#i was working on the next bit earlier and i almost had ed say knee-jerk reaction and then i was like

[ofmdee]

me, sitting bolt upright in bed: oh my god why would mermaid ed use an expression about shoes?????

😂😂😂

(fic)

[ficauthor]

I don't want this to be water under the bridge.

Ao3 link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27138992

Word count: 2762

Pairing: Richie Tozier/ Eddie Kaspbrak

Warnings: Minor bullying. They don’t use slurs but like you can tell they would if i was willing to write them. Implied Homophobia 

Bowers and his gang really didn't know when to stop. They just loved to kick a guy when he was down. Eddie still grounded by his mother comes across the Bowers gang. --- Tears leaked out of the corners of Richie’s big eyes,” listen, Eds please, I’m sorry. Just please don’t hate me, you can stop being my friend but don’t hate me, please. We can make this water under the bridge… pun not intended.” Eddie stepped closer,” Richie I-“he looked down clenching his fist his nails cutting into his palm,” Please, don’t say that,” He looked up,” I don’t want this to be water under the bridge.“

Whatever it was that Eddie did to piss off Bowers and his gang he didn't know but he sure as hell wasn't sticking around to find out.

He'd been running errands for his mother, the first ones since he broke his arm. But he wasn’t going to lick a gift horse in the mouth. It was just his luck then that as he passed the arcade, Bowers and his crew came stumbling out. They had a new member with them.

Some blond-haired boy with a nervous face, but Eddie hardly had a moment to stumble away before they were leering at him.

“Oh, look it's beaver boys, little boyfriend," Bowers was stomping closer and closer his rancid breath wafting ever closer to Eddie.

Eddie kept his mouth shut though, not out of intelligence but out of fear, there were five of them against him, he knew they were dissing Richie (how couldn’t he, they always called them boyfriends) but he couldn't say anything.

“I wonder if he'll cry when we break his little boyfriend's other arm?" Patrick asked with a sneer.

Without waiting a moment later Eddie ran. He ran as hard and as fast as his body and legs would allow. carrying himself as far as he could before they troupe realized what happened and began their chase. Eddie was smaller and not good at fighting, but he had a head start and was faster, and much less prone to tripping than they were. Something they always teased him for. His co-ordinance was a point of contention with them, enough proof with everything else for them to believe that he was gay. 

He didn’t understand it, it was like his delicate careful motions he did naturally called him out for-

“I’m gonna get you- you little- ah!”

Bowers attempt to say what was no doubt an insult was cut off by him falling and crashing.

Eddie didn't risk looking back, he couldn't, he wouldn't. He was already at the forest's edge. If he could get enough of a lead he could just hide in the clubhouse.

Something hit a tree next to him, it was hard, and it tinged loudly.

“Shit!” he cried out; they were throwing rocks now.

They wanted blood.

His heart was in his throat, he could barely breathe, he needed to puff his inhaler, but he couldn’t, there was no time. This wasn’t the place.

He was near the bridge now, but there was a figure on the bridge. Maybe the could-

Oh, shit he knew that loudly patterned shirt, he knew that hair, he knew those giant oversized shining glasses.

Fuck.

It was Richie.

Shouting was out of the window, it wasn’t an option for him, if he did that Bowsers and his gang would know. They would know Rich was there. And then he’d be in danger too.

The second Eddie was on the bridge his feet shuddering the old wood Richie was looking up fearfully from where he kneeled. He had a knife, but Eddie had more pressing things to worry about.

They had to hide anywhere, any way possible.

Richie’s eyes were the size of saucers when he realized it was Eddie.

“E-eds?”

“Hide,” Eddie whined. “We have to hide. Bowers- “

“I’ll get you, you little bitch!” Belch was bellowing now; Eddie could hear them all crash through the forest. They were close.

“W-what?” Richie was lost.

“We have to hide.”

Richie caught on quickly, as much as the losers teased him for being stupid, he sure knew when to be smart.

Looking around frantically his eyes snagged on the bridge railing,” Under.”

“Where?” Eddie knew his voice was lilting high pitched, he knew his tone was cracked but he couldn’t help it. How could he? Bowers wanted him dead.

Richie climbed over the railing,” Come on we have to hide under the bridge, we have to jump.”

“Are you crazy?” he whisper shouted,” the germs alo-“

“Where are you!” another one of the gang was screaming out. He couldn’t tell who anymore their voices were hoarse with anger and screams.

Richie extended a hand,” come on. Eds trust me.” His red rimmed eyes were soft and gentle. Red rimmed?

“Eds please.” Richie’s voice was gentle, nothing like how they normally bantered or spoke.

Eddie bit his lip, he looked to the tree line and then with his heart thudding and shuddering in his entire being took his best friend’s hand and jumped.

The water was cold, it stuck and clung, and wasn’t that deep. Eddie’s knees and ankles shook with the force of the jump. Every part of his body stung and shook with exhaustion.  But Richie’s hand was warm and steady and tempered down his racing heart.

Time, as it turned out was only just barely on their side, just as they got tucked under the edge of the bridge the sound of the gang’s footsteps echoed above them. Eddie swallowed his spit a hard stone that cut as it traveled down.

He and Richie were trembling, but the rushing water of the river covered their movements.

“Where the fuck is, he?” Bowers demanded; Eddie could almost see the spit flinging from his mouth.

“I-I don’t know,” a new voice was saying. It was probably that nervous blond from before.

Eddie’s stomach churned at his voice and he grit his teeth, he sounded afraid, like he didn’t have a choice, his free hand trembled clenched and pooling nervous heat. Richie’s hand was sweaty and trembling in his hand. But the tremble felt different.

Patrick’s voice cut the conversation next,” What do you feel bad for him?” his voice was taunting, demeaning, scathing,” That little- “A meaty noise cut him off.

It sounded like a punch. The crunch of a broken nose and a tooth clattering on the wood made Eddie’s insides squirm.

“My cousin-” there were desperate clattering feet and Eddie could hear it, Bowers was pushing Patrick, he was wrangling him, had him in a stronghold against a wall. And just through the cracks of the bridge just barely peaking through Eddie could just barely see their feet block the light. “-is not a fucking freak like they are. Don’t you, Dare say he’s anything like that.”

Spit splattered to the bridge.

Eddie’s stomach swooped, he could hear the unsaid words, in between the insults. He knew what they thought of him, of Richie, of all the losers. Richie shook against him. Eddie squeezed his hand still looking up.

“The little bastard probably climbed in a tree,” Victor seethed.

Silence rang for a beat,” Yeah,” Bowers eventually said, Eddie was almost certain he was nodding.

Dust fell from the rafters of the bridge as Patrick was let down.

“Let’s go hunting,” Eddie could practically hear the grin in his words,” teach them what we do to people like them.”

One

   Two

       Three

           Four

                …

                      …

                             …

                                  Five sets of feet left the bridge.

 Muscles tight and breath still held wound and baited they waited. They stayed under that bridge for far longer than they needed to, but they stayed non the less.

Turning to Richie finally about to speak Eddie’s words died in his throat. He had noticed Richie’s red-rimmed eyes earlier but now, he looked sickly. His face was pale.

“Richie?” Eddie barely let his voice be above a whisper, his voice could easily be covered by the rushing water.

Richie’s body was cowered and contorted to be as small as possible. As minuscule as physical.  His face was twisted and there was sticky, just dried tacky tear tracks down his cheeks.

“Rich, they’re gone.”

Richie stayed silent. Not a joke, not a taunt, not a single grin.

It churned Eddie’s stomach, it made him sick.

Richie was never quiet, he breathed loud, even when he was in class his leg bounced, his pen tapped, his fingers rapped against the desk, he was a being of energy. his every pour oozed high octane energy and laughter.

Something about the Bowers gang’s attack had rattled him. This one was different than before.

They had to get out from under the bridge though, they couldn’t stay there, their ankles submerged in the nasty water of the river that ran under the kissing bridge.

“Come on Rich, we have to move,” Eddie pulled him forward gently.

Richie moved like a ghost, barely aware of his actions and drifting where Eddie lead him.

By the time they made it onto the bridge Eddie’s stomach was a pit of barely contained anger and sadness. Whatever those jerks did to his best friend he wanted them to pay. They were going to pay. Somehow in some way.

Light flashed in his eye, the setting sun glinting on a discarded knife on the side of the bridge. Eddie dropped Richie’s hand.

“Oh, your knife,” he said simply as he went to pick it up.

Suddenly Richie was scrambling back to life again.

“No!”

Eddie whipped hie head to him,” wha-“

Richie cleared his throat nervously,” ha, I- uh- I mean.”

Eddie hardly looked at the knife as he scooped it up,” okay that’s it, fucking spill dick wad.”

“Hahaha,” Richie’s laugh was hollow and nervous, nothing like how he normally was,” w-what are you talkin’ ‘bout eds? I just didn’t want a dame like you getting cut by a sharp knife li- “

Contorted in rage and frustration from Bowers, his mother, the clown Eddie snarled at Richie bisecting his face with his casted arm,” no! You aren’t going to do this anymore Richard- “Richie fell more into his shoulders at the call of his full first name. they never called each other their full names, it was always nicknaming and joking insults never a full first name. “I want to know,” he turned looking to where Richie had been kneeling trying to read,” why the fu- “

Richie was tearing Eddies face from the railing,” Please no, just don’t.”

Eddie shook his head from Richie’s grasp,” shut up not until you tell me what is wrong with you.”

Broken, that was the only word that could truly explain Richie’s face. The expression shattered something in Eddie.

“Eds, please.”

“I-I,” Eddie closed his eyes, he was so close to something he knew it,” Listen if you like carved yours and Bev’s names, hell even if its Gretta. I don’t care.”

He was lying, it was the most important thing to him. He was angry and disgusted by the fact that it was, but he needed to know, just to tell his heart once and for all to stop looking into things.

“I just want my best friend back, and since I broke my arm I haven’t seen you, and we don’t keep secrets-“his voice cracked at the lie on his behalf.

“Eddie please,” Richie was begging him now,” I can’t tell you Eddie please tru-“

“Don’t call me that.” Eddie said before he could think. The nickname churned his stomach coming from Richie.

Richie’s nostrils flared,” then what the fuck am I supposed to call you?”

Angry and frustrated Eddie pivoted,” I’m looking at what you carved, Rich, because I’m sick and ti-“

His voice died in his throat when he finally read the new jagged carving. It wasn’t soft or weathered like any of the others. R which was obviously for Richie. A small plus sign, and-

“It was a joke,” Richie’s voice was both miles away and right in his ear.

He kept rambling on and on a mile a minute about. God Eddie had no clue honestly his own mind was so focused on that second letter, on the implications.

E

There were no girls in their year that could possibly fit it.

Emily Prendergast was the closest, but she was much younger than them. She was seven. That meant.

That meant the E was for Eddie.

His heart stopped at the thought, if the E was for Eddie then that meant.

That meant.

Eddie wasn’t alone, Richie was like him. It wasn’t just a rumour. For a brief moment, Eddie was queasy. Wasn’t he sick? His mother always told him he was sick, and she always said gay people were sick for being gay.

But Richie?

He couldn’t be sick.

He was warm, and alive, and whole, and messy. He got covered in dirt and grime, but he was never sick. Never him. Eddie had never, not once ever thought of Richie as sick, he couldn’t.

That meant.

If Richie wasn’t sick for being gay.

Then.

Eddie finally looked at Richie in his fishbowl magnified eyes.

Then he wasn’t sick either.

“-so you see it was an elaborate joke- hehehe.”

Laughter bubbled out of him, it wasn’t at Richie or meant to be malicious but at the situation. The entire time he could��ve- they could’ve-

Tears leaked out of the corners of Richie’s big eyes,” listen, Eds please, I’m sorry. Just please don’t hate me, you can stop being my friend but don’t hate me, please. We can make this water under the bridge… pun not intended.”

Eddie stepped closer,” Richie I-“he looked down clenching his fist his nails cutting into his palm,” Please, don’t say that,” He looked up,” I don’t want this to be water under the bridge.“

Richie’s voice was hoarse when he spoke again,” What?”

“Richie I-“

His voice was dead in his throat he couldn’t get the words out. So, he grabbed Richie’s hand laced his fingers through and dragged him onto the ground pointing to a carving that was on the board just below Richie’s carving and he dragged his left hand still holding Richie’s right to the jagged blocky carving he cut into the bridge a month ago.

The crudely cut R surrounded by a heart was so sloppy not just because of the medium, but because of the use of his non-dominant hand.

“I-is this?” Richie’s voice was gentle, delicate, afraid.

Eddie couldn’t help rolling his eyes though,” Jesus Rich you sound like Big Bill.”

A grin, large and comforting finally broke out on Richie’s face.

They were facing each other now, knee’s touching in their awkward cross-legged seats.

Richie put his free hand on Eddie’s face. His hand was long and slightly bony, his skin soft but just barely calloused at the fingertips. Eddie could feel that he needed to lotion his dry ass hands but the comfortable weight on his cheek outweighed his impulse to tell Richie that.

“Can I- Uhm.” Richie was choking on the words,” kiss you?”

Eddie didn’t answer not in words, he just leaned forward and pressed his lips to Richie’s.

At first, Richie was limp and surprised his chapped skin lifeless and Eddie was disappointed by the descriptions of first kisses and how amazing they were. But then Richie pressed back and while it wasn’t the spectacular fanfare that Ben’s romance novels described it was-

Breathtaking.

When they broke apart after what could have been minutes or hours Eddie felt dizzy and breathless, but not like how he felt when he turned to his inhaler. It was a kind of breathless that felt good.

“I guess I gotta break it off with your mother huh?”

Eddie shoved him gently,” shut up, I guess my torrid affair with your sister is also getting called off?”

Richie threw his head back in laughter his eye’s crinkling,” Torrid affair? What did you spend your lockdown reading the thesaurus?”

Eddie scrunched his nose trying not to smile,” you try being locked up in your room with a broken arm with nothing to do for forever.”

Richie stood up,” well then I suppose I’ll just have to visit you my good sir.” He was just barely slipping into a voice.

“What are you going on about Rich?”

Richie smirked extending a  hand to Eddie,” well,” he looked away and then back again,” hypothetically if you were cool with it, I could visit at night for sleepovers like I used too. Before you were grounded for life.”

“That would be nice,” Eddie took his hand and stood up,” just don’t get caught okay?”

Richie laughed,” trust me Eds my love, no one will be any the wiser,” he threw a wink at Eddie their hands still joined.

Eddie’s face was red, he could feel the heat on his ears and nose, but a quick glance at Richie as they walked swinging their hands together, told him that Richie was blushing too. His face and Neck were all a bright scarlet in the dusky afternoon light. And in Eddie’s mind, he’d never looked more handsome.