and Be had to sneak out at night to smoke inconspicuously, with the exception of Eddie and Richie. Eddie, because he’s busy glaring at Richie and Richie because he’s busy tapping Bill’s hand away, teasingly disheveling his hair.

Eddie wishes he was brave enough to give these little affections to his friend, especially after witnessing how soothed Richie got when Eddie hugged him after Neibolt, when he had dropped his face into the nape of Eddie’s neck and stayed there, swaying on his feet of exhaustion. It would only make him a good friend, a best friend, but Eddie is still so damn afraid.

He might have had the power to separate from his wife and kill an abstract form of his deepest fears, but Bowers angry yelled words, such as fairy and faggot, swung to his head any time he and Richie graveted closer while walking, haunt him even now.

Touching is off limits the words tell him, so he shows affection the only way he’s ever known towards Richie, by bickering and pulling pigtails.

‘I should have expected that.’ Eddie nods vehemently, laughing as Richie’s mouth drops open in a shocked manner.

‘Are you kidding me? Eddie Spaghetti is the one telling me I’m a loser?’

Eddie flips him off, ignoring Mike’s whispered; ‘he’s got a point’, in favor of levitating his full attention on Richie. The giggling in the room elevates an octave higher.

‘You all laugh’, Richie addresses the entire group, ‘but was I not the one who came up with the idea for the list?’

Abruptly, all sounds snap off, as everyone is snapped back to the past. Even Richie is, at face value, confused about the word he spoke, until the concept and creation of the list is brought to the forefront of everyone’s mind.

‘Holy shit.’

‘Oh my god Mike please tell me you still have it.’

Mike shakes his head with a far-off look. ‘Sorry guys, I don’t know who had it last but I never found it again.’ He’s saddened by it, like he did them all an injustice by not holding on to a flimsy piece of paper.

The List, capital L, was nothing more but a checklist, composed with all the fun and dangerous things the losers all had hopes of doing after graduating high school. Eddie remembers now, the hushed laughter and uncompromisable joy that came with the simple idea of these things, how everyone pitched in and added dare after dare while him and Stan exchanged glances and hoped to god that some things would never be executed.

‘That’s okay Mike, I’m just happy we can all remember making it.’ Ben smiles reassuringly Mike’s way, who smiles back and takes a deep breath.

‘Wait, I think I can recall some of the things we wrote on there. Hold on’, Bev squeezes her eyes shut and snaps her finger in the hope it will get to her faster. ‘Oh’, she exclaims, startling Bill who chokes on his own saliva, ‘we were going to visit Europe, do a high rope parkour, rock climb and some other things I can’t remember right now.’

‘Didn’t we also agree to volunteer in a hospital and go camping in the national forest?’ Ben asks, awaiting confirmation.

‘Yeah we did, Stan was throwing a fit over going camping because of the environment and the dirt, but we were well on our way to convince him.’

‘Wow,’ Richie breathes, chest puffing up and head dropping back into the couch so his face isn’t visible to the rest. ‘I forgot all about that, but come to think of it, I’m pretty sure I did most of those things with Bryan.’

And who the fuck is Bryan? Certainly not Eddie, sweating in fear from the things that were being listed, searching for the most extreme dares he’d seen happen on tv to suggest, doing anything he could to impress Richie. Eddie was terrified of most of the activities on the list, like Bev’s idea to waterski in the ocean, or Mike’s zip lining idea, but he would have done them if it meant he could bask in Richie’s attention, impress Richie to rid himself of scared baby Eddie was so sure he must have been in Richie’s eyes. So who the hell was this Bryan stealing his thunder like that?

‘Who’s Bryan?’ Bev inquires with a smirk, winking at Richie blush ridden face. Eddie’s jealousy rears its ugly head, flaring up and making his head woozy. He simultaneously both considers choking Bev and thanking her for the question.

With Richie’s secret fresh on his mind, the way he’d so shamefully admitted that he was gay and they were the first people he’d ever found the courage to tell, Eddie wondered if Bryan was perhaps someone Richie had been romantically involved with.

Richie would have deserved it, Eddie argues in his mind, to at least for a short period of time have someone love him back as fiercely as he dons it out, but Eddie’s also furious that he stole Richie out from under his nose.

Which is illogical, because even if he and Richie had managed to stay in touch, and Eddie confessed – not much chance there, as Eddie didn’t even tell anyone he was gay when Richie did - there was no guaranty that Richie would’ve reciprocated.

‘No one snoopy’, Richie argues with a jittery leg, ’just some guy I hung out with for a while.’

Bev appears unconvinced, but she’s also respectful towards Richie's decision to not say anything. ‘So which ones did you complete?’

‘I went to Europa senior year of college, smoked a bunch of weed, went zip lining. The normal kind of stuff.’

Zip-lining, or smoking weed for that matter, causes Eddie skin to crawl, not that he’d ever admit it. He hates that that’s not the case for Bryan.

‘Well thanks Rich, none of us ever did anything on the list without the other losers. I guess you didn’t miss us too much.’ It’s not fair, of course it’s not. He can tell by the eagerness to spend time together that Richie was very lonely, and experienced the same aching emptiness where his friends were supposed to be as the rest of them.

The bitter tone of Eddie's speech, and the way Richie’s eyes turn a little dimmer extinguishes the fire of Eddie’s envy. Richie deserves better than him in every way. An apology lies at the tip of his tongue, ready to jump into the open and hopefully aid the wounds before they’re fully developed.

Sensing the impending hurricane of trouble on the horizon Mike is eager to intervene, playing mediator for two forces that are about to collide. ‘Well I mean, we probably wouldn’t have gone through with most of them anyway.’

‘Speak for yourself’, Eddie waves him off, spiteful that Mike has a good point. He would have found a way to undermine their plans and make it so that he could back out without appearing like a meek lamb, for at least half of the activities. If he had known about Bryan’s existence though, he would have done anything. He feels ready now to do anything, to one up him and establish his spot as Richie’s number one.

‘Prove it,’ Bill dares with a lopsided smirk, certain he’s got Eddie beat. He sustains eye contact, reaching for the bag of chips on the table and gnawing on it with the most smug aura Eddie has ever witnessed him having.

‘I would’, Eddie defends fiercely, ‘but we can’t do any of the things in Derry.’

‘Sounds like a cop out to me.’

‘Yeah, sure Big Bill, because you can easily find a zip line here in Derry. The town that refused to spend money on renewing the library back in the eighties is no doubt going to have that installed by now.’

‘What about skinny dipping?’ Ben proposes innocently, having no idea the kind of strain he’s putting Eddie under.

‘That’s a great idea Ben, I forgot we put that one on the list.’ Beverly acknowledges despite Eddie’s frantic head shaking. The room temperature drops down and rises back up steadily, at least according to Eddie. He’s starting to sweat, something he never does and takes pride in – in the office he’s the level headed one, and that’s saying something – and he pulls at his collar to allow some air to ventilate.

Everything except that. A swim in a dirty lake that was most likely infected was a whole plate of different bacteria, and being naked in front of the man he’s in love with is not something Eddie is particularly fond of. He almost asks for a different thing to do, but that would truly be a cop out, and he both refuses to back down in front of Richie and give Bill the satisfaction of being right.

‘Good luck with that Eds, question before this all goes down, am I allowed to use this in my next bit?’

‘Actually,’ Bev interrupts, ‘I think you should join him too.’

‘Hey I wasn’t the one that said I’d be willing to do anything.’

‘No, but you were the one who added it on the list in the first place. C’mon Richie, It’ll be fun. For us, not for you guys, but we’ll get a good laugh out of it.’

Richie is hesitant, same as Eddie, readjusting his glasses again. Eddie is sure that if he says the word Richie will tell everyone to back down for him. He wouldn’t even make fun of Eddie for it, should Eddie give any indication that he wouldn’t want him too. He thinks back to Bryan, and how he wouldn’t have backed down for such a thing, and how in awe Richie must have been seeing the man abandon all safety precaution and go for it, Eddie’s mind is made up instantly.

‘Let’s do it.’ He says without leaving room for argument, nodding at Richie as he looks to him. He hopes Richie will go with it, but is also confident that of course he will. As kids they followed each other everywhere, and surely that hasn’t changed.

‘Really? I mean yeah – sure I guess. Bring it on.’

-----

The Derry midnight breeze is freezing, Eddie notes, still dressed in a shirt and pants and dreading having to get rid of them. He’s barefoot now, standing on top of the quarry and peering down into the glinting lake. Eddie’s jumping from one foot to the other, annoyed that dirt is clinging to his skin and branches are piercing his soles, even more aggravated at the idea of cleaning them in infection filled lake water. Bev better keep her end of the promise, and be waiting near the end of the lake with a pair of fresh pressed towels.

Next to him, also bare foot, Richie looks over his shoulder, and laughs, bright and innocent.

‘I forgot how high this was.’

It is high up, but they’ve done this jump at least a hundred times before, so Eddie’s not worried about the plunge. He’d assume Richie isn’t either, but the man keeps glances towards the path they took to get up here, uncharacteristically silent.

‘It’s okay if you're too scared to go through with it Eduardo, I won’t tell the others.’ Richie smirks when he notices Eddie’s glance, crossing his arms over his chest.

The movement makes his shoulders bulk, highlighting just how much bigger Richie is compared to Eddie. Eddie’s mouth waters, and he starts to worry about how he’s going to have to get through seeing Richie’s naked shoulders in the flesh.

‘Just get undressed will you? Hurry up.’

‘Why? Eager to see my bare ass?’

‘Yeah, because who doesn’t think jumping naked into a lake they frequented as kids is the epitome of sexiness? No you self-centered idiot, I want to get it over with so I can go back to the Inn and grab a warm shower.’

With one last peek, Eddie moves backwards, standing away from the ledge and begins to unbutton his shirt, before thinking better off it. Richie picks up on his hesitation, shifting backwards too and motioning his head towards the ridge.

‘Do you want me to show you how it’s done?’

‘No,’ Eddie objects, ‘I’ll go first.’

‘Why? I’m not going to stare at your junk while you're jumping in if that’s what you're worried about Eddie. I’m not that kind of gay.’ Rarely does Richie toss aside an opportunity to grant Eddie another humorous nickname, so the use of his real name spooks Eddie just enough that he opens his mouth to apologize without even realizing what he’s apologizing for.

Richie’s facial expression, set in a grimace and squinting his eyes defensively, are a dead give away that Eddie’s words are being taken the wrong way. If only Richie knew that Eddie wanted him to go in first so he could avoid the same temptation Richie thought he was forcing on him.

‘Richie no, that’s not what I meant I-.’ Heartfelt compliments are not something Eddie has had a lot of practice for these last few years, and he’s not doing a good job catching up on them either. Therefore he sighs and hopes that he can find another way to prove to Richie he’d never accuse him of something like that. ‘Whatever, just go first already.’

‘Fine but turn around okay?’

Eddie listens to him, back towards Richie and the jump off, though he doesn’t really understand the request. With Richie comes a lot of flair, and he was more or less been prepared for a joke about how Eddie got to confirm how big his dick is in reality.

He waits and listens carefully for the sounds of clothes being dropped on the ground, and he can’t stop his mind from secretly imagining how Richie looks like without them once he distinguishes it. Eddie shakes his head, scolding his own mind.

The next few moments are filled with raspy breaths originating from Richie, footstep sounding further away and then closer again in an erratic pattern. He must be scared of the jump. Under normal circumstances, Eddie would ask to jump in at the same time, but since Richie asked Eddie not to turn around, he won’t.

‘If you don’t jump in the next five minutes,’ Eddie teases, the way Richie used to tease him, ‘I’ll push you in.’ A second later Eddie hears Richie’s loud whooping as he plunges down into the dark water.

Eddie spins, the only thing greeting him the dark with very little light clearing up his path, from the moon. He’s having a hard time to even see where the cliff ends, and he can’t disguise Richie in the water at all.

‘I’m coming in’, he yells to the void, in case Richie can’t discern his body in time and needs to move out of the way. He takes off his clothes, goosebumps erupting on his skin, and folds his pants and t-shirt up neatly, touching the ground with his hands to find a dry spot to lay them on. The air is cold, and so Eddie refuses to linger on top any longer than he has to.

He jogs up to the ledge and darts off before his mind can conjure up the thousands of things that can go wrong from swimming in the dark this late at night. His body flies through the air and connects with the water in one swoop, a pit of glee bursting in Eddie’s stomach. Jumping from the quarry equals freedom, a hot summer day and love for all of his friends, but in particular Richie.

Eddie keeps his head underwater until his lungs burn, eyes closed and allowing himself to just feel all the sensations. Then, something tickles the back of his leg, and the peaceful moment is over. He kicks back the surface, away from the spot where he could swear something touched him, and searches around for Richie.

Richie, with his wet black hair clinging to his forehead, strands of it sticking out in every direction, and his droplet covered glasses, roving more of Eddie’s heart each minute they’re near each other. He’s never looked more beautiful, and Eddie has never had to fight the urge to kiss him as much as he does now.

‘See, I told you I wouldn’t stare Eds, I can’t even see anything with all these splatters on my glasses.’

The moon reflects on the water, so that it’s impenetrable, and neither Rich nor Eddie can look down and see their lower body parts.

What Eddie can see is enough anyway, Richie’s shoulders and part of his chest hold Eddie’s attention, and he forgets to respond to Richie’s comment.

His eyes land on a dark bruise, just on the bottom of Richie’s neck, a remnant of their fight with Pennywise earlier that day. Without thinking, without standing still on the consequences of such an action, Eddie swims closer, stretches his arm out, and lingers his fingertips over the bruise. He carefully positions his body to not touch any other body part of Richie’s except for his fingers on his neck.

He makes an inquisitive noise, thumb stroking over the injury in what he hopes to be a calming matter. He physically can’t pull away, entranced with the way he moves and responds to him, trying but failing to get his fill of Richie clenched.

‘Eddie’, Richie whispers, scared to break the silence and the intimate moment. ‘It’ll be fine. And hey, at least he didn’t do anything to my dick.’

‘Yeah, would have been a shame if it were to become even smaller.’

Richie snorts, retaliating the jest with a wave of dirty water aimed at Eddie.

Eddie gasps, spitting out a bit of water that managed to sneak into his mouth. ‘Oh you’re on.’

The two of them chase each other, and if it weren’t for the fact that they were both naked, Eddie would have thrown his entire body weight in the game to push Richie underwater. As it stands, they just splash back and forth until they’re exhausted and the remnants of their laughter dies out, barely enough energy left to stay afloat side by side.

‘Did you have this much fun with Bryan?’ Eddie asks, a bit envious. He hates how he’s still stuck on the Bryan thing, hates that his mind keeps popping images of them doing the exact same thing only to end it with a kiss.

‘What?’

‘With Bryan, the guy you did all that other stuff with?’

‘Oh no, me and Bryan – we were never together like that.’ Back at the hotel room, Eddie figured that that was a ploy to distract Bev, something Richie just said because he couldn’t comfortably admit the real intent of their relationship. But he’s never lied to Eddie, and his eyes, magnified by his glasses, seem so sincere, Eddie has no other option but to believe him. ‘I-I’m- some other guy already has that place all taken up.’

Eddie stupid, oblivious and dense and everything in between. He knows Richie isn’t talking about him, he knows he could never be the guy Richie would hold all hope out for – he also secretly hopes it’s none of the losers -, but he wants to be so bad. Just one time, just one kiss and he’d be sated enough to let go of his feral behavior towards any potential love interest Richie might have. Just one time.

‘Richie’, Eddie starts, biting his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. He’s taking a huge risk, by foreseeing a rejection but hoping that Richie won’t drop him as a friend because of this. If Eddie doesn’t do this, he’ll never stop wondering what it feels for their lips to meet. He’ll never get over Richie because he never got to experience any with him.

‘Can I kiss you?’ He risks releasing his lip.

Richie is visibly shocked. ‘What? What the fuck? Eddie is this a joke?’

The joke is, as usual, all on Eddie who regrets ever opening his mouth in the first place. He could try to laugh it off, say that it was a joke, but that would mean that he pretends to make a jest out of something Richie has struggled with for his entire life. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. Left with no other options but to further dig his own grave, Eddie decides to be honest. At least that means he gets to keep part of his integrity.

‘No Richie of course not, I wouldn’t do that to you. I’m sorry. Look I like you but it’s obviously one sided and I just wanted to know what it felt like to kiss you but it was a stupid request and I shouldn’t have asked you that. Oh god, I never even asked if you were dating someone –‘

‘Eds?’

‘- Fuck can we please forget I said anything so we can still hang out?’

‘Eddie?’

‘What?’

‘Yes. Please kiss me.’

Eddie gapes with his mouth open, struggling for breath and for words. He’s half convinced he misinterpreted the words, but his tilted head proves otherwise. Eddie doesn’t question it further, counting his lucky start for once, and leaning in to his emotions and Richie, breaching the water to get to him.

Their kiss is surprisingly gentle for the ungovernable lead up prior to it. Richie’s lips taste like lake water, but deeper underneath lies a tang of something distinctively Richie. Eddie can’t wait to devour him whole once he’s cleaned up. Their lips move together in tandem, a perfect harmony that for once neither are willing to break.

They pull back, Richie’s arms circling Eddie’s waist, and he smiles. His smile mixed with the love stricken gleam in his eyes, mysteriously tells Eddie that Richie feels the exact same way he does. His chest caves with happiness.

‘I like you too, if it wasn’t obvious. A lot more than Bryan.’

‘For the love of God can we never mention that again? It’s embarrassing. No, Hush’, Eddie says urgently, covering Richie’s mouth with his palm when he opens his mouth to conjure up another joke.

‘Fine,’ Richie says while pulling away from Eddie’s hand. ‘How about we talk about something else then? How the fuck are we supposed to get to our clothes?’

#my writing #reddie imagine #reddie fic #reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrack #richie and eddie #adult losers #it chapter two imagine #eddie x richie

69 notes · View notes

grapesodatozier · 5 years ago

Text

more and more nights like these

this piece was requested by @i-write-or-something !! thank you so much for the request!!

pairings: reddie, benverly, platonic bevchie

words: 1k

summary: bev and richie being friends talking drunkenly about how much they love their partners then go home to the loves of their lives!! post-ch2 fix it fic

LA was leagues away from Derry. Richie often thought that that had always been his favorite thing about it. There were no harsh winters, no small town bullies, and no fucking killer demon clowns—at least, as far as he was aware. LA was sunny and alive and let Richie be who he was. The traffic sucked, but other than that it was nearly perfect. But all those years between, Richie had still felt a hole LA couldn’t fill. Well, six holes to be exact.

He could hardly believe he’d ended up here, lounging on a couch in some needlessly upscale bar with his childhood best friend draped across his lap, her bright red hair fanned out over his jeans. LA was way better now that he had her here, now that he had Eddie sleeping in his bed with him and Ben building Bev a house up the coast, Bill and Mike only a couple hours away. They were still working on convincing Patty and Stan of the merits of the west coast, but Richie could get that; they were all cozy in Georgia, with friends and book clubs and cushy jobs and domestic serenity. Still, he could tell Stan was considering it, and he was pretty sure he’d made a good impression on Patty. So he kept his fingers crossed.

Bev was loving LA. The beach breezes were so much kinder than the winds in Chicago that seemed to pick a fight with you just when you really needed to be somewhere. It also helped to be so physically close to her clients. Richie and Bill had introduced her to some producers they knew, so she was even stepping out of her comfort zone, flexing her creativity by working on some costume design. And of course, LA had her friends. Most importantly, LA had Ben.

The two of them lived together in a downtown apartment for now, but Ben had been looking up open land plots before their plane had even landed, and now there were the beginnings of a house in a little nook of a town about an hour’s drive north of the city. Their apartment was filled with pictures of the two of them together, of their friends. There were only a few right now, but Bev was looking forward to filling their new home with nothing but years and years of love and good memories.

The vodka running through her had her saying as much to Richie. “I’m so glad you convinced us all to come out here.”

“West coast, best coast, baby!” Richie beamed, stroking his fingers through her hair. Beverly giggled and shoved at his face, both of them flopping around the couch like noodles.

“I’m serious! It’s so much nicer here, I can’t believe I never thought of it. And I know Ben loves it, too. I think this much sun really suits him. Did you know he has blonde highlights now? God, he’s so beautiful.”

Richie laughed as he watched Bev’s eyes become wistfully far away. But he understood that feeling. “I feel ya, Eddie’s got this perpetual tan now. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him tan before, I guess it was all that sunscreen he put on as a kid. I can hardly think whenever I see him. My brain just short circuits, he’s like an actual Adonis.”

“Okay, okay, stop before you get a boner,” Bev teased, smacking him on the chest.

“Oh, so you get to talk about your hottie with a body but I can’t talk about my cutie with a booty?”

“I should punch you on Eddie’s behalf.”

Richie laughed at that. “Yeah, probably. God, I love him.”

“I know,” Bev sighed softly. “He loves you, too. I’m so happy for you two.”

“I’m happy for you! Ben’s pulling a fucking Notebook for you! What kind of Nicholas Sparks dream life are you two living?”

Bev giggled, her cheeks going pink. “God, yeah, I know.” After a moment of content silence between them, she said, “I really, really love him.”

“I don’t think any living person could love someone more than he loves you. Except me. I definitely love Eddie more. But it’s okay, it’s not a competition.” Bev giggled and sat up then to ruffle his hair, sending the pair into another fit of giggles that ended with them stumbling out of the bar, completely wrapped in each other’s arms, arguing who was more excited to get home and see their partner.

***

Bev loved coming home. And she loved loving coming home. She wasn’t sure there had ever been a point in her life where she’d been not only relieved but excited to come home. She always had to tread carefully, always had to be ready. Coming home finally felt the way it was supposed to.

The house wasn’t eerily still when she came home, but peacefully quiet. And there was no menacing figure lurking by the lighted lamp, it was only on so that she would be able to make her way to the bedroom. When she got there, she found Ben fast asleep. She smiled softly to herself as she quietly toed off her shoes. Ben always looked sweet, but he looked especially adorable when he slept. The way his face pressed into the pillow made his lips pucker in a little pout, gave his cheeks that softness she’d always loved when they were kids. She shucked off her clothes and crawled into bed, the sheets cool against her warm skin. She felt so fuzzy all over, so content and so, so happy as she pressed herself against Ben. He stirred a bit, waking up just enough to open his arms for her. He gave her a sleepy, “Hi, baby,” as he wrapped his arms around her.

“Hi,” Bev grinned. She pressed a kiss to his nose before snuggling into his embrace. She smiled into his chest, firm and soft, and drifted off into a deep, satisfied sleep.

***

A few miles away, Richie was arriving home much less gracefully. Eddie had left some lights on for him, but he still managed to trip on his way up the stairs. Because of this, Eddie was sitting up and rubbing his eyes when Richie made it to the bedroom. “Sorry about that,” Richie stage whispered.

Eddie gave him a sleepy, amused grin. “You didn’t break anything, did you? Your hip? The cat?”

“Nope,” Richie said, popping the P as he fumbled to get out of his clothes. “All in one piece.” His heart soared as Eddie reached for him, making a grabby motion as he pouted. Richie happily jumped into bed, making a mess of the sheets that he had to sort out before pulling Eddie into him.

“Did you have fun?” Eddie asked. He pressed soft kisses to Richie’s shoulder and chest as Richie stroked his hair.

“Oh, yeah. We ordered strippers.”

Eddie barely gave him a hum. “That so?”

Richie snorted. “Nah, we talked about how much I love you. And how much she loves Ben. But mostly how much I love you, you know me.”

Richie glowed as he felt Eddie grinning against his skin. “You fucking sap.”

“You love it.”

“Mhmm, I really do.”

“Aw, now who’s the sap?” Richie began attacking Eddie with kisses, earning himself a smack to the chest.

“Richie! Stop!” Eddie laughed, wriggling away. “You reek of rum, go brush your teeth and let me sleep.” But he was pulling Richie in and kissing him even as he said it, and Richie could feel him smiling against his lips.

Fuck, he was glad this wasn’t a bachelor pad anymore. He wanted more and more nights like these, he wanted to fall asleep like this every night for the rest of his life. And you know what? He probably would. And that made him beam as he stumbled into the bathroom, his body buzzing partly from the alcohol, but mostly from Eddie.

Richie could deal with the traffic; LA was perfect now.

taglist: @clouded-eyes-and-salty-tears @eddieeatsass @deadlighturis @constantreaderfool @reddieloserz @jessicaheartsderry @vegetarian-avocado @tinyarmedtrex @sml1104 @thelazyeye @itfandomprompts @montconde @fizzylemones @lexinatorwrites @thebriarpatch @scribbles-solo @nancythebisexualslutwheeler @cutedubutokki @peachcartoon123 @losers-gotta-stick-together @eggtownnn

#reddie #benverly #platonic bevchie #tw alcohol #alcohol mention #alcohol tw

70 notes · View notes

eddieeatsass · 5 years ago

Text

I’ll Trade you a Myth for a Kiss

Summary: “Derry’s kissing bridge was a little slice of romance in an otherwise unromantic town. Derry Maine didn’t exactly inspire one’s heart to soar, but something about that bridge caused a fluttering in the hearts of every person that passed it. Richie didn’t believe the myth. He was well past the age where he listened to make believe stories about true love and the promise of forever. Real life didn’t hold such fates, if it did, Richie wouldn’t be a closeted gay kid painfully in love with his straight best friend.” Pairing: Reddie Rating: T

Read on AO3

Derry’s kissing bridge was a little slice of romance in an otherwise unromantic town. Derry Maine didn’t exactly inspire one’s heart to soar, but something about that bridge caused a fluttering in the hearts of every person that passed it.

It wasn’t that the bridge was particularly beautiful, in fact it was pretty ugly with its decaying wood frame, rickety beams that split and splintered any hand that touched them, and sun-faded paint job.

It was the lore attached to the bridge, passed down through the hushed whispers of Derry residents for decades, that lured people into its hold. It was said that if you kissed someone under the bridge, they would be solidified as your soulmate; a metaphorical binding of spirits between two lovers.

Richie didn’t believe the myth. He was well past the age where he listened to make believe stories about true love and the promise of forever. Real life didn’t hold such fates, if it did, Richie wouldn’t be a closeted gay kid painfully in love with his straight best friend.

So, be it the fact that there was no actual evidence to the validity of the tall tale, or the fact that that very bridge had been the location at which his dear friend Ben had almost been murdered by Henry Bowers and his goons, Richie just didn’t have that much faith in the bridge’s supposed positive energy.

Much to Richie’s dismay, however, his cynicism didn’t do much to deter the way his heart rate spiked when he found himself sitting under that very bridge in the company of said best friend.

They hadn’t planned on ending up here. Their day had started out much like any other; they’d met their friends at the quarry, soaked themselves and their undergarments in the deep jade water before laying out in the sun to dry. Music rang from Beverly’s small portable radio as they shared jokes and stories until the sun began to set.

They’d all gone their separate ways when there’d been no more daylight to suck out of the sun, the presence of fireflies lighting their ways home. Eddie’s bike had been confiscated by Sonia for god knows what number of reasons, so he relied on Richie to be his chauffer for the day.

And chauffer he did. Richie relished in the tight grip of Eddie’s arms around his torso, the way he’d mutter a ‘slow down trashmouth’ against Richie’s neck when he went too fast, or the little yip that he’d let out when they went over a speed bump, soaring weightlessly through the air for one blissful moment before crashing back down to reality.

He’d enjoyed chauffeuring right up until the moment he rode over broken glass, popping his tire and sending him and Eddie tumbling to the ground.

They’d been lucky, veering into grass right before impact, so their injuries were minor. But Eddie still insisted to treat them before they continued home, blabbering on about infections and amputations and- Richie didn’t listen to the rest.

It hadn’t taken long for Richie to recognize exactly where they were. His bike had decided to commit suicide right next to the infamous kissing bridge, which he’d taken home a thousand times and kissed at exactly zero times.

“Richie.” Eddie repeated, finally garnering the attention of Richie’s quickly waning mind. Eddie waved his small disinfectant pack in the air as if an obvious gesture of irritation.

“Right, sorry Eds!” Richie scurried over to where Eddie had sat himself down on a fallen tree trunk, a miniature pharmacy set out before them all thanks to his fanny pack.

“Let me see your legs.” Eddie instructed, already loaded with a disinfectant wipe and a look of determination on his small features. It was far too cute for Richie to handle, and it made his insides churn uncomfortably. As usual he defaulted to humor, hoping it would ease his nerves.

“That’s what your mom said last night.”

“Richie! Ugh, gross.” Eddie’s nose scrunched up in disgust and Richie’s plan backfired.

With a rosy tint to his cheeks that Richie prayed Eddie couldn’t see in the dark, he sat down beside Eddie and presented him with two freshly scraped kneecaps.

Richie let out a string of curses as Eddie began cleaning the wound, but once the sting of peroxide passed, he noticed how gentle Eddie was being.

“Batman or Mickey Mouse?”

Richie looked up from where Eddie’s hand laid gently upon his knee, meeting round chestnut eyes that reflected the moonlight. Richie’s mind went blank.

“What?” He asked dumbly.

“Bandaids, do you want Batman or Mickey Mouse?”

Richie’s heart did about three backflips before he was finally able to answer, stuttering out a weak response that was not up to par with his usual.

"You know I've always been a Mickey man, myself."

Eddie quirked his lips, not quite a smile but also not the annoyance Richie was usually met with. He watched as Eddie reached into his fanny pack and pulled out a bandaid, unwrapping it carefully before moving to apply it to Richie's left knee. It barely covered the scrape, but they both knew it was for show more than function. Eddie liked knowing he'd taken care of someone, the bandaid standing out like a gold star sticker on a quiz. He nodded to himself, satisfied, before moving to tend to Richie's other knee.

The process was much the same. It stung when Eddie applied the alcohol, Richie's heart skipped a beat when Eddie got too close, and then there was a distorted Mickey Mouse stating up at the both of them from where it sat over bloodied skin.

Richie spoke before thinking, his mouth always faster than his brain.

"What, no kiss, Dr. K?"

Eddie rolled his eyes, but if Richie wasn't mistaken, he also noted a slight rosiness rising to Eddie's cheeks.

"We're not five, Richie. I'm not gonna kiss your knee better. Also, ew."

"Who said I was talking about my knee?"

They both froze; Richie, horrified by the deception of his own thoughts, and Eddie, shocked by Richie's boldness.

"I-I-I meant my dick." Richie tried to recover, his tone none too convincing. But bless Eddie, whether truly oblivious or just pretending to be, responded by smacking Richie's chest.

It caused Richie to tumble backwards off their makeshift bench, falling into foliage that almost entirely ate him up.

“Oh my god! Richie!” Eddie’s tone shifted into concern, his body moving faster than such a little frame should be able to as he leaned over to offer Richie a hand up. Richie, widely known for acting before he thinks, took the opportunity to pull Eddie down alongside him.

The sound of breaking tree branches, rustled leaves, and tiny shrieks alerted Richie to the fact that Eddie did not land beside him as planned. In fact, a quick glance around him confirmed that Eddie was nowhere near Richie any longer.

“EDS!?” Richie’s voice was high pitched and frantic.

“Down here, asshole.”

The response, though obviously irate, still brought comfort to his beating heart.

“One second- shit- I gotta- fuck-”

Richie was stumbling over himself, squinting his eyes as he tried to see any minute flash of brown hair peeking through the dark. Richie fumbled around in his pocket, grabbing on to the lanyard that held his keys and, thankfully, a small flashlight. It wasn’t much, but it helped illuminate that area where Eddie’s voice called from.

Richie felt horrible when he realized they’d been right next to a hill, and his action had flung Eddie right down it. He spotted a small moving figure right at the bottom, underneath the looming darkness of the bridge, and set off towards it.

Getting down the hill without falling was tricky, but Richie somehow managed it. When he came upon Eddie, the smaller boy was attempting to dust the dirt off from his body. Richie decided not to note how fruitless his effort was, instead allowing Eddie to believe he had some control over the germs he’d been unceremoniously thrown into.

“Sorry about that, Eddie. You’re just so tiny, you weigh next to nothing.” Richie tried to pass off his comment as a joke, hoping it would lead them back into their usual back-and-forth. He’d never actually admit that he loved how tiny Eddie was compared to him, because that would mean admitting a whole slew of other things that he wasn’t ready to face.

“Not everyone can be Andre the giant, you ever-growing fuck. It’s not my fault my body doesn’t want to become a skyscraper.” Eddie countered.

Richie straightened his back, beginning to feign confusion as he aimed the flashlight above Eddie’s head.

“Eddie? Eddie???” Richie pretended to search for him, looking left and right but always above the line of sight where Eddie sat.

“You’re obnoxious.” Eddie stated.

“Eddie? Is that you? Where are ya boy-” Richie’s joke was cut short when Eddie swatted the flashlight out of his hand. It hit the ground with a wet splat, landing in a pile of mud just on the edge of the water.

Richie laughed heartily. He leaned down to pick it up when his gaze followed the stream of light to where it pointed right at an etching in the wooden beam that held the bridge above their heads.

Richie walked closer to it, crouching next to the engraving and tracing it with his finger. In the middle of a heart were two initials: G + H.

“How much you wanna bet that one’s Greta and Henry?”

“A thousand bucks.” Richie huffed, rolling his eyes at the thought of them carving this into the bridge after sharing a cigarette musky lip-lock.

“Good, they deserve each other. They can rot together for eternity. Thank you, magic bridge.” Eddie tapped the pillar gently, as if patting someone’s shoulder.

“Come on, you believe in this crap?” Richie stretched back up to full height.

Eddie seemed to mull the question over in his head before answering.

“I mean… what’s the harm in entertaining the idea?” Eddie’s voice had a bashful tone to it that Richie had never heard before. It made his skin prickle with warmth.

“I just never took you for the romantic type, Eds.” Richie tried to soften his voice, encouraged it to come out a little less like a tease and a little more like a confession. It seemed to have the desired effect when Richie pointed the light at Eddie and noticed a blush on his cheeks.

“Have you kissed anyone down here?” Eddie asked suddenly, the boldness shocking Richie into silence (which was rare).

Richie instinctively puffed his chest out, a bravado thick on his lips and ready to be spoken, but it deflated as quickly as it was triggered. Eddie was being vulnerable with Richie in a way that he never was, and if Richie messed this up, he might as well be damning himself to a future where Eddie didn’t trust him with moments like this. There was no greater fear than that.

“No.” Richie answered honestly, kicking a nearby rock into the water.

“Have you kissed anyone?” Eddie’s voice was barely above a whisper, almost inaudible over the sound of the crickets and the trickle of the stream.

Richie’s heart lurched in his chest so strongly it almost made him lose his balance. His eyes bugged out behind his coke bottle frames, trying to make sense of why Eddie was asking these questions. With a thick swallow, he answered.

“Yeah, only twice.” He knew he’d boasted about much more, that if the losers had been keeping tally, Richie’s supposed trysts were up in the double digits by now. But he didn’t feel like lying or keeping up some kind of charade. Not here, not alone with Eddie. “Once in 7th grade with Trisha Saunders, and then at the beginning of 8th grade with Megan DeLaurence.”

Eddie nodded sagely, looking down at his feet.

“I haven’t kissed anyone yet. I think I might be the last of the Losers who hasn’t.”

The way Eddie’s shoulders slumped made Richie want to reach forward and hold him up. His fingers twitched at the effort it took to hold himself back.

“It’s not a competition, Eddie. No one’s judging you.” Richie said earnestly, taking a step towards Eddie’s frame. Was he shivering? It had gotten kind of cold in the time they’d been standing down here. Richie hadn’t even noticed the nip of September beginning to creep in, he’d been warmed from the flush of being so close to Eddie; something he realized he’d gotten accustom to any time Eddie was around.

“Eds.” Richie sighed, beginning to unbutton the long-sleeved printed shirt he wore over his t-shirt. Once he shrugged it off, he took another step towards Eddie and draped the garment across his shoulders, making sure not to focus on how it dwarfed Eddie’s already miniscule frame.

Richie had abandoned his tiny flashlight, allowing it to dangle from a droopy hand and angle light out into the water. The darkness sheathed them from reading one another’s expressions, giving Richie the false confidence, it took for him to lean in and press his lips against Eddie’s.

The kiss wasn’t long, nor was it filled with passion. It was probably closer to the type of kiss you give your aunt at Christmas, just a chaste peck on the lips. But despite the nature of the kiss, it still left Richie buzzing from head to toe in a way that no other kiss had done before.

Sure, kissing Trisha and Megan had been fine. Richie had chalked it up to experience, telling himself that the reason he hadn’t felt anything was because he wasn’t used to it yet. But with Eddie it was a whole different world. Such a small touch had made him lightheaded, left him itching to go in for more and not stop until his lungs gave out.

Richie realized then that the silence had stretched out between them, Eddie obviously confused and, Richie realized with a pang in his heart, probably horrified.

“T-there.” Richie tripped over his words, cursing his nerves for mistaking him for Bill. He cleared his throat and tried again. “There. Now you’ve kissed someone.”

Eddie still didn’t respond, and Richie’s heartrate began to tick up into something erratic.

After a pause that probably aged Richie ten years, Eddie finally let out a laugh. A small titter that dissolved all the anxiety Richie was harboring.

“You dumbass.” Eddie giggled. “Now we’re stuck together forever!”

Richie couldn’t hold back the grin that stretched his cheeks so wide they burned. If believing that him and Eddie were now solidified as soulmates meant also believing in some invisible universal force carried on for decades by a fucking bridge, then so be it. He’d believe in every fairytale ever told if it meant being with Eddie.

Richie scratched the back of his neck, a nervous twitch he’d had since childhood. He only hoped that Eddie couldn’t see it.

“Yeah, I guess I kinda screwed the pooch on that one huh.”

“I mean, there’s worse people to be stuck with for life.” Eddie countered.

“Well I am honored I’m not the worst.”

“That honor is gonna have to go to Henry.”

“Well, we don’t have to worry about him because he’s already promised to Greta for eternity. We’re clear.”

“Good. He can have Greta as long as I can have you.”

Richie’s brain stopped functioning, all reasonable responses escaping his mind. ‘As long as I can have you’. Richie would be repeating that to himself as a lullaby from now until forever.

“You can have me.” Richie responded on a shaky exhale.

Eddie’s breathing sounded just as unsteady as it filled the space between them. With nervous hands, Richie brought the flashlight back up to illuminate Eddie’s face. He was quivering, although Richie wasn’t certain whether it was still from the cold, or from the same feeling that had caused Richie’s limbs to feel like rubber.

“We gotta get you home before you become an Edsicle.” Richie teased, breaking the tension between them and leading them back into safe territory. Eddie rolled his eyes, but traces of laughter were evident in his small smile. He shouldered Richie out of the way gently, passing him and making his way back over to the hill that he’d fallen down.

“Well, you better help me back up this hill then.” He demanded.

Richie bounded over to him with newfound glee in his heart, vowing to never take the prospect of magic bridges for granted ever again.

#reddieweek2020 #reddie week 2020 #reddie fanfic #reddie fanfiction #reddie fluff #reddie #eddie kaspbrak #richie tozier #my writing #my posts

27 notes · View notes

stellar-alley · 5 years ago

Text

Of Scales and Sea Glass

•Chapter 7•

<< Previous Chapter

(Summary: The Final Chapter)

Also shout out to @ambitiousskychild on tumblr for being my beta!

Thank you.

It had been a week since Beverly, or any of the Losers had heard from Eddie. He had gone totally radio silent on every social media and didn’t even answer the door when they tried to visit. Bev was worried and she was gonna do something about it.

After rifling through her stash of keys, she finally found the spare key to Eddie’s house that he gave her in case of emergencies. In her mind this was deemed a worthy time to use it. So she shoved it in her pocket and marched over to her neighbours house.

She didn’t even bother knocking, she’d been knocking for the past week with no response. She rang the doorbell, shoved the key in its hole and slipped into the house.

“EDDIE!” She called out. Bev searched the main level, the kitchen, family room and basement. She shouted out his name a couple other times before making her way up the stairs and onto the top floor. Surprised that he wasn't in his room, she wondered if he was there at all. Maybe he left town, the idea of Eddie leaving without notifying anyone sent a shiver down her spine. Finally, as she was walking past the bathroom she caught a glimpse of Eddie through the door that was cracked open.

“Eddie?” She questioned as she pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Eddie was indeed in the bathroom. He had fallen asleep in the bathtub with a blanket around his shoulders and a tear soaked pillow under his head. His cheeks pink while his eyes were puffy from crying.

Beverly let out a sigh of relief before kneeling down beside the tub and reaching down to nudge Eddie.

“Eddie, sweety, wake up.” She raised her voice slightly in hopes of waking him from his slumber.

Eddie’s eyes blinked open. He jolted sideways, trying to sit up, but he was in a bathtub. “Ri-” Eddie stopped mid word, “Beverly?” He croaked, his mind hazing from sleep.

“Hey Eddie.” She smirked at his disheveled hair, half of it matted to his face while the rest shot out in random directions.

Eddie began to rub his eyes in hopes of clearing his vision then asked. “W-What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because my best friend just decided to drop off the fucking face of the earth without telling anyone.” Sarcasm laced her voice as she scratched her head, as if she had to think about it.

“Oh… Yeah,” Eddie glanced away, guilt created a pit in his stomach.

“Oh, yeah,” she mimicked. “Eddie what’s going on?” She asked as her brow furrowed, clearly worried.

Eddie realized he had hid for too long. “Richie’s gone.” His voice shook, but he continued, “H-He had to go home. I miss him so much.”

Beverly leaned over the tub and wrapped her arms around Eddie. “I’m sorry honey, I thought Richie was gonna stay.”

“I thought so too.”

It took a while but soon Eddie was back to living a semi normal life. Every morning when he woke up he’d go for a walk on the beach and watch the waves, in and out, in and out. After Beverly ambushed him at his house, she had helped him clean and make some actual food for himself. She agreed to let Eddie tell the rest of the Losers what happened but she made him promise to get out of the house and see them. So when Bill invited them to his house when his parents were out of town, Eddie told them everything. At first he was only going to say how Richie left to go back to Canada but instead he began retelling the story of how they met and how he housed a merman in his bathtub for a month before he magically sprouted legs.

At first no one believed him, then Stan pipped up. “Makes sense. Richie was weird, he kinda just appeared. Plus he had trouble walking and was obviously unaware of most things we talked about. So yeah, I buy it.” With Stan behind him he was slowly able to convince the rest of the group. The thing that really got all of them on board was when he whipped out his phone and showed them the photos he’d taken of Richie in the tub with his tail, he refrained from playing the video, that was his.

That night Eddie had felt better than he had in a long time. There was a weight off his shoulders now that the rest of the losers knew about Richie. He really hated lying to them.

Eddie was in the middle of folding the freshly washed clothes he had just removed from the dryer when he felt an odd lump in the pocket of a pair of shorts. He rummaged around in there until he felt a smooth object rub up against his fingers. He collected them and looked down at what he held. A small gasp escaped his lips when he realized what he was holding. Scales and sea glass.

A tear rolled down his cheek, but for a change it wasn’t filled with sadness. No, Eddie was suddenly overwhelmed by a wave of joy as he recalled all of the best moments he had with Richie. Everything from their first kiss to how Richie helped him in the water. That night he fell asleep in one of Richie’s massive cat T-shirts. It was still filled with the smell of the boy he loved. That was the first time he had a good night’s rest in a long time.

The next morning Eddie found himself watching the sunrise from his bedroom window as he sipped from his first cup of coffee. The pastel pinks and purples filling his body with a comforting feeling as the new day began. The ocean in his backyard was fairly calm, which was a nice change considering the past few days have been filled with white caps and cool water.

The human’s gaze scanned the horizon, he examined the various clusters of rocks that poked out from the ocean’s surface. Finally his gaze fell on one of the clusters closest to shore.

He noticed something shiny laid over the rocks.He didn’t want to get his hopes up again… What really got his heart racing was when he saw a fucking hand lift up and off the rock. Immediately, Eddie ditched the whole ‘getting his hopes up’ thing and bolted from his room and down the stairs. The only thing he was focused on was the stairs under his feet, then the door in front of him. He yanked open the back door and leaped out and into his backyard. Eddie ran through his yard, not stopping when he reached the ocean, he simply dived into the waves.

Making it to the rocks didn’t take that long, but it felt like a lifetime. When he hoisted himself up and onto the rock his heart nearly stopped beating completely.

There he was, all sprawled out on his back, tail and all, one hand on his forehead while the other laid beside him. His inky black hair all wild and tangled just like the way it was when they first met. Eddie couldn’t deny how good he looked.

“Richie…” Eddie’s voice drifted off as he admired the merman in all of his fish-like glory.

Richie’s eyes fluttered open and landed on the two legged beauty that hovered over him. He let out a little amused breath of air through his nose as if in shock he ever saw Eddie again. He squinted more than normal, especially since he didn’t have his glasses on, but he could clearly see the beauty before him. The sun shone in his eyes as he moved his hand to cover the light that blinded him.

Eddie’s face scrunched up, “Wait what the fuck, where are your glasses?” he asked.

Richie shrugged as he squinted even more as if he was trying to say ‘how the fuck am I supposed to know?’.

“Richie what happened?” Eddie asked.

Richie leaned up and reached a hand up to the back of Eddie’s neck as he pulled him down, their lips meeting in the middle. The human and the merman kissed as if not a day had passed since they last saw each other.

“Hey Spaghetti,” Richie breathed.

Eddie giggled at the realization. “Did you just steal my spit so you can talk?” he smiled against Richie’s lips.

“Oh you know it!” Richie smirked before going back in for another kiss.

•One Year Later•

“God I don’t get how you weirdos like this shit,” Richie gagged as he invenonetenly sipped Eddie’s coffee.

“Us? Weird? Speak for yourself Fish butt,” Beverly smirked up at Richie from where she sat on the floor beside the couch. She reached up and grabbed Ben’s drink from where he sat on the couch, sipped it then handed it back.

“How do you like it? I tried a new recipe for that one,” Stan motioned towards Ben’s drink.

Since the Losers started college, Stan has taken up the art of coffee-making. First by purchasing an expensive ass coffee and espresso machine, he proceeded to get a job at one of those pinterest coffee shops with the fake plants and the really good cookies. The Losers dubbed it their new hang out spot, that’s where they had just returned from. Currently the Losers were lounging in their college’s common room. They were all lucky enough to have rooms on the same floor so it made it really easy for all of them to meet up.

Bev nodded in approval. “It’s for sure better than last time.”

“You mean the time Bill shot frappuccino out of his nose?” Mike recalled a memory that made them all laugh a little.

“Not fu-funny Mikey,” Bill flicked his arm playfully.

Eddie reached down and snatched his drink back from Richie who was laying in his lap as he laid on the couch, back against the arm rest. After Eddie sipped his own drink then resumed playing with Richie’s clean and untangled hair. (Eddie always made sure Richie’s hair smelled good and often found himself brushing it out whenever it was just them two in the room. They both found it cathartic, reminding them of a simpler time)

When Richie returned to Eddie just over a year ago, the merman explained how the council of mers was furious with his actions and banished him from his kingdom of Oceana, never to return again. “Little do they know how good I’ve got it up here,” Richie smirked as he nudged Eddie. So Richie would go swimming, in the pool or the ocean whenever he pleased, going full tail and all. Eddie never got tired of watching him swim, it always left him in awe. Even the rest of the Losers loved Mer Richie. Even though Eddie had spilled the beans, the next time the Losers came over for a pool day they all demanded to see Richie’s tail. So of course he cannonballed into the pool and showed off his scaly blue tail, everyone loved it.

“Hey Rich how did that test go today?” Ben asked.

Richie rolled his eyes at the thought. “As good as it can go. I knew most of the content but I’m pretty sure I fudged the last question.”

After some intense studying and some magic, Richie was able to slither his way into college at the same time as the rest of the Losers. He majored in marine biology. It was pretty easy as he knew most of the stuff they taught but he was just happy he got to be with his real family. Sure there were some hard times, since he was a merman. Like when it was raining outside, making Richie late for class, or when someone (Bev) was smoking in their room and set off the sprinklers. But other than that, life was pretty swell.

All the Losers applied early so they’d be able to pick their roommates. So Richie and Eddie lived together, which wasn't anything new, now they just had two beds to choose from even though they always slept together. Mike and Bill shared a room across from Richie and Eddie while Ben and Stan lived in the room beside them. Bev had a room all to herself as her roommate dropped out. There were about four other rooms in their hall, but they didn’t see much of their other hall-mates so the Losers ran that floor. Lucky floor number seven.

“Well, well, well, look who it is.” A familiar voice caught the Losers’ attention as they all turned towards the hallway to see Victor Criss walking towards them.

“Hey Vic, how’s it going?” Mike greets him as he’s the closest one to him.

“Eh, ya know same old same old,” Vic takes a sip from his own drink as he walks around to lean against the couch Richie and Eddie are on.

Sure the Bowers gang bullied them throughout the years, thank god Victore was the only one who attended the same college as them. He also wasn't that bad of a guy, without Henry bossing his ass around he was acutely a pretty chill guy. He’s even hung out with them a couple of times.

“Staniel, how’re you liking the new job?” Vic gestured to Stan with the hand he held the drink with.

Richie flinched at the movement from where he laid below, worried that the drink would drip on him. Eddie caught on and wrapped his arms a little tighter around him, snuggling his head into Richie’s soft curls as he balanced his own drink on Richie’s chest.

“Oh god not you too,” Stan facepalms, “That’s not my name.”

Both Richie and Vic burst out laughing. The merman reached a fist up to the bleach blonde for a fist bump.

The next moment played out in slow motion. Vic reached down with the hand that held his drink, when their fists collided, the liquid in his bottle sloshed from its container and fell down towards the merman. Richie jolted into a sitting position. With a quick slide of his hand, he was able to magically divert the water so it hit the floor instead of him.

A sudden wave of relief filled Richie as he avoided an accident, a code blue, but that relief disappeared as quickly as it rolled in, when Richie felt something cold and wet seep into the front of his shirt. He looked down at his chest and noticed that when he sat up, Eddie had tipped his own drink, which is why coffee now soaked his shirt.

“SHIT!” Richie hollered as he leaped from his seat on the couch and stood up. When he stood he pulled Eddie off the couch, he landed on the floor with a thud. Eddie didn’t waste any time scrambling to his feet just in time to meet Richie’s gaze.

“Code blue?” Eddie asked quietly, worry laced his voice.

“Code blue,” Richie confirmed. He looked back at all of his friends who had their eyes glued to him.

There was a moment where everyone just stared at each other before the rest of the Losers burst out in shouts, basically all of them saying how he needed to go now and that they’d cover for him.

With that, Richie grabbed Eddie’s hand and ran like hell.

That was the scene, two boyfriends, one human and one that was far from it, laughing and running hand in hand as they ran to their dorm room.

Richie transformed the moment the door closed. He fell forward and landed on his now naked chest, his long, blue, scaly tail sprawled out behind him. When he fell his glasses had flown off of his face.

Eddie locked the door after them, tossed Richie one of the various towels they had laying around their apartment for moments like these. He tossed it down to Richie before he went to retrieve his boyfriend’s glasses which were a mere couple feet in front of Richie’s face, but he’s blind as fuck without them so that wasen’t new.

Eddie carefully picked them up off the ground and took a seat across from Richie, who was now sitting up and vigorously drying his tail. Eddie studied the glasses in his hands, feeling their frame and their insanely thick lenses. The tinted glass brought a nostalgic grin to his face.

The human reached forward and cupped Richie’s cheek, turning his face to look at him. Eddie smiled as he slid Richie’s glasses back on his face. He watched the fish boy's eyes clear with the help of his glasses, he glanced down at his tail and smiled.

My boyfriend Sea glass and scales I wouldn’t want it any other way

Eddie thought as he leaned in and kissed a merman.

His merman.

Fin

Get it?

Fin?

Cause he’s a merman and has a fin?

Ahahah I know I’m hilarious.

Word Count: 2828

Woah... I cannot believe this story is over. I’m sad cause I love mer Richie and the storyline, but at the same time I’m so happy with the way this story turned out! I always had trouble creating a storyline and sticking with it, so actually finishing a story that isn’t 100 chapters long with like 20 subplots is a big accomplishment for me!

Not sure if this will be the end of merman Richie’s adventures as I have a couple ideas for one shots that’d be based in the same universe. So let me know if you’d be interested in that! Comment down below or send me an ask. Heck, even request scenes! Like if you have something you’d like to see these characters do, let me know!

Throughout the entire time that I’ve published this story I’ve gotten so many sweet and loving comments, they always made my day! So don’t feel shy to spam my comment section and like stuff because it really shows how much you guys like my work. Thank you to everyone who’s supported this book, none of your appreciation went unnoticed, I saw every like, reblog, and comment. I appreciate all of it.

And if you’ve enjoyed my work so far, why not go check out my other Reddie story, Everfalls. It’s about Eddie who is a magically rabbit hybrid and Richie who’s a werewolf! If you liked this story then you’ll for sure enjoy Everfalls. You can find it on Tumblr, or Archive of Our Own. Or check out all the other stories I’ve written on my Masterlist. And if you want to stay up to date with me and my life, go check out my Instagram Stellar.Cosplays . I'd love to see some of you guys there!

Okay I think that’s everything I wanted to say. So once again, thank you, I really have loved every second of writing this book. I love IT, and mermaids, so this truly was the best of both worlds.

That’s all from me guys, catch you on the flip side...

So Long and Goodnight.

[Taglist]

@richietoaster @s-onora @that-weird-girl-blog @beproudtozier @ghostnebula @bellarosewrites @s-s-georgie @lermanslogan @iamcupcakefrosting @madidraw @gazebobullshit @thoughtfullyyoungduck @aangzukos @ambitiousskychild @reddieonwheels @breadheadscorpius @opinions-you-didnt-ask-for @faz-se

18 notes · View notes

reddielibrary · 5 years ago

Text

Gotta Catch ‘Em All

Written by @pawprinterfanfic

Gift for @greenornaments

Pairing: Richie Tozier x Eddie Kaspbrak

Word count: 9,500

Rating: Teen

AO3 Llink

Eddie Kaspbrak never knew loving someone could hurt so much.

He was eighteen when he found out. It was his first year of college, and his insufferable roommate managed to worm his way into his heart.

(Fuck that guy.)

Richie was everything he should’ve hated — he was messy, and loud, and annoying. He did hate him. He hated his crude jokes, and his trash mouth, and his smile that caused his heart to skip a beat, and his gorgeous eyes, and his ability to make him laugh at anything, and how his heart was seemingly always in the right place, and—

Yeah. Eddie was a goner.

At eighteen years old, he knew that he was in love with Richie Tozier. Now, at twenty-one, Eddie realized how awful it was.

He was in love with someone who didn’t love him back.

It was torture, and Eddie hated it more than he hated much else before. It felt like he was doomed to be friends with the idiot for a long time — which was fantastic because Richie was a great guy — but it also sucked ass, because he really, really, really wanted to kiss him more than any friend should.

Don’t get him wrong; he was happy being Richie’s friend, because being anything with Richie was worlds better than being nothing with him. He’d gladly silently pine over him for years if it meant he could have his friendship. He was his best friend, and he wouldn’t trade that for anything.

Having a massive crush on his roommate may or may not have had anything to do with his current situation, which involved getting dressed up to go dance with a bunch of sweaty adults, drinking alcohol that tasted like shit, and staying out half the night.

“It’ll be fun,” Richie repeated, following Eddie as he moved around their tiny apartment.

After spending freshmen year living in the college dorms together, they pooled their resources and rented off-property, which was probably one of their better decisions. Usually, they shared one brain cell when they were within ten feet of each other.

“If you say that one more time, I will kill you.” Eddie dumped his armful of freshly washed clothing onto the couch before turning to make his way to the kitchen, not stopping to give Richie a spare glance. “It’s not going to be fun. Dancing in someone’s dark and moist little basement will never be fun. You can quote me on that.”

“Please, for the love of god, never say moist again.”

Eddie pulled the tag off the bag of bread and plopped two pieces into the toaster. Richie hauled himself onto the counter, his feet swinging back and forth like he was a kid on a swing set.

“Moist is a fine word, Richard. Just like phlegm, and panties, and ointment, and—”

“Ew.” Richie gave a violent shudder and sent a sour look at the other man. Eddie tried to keep the corners of his lips from twitching upwards. He found bothering Richie fun. Sue him. “You really know how to kill the mood, don’t you, Kaspbrak?”

“There never was a mood, dipshit. Besides, I was just listing a bunch of perfectly normal words in the English language. I didn’t know you were going to gag at them.”

Richie tried to scowl. Eddie almost would’ve believed it, save for the smile curling his lips. “I hate you,” he said.

Eddie pursed his lips. “Do you, now?”

The facade cracked easily. The scowl disappeared, leaving Richie grinning widely. “You’re right. I’m a liar. I love you. My lil’ Eddie Spaghetti.”

Richie made a move to press his lips to Eddie’s cheek, but he stepped out of the way. The butter knife, covered in soy butter, pointed in his direction. Richie must’ve anticipated his response, because he gave an exaggerated wink and ruffled Eddie’s hair.

“If you’re trying to convince me to come with you, you’re doing a shitty job,” he pointed out. His heart was still pounding from when Richie made a move to kiss his cheek, and he hoped his body wasn’t betraying him with a blush. “You’re annoying the shit out of me, Rich.”

“But you luv me,” he sang, wiggling his eyebrows.

“Sure, like I love wet socks, maybe.”

Eddie Kaspbrak was a liar.

Richie wasn’t deterred and continued to pester him. “It will be fun. I’ll be there. Bill will be there. Stan will be there. Mike will be there. Bev will be there. Ben will—”

“I get it. Everyone will be there.”

Eddie reached around Richie to grab a glass from the cupboard behind him. He moved out of the way of the swinging door, thus moving right into Eddie’s space. He bit his tongue and forced his eyes to remain on the task at hand.

Don’t get distracted. Don’t look at him. Don’t look at—

Fuck, he has really pretty eyes. And his stupid smile, god, I want to kiss that stupid smile right off his face. And—

Wait! No! Fuck!

Eddie jolted backwards, pulling his glass with him. Richie didn’t say anything and only raised an eyebrow as he slid back against the cupboard.

Eddie’s heart was pounding. Being so close to Richie was unhealthy — all he wanted to do was tell him how in love with him he was, and that was guaranteed to end in disaster and embarrassment.

“It’s our last year in college, Eds, and after this we’ll be adults.” Richie wrinkles his nose at the word, like it thoroughly disgusted him. “How many opportunities do you think we’ll have as fucking adults to go to a Halloween party? Do you think we’ll ever be able to get dressed up in shitty store-bought costumes and eat so much candy our stomach hurts ever again?” He didn’t wait for him to respond. “No! We’ll be old and boring by Halloween 1998. This is our last chance!”

“First of all, you’re a dramatic bitch, Rich. Secondly, I’m fairly confident adults have Halloween parties.”

“Are you an adult?”

“Well, I am twenty-one years old, so—”

“Are you an actual graduated adult living in the real world, and not this weird in-between pre-adulthood thing called college?” Richie cocked an eyebrow, already knowing the answer. “Exactly. So how confident are you that actual adults in the real world celebrate Halloween?”

Eddie was silent for a long moment because, well, he wasn’t entirely sure. His mother had been a pretty big downer when he was growing up, and she hated Halloween with a passion. She never let him go trick-or-treating, just in case someone put razor blades in his Kit Kat — he couldn’t ever imagine her going to a Halloween party.

“Exactly.” Richie adjusted his glasses on his nose after he jumped off the counter top. “I know you hate Halloween and shit, but it’ll be fun.”

“I don’t hate Halloween.” Eddie didn’t bother to tell him off for saying that it was going to be fun again. Knowing Richie, he would start saying that more just to annoy him. “I just don’t like it.”

“You once told me that you’d rather sleep on the public bathroom floor than celebrate Halloween, Eds.” Eddie cringed at the visual. Public bathrooms were disgusting, and don’t get him started on the floor!? Ew, ew, ew, ew— “I arrest my case.”

“Okay, maybe I do hate Halloween, but that’s because it’s so boring. What? I’m supposed to dress up as something? And walk around, asking strangers for candy? And then eat that candy? That sounds horrible!”

“Sorry to break it to you, Eds, but I think we’re a tad too old to be trick-or-treating. No talking to strangers for you this year, unfortunately.”

Eddie sat down in the kitchen chair ungracefully, the plate clattering to the table in front of him. He gave Richie a deadpan look. “Ha ha,” he said sarcastically.

Richie slid into the chair opposite to him and stole a slice of toast from his plate. Eddie didn’t comment. Richie jacking his food was more common than he’d admit.

“Halloween is great, you just don’t know it yet! We will go to this party together and, since I’m the master of all things spooky, I’ll show you just how great Halloween is.” He took a bite of toast, sending crumbs flying.

Eddie nibbled on the piece of bread in contemplation. Richie watched him, his eyes wide and leg bouncing.

Finally, Eddie gave in. “I don’t have a costume.”

Richie must’ve sensed that he was beginning to consider it, and he pounced. Seeing how excited he was about Eddie going with him to this stupid party almost made his heart skip a beat.

“I can get you a discount on costumes,” he said, crumbs going everywhere.

That was Richie’s newest gig — working at Oh My Spooky at the mall, a seasonal store that popped up every August, claiming the empty of buildings of deceased department stores, like Kmart.

“The party’s in like… two hours, Rich. Spooky is closed.”

“Right, right.” He waved his hand, dismissing the idea. “I’ll just let you borrow one of mine. We had to wear costumes on shift, right, so I have like a shit ton of costumes in my room.”

“I know, idiot. I live with you. Your room is a disaster.”

It was true. Richie’s room was a disaster year round, but it looked like the sight of a natural disaster during the month of October. If he got desperate, Eddie was sure Richie could make a good buck by selling all the costumes he accumulated.

Richie grasped the rims of his glasses and squinted his eyes dramatically, giving Eddie a once over. Eddie had been friends with Richie long enough to know he should just let him do his thing. He continued to nibble on the toast.

Finally, their eyes met again. “But, you’re like, really fucking tiny, Eds, so—”

“Fuck off,” he said, tossing a piece of crust at his head. Richie grinned and caught it in his mouth. “I’m not really fucking tiny.”

“Aw, you are, sweetheart, you just can’t face the facts.” Richie had the audacity to lean across the table and boop Eddie on the nose. “Cute, cute, cute!”

He swatted Richie’s hand away from him. His heart was racing. Butterflies were rolling in his stomach. He felt his cheeks burning, and he was sure Richie was going to tease him about it.

Before he could, Eddie tried to cover his tracks. He narrowed his eyes and pointed threateningly at Richie. “I will murder you.”

“See! You have the Halloween spirit!” Richie leaned back in his chair, grinning wider than Eddie could remember. His stupid smile made Eddie want to smile. Fuck him. “Are you in, then? You’re coming tonight?”

Maybe it was because Richie’s smile was doing something funny to his brain, or maybe it was because he wanted to go to a party with Richie before they graduated, or maybe it was because he was a little curious as to why everyone loved Halloween, but he nodded.

“Fine,” he huffed. “I’ll come tonight.” Richie let out a little whoop and jumped up from his chair. “But I won’t enjoy it!”

“You’re so cute when you’re stubborn,” Richie said, reaching forward to boop his nose again. Eddie’s mouth ran dry because—

Fuck, Richie calling him cute was one of his favourite sounds.

“Call me cute again, and I’ll— I’ll—” Fuck, he didn’t have a comeback. Richie seemed to love the fact Eddie was rendered speechless, and laughed a little harder.

“Cute, cute, cute!”

“Asshole,” he muttered, shoving the last piece of toast into his mouth. Richie grinned brightly at that, and it was the final straw for Eddie. He felt a smile of his own spread across his face. It was hard not to smile with Richie in the room.

“Wait there. I’ll get your costume.”

Richie was already running out of the kitchen before Eddie swallowed his toast to respond. “Nothing with less fabric than—”

“Your mom’s underwear!? Got it!”

Eddie’s head fell to his hands. “No, Richard, I wasn’t, in fact, going to use my mother’s underwear as a reference, but thank you! I was going to say—”

Richie peeled back into the kitchen before Eddie could finish his sentence, two costumes strung across his arms. “Doesn’t matter. Here.”

He tossed the first costume at Eddie’s head, and he managed to catch it before a metal belt buckle could whip him in the eye. It took him less than three seconds to examine the fabric and come to a verdict.

“Absolutely fucking not, Richard. What the fuck!? Why the fuck would I want to go as sexy Robin? That makes no fucking sense!” Richie is doubled over from laughing so hard, and Eddie was finding it exceedingly difficult not to join in.

“I just wanted to see your expression,” he managed to get out between laughs. “Fucking classic!”

Eddie felt a smile pulling at his lips, and he was desperate not to let Richie see it.

(Because, to be honest, if Richie saw the reaction he invoked in him, he never would shut up.)

(And, yes, that was it.)

(No, it had nothing to do with the fact he was helplessly in love with him and smiling at him like he hung the stars in the sky would give that away.)

(Really.)

(Eddie Kaspbrak was many things, but a liar was not one of them.)

“Why the fuck did you have this in your room!?” he questioned, hanging onto the threads of annoyance. His question made Richie laugh harder. Fuck. Knowing he was the one making Richie laugh did funny things to his heart.

“Your mom loves role-play, didn’t you know? She— Ouch! Fuck!” Eddie had thrown the costume at Richie with a glare.

“Shut up,” he said, but it was no use. The two of them were looking at each other, and Eddie couldn’t keep his smile down any longer. He shook his head fondly and leaned back in his chair. “Please tell me you have something better than sexy Robin?”

Richie lifted up a red and blue outfit, his eyebrow raised in question. Eddie pulled a face when he realized it was supposed to be Mario from Mario Brothers. When Eddie insulted the costume, Richie looked personally offended.

“You don’t want to go as this godly man!?” Eddie didn’t ask Richie why Mario was so godly, but he took it upon himself to explain. “He saved the world — multiple times, may I add. He fights bad guys, he dodges those green shell dudes, he eats a shit ton of mushrooms, he fights for his princess, he can drive. Holy shit, Eddie, he can drive!”

In the end, Richie gave up on trying to sell the Mario costume.

The next pair of costumes to come out were Popeye the Sailorman, which got an immediate no from Eddie, and Scooby-Doo, which also got an immediate no.

Richie stuck out his bottom lip and gave a poor impression of Scooby. “Ruh roh,” he said, his voice rough. “Reddie roesn’t rant to rear me!”

“I was unsure before, but now that’s a solid no.”

This went on for longer than Eddie would care to admit. Richie would bring out a few costumes at a time and, each time, Eddie would find something wrong with it. “I hated that cartoon.” “If I wanted to be a ghost, I’d just cut holes out of one of our sheets.” “Am I supposed to know what that character is?”

Richie was patient, and all Eddie could think of was how good he was, willing to spend forever going through costumes with him, joking all through it, never letting Eddie’s sour mood tarnish his.

Fuck, he couldn’t stop thinking about him. How his lips would curve into a smile that made him want to smile too, how his eyes sparkled like they were part of the ocean, how his freckles spanned his pale skin like stars in the sky. He couldn’t stop thinking about pressing his lips against his, or running his hands through his curls, or feeling his hot breath against his face, and—

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. He was so far gone, it wasn’t even funny. When did he turn into a sap? Like, what the fuck?

Eddie was so thrown off guard that, when Richie came with the next costume, he said— “Yes.” Richie’s eyes widened the slightest bit, and that was when Eddie realized he had no idea what he was agreeing too. He cleared his throat and sat a bit straighter. “I mean. Maybe.”

“Oooooooookay then.” Richie adjusted his glasses on his face and continued to watch Eddie carefully. “Listen, man, if you don’t want to come tonight, that’s fine, I don’t want to make you, but—”

“No,” he said quickly.

He didn’t want Richie thinking that he was being forced to do something he didn’t want to because that wasn’t the case. He wanted to go. He wanted to see why Richie liked Halloween so much, and he wanted to get dressed up in a shitty costume and drink shitty alcohol and eat candy that may or may not make him sick. It was going to be fun.

Besides, it meant he got to spend the evening with Richie, and that was good enough for him.

“What’s the next costume?” Richie cocked an eyebrow, and Eddie realized he had no idea what he had been saying only a minute ago. “Sorry, what did you say? I was distracted by the fact that you own a concerning amount of Halloween costumes. I mean, seriously, Rich, this is kind of baffling.”

Richie slid into the kitchen chair opposite from him again. “I have some bad news for you, Eds.” He looked almost… serious. It threw Eddie, just a little bit.

“What? What is it? What’s wrong?”

He leaned forward, stretching his arms across the table and taking hold of Eddie’s hand. All the air left Eddie’s lungs at the contact because, shit, he was holding Richie’s hand. It was cold and clammy, but that seemed to fit him perfectly.

Finally, Richie spoke.

“That’s it. That’s all my costumes. Looks like you have two options from here; go stark naked, or wear what you usually do and say you’re dressed as a nerd.”

Eddie flicked the palm of his hand and crossed his arms. “First off, fuck you. Second off, fuck you.”

Richie smirked. “I take it you don’t want to go naked? C’mon, you’re depriving the world of—“

“No, I’m not going naked, you dumbass. How is going naked a viable solution to this problem anyways!?”

Richie winked. “You caught me. I just wanna see you naked, sweetheart.”

Eddie tried to keep his expression blank, but he could feel his face flushing. Fuck Richie, fuck his ability to flirt with anyone, fuck his stupid body for giving away how affected he would get from his flirting.

“I mean, I do have one last option.”

When Richie returned to the kitchen, he was carrying a yellow onesie. Upon further inspection, he noticed a tail in the shape of a lightning bolt, and pointed ears with black tips, and—

“Pikachu!!”

Eddie moved across the room quickly and dragged his fingertips over the fabric. He was right, the costume was for Pikachu, and it was perfect. He loved the little guy because how could you not? He was a badass, and an immeasurable amount of cute.

“Sold!” Eddie said, snatching the costume fully from Richie’s hands. “Shit, why didn’t you start with this one? You know how much I love Pikachu.”

Maybe Richie was right earlier when he called him a nerd. If liking Pokémon more than he liked his own mother made him a nerd, then so be it!

“Yeah, well, it comes with a catch.” For the first time, Eddie realized how unsure and hesitant Richie looked. He was shifting his weight from foot to foot and had his hands buried in his pockets.

Richie was actually nervous.

“Please tell me that the butt isn’t cut out or something.” Eddie flopped the costume over to check and — nope. All pieces to the costume were there.

“No, there’s nothing wrong with it,” he assured Eddie. “It just isn’t alone.”

“... What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Richie puffed out his cheeks. “It means that it’s part of a set. I, uh, have the costume that matches it. Hold on.” Seconds later, Richie reappeared with his costume in hand.

Oh.

Oh, fuck.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me. You’re going as Ash?”

“Hell yeah, man. Gotta catch ‘em all, you know?”

“That makes no fucking sense, Richie, so no, I don’t know.” Eddie tried to ignore how his stomach was twisting. If Richie was going as Ash and he was going as Pikachu, and Richie claimed it was part of a set, that meant— “Wait. Is this a couples costume?”

The words slipped out of Eddie’s mouth and a cold dread settled over him.

Fuck. Just mentioning the word ‘couple’ to Richie felt like he was crossing a line — a line that he drew, one that he was desperate not to cross. Don’t cross this line, he told himself, or you’ll fuck up your friendship.

Richie’s expression was one he hadn’t seen before, and it made his heart race for a completely different reason than before. Was it weird that he suggested it was a couples costume? Or was he being paranoid? Because it felt like mentioning the word ‘couple’ to him was normal, but then again—

“Uh. Yeah. It came as a set, like… a couple costume.” He adjusted his glasses on his nose — a nervous habit. He was looking at him, like he was waiting for him to say something. Eddie’s mouth had run dry and his tongue darted out to wet his lips.

“Oh.” He was racking his brain, trying to figure out the best response in this situation. Finally, he settled on an answer. “Well, that’s okay. I can always wear the ghost costume, or — even better — the sexy Robin.”

Richie didn’t smile at his attempt at a joke. In fact, he looked almost hurt. “What? You’re not going to wear Pikachu?”

Eddie was confused. Of course he wasn’t going to wear a couples costume with Richie — that felt like it was crossing a million lines. Maybe if he wasn’t completely in love with him, it would be a different story, but he was in love with him.

“No.”

“But you were excited about it?” Richie’s next smile was forced — Eddie could tell by the way it didn’t reach his eyes. “Why not?”

This felt like some weird alternate reality to Eddie. This wasn’t happening, was it? Richie wasn’t asking him to explain why he didn’t want to wear a couples costume with him, right? He couldn’t exactly say ‘because I’m in love with you, and this is crossing that invisible line I set so I don’t fuck things up.’

He was screwed.

So, he lied.

“People will think that we’re… together if we show up in a couples costume.” Now that he said it out loud, it didn’t sound like a lie, and it didn’t feel like one either.

Yeah. Shit. People will think we’re together, and the night will be filled with Richie indirectly shooting me down all night.

He could see it now; Richie would explain to everyone how they’re not together because how could they be? He couldn’t love that mess of a human!

Shit. This quickly replaced his fear of crossing the invisible line. He doubted he could handle a whole evening filled with Richie explaining to strangers how they were not — and would never be — a couple.

Richie’s answer felt like a punch in the gut.

“Is there a problem with that? With people thinking we’re together?”

This was a sick joke, Eddie decided. Richie knows I’m in love with him and he’s being an ass about it.

Except, Richie wasn’t an ass — not about things that mattered, anyways. Sure, he would joke about fucking his mom and try to annoy him to death, but he wasn’t an asshole about important things.

“Yeah, of course that’s a problem.” His words may have come out harsher than he intended. Eddie shuffled awkwardly and looked anywhere that wasn’t at Richie. “We aren’t together. We’re… We’re friends.”

“Right. Friends.” Eddie’s gaze flicked to meet Richie’s from how deflated he sounded. It must’ve been his mind playing tricks on him though, because Richie was beaming and bouncing on the balls of his feet. “There you have it, Eds! We’re friends, so it doesn’t matter. This is just what friends do. I know you have, like, zero childhood friends and you don’t know this shit, but—”

“Fuck off,” Eddie said, but his voice didn’t have any venom in it. Richie was right — going in a couples costume together wasn’t a big deal for two friends. They were just friends. Bros. Pals. Buds. “Fine, you’re right, I’m being weird.” Because I’m totally fucking in love with you. “I’m going to change.”

Richie’s smile made warmth bubble up inside of him. “There ye have it, good ol’ chap! Time to get our spook on!”

Eddie was incredibly nervous, and he blamed the asshole beside him.

Richie looked good, which was extremely strange considering he was dressed in the Ash costume. But he also wore a grin so wide that it made Eddie’s cheeks hurt from just looking at it. His eyes were dancing with excitement. He looked so carefree in that moment, walking down the street with a skip in his step, and it made Eddie’s chest warm.

He was also nervous because he hadn’t gone to a party for a really long time, not since they were both freshmen and Richie was set on dragging Eddie everywhere he went. He would be the first to admit that he wasn’t in tune with current pop songs, and his heart lurched when he realized he might not know any song.

No, that was ridiculous. Richie blasted pop songs at two in the morning some days, so he would at least know those songs.

“Did you eat something before we left?” Eddie asked, breaking the silence of the night. Richie was a few paces ahead of him as they walked to the party, humming what sounded like Space Jam theme song. “Drinking on an empty stomach can be dangerous, you know, so...”

Richie turned around and continued to walk backwards. He was smiling softly and it made Eddie’s heart flip. It wasn’t often that Richie looked so open — so vulnerable. Usually he looked like the little asshole he was.

The change made Eddie feel completely out of his depth.

He loved it.

“You take such good care of me, my Eds Spagheds.” He blew a kiss. Eddie scowled.

“I just don’t want to be dragging you home drunk, fucker. Don’t mistake my words for concern. It’s purely selfish.”

“Right, of course.” Richie spun back around. “I did eat though. Wouldn’t want to have you carrying me home. We’d never make it up the block.”

“Shut up. Like you could carry me.” As soon as the words left his mouth, he realized his mistake. “No, Richie, don’t even—“

It was too late.

Richie was laughing like a maniac when he scooped Eddie off the ground and into his arms. Eddie clutched at the collar of his blue and white striped shirt to balance himself and Richie’s arms wound under his knees and around his back. All the air in his lungs came out in a whoosh and he could feel his blood rushing to his cheeks.

His knuckles were white from how tightly he was holding his collar. His heart was pounding so loudly that he was sure Richie could hear it.

Richie took off in a sprint and Eddie clung to him out of fear, all the while shouting for him to put him down.

Yet, he wanted the exact opposite of that.

He really didn’t want Richie to put him down.

He could feel each one of Richie’s breaths ghost along his face, and he could feel his palms digging into his back. His body was warm and he smelled distinctly of syrup, which was fitting, considering he once witnessed him eat a full box of Eggos in ten minutes.

From the angle he was in, it looked like he was glowing. The streetlights blurred around him. The sharpness of his jaw and the slope of his nose stole the breath from his lungs. It felt like his whole body was buzzing from being pressed against him.

He was gone.

So far gone.

As they approached the house the party was being held at, Richie set Eddie back down on his feet, a smug smile tugging at his lips.

“Easy peasy,” he said, sounding slightly breathless.

Eddie tried to keep his expression blank, but fuck, Richie made him want to smile.

The closer they got, the more nervous he became.

He pulled at the hem of his yellow sleeve. Maybe he shouldn’t have agreed to come with Richie tonight; it seemed like he was getting nervous about everything. He was nervous about the stupid couples costume, and he was nervous about how he acted with Richie earlier, and he was nervous about the music, and dancing, and—

“It’ll be fine, my Eds Spagheds.” Richie slung his arm around his shoulders as they made their was up the driveway to the house the party was being hosted at. “We look smashing. We’ll be the bells of the ball.”

“We do not look smashing. We’re dressed as characters from a children’s cartoon. Which brings me to my next point; why the fuck is Ash and Pikachu a couples costume? Isn’t Ash, like, Pikachu’s owner or some shit? And isn’t Pikachu and Pokémon, which is basically an animal? This seems entirely inappropriate for a couples costume, considering they’re not romantic and one is an animal, so—”

His thoughts died off when Richie leaned forward and planted a wet kiss to Eddie’s cheek. He jolted away and gave him a wild look because—

“What the fuck was that!?” Eddie swiped at the slobber left behind on his cheek while his heart raced. He wanted to shove Richie against the front door and kiss him dizzy.

“You’re just so cute, cute, cute! Look at you — dressed as lil’ ol’ Pikachu, ranting about how unsexy you are. Whew. Taking my breath away.”

Eddie scowled. Richie was a flirt — he knew that from day one — but he was laying it on thick right now, and he really wasn’t in the best mood to deal with that. All while Richie was flirting with him, he had to live with the knowledge that it was all play, and it hurt.

With that, they entered the house.

Eddie will admit; Halloween was pretty sweet.

(Which was an awesome pun, by the way, because his stomach was currently hurting from eating so many sweet pieces of candy.)

Beverly burst out laughing when she originally saw his and Richie’s costumes, commenting how cute they were.

“I’m not cute,” Eddie insisted. Richie attempted to boop him on the nose again, and he flipped him off.

Stan rolled his eyes.

Eddie spent the first part of the night dancing with their group of friends, and drinking shitty alcohol, and eating way too much candy.

While they danced, Richie hovered by his side. Every once and awhile, he’d lower his lips to his ear and whisper to him, each time causing goosebumps to erupt along his arms. None of the whispers were of importance; it was just Richie fucking around, talking about different costumes they saw, or bringing up one of their jokes, or doing a poor impersonation of a cowboy singing the lyrics of the song blaring from the speakers.

Without fail, Richie was able to get Eddie laughing. It didn’t take too long for Eddie to feel more comfortable moving around the basement (“and yes, Richie, is moist, thank you very much”) and enjoying himself.

That was the thing about Richie. He was always able to bring Eddie out of his shell, encouraging him to be brave and be himself. His carefree attitude made Eddie want to be carefree too.

When the dance floor (basement) got too crowded, their little group moved to sit on a pair of couches on the (not moist) ground floor of the house. It was a tight squeeze, but all seven of them managed to fit on the furniture. Eddie wasn’t going to complain about the fact Richie was practically in his lap because, truth be told, being pressed against him wasn’t the worst thing in the world.

Richie had his arm draped around his shoulders and legs on his, squishing him into the armrest. As the night stretched on, he became louder, his jokes grew worse, and his mouth trashier. Eddie loved how his cheeks flushed red, and how his hands were clammy on his arm, and how he seemed to laugh more than talk.

When Bev started talking about an upcoming movie she wanted to see, Richie turned his full attention to him.

“What do you think, Eds? Having fun?”

Not wanting to give Richie the satisfaction of being right, he wrinkled his nose. “It’s alright, I guess.”

Richie saw through it easily. “Fuck off. You’re having the time of your life.”

“Fine. I’m having fun.”

“Ha. Fucking told you it would be fun!”

Eddie was about to shoot back at him, but a guy from his sociology class leaned over the couch and poked him in the shoulder, drawing his attention away from him. “Hey, Eddie, right? Candy?” He lifted a giant bowl of individually wrapped candies and chocolates.

He glanced in the bowl and tried to suppress a frown. The one thing he did hate about Halloween was the ungodly amounts of nutty chocolate everywhere. Of course, the one food he was allergic to had to be in every goddamn chocolate bar sold on this dumb holiday.

And, worst of all, was trying to figure out a way to explain to strangers that no, he didn’t want their candy and, no, it wasn’t because he was on a diet, and, no, it didn’t matter that they only had a little bit of nuts in them. Then, he’d spend the next ten minutes trying to educate them about allergies because they were confused, and it usually ended up with him fending off passive-aggressive comments from them.

People that didn’t know him seemed to love getting personally offended by his allergy.

Before Eddie could respond to the offered chocolate, Richie leaned forward.

“We’re more sophisticated than that, Chad.” Richie pushed the orange bowl away from the two of them. “We brought our own.” As if to demonstrate the fact they had a secret stash of chocolate, Richie pulled out a Kit Kat from his left pocket and waved it.

When Chad was out of ear-shot, Eddie turned to Richie. “But we didn’t bring our own.”

Richie unwrapped the chocolate bar and split it in two as he spoke. “Maybe you didn’t. Plus, that dude doesn’t need to know the real reason you don’t want to eat his precious chocolate.” He lifted half of the chocolate bar in offering. “You want?” Richie stuffed the chocolate bar between Eddie’s parted lips. The action felt extremely intimate and made Eddie flush. He hoped the darkness hid it. “People are always assholes about that shit, so I came prepared.”

Eddie’s heart felt like it had flipped a few times in his chest. Richie knew how uncomfortable it made him to explain his medical condition to completely random strangers, and managed to come up with an explanation to save him from that.

Fuck, he loved him.

“Aaaaaaand,” Richie drawled, patting his left pocket, “there’s a lot more where that came from. I’ll fend off any nut carrying assholes for you.”

Eddie’s expression softened. He felt overwhelmed with affection by that simple action.

“I— Uh— Thank you, Rich.”

“Anything for you, my lil’ Pikachu.”

Eddie wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but it felt like hours. His sides hurt from laughing so much. His head was a little fuzzy from the alcohol. He ate way too many half-melted Kit Kats from Richie’s pocket.

Eddie couldn’t take his eyes off of Richie. He was a very animated storyteller and managed to make any story hilarious, even if said story was about him.

“And I swear — I swear, guys — I never saw the lil’ shit run faster than in that moment. Fuck, I wish I would’ve got that on video and sent it to Guinness World Records or some shit. He probably broke the sound barrier.”

The other five Losers were in stitches around them, unable to form coherent sentences. Even Eddie could barely speak, and Richie was ripping into him.

“Hey, asshole, it was terrifying,” he argued. “I swear to god, that dog had rabies.”

“It was a Pomeranian, first off, and it had just finished a bowl of whipped cream that you gave it!”

“I didn’t give it whipped cream.”

“No?”

“No! My bowl filled with whipped cream merely fell to the ground, and I was too slow at picking it up.”

Somehow, Eddie’s version of the story made Bev laugh harder. Richie was barely keeping his laughs contained, and a goofy smile was stretched across his face.

“I’m going to get another drink.” Eddie pushed Richie’s legs off of him and stood up from the couch. As soon as he did, he missed the warmth that came with cramming beside him.

Richie hooked his ankle around his before he could leave and threw a Poké Ball at him. It bounced against his stomach and rolled to the floor. Before he could ask what the fuck he was doing, Richie gave him a shit-eating grin.

“Caught you! I told ya’ — I gotta catch ‘em all!”

It was a stupid joke, but it made Eddie grin.

Fuck this. Fuck his dumb feelings. Fuck Richie Tozier and his cute face and his stupid jokes.

Eddie turned and made a break for it before he accidentally said something stupid in response. The further away he moved from Richie, the better. He needed time to refocus, and the drink table was his salvation.

Except, it wasn’t.

He was in the middle of pouring himself a glass of orange juice (which was definitely only at the party for mixing purposes) when a girl he didn’t know approached him.

“You two are cute, by the way!”

He barely heard her over the roaring music.

“What?”

When Eddie did make out what she was saying, he almost wished he couldn’t.

“You and your Ash! You two make a cute couple!”

Oh.

Oh, shit.

Oh, fuck.

Abort mission. Abort mission.

Eddie’s face felt exactly how it did after spending a whole day in the sun without sunblock. He was burning and—

Fuck!!! He knew this would happen!!!!!!

“Oh, uh, well—” He stumbled over his words, suddenly too shocked to make a full sentence. “We’re actually not dating — Ash and I.” He pointed to his yellow chest. “I know. Confusing! Right!?” His laughter was forced because dammit, it felt like he could explode from embarrassment.

(Not because someone mistook him for dating Richie, because, damn, that was the dream, but because he wanted to be dating Richie and now had to explain how he wasn’t. It was all too close to the feeling category for it not to be embarrassing.)

Eddie continued to speak. “We’re just wearing a couples costume because this is all we had. We’re not really together. He’s, uh… Well, he’s the Ash to my Pikachu… because they’re not romantic partners… because one’s an animal… and they’re fictional.”

The girl raised her eyebrow and took a long sip of her drink. Finally, she said, “well, you could’ve fooled me.”

What the fuck did that mean?!

By the time he made it back to the couch, he was still thinking about it.

His stomach was twisting because that random girl’s words could only mean one thing; he, Eddie Kaspbrak, was terrible at pretending not to love Richie Tozier.

It hit him like a punch to the gut.

He was too obvious with his feelings. He was flirting too much, smiling too hard, laughing too easily. If some random girl was convinced they were dating because of how big of a crush Eddie had on Richie, then he was fucked.

He sunk into the couch, his jaw slack and hands shaking. He needed to get a grip — on his response now, but also his massive crush on his roommate.

Within three seconds flat, Eddie came up with a set of rules to get him through this evening.

1) Don’t look at Richie. 2) Don’t think about how nice it is to have his arm around your shoulders. 3) Avoid physical contact at all costs. 4) Don’t laugh at any of his stupid jokes. 5) Insult him!!! Insult him to throw him off the scent!!!

It was a solid plan.

It lasted for approximately five minutes.

Richie was telling the story of the time he nearly got a concussion from trying to kill a spider in the shower, and it was getting harder and harder not to laugh, especially when he pulled out his silly voices.

Rule number 4! Rule number 4!

Richie laughed at his own joke and threw his head back from the force of it. Richie laughing was always endearing to Eddie; his whole body seemingly was thrown into it. His head would fly back, and his arms would wrap around his torso, and his knees would pull closer to his chest the slightest bit.

The corners of Eddie’s lips quirked up. His laugh was infectious — and that was the only infectious thing Eddie welcomed into his life.

Even after he finished laughing, Richie kept his head thrown back, a smile of sheer joy on his stupid face. The conversation continued on without them, moving to talk about Stan’s half-burned lab report from a Bunsen burner accident. Richie rolled his neck, shifting so his cheek was pressed against Eddie’s shoulder.

And there went rule number 3.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice softer than it was moments before. The intensity in his gaze made Eddie’s mouth run dry. “You seem… off.”

“I’m fine.” He hoped his smile didn’t look as forced as it felt. “Don’t worry about it.”

“We can go if you want?” Richie offered. “I think it’s passed your wittle bedtime.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, but couldn’t fight the smirk. Before he could respond, he remembered rule number 5.

Insult the shit out of him.

“The only thing ‘wittle’ between us is your dick.”

Yeah, what the fuck was that?

As soon as the words left his mouth, Eddie realized his grave mistake.

Richie’s eyes had widened and his head lifted off his shoulder, as if, he too, realized how massive of a mistake Eddie just made.

Eddie tried to backtrack.

“Not that your dick is between us.” Fuck, nope, that wasn’t the right thing to say. “Or little.” Nope, that wasn’t the right thing to say either. “But, I mean, it’s not like I’ve seen it because— Fuck. Never mind.” He admitted defeat and buried his face in his hands.

It took approximately three seconds for Richie to break the tension and burst out laughing.

“Jesus, Eds, how much have you had to drink?!”

Clearly, not enough.

After Eddie tried to drown himself in an ungodly amount of Kit Kats from Richie’s pocket, his resolve strengthened.

He would not fuck up anymore tonight! Richie was a bro-only zone. He was his best friend and roommate — nothing more! Richie + rules = success.

He wouldn’t laugh at his jokes. He wasn’t going to lean into his touches. He wasn’t going to smile at him like he hung the stars. He wasn’t going to—

It all went out the window when Richie wrapped his arms around Eddie’s middle and leaned into him.

“What the fuck, Richard?” His tone may have been harsher than he intended.

“I caught you,” he said, his voice muffled against his shoulder. “I threw a Poké Ball at you. You’re mine now. It’s the rules.”

“You already used the Poké Ball joke on me earlier, smart ass.”

Still, he made no move to push Richie off his shoulder. Maybe he could let rule number 3 slide. Just this once.

He couldn’t pull his gaze away from Richie’s face, either. He really loved him like this; soft, touchy, and carefree.

(Then again, he also loved the boy who earned the nickname Trashmouth, and picked fights he knew he couldn’t win, and swung bats at bullies.)

(He loved the fiery Richie, and the annoying Richie, and the stressed Richie, and the terrified Richie.)

(He loved his terrible sense of direction, and his late night dancing, and his ability to stub his toe on every piece of furniture they owned.)

(He loved him for his emotions, and for his heart, and yes even for his terrible jokes.)

(He loved Richie.)

(All of Richie.)

(Every Richie.)

Eddie’s jaw clenched and he shifted an inch away from Richie, his emotions suddenly hitting him so hard that it hurt.

The plan!!!! Remember the fucking plan!!!!!

“Like what you see?” Richie wiggled his eyebrows. “I know I’m pretty, but no need to stare, Eds.” Eddie jolted away from him and felt his heart lodge into his throat.

Richie caught him staring at him.

Fuck. Abort! Abort!

“Yeah, you’re pretty. Pretty fucking annoying.”

Richie grinned. “There he is! I was afraid my wittle dick scared you off.”

Eddie wanted to fade into the darkness.

“I thought we both agreed never to speak of that again.”

“I did no such thing.”

It happened again.

No, not the dick thing.

The ‘you’re a cute couple’ thing.

It was after the majority of the group went home, leaving Beverly, Ben, Richie, and Eddie to occupy a single couch. Why half the remaining group didn’t spread to the second couch was beyond him.

Someone he didn’t know slid into the couch opposite of them and launched into an in-depth conversation with Richie surrounding accuracy of historical events portrayed in some sort of video game.

Eddie couldn’t bring himself to even pretend to pay attention to what they were saying. All he could do was watch how Richie’s eyes lit up as he spoke, and how his lips would twist with each word, and how his nose wrinkled as he spoke, and how his gaze carried an intensity that made his heart pound, and—

“When did you two start dating?”

Eddie jolted away from Richie, putting as much space between them as possible (which, granted, wasn’t much considering they were trapped on this couch with Beverly and Ben).

“What?!” Eddie said quickly, his eyes wide and heart racing. “No. No, we’re not dating. We’re not together. Nope, no way.”

He never understood how his palms got so sweaty so quickly in these situations. He rubbed them on the yellow fabric along his legs vigorously.

“My sweet Eds,” Richie cooed as he leaned closer to him, his voice mockingly sweet.

Eddie wasn’t having it. He batted Richie’s face away from his own and scowled.

“No. We’re not dating.”

Richie pouted. “Is it because of my wittle dick—”

“I will punch you,” Eddie warned.

“But I wanna make you my luvah, Eds. My Eds Spagheds.” He turned to his friend. “Don’t listen to him, Johnathan. Eddie and I are very much together, confirmed by this awesome couples costume we are wearing.”

Eddie scowled and shoved Richie onto Beverly’s lap. “Fuck off, Richard.”

“I’m tellin’ it how it is! We’re two peas in a pod!”

The friend on the opposite couch gave them a wary smile. “Good, because, I mean, you two are practically dripping with sexual tension, and I was getting a little worried that I crossed a line and mentioned something I shouldn’t have, but I assumed it was fine because you’re wearing a couples costume for fuck sake, and—”

“No!” Eddie sat as straight as he could manage it. His heart was pounding in his chest. His cheeks felt like they were on fire. Because fuck you, Johnathan, you did mention something you shouldn’t have!!!! “Richie is fucking with you. We aren’t together, or lovers, or whatever other shit he said. We’re just friends. That’s all we are, all we have been, and all we ever will be.” To really drive home the point, he stuck his nose in the air. “Thank god! I mean, does anyone ever see me dating that!?”

Finally sticking to the plan! Eddie thought triumphantly. Now they really won’t think I’m into Richie. Ha! I wi— Wait, why the fuck is Richie running out of the room?

Richie had pushed off of the couch and took off towards the backdoor without another word. While Eddie couldn’t see his face, he knew exactly what he was feeling from a single glance at him. Tense body, shaking shoulders, uncharacteristically silent—

He was mad. Or upset. Or both.

“Wait, where’s Richie going?” He turned to Beverly, who was staring at him with parted lips. “What happened?”

“I love you, Eddie, but sometimes you’re such a dumbass.”

Eddie quickly ran through what he said moments before and immediately realized his mistake. In his rush to throw everyone off his scent, he insulted Richie.

“Oh, fuck.”

Eddie was quick to follow Richie outside. It was colder out now than before and the only light cast on the street came from a dimly lit street lamp. He caught sight of him across the street, already starting to make the journey back home.

Eddie wanted to hit his head against the nearest brick wall. He was an idiot.

“Richie!” he called, jogging after him. The other man didn’t turn when he called his name. Hell, he didn’t even flinch! Eddie pumped his legs faster. “Richie, wait up. Rich! Richie!” He finally caught up with him, but hovered a few paces away. “Where are you going? What happened?”

He very well knew what happened, but those were the first words out of his mouth.

“Not now, Eddie. I’m going home. I’ll talk to you later.” He didn’t turn to look at him.

Eddie was terrified — he doubted he had ever been more terrified than in that moment. Seeing Richie walking away from him, clearly hurt, scared him.

“Richie, I’m sorry.” He reached forward and caught hold of his elbow. Richie jolted it out of his grasp, making hurt flare up in Eddie’s chest. “I didn’t mean to insult you, I just—” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I’m sure anyone would love to date you.”

Just saying those words out loud made Eddie’s stomach role. Not anyone. Him. He wanted to be dating him.

Finally, Richie stopped walking. He spun around to face Eddie, his face screwed up with emotions. Eddie could see anger in there — it was the way his shoulders were hunched together and his fists closed at his sides — but he could see hurt too. Definitely hurt.

“Do you really think I’m upset because I thought you were implying I was undateable?” His voice was rough and thick with emotion. Eddie’s chest felt like it was going to cave in.

Richie was holding back tears.

“I— What? I mean… Of course? Why else are you upset about?”

Richie opened and closed his mouth several times, but no words followed. Eddie shifted back and forth on his feet, waiting for the shoe to drop.

Finally, he spoke. He sounded so tired and so done. “You know what? Never mind, Eddie. That’s why I’m upset. Of course I’m upset because I’m undateable! Not because of any other reason. You’re so right.”

Eddie narrowed his eyes. “I’m not stupid, Richard, and can smell your sarcasm.” That didn’t make the most sense, but neither one of them were in the mood to point that out. “I want to make up for what I said, but I can’t if you won’t tell me! If it isn’t because I insulted you, then… what? What’s wrong?”

“‘We’re just friends. That’s all we are, all we have been, and all we ever will be,’” Richie said, throwing Eddie’s earlier words right back in his face. Eddie had to suppress a flinch hearing them come from Richie’s mouth.

They hurt.

He swallowed thickly. “Well, it’s the truth, isn’t it? We’re… We’re just friends.”

Richie rubbed the bridge of his nose and tilted his head to glance at the night sky. After a long moment, he spoke. “I know. You love reminding me of that fact.” He sighed and locked eyes with Eddie. “It’s okay. I’m just being… me. Go back in and have fun.”

“You’re fucking kidding,” he said hotly. “I’m not leaving you when you’re clearly upset, and especially not for a Halloween party.” He stepped closer. “I care about you, Rich, and I want to help. I’m sorry that I upset you, and I really want to—”

“I love you.” The words froze Eddie to the ground. Richie’s eyes widened, like he, too, was surprised by them. “I— Fuck. Forget it.” He shook his head. “You know what? No! I said it. I mean it. I love you, Eddie. I’m in love with you. I love you so much that it hurts, and I know that’s ridiculous, but it’s true. And… And I get it, okay? I know you’re not interested. I know we’re just friends — you don’t need to remind me every five minutes, by the way, — but I’m so in love with you, Eddie. And—”

“Wait, hold the fuck up.” Eddie held his hand up, palm towards Richie. His fingers were shaking. He was sure his heart was about to give out from how fast it was racing. His mouth was inexplicably dry. “You— You love me?”

Richie’s eyes were wide. “Uhm… I— I—”

Eddie couldn’t tell anyone where the confidence came from, but he stepped forward, closing the distance between the two of them. The air left his lungs. He struggled to find the words, but he decided he didn’t really need words for this moment. And, finally—

He surged forward, capturing Richie’s lips with his own. The kiss was short and shallow — it was more of a brush of the lips than a kiss, if he was being honest — but it made his head spin.

Eddie pulled away, his eyes wide and his breath coming out in small pants. His hands were clutching at the collar of Richie’s blue and white shirt. His legs felt weak under him.

His eyes scanned Richie’s face, taking in the slight part to his lips, and the flush of his cheeks, and the wideness of his eyes. He was looking at Eddie in pure shock, and that was when he found his voice again.

“Richie, I love you, too.”

A long beat of silence passed between them before Richie’s head dipped down. Their lips connected for another kiss — this one much longer and sweeter than before. Richie’s hands cupped the side of Eddie’s face, cradling it gently. His ached from the amount of love and affection he had for the man in front of him.

The kiss stole all the air from Eddie’s lungs and all the thoughts from Eddie’s mind. When Richie pulled away, his lips were curled into a wide smile — a true, genuine smile that made his eyes crinkle and seemingly reached into Eddie’s chest and squeezed his heart.

He shook his head, his dark curls bobbing across his forehead. Richie gestured exuberantly towards the house they both ran from. “What the fuck was thaaaaaat!?”

Eddie stepped out of Richie’s grasp, his hands flying into his hair, panicking to hell. “Shit! I was trying to throw you off my trail! You know, like, try to be a dick to you so you don’t think I’m totally into you! Which I am, by the way — totally into you — like an embarrassing amount. And I just—”

“You, Eddie Kaspbrak, are a huge asshole and I love you for it.” Richie stepped forward wearing a silly grin. The hand that had been tenderly holding Eddie’s cheek booped Eddie on the nose.

“What the fuck, Rich?” He wrinkled his nose. Richie didn’t pay any mind to Eddie’s reaction — he pulled the shorter man into a crushing hug and rested his head on top of his.

“I caught you, Eds. You’re my lil’ Pikachu.”

Eddie scowled. “You’re a loser. I’m in love with a loser.”

And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

#reddie #reddie library #halloween event 2019 #pawprinterfanfic

198 notes · View notes

nancythebisexualslutwheeler · 5 years ago

Text

Reddie Tutor!AU

So what if we do a tutor!Eddie AU, where everything is #normal, it’s just shitty, normal HS. So Eddie is a junior and he’s on the track team and he’s little but his speed makes up for it.

He’s smart as hell, for real. In all AP classes and honors. I mean in math they only offer AP Calc as the highest option- which is what you need to pass twelfth grade. It’s not hard, even though it’s AP, the school just needed the extra funding. In Derry, everyone needed extra money.

So he’s smart and does track and that’s about all his mom allows him to do. She barely allows track, but the insurance money from his dad’s death is running out and words like scouts and scholarships made their mark. She never left the house of course, so it was nice for him to be able to have something to himself. It had taken a lot of convincing, but finally it was his. And then his principal who’d wanted him to apply to their student council and run for class president and more things that Eddie’s mother wouldn’t allow him to do, asks him to be a tutor. He will need to dedicate one afternoon after school and his Saturday mornings. He only has two friends, Bev and Ben, who are dating each other, so no one is too worried about him. Not all the time at least. (That’s mean. They’re good friends, he’s just bitter.)

He accepts the job without even asking who he’s tutoring. Mainly because tutoring means they’d have to have a chance of passing the class. Richie Tozier does not have a chance in hell at passing the class.

Cue mean girls style montage... let me tell you about Richie Tozier. He’s a dick. He’s cocky and rude and dirty and he’s 19 and this will be his second go at his senior year. So no, he has no chance of passing.

He can’t very well say no after he’s said yes so on Wednesday afternoon, he’s in the library, in the back corner, to avoid being seen caught dead with the loser, when Richie shows up.

Yadayada when Richie sees him he has a field day.

But eventually the two find an uneasy relationship.

So I’m here for when:

***

Richie gets a D on his first test because it’s not an F!!!! And he pats Eddie so hard on the shoulder he’s sure he’ll have a bruise.

***

One day Richie is staring at Eddie. His legs more precisely.

“What are you wearing?”

“Track shorts,” he holds a leg out. It’s obvious. They’re purple.

Richie rolls his eyes,

“No shit.”

“Why?”

“Practice after this.”

He nods...

“Um, what kind of-“

“Track.”

“Oh no shit.”

“You run?”

He snorts,

“I only run from cops.”

***

“Hey I can’t meet on Saturday this week.”

“Why?” Richie demands. He looks a bit frantic, their test is on Monday. But Eddie also knows it probably has to do with the way Richie put his hand on Eddie’s leg as he drove them home. Eddie had reassured him with a small smile, but he figured the older boy still needed validation.

“I’ve got a meet.”

Richie raises an eyebrow,

“Yeah,” Eddie itches the back of his head.

“Where?”

“Gravesville.”

“Oh.”

“I have one on Friday night too though. Here.”

And Richie makes some dumb excuse about being busy and yet on. Friday night he’s out there. Well, at the bottom of the bleachers right before the fence and he watches Eddie and smokes a cigarette.

And Eddie is so shook and ends up running over to him after like wtf? And Richie’s wearing a leather JACKET and they lean against the fence and chat and Richie lights a cigarette and Eddie can’t take his eyes off of his mouth and then Richie offers him some and Eddie’s like ... ahhh.. but then does and chokes and Richie’s like alright my innocent bon bon, none for you.

***

Then Richie starts bringing them coffee on Saturday’s. He’s got a new job. He always makes Eddie’s coffee perfectly. Like he’s memorized it or something. A hazelnut vanilla latte with less oat milk (he’s lactose intolerant) than espresso and three sugars. Sue him, he likes his coffee sweet.

Richie is vegan. Eddie about falls over when he starts talking about the environment and passionately. The mistreatment of people of color comes up and the fact those words just came out of stoner Richie Tozier’s mouth is making him rethink everything he knew about the world.

***

Richie fucking lifts weights which wouldn’t be a problem if he arms weren’t so fucking buff.

***

Okay the thing is Eddie knows he shouldn’t like Richie, but’s he’s just so damn attractive that it’s hard. His dark hair and beaming blue eyes and ridiculous glasses that happen to work for him. He has a goddamn hoop nose ring and he’s always biting at his chapped lips. He has a chest tattoo (Eddie has only seen what pokes out of the too tight, stretched out necks of his t shirts. He wears assorted band tees or white T-shirts that ride up when he stretches his arms over his head and shoves off the treasure trail that Eddie wants to lick.

So anyway the first time Richie takes off the flannel he’s wearing over a T-shirt, Eddie balks at the artfully decorated tree on his arm. It’s an elegant oak tree with autumn leaves adorning the branches. It’s... exquisite, and before Eddie can help himself, he’s reaching out to touch it. He stops himself before he does and when he looks up, Richie is smiling at him. He offers his arm and Eddie traces the tree,

“It's beautiful.”

“Well thanks Eddie spaghetti,” he says.

Eddie realizes he’s still touching his arm and quickly pulls away.

***

It only takes a few times of mentioning his mom before Richie asks. Richie is trying to offer to drive him home after a study session runs late and it’s dark.

“You’re not walking home.”

“It’s fine, I promise.”

“You scared of my driving skills?” Richie swings his keys around his index finger.

“No, I mean yes, of course, but my mom’ll flip.”

“You say that a lot. What’s her deal?”

Eddie pales,

“Nothing. Just overprotective.”

They head to the door, Richie still insisting on a ride, and when they step out into the chilly fall air, Eddie wraps his windbreaker around himself tighter and then Richie offers again, knowingly.

“You have to drop me off around the corner.”

Richie looks at him curiously and then nods,

“Of course. Can’t have mom seeing you with big bad huh?”

“Yeah, you’re not meeting the parents material, huh?”

“That’s what they tell me,” he shrugs, “As long as they let me sneak into their bedroom.”

Eddie makes a face. Girl’s rooms.

***

One Saturday Richie doesn’t show up. He thought they were over this, Richie ditching. He hadn’t even texted. So Eddie is annoyed. No pissed. Because it’s 8am and Richie isn’t even there to give him a coffee. So he calls because he’s fuming.

Richie sounds like shit,

“Hello? Eddie? Wait. What day is it? Fuck. Eddie I am so sorry. I’m sick as fuck.”

Speaking of which, Eddie doesn’t remember seeing him in class on Thursday.

“You couldn’t call? Text?”

“Bro, I’ve been in bed for days. I’m about to die of dehydration, my parents are out of town and I can barely manage to get out of bed to pee so no, I couldn’t text.”

Eddie pauses. Hesitates. He does it to be nice. That’s all.

“What’s your address? I can bring you a few things.”

“That’s unnecessary.”

“I’m not, I’m not taking a no for an answer.”

Eddie buys too much but he can’t stop himself. About three kinds of cold and flu meds, Tylenol, cough syrup, OJ and sprite and saltines. A couple of magazines. He’s pathetic.

Richie answers the door looking like death and Eddie is Lowkey in love because he looks like a muffin. (A very sick muffin) but a muffin nevertheless.

***

Richie returns the favor by inviting Eddie over for a movie and pizza night. He thinks about it because they’re not friends. But Richie seems sincere and he did take care of Richie. He’d changed his bed sheets and everything. They haven’t mentioned it.

So Richie’s house is nice and he has a thirteen year old sister who is way cooler than Eddie was at 13. Anyway Richie orders pizza and he orders Eddie a regular pizza but he wants to try Richie’s because it looks good. And he does and it’s good and Richie just grins and turns on some dumb Netflix movie.

They absolutely do not cuddle, but Eddie sits a touch closer than he needs to and Richie’s arm ends up draped behind him on the couch and it’s nice and goddammit, Eddie is gay for Richie Tozier.

***

Richie never seems to tire of him, or make any move to stop their tutoring sessions even when he gets a B on their latest test.

***

One day it’s raining and Richie is sitting across from him and parts of his white shirt are see through. And his chest is hairy and Eddie is in to it.

***

Richie’s birthday comes and goes and Eddie brings him a single German chocolate cupcake complete in a container and everything.

Richie doesn’t stop absolutely beaming. He eats the whole thing and fawns over Eddie.

“It was so good. Best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth,” he says with a wink.

“Richie,” he complains.

“Scouts honor,” he salutes, “the very best.”

“Gross!”

***

So idk what happens but somehow they’re alone together, maybe in like a bedroom. Richie’s got his big hands open in his lap, palm up, and Eddie is firmly pressed against him and Eddie nudges Richie,

“You’re a lot cooler than I thought you’d be.”

“Aww, you too Eddie spaghetti.”

“Puh-lease fuck off.”

“Never.”

Eddie nudges him,

“Promise?”

Richie looks down at him then,

“Promise.”

Eddie stares at him and licks his lips.

Richie leans down slowly, giving Eddie plenty of time to move away. He doesn’t.

#reddie #richie tozier #Eddie kaspbrak #it 2017 #it 2019 #fan fiction #my writing #head canons

33 notes · View notes

laedraws · 5 years ago

Text

I had to exercise myself with writing and I found a prompt generator. This is probably very bad but I tried

Warning: language

Your prompt: Eddie is the barista at a coffee shop and always screws up Richie’s name on purpose + Your prompt: Richie hates coffee, but goes to a coffee shop and drinks some just so they can see Eddie, who works there

Richie Tozier enters the coffee shop that’s across the street the way he always does.

It’s quiet, and it’s a nice change from all the noise he’s usually exposed to.

Eddie Kaspbrak walked through the same door hours ago, half an hour before the start of his shift. He’s not thrilled about his job, but it’s not the worst he could be doing, either.

It’s quiet, and it’s a nice change from all the noise his thoughts make inside his head.

Richie Tozier hesitates only a few seconds before taking his place in line, not needing to mentally rehearse his order.

Eddie Kaspbrak has had anxiety all of his life, he still checks every order twice, despite knowing each one by heart.

Richie Tozier hates coffee. Don’t get him wrong, he usually gladly throws himself onto everything that could possibly make him develop some sort of addiction; but the light adrenaline wave coffee provides just isn’t worth the shitty taste.

Eddie Kaspbrak has learnt from a very young age that sometimes you have to just pinch your nose and swallow whatever substance your body does (or doesn’t) need. He grew up weak, and medicines helped him, or so his mother said. Caffeine was just another help, a boost for when his useless body claimed sleep too early or too often. A necessity, really.

Richie Tozier hated caffeine, but ordered a cup of coffee anyway. He always did, because the only reason he even entered the coffee nearly every other day was to tell said order to the brown eyed boy working at the counter.

Eddie Kaspbrak saw him the moment he got in line. He ordered the same thing every day, and it was the only time of the day Eddie didn’t need to repeat the order in his head until he had handed the cup to the customer in line.

Richie smiled, Eddie smirked.

“Your name?”

Your name is Richie. I know this. I heard your friends call after you. I heard you saying it yourself while you were trying to sound professional on the phone. You failed, by the way.

“Richie”

Please remember it right this time. I spelled it clearly, for you. I’m only here because of you. Fuck. I don’t even care how much this shit’s overpriced if I get to hear you call me correctly for once. (I want to hear my name on your lips)

Eddie grabbed a sharpie and scribbled something onto the soft cardboard. It made a soothing sound and he dared to quickly look up to the other, curly black hair partly hiding the huge frame of his glasses. He looked so hopeful Eddie almost felt bad.

It’s a cute name really. R-I-C-H-I-E. Has a nice ring to it, too. It would be a shame if someone put a T in there.

He finished writing, turned the cup so that Richie couldn’t see it, and moved to make his coffee. Cupboards sounds tingled in the air. He was aware of Richie’s presence somewhere behind him, but it didn’t make him nervous. He wasn’t overthinking for once. It was their little game, or Eddie’s at least, if the other somehow hadn’t caught up yet.

“Here you go” he said as he finished pouring it, half smiling but carefully avoiding the other’s eyes.

Richie smiled back and took his coffee, then quickly stopped in his tracks.

Are you fucking kid-

“-ding me?”

Eddie turned around, eyebrow raised.

Him and his fucking trashmouth. While he mentally zeroed any possibility he may have had with the cute boy from the shop he could clearly hear the distinct voice of Stanley Uris himself, telling him to stop being so freaking loud all the time. Serves him well for never listening to Stan the Man.

“Is something wrong?”

If Eddie was having a mini panic attack the moment he heard Richie complain (which he was), he didn’t show it.

And then something incredible happened, something so rare it could be comparable to the passage of some comets in the sky. Richie Tozier was left speechless.

“I-“ he started, flushing through his pale skin. “I’m sorry” he finished. “I just…was wondering how you think it’s pronounced? Maybe RiTchy?” He added, a sincere smile softening the joke.

It took some seconds for Eddie to blink away his confusion and pick up that the other was in fact fucking with him.

“You pay for the coffee, not for accuracy”

What the actual fuck was that, Kaspbrak.

“Excuse me?” It was Richie’s turn to be confused now.

“We put names on the cups so they don’t get mixed up, it’s a practical tip which also happens to do wonders for health codes, ‘cause imagine picking someone else’s cup that’d be so anti-hygienic and have you ever heard of a staph infection-”

Richie had honestly lost himself trying to follow the other’s train of thoughts, the only thing he could think about was that all the rambling made the boy in front of him look strangely cute.

“…and basically my point is that in the end the name is not really relevant for the service, so-”

(cute, cute, cute)

“Well yeah okay I’m sorry, I got it, I was kind of a dick-” And then Richie snorted because of course, he had to add “A Dick, get it? Because my name’s Richard?”

The barista blinked, but otherwise had no response. If Stan had been there, he would have smacked Richie in the head, which, fair enough. He suddenly became painfully aware of the line growing behind him.

“Alright, for real now, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you, just… uh, you’ve been butchering my name for weeks now and I guess I overthought it a little? Thought that maybe you didn’t like me which, I guess you’d be right in doing after this..”

Eddie felt like the shittiest person on the planet because you see, Richie’s eyes looked like those of a kicked dog behind those stupid glasses.

So when the other reached for his money and paid, muttering a ‘keep the change’ under his breath, Eddie took a deep sigh and- where’s my inhaler when I need it?

“It’s Eddie!”

“Uh?” Richie turned around, the cup of coffee still warm in his hand, the steam fogging the base of his glasses.

“Eddie. It’s my name. In case you wanna butcher it back”

As Richie looked at him Eddie felt his cheeks go down two shades. And then a wide, heartfelt grin pictured himself on the black haired boy’s face and Eddie felt his chest relax as if he really took a huge spray out of his inhaler.

“Nice one” he decided, and then, as a grin formed on his face: “Mind if I call you Eds?”

Eddie shook his head. Yes, he did mind, but he guessed they were even now.

“No” he lied while moving to the next costumer: “I owe you one”

And with that Richie could have considered himself satisfied, really. Not only the cute boy- Eddie, he quickly reminded himself, would call him by his correct name from now on, but Richie knew his, too.

You could just have asked, he heard Stan’s voice echo in his mind.

But isn’t it enough to just sit into my Hawaiian shirt, lovestruck? He would have probably said back.

(Yes that is the variation of a meme I just quoted. No, Stan, I physically cannot talk ‘normal’)

And so he refused to walk through the door, lingering on the back of the counter, respectfully out of line: “That’s nice to know, Eds. How about Eddie Spaghetti?”

That’s where Eddie drew the line.

“I said I owed you one, don’t push it”, but he was smiling.

Richie noticed it, and that’s why he said: “Alright Spaghetti-head”

He forgot he was holding coffee, because the smug face he was picturing having fell apart as he took a sip of his drink and almost spit it all out. Luckily the other was too busy to notice it.

Eddie handed the order to his current costumer, and forgot all about work policies and ‘professionalism’ as he absent-mindedly slipped in a conversation with the boy he had been purposely misnaming for weeks: “Beep-beep Richie”

“Did you just beeped me?” Richie added, faking indignation.

“Yeah, you’re annoying”. But there was no serious tone in his voice. Then, he quickly added: “Can I ask you something?”

Richie was glowing: “Yeah, sure”

“Why don’t you order something else if you dislike coffee?”

Richie’s heart did something funny in his chest as he realized he was panicking in his spot.

“Huh?”

“Yeah I can see you throwing it away as you walk out, you know. The poor plant outside has probably become addicted to caffeine by now. At first I thought it was me, that I had fucked up your order or something. That’s why I started to spell your name wrong, I was pissed because I thought you didn’t like the service or something. And I used to check every time, and I’m pretty sure that I had done alright”

Richie started to understand how Stan must feel while dealing with his shenanigans, because he suddenly had the urge to smack himself in the head, too.

“Oh fuck, I’m sorry if you thought that! I swear it has nothing to do with you-

(It has everything to do with you, just not in the way you’d think)

“-I just like coming here, and it wouldn’t sit well with me if I didn’t support the place, somehow. Does it make sense?”

Eddie didn’t look too convinced but he wasn’t one to push people too much. He just nodded and bit his lip, going on another tour to the coffee machine.

“If that’s how it is then, I was thinking, how about I make you another one? Another order, I mean. One that you actually like. I promise I’ll spell your name right this time”

“That’d be cool, actually. Do you have anything with chocolate?”

Eddie smiles and gestures him to go back in line.

Richie patiently waits, and when Eddie hands him his new order he forgets about checking his name’s spelling. He smiles at Eddie and maybe stares a little too long before thanking him and finally walking out the place.

It’s only when he passes the poor plant he’d been accidentally feeding with caffeine that he remembers the previous conversation.

On the cup, truth to his word, Eddie wrote “Richie”, the clear handwriting striking on the white cardboard. Under it, there’s a row of numbers Richie takes some seconds too long to decipher.

When it finally hits him, it makes his body warm despite the weather and a sincere smile brightens his face.

Richie Tozier goes home and doesn’t hear the noises of the street over the memory of Eddie’s voice he’s playing in his head.

Eddie Kaspbrak finishes his shift hours later, takes out his umbrella and lets the sound of the rain silence his overthinking, as thoughts of Richie bloom at the edge of his mind.

#it #it chapter one #it chapter two #reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #losers club #the losers club #Richie x Eddie #prompt generator #fanfic

42 notes · View notes

brainstormingtattoos · 6 years ago

Text

Are You On The Menu? - Chapter One

hi hi, so I’ve posted a new fic on A03, so here’s the link to read it there (otherwise i’m posting it below):

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18291323

also! I have a playlist for the story on spotify here:

https://open.spotify.com/user/missy325/playlist/1bXq1fWF8UciYpehSaITPa?si=yo0Ovd9rTnG6rhIvFPLNCg

anyways, here it is! I hope you like it:)

He’d finally did it. It took him years, but he’s finally here. After getting his business degree, moving to New York and revamping the building he bought, he- Eddie Kaspbrak- was finally opening his coffee shop. He couldn’t believe it. Eddie had spent so long dreaming of the day he would finally succeed and here he was.

Just yesterday was the grand opening day. It took loads of preparation to say the least. Bill, Eddie’s best friend and new barista, had told everyone at his old job about it. Eddie spent hours each day leading up to the opening to advertise it all over social media, making sure to mention the free donut with every purchase the first day. So, it was no surprise when after all of this build up to the big day, Eddie was a bit disappointed.

They did okay, that’s for sure. But nothing was quite right in his eyes. He forgot about the music. How could he forget about the music? There was a heavy silence every time someone left the shop, followed by Bill letting out an exaggerated yelp of happiness. No one knew how to clean up after themselves, so Eddie found himself running back and forth between the register and the tables to tidy up. The air didn’t seem quite right to him, either. He knew it sounded ridiculous to base his day off of the air- but it just didn’t smell right. It wasn’t the normal nostalgic air he’d woken up to every day that week. It was more dull and just- there.

Nonetheless, the day came to an end. They really did pretty alright for their first day, especially with the small staff. But Eddie couldn’t pull himself out of his head. The music, the customers, the air; the everything.

‘Hey, c-c-come on Eddie. We did fr-freaking amazing today. And you were so good with the tables, I didn’t even th-think of that. I can feel it- tomorrow’s gonna be even better!’ Bill was cleaning off the front counter. He could sense his friend getting overwhelmed, and he didn’t want to leave him like that.

‘I know I know, I just- I think I’ve got it from here. Go get some rest for tomorrow, ‘Kay?’

‘You s-s-sure, Eddie? I can stay, no problem.’

‘Promise I’m good. I trust your feeling- tomorrow’s gonna be even better’ Eddie couldn’t decide if he was trying to convince Bill or himself. He needed tomorrow to go better. He left everything behind for this. He had so much weighing on this working out.

‘A-Alright Eddie, see y-ya tomorrow bright and e-early!’ Bill ruffled Eddie’s hair before skipping out the door.

Eddie decided today was just a little bump in the road. Tomorrow was the real show time. He got out his laptop from behind the counter and started working on a playlist to play in the shop. It had to be perfect. He added some good hits from the charts first. Then some throwbacks from all genres, to keep everyone going. Next was the more chill music, for anyone needing some motivation. Finally he added some of his favorites, because that’s definitely the least he deserves. He plugged the laptop into the speakers so he could really get to work now.

He started with rearranging some of the trashcans for a more genuine flow (and so people wouldn’t forget to be decent human beings). He then added some stuff to the chalkboards behind the counter. He and Bill thought the menu looked more humble on a chalk board, and Eddie has to admit it was their best decision. He settled with adding some little drawings and doodles around the drink names. He then grabs the ‘Foaming Glory’ sign that’s in the window and makes sure it really pops. He puts it a little closer to the door this time.

When he starts yawning he comes to the conclusion that he might actually need sleep. After all, it was 12am now and they open at 5. He packs up everything and heads out. As he’s locking the door, he takes one final look at his achievement. He did this. He smiles to himself for a second and starts down the street to his apartment.

- The beeping of the oven shakes Eddie awake. He can’t honestly remember waking up this morning, and he can’t even fully remember how he got to work. But he’s definitely here and somehow he’s heating up the first bagel of the morning. He gets the bagel out and places it into the bags he designed about a month ago, he’s quite proud of them. They have a big coffee cup with two boys sitting in it, and ‘Foaming Glory’ written in fancy lettering above it all. He stuffs in a few napkins, a plastic knife and cream cheese and calls it out with an enthusiastic ‘Have a nice day!’.

Today was going to be long. He looks around to see no one but Bill at the register. ‘Hey! Last night I made us a playlist so it wouldn’t be so quiet, wanna hear?’ Eddie didn’t wait for a response, he was already plugging in his laptop and pressing play. Bill hummed along in agreeance, satisfying Eddie enough to go back to the coffee makers.

It was quiet for the first hour, being it was 5 in the morning. But low and behold, two boys came in at 6 sharp, ruining the whole vibe Eddie had going. They were in the middle of a very loud conversation, and if Eddie wasn’t awake before, he definitely was now. Come On Eileen was playing in the background, but all he could hear was their voices (more like one specifically). The boys were both pretty tall with dark, curly hair. One had significantly more curls, freckles kissing every bit of his face and sported big, bulky glasses that made his eyes look buggy. Eddie swears he might’ve fallen in love right there. Eddie was pulled out of his thoughts when Bill started taking their order.

‘Yeah uh I’ll have a large iced caramel coffee’ The boy replied, eyes meeting Eddie’s from what seemed like miles away. ‘Well you’re a sight, are you on the menu?’ He’s now wiggling his eyebrows suggestively at the shy boy who is now blushing.

‘Oh my god, excuse him. Richie never knows when to stop.’ The boy’s- Richie’s- friend says, moving them down the counter to wait for the coffee.

‘Stanley, my kind sir, I have to appreciate precious cargo like-‘ Richie pauses, and leans with squinty eyes to read the barista’s nametag. ‘Eddie! I have to appreciate little Eds over here!’ With that, Eddie spins around on his feet and finally contributes.

‘Actually, it’s just Eddie. No need to shorten it, but here’s your coffee’ He responds with a small wink. He doesn’t know what possess him to be so forward but before he knows it, he’s letting his fingers linger on Richie’s for a few moments. He wondered if he’d ever see him again. Maybe he should give him his number right now. Richie looked as if he practically melted at the touch of Eddie’s fingertips, which fed his overconfidence even more. ‘You should come back here, maybe a new menu item will come up soon’

Richie practically choked on air. Eddie could barely process what was happening, then another customer came in. He had to get back to his job. But before he turns to make the next order, he hears ‘Hope it’s your number, cutiepie’. Richie and Stanley then exit the shop and Eddie’s heart drops a little.

‘I-I can’t believe that j-j-just happened’ Bill teases. Before the smaller boy can reply, they hear a whistle from outside, making them abruptly turn. It’s Richie. ‘God, he’s an idiot’ Eddie whispers, but inside his heart is pounding. Richie brings his hands up and makes a heart before blowing a kiss. Eddie’s heart jumps. Stan grabs onto Richie and they finally go on their way.

‘S-S-See? Told ya today was g-gonna be better!’ Bill bops Eddie’s nose. ‘S-Somebody’s got a c-crush’ He slowly returns to the register, fiddling with the laptop to change the song.

‘Oh shut up’ Eddie scuffs. Gosh, he really hopes those rascals come back tomorrow.

#new fic #reddie #reddie fic #reddie playlist #are you on the menu #richie tozier #richie tozier and eddie kaspbrak #eddie kaspbrak #coffee shop au #eddie and bill #richie and stan #brainstormingtattoos #archive of our own #flirty richie #flirty eddie #eddie is bold

46 notes · View notes

shaunasshipman · 6 years ago

Text

semi charmed life | chapter eight | 5.2k | teen|

“You guys have kept in contact this whole time?” Bill asked, brow disappearing underneath hair line as he looked like his old friends in amazement. “And you guys are.. what? Room mates?”

Eddie avoided looking at Richie as he answered. “Yeah, uh… room mates. Something like that.”

[or: the adult!losers reunion, done 2000s sit-com style, just like we all deserve.]

PREVIOUSLY ON SEMI CHARMED LIFE:“Richie? As in, Kaspbrak?” Kay asked, looking at the radio as though it had personally offended her. Mike blinked up at her, mouth opening slightly. “His husband’s a dick | CUTEST COUPLE. Richie traced his hands over the words, smiling softly as he took in the appearance of himself and Beverly Marsh at fifteen. | Well, we met in 1982 so give or take…” Richie cleared his throat awkwardly. “Thirteen years this November.” | Stan let out a shaky breath. “In our senior year of high school, I tried to kill myself.” | “Tell you?” Richie bitterly. “Bev, I adore you but it took you almost six months to even speak to me again after we broke up. The last thing I wanted to add onto that was ‘oh, hey, also I’m gay.’” | “Baby…” Eddie leaned his head onto Richie’s shoulder. “Fuck whatever they think, we have such a good fucking life.”

Kay McCall leaned over the edge of the car, Eddie Kaspbrak pulling himself half out from underneath it and raising his brow at her. “What are you doing here? Thought you had some big fancy museum job. Here to answer the phone for fun?”

Kay gave an eye roll, leaning on the car with her elbows placed upon it and hand in her chin. “Hey, you’re the one who fired me when I got the museum job. I would’ve gladly kept answering the phones on my days off.”

Eddie pulled himself out from underneath the car completely, and pushes his to his feet. “You can understand why I’d need a little bit more than somebody who can answers phones on their days off.”

Kay smirked at him. “Yeah, because you’re so busy down here.”

Eddie clenched his jaw and resisted tossing the greasy cloth at his former friend and employee. Instead, he rolled his eyes once again and then glared pointedly at her. “What brings you to this neck of the woods, McCall?”

“Would you believe that I was bored and in the neighbour?” Kay asked lightly, and Eddie made sure not to waver his unimpressed expression for even a moment. Kay sighed. “Alright, fine. I actually came down here to thank you, and I need you not to make a big deal about it.”

Eddie raised his brow and had barely began to smirk when Kay was already holding a finger out to stop him in his tracks. “No! Okay, I just wanted to thank you for firing me. At the time, I was so angry. And I’ve definitely held onto that anger until really recently. But I’ve sort of come to the conclusion myself that you letting me go forced me to really start my life. Loosing my job here was the my life changing moment, so thank you for being such a dick back then.”

Eddie shook his head and let out a disbelieving noise. “You’re welcome for firing you, I guess, but I think that’s a load of shit, Kay. There’s no such thing as a life changing moment, your life changes because you work for it and only when you work for it.”

Eddie turned to walk away then as Kay made an equally annoyed noise behind him. “You’re telling me you can’t think of a single moment in your whole life that you could trace everything back to? There’s no big moment, that changed the course of your life at all?”

Eddie couldn’t help but hesitate there, images of on moonlight on the lake and Richie’s wet hair sticking to his forehead. Richie counting down from ten… and shook his head. “Everything I have in my life I earned and worked for. Just like you, just like everyone.”

Eddie didn’t really hear what response Kay gave him- if she gave him any at all- because his footing slipped in a pile of oil that had gathered on the ground behind him, and Eddie’s head smacked rather roughly against the cement garage floor.

→ → →

Eddie opened his eyes slowly, groaning at the pounding in the back of his head. He rolled slightly and nearly fell out of his bed. Gasping, Eddie grasped at the edges of the much smaller than he remembered mattress and finally opened his eyes wide. He was suddenly surrounded by pale blue walls that made his stomach churn almost painfully. The cramping sort of reminding him of the time in college when Richie had brought home burritos from a less than trustworthy place down the street from their studio apartment, and they’d both been sick for days. Not liking that much at all, Eddie forces himself to his feet and sways slightly when he gets a rushing of blood to his head.

He nearly falls again- again? Had he fallen before? He couldn’t remember- when the all too familiar screaming that Eddie hadn’t heard in years came carrying up the stairs towards him. “EDDIE BEAR! ARE YOU UP?”

“Yes, Ma!” Eddie called back on the a reflex that made his skin crawl. For a moment, Eddie Kaspbrak was sure- so sure- that he was having some sort of nightmare, Eddie moved towards the mirror in his old childhood bedroom. It wasn’t covered in photographs of himself and his friends, which meant it was at least before junior year, but what Eddie saw in the mirror shocked him to his core.

The scar above his eye from when Richie had convinced a nineteen year old Eddie to get down the stairs in their apartment building on a mattress and resulted in Eddie getting six stitches in his forehead, and their landlord nearly evicting them for being hooligans. The way his nose was now slightly crooked from getting broken with a baseball while playing for the team in college. Shaking from head to toe, Eddie looked down at his trembling hands and saw the paler skin on his ring finger.

Okay, he wasn’t dreaming back up being in high school in his mother’s house but what the hell else could this possibly be? Eddie hadn’t been in contact with his mother for nearly seven years, since he’d gotten married and she’d spent the entire weekend trying to ruin everything for them. Two years back, he’d gotten a phone call from the hospital in Portland, telling him that his mother had suffered a serious stroke, and Eddie had told them to “do whatever they needed to do” and hung up. He didn’t even know if Sonia Kaspbrak was alive. He supposed that they would’ve called him if she’d died, but in truth, he wasn’t bothered either way. Alive or dead, it didn’t matter to Eddie as his mother had been dead to him ever since the day he married Richie Tozier and began his true family.

Heart racing, Eddie grabbed the back pack he’d used in high school- seeming a little bit more warned down than he remembered it being but he couldn’t be too bothered to care about that right now- and started cramming as many clothes as he could into it. All his clothes seemed to look exactly the same, he realized as he opened up his drawers. Fifty button up shirts in different shades of light blue, white and light grey and about a hundred pairs of khaki pants- only one or two pairs of jeans. Eddie crinkled his nose in disgust at the apparent boring person he was in this… reality or whatever it was.

Going down the stairs like four at time, Eddie rushed into the living room. Sonia was sitting in her large armchair in front of the TV, same as she did his whole life and same as she likely did while dying, and she did not look good. Her skin seemed to sag so much on her body that it seemed at risk of melting right off, and her was as white as winter snow. The sunken fashion of her face and dullness of her eyes, Eddie would have guessed that she was already dead if it wasn’t for the steady rise and fall of her chest. Eddie pursed his lips together to hold back his nausea at the sight of her. His ‘mother’ looked him up at down, and Eddie was a little surprised that she could even see him. “You can’t go to work looking like that,” Sonia said to him, sounding bitterly disappointed in him. That was a tone of voice that Eddie was beyond used to with her. “You know that you have to look presentable at the Pharmacy, Eddie Bear. Mr Keene was very nice to hire you right out of high school like he did. Show the man some respect, Edward.”

Eddie rolled his eyes. Working at the pharmacy, with the man who had held cover up his mother’s manipulation of him. Sounds just about fucking right. Eddie had to admit that he didn’t look like somebody about to go to work, in his oversized T-shirt and sweat pants that it seemed was deemed appropriate for sleep wear, and his hair a mess on his head. Eddie wasn’t going to work, so he supposed that was okay.

“I’m not going to work,” Eddie said sharply, trying in the Eddie that hung up the phone on that doctor two years ago, rather than what his soul was screaming at him to do. He was going to tell Sonia the truth, because he’d promised himself almost a decade before that he would never hide his true self from his mother again. “I have to go see Richie.”

Sonia’s face contorted up in confusion. “Richie? Went and Maggie’s boy? I’m quite sure that only the way you’ll be getting to see him, is watching those trashy movies he does on the Netflix. I won’t let you go all the way out to LA, Eddie Bear, and I’m quite sure he doesn’t remember you.” Eddie’s head spun, and a good part of him wanted to run to the closest available computer or television and search Richie up on Netflix to see just what kind of trashy movies his mother was talking about, but Sonia was still going on about Richie. “I hadn’t seen that boy since your high school years, and good riddance. He was never a good person to be hanging around, and he’s just proved that as an adult. Those movies? That slutty wife of his? You’re better off without that hooligan, Eddie Bear, he was never good enough to be your friend.”

He was never just my friend, Eddie thought with a painful lurch of his heart as tears threatened to cloud up his eyes. Richie was famous, Richie was married. Married to somebody that wasn’t him. His chest felt tight, like his breathing was going to cut off any second, as his brain betrayed him with the horrific thoughts that maybe this wasn’t a dream. Maybe his life with Richie, their home and their daughters, had been the real dream all along. He thought of the delicate little braids that Richie would put in Frankie’s hair or how they’d taken down the mobile above Marty’s crib because it scared her, or how Frankie would run through the apartment on her little baby legs trying to keep with Richie’s ridiculously long ones everywhere he went. It couldn’t have all been dream, no dream was so detailed, so real, so… flawed yet perfect. This was the dream, the terrible, terrible dream. There was no other option, because if this was real life than Eddie didn’t know what he would do.

Hiking the backpack higher on his shoulder, Eddie squared his jaw and forced his tears away from his eyes. “I’m going to see Richie, you can’t stop me. I’m an adult.” And oh, it was so similar to the speech he’d given at the end of high school, finally putting his foot down and telling Sonia once and for all that he was going to New York. That he and Richie were going to New York, and that she couldn’t stop him. His heart ached a little bit as he glanced around the childhood home that hadn’t changed since he’d given that speech. Shaking slightly, Eddie began to turn away- not feeling as though he could handle being in his house for another second.

“Edward Franklin Kaspbrak! You get back here!” Sonia called after him. “You can’t leave me! I need you! What if you get sick, Edddieeeee`”

But Eddie just kept going, the version of himself that he’d grown to love knew how to turn his back on Sonia Kaspbrak and he was doing that now. The words she throws at him can’t get to him anymore, because he learned long ago that they were all lies. Every single one were lies, and at one point he hadn’t been able to handle how long he’d believed them. Richie had helped him to get past that, to get to the point of truly being okay with everything he’d suffered through. He needed to get to Richie.

→ → →

It was only once he’d gotten to L.A that Eddie thought this might have been an entirely huge mistake. All he knew was that Richie lived somewhere in Los Angeles, that he was an extremely successful actor and that he was married. The internet didn’t exactly list his address, and as somebody who loved Richie as much as he did- Eddie was glad for that, even if it was ridiculously inconvenient for himself in this moment.

Standing in the middle of an busy L.A street, Eddie was still bundled in sweats and a T-shirt, only his backpack on his shoulders and feeling ridiculously groggy and jet lagged. His head hurt. There was a hand coming down on his shoulder and Eddie let out a loud scream, nearly toppling into the street as he spun around to see who was about to murder or rob him in the middle of the sidewalk.

Bill Denbrough looked five years older than he did in Eddie’s current (real, he told himself. They were real.) memories. His hair was flat and honestly a little greasy and he was supporting large, thick rimmed glasses that would have put childhood Richie Tozier to shame. His face was a little shrunken, making him look closer to forty than twenty-six. His eyes blew wide open at Eddie’s apparent panic, the only thing making him resemble somebody young. “Eddie!” He gasped, hand quickly dropping away from Eddie’s shoulder to press against his own chest. “Sorry, man. Didn’t mean to frighten you, I just was surprised to see you! Been a long time, man.”

How long a time? Eddie wanted to ask the question, but it soured in his throat and wouldn’t come out. Sonia had implied that she hadn’t seen Richie since they were in high school- going as far as to say that Richie wouldn’t remember him. But Bill had known him from behind, in the middle of the crowded street… Surely Richie would know him. Heart hammering, Eddie just nodded and forced out a “yeah.”

Bill frowned and looked Eddie up and down, looking at his messy appearance and what he didn’t doubt was pain written across his face. “Are you okay, man? You look a mess. I live around here, we can head back to mine. Audra and the kids won’t mind, I’m sure. They’ve heard tons about you-“

Kids? As in, multiple of? Eddie swallowed roughly, taking a change to look at more than just Bill’s tired face. He was dressed in a fitted grey suit, something that the Bill Eddie knew that still wore baseball caps and jeans at twenty-six, would never do. He was supporting a wedding ring, slightly dinged to promote that it was old. Worn out. Bill Denbrough looked like his father.

Eddie shook his head, not wanting to see Bill’s picked white fence life that he’d vowed he’d never have. It would probably make him throw up, or pass out, or both. “I just need a coffee.”

Bill’s worn face seemed to light up, and for a moment he looked like the youthful man that Eddie remembered. “Well, you’re in luck, Kaspbrak! There’s a great coffee shop not far from here, I go there nearly everyday. Follow me, amigo.”

Eddie didn’t have much choice but to follow Bill down the street, holding onto the edge of jacket in fear of loosing him just as he did as child. He was more than thankful that Bill seemed keen on talking, because Eddie wasn’t sure he was going to be able to make words come out if he tried his hardest. His heart raced with every word that Bill told him through the walk.

“Richie’s doing pretty good, you know? I think you’d be proud of him. He was always smart, you know, but he was just miserable in college so he dropped out. Went on all these auditions, his parents were so skeptical about it. But he did it!” Bill had a little glint in his eyes, something that was mostly pride but might have been a little bit of envy, too. “Don’t see him much, but I was at his wedding a couple months back. It was about time they tied the knot, too, you know? Bev and Richie had been together our whole lives, pretty much, I’m not sure what they waited so long for.”

Eddie was pretty sure he let out an actual dry heaving noise when Bill revealed that- after everything Eddie had grown to know about the love of hi life- Richie had married Beverly Marsh. The insecurity he’d had when he and Richie had first gotten together, the fear that Richie would realize he was wrong, that he did love Beverly and wanted to be with her, bubbled back up to the surface but he forced it down. None of this was real, and even in a fake world, Richie and Beverly had put off getting married for nearly a decade.

Bill was looking at Eddie sadly when Eddie brought himself back down to reality. “Rich said he invited you,” Bill said slowly. “But you didn’t RVSP. Think it tore him up a little bit, even though he wouldn’t say it. Bev kind of pointed out that you guys had drifted apart way back in high school, but Richie had so sure that you were going to show up.”

Okay, yep. Eddie was definitely going to throw up now.

“It wasn’t like it was some big Losers reunion,” Bill continued on, not noticing how Eddie had gone pale and swayed slightly as he walked. “Mike hadn’t been able to make it, and Bev and Rich hadn’t been able to even get a hold of Ben, and even if… Nothing has been the same since Stan, you know…”

For a moment, Eddie didn’t know. He really didn’t- until he did. Until he remembered a certain event that had taken place in their senior year, an event that was only stopped from being complete irreversibly tragic because Richie had gone over to the Uris’ house after his and Eddie’s first fight in their relationship. Eddie had almost thrown up so many times in the last five minutes, he wasn’t sure how he’d managed to hold onto his pride.

“When you started drifting away after your mother didn’t let you go to my lake house that summer, things are started drifting apart. But there hadn’t been any going back after Stan.” Bill sighed sadly, glancing up at the sky as though it held all the answers to life. “I miss it sometimes. Don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Eddie choked out, tears thick in his eyes as frantically rubbed at his face to calm down. This isn’t real, Eddie told himself angrily. Richie and Bev aren’t married, Stan isn’t dead… This is all bullshit. “I uh, I’m here to see Richie. Do you know… could you help me find him?”

Bill raised his brow at Richie. “A little late for a wedding gift, aren’t you?” Eddie gave Bill an unimpressed look as they entered the coffee shop he’d aforementioned. Eddie’s hand was still tight on the bottom of Bill’s suit jacket, but Bill didn’t seem to mind. “Okay, okay. Yeah I know where Bev and Rich live. They’ve got some serious security, but I can get you in. As long as you promise me something.”

“What?” Eddie asked carefully, looking seriously at his childhood best friend while they stood in the long line.

Bill was looking back at him just as a seriously. “You have to promise me that you aren’t going to do anything to hurt him. It’s been almost fifteen years, Eddie. You broke the olive branch, so if he doesn’t want to see you then you need to accept that.”

Eddie hadn’t envisioned a situation where Richie didn’t want to see him. He’d just assumed that Richie’s soul would scream out for Eddie as soon as was anywhere near him and that would be it. The whole universe would shift back into reality, and Eddie would blink and he’d have his life back. If Richie didn’t want to see him, Eddie wasn’t sure how he’d be able to keep living this fucked up broken life.

Before Eddie could give it anymore thought, they had reached the front of the line and he balked at the sight of their barista. Even if his cheeks were sunken into the cheekbones, and his arms were almost disgustingly buff underneath his uniform- it was Ben Hanscom. Eddie would know those brown eyes anywhere, even with the amount of sorrow that they now held. Or the panic that settled over them the second he met Eddie’s gaze.

But Bill just butted on, ordering their drinks as though seeing through the man. Ben jumped back into action, handing them their drinks quickly and then Bill and Eddie were leaving without a single word to their friend. Eddie felt more shaken by this interaction than anything he’d found out thus far. He turned to Bill, looking at him pleadingly. “Bill. That was Ben Hanscom.”

Bill looked over at him, startled and then laughed. “What? Eddie, come on. I got into the shop every damn day, Beverly pretty much lives there on her days off. I think we would’ve noticed if the guy making our coffee was Ben from high school.”

Eddie pursed his lips and shook his head slightly, but figured that he had bigger fish to fry right now than his friends utter obliviousness to the world around them. Once he got back to Richie, everything would go right and Ben wouldn’t be the mysterious guy who makes the coffee.

Bill and Eddie hop into a cab, and Bill gives the address. It’s a huge house, much bigger than two people would ever need, bigger than Richie or Eddie would need now with their children. The millionaire version of the Toziers house back in Derry, where everybody lived so far apart that they never needed to see each other. It made Eddie’s heart hurt a little bit.

“Bev’s car isn’t here,” Bill said, after buzzing them in and an unfamiliar voice buzzed them in. Bill pushed the gate open and they walked through the long drive up towards the wildly extravagant house. Eddie’s palms were sweaty as Bill opened the unlocked door and let them into the house. The front foyer was bigger than the living room of Eddie and Richie’s whole living room back in their lives.

Richie padded into the foyer and he looked so much like Richie that Eddie’s breath caught in his throat. His heart began to race at an almost inhuman pace as he took in Richie’s white T-shirt and paint splattered jeans, his black curls done up messily on top of his head in a bun. He was wearing his glasses and Eddie wanted to run forward and kiss him all over his face. But he couldn’t, and that made every part of Eddie ache. There was no little toddler with braids running into the room behind Richie, and that was a type of hurt that Eddie had truly never felt before.

He forced back tears for what must have been the millionth time in twenty four hours and found Richie staring at him with disbelief written all over his face. “Eds…” He said it so slowly, and the nickname dug deeply at Eddie’s soul. He couldn’t hold back the sob that was wrenched from him, and he clasped his hand over his mouth a little too late to muffle it. Richie’s shocked face seemed to soften with concern, and Eddie could feel the way Bill was staring at him but he didn’t have any eyes free just now.

“We can talk in my office,” Richie said, his voice was rough like he’d been smoking for forty years and stiff like he was creating a business transaction with a stranger. Eddie’s heart had clenched so many times lately he wasn’t sure how it was even still beating, but he followed Richie without any hesitation. Richie closed the office door behind them, and sat on top of his desk. He looked at Eddie’s awkward figure for a long time, before sighing. “It’s good to see you, Eds. Been too long.”

And then Eddie was finally crying. Every tear that he’d been fighting off since waiting up in Derry yesterday exploded out of him all at once. Pressing both hands on his mouth, Eddie bent slightly at the middle and let out sobs that were long out of his control. Chest heaving, he forced himself to meet Richie’s troubled gaze.

“This is the worst fucking thing that I’ve ever happened to me,” Eddie heaved out through shaking breaths. “Worse than my dad dying, worse than anything my mom ever put me through. I fucking hate this so much.”

Richie visibly swallowed, tugging on his earlobe. “Eddie, can you please tell what’s happening, right now? I want to help, but I can’t if you don’t tell me what’s the matter. Do you need money?”

Eddie exhaled hard and closed his eyes. “I don’t need money, I need my life. My family. My husband, my girls… I need you, Rich, and I need you to remember. I need you to remember our lives together- our real lives, Richie. Our life. Together. Me and you. Our house, our kids… Everything that was ours.”

“I….” Richie was looking at Eddie like he was crazy, and God… Eddie would do anything for Richie not to look at him like that ever again. “Eddie, I have no idea what you’re talking about. Can you please speak sense to me, please?”

“You don’t believe me.” Eddie said, breaking slightly before sucking his bottom lip into his mouth to keep any sense of composure he could possibly have in this moment.

Richie let out a long sigh, and looked at Eddie sadly. “Do I believe what? That you and I are secretly married with kids, and I’ve somehow forgotten it all? No, yeah, I find that a little hard to believe.”

Eddie sniffled and rubbed angrily at his eyes. “This is all fucked up. This isn’t how things are supposed to be! It’s supposed to be me and you! Richie…”

Richie pushed up to said and looked at Eddie so fiercely that for a second Eddie thought that Richie was going to kick him out. But Richie deflated as quickly as he puffed up. “You’re right, I thought that, too. Right up until there wasn’t a cute ass Kaspbrak bursting into the church at my wedding, interrupting at the perfect time just the movies. I realized then that this had never been right, and that I needed to let go of this bullshit crush on a dude I haven’t spoken to in ten years.”

Eddie squeezed his eyes shut. “Why did you marry Bev if you don’t love her?”

“Awe, heck, Eds, I do love her.” Richie said with a chuckle. “It’s Bev, how could you not? She’s stood by me even through the last five years after I stopped having sex with her, and we both pretend I don’t know that she’s sleeping with one of those dudes who make coffee at her favourite shop. It works, I guess.”

“It could be better,” Eddie said fiercely, entire body suddenly shaking with adrenaline, stepping forward and taking Richie’s hands in his own. Sparks shot through Eddie’s entire body, and he knew Richie felt it too with how his eyes blew open wide. “You and me, a townhouse in New York, two kids. Little girls, beautiful, healthy… everything we could want. Our life, maybe it’s not perfect, but it’s better than this and I wouldn’t want anything else.”

Richie’s eyes had tears in them now, too, and he’s squeezing Eddie’s hands back. “Eddie, that sounds amazing, but you have to know it’s crazy, right? What do you think- one morning you woke up and suddenly we’ve lived completely different lives? Doesn’t that sound crazy?”

“Stop telling me what you think,” Eddie pleaded. “Tell me what you feel.”

Richie’s mouth opened and closed a few times, and then he let out a watery laugh. “I feel like… when you just dropped me as a friend after you didn’t go to Bill’s lake house was one of the worst things I’d ever been through. I was so confused, Eds, because I liked you so much. But I was with Bev, and I’d been with her forever, you know? I loved her, even if I was confused. She was one of the most important people in my life, and you weren’t taking to me anymore. I sort of assume that you’d figured out that I was crushing on you, and that was your way of telling me it was never going to happen.” Eddie started shaking his head, open his mouth to speak but Richie rushed right over him. “Then Stan died and you still wouldn’t talk to me, so I tried to tell myself that you were just a dick. It didn’t work great, but it worked enough. I threw myself into my relationship with Beverly, and even though something was always holding me back I could tell myself that it wasn’t you.”

“But it was me.” Eddie said, and it had meant to be a question but it didn’t come out that way. Because Eddie knew it was him, because Eddie knew that he and Richie were meant to be together in any universe.

“Yeah, Eds. It was you. It was always you.” Richie stepped closer, noses touching. “Also, I’m going to kiss you now.”

Eddie gasped, and his mouth moved faster than his thoughts. As soon as he spoke, he knew exactly where the words were coming from. “You can’t.”

Richie raised his eyebrows. “You can’t just say this kind of stuff to me and expect me not to kiss you. I’m going to count to ten, and then I’m going to kiss you. If you don’t want to do that, then I guess you’re just going to have to stop me.”

Richie only counted to three before Eddie was catching his lips in a harsh kiss.

→ → →

“Come on, Eds baby. Let me see those eyes.”

Eddie groaned, eyes fluttering open. The lights in the garage made his head hurt twice as bad but he quickly forgot the pain when he realized Richie was kneeling above him, looking concerned. Eddie quickly caught sight of Kay kneeling by Richie’s side, and realized that he was, in fact, laying on the ground in his automotive garage.

Gasping out a overjoyed “RICHIE!”, Eddie lunged forward, throwing his arms around Richie’s shoulders and pressing frantic kisses over his husbands face.

“Eds, baby…” Richie laughed, managing to sound both relieved and mildly concerned at the same time. “We should maybe take to see a doctor, Kay says you hit your head pretty bad. You were out a few minutes before I got here…”

A few minutes? Was that all it took to change a person’s outlook on life? Eddie laughed out loud, cupping Richie’s cheeks in his hands and squishing them together. He leaned up and kissed Richie’s nose. “No hospital, Rich. Just take me home. I need to see my babies.”

#reddie #reddie fic #my writing #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #semi charmed life #this was a hard chapter to get around to writing #bc in knew that it would be long #but im glad i did it and im happy with the turn out :)#reddie rights #reddie soulmate rights

47 notes · View notes

thoughtfullyyoungduck · 5 years ago

Text

Insecure butterfly

A/N: this was requested by anon, I’m sorry it took so long and it’s written so bad, but I hope you enjoy none the less! Let me know what you think! I based this on my own experience. If anyone has any requests, please send them to me!

Summary; Richie and Eddie’s daughter feel fat, and Richie and Eddie do their best to convince her otherwise.

warnings: bad self image, and curse words

The front door closes with a loud bang, as Richie tumbles trough it, a flower bouquet gripped tightly in his left hand. Among the flower bouquet is a combination of Zinnia’s, hibiscus and red saliva's, who granted don’t match, but they are Richie’s favorite flowers, and it’s only really meant to prove to Eddie and Calia that he thinks about them anyway, so they don’t have to.

He’s overcome with happiness, the sun warming every inch of his skin and making the world seem that much better and more welcoming, the smiles that have returned on everyone’s face at the first sighting of the heat resulting in one on his face too.

Summer has always been his favorite season, as a kid it was because it meant he was duty free, no school to worry about and no homework that he half-assed just to get it done. Summer was the equivalent to freedom, the losers and him always escaping to a place, mostly to the barrens, where parents couldn’t judge them, and there were no expectations, no rolls that they were forced into.

After the summer where Pennywise nearly killed them all, the season stopped representing joy, and instead depicted the dark, mind-numbing fear Richie had experienced for the very first time at IT’s hands. Then he forgot about IT, but his life dulled down so fully without his friend being there, that life was one long endless year he survived, barely taking notice of what the weather was like.

Re-meeting Eddie again after Mike called, caused summer to claim his rightful place as the number one time of the year once more.

So sue him for being excited that it’s summer break, but spending time with his family in the summer, to go camping or swimming, lit Richie up like a crystal ball, the inner child in him bubbling up to the surface. A list of things they can do holds Richie hostage, and he barely contains the excitement until he enters his home, trying to convey to the outside world that yes, he is a grown man and not a kid on Christmas eve.

He’s walking towards the kitchen, whistling a tune of a song Eddie hates, and Calia claims makes him appear even older then he is, searching around for his husband who by all means should have been home after dropping their daughter off with a friend.

Said husband ambushes him from behind, a hand gripping Richie’s bicep harder than strictly necessary, spooking Richie even when he tries to pretend it didn’t.

He turns around, his mouth halfway to making a joke already, but stopping once he spots the look of absolute dread coming from Eddie. At first he thinks it has something to do with Sonia, because even now that Eddie isn’t in contact with her anymore, devastation would still take a hold of him if something bad were to have occurred with her, but it’s not.

‘Our daughter’, Eddie says with a pinch of hysterics, ‘thinks she’s fat.’ His breathing comes in short gasps, which indicates that he’s about to have another panic attack, and Richie needs to hurry to distract him so he can steer it away.

‘I brought you flowers Eds. They smell all sweet and cute, like you.’ He decides on, shoving the bundle under his nose, attempting to make his smile as unsuspiciously as possible. Eddie takes to flowers and spares them a quick glance, before shoving them up the small table that’s mostly used for decoration, abandoning them for later.

‘I’m serious Rich, where did she even get that idea?’ He starts to pace up and down the room, sauntering in their living room where he resumes his hovering, deep in thought.

With a sigh, Richie follows him and takes a seat in their sofa. Of course what Eddie claims is concerning, but it wouldn’t be the first time that Calia entrusted him with something, and he was oblivious to the context in which it was said. Besides, at least one of them needs to be calm to resolve the situation, and it seemed like that task fell upon his today. ‘Did she say anything to you?’ Richie inquires, fishing for as much details as he can get. His earlier mood is completely obliterated, uneasy sitting in the pit of his stomach, despite his best attempts to stay focused.

‘No’, Eddie replies, sheepishly, as he comes to a stop and looks up at Richie guiltily.

‘Eddie, you can not spy on her.’

‘I did no such thing asshole’, Eddie defends. ‘I overheard her on the phone while she was in the car. There was no way that I didn’t hear anything, and it was not done on purpose.’ His hand chops in the air to accentuated his point, appalled at the accusation Richie made. ‘I’m not my mother.’

Immediately consumed with guilt, Richie scrambles off their couch, seizing Eddie’s hand in his to try and capture his eyes. The hurt that burns through him when Eddie snatches his hand away makes his feel even worse. ‘That’s not what I was trying to say Eds.’

With an eyebrow lifted, Eddie stares at him, as if daring him to spell out what he did mean then. His hands are fidgeting by his side, and Richie notices it right away, his own hands itching to comfort his husband.

‘I’m sorry okay? You could never be like your mom. A lot of parents check their kids phone Eds, that does not mean they’re your mother. I’m just against reading her texts, it’s her privacy. I should have realized that you respect her privacy as well and I’m sorry, but I will never, ever compare you to your mother okay?’

Eddie grunts, still a bit annoyed at Richie, but he accepts the kiss from him eagerly all the same, the anger draining out of him the second their lips touch. Privileged to be the one to have that effect on Eddie, but also understanding the severity of the situation, Richie struggles to detain a smile.

‘I’m sorry too, I was trying to pick a fight because I have no idea what to do with all this anxiety in me, but that was wrong.’ Eddie accounts for.

Richie shrugs it off, they have more important things to get too anyway, and he should have worded it better in the first place. ‘Well then we’re both sorry Eddie Spaghetti, now sit your cute ass down and tell me what happened.’

Relenting, Eddie trails after Richie, sinking down next to him, while he begins to tell the story from the start. ‘When I dropped her off this morning at Nina’s house, we were running a little late, so she called her to say that we were bound to arrive soon, and the two of them got talking. I don’t know what Nina said, I heard nothing of her side of the conversation, but Calia responded to her saying ‘I know that, but I’m too fat to wear such a thing anyway’, what the hell do we do Rich?’

Something bubbling up under the surface tries to make its way up, insistent and demanding Richie to accept it, to process it regardless of his tries not to.

Helplessness settles in in every pore of his being, prolonging his suffering and making his stomach turn violently. This somehow feels worse than Calia being sick, simply because there’s nothing really to be done.

Richie has spend more than enough of his childhood and adolescence hating the way he looked, and attempting to change all the things he didn’t like, revolted by the reflection that stared back at him, and followed him anywhere he went.

And it’s not something that anyone else can fix for you either. Eddie hadn’t been able to make Richie more confident, not for lack of trying, and everyone telling him that he was beautiful as a child only had an aversion effect. He was being unheard, his insecurities swept from under the rug like they were too much to deal with.

Claiming he was beautiful felt like an escape, an easy way out of conversation that everyone was too awkward to have. He wonders if perhaps it’s something genetic, something he passed on to his daughter.

The mom’s in the Facebook group I’m in said that we should take away all mirrors, is that something we should do?’ Startled by Eddie’s admission, Richie starts guffawing.

‘You’re in a Facebook group with all moms?’ He teases, words light with an blasé tone about them. His mind flashes back to years of not being able to view himself in the mirror, feeling nothing but shame whenever he did catch his own eye.

‘Don’t you fucking start Richie’, Eddie warns, but Richie succeeds in his intent, which was distracting Eddie from the serious issue at hand, and a tiny bit off lightheartedness reared its head, soothing him by the fact that he knew what it was like, and he might be able to help her.

‘Alright, Alright,’ Richie relents, for now, his arm up in a surrendering gesture. ‘Let’s just talk to her, and then we’ll see what she says. But Eds, we’re gonna need to handle this naturally okay? Don’t ambush her.’

‘Obviously not dickwad, if anything, it’s you that has to act normal.’

Without question, it’s Eddie that brings up the topic, not even a second after Calia arrives home. She finishes taking off her shoes, adjusting her grey sweater that she was wearing, as she follows the sound of Richie and Eddie’s bickering, the way she is used to them doing.

With a greeting wave, she crouches down to grab a water bottle in the fridge, uncapping the plastic and taking a big gulp.

‘We need to talk’, is the first thing Eddie declaims since she laid eyes on them. She stops mid swallow, her eyes turning wide and her face paling, full of worry.

‘You’re in trouble young lady’, Richie jokes in his best principal impression, before motioning her over. ‘Your dad is kidding, it’s just a talk, you’re not in trouble.’

‘Jees dad, I have anxiety, don’t do that.’ Calia says, her eyes rolling with vigor. She listens to Richie, her posture relaxing and her shoulders dropping, the worry’s melting away.

‘Great job Eds,’ he murmurs quiet enough that she doesn’t hear them, while still jabbing Eddie ins the side. Already, it appear as thought the conversation is not going to go the way they planned it.

‘So, what’s up?’ She asks, flitting her eyes between her parents, attempting to gauge them. Attempting to come across as nonchalant, Richie stretches out to the back of the sofa, his entire body splayed out sinking down.

It gives away more than he wants, the alarm bells going off in Calia’s head, an eyebrow furrowed in confusion, and the nervousness coming back. The eyebrow is something she has clearly mirrored from Eddie, and at times Richie speculates what she may have gotten from him and comes to the sick and twisted realization that mental issues, might be the answer.

He shakes himself out of his stupor, resigning it to a later time maybe tonight, as he would no doubt overthink everything right before sleep carried him off to sleep.

‘Your pops and I wanted to ask you about something I overheard in the car this morning.’

Becoming evident right away that Calia is appalled at the prospect of her father budding in a private conversation, Richie hurries to alleviate the situation.

‘He didn’t mean to listen in kiddo. It was an accident, but we still need to discuss it, it’s important. ’

Calia huffs, but stay silent none the less, and Richie takes it as his cue to continue.;

‘Your dad said that you said that you were fat’, Richie’s voice cracks at the end of his word, his stupid emotion getting the better of him as his heart breaks. In all his life, Calia was the most magnificent person, Eddie not taking into account, that he had ever encountered, and it was agony to know that she felt so less of herself.

Her face turns red, a blush coating both her cheeks, while she tensely glances around the room, avoiding eye contact. ‘So’, she mumbles, embarrassment creeping up her spine.

‘Why do you feel like that?’ Eddie prods, recalling some off the things he and Richie google searched before Calia get home.

She shrugs her shoulders, and Richie relates to her desire to get out of the situation fast. It’s not easy, to talk about the things that plague us so deeply, especially not with our parents of all people, but he knows that if they don’t talk about this now, they never will.

‘You can tell us, there’s no judgment in this house. Well except judgment on your dad’s cutnes, he’s 1000 percent guilty of that.’ He reaches over to pinch one of Eddie’s cheeks, hissing when his hand gets smacked away.

‘Hey, if you two are going to do, I’ll just go up to my room.’ Set out to escape the living room without her parents taking notice, Calia stands up inconspicuously, shuffling towards the door.

When both of her parents turn to watch her, and Eddie asks her to sit down again, she groans, but still does what is requested of her.

‘Can you tell us? I promise that if you confide in us this one time and we can’t help you or you feel to uncomfortable, then we won’t ever bring it up.

‘I just am okay? Like I’m a lot bigger than most of my friends, my stomach is protruding and I have a double chin. Compared to how you guys looked, and my friends it’s a simple fact that I am fat.’

Eddie has to swallow down his tears at her words, even when he squeezes his eyes closed to stop them that way. Granting him a minute to collect himself, Richie takes the lead. He himself discovers that it’s as hard being a parent as it is being the person who has low self-esteem. He finds himself rendered so useless.

Before he has a chance to even respond, he catches the words that Calia breathes out, like another kick to an already wounded puppy. ‘It’s not like any guy will ever want me either.’

‘Okay, don’t you ever fucking say that. Who the fuck cares if no guy, or girl wants you. They do, I know in the same way that I know you’re beautiful, but I also that right now that means nothing, and you think that I’m your father so I have to say that, so let me make clear to you what is true. You don’t exits to be a wife, that is not why you are born. You’re alive to brave through the world, and to leave the world a little brighter when you leave. If that includes having a boyfriend than okay, if it doesn’t than that’s that. A body isn’t functioning because you need to please someone, it’s such a complicated and crazy thing, but it works.’

While taking a deep breath, he uses his pause to stare at Calia’s eyes, conveying how much he means what he says.

‘Who created that extraordinary painting that won her top of her class, and resulted into it being displayed at in the art museum?’

‘I guess I did’, she concurs, her full and undivided attention on her dads.

‘Yeah, you fucking well did. And who wrote all those enthralling and peculiar poems that put uncle Ben to shame?’

Giggling, Calia point at herself with both her thumbs. ‘This girl.’

‘Yeah that’s right,’ Eddie buds in, finally able to get himself together enough to participate. ‘your body did that all in it’s own, and that had nothing to do with the way you look at all.’

‘I know this sounds like such a lie, but’s not. One day you will find someone that not likes you with your flaws, but because of your them. You’re not perfect, no one is, but you have such a wonderful soul, that everything else is added bonus. The guy that’ll date you in the future will have hit the jack pot, whether you’re skinny, or chubby or fat.’

‘That’s pretty fucking deep Pops.’ Calia messes with him, giving him a gentle push to throw him off balance, and break the serious tension that floats around the room.

‘Wow, you try and be nice to your children once and this is what I get as a think you?’ Richie complains sarcastically, pretending to cry and gain sympathy.

‘And don’t curse in front of our daughter Richie. How dare you?’ Eddie adds, the smirk turning the words from serious, to playful.

‘Thanks dads,’ Calia entrusts, enveloping both of them in her arms. Her insecurities won’t be gone overnight, but at least she knows she has her dads to remind her of the important things in life, and to emphasize how beautiful she is. When the family settles in or a movie night, outside, a butterfly makes it’s way up to the sky.

#reddie #reddie x daughter #reddie as parents #richie tozier imagine #eddie kaspbrack #eddie kaspbrak imagine #eddie kaspbrak as a dad #richie tozier as a dad #reddie fluff #My writing

76 notes · View notes

thestarsaroundyourscars · 7 years ago

Text

I met you in the dark, you lit me up, ch 3

Chapter 3: The days before their first date

Summary: In which Richie is struggling with the planning of his date, Beverly comes to his aid and him and Eddie are the cutest boys ever, all excited about seeing each other again.

Pairing: Richie Tozier x Eddie Kaspbrak

Words: 3,128

AO3 link

Chapter 1 Chapter 2

Tag list: @daddyphantomtbh @yes-dillman-yes @richietoaster @beepbeeprichiellc♥ And @thetheatregal because you told me you like being tagged in stuff, babe :)

Since the day of their first call, Richie and Eddie had talked to each other constantly, whether through texts or through phone calls. That very same day, Richie texted him right after hanging up and they talked till later that night when Richie fell asleep immediately after getting home from his shift at the radio station. When he woke up the next day, he texted Eddie, apologizing for falling asleep on him and they resumed their conversation from the night before.

Even though part of the reason why Eddie told Richie to text him after talking on the phone was to discuss the details of their upcoming date, they talked about everything except that.

When Eddie tried approaching the subject, Richie just said that he was going to take care of everything and that all Eddie had to worry about was getting his cute little butt ready on time for Richie to pick him up on Saturday. Eddie was reluctant at first, he didn’t like surprises and he didn’t want to end up going somewhere he wouldn’t enjoy and ruining the date because it got him in a bad mood, but Richie was being awfully stubborn about it, saying he was the one who asked Eddie out and therefore should be the one to plan the whole thing, so he agreed in the end.

Now Richie was regretting his decision. Not asking Eddie out on a date, that is probably the best thing he has done in his life so far, but saying he would be responsible for planning it? That, he most definitely regret.

He had no idea what to do. Well, that wasn’t entirely true, he had a lot of ideas but none of them seemed good enough and if there was one thing he was sure of was that he wanted everything to be perfect.

Right now he was in his bedroom, with an open notebook over his crossed legs. On its pages Richie would scribble down whatever idea for a first day that came to his head, only to cross it out after not liking it enough.

Drinks at a bar? Been there, done that. Dinner at a fancy restaurant? Too cliché, not to mention they were both college students, and even if both of them had jobs they didn’t have enough money to be expending it on teeny tiny sized portions of food. Bowling? Roller skating? He wasn’t really trying to embarrass himself in front of Eddie or end up at the ER for falling down on his face and breaking his nose or dropping a bowling ball on his foot and breaking his toe, both of which had happened to him before. Games at the arcade? Lame as fuck for a first date. Stroll down the park? There is only so much walking they can do and they’d be back at their respective homes after only an hour or so. Movie Theater? Not much chance for talking. A picnic? Carnival? Coffee date?

Richie groaned irritated, he threw the notebook against the wall and let himself fall backwards on his bed.

“Why is this so fucking hard?” he muttered, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes with his hands.

He heard the door open but he didn’t open his eyes nor did he sit back down.

“Homework giving you a hard time?” Beverly asked. Richie felt her sit down on the edge of his bed and place a hand on his ankle.

“This is actually worse than homework” he replied, supporting himself on his elbows to look at her, but without his glasses on, all he was able to see was a blurry mess of colors where Beverly should have been, “I have absolutely no idea where to take Eddie on our first date.”

He didn’t need to be able to see Bev’s face clearly to know she was eyeing him skeptically. He saw her stand up and grab what Richie guessed was the notebook he had thrown away in frustration. She sat down again, this time on Richie’s desk chair.

“These aren’t bad ideas, Rich” she said, Richie grabbed his glasses and put them on. He saw her frown, “not all of them at least. Shopping mall, Richie? Really?”

“Trust me, I fucking know. But I’ve been at this for hours and every idea I manage to come up with is as bad as the last one. I’m kind of desperate at this point, Marsh” he said with a frown of his own, falling back on the bed again.

“You need to relax. It’s just a first date, honey, it’s not like you’re planning to propose” she said, shaking her head.

He sat up and with all seriousness he said, “No, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want it to be perfect. He deserves an amazing first date, Bev, and I want to give it to him.”

Beverly was looking at him with a soft smile on her face, making Richie fidget under her stare.

“What?” He asked her.

“Nothing, I just… I’ve never seen you like this, Rich, not with anyone.”

“Yeah well, I’ve never felt this way with anyone before.” She was still looking at him in that way, so he added, “Stop looking at me like that!”

She laughed, “I just think it’s cute” Richie rolled his eyes and before he got the chance to reply she continued, “Fine, I’ll stop. I still think you are giving this way too much thought” she said.

Richie groaned. “What do you think I should do then?”

“You need to think about what Eddie likes, you two have been talking nonstop these past few days, you must know some of those things by now”.

“Well, yeah but I don’t… wait, how do you know we’ve been talking?” He asked, narrowing his eyes at her.

“Oh please” she says, rolling her eyes, “You get all excited whenever you get a text and then there’s that stupid smile you get when you are texting back. Not to mention, last night you locked yourself up in here for like an hour and I could hear you talking and laughing through the door.”

“You’re listening to me through the door, Marsh? What if I was doing something more R-rated than talking on the phone?” he asked, waggling his eyebrows at her.

“As gross as that would be, it wouldn’t be the first time that has happened to me” she said with a grimace, “Anyways, there’s also the fact that yesterday you made us walk back from the subway station to the apartment, even though we were already late for our classes, once you found out you had forgotten your phone because ’Jesus fuck, Beverly, what if someone texts me? What will they think if I don’t answer’?” she said, mocking Richie. He rolled his eyes at her but he could feel himself starting to blush. Holy shit, she’s right. I’ve been acting like a 13 year-old with a crush, he thinks.

“Fuck off, like you are any better when it comes to Ben” he replies and the reaction is instantaneous, Beverly’s eyes widen and she blushes furiously like she always does whenever he, Stan or Mike bring Ben up.

They both stay silent, embarrassed and looking everywhere except at each other. Eventually, Richie clears his throat and talks.

“He likes animals.”

Beverly must have spaced out, because she looks confused when she asks, “What?”

“Eds. Eddie. He likes animals. His mother didn’t let him have pets when he was a kid because he had a bunch of allergies, so he would spend a lot of his time learning about them, he read books and watched Animal Planet every night before bed. He told me there was this one time when they took his class to an aquarium. It took a lot to convince his mom to let him go, she’s kind of overbearing and was worried he would get sick or something. He told me that in the end she only let him go, because Bill’s mom, Bill is one of his best friends, volunteered to go and promised Eddie’s mom she would look after him. He says that trip is still one of his favorite memories” he doesn’t look at Beverly while saying this, he’s playing with a loose thread on his bed and smiling at the memory of Eddie telling him that story over the phone.

“There was one thing that prevented the day from being perfect though. Parents had to sign an extra permit if they wanted to allow their kids to feed the otters but Eddie’s mom didn’t sign it, so he had to stay back while his classmates fed and played with them. He was devastated, they’re his favorite animals, the otters, he told me that”, he recounts.

“That’s so fucking cute” Beverly said with a smile.

“Yeah, I know, I told him that too.”

They fall silent again and Richie is startled when Beverly straightens in the chair, grabs Richie’s laptop and starts typing.

“The hell are you doing, Bev?” Richie asks but she only gestures at him to keep quiet and keeps typing.

He’s about to ask her again what has gotten into her when she stands up, computer in hand and turns to look at him. She has a crazy look on her face and Richie eyes her warily, usually he is the one giving Beverly that look right before dragging her alone to do something brilliant or stupid, most of the times is the latter. He’s not used to being on the other end of that look, it’s somewhat terrifying.

“Okay, you’re freaking me out Bev. What’s going on?”

“Oh nothing, I just had the perfect idea for your date with Eddie.”

Richie raises an eyebrow expectantly but she just stays where she is and says nothing. Richie sighs, “Well? Are you going to tell me or just stare at me like some crazy woman?”

Instead of answering, she puts the computer on his lap and points at the screen where the results for what she typed are showing.

Richie’s eyes scan the computer and he takes a moment to feel stupid for not thinking about this himself. Then he looks at Beverly and her grin is just as big as his.

“Beverly Marsh, you are a fucking genius” he says.

“What can I say? I try” She says with a shrug, then while pointing at the computer screen she adds, “Click there for more information.”

Richie looks back at the computer and clicks on the link like Bev said. And as he does, all he can think is, Eddie Spaghetti, get ready for the best first date of your life.

-♥-

“You’re still not going to tell me?” Richie hears Eddie ask through the phone.

“Nope” he answers. He is currently in the kitchen, making dinner. He’s making spaghetti and meatballs, and Eddie already threatened to hang up on him if he made one more joke about it.

Richie always loved to cook, and to everyone’s surprise, he was actually really good at it, so good that he used to be the designated cook in his circle of friends, meaning him, Bev and Stan before they met Mike.

After the first time they tried Mike’s food, they all agreed he was a better cook than Richie. That didn’t mean he stopped cooking for them, he liked doing it and they encouraged it. Last Christmas, they had gotten Richie an apron with the words “Kiss the cook” written on the front, only before giving it to him, they had crossed out the word kiss and wrote ’Fuck’ instead, Bev’s idea. Richie had laughed like crazy after seeing it and had put it on immediately. He was actually wearing that apron right now.

“I already told you, I hate surprises.”

“Well my dear Eddie Spaghetti, you are going to have to suck it up” he said “I am not telling you anything other than ’Be ready at 11:00 on Saturday and make sure you wear those shorts you wore on the day we met’.”

Eddie sighed, “Fine, I hate you.”

“No, you don’t, babe, don’t lie” he said.

Even though he had the phone on speaker he could hear Eddie let out a little squeak, caught off guard by the pet name, even though Richie had been using it more and more when they talked. He couldn’t wait to call him that to his face and see his reaction in person.

“Richie?” he heard him ask in a small voice.

“Yeah?”

“I just… I’m really looking forward to our date, that’s all” he said shyly, “even if you won’t tell me what we are doing.”

The confession caught Richie off guard, so much that he spilled more oil in the pan than he meant to, which made some of it splash his arm, burning him.

“Fuck! Shit, fuck, fuck, fuck!” he screamed in pain, while running towards the sink and putting his arm under the running water.

“Richie? Oh my God, are you okay?” he heard Richie asked, alarmed.

“I’m fine, Eds. It’s nothing.”

“That was a lot of yelling for nothing.”

“I might have… burned my arm a little? Some of the hot oil splashed me. But it’s okay now.”

“Are you sure?”

“One hundred percent, don’t you worry your pretty little head about it” he said, turning off the water, it still hurt a bit but it was bearable.

“Okay… I don’t understand why your friends let you anywhere near the kitchen with no supervision though” chuckled Eddie.

“Hey, I have everything under control here.”

“Uh huh, forgive me if I don’t believe you after what just happened, Rich.”

“That wasn’t my fault! You distracted me with your… your flirting!”

“I wasn’t flirting!” Eddie yelled, “I was just… uh… you’re the one who is always flirting!”

“You say that like I’m trying to be subtle about it” Richie answered and the smirk was evident on his voice.

He could practically hear Eddie trying to think of something to say that would take this conversation in a different direction, but he didn’t seemed to be able to come up with anything.

Luckily for Eddie, Stan, Mike and Bev chose that exact moment to barge into the apartment.

“Damn, it smells amazing in here!” he heard Mike say.

“Richie?” That was Bev.

“No, Beverly, I’m pretty sure that’s just some murderer who decided to have some dinner while he waited for someone to kill” And that was definitely Stan. He heard Mike laughed and what sounded like Beverly punching Stan in the arm.

“Stan the man gets off a good one!” Richie yelled while grabbing his phone and taking it off speaker, “Hey, Eds, you still there?”

“Yeah, I’m here. I’m guessing you have to go now.”

“I can stay on the line some more.”

“No, no, your friends are there, you should go talk to them.”

“But I want to talk to you too.”

“Rich, we’ve been talking for” he paused and Richie guessed he was looking at his phone screen, “48 minutes.” Wow, I didn’t even notice it had been that long, he thinks, Eddie continues, “Aren’t you getting tired of listening to my voice?”

“Never” he answers. He doesn’t want to hang up, but Eddie is right, his friends are there and soon enough they will invade the kitchen looking for food and it’s going to be impossible to hold a conversation with them if he’s still on the phone, “But you’re right, I should go. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, Rich, I should try and get some homework done anyways.”

“Hey Eds?” Eddie hums so Richie knows that he is listening, “You’re not the only one who is looking forward to our date, you know? I really can’t fucking wait to see that cute face of yours again.”

He hears Eddie groan and he panics when he thinks he might have gone too far, especially when he says, “You know what I am not looking forward to?” Fortunately, before Richie can freak out, Eddie answers his own question, “You being able to see how much I fucking blush whenever you say things like that.”

Richie laughs out loud and Eddie joins him. “Oh but Eddie, that is my favorite fucking thing.”

“Yeah, yeah, goodbye Trashmouth.”

I knew telling Eds about that particular nickname was going to come back to bite me in the ass, he thinks. “Bye, Eddie Spaghetti” he says and Eddie ends the call after a half-hearted “Don’t call me that.”

He puts the phone down and turns around, there standing in front of him on the doorway are Beverly, Mike and Stan staring at him.

“How long have you three nosy losers been standing there?” he asks.

“Long enough to witness what is probably the gayest phone call of all times” Stan answers and the three of them start laughing and imitating Richie horribly.

“Oh Eddie Spaghetti I love you.”

“I don’t ever want to stop talking to you.”

“I’m counting down the days to see your angelic face again.”

Richie glares at them but he can feel his face burn in embarrassment.

“You fuckers are just jealous” He grumbles while flipping them off. For some reason that only makes his friends laugh even more. He leaves the kitchen to go and hide in the bathroom until his face recovers its natural pale color but their laughter follows him.

He feels his phone vibrate in his hand from a new text, he sees its Eddie’s and rushes to unlock the phone so he can read it. He is glad he is no longer in the kitchen because the way he is smiling just because of the fact that Eds texted him would have earned him even more teasing.

Turns out the message is actually a picture, on it Richie sees Eddie’s desk, there are books, sheets of paper and a bunch of pens, in one corner there is a package of Oreo cookies and a glass of milk. The caption for the picture says:

Compared to your dinner, mine is pretty lame.

I’m happy we talked. Goodnight, Rich.

-Your very own Spaghetti :)

PS: Only I get to make those jokes. If you try, you die.

Richie practically whines at the adorableness that is Eddie Kaspbrak. He guesses some teasing from his friends is a small price to pay for talking to, and hopefully in a near future dating, a guy like him.

He takes a quick selfie and sends it to him, with the caption “Goodnight, you cutie” and almost immediately he gets another picture, this time of Eddie smiling at him through the camera. Yeah, he thinks, that face is most definitely worth all the teasing in the world.

#reddie #reddie fanfic #richie tozier x eddie kaspbrak #eddie kaspbrak x richie tozier #it stephen king #the losers club #beverly marsh #mike hanlon #stan uris #richie tozie #eddie kaspbrak #my work #my writing #i met you in the dark you lit me up #chapter 3

125 notes · View notes

eddieeatsass · 6 years ago

Text

Stripped Bare - Chapter 2

Summary: Eddie gets an offer from his company to work in Barbados over the summer. Beautiful weather, all expenses paid trip, and a stay in a suite at one of the most highly rated resorts in the world. How could he say no? Unfortunately, Eddie soon realizes there were a lot of reasons to say no. His skin doesn’t take kindly to the harsh sun, his suite ends up being the size of a shoe box, and, oh yeah, it’s also a nudist resort. Pairing: Reddie (side Benverly and Stanlonbrough) Rating: E Warnings: Eventual smut, explicit language

Read on AO3

“So yeah, she’s probably one of the most bad-ass people I’ve ever met.” Bill finished off his story with a thoughtful nod, as if he was lost in his own memories while recalling them. “I would not want to be on the wrong side of Beverly’s fury.” He explained as an after thought.

Eddie had been listening to Bill talk about his best friends for 10 minutes. Technically, they were on the job, but no one had flagged down Eddie yet and he welcomed the distraction from the naked bodies he still hadn’t gotten used to. Plus, it was cute the way Bill’s eyes lit up as he talked about his friends. Eddie secretly hoped he could be on that list one day.

“And then there’s Richie.” Bill started back up, a fond smile accompanying his words.

Eddie leaned against the lifeguard chair that they were both standing under and focused on the way Bill’s lips moved as he talked.

“He’s a huge fucking dork. I love him, but I mean that guy has a bigger comic book collection than anyone I’ve ever met. He also never shuts up, we call him Trashmouth because-”

As Bill continued describing his friend in great detail, Eddie found himself thinking about Stan. He felt kind of guilty that he’d tricked Stan into coming. He’d be arriving later that day and he had no idea what to expect. Eddie had been there for a few days now and, granted, it did get a little easier once you got into the habit of keeping direct eye-contact with everyone you meet, but it still wasn’t comfortable. Stan was going to hate it, was going to hate him.

“Anyway, they should be here soon, you’re gonna love them.”

“W-what?” Eddie stared at Bill dumbfounded. Clearly, he’d missed something important when he zoned out.

Bill just laughed, not taking any offense to Eddie’s spaciness.

“Richie and Bev, I mentioned earlier that they come here every year. I get an employee discount that extends to friends and family, so they usually spend the majority of the summer bothering me while I work.”

“Oh, that actually sounds kind of fun, having your best friends around.”

“It’s fun until the 3rd time Richie pretends to drown just to get me riled up.”

Eddie laughs at that visual, picturing a big dramatic scene ending with Bill stone-faced as he returns to his lifeguard post, now unnecessarily wet. The image is enough to make Eddie completely miss the new presence suddenly behind him.

“I hate you.”

Eddie recognized the monotone drawl immediately. He doesn’t turn around though, is too afraid to face Stan right away. Instead he keeps his gaze trailed on Bill who is flicking his eyes back and forth between Eddie and the face behind him, silently questioning the situation.

“You’re not gonna turn around?” Stan asks.

“Mmm, nope. I like it here.” Eddie responds matter-of-factly, planting his feet a little more firmly in place.

Bill’s confusion finally gets the best of him. He peeks around Eddie’s body slightly, addressing Stan directly as he introduces himself.

“Oh yeah, sorry, Bill this is Stan. Stan, Bill.” Eddie supplies without moving.

“Nice to meet you, I think?” Bill says hesitantly, checking Eddie’s face for confirmation.

“Don’t mind him. He’s just worried I’m gonna be mad that he tricked me into working at an all-you-can-ogle buffet for the summer.” Stan says.

“Are you?” Eddie asks.

Stan sighs, but Eddie could hear the smile when he spoke. “No, I’m not mad. Confused, maybe.”

The second Eddie had confirmation that he could let go of his anxiety, he was whirling around to face Stan and talking at the speed of light.

“Oh thank god because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to survive this summer without you here! I mean this is so weird, right? Like ‘excuse me sir can I have a towel’ oh yeah sure let me just wade through this sea of naked bodies to bring you a towel that you won’t actually use to cover anything up. And this can’t possibly be sanitary, right? How often do these patio chairs get cleaned? And the water, I mean how many people do you think have free-peed in there today alone? AND WHAT ABOUT BONERS!?”

Stan has his hands on Eddie’s arms before he could spiral any further. Stan chances a glance over at Bill and is surprised he’s still standing alongside them. He gives Bill a mental check-mark for being able to deal with Eddie’s neurosis and then turns his attention back to the task at hand.

“We’ll deal with it.” Stan says, his tone surprisingly convincing.

Eddie nods in agreement. “Okay, yeah, we’ll deal with it.” He repeats.

Having gotten that out of his system, and with the new presence of his best friend, Eddie actually sported a real smile for the first time since he’d arrived at the resort.

“Why are you here so early, by the way?” Eddie asks, once he realizes what time it is.

Stan shrugs. “They got me a direct flight.”

Eddie’s jealousy shows in the way his nose crinkles up. He didn’t get a direct flight.

Stan just smiles and opts to change the subject.

“So, our supervisor is hot.”

Bill and Eddie both agree embarrassingly fast, looking at each other afterwards and sharing a laugh.

Stan got a grasp on things considerably faster than Eddie did. A week and a half in and Eddie was still struggling with the environment, years of sexual repression making it hard to normalize it in his mind. Stan, on the other hand, had adopted a rather naturalistic approach.

“Bodies are not inherently sexual, Eddie.”

Eddie huffed out a groan in Stan’s direction. They were in the supply room grabbing towels for guests, Eddie taking a purposefully long time just to avoid going back out there.

“I know that, Stan.” Eddie bit back with no real bite.

“We’re born naked, it’s normal. None of these people are here for sex, just to enjoy their time in the freedom of their body.”

“It’s not normal to see your neighbor, doctor, and teacher’s dick.”

“None of these people are your neighbors, doctors, or teachers. You don’t live here.” Stan challenged.

“You know what I mean!” Eddie rushed in response.

“Try and think of it this way, you’re never going to see these people again. So what if you know what Mr. Fraser’s dick looks like? In a few months it’s just going to be irrelevant information your brain stores away to be forgotten.”

Stan had a point. It’s not like Eddie was going to form any type of meaningful relationships with any of the guests. This was strictly professional, and the same way that you don’t remember every customer’s face, you also won’t remember every customer’s genitals.

“Are you about done folding those towels or do you need another minute?” Stan teased, nodding towards the small stack of towels he’d been folding and refolding to procrastinate for as long as possible.

“Yeah, I guess.” Eddie conceded, tucking the towels under his arm and following Stan out of the room.

They made their way back out to the deck and distributed towels to the guests who had requested them. Just as Eddie had handed the last two towels over to an older couple, he heard a voice calling him over.

A few seats over from where Eddie stood, a hand was waving at him. Being caught off guard, Eddie didn’t have time to concentrate on keeping his head eye level, and boy was that the biggest mistake of his life.

The man in question was unmistakably naked, that much wasn’t surprising given where they were, but what was surprising was that he was hot. So far, Eddie had counted himself lucky that he hadn’t seen any guests that he found particularly appealing, but this guy changed that real fast. He was tall, Eddie could tell even though he was sitting down. He had long limbs that stretched out from his body in an almost lanky way, but it worked for him somehow. He was well defined but not obnoxiously so, and atop his head was an unruly mop of black hair that mimicked the dark happy trail that lead down to…

The biggest cock Eddie had ever seen in his young life.

Well, fuck. If he hadn’t been staring before, he definitely was now. How could someone be so big while flaccid? Eddie almost bypassed being turned on just to admire how impressive that length was.

“Excuse me?” The voice rang through the space again, bringing Eddie’s eyes up to meet the pair gazing towards him. He didn’t look like he’d noticed Eddie staring, but then again, maybe he was just being polite? Oh god, or what if he had noticed and now he was calling Eddie over to tell him off. No, this guy didn’t look like the type to chew Eddie’s head off.

Eddie kind of wanted him to chew his head off... But, in a sexy way.

“Sorry to interrupt your inner monologue, I was just wondering if you could get me something from the bar?”

Eddie’s throat was dry. Something from the bar sounds great right now. He could chug a gallon of water right on the spot and still be dehydrated. He realizes with a start that he still hasn’t said anything since being waved over and the guy was probably starting to wonder if Eddie was mute.

“Yes.”

Okay, great job Eddie. That’s a start. Now just continue with what you say every day.

“What can you get me.”

Nope, that’s not it.

The stranger’s eyebrows shot up, a smirk that had no business being so charming taking over his features.

“I don’t know, what do you want?”

Okay, so the stranger was smoother than Eddie could ever dream to be, but he was also teasing Eddie, and in any other circumstance he’d be peeved. But this wasn’t any other circumstance, and Eddie had to admit it was kind of endearing.

“What can I get you.” Eddie corrected himself, choosing to ignore the man’s last comment.

He chuckles. It’s deep and throaty and Eddie wants to swallow it whole.

“Just a virgin sex on the beach, please.”

“You’re a virgin!?” Eddie blurted out, before his brain could catch up with his mouth.

The stranger seemed to stall for a moment, before his grin grew even wider than before.

“Well, I haven’t had sex on the beach, if that’s what you’re asking. Too much sand getting in too many places.” He played along.

Eddie didn’t want to think about this man’s ‘places’. Eddie wanted to die.

He decided quickly that the only way he would get out of this interaction with at least some of his dignity left intact was if he left as soon as possible. Clearly his mouth couldn’t be trusted, and neither could his eyes, apparently, since they were already wandering back down the man’s body on their own accord.

Eddie forced his eyes to the ground and mumbled a quick “I’ll be right back with your drink.” Which he’s surprised to get out without some sort of slip up. His feet were carrying him away before he even got an answer. He was headed in the wrong direction, not even relatively close to the bar, but he couldn’t get himself to turn back around. Now that he’d put distance between him and the hot stranger, his heart had started beating irregularly fast, and it wasn’t because of a panic attack this time.

Eddie flung the door to the storage room open, startling one of his co-workers who was exiting the room. Eddie gave him a meek smile, a “sorry for almost beheading you with the door” apology. The co-worker, who Eddie wouldn’t be able to name even if he cared to try, just returned the smile and passed by Eddie.

He only waited a few seconds before slamming the door shut behind him and slumping against the surface, face pressed into the hard wood. He groaned audibly as he let the embarrassment finally swallow him whole.

“Poor Jack is going to be traumatized now.”

Eddie just about jumped out of his skin at the sound of another voice near him. He turned around to see Stan leaning against the wall with an amused smirk.

“Who?” Eddie asked.

Stan nodded towards the door. “You threw that door open so violently I thought the poor boy was going to shit his pants.”

Eddie felt bad now, knowing he may have given his co-worker PTDS, post-traumatic door stress. Jack may never be the same.

“So, are you done being dramatic or do you need another minute?” Stan asked.

Eddie walked over to the stack of clean towels neatly folded on the counter, calmly placed his elbows on either side, and proceeded to smother his face in the fresh cotton. He let out the loudest, longest groan he could, letting the sound muffle through the layers beneath him. He kept going until there was no air left in his lungs, and then, taking a deep breath, he lifted his head back up to face Stan.

Stan’s eyebrows were raised as he waited for an answer beyond a groan.

“I saw a cute guy.” Eddie offered.

“Okay.”

“I made an idiot of myself.” He added.

“Mhm.”

“I need you to bring him a virgin sex on the beach, so I can spend the rest of the day wallowing in my misery.”

“Eddie,” Stan sighed. “You can’t just avoid him.”

“I can and I will.” Eddie declared stubbornly.

They had a stare down for a few moments, until Stan finally took pity on his best friend.

“Fine, what does he look like?”

Eddie proceeded to describe the stranger, leaving out the part about his big dick and stunning physique. Once Stan was pretty sure he couldn’t miss him, he left, leaving Eddie alone with the towels and his shame.

Eddie managed to go three days without seeing hot stranger again. He didn’t see much of anyone, actually. Bill had switched his shifts around with another staff member for a couple of days while his friends got adjusted to being in town. Eddie had yet to meet them, the infamous Richie and Beverly, but he was sure it was only a matter of time. The resort wasn’t that big, after all.

Stan had gotten heat stroke within his first few days of working, so he was on mandatory bed-rest, per Mike’s instructions, until he felt well enough to work again.

This left Eddie working his shift one man down, and alongside employees he hadn’t gotten to know yet. He supposes he could try and be more social, chat up the lifeguard who’d taken Bill’s shifts, but the woman who now sat up on Bill’s lifeguard chair had a look of judgement in her eyes that reminded Eddie too much of his mother. It made his solitude much more enticing.

The day dragged on. Since Eddie was the only pool boy working that day he was constantly running back and forth to fetch things for the guests. He thought he’d finally caught himself a minute of downtime when someone new was waving him over. With a discreet sigh he steeled himself, plastering a customer service smile on his face before he made his way over.

The hand belonged to a girl, probably around Eddie’s age if he had to guess, who was easily stunning enough to be a model. Eddie was as gay as they come but that didn’t mean he didn’t have his few exceptions, and this girl could definitely be one. He didn’t want to fuck her, that would be a bit too much whiplash for his dick, but he did want to spend hours running his fingers through her hair and telling her just how pretty she was.

Speaking of, her hair was the most striking color of crimson he’d ever seen in real life. It was long, falling down her freckled back and ending at the dip in her waist. Despite being completely nude, she had a delicate gold chain around her neck that settled just between her breasts, adorned with a small key. It looked old, worn in, and Eddie found himself starring at it before he realized it probably looked like he was staring at something else in that area. He flushed pink before his eyes flickered back up to meet hers, a daring blue that rivaled the red of her hair but held the same fire.

“Hi! Sorry, I know you’re busy. I was just hoping to get a glass of lemonade when you have a chance?” Her request was accompanied by a warm smile. It made Eddie feel safe. It was an odd feeling, but not unwelcomed.

“Pink or regular?” Eddie asked, only a bit shaken by her politeness in contrast to the other guests he’d served that day.

“Just regular. But no rush!”

She sounded so genuine that Eddie couldn’t help but smile back. Just then, as if to drive home his point, he was being called over by another guest as she rudely snapped her fingers in his direction.

It took about ten minutes before he found the downtime to pick up the lemonade from the bar. He made sure to get the bartender to garnish the glass with a little wedge of lemon and an umbrella. It was silly, and probably too extra for something as simple as a lemonade, but he liked this particular guest and wanted to do something special, even if it came in the form of miniature plastic umbrellas.

He made his way over to the area where he’d last seen the redhead but instead of sitting in the spot she’d been in previously, she’d moved a few chairs over and was now talking to another guest. From their body language, Eddie guessed they didn’t know each other, but they were definitely trying to. The redhead was sitting on the edge of the chair, leaning in to listen intently to whatever the guy was saying.

He was extremely animated as he talked, his face lit up in an endearingly cute manner. He seemed to be a tall guy, but while hot stranger had been tall and lanky, this man was tall and broad, filling out his frame with strong arms and a round belly. He was quite hairy, but not in an off-putting way. Blonde locks eased into neatly trimmed facial hair, a round beard that framed his equally round cheeks perfectly. Eddie knew from a quick glance that he was hairy in other places too, but he didn’t want to be caught staring again, so he forced himself to behave.

Eddie wasn’t sure how to approach the situation, to be honest. He didn’t want to interrupt their conversation, which they were both too engrossed in to notice him awkwardly standing nearby, but the lemonade in his hand was keeping him from getting back to work. Not that he wanted to get back to work, standing around and people watching (see: eavesdropping) was definitely favorable, but he didn’t want to get behind on an already busy day. Just as he was preparing himself to step in, a presence from behind spoke up.

“You better jump in now before she jumps him.”

The voice was right in his ear, it startled Eddie so much he lost his footing as he tried to swivel around to see who was behind the comment. He saw a flash of black hair and dark eyes receding quickly from his vision, and he realized too late that he was falling. He tried to put his hands out behind him to catch himself but was enveloped by water instead. The water quickly filling his lungs burned, his wet clothes weighed him down, the chlorine stung his eyes. He knows how to swim, knows he should be trying to, but he’s too overwhelmed by the suddenness of the situation to think clearly.

Then there were arms circling around him, a strong pressure against his back, and in seconds he’s breaking the surface of the water. The body behind him doesn’t let go, which Eddie is grateful for considering he’s too busy coughing to focus on anything else. He can tell they’re moving but his orientation is all off, he can’t differentiate up from down yet.

He’s being pressed up against the edge of the pool within seconds. His head is still cloudy with water and panic, but the feeling of steady ground against the palms of his hands helps to ground him. He vaguely starts to register that his feet don’t touch the ground of the pool, and the only thing keeping him up is being pinned between the ledge and the stranger behind him.

At that realization, Eddie swiveled his head around, trying desperately to figure out who had been his savior. The face was too close, featured fixating into nothing more than a blurred cyclops from Eddie’s vantage point. He blinked a few times, trying to get the water out of his eyes as if that would make a difference. When he opened his eyes again, the stranger had leaned back as much as he could without letting go of Eddie, and that’s when he realized who had saved him.

Hot stranger. Hot stranger was holding him. Hot stranger was appraising him with a look of worry. Hot stranger was… Shit, he was saying something that Eddie couldn’t hear through the water in his ears.

“What!?” Eddie said, probably a bit too loudly.

Hot stranger chuckled, his smile even more charming up close. When he repeated himself this time, Eddie heard him clearly.

“You really fell for me, didn’t you?”

He was… making a joke? Right now? While Eddie was dripping wet and fighting back mortification and still struggling to get his breathing back under control? What kind of asshole makes a joke before apologizing?

Eddie knew his anger was unwarranted, a by-product of his ever-growing embarrassment, but just because he was self aware didn’t mean he was good at controlling it.

Choosing not to acknowledge the comment, Eddie sent him a glare over his shoulder. He tried wiggling in his spot, searching for leverage to pull himself out of the pool while still wedged between a rock and a hard place. He re-settled his palms on the granite surface beneath him, ready to hoist himself up and out of the pool, when he felt it. The hard place.

Hot stranger was still holding him up from behind, lithe arms circled around Eddie’s torso and chest pressed to his back, crotch rested against the curve of Eddie’s ass. The thing was, hot stranger was still naked. Meaning, Eddie had a cock pressing right up into the backside of his wet uniform, which clung to him much more now than when it was dry.

What happened next isn’t Eddie’s fault. It’s biology, a Pavlovian reaction. Eddie’s gay and right now there was a dick pressing against his ass. That does something to a guy.

“Get off me!” Eddie seethed, grabbing hot stranger hands and removing them from his body. He bobbed down in the water at the sudden loss of support but managed to keep a hand on the edge of the pool which aided him to hoist his body up and roll onto the deck, much less gracefully than he would have liked.

The redheaded lemonade girl from earlier, who had probably been watching the whole show unfold, was offering him her towel. It was a nice gesture, but Eddie couldn’t risk getting caught with a hard-on, especially not while working at a place like this, so without a word he pushed past her, running towards the doors to the storage room.

He didn’t worry about anyone else being in there, threw the doors open and let them shut behind him with a thud as he paced towards the back of the room. He removed his soaked clothing in the process, stripping down to his underwear and grabbing a clean towel when he reached the small hidden alcove.

He wasn’t proud of his next move, screwing his eyes shut before shoving his hand into his briefs unceremoniously. He brought the fresh towel to his face to soak up some of the water as his hand moved rapidly, spurred on by his anger and embarrassment and shame. It didn’t take long for him to release into his fist, his moan muffled by the towel. Once his breathing evened out again and his head was clear, he rid himself of his sullied underwear and wrapped the towel around his waist.

He gathered his discarded clothing, moving slower now, almost lethargic. He threw the garments into one of the empty washing machines, throwing in a few of the used towels that were piling up as well, so he could at least pretend he was still doing work. Then Eddie slid to the floor, hung his head between his knees, and began making a list of all the things he wanted to yell at that stupid, arrogant, unfairly hot stranger.

#reddie #reddie fanfic #reddie fanfiction #reddie lemon #reddie lemons #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #it fanfic #it fanfiction #reddie smut #it smut #my posts #my writing #Stripped bare

24 notes · View notes