#jwilliambyers lives to see another day....

[beldaroot]

i can’t even be mad that someone has this iconic url saved and isn’t using it because look at their description! they’re right, arataichihaya canon!  

[mitchmarnier]

Penny for your thoughts, dollar for your insights (Or a fortune for your disaster)

pairing: eddie kaspbrak/richie tozier [reddie] rating: teen & up word count: 7,173 summary: Richie is suddenly forced from his home, his kingdom and his birthright, and sent to live in a shithole town in Maine, he doesn't think he'd could ever be happy here. He's quick to learn that there's more in Derry than he'd ever expected. ⤹ a birthday fic for the amy (@eddiefuckinkaspbrak) 

Read on AO3

perma taglist: @jwilliambyers, @stebbins, @lermanslogan, @s-s-georgie, @transrich@eddiefuckinkaspbrak, @edstozler, @emgays​, @anellope​, @thorn-harvester-ven​, @wheezyeds​, @vipertooth​, @tozierking​, @billdenbrough​, @starrystoziers​, @trashmouthtozierr​, @perseusjaxon​ @loserslibrary​ (let me know if you want added!) 

Richie Tozier was pretty sure he was barely even conscious when he was being dragged out the bed. It wasn’t his bed, because his bed was much higher off the ground with nearly a hundred more pillows than whatever this poor excuse of a mat had. He was pretty sure this blanket was wool, and if his head wasn’t pounding something fierce, he would be raising major complaints. 

“Prince Richard must go.” Charles, who had been Richie’s footman for his whole life and sometimes had more to do with Richie’s up bringing than Richie’s own royal parents, hissed in his ear as Richie clutched at his head. “We need to get away.”

“Away? Away from what?” Richie grumbled. It was mostly dark in the room but as they moved, little flashes of light showed through the long, dark curtains that informed Richie and the sharp ache behind his eyes everytime the light touched them, that it was very much daylight outside. “Can’t it wait? My head is fucking killing me.”

His parents had always begged him to control his cursing, and in their ideal world, he simply wouldn’t curse at all. It wasn’t becoming of a monarch, and if Richie wanted his people to love him, then he couldn’t go around cursing like a common sailor. Not that it mattered much, as Richie had ruined any chances of ever being loved by his parents’ people when he came forward and declared how much he loved dick. 

“I’m afraid it simply cannot wait, Prince Richard, I’m sorry.” Charles said desperately, nearly holding up Richie’s half asleep form. “There has been discourse in the kingdoms, and it seems it’s no longer safe for you here, Your Grace. It is imperative that you be removed tonight.” 

“Moved where?” Richie asked, suddenly feeling much more coherent. He and Charles stumbled out onto the roof of one of the taller towers of his castle home, and the sunlight burned so painfully that Richie was forced to squeeze his eyes shut. “For how long, when am I coming back?”

There was a silence from Richie’s footman that was only interrupted by the chopping noise that could only be a helicopter landing nearby.

“I’m sorry, Prince Richard.” Charles had to shout over the sounds of the helicopter as Charles continued to guide Richie over to it. “At this time, it’s a matter of your safety and your life. You will not be returning to Chamberlain.” 

Richie was dazed as Charles pushed him into the helicopter and somebody- Richie couldn’t even be bothered to figure out who- buckled him up. And even as it burned his eyes and made his actual brain throb, Richie watched the Kingdom of Chamberlain disappear from view. 

He couldn’t have told anybody how long the ride lasted after Richie couldn’t see his home anymore. Could have been hours, could have been days. Richie felt numb right down to his core, but eventually the helicopter landed on a large landing strip and Richie was being ushered back out. People certainly were being grabby with him today. And his head still fucking hurt.

A man in a formal grey suit was waiting on the tarmac and gave Richie a slight bow as he approached. “Prince Richard, it’s an honour to meet you.”

Richie forced a smile. “There is no need to bow, sir. I know little of what is going on, but it certainly I am no longer any prince. Just Richie is fine.”

The man straightened up and gave Richie a wiry smile. “My name is Donald Uris, and I’m part of a very private branch of the United Nations which works lands such as your kingdom, to provide safety and protection for those of royal blood such as yourself in situations like this. I will do my best to give you an easy transition into your new life.”

Richie nodded and followed Mr Uris back to a small, grey van parked the end of the turmac strip. Richie crawled into the backseat and buckled himself up. Immediately, Mr Uris was pulling out pieces of paper and handed them to Richie. Most of them didn’t make any sense to him at all, with numbers and dates and signatures but something did catch his eye near the bottom of the pile. 

CERTIFICATE OF VITAL RECORD. STATE OF MAINE.

TOZIER, RICHARD IRA. MARCH 07, 2003 M LITTLE CANADA, MN

Richie frowned. It was his name, sort of. His first name, certainly, but not last name nor his even middle name. Not his actual date of birth, but the correct year. He didn’t even know what a Little Canada or a Maine was, except that he assumed it was somewhere in America. Just like he was now. 

“The story we’ve come up with is that you are the son of my deceased sister, come to live with my family.”  Mr Uris said. “All these documents are everything you will need to be a legal citizen and navigate your life here in America. You’ve been enrolled in public high school, though I will warn you that their curriculum is likely behind that of your personal studies in Chamberlain. My son, Stanley is of an age with you and will be showing you around the school and the town and helping you feel at home.”

Richie flipped through the papers again, still not completely absorbing what they said. “Can you…” Richie started, then cleared his throat. “Do you know why I had to come here?” 

Mr Uris was quiet for a moment before he started up the van and began to pull away from the drop off. The helicopter was already long gone. “I don’t have all the information, Richard, I’m afraid. All I’m aware of is that an attempt had been made on your life, a very close attempt, and it was the belief of your parents and counsel that the best course of action would be to allow those who harm you to believe that they succeeded, and to get you somewhere safe.”

“They told everybody I was dead.” Richie said slowly. Another awkward silence settled in the space between him and Mr Uris.

“It’s not a cut and dry as that, Richie.” 

But Richie was pretty sure that it was. 

The Uris’ house was nice. Certainly no castle, but bigger than any of the houses in the village’s under Richie’s reign. Two stories, possibly with an attic. Large windows and front porch with a swing. A front yard with flawless green grass and white mailbox. A wooden fence separated the property to the neighbours nearly identical houses, and there was a large two car garage. Suburban bliss, Richie thought to himself, though he’d never really experienced suburban- or even urban- other than the occasional at times he’d sat down and watched American television.He’d never considered when watching to take notes, that it would end up being his life. 

It was only when Mr Uris guided him up the stairs, that Richie realized that he didn’t have any belongings. He was wearing a pair of pajama pants and a white t-shirt that he’d awoken in, possibly days ago, and he suddenly felt disgusted. “Mr Uris, I’m sorry to interrupt but I think I really could use a shower. And I don’t have any change of clothes or anything-”

“Oh yes, of course!” Mr Uris’ eyes widened as though surprised he hadn’t thought of that himself. “The bathroom you and Stanley will be sharing is just down the hall. I will tell you that my son is rather particular, so I ask that you did not touch any of his belongings. We placed shampoo, conditioner and soap in there for you already, and we will take you shopping for anything else you might need or if you don’t like shampoo brands we’ve gotten for you. The Aveeno products are all Stan’s, so please don’t touch them. And the same goes with blue towels and face clothes in the top cupboard, yours are in the bottoms cupboard. Your bedroom is on the left joining side, and there are some clothes in there for you. Nothing fancy or extravagant, but I think it will be adequate for you.” 

Richie blinked, information being thrown at him with no qualms. 

“This is it here.” Mr Uris opened the bathroom door and Richie was happy to see that it wasn’t much different than that back home. Smaller, but just as efficient. “Take your time, but we do have mandatory dinner at 5:30. You’re free to leave again after the meal, curfew is 11pm.”

Richie laughed. “Thank you, Mr Uris, but I don’t think I need to worry about curfew anytime soon.”

Mr Uris smiled back at him. “You might be surprised. My son has a nice little group of friends and I’m sure they’d be happy to have you along, Richie. Life here might not be as glamorous as royal life, but it’s not too horrible.”

Mr Uris left him alone to his thoughts after that, as Richie turned the water on as hot as it would go and stood under the burning stream. He still wasn’t sure he had un-numbed yet. Richie had never had friends before, not really. There were people around the palace, always, that Richie sometimes chummed around with but the only person Richie had ever really been close to was his sister.

The choking feeling of incoming tears hit Richie hard. God, Reed. He’d probably never see his sister again. She might not even know he was alive, but she was going to be being groomed for rule now. Thrusted into the position after the sudden loss of her only sibling, and her life would never be the same. Reed was sweet, pure, and Richie feared the pressure of rule could crush her. 

Richie didn’t mean to cry, but when he came out with dripping hair and red skin, his eyes were no doubt puffy and red as well. He wrapped himself up in the beige towels from the bottom cupboard and pushed open the joining door to the bedroom.

Only to stop dead in his tracks at the sight of two boys in the room. A thin boy with wiry blonde curls and a distinct nose and jaw line that made it obvious he was Mr Uris’ son, Stanley, was seated at the desk in a pastel blue button up and khaki pants. Lounging across the bed, in white T-shirt and red runners shorts, was a boy with day messy brown hair and wide brown eyes. 

“Oh, uh- shit.” Richie said, suddenly aware of his obvious nakedness besides the towel around his waist. He was glad his skin was already flushed from hot water, otherwise his blush would be horribly obvious. ”I’m sorry. I thought your dad said my room connected to the bathroom.”

“It does.” Stan said simply, turning back to the door he had previously been reading. “It joins on the other side, the left. I’m sure my father told you. Do you know what left is?”

Richie's mouth dropped and blinked hard at him. “I- yes I know what left is! I got a lot of information in a short period of time. I forgot.”

Stan stared him down for a month before he smirked. “It’s fine. You’re not in a blue towel, so you’re forgiven.”

“Is this your cousin?” Stan’s friend spoke up suddenly, and Richie was aware of how the other boys’ gaze was trailing down his torso. “Richie, right? I’m Eddie.”

Eddie held his hand out but Richie stared down at it awkwardly, his own hands still holding tightly to the towel around his waist. “Yeah, I’d love to shake your hand but I think I’ll do it a little less naked if that’s cool.”

Eddie laughed and that sound made Richie’s stomach jump. ”That seems pretty fair. Your room is on the other side of the bathroom. The bed is really comfortable by the way, I crashed there enough times to know.”

“Don’t mind Eddie,” Stan called over to them, his eyebrows pinched together like he found something deeply amusing. “He’s in the middle of a reborn and he’ll hit on anything that moves.”

“Well, it’s pretty convenient that I am able to move then, isn’t it?” Richie waggled his brow, tried to ignore the fact that he was naked and relished in the way Eddie’s freckled cheeks pinkened slightly. Richie made his way back into the bathroom and let himself into the room on the other side, the room that belonged to him. 

It wasn’t too different from Stanley’s, a double bed with a comforter set. A desk pushed into the corner and a large window with flannel curtains. But there weren't any pictures or posters on the walls, or awards or trophies littering shelves. It looked like exactly what Eddie had described it as, a guest room. 

Richie sighed and moved towards the double door closet and opened it to a selection of jeans, khakis, button up shirts and white t-shirts. Richie had never chosen his own clothes before, never really considered the option, and this didn’t feel much different. Instead of an assortment of suits, it was just a different type of wardrobe.

He threw on a pair of jeans, cringing when they came up a couple inches short of his ankles. He grabbed a white t-shirt and one of the button ups- pink and white striped- and left it unbuttoned. He shook out his hair that way he always did when he wasn’t forced to style it for some sort of event, and he knew it was how his curls looked the best once they dried. He grabbed a pair of plain white socks from the basket in the bottom of the closet and tugged them. He hung the wet towel on the back of the door and returned back to Stanley’s room.

Eddie chuckled at him the moment Richie entered back into the room, eyes glued to the too short pants. “Your pants don’t fit.”

“Yeah, my dick is so big it’s forcing the fabric up.” Richie shot off. 

Stan rolled his eyes in Richie’s peripheral vision but Eddie didn’t seem fazed. “Well you look like an idiot with them like that, let me help you.

Eddie dropped down to his knees in front of Richie, and Richie felt his face burn a bright red. Eddie rolled up the cuffs of his pants just slightly, enough that they looked short on purpose, and popped back up with a grin on his face. “There! Now you don’t look so much like an idiot.”

“Thanks, Eds. You’re really saving my ass.”

“Are you two done?” Stan asked, marking his place in the book and pushing away from his desk. “Because it’s 5:30 so we have to get to dinner.”

Eddie's eyes light up. “Mr Uris makes the best spinach pasta, you’re in for a treat.” He took off out the bedroom and downstairs towards the kitchen Richie had walked through when he’d gotten there. Richie moved to follow but Stan caught his arm before he could get anyway.

“Nobody in town knows who you really are except my parents and myself.” Stan told him seriously. “I don’t like lying to my friends, but I know it’s a matter of your safety so I won’t complain. I just ask you please try not to slip up. I don’t want my friends to think I’m a liar, and it’ll put your life in danger.”

“Your friends are the people who are trying to get me off’ed?” Richie challenged, simply for a lack of any other response. 

“The more people who know who you are, the more possibility of your identity getting out.” Stan said dryly. “You should take this seriously. It’s literally a matter of your life or death.” 

Richie learned within the week that it was actually rare for Stan to have his friends over to the house. Stan was always jetting out, returning home for his 5:30 dinners then taking off again until curfew. Mr Uris assured Richie that Stan was usually around the house more often that that, but it was the last week of summer vacation and he was trying to suck up the last bit of freedom he had left before going back to school. Richie wasn’t too upset that Stan wasn’t around much, Richie was still getting used to the entire situation. 

Richie’s first day in town, Mr Uris had handed him a cell phone and showed him all the sorts of apps. Richie hadn’t bothered to set up any sort of social media, but once Mr Uris showed him a music app called Spotify, Richie had been hooked. It was like having every bit of music ever released at his fingertips in a way that Richie had never experienced before, and it blew his mind that everybody had this sort of access here. He spent days just exploring the apps playlists, learning new artists and devoting hours to their entire discographies if he could. 

Richie had been so immersed in his music library that he hadn’t even noticed the door to his bedroom opening. Richie relished in the privilege to hide in his bedroom, something he was so rarely allowed to do back in Chamberlain. 

Eddie had let himself into Richie’s room and was grinning at him. Riche yanked that headphones out of his ears and sat up in the bed. Ever since Eddie had rolled up the cuffs of Richie’s jeans his first day in town, Richie had been trying to continue doing it with the too short selection pants in his closet. He never managed to make it look as good Eddie had. The cuffs usually didn’t reach the same length, one thicker than the other, but Richie didn’t mind too much. 

“Stanley isn’t here.” Richie said, resting up against the headboard of his bed. “I actually sort of thought that he was out with you.”

“We have other friends,” Eddie said dismissively. “I’m here to see you. Well, to steal you.”

Richie raised his eyebrows, legs starting to jitter under him. He stood up and moved over towards Eddie. “What like, kidnap me?”

Eddie smiled. “School starts tomorrow, you can’t go in with all these too small clothes. Come on.”

Richie frowned but let Eddie lead him out of his bedroom and down to where Mr and Mrs Uris were sitting at the small kitchen table with steaming mugs in front of them. They glanced up and only Mrs Uris seemed mildly surprised to see Eddie there.

“Edward, we’ve told you that you don’t need to sneak in.” Mr Uris said, voice dripping with amusement. 

“Sorry, sir, force of habit.” Eddie chuckled. “Richie needs new clothes.” 

Mr Uris blinked and glanced at Richie, two short jeans and button up shirt and chuckled. “I suppose you’re right, Edward.” He stood and pulled his wallet out from the back pocket of his pants, pulling out a slick bank card. “Go ahead and get whatever you need to within reason, but from here on out, if you want spending money you’ll need to do chores like Stanley does.”

Richie blinked. He’d never done any sort of housework before, but he didn’t think he should point that out. He still wasn’t sure what was considered normal, and what wasn’t, and he was pretty sure that not owning any clothes that fit him fell under the “not normal” category. The last thing he needed was to make Eddie suspicious of him, when it had been made very apparent that Richie should be doing everything in his power not to be drawing unwanted attention to himself.

So he let Eddie guide him to the closest bus stop, and pretended to his best ability that he’d taken a bus before at any point in his life. The mall didn’t seem to be anything overly impressive, a long straight hallway with stores. Mostly clothing stores, but there were two or three cell phones shops as well as a bookstore. There was a single As Seen On TV! Store that caught Richie’s eye, but Eddie quickly shoved him into the first clothing store. 

“Okay, you need jeans. What size are you?” Eddie guided Richie over the long table with pair and pair of denim pants laid out across it, in different shades of blue and some black. Some were already ripped through the knees and thighs and Richie frowned at them, reaching out and putting his fingers through the rips in the fabric. 

“Richie?” Eddie prompted again, startling Richie out of his wonder. 

“Oh, uh…” Richie frowned. “Tall?”

Eddie crinkled up his nose and shook his head, before looking Richie up and down slightly. “How does somebody not know what size pants they are? Here.” Eddie started scooping up different pairs of pants in the same style, and tossed them into Richie’s arms. “We’ll get a dressing room, try them all on and you’ll figure out pretty quickly what fits and what doesn’t. We can go from there.”

Richie felt beyond embarrassed to have to ask the workers for a change room, and even more embarrassed to be changing down into his underwear with Eddie standing just outside. Whenever Richie had gone for a fitting before, it had always been himself and his stylist aside from any occasional time his mother would show up to pass her own judgement on whatever they were trying to put Richie into. 

He eventually did figure out however, that his pant size was and Eddie quickly started tossing him as many pairs of pants as was allowed in the changing room at a time. He liked the pants that were tighter in the legs and ankles, and while he didn’t really understand why somebody would buy jeans that were already ripped, he couldn’t deny there was something he enjoyed about it when he looked at himself wearing them in the dressing room mirror. He got two pairs of the blue ripped jeans, and another two pairs of the regular jeans, one in a dark blue and one in black. 

Eddie nodded with a satisfied smile. “Sweaters and shit are all on back to school sales, so this really is the best time to shop for anything.”

Richie reached his hand out and touched one of the sweaters on the hooks. It was soft, and checkered black and white. He noticed Eddie wrinkled his nose as Richie gave it attention. “It’s not good?” He asked. He wasn’t sure why stores would sell clothes that weren’t nice, and something about the pattern called to Richie, but he wouldn’t want to wear anything that would make him look wrong. 

“I wouldn’t wear anything like that.” Eddie said. “But it doesn’t matter what I like, it’s what you like. Get it if you want it.”

Richie turned back to the sweatshirt and smiled slightly. He’d never had this sort of freedom with clothing before, and he pulled the sweatshirt from the rack before proceeding to grab the clothes with the brightest and wildest colours and patterns he could find. He watched Eddie get more and more amused as they moved through the store. 

As the cashier rang them through, Eddie turned to Richie. “Do you need anything else for school?”

Richie frowned. “What would I need?”

“Uh-” Eddie faltered and Richie realized he’d asked a “not normal” question. “Like… pens and paper? Binders?”

“Oh!” Richie said, trying not to flush as he put Mr Uris’ card into the machine and put in the four number code he’d given him on his way out the door. “No, no. Mr and Mrs Uris have that stuff coming out of their asses, I’m pretty sure.”

Eddie chuckled. “I don’t think I doubt that. We can just pick up some new shoes for you because you’ve been limping around in those sneakers all day like they’re two sizes too small.”

They were just a pair of black sneakers that Mr Uris had from when he’d gone through a short period of thinking he wanted to go to the gym, and they were certainly hurting Richie’s feet. Eddie led Richie down that long hall again to a store that seemed to sell only shoes, and a pair of thick black boots caught Richie’s eye immediately. 

He tried them on, going a full size higher than the sneakers on his feet, and Eddie made him walk and also buy a pair of sneakers because he assured Richie that they were much more practical than the boots. After they finished, Eddie even helped Richie carry his bags onto the bus and back to the Uris’ house. Richie excitedly unloaded all the new clothes and shoes into his closet, and felt a warm flutter in his chest when he thought of going to school the next morning. 

He was significantly less impressed with the thought of school when he was dragged out of bed by Stanley at 6:30 the next morning. He threw the first things he saw in the closet, one of the ripped blue jeans with a shirt covered in Hawaiian flowers that was so large on him that it reached the middle of his thighs and threatened to slip off his shoulder. He tossed his hair up into a half-hearted bun on top of his head that he knew would be mostly fallen out by the end of his day and graciously accepted the buttered toast and orange juice that Mrs Uris handed both Stan and Richie as they were being ushered out to Mr Uris’ car. 

One of the only other vehicles sitting in the parking lot when they arrived was a big red truck. The paint was chipping on the sides, and a group of teenagers were standing around it and sitting in the bed. Stan gave his father a quick goodbye and took off running towards it, while Richie hesitated in the back seat of Mr Uris’ Sedan. 

Mr Uris’ caught his eye in the rearview mirror. “If you’re not ready yet, you can take another day off at home. I know this must all be a lot.”

It was, but Richie cleared his throat and unbuckled himself. “No, uh… It’s probably easier to be the new kid on the first day right? Instead of coming in when classes have already started?”

Mr Uris’ smiled. “It is, yeah.”

Richie gave his new guardian a thanks as he slid out of the car and walked slowly over the group of teenagers that Stan had rushed over to. 

“Hey, Richie!” 

Richie sighed a breath of relief when Eddie called out to him. While he’d known that Eddie was going to be at school with him- there was only high school in town- it was still nice to see Eddie was already there, meaning one less introduction. 

“Guys, this my cousin Richie.” Stan said, lying with such ease it startled Richie. He smiled as Eddie gestured for him to climb up into the bed of the truck and sit down beside him. “I told you he’d be coming to live with us. Richie, this is Mike, Ben and Beverly-” He pointed to each person in turn. “You already know Eddie, and Bill should be coming but he’s late because that’s who he is as a person.”

Mike gave him a toothy grin. “Bill isn’t always late, I usually pick him up but I learned a long time ago not to bother trying on the first day of the school because it would just mean we’d both miss the first period.” 

Richie laughed. Eddie leaned into Richie’s space, chin resting on Richie’s shoulder. “Mike and Bill are together,” he whispered in Richie’s ear as the conversation around them swirled into what their first periods were. “We all pretend we don’t know, but they’re not subtle at all.” 

The parking lot was quickly filling up with cars and people, and Eddie kept his chin on Richie’s shoulder. “Ben has had a crush on Beverly since like sixth grade when he moved here.” Eddie continued whispering his friends' secrets to Richie as they talked obliviously. “She and Bill dated for like, three years or something, though, it’s just something we don’t talk about. We don’t talk about how Bill and Beverly used to date, either, but it makes Beverly really awkward.”

Richie nodded. “No talking about the love square. Got it.”

Eddie giggled directly in Richie’s ear and it really couldn’t be healthy how his heart jumped, skipping a full beat. 

It actually surprised Richie had quickly he got the hang of his new life. Mr Uris hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d said that their education system was behind that of Chamberlain, and Richie quickly rocketed up to the top of their class. September turned into October, and people stopped giving Richie weird looks in the hallways and started asking him for homework help instead. Beverly officially caught Mike and Bill on a date, and the not secret-secret officially became open knowledge amongst Stan’s friends. Stan got a crush on a girl in his and Richie’s AP math class, and Richie teased him about it mercilessly, but Richie was still the first person Stan came to when he asked her out and she said yes. 

As the end of October loomed nearer, Richie quickly realized he rarely spent any time away from Eddie Kaspbrak. They had most of their classes together, and Eddie was over at the Uris’ house almost everyday after school if the group wasn’t all hanging out. Just a couple days before Hallowe’en, Eddie had invited Richie to see some horror flick and paid for the entire thing. He’d gotten scared and spent half the movie with this face hidden behind Richie’s shoulder, and the fluttering in his stomach kept Richie up almost the entire night after he’d gotten home. 

Hallowe’en came around and Stan ordered Richie a costume to match all the rest of their friends. They weren’t doing anything like Hallowe’en on American TV, not trick or treating or going to some sort of intense rave in costumes that were basically half naked. They’d all gotten oversized sweaters with Pokemons on them, each of them a different one, and they were all going to have a sleepover out at Mike Hanlon’s family’s farm. 

Richie had had a few other sleepovers since he’d come to Derry, but this was the first time that Eddie was going to be there all night. Eddie’s mother rarely let him out of the house overnight, and Hallowe’en was one of the occasions that Eddie felt important enough to argue with her over his sleepover rights. Richie was stupidly excited and painfully nervous. 

Richie had never really had a crush on somebody before, certainly not like this. He was only a drink or two into the mix that Mike and Bill had somehow provided and Richie was feeling a buzz under his skin that he did not associate with the glasses of wine he’d be allowed to drink with meals back in Chamberlain, and he couldn’t keep his eyes off Eddie across the campfire in his huge Squirtle sweater. 

Richie couldn’t think of any good reason not to, so he crawled around the fire and settled at Eddie’s side. They pressed together from knee to shoulder and Eddie turned to give Richie a slow smile. He was still nursing his drink of the evening and his eyes were bright and alert. “Hey, Togepi.” He said, grinning down at Richie’s sweater.

“I think it’s kind of bullshit that my sweater is the only one that’s white.” Richie said with a sigh. “I’m probably the most likely to get myself dirty.”

Eddie waggled his brow and licked his bottom lip before pulling his drink back up to his mouth and taking a long sip. “It’s eggshell, not white. You’re a fucking egg.”

Something about Eddie deadpanning the term you’re a fucking egg hit Richie hit in the giggles, head dropping down onto Eddie’s shoulder. Eddie shivered as Richie’s breath blew across his neck and suddenly the rest of the sounds in the barn seemed to fade away around them. 

Richie lifted his head slightly, and Eddie’s hand came out to rest on his cheek. Richie was pretty sure his heart was in his throat as Eddie leaned into him, but he still found himself- “Eddie, wait.” Richie breathed out. He didn’t want to do it like this, he couldn’t. “I… I have to tell you something. I’m not who you think I am.”

Eddie blinked at him, not pulling away or lowering his hand, but pausing his motions forward. Richie inhaled slowly. “I’m not Stanley’s cousin. I’m not… I’m not related to him at all. I’m… okay this is going to sound insane but I’m actually a … prince.”

Eddie’s hand fell from Richie’s face, dropping to rest on top of Richie’s hands in his lap. “Okay, please, I know this sounds absolutely crazy and you can ask Stan if you need to. I mean, he might lie actually, I’m not sure. I was sent here for my own protection, people in my home country were trying to kill me. Maybe for being gay, maybe for something else, but probably for being gay. I’m not supposed to tell anybody who I am, but I didn’t want you to- I didn’t want us if you didn’t really know who I am because that’s not fair to you. Even though you probably think I’m fucking nuts now.”

Eddie sat there a long moment, just looking at Richie’s face. If Richie had thought Eddie had got his heart racing before, it was certainly nothing compared to how raced with panic now. “I should think you’re fucking nuts.” Eddie said slowly. “But I actually believe you.”

“What?” Richie asked, voice coming out more of a gasp than actual words.

Eddie broke into a shy smile. “It actually makes a lot of stuff make more sense. Like how you moved here without so much as a pair of shoes to your name, and you didn’t know who Lady Gaga was.” 

Richie chuckled and Eddie’s thumbs brushed over the backs of Richie’s hands. “Thank you for telling me, honestly. I really like you, Richie… and I wanna like you for who you are. Whoever you are.”

“I really like you, too.” Richie said, feeling himself blush. “I don’t think I’ve ever liked somebody like this before.”

Eddie beamed. “Can we makeout now?” 

“Oh. I don’t… I really don’t know how-” 

Eddie smirked and reached up to tangle his fingers in Richie’s black curls. “Oh, I think I can show you the ropes.” He tugged Richie in to connect their lips, and Richie was a little shocked to realize how quickly instinct took over. He wasn’t sure how long he sat there with Eddie, could have been hours, or just minutes, but he was brought back into the reality of the party around him when a marshmallow hit him in the side of the head. 

“Kaspbrak!” Stan shouted from across the fire. “Get your tongue out of my cousin’s mouth!” 

Eddie joyously flipped Stan the bird before pulling Richie in for another kiss. 

November flew back in a haze of Eddie and colourful leaves. The snow began to fall and Richie began to learn all about Hanukkah from his new found family, and about Christmas from his boyfriend. The amount of things that took place in such a small period of time at the end of December was a little dizzying for Richie, and he expressed as much to Mrs Uris one day as she was helping him making real hot cocoa for himself and Eddie. 

“Nothing is expected of you, Richie.” Mrs Uris told him gently. “We know that this must be weird for you, the holidays away from your family. I’m sure Eddie knows it, too.”

Richie’s ears burned slightly. It had taken all of three days into his and Eddie’s relationship for Richie to confess to Stan and the Uris’ that he told Eddie the truth about who he was. Stan had been supportive and happy for him, while Mr and Mrs Uris had still been apprehensive about Richie sharing that information. Stan had tried reminding them they’d known Eddie since the other boy wore diapers, but they’d still been concerned that it put Richie’s safety at risk. 

“Richie…” Mr Uris called from the front foyer of the house. “Can you come here, please?”

Richie stepped towards Mr Uris, only to freeze at the sight in front of him. Shedding out of long grey trench coats were Richie’s parents and younger sister, Reed. She gasped at the sight of him, and flung herself into his arms without a care of the snow still hanging off her. Though shocked, Richie didn’t have any hesitation in wrapping his arms around her and giving her a tight squeeze. 

“Rich?” Eddie’s voice sounded from behind him and Richie slowly pulled away from his sister’s embrace. Eddie was standing at the bottom of the stairs, Stan and his girlfriend, Patty, just behind him. Mrs Uris was hovering nearby in the doorway between the kitchen and the front hall.

“These are my parents, and my baby sister.” Richie smiled at them and reached his hand out behind him for Eddie. Eddie shuffled over and grabbed hold of Richie’s awaiting hand. “You guys, this is Eddie. My boyfriend.” 

Eddie smiled bashfully at them, only half hidden behind Richie’s figure. Reed let out a delighted gasp while his parents donned polite smiles. 

“It's lovely to meet you, Eddie.” King Wentworth said, sounding genuine enough. His parents had been loving and understanding when Richie had come out to them, and he knew that most of their wants of Richie to keep things shushed was out of concern for his safety. Rightfully so, it would seem. “Richard, we come with news.”

Richie raised his eyebrows at them, finding himself struggling to slip back into the formal person he knew he should be right then. “Yeah… Uh yes, okay. Let’s sit.”

The merged families sat around the sunny Uris’ living room as Mrs Uris offered everybody their selection of drinks. 

“I’m afraid we cannot stay long,” Queen Margaret said sweetly, patting at Mrs Uris’s extended hand. “The royal family cannot all be absent from their places for long. We have pressing issues to discuss with Richard that must have been said in person.”

Eddie squeezed Richie’s knee, and Richie leaned to the side to press a soft kiss to Eddie’s cheek. There was a burning feeling in his gut that told him this was going to get messy.

“We have found the culprit who was making the attempts on your life.” King Wentworth said, eyes only for his son. Richie felt a chill run down his spine. “It was Lord St George of Little Tall Island. He was unhappy when the bethoral between yourself and his eldest daughter, Lady Selena, and he seemed to believe that it would be better to have you dead then it be revealed that you have rejected his kin.”

Richie only dimly remembered Selena St George. A mousy girl with long braids, they’d met only three or so times, and he felt she’d said an equal amount of words in his presence. 

“We have him contained and he’s awaiting a trial in our dungeons.” King Wentworth continued. Richie heard Eddie whisper the word dungeon in awe at Richie’s side. “We wanted to let you know that, should you choose to return, it is safe for you.”

Richie was sure for a moment that he’d misheard, but the way every eye in the room was trained on him promised that he hadn’t. “Go… Go back to Chamberlain? I thought… didn’t you tell everybody I was dead?”

“Yes, when we believed it unlikely we would ever find the person responsible for the attempts on your life,” Queen Margaret said softly. “We have found him, and there is no reason to carry on the charade that you’ve been lost to us.” 

Richie swallowed audibly. “You said if I choose to, you mean it’s up to me?”

The King and Queen exchanged a look with Mr Uris. “Donald told us much about how you’ve grown the past four months. That you seem… happy. Adjusted here. We would love for you to come home with us, but Donald’s stories prompted us to wonder if that would be what make you happy.”

Richie glanced at his sister, who smirked and pointedly looked in Eddie’s direction. Richie’s boyfriend was sitting stalk still beside him, pale and pressed against his side. Richie thought of their relationship, how they’d only just begun to fall for each other, and he thought of sneaking into Stan’s room at night to talk even though he pretended it annoyed him. Thought of all the clothes in his closet upstairs, every single one picked out by him for him. He thought of Mike, and Beverly and Ben and Bill, the first real friends he’d ever had. He thought of the stories that Mrs Uris and Eddie had told him of Hanukkah and Christmas, and how even though he was nervous about it he wanted to experience the holidays. 

“I.. I think I want to stay.” Richie said slowly, looking at Mr and Mrs Uris. “If that’s okay.” 

“You are more than welcome to stay, Richie.” Mr Uris assured him with a fond smile. 

“You need to be sure that’s what you want.” King Wentworth leaned forward and rested his hands on Richie’s knees. “If you do wish to stay in America, we would continue forward under the premise that you have died. For your safety and your privacy. The privacy of the family who took you in and your friends. We would charge St George with your murder rather than simply an attempt, you would not be able to ever return to Chamberlain.”

Richie’s stomach tensed for a moment before he remembered a simple fact. “I already believed that to be true.” Richie said in his most princely voice. “I had accepted that I would never see you or Chamberlain again months ago, that was what they told me when I came here. I made my own life, and I love it. I love the people in it.” Eddie’s head came down and rested gently against Richie’s shoulder. “And I love you guys, too, so much but I… I don’t want to be a prince, I don’t want to rule or any of that shit. I’m not built for it. This is the life I want, and Reed will be an amazing Queen. Better than I could ever be a King.” 

Reed gave him a tearful smile. “You know it, big brother.”

“That’s your final decision, son?” King Wentworth asked his only son. 

Richie made only a second of eye contact with Stanley, who offered him up a half twitch of a smile. “Yeah.” Richie said happily. “It is.”

[mitchmarnier]

MASTERLIST ☾ updated 05/20/20

▸ patreon | ko-fi ◂

LOSERS LIBRARY FICS

multi chaptered fics

say it right ☾ 7 chapters. complete. 14k.（Eddie and Richie work together in book cafe, and Richie is determined to turn Eddie into a coffee drinker by making him the perfect drink. And if Eddie happens to fall in love with him in the process, well then that’s just an added bonus）

ask me to stay ☾ 7 chapters. complete. 33k.（the year is 1994, and Eddie Kaspbrak is in love）

took too many hits off this memories, i need to come down ☾ 4/? chapters. in progress. 19k（Eddie Kaspbrak doesn’t remember much from his childhood. He doesn’t really know he doesn’t remember. He also doesn’t know why he’s so drawn this terrible comedian on tv, but when Eddie runs into him in a bar, and they spend the night together, Eddie’s life is changed forever. It’s finally back on track- and he doesn’t know anything about it）✕notsfw ✕

the real world ☾ 6/18 chapters. in progress. 17k（after a sudden and unexplained disappearance, richie tozier returns to derry with a secret that no one person could ever hope to hold onto）

make my way back home [when i learn to fly] ☾ 3/10 chapters. in progress. 7k （class scholar richie tozier and school track and field icon eddie kaspbrak rekindle their childhood friendship, loosely based off the art concept by caliceal）

collab fics

burn, crash, romance with @lermanslogan​ ☾ 1/8 chapters. in progress. 9k（the Fratboy!Eddie fic birthed over Discord that simply had to be brought to life）✕notsfw ✕

gift fics

for diana (lermanslogan) wouldn’t you like to see something strange ☾ 2.8k.（when richie’s mother gets married, he’s forced to move across the country and finds that his new town is not so ordinary at all.）

for diana (lermanslogan) these lines of lightning mean we’re never alone ☾  15k（when eddie’s mom pulls his fiancial support for school, eddie finds himself with no option but to return back to maine. unless richie can figure out a way to help him.）

for leigh (@s-s-georgie) i want these words to make things right, but it’s the wrongs that make the words come to life ☾  10k（richie tozier runs an anonymous tip blog for superheros in New York City. sounds like a great idea until you throw in the ex boyfriend superhero he’s still in love with, and the weird blue eyed man who somehow figured out the man behind the blog.）

for amy (eddiefuckinkaspbrak) penny for your thoughts, dollar for your insights (or a fortune for your disaster) ☾  7k（richie is suddenly forced from his home, his kingdom and his birthright and sent to live in a shithole town in Maine, he doesn’t think he could ever be happy here. he’s quick to learn that there’s more in derry than he’d ever expected.）

one shots

i don’t wanna spend another christmas without you ☾ 5k （fill for ITfandomprompts2019 secret santa）

i want to feel something again. ☾  4k（meeting a wedding au）✕notsfw ✕

did i say that out loud? ☾  12k（my piece written for the IT Big Bang 2019, paired with disneyfan567 on tumblr!）

richie tozier’s all dead rock show ☾  13k（after a near-death experience, Richie Tozier suddenly finds himself with a sparkling, unaffected memory of Derry, the things that happened there and people he once loved）✕notsfw ✕

no you can’t fence time and you can’t stop love. ☾  3k（how can eighteen years just up and walk away?）

baby, we can make it if we’re heart to heart ☾  2k（the first time eddie kaspbrak and richie tozier ever talked about running away together, they were six years old and it hadn’t seemed serious.）

IT fandom week 2019

reddie soulmate au

stanpat college au

stozier summer romance au ✕notsfw ✕

i can be your hero ☾  2k（day seven: accidental confession）

IT fandom exchange 2020

that’s my type ☾  eddie x richie

it takes a village  ☾ stan x patty, eddie x richie

song prompts

reddie ✿ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,

stanpat ✿ 1, 2, 3,

hanzier ✿ 1, 2,

stozier ✿ 1, 2, 3,

stanlon ✿ 1,

bichie ✿ 1, 2,

streddie ✿ 1, 2,

mcmarsh ✿ 1,

benverly ✿ 1,

prompts

bichie + 1 ☾ i pushed you up against the wall and i can’t stop staring at your lips from stnbroughs

reddie + 45 & 46 ☾ do you trust me? & can i kiss you right now? from anon

reddie + 38 ☾ isn’t this amazing from anon

reddie + 52 & 39 ☾ first one to make a noise loses from anon

reddie + 179 ☾ first one to make a noise loses from anon ✕notsfw ✕

reddie + 16 ☾ cry me a river from anon

reddie + 37 ☾ i had a dream about you

stanlon & reddie + 122 ☾  why do they behave for you from anon

reddie + 100 ☾  i’m sorry but that was adorable from anon

reddie ☾  its okay to cry from anon

reddie + 81 ☾  please don’t hurt me from jwilliambyers

reddie + 10 ☾  high school popular kid and nerd au from ameliadams

reddie + 27 ☾  meeting at a support group from anon

reddie + 22 ☾  two miserable people Meeting at a wedding AU from anon

stozier ☾  exes meeting again after not speaking for years au from tinyarmedtrex

reddie + 48 ☾  meeting again at a high school reunion au from cariebishop

reddie + 48 ☾  I called you at 2am because I need you from richiardtozier

reddie + 9 & 30 ☾  Secret Relationship & Suddenly Getting Flustered Because of a Particular Outfit from clockworkbisexual

reddie + 27 ☾  Help me I’m being hit on at a bar please be my fake boyfriend for a second from appojoos

reddie + 69 ☾ We’re not just friends and you fucking know it.” + kiss at a party from jwilliambyers

reddie ☾ “You make me happy” + “I love you” from anon

reddie + 17 ☾  I would do anything for you. anything from thundercatseddie

reddie + 9 ☾  There’s only one bed and we sleep as far away as possible from each other but wake up cuddling from thundercatseddie

reddie + 3 ☾ road trip au from anellope & richiardtozier

reddie + drunken confession ☾

reddie & stanpat + meeting the parents au ☾

[mitchmarnier]

I want these words to make things right (but it's the wrongs that make the words come to life)

pairing: eddie kaspbrak/richie tozier [reddie] rating: teen & up word count: 10,531 summary: Richie Tozier runs an anonymous tip for superheroes in the town of New York City. Sounds like a great idea, until you throw in the ex boyfriend superhero he's still in love with, and the weird blue eyed man who somehow figured out the man behind the blog ⤹ a NOT birthday fic for the lovely leigh (@s-s-georgie) 

perma taglist: @jwilliambyers, @stebbins, @isaacslaheys, @s-s-georgie, @transrich@eddiefuckinkaspbrak, @edstozler, @emgays, @anellope, @thorn-harvester-ven, @wheezyeds, @vipertooth, @tozierking, @billdenbrough, @starrystoziers, @trashmouthtozierr, @willelbyers​ @itfandomprompts, @loserslibrary (let me know if you want added!)

read on ao3

Spotted!: The one and only FlyBoy, rescuing not one, not two, but six students of New York University from a late night fire in the little coffee shop down on Old Broadway. Damages to the building were extensive- and it’s going to be closed for a very long, unknown future- but nobody was harmed thanks to our very own eye in the sky. FlyBoy, we salute you and I think we can speak for everybody when we say that we sleep better knowing you’re out there. 

Richie sent out the blast, still smiling at his phone. He’d barely even opened his eyes when he’d rolled over to grab his phone, which wasn’t anything abnormal. Richie ran one of the most popular blogs in New York City, completely anonymously. It had started out as his own interests, keeping taps on all the iconic heroes of their great and crime ridden city. It had quickly grown in regular viewers and subscribers, everybody realizing how coinvient it was to one location with all the information. More reliable information than the actual news, if Richie did say so himself.

“Really? FlyBoy again?” Richie’s roommate, Beverly Marsh, barged into Richie’s bedroom without knocking. “Don’t you think you’re getting a little too hung up on this guy? You’re running an update blog, not a FlyBoy fanblog.”

“FlyBoy is the guy to watch for.” Richie shrugged as he rolled out his bed, reaching out blindly for his glasses that he’d left on his bedside table. Beverly was standing at the edge of his bed with her hands on his hips. “Why are you looking at me like that, Mom?”

Beverly grabbed an NYU crewneck off the floor and threw it over his head. “FlyBoy isn’t the only superhero in the city, Richie! You’re falling off your brand and you’re going to lose your following. And in case you hadn’t noticed, your following pays most of our bills.” 

Richie rolled his eyes. He grabbed his lucky jeans off the floor and slipped into them without changing his boxers, getting a little too much enjoyment out of Beverly’s cringe. “Would you chill out? I’m still just reporting the news, Bev. It’s not like anything else happened last night.”

“Dr Incredible stopped a bank robbing,” Beverly pointed out without even needing to look at her phone. “You didn’t say anything about that. Not to mention- Captain Fast literally saved an entire family from plunging off a bridge in their car last night. You know, Eddie Kaspbrak? Your best friend? The love of your life? I think maybe that would be a little newsworthy, don’t you?”

Richie scraped his black curls into a bun at the top of his head and started throwing textbooks into his backpack. “Beverly, I have had my eyes open for all of ten minutes, and seven of them have been you lecturing me on how to run a blog. I will post the rest of the events from last night and anything that happened this morning on the way to class that I need to go to. Because I have a life, so unless you wanna take over all the blog responsibilities… get off my dick.” 

Beverly scoffed as Richie pushed past her out the door to his room, shouting at him that there was brewed coffee on the counter even as they both knew that Richie was going to be stopping at Starbucks for something that was more sugar and syrup than actual caffeine. 

Richie went to the same Starbucks every morning before class, and every evening after classes let out. Stanley from his Psychology 101 worked there, and he never failed to give Richie shit about his nasty habits. He was a scrawny man, with tight curls. He was always well dressed under his work apron, light coloured button ups and pressed jeans. He always looked so put together and proper that Richie wanted to frazzle him and mess him up completely.

Stan’s customer service happy expression dropped into a look of disdain. “You’re back. Again.”

“Everyday, Stanny, you know me.” Richie leaned against the counter and winked at the unimpressed barista. Stan turned away from him, putting Richie’s regular order into the register. “Gotta get that caffeine fix.”

“I’d hardly call this caffeine by any means.” Stan let out a scoff as he finished ringing up the order. Richie handed Stanley the cash, and tried to chase the barista down the line in the process of making Richie’s entirely familiar order.

“You can’t lean over the counter like that.” Stan said in a low, bored tone. “You know, you’re lucky it's in my job description to be nice to you.” 

Richie chuckled, watching as Stan applied a double spray of whipped cream that Richie certainly hadn’t paid for. “If this is you being nice to me, I would hate to see you mean.”

“Yes, you would.” Stan placed Richie’s pale drink down onto the counter and slid a straw over to Richie without Richie needing to ask. Richie grinned, and took a long, overly dramatic sip before turning away. He nursed the drink throughout his short walk to his campus building, and tossed it- half finished- into the garbage before ducking into his lecture hall. He slid into his regular seat in the far left side of the hall, then frowned as somebody sat down on the other side of him. 

It was a cute enough guy, with soft brown hair that flopped into his face. His eyes were an icy blue and there was a scar running through one eyebrow. Richie felt goosebumps jump up on his forearms as the boy stared at him.

“You’re R-R-Richie T-Tozier, right?” Bill said, voice pleasant even in the low tone. It soothed Richie in an odd way, and he felt himself lowering his guard even as he wondered why he was doing it. 

“Yeah…” Richie said slowly, lifting his pen towards his mouth and biting down on the bottom end. “And you are?”

“My name is B-B-ill.” He said, before glancing over his shoulder. He bit down on his bottom lip and leaned in closer to Richie’s space. “You’re the runner of Spotted!, right? The superhero tracker blog?”

Richie blinked at him. His teeth threatened to break through the plastic of his pen. He cleared his throat awkwardly and looked forward at the professor, droning on about something Richie couldn’t care less about, especially with how his heart was pounding in his chest. “Sorry, man. I think you’ve got the wrong guy.” 

Even as Richie refused to let his gaze waver from the front of the room, he could feel how Bill’s eyes continued to burn into the side of his head. “Well.” Bill said, voice somehow seeming much closer to Richie’s ears than he felt it should be. “If you a-ar-are the m-man behind the sc-screen, I th-thought you sh-should know that Pr-Professor Fly will make an app-appearance tonight.”

Richie jerked his head to look at Bill, but the other guy was already standing and making his way through the lecture hall. He didn’t even turn around as Richie unabashedly stared at him. Professor Fly had once been the biggest, most known superhero on the NYC scene. Along with the flight powers that his name implied, he’d also been strong and fast. He’d had a plethora of powers, so many it was beyond abnormal. Nearly three years ago, Professor Fly had stepped onto the scene with a mentee- none other than FlyBoy- and only six months after that he’d completely dropped off the face of the Earth. FlyBoy continued to work in the city, and make a bigger and bigger name for himself, but Professor Fly had not been seen in over two full years. 

It was juicy information, no doubt. The kind that made Richie’s stomach tense up and his palms sweat. If Professor Fly was coming out of retirement, that could only mean somehow seriously Bad was on the scene. But Richie didn’t run a gossip blog, and he would never post something he didn’t have any proof on. Not even something as huge as a potential Professor Fly comeback.

Spotted! Just a little  recap of last night’s busy activities in the city that never sleeps: Dr Incredible bringing a bank robbery to a skidding halt, making sure all our favourite rich bitches and Wall Street moneybags have their millions safe for another day! Thanks, dude! And OF COURSE, the adorable and flawless Captain Fast saving an entire family from certain doom, and looking absolutely mouth watering in that spandex as always while doing it. Keep it up, babe. The public loves you :*

“RICHIE!”

Richie hardly reacted as the apartment door busted open and Eddie Kaspbrak stormed into the living room. His hair was damp, flattened to his forehead from the rain outside. The same rain that had left stains all over his grey NYU shirt and blue jeans. His fists were tightened at his sides, and he looked absolutely adorable.

“How can I be of service, dear Edward?” Richie asked, punching at the buttons of his xBox controller. Eddie stomped forward and grabbed it from his hands, tossing it across the room. “Hey! What the fuck?”

“You can’t fucking flirt with me on your stupid blog!” Eddie cried, running his hands through his hair. “Okay? People are gonna… they could figure out who you are if you keep doing that!”

Richie sat up straight on the couch. “Okay, do you know how little sense that makes, right? I make flirtatious comments about every hero I post about. Except Dr Incredible, I think guys a fucking sham.” Eddie rolled his eyes as Richie carried on over him. “And even if I did flirt with you more than the other heroes, they’d still need to know who you are to connect the dots to me. So take a breath. If you don’t want people commenting on your spandex, don’t wear it.”

“This isn’t about spandex.” Eddie said, though Richie could see that the anger he’d been wrapped up in when he’d come into the apartment was quickly seeping out of him. “This is about you. I don’t want you in danger, Richie.”

“You’ve made that beyond clear, Eds.” Richie stood and stretched his hands above his head. “It’s pretty much all I’ve heard from you.”

“Rich…” Eddie said sadly, but if there had been anything further to that sentence it evaporated right from Eddie’s mouth. 

Eddie and Richie were diaper buddies, a real sandbox love. Richie couldn’t remember a point in his life without Eddie in it. They’d grown up inseparable, and Richie still remembered vividly when they’re relationship had begun to grow into something more. Junior year of high school, when Richie finally, finally found the nerve to ask Eddie out on an official date. And the next couple weeks after that were bliss in a way that Richie had never known. Until suddenly, Eddie had started blowing him off. Cancelling dates, and dodging Richie’s calls. When Richie had moved to confront Eddie about his behaviour, to beg him to at least end it and not keep him hanging on, Richie had learned the truth of Eddie’s powers. Apparently, it ran in his family and his mother had tried her hardest to keep it from Eddie, in desperate hopes that Eddie would be different but the powers can come nonetheless. Some smaller ones- a heightened sense of touch, and an acute sense of knowledge of a person or object by touch which Richie lovingly called his Vibe Checks- and of course, his speed. Eddie had always been a fast runner, ever since they were kids, and he had been shaping up to be a big track star before the Powers had appeared to him. Afterwards, however, Eddie could run the length of the entirety of the country in mere seconds. 

They’d stayed up together that whole night, talking and crying and kissing, and they’d felt so good about everything. Richie thought having a superhero boyfriend was maybe the coolest thing that could ever happen to anybody, even if he wasn’t allowed to tell another living being. While still living in Derry, things hadn’t been so different with Eddie having powers. Things really changed when they moved out to New York City. Richie had always known Eddie was a good person, the best person, but he’d never accounted for how Eddie’s powers would come into play when they were suddenly in a city with other Supers and a sky high crime rate. 

They’d tried to make it work, Richie beyond supportive in Eddie’s crime fighting causes. (Hello, superhero boyfriend? Still the coolest shit ever!) but one misstep, one single incident where Richie’s safety had been put on the line, and Eddie had stopped them in their tracks. It hadn’t even been because of Eddie’s identity, Richie had been in a strictly wrong place wrong time sort of situation but Eddie had lost it. Claimed that their relationship was a liability for Eddie, that Richie was Eddie’s biggest weakness and that Eddie couldn’t risk Richie’s safety like that. Richie had argued tooth and nail, claiming that breaking up didn’t mean that they weren’t in love and that Eddie shouldn’t be giving up his personal life for these powers but it had fallen on deaf ears. Eddie had packed up his belongings and left their shared apartment. They’d tried to stay friends, but the love between them kept things strained. 

Richie padded into the kitchen and grabbed a can of pop from the fridge. He offered one up to Eddie, who shook his head as Richie knew that he would. He hopped up onto one of the seats on the counter and stared Eddie down. Eddie leaned forward on his elbows. 

“We can’t keep having this same argument, Richie.” Eddie said in his prim and rehearsed voice. “It’s not because I don’t love you-”

Richie squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head quickly. “God, you just said we can’t keep this argument. I don’t need to hear this fucking speech again. You gave it to me when we broke up, you gave it to me six months ago on my birthday after we got drunk and-” Richie broke off and exhaled hard. “I’m sorry I talked about your spandex on my blog, I’ll try to tone down the flirting when I talk about you.”

“No.” Eddie sighed, resting his chin in his hands. “I overreacted. You didn’t say anything you wouldn’t have said about anybody else on there. And you’re right, people would need to know who I am to connect you to me. And nobody knows who either of us are.”

Richie blew out a long breath, flicking his thumb against the tab of his pop can. “Actually, Eds… somebody might know who I am. So, yeah, I should be more careful when talking about you on there. You’re the one who was right as usual.”

Eddie’s mouth dropped open and he pushed away from the table to round on Richie. He grabbed him by his shoulders and forced Richie to meet his gaze. “Richie. What are you talking about.”

“I’m not really sure, honestly, it was weird.” Richie ducked out of Eddie’s touch, frowning as the memory of his class that morning washed back over him. “It was some.. Guy in my theory of screenwriting lecture? He just sat down beside me and he addressed me by name and then asked if I was the one who wrote Spotted!. I told him I wasn’t, because you and Bev are both always on my ass about keeping it a secret, and then he told me…”

Richie stopped and looked up at Eddie. Eddie stared back at him, holding Richie’s eye line longer than he had in the two years since they’d called an end to their romantic relationship. “What, Rich? What did he say?”

“He said that Professor Fly would be making an appearance tonight.”

Eddie’s expression remained blank for several moments before the usual chaotic energy took him back over. “Why would he say that? How does he know that? How does he know you? There’s no way that’s true, nobody has heard anything from Professor Fly for almost three years. Not even FlyBoy knows where he is, he’s retired. There’s nothing he’d come back for, not unless it was the end of the world big. Is this the end of the world big? Richie?”

“I don’t know, Eds. He didn’t give me an itinerary for the night's events.” Richie said. “I think he just wanted me to post it on my blog like I’m some sort of gossip column. It’s not a big deal.” But Eddie didn’t look convinced and Richie could practically hear the little hamster wheel in his head running. “Unless you know something that’s going to happen tonight?”

“No.” Eddie said immediately, shaking his head. “I haven’t heard anything besides minor crimes and car accidents the last couple weeks. It’s been… almost too calm. I don’t like the sound of this guy, Richie, and I definitely don’t like what he’s suggesting. I’m gonna- I’m gonna talk to some people. Don’t leave this apartment and don’t post on Spotted! until I get back.” 

“You’re not my boss!” Richie cried as Eddie tore out of his apartment like a tornado. 

Eddie returned quickly, as Eddie was prone to do. He stumbled into the apartment as dusk began to settle outside, a tray of coffees in his hands. “Okay, we only have a few hours to figure this out.” 

Beverly had been just getting into the apartment when Eddie had come in and nearly crushed her behind the door. She frowned as Eddie handed her one of the steaming paper cups and somebody came into the apartment behind him.

“Stan from Starbucks?” Richie asked with a frown, watching as Stan and another tall, black man he didn’t recognize came into his apartment. “Eds, I get you wanted coffee or whatever but you don’t need to bring the store back with you.”

Stan placed the only non-hot beverage down onto the counter. “I’m going to tell you something, and you need to promise not to be weird about it.” Richie stared at Stan with his drink raised half way up to his lips, and Stan let out a low sigh. “I’m FlyBoy.”

Richie whipped around to glare at Eddie, pointing an accusing finger at his chest. “FlyBoy has been Stan from Starbucks this entire fucking time, and you didn’t think to tell me that?”

“It isn’t exactly my secret to tell anybody.” Eddie said with a chill to his voice. “And honestly, even if I could have told you, I wouldn’t have. You have a weird crush on him and the last thing we need is you running off and getting some high stress relationship with a superhero.”

A superhero who isn’t me. Eddie maybe didn’t say it, maybe wasn’t even aware that he’d implied the words at all, but Richie heard them perfectly clear. Richie scoffed, dropping his drink onto the counter and stepping away from the group just slightly. “You don’t really get any say in who I do or don’t like, Eddie. It’s actually none of your business at all.”

“It is if it’s something that’s going to put you in danger, Richie!” Eddie snapped back, hand cutting through the air. A manic gesture of Eddie’s that Richie usually found cute, but could only manage to find irritating in this moment. “You put yourself in harms way enough with this stupid blog and just even knowing me, I would never let you-”

“Let me? Let me?” Richie chuckled humorlessly. “You are not the boss of me, Eddie. You’re not my parents, you’re my boyfriend. So, thank you very much for all the over the top concern about whether or not I’m getting myself into trouble but I’m going to have to politely tell you to mind your fucking business for once in your life.”

Eddie gaped at him, almost forming words before losing them again. The black man who had come into the apartment with Eddie and Stan cleared his throat. “I’m sorry but this seems like a pretty serious personal issue, and we have something important we need to handle, so...”

“Yes.” Eddie said, voice cracking. Richie glanced at him and tried not to let the hint of tears that were pooling in Eddie’s eyes. “Richie, this is Mike Hanlon. You probably know him as-”

“Freezie.” Mike held his hand out and Richie only hesitated for a moment before Mike laughed. “Don’t worry, man. I have to actually want to turn you into ice for it to happen. Though I do have some horror stories when I first started developing my powers, I’m not gonna lie.” 

“Mr Medusa.” Richie said with a grin, gripping Mike’s hand firmly and giving a body moving shake.  Mike gave a laugh while both Stan and Eddie rolled his eyes at his antics. 

“You know how misleading that nickname is, right?” Stan asked dryly. “Mike turns people to ice with his hands, Medusa turned people to stone by looking at them and her head full of snakes. It’s really not even that close of a comparison, it just implies you don’t know anything about Greeky mythology.”

“Excuse me, I’m a gay Gen Z. Of course I fucking know Greek mythology. I read Percy Jackson.” Richie said with a wave of his hand. Stan gaped at him for a moment before Eddie blew the wrapper from Richie’s straw at Richie’s head. 

“He’s also a fucking Ancient Civilization minor.” Eddie said in a mixture of fondness and irritation. “Don’t let him fool you with his stupidity, he’s actually incredibly smart.” 

“Okay, yeah, this is great.” Beverly spoke up suddenly, dropping her shopping bags onto the kitchen counter. “But do you guys wanna tell me what the hell is going on exactly?”

“Yes, I’d like to know, too.” Stan said, taking a seat at the small, banged up wooden table. “Eddie didn’t exactly give much details as he was superhero sprinting around the Starbucks and making like $30 worth of product he didn't pay for.” 

Eddie waved Stan off. “We might be in for a long night.” He said, dropping into the seat beside Stan. Mike and Beverly both moved to take the last two seats around the table and Richie jumped up to sit on top of the table between Eddie and Stan. He maybe positioned himself a little bit closer to Stan, just to watch Eddie’s jaw clench.

“Richie, why don’t you tell everybody what you told me earlier.” Eddie said in his very best teacher voice. 

Richie sighed. “I still think you’re making too big a deal out of this, Eds, really. But basically some guy came up to me in class today, and accused me of running the Spotted! Blog and then told me that  Professor Fly is going to come back tonight.” 

Stan’s head jerked to look at Richie, eyes wide. “That’s impossible. Who told you this?”

Richie shrugged. “I don’t man, some weirdo. Think he said his name was Bill?”

Beverly startled at her seat, knocking one of the coffees to the ground. Everybody turned to look at her and her face had lost nearly all colour. “Uh… did he have a scar running through his eyebrow?” 

“Yeah… how do you know that?” 

Beverly scratched at the side of her neck. “I went on a few dates with him last semester, he's a weird dude. I wouldn’t read too much into this, I’m sure he’s just trying to stir up drama. His brother died when he was young, and he never really got over it.”

A shoulder crossed over Stan’s face and he sighed sadly. “Georgie Denbrough. That was…. A tragedy.” 

Mike and Eddie made matching sympathetic sounds and Richie pulse jumped. “Okay, you all clearly know what the fuck is going on, from your super secret like Justice League meetings or something, but anybody want to catch me up? Who is Georgie Denbrough and what happened to him?”

“Georgie Denbrough was Professor Fly’s biggest shame. His failure as a hero.” Stan said, voice almost completely monotone. “It was just before he started training me to take over for him, I’ve always suspected it was the reason why he was choosing to retire. The Professor was trying to save a group of children from a predator and somehow the battle got really intense. The predator had powers that The Professor hadn’t anticipated, and The Professor’s powers back fired when he tried to catch the man. It caused the building to explode. Most of the children were okay, scrapes and bruises, maybe a broken bone or so, but Georgie Denbrough… He lost an arm in the explosion and he bled out before help could arrive. The boy died and the villain got away. He never really recovered from it.”

“Neither did Bill Denbrough,” Beverly jumped in. “When we were going out, it was pretty much all he talked about. How Professor Fly killed his little brother and ruined Bill’s life. He hates superheroes because of it. He probably doesn't know shit, but at least suspects that Richie knows some heroes and will tell them what he said. It’s a set up.”

Stan nodded. “There’s no way The Professor is going to be out tonight. Nothing would pull him out of retirement, trust me.”

Eddie rubbed his hands together. “Maybe.” He said shortly. “But we don’t know that it’s a trap for us. It’s possible this Bill guy has something planned tonight to try and bring Professor Fly out. We can’t risk people getting hurt because we don’t know what this guy's plan is. I think we should have all hands on deck tonight if we can.”

“Eddie’s right.” Mike said. “Even if it is a trap for us, we agreed to this sort of risk when we started acting as heroes. We knew what we were getting into, we can’t just sit around and do nothing when lives are at risk. Best case scenario, this Bill guy is full of shit and just running his mouth and nothing happens but we need to prepare for the worst.”

“I can’t imagine him going so far out of his way to figure out who’s running that blog just for it to be nothing.” Stan said quietly. 

“Maybe that’s part of the plan,” Richie jumped in. “He wanted me to post about Professor Fly’s return, probably to lure out people and heroes to whatever it was he was going to do. Maybe if I don’t post it then he’ll just drop the whole thing because he’s not getting the audience that he wants.”

“You should post it.” Beverly said suddenly, using some of the shitty dollar store dish cloths to wipe up the spilled coffee all over the floor. A large round of disagreement spread out amongst the heroes until Bev held her hand up for quiet. “I might not know much about this whole superhero world, or whatever, but how are you supposed to catch this guy if he doesn’t go through with his plan? You can’t exactly go after somebody for figuring out that Richie is caught up with superheroes.”

Eddie muttered something under his breath that sounded a lot like “I can fucking try” but none of the heroes had any sort of argument against Beverly’s claims. 

“Spotted! Isn't a gossip column!” Richie cried, tossing his hands in the air, nearly taking Stan’s eye out. “I’m not posting some unfounded bullshit about Professor Fly and killing my brand for this Bill dude’s fucking vandetta.”

“Your blog’s brand is more important to you than saving lives?” Mike asked, giving Richie big, sad puppy eyes.

“We don’t know it’ll save lives!” Richie argued. “For all we know, sending out a blast could be what gets people killed. If you think we should all go out and keep on eye on stuff, then fine but-”

“Whoa, whoa!” Eddie cut him off quickly. “What do you mean we? You’re not coming with us if we go out there, Richie. You and Bev aren’t leaving this apartment tonight, you could be a target!”

“YOU’RE NOT MY BOSS!” Richie leapt off the table and stalked away from Eddie, hands trembling at his sides. “I’m so sick of you telling me what I can and can’t do! You can’t control me, Eddie.”

Eddie’s head jerked back as though it had been slapped, and a wounded look crossed his face that Richie wouldn’t let himself feel bad about. “I’m not trying to control you, Richard. I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“Oh, really?” Richie laughed. “So, you making a point not to tell me you knew who FlyBoy was when you were under the impression I might have a crush on him wasn’t you keeping me safe, and not at all you not wanting me to date somebody that isn’t you.”

Eddie stood up and walked around to where Richie was standing angrily behind the counter. He didn’t touch him but his hands hovered just above Richie’s arms. “I didn’t tell you who FlyBoy was because it's a secret identity for a reason. It’s not like it was really my place to SAY anything to you about it, alright? You can date whoever the fuck you want, obviously, because I didn’t stop you from going on those dates with Connor Whathisfuck last year and I hated that guy so much it actually burned my soul. I want you to be happy, okay? I’d never stop you from dating somebody. Stan is right there if you wanna go ask him out right now, you pleeb.” 

Richie glanced over Eddie’s shoulders at where the people around the table were all staring at them. Stan wrinkled up his nose. “Please don’t.”

Richie rolled his eyes and snorted. “Don’t worry, Stan my Man. If I’d known FlyBoy was somebody as boring as you, I wouldn’t have dedicated so much time to him in the first place.” 

Richie tried to ignore Eddie’s relieved sigh in his ear. 

Eddie didn’t budge on his statement that Richie and Beverly would be staying behind at their apartment, as Richie didn’t budge his refusal to post false information on this blog. “If you want me to make some sort of announcement, it has to be something true. That’s just how it is.”

“You could post about seeing the three of us teaming up.” Mike suggested as Richie was really just focusing on not looking at his bare chest as he changed into his suit. “That will be enough to get the public's attention and let this Bill Denbrough know we’re taking him seriously without having to leak false information about Professor Fly.”

Richie nodded in agreement as Eddie padded over him to his little tight red spandex supersuit. Richie’s breath caught as it always did when he saw Eddie as Captain Fast. “Don’t say anything until you’re sure we’re a decent way away from the apartment. Just because somebody figured out that you run the blog doesn’t mean that we should be leading towards the place you live. Play it safe, Rich.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Richie waved it off, but they both knew at the end of the day even as much as Richie fought it, he was going to follow Eddie’s advice. As the group moved towards the front door, Eddie suddenly spun around and grabbed hold of Richie’s waist. He tugged him into a tight hug, pressing his face against Richie’s shoulder.

“Please, please, be careful, Rich.” Eddie whispered into Richie’s body. “I have a really bad feeling.”

“Yeah, Eds. I’ll be careful.” Richie squeezed Eddie tightly until the other man pulled back. There was a split second where Richie was certain that Eddie was about to lean in for a kiss. The moment broke as Eddie’s cheeks turned pink and he looked away. He pulled the matching red mask over his eyes and followed the rest of Mike and Stan from the apartment. 

Richie wallowed in his poor, confused little gay heart for roughly ten minutes before he took out his phone and sent out the blast. 

Spotted! What must be the coolest new trio in NYC: FlyBoy, Captain Fast and Freezie heading out on the town. Is this just a  (super)mans night out- or is something much more sinister in the works for not so little city? I think we can all only wait and see. This blogger advises his readers to stay home tonight, and keep an eye on the news and little old me for your updates.

Richie didn’t even have a chance to put his phone back into his pocket before Beverly was stomping into the room and tossing a black hoodie over his head. He pulled it away and caught sight of Beverly with her red hair tied up in a long red, curly ponytail. She wore black jeans and black tank top that showed off a black triangle tattoo on her left arm. She raised her brow and nodded at him. “Hurry up, get into something dark and let’s go.”

“I didn’t know you had a tattoo.” Richie said slowly. 

“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.” Beverly said. “Now hurry up and let's go. We have stuff we have to do.”

“I told Eddie I was gonna stay in the apartment.” Richie said, fidgeting with the fabric of the hoodie in his hands. “I think we-”

“I thought Eddie wasn’t the boss of you.” Beverly said, cocking her brow. Richie’s face burned as he tugged the plain back sweater over his head and put his feet back into messy converse sneakers. Beverly was already halfway down the hallway before Richie was even out of the apartment’s door. When they exited the stairway into the lobby, there was a man waiting there in matching all black outfit with the same triangle tattoo on his left arm. He had thick muscled arms, but chubby cheeks and wide eyes that seemed to still hold onto some sort of childhood innocence. 

Beverly pressed a quick kiss to his lips and Richie blinked. I didn’t know you had a boyfriend. The words died on Richie’s tongue as a weird feeling overcame him in that moment. “Richie, this is Ben. Ben, Richie.”

Ben held his hand out and Ben’s shake was warm and firm. Somehow Richie felt like his skin was crawling as Beverly pressed her hands between Richie’s shoulder blades and began to push him out towards the front of the building. 

“I uh” Richie cleared his throat, heart hammering in his chest. “Where are we going? Eddie’s probably right that we should stay inside, we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Don’t be such a chicken shit.” Beverly grinned at him, and Richie shivered as a chill rushed through his spine. “Aren’t you at all curious about what might be going on? Come on, it’ll be fine. It’s not like we’re actually a target for anything. Denbrough was probably just trying to use you for your site.”

Immediately, Richie had been curious- almost morbidly so. Until this very moment when all he wanted to do was run back to his apartment and spend the rest of the night hiding under his blankets. But Richie Tozier had never been very good at trusting himself or any of his instincts, and he allowed Beverly and Ben to guide him into the black car parked out front. 

Then didn’t drive far, and pulled up to some sort of abandoned warehouse. Every couple of seconds there was a flash of light from inside the cracked and shattered glass windows. Richie’s breath started catching in his throat with every attempt to breathe. “What- where are we?”

Beverly turned to where Richie was trying to fade into the back seat of the car, and looked almost sad. “I’m sorry, Rich. It wasn’t supposed to go this way.” 

xxx

Eddie actually hated wearing spandex, but it was an incredibly durable fabric. With the amount of moving he did, it was the most logical choice in costume. But Eddie was never truly comfortable when in costume.

“If I ask you something, could you answer without getting bitchy?” Stan suddenly whispered in his ear. He, Mike and Eddie had only reached the main core of the Lower West Side. Eddie turned to him and narrowed his eyes as best as he could home to do with a mask covering half his face. “Do you ever think of giving it up? Hanging up your suit and just being a normal person. Letting yourself really love Richie?” 

Eddie’s face burned nearly the colour of the suit. He spent the better part of the last two years trying not to think about how he was in love with Richie Tozier and in the last three years, it was the only thing at the front of his mind. “I try not to think about it, honestly, because it’s not an option. I didn’t choose to have these powers, or this life. But as long as I have them, I have to do the right thing. I don’t have a choice.”

“I don’t know.” Stan said slowly. “I think you should be able to do what’s best for you. You deserve to be happy.”

“I’m happy enough.” Eddie lied. “Do you think we should split up and cover more ground?”

“Yeah.” Mike jumped in as the conversation changed back into the professional task at hand. “Especially since we don’t really know what the situation is, so keep your ear pieces in and buzz into the others if you come across anything.” 

“Alright,” Stan agreed, though he shot Eddie a this isn’t over look from the corner of his eye. “Eddie and I have a much easier way to travel, so Mike you can stay in this area.” Stan and Eddie agreed on their own sections of the general NYU area- the area that had always been protected by Professor Fly in the height of his career- and Eddie took off running. Eddie had always loved running, and it was the only part of being a hero that he still enjoyed. Sometimes, on nights when Eddie just couldn’t be bothered to care, he’d just run for miles. Just see how far he could go. He’d reached the Canadian border once before he decided it was a waste of his gift. 

Eddie slowed down into a simple walk once he reached his section of town, when somebody reached out and grabbed hold of Eddie’s arm. Eddie gasped at the feeling of utter desperation that sort through him belonging to the person who touched him. A pair of icy blue eyes under a scarred eyebrow met Eddie’s and Eddie’s heart leapt right into his mouth.

“What are you doing here?” Bill Denbrough demanded. “You’re not supposed to be here! Didn’t Richie tell you about my warning?”

“Your- your warning?” Eddie squawked. “So, you tracking him down and telling him some bogus tip about Professor Fly was supposed to be a warning? A warning of what- that you’re insane?” 

Denbrough shook his head, brown hair falling into his head. “No. No.” He said desperately, nails digging into Eddie’s skin. “Professor Fly would never return, FlyBoy would know that. Didn’t you tell FlyBoy? It’s a trap, you were all supposed to stay home! You’re all in danger!” 

Eddie tried to pull his arm free but Denbrough’s grip was too tight. “You’re hurting me!” Eddie cried, chest starting to feel the too familiar pressure of an asthma attack- though he hadn’t one a single one since his powers had come in. 

“I k-k-know you have more powers than just sp-speed.” Denbrough said, stepping even further into Eddie’s space and grabbing hold of his other arm. “You can s-s-sense me, r-right? You’ll no-no-know if I’m d-dan-dangerous!” 

Eddie felt a lot of things about Bill Denbrough. Guilt, fear, desperation. There was something bleak and sad under the surface but there was no hint of a threat to him. “What do you want?” Eddie asked in a shaking voice.

Bill Denbrough’s eyes darted around Eddie. “Where’s R-R-Richie? Is he w-w-ith you? Where is h-he?”

“He’s safe.” Eddie promised even as his own heart stuttered and panicked. “He’s back at his apartment with his roommate, they’re both-”

Bill’s eyes widened in horror. “NO! No, you can’t t-t-t-t-fuck- trust Beverly! She’s n-n-not who you think she is!” 

Eddie started shaking his head. “No offence, but I’ve known Beverly for a year and I’ve only known you five minutes and you seem pretty unhinged. Why should I believe you when you say I can’t trust her, if I have no reason to trust you?”

“Have you ever tou-tou-touched her?” Bill demanded. “In the yuh-year you’ve known her, ha-have your body ev-ever even graze-grazed hers?” Eddie opened his mouth but froze. “No. It ha-hasn’t. I know it ha-hasn’t, be-because she knows if you ha-had ever tou-touched her, you’d kn-know the truth about her. And everything would have been ru-ruined.”

Eddie shook his head. “What’s she going to do to him?”

Bill frowned. “This wuh-wuh-wasn’t the plu-plan. I don’t- there’s only one place s-sh-she’d take him. But you have to tr-tr-trust me.”

It wasn’t in Eddie’s nature to be particularly trusting, and Bill wasn’t exactly somebody who was inspiring much benefit of the doubt. But his hands were still digging into Eddie’s arms and the only thing Eddie could sense was fear and deeper down- guilt that Eddie suspected he felt at all times. “Okay.” Eddie said, and as Bill let go of him, Eddie flicked on this ear piece’s speaker. 

Bill didn’t lead Eddie too far away, the pair of them travelling in silence and Eddie secretly wishing that Bill would simply tell him where the location was so Eddie could run there. If something happened to Richie while Eddie was wasting his time walking, he’d never forgive himself. Eventually, Bill led him over to the warehouse with lights that flashed through broken windows. He could make out figures walking around inside as he and Bill attempted to sneak into the warehouse without being noticed. 

There was a large glass sphere in the middle of the room, surrounded by what looked like burn white lightning that occasionally sparked brighter and caused the room to brighten as though large fluorescent lights flicked on overhead. Richie was seated a few feet away on the floor, bound against a large cement pillar that connected all the way up to the ceiling. He appeared unharmed, if not mildly annoyed. Eddie’s heart raced all the same Beverly and a man Eddie didn’t recognize both paced around the same space.

“Billy…” Beverly came to a full stand still. Bill froze at Eddie’s side. “There’s no need to sneak around. Come out, we have a lot to talk about, don’t we?”

Bill pressed a single finger against his lips, before turning and stepping out of the shadows. “You’re m-may-making a big m-m-mistake, Beverly. He’s n-n-n-not who he says he is.”

“I think you’re the one who’s not who he says he is.” Beverly said, turning around and facing Bill with her arms crossed. “Going behind our backs and telling Richie some crap about Professor Fly? Bringing your existence to his attention? You forced our hand, Billy. Mr Scratch isn’t going to be pleased.”

“He-He’s not guh-good, Bev!” Bill cried, hands clutched at his side. “What do you th-th-think he’s going to do with it wuh-wuh-when he gets it? He-He’s puh-playing you both!”

“He is not!” Beverly cried. “He’s going to do exactly what told us! Why did you have to go and fuck up the plan?”

“Excuse me!” Richie cried, voice dripping with sarcasm. “But if I’m going to be killed, can you guys at least do me the decency of letting me know what you’re talking about in my final moments.”

“You’re not going to die.” Beverly’s male friend said softly. “Nobody is going to get hurt.”

“You’re a fuh-fool if you buh-believe that, Ben!” Bill said, taking steps closer into the room. “Richie, this mach-machine has the ab-ability tr-train a super-superhero of their p-p-powers. Mr Scr-scratch hates heroes and he-”

“Like you’re any better!” Beverly shouted over Bill’s explanation. “You’ve been with him longer than either of us! Heroes killed your brother, you hate them just as much as the rest of us. Maybe ever more! They ruined all our lives!” Beverly turned towards Richie and took a few steps towards him. “I lost my parents when I was little. My father was an awful man, he chased my mother away when I was only six. He died when I was 11, and my aunt took me in. For two years, I experienced happiness for the first time. I loved my aunt and she loved me, took care of me for the first time since I could remember anything. She was a good person, and superheroes came and ripped my only true family apart. My aunt took into selling drugs after she adopted me, just to get ends to meet. She wasn’t proud of it, but she did what she had to do for me. She was smart, she never would have been caught if the superheroes minded their own business and let police handle things. A bunch of hyped up vigilanties took my aunt away from me, and I went into foster care. I was only 13. When I was 17, Mr Scratch found me. Told me there were others like me, who wanted to even the playing field.”

“By killing all the superheroes?” Richie asked, voice breaking. “Beverly, you have to admit that sounds fucking insane!” 

“It isn’t going to kill them.” Ben added. “The Deadlight doesn’t kill them, it only drains them of their supernatural abilities. Makes them human, normal. Just like everybody else.” 

Richie scoffed, in higher octaves than regular voices. “And then what happens to their powers? They just what? Evaporate?” 

“They’ll be trapped in the Deadlight.” Ben answered. “Forever. No more superheroes.”

“You’re an i-idiot.” Bill said coldly. “Sc-Scratch is obviously going to tuh-take the powers! Guh-get rid of the sue-supers and make himself invisible. Undefeatable.”

“You’re full of shit.” Beverly snapped. “He wouldn’t do that! We’re not evil, or some fucking supervillain cult! All we want in equality! We’d never use any of these powers against anybody!”

 “You two wouldn’t.” Bill said darkly. “I’ve wuh-wuh-wondered if he was really who he suh-said he was for- a luh-long time. But I suh-saw plans in his uh-office. About how to ruh-ruh-reverse the Deadlights. He’s guh-gonna take the puh-powers for him-himself.” 

“You’re a fucking liar!” Beverly screamed. “He wouldn’t do that! He-” 

A suddenly crashing brought Beverly’s screams to a halt. The doors busted open and Stan dropped in, with Mike leaping off his back. Beverly took a step backwards, eyes open wide and Ben moved over to stand almost directly in front of Richie. 

“Where’s Eddie?” Mike demanded, glancing around the room. Eddie cringed and slapped a hand over his forehead, as Beverly and Ben exchanged a shocked expression. Richie looked around wildly, with huge, terrified eyes.

Beverly crossed her arms and looked back to the same shadows that Bill had appeared from. “Okay, Eds. You can come out.”

“Don’t call me that.” Eddie said sharply as he stepped out as well.

“Eddie…” Richie said a quiet, almost broken voice. Eddie tried to give him a reassuring look, but he knew that Richie would be able to see his own fear underneath the attempt. 

Beverly sighed and rolled her eyes. “Alright, this isn’t exactly how I planned on tonight going, though I have to say I did expect to see you all here after I took Richie.”

“Let him go.” Eddie said furiously. “He doesn’t have powers, he isn’t part of this. Let him go.”

Beverly smiled sadly. “No can do, sorry. Richie is actually a key factor to this whole mission. Why do you think I’ve been so encouraging of his little blog? He’s a natural talent, and he’s been so helpful in our acquiring the true identities of these so-called heroes.”

Eddie glanced at Richie, who looked like he might be physically ill. All Eddie wanted to do was rush over and wrap Richie in his arms and keep him safe, but he couldn’t show that weakness in this moment.

“We found Richie through you, though, Eddie.” Beverly said, looking almost… amused. “We didn’t know who you were, but Richie was at most of your scenes and we figured that he knew you. It was Big Bill’s idea that one of befriend him, and figure out what he knows. Does it sting a little, knowing you gave your future with Richie to protect him but you lead us to him anyway?” 

It more than stung, it burned. Eddie’s entire body felt like it was vibrating as he stood there, staring down at women he’d thought of as a friend for more than a year. A woman who’d been living under the same roof as Richie, but wanting only to use him and potentially cause him harm. 

“Oh, Eddie, don’t look like that.” Beverly said, sounding almost genuinely upset. “I already said we aren't gonna hurt him. Nobody is going to get hurt, Bill is just- I don’t even know what he’s trying to do.”

“I’m trying to wa-warn you!” Bill cried. “You’re buh-bluh-blinded stupid but your own luh-loyalty that you cant’ see the uh-aub-obvious truth in fr-fruh-front of you!!”

“This was your cause!” Ben came quickly to Beverly’s defence. “You hate superheroes maybe more than anybody! How can you say this wasn’t what you wanted?”

Bill’s jaw clenched and his bottom lip trembled. “I… I wanted the h-her-heroes gone. But I duh-didn’t want anybody to guh-get their powers and uh-use them for them-themselves.”

“You’re the only person who's acting like that’s going to happen.” Ben snapped. Eddie thought this was his moment, the first time he’d been able to see a true path of entrance. Everybody’s eyes were torn between Bill and Ben, this could be Eddie’s chance to get over to Richie and free him. Eddie, maybe for the first time in his life, misjudged his position. 

Beverly’s hands collided hard with Eddie’s chest, the strength of her anger and resentment hitting him hard and shocking him to his core. He understood now more than ever why Beverly hadn’t made the mistake of touching Eddie in the year they’ve known one another. He may not have felt any true evil inside her, like he had felt in many a foe before, and there was still a lingering of a sad, scared little girl at her core but none of the vibes she was giving to him at this moment was reassuring. He would have kept her far away from Richie, he would have figured out enough about her, and this plan would never have worked.

Beverly taking Eddie by utter surprise had given her even more of an advantage. He knocked Eddie backwards and he stumbled backwards, crashing directly into the Deadlight. An electric charge drove through every nerve in his body and he was thrown across the empty warehouse by a bolt of white lightning. He heard Richie scream his name, but it was like a buzzing deep in the back of his mind. 

The harsh impact to the hard ground jarred Eddie back into himself, though a small bit dazed. He’d landed not far from where Richie was tied up. He shuffled backwards, groaning as the oddest sensation of discomfort shot through his body, but he didn’t stop until he could rest his head against Richie’s knee. 

“Holy shit, Eds!” Richie gasped, fighting against his bindings even as it shook Eddie’s resting head. “How the fuck are you alive right now? You just got yeeted across the room by lightning!” 

Eddie grumbled as he reached blindly behind their bodies to untie Richie’s bondings. It must have been a testament to how shocking the last few moments had been as nobody attempted to stop them. Richie winced and rubbed at his hands for a moment before reaching out and cupping Eddie’s face. Eddie smiled as his eyes flushed shut and he leaned into the touch. 

“Are you okay?” Richie said in a low voice. It wasn’t quite a whisper, Richie never actually whispered, but it was soft and worried and so full of love that Eddie felt he might cry. 

“Yeah.” Eddie said back. “I’m okay. Promise promise.” 

Richie’s face broke into a relieved grin and pressed a hard kiss to Eddie’s voice. Maybe it had been the actual bolt of lightning that had just gone through Eddie’s body, but it felt so charged that Eddie even let out a small gasp. Then it all hit him and his eyes blew open wide. “Richie, I can’t feel you.”

“What? You can’t feel anything?” Richie asked in a panic. 

“No!” Eddie cried, shifting to sit up properly and grabbing Richie’s hands to tangle them together. “I can’t feel your spirit, your mood. It’s like… before.”

Richie and Eddie turned in unison to look at the Deadlight. The others all turned to follow their lead. It seemed to be glowing brighter, the lightning revolving around it faster. Eddie’s powers now fueling it. 

“Holy shit.” Mike said at the same time Beverly gasped. “It works.”

“Of course it works,” a deep voice came as a man in a long black cloak appeared out of nowhere. “You doubted me, Beverly? Thank you, you’ve all played your roles perfectly.” Bill startled as the man- Mr Scratch- turned to him and grinned. “Oh yes, even you Dear Bill. I always knew that your moral compass would bring you to betray me. I accounted for the variable since the beginning of our time together.”

As Mr Scratch moved around the circle, Beverly stepped out of his way as though she didn’t even notice she was doing it. She collided with Bill’s torso, and the man reached out to grab at her hand. She didn’t pull away from the touch, pale and shaking as she watched Mr Scratch rounded on the group.

“Stanley.” Mr Scratch said in a slow voice, grin spreading across his face. Stan was standing still as a statue, fists tightened even as tears filled his eyes. “You know who I am already, I can see it all over your face. Well, I never doubted your intelligence. Go ahead and tell them, there’s no need to keep it a secret amongst old friends.”

“Robert Gray.” Stan said through a clenched jaw. A single tear slipped from his ear and trailed down his cheek. “Professor Fly.”

Richie gasped and squeezed Eddie’s hand tightener. Ben stumbled away and crashed into the cement pillar that Richie had just been tied up against. Mike looked at Stan in shock as Beverly slapped a hand over her mouth. Bill pushed past her, rage evident as his face. “YOU MOTHERFUCKER-”

Gray  barely even flicked his wrist and Bill soared off his feet and slammed up against a pillar, easily twenty feet off the ground. “Stupid boy.” Gray said fondly. “You will never be a match for me, and you’ll never outsmart me. I have been planning this moment for nearly a decade. Your brother’s death started a fire that will destroy the entire world of supers as we know it.” 

Bill struggled against the invisible hold Gray had against him, Richie turning his head away from the scene and pressing his face against Eddie’s neck. Eddie could feel how Richie’s hands were shaking where they were connected.

“None of you are giving me enough credit.” Gray said in a bored tone. “Do you have any idea how much work I had to put into this entire thing? I didn’t just have to create the Deadlights, I had to hand pick every single person who would help me. Bill was a no brainer, even as I knew I could never trust him fully. Beverly and Ben had to be vulnerable enough that they would never question me, and that Bill would never feel confident in telling them what he’d figured out.”

“You left the pl-pl-pla-”

“Yes.” Gray interrupted. “I left the plans out on purpose. Haven’t you figured that I don’t leave anything to chance, William? I accounted for every possible outcome. I had to choose Stan very carefully, choose an heir that would follow my orders but never question me when I told him I could not be contacted after I retire. That I would simply never return.” 

Stan turned away bitterly, trying to wipe at the tears on his as inconspicuously as he possibly could. 

“Even after that, I had to pull so many strings. Made sure that Richie and Stan would cross paths, had to let Beverly believe that Richie’s silly little blog was her idea to let them both feel important.” He shot Eddie a slimey grin. “Had to make sure that Richie got caught in that hostage situation just after they moved to NYC so Eddie wouldn’t consider their relationship worth Richie’s life and end things, so there would be space for Beverly to make her move on Richie. I will admit I was hoping that Richie would fall in love with her, but I underestimated his love for Eddie. A small loss, but nothing damaging to the overall scheme.”

Eddie’s body thrummed with rage. Richie had nightmares for a year after that fucking bank heist, and this man had done that to them on purprose for the simply purpose of breaking them up? Richie still had panic attacks and made Eddie or Bev go with him if he needed to do any sort of banking he couldn’t do online. 

“You said nobody was going to be hurt.” Beverly said, tears streaming down her face. “You said- you said you wanted to even the playing field! You’re a monster!”

“Nobody will be hurt.” Gray said. “You will all be free to go, once all the supers have touched the Deadlight and given up their powers. You’ll all be able to go on with your lives, and I will be able to go on with mine. Once your powers are gone, you’ll have no reason to oppose me and I will have no reason to bother you again.”

Beverly and Ben stood directly in front of the Deadlight, the pain on their faces from the flashing bursts of lightning behind them. Stan was staring directly at Gray, face a mask of rage even as tears fell from his eyes. Richie hadn’t moved from where he’d hidden himself against Eddie.

“You killed my brother on purpose.” Bill said from above them. He was still fighting against Gray’s grip. 

For the first time, Gray’s composure slipped. “No.” He said shortly. “That was a tragic accident. That moment changed me forever. It was when I realized that all of those with powers, even myself, were capable of death and destruction. That we were all inherently evil. The day, I knew that I could not allow another person to hold such powers over another being again. You know, Billy- your brother is the reason for all of this. He gave his life for the new world order-”

Bill let out an intelligible scream but Gray could so much as speak, Mike Hanlon had launched himself from the crowd and latched himself onto Gray’s back. Eddie watched with mouth gape as Gray struggled against the hold before clear blue ice began to spread across his body in a matter of seconds. As the ice completely covered Gray, Bill began to free fall. Stan didn’t waste a single moment before launching up into the sky and catching Bill mid-fall and lowering them both to the ground. He let go of Bill as they touched down and rushed over to Eddie and Richie, one hand finding its way into Richie’s hair and the other falling on top of their joined hands.

“That’s the trick to villains.” Mike said, not even sounding out of breath. “You gotta get ‘em while they’re monologuing.” 

Beverly, face hard, stepped forward and kicked at Gray’s frozen chest. He tittered and fell backwards, shattering into pieces as he hit the ground. “I think it’s safe to say he didn’t account for those variables.” 

They were quiet for a long moment, Stan helping Richie and Eddie to their feet and holding onto them as they all moved towards the shattered ice pieces in the middle of the room. Even in the chilly night, they could see the beginning signs of melting.

“We nn-n-need to d-d-estory this fucking thing.” Bill said suddenly, all of them turning towards the Deadlight. Hums of agreement moved through the room. 

“Wait.” Richie said, tightening his hold on Eddie’s waist. “You said that the powers could be taken out right? We need to get Eddie’s powers back!”

“Oh, yeah!” Bill said quickly. “I- I’ll s-s-see if I can find the instructions ag-again.”

Do you ever think of giving it up? Hanging up your suit and just being a normal person. Letting yourself really love Richie?

“Wait.” Eddie said, throwing out a hand. “Don’t. I don’t want them back.”

Every eye in the room turned to him, Stan smiling even as tears still hung in his eyes. “I never wanted them,” Eddie carried on. “I didn’t want to be some hero, saving people. I wanted to run track and fix cars and be with my love of my life.”

Richie turned slowly, eyes wide and painfully hopeful. “Eddie, don’t do this for shit for me. Please, okay, I-”

“I’m not doing it for you.” Eddie turned and slid his arms around Richie’s shoulders. “I’m doing it for me. I don’t need these bullshit powers. I can run perfectly fine with my own two normal feet, and I would love to be able to touch a person without knowing their moral count or pick up something in somebodys house without knowing if its fucking haunted or not.”

Richie chuckled wetly.

“And I love you so much.” Eddie continued. “And all I want is to be with you, it’s all I’ve ever wanted since the fucking sixth grade. I’m tired of loving each other and being forced apart and just hurting each other over and over. Especially over these stupid powers I was cursed with. I don’t want them back. I wanna be with you and I wanna be happy.”

Richie ducked down and pressed his lips against Eddie’s. This time Eddie knew the sparks that seemed to shoot through him was no lightning shot- just love. 

Spotted! FlyBoy, Captain Fly and Freezie teaming up with three civilians and your truly to foil a truly evil plan, saving not just our city but possibly our entire world. (Eyewitnesses may claim that Freezie did all the work, but that remains to be proven.) And in case you missed it, there was an epic conclusion to an equally epic love story. You know what they say, all’s well that ends great… or however the saying goes!

[mitchmarnier]

you can’t believe what’s happening now

pairing: eddie kaspbrak/richie tozier [reddie] word count: 2,261 chapter 1 of 3 beta’d by: @appojoos & @photoboothreddie summary: And yet, Eddie found his feet taking to the Tozier house, standing in the backyard, looking up at Richie Tozier’s bedroom window. It was lit up, looking soft and overly inviting, but Eddie didn’t sneak out of his house to just go into somebody else’s. Eddie picked up a small rock from the ground and tossed it upwards. ⤹ what was supposed to be a small birthday gift for my dearest @eddiekaspprak​ back literally in november but has ended up not being done even close to on time and i’m now splitting up into chapters. hi i love you. 

read on ao3.

perma taglist: @jwilliambyers​, @eddiekaspprak​​, @photoboothreddie​, @appojoos​, @s-s-georgie​, @chaotickaspbrak​, @eddiefuckinkaspbrak​, @edstozler​, @emgays​, @anellope​, @thorn-harvester-ven​, @wheezyeds​, @vipertooth​, @tozierking​, @billdenbrough​, @itfandomprompts​, @bevchie​, @loserslibrary​ (let me know if you want added!)

It’s not that Eddie Kaspbrak hated his mother. It felt nearly impossible to hate somebody that loved you so much. Too much, Eddie knew. His mother’s love was all-consuming, smothering and didn’t come free. The weight of it threatened to crush him at any given time, and he had to pay for it. He paid for it in freedom, and peace. He paid for it with a crushing weight in his gut and a tightness in his chest that wasn’t anything close to asthmatic. Eddie Kaspbrak was seventeen years old and he was one bad day away from erupting stomach ulcers. 

Eddie didn’t slam his bedroom door, no matter how much he wanted to. He knew that it would only bring his mother to the bottom of the stairs to scream up at him. She wouldn’t make the trip all the way up just for the fight, but Eddie wasn’t in the mood to listen to her yelling anymore. He couldn’t really handle being in the same house as her right now. 

Frowning, Eddie turned towards his bedroom window. He clenched his fists at his sides and bit down on his bottom lip. Eddie wondered for a moment if he was brave. He knew he’d been brave once before. He’d done brave things, things braver than most people his age could ever imagine doing. He’d seen things, been through things. Eddie Kaspbrak knew he was strong. He just forgot sometimes. 

Since the Losers Club had started splitting up, moving across the country and overall falling apart, Eddie though he wasn’t as brave as he used to be. He rarely ever felt like the boy who’d stood up to his mother in the hospital, or kicked at a demon clown in the sewers while covered in sludge. He wondered if he had what it took to be that boy again, or if he was gone from his conscious forever. 

Eddie grabbed the sweater that was hanging on the back of his desk chair, laid out for school the next morning, and figured that the only way to find that boy was to try and force him back out. Eddie pushed his window up and smiled as the chilly fall air hit his face. His mom always went full lock down this time of year. Allergies this, cold weather that. As a result, Eddie always spent the entirety of October stuck inside of the house when he wasn’t at school. Eddie craved fall with a sort of crazy intensity that he’d never experienced with anything before. 

Eddie pulled his running shoes out from under his bed and quickly climbed out of the window frame. He froze for a moment, looking down at the two story fall that was threatening him, and squeezed his eyes shut. He took a short, shaking breath and reached for the tree branch. He leapt, smacking against the trunk as he wrapped his arms tightly around it and pressed his face against the rough wood. Eddie let out a loud, shaky breath and smiled against his own control. He let out a breathy laugh and looked up towards the starry sky. Mike Hanlon always told him that the stars weren’t as visible in other places— cities and high population states—with all the lights and cars. Eddie had always thought that the stars were pretty, but he swore on this night, they were an all new level of beautiful.

Eddie skimmed his way down the tree, clutching hard to each branch and reminding himself not to be afraid with every step down. He reached the ground on shaking legs, and pressed his hands over his mouth as he steadied himself. He laughed into his hands, attempting to stifle it as he glanced towards his living room window. He could see the shifting lights of the TV screen and he backed away slowly as though she’d be able to hear his steps from inside when he knew perfectly well that she couldn’t even hear the phone ringing in the same room as her when she was in front of the television set. 

Eddie ran into his first problem when he got to the curb. He didn’t have any sort of plan, or any idea of where he was going. He pondered for a moment, but he knew he couldn’t just turn around and go back into his room when he’d already gotten so far. The momentary panic over where to go passed quickly. There was only one true answer either way.

Moving into their senior year of high school, The Losers Club was mostly dismantled. Beverly had left the same summer of IT, and Bill’s family had left not long into the school year. They’d moved clear across the ocean to get away from the haunting images of Georgie at every corner in town, and Eddie couldn’t blame them. He knew they all had ghosts in this town, but the Denbrough’s were much closer to the surface at any given point in time. Ben’s family had left during sophomore year, very suddenly. It had felt like one day he was there, and the next he simply… wasn’t anymore. Mike had been much further ahead in the curriculum when he’d switched into public school for high school, ending up a year ahead of the other Losers, and had already graduated. He’d started at the University of Bangor a month earlier, and though he came home every weekend, Eddie didn’t see him much anymore. And Stan- well, Eddie strongly supposed that Richie was the only person who still saw Stanley Uris outside of school, and mostly because Richie refused to let Stan push him away like he’d done with everybody else after IT. Eddie respected Richie’s friendship and loyalty to Stan, even when it made his stomach twinge with something icky and annoying when he thought about it for more than a short moment. 

Eddie still saw Richie around, they ate lunch together most days and sat together in their classes, but in the last few months, something in their friendship had shifted. Eddie knew he was partly—okay mostly—responsible for the rift between them but he often told himself that it wasn’t as though Richie fought him on it either. Eddie wasn’t sure he wanted him to, because as much as he missed Richie something fierce, Eddie had some misgivings he had to work through on his own. 

And yet, Eddie found his feet taking him to the Tozier house, standing in the backyard, looking up at Richie Tozier’s bedroom window. It was lit up, looking soft and overly inviting, but Eddie didn’t sneak out of his house to just go into somebody else’s. Eddie picked up a small rock from the ground and tossed it upwards. 

He paused for another moment, and was reaching for a second rock, when the window above opened slowly and a messy head of hair popped out. Eddie’s heart stuttered as he looked up, and he couldn’t hold back his grin. 

“Eds?” Richie called out, and Eddie could barely see how his face crinkled up. Eddie waved in what he knew was a dorky fashion, but it didn’t matter much when it made Richie grin. “Isn’t it past your curfew?”

Eddie shrugged one shoulder. “What’s she going to do about it? Ground me?”

“You want me to let you in?” Richie asked. 

“Nah.” Eddie said. “Come down here.”

“Okay…” Richie chuckled. “I’ll meet you at the front door. Which you could have just knocked on, by the way.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Eddie asked with a waggle of his brows that he knew Richie wouldn’t be able to see even with his glasses on. Richie shook his head and closed the window, and Eddie half-skipped towards the Tozier’s front door. He was giddy with some sort of deep excitement that he didn’t want to put too much thought into. He felt as if he waited forever outside the Tozier house before Richie finally came out the door. He bounced over and kissed Eddie wetly on the cheek andEddie hoped that the darkness of the night time would cover up his flush. Richie’s arm wrapped around his shoulder, pressing Eddie against his side. “So, what’s the plan, my love?” 

Eddie knew the darkness couldn’t cover up the full blush this time, and he turned his face away. Richie kept his arm around him. “I don’t know.” Eddie said honestly. “I didn’t really have a plan at all. I just saw my window and the next thing I knew, I was in a tree.”

“Little rebel Eds!” Richie cheered, jostling Eddie. “I always knew you had it in you! You’re braver than you think!”

“Thanks, Rich.” Eddie said bashfully. “But really, I don’t have any sort of plan. We could go to the Quarry or something? If you want to?”

“Nah.” Richie said. Eddie looked up, surprised, and his stomach jumped at the twinkle in Richie’s eye. “We can go to the Quarry anytime. This is your first time sneaking out, we gotta do something exciting. Something we’ve never done before.”

“I don’t think there’s anything in Derry that we’ve never done before.” Eddie said, his voice coming out just a little too sad. Richie frowned, his brow dipping down and Eddie’s heart fluttered as guilt ticked at the back of his neck. “But it’s fine, really, we can just—”

Richie grinned before he reached down and grabbed Eddie’s hand, beginning to tug him down the dark street. Eddie gasped as his feet hit the ground in a rush to keep up with Richie’s pace. He didn’t want to trip over his own feet, and drag them both down. 

“Richie!” Eddie cried, half laughing, half gasping. He was terrified that he would trip and fall, but Richie didn’t seem to have any of those fears at all, taking large strides and Eddie didn’t feel out of breath at all. They took the darkening streets of Derry faster than Eddie had ever travelled without running from something terrifying. 

Eddie wasn’t sure exactly how long they ran for, mostly silent aside from the occasional burst of laughter from one or the other, but before Eddie knew it they were running up towards the train station. The lights were on inside, and Eddie felt his heart flutter in his chest. He looked over to Richie, who was smiling at the building while the light reflected in his eyes. He turned to Eddie, their hands still joined, and tugged him inside. 

The man behind the glass had given Eddie the creeps since he was just a little boy getting on the train with his mother to visit her sisters. Before Eddie learned first hand that the world was crawling with monsters, he’d thought Gordon at the Train Station was the scariest thing he’d ever seen. With sheet white skin, blue eyes that seemed inhumanly large for his face and black hair that he slicked back with so much hair product it looked permanently wet. At five years old, Eddie had once cried to his mother about the vampire at the station. Sonia had had no time for such whims and foolish fears, but even after defeating an evil kid eating clown, Gordon still freaked Eddie out. 

Richie’s hand tightened around Eddie’s as though he knew, and he stood mostly in front of Eddie as he approached the counter. “Two tickets for Chamberlain please.”

Eddie blinked at Richie, frowning in confusion. He knew that Gordon was probably giving him quite a similar look. Chamberlain was a town not too far from Derry, but people did not get off at Chamberlain. It was a ghost town, long since abandoned by all their residents. If rumours were to be believed, there had been some sort of terrible massacre at the high school, and nobody had been able to stomach living there any longer. Within two weeks, each house on every block stood empty and buildings fell into ruins. Eddie supposed it must have been something a little deeper than just some high school students dying for the entire town to up to leave. After all, Eddie lived in a town where children got snatched out of the streets and were never heard from again, and most of the residents barely blinked. 

“Now what business do you have out in Chamberlain, boy?” Gordon asked, leaning forward on his elbows and glaring at Richie through the scratched and dirty glass. “That whole place is a ghost town, ain’t nothing for you there.” 

Richie raised his brow and gave him a half smirk. “Is it in your job description to inquire why every passenger is going to their destination, or is it just to sell tickets and look miserable all the fucking time?”

Gordon scowled at Richie and Eddie stepped slightly to duck further behind Richie.  “Have it your way, kid.” Gordon slid two tickets under the window and gave them both what almost appeared to be sympathetic looks. “Y’all keep your money, I’m not about taking cash from people walking into their deaths. You can pay me if you make it back.”

Eddie’s mouth dropped open, but Richie seemed to take it in stride. “Sick.” He said, grabbing the tickets off the counter and ducking towards the outside platform. Eddie remained, frozen to the spot. Gordon held eye contact with him until Eddie felt his skin break out into goosebumps and he physically had to look away.

“You take care of yourself, Kaspbrak.” Gordon said in a low voice, before taking hold of the window shade and pulling it remove himself from view. 

[mitchmarnier]

i don’t want to spend another christmas without you 

pairing: eddie kaspbrak/richie tozier [reddie] word count: 5,623 summary: richie tozier turned his back on derry and most of his life after graduating high school and never looked back. what happens when after three years, richie must finally return home for the holidays? ⤹ written for @richiebeepbeep as their gift for the @itfandomprompts 2019 secret santa event! i hope you like it! 

read on ao3.

perma taglist: @jwilliambyers, @eddiekasbpark​ @stanleuyris​, @appojoos​, @s-s-georgie​, @chaotickaspbrak​, @eddiefuckinkaspbrak​, @edstozler​, @emgays​, @anellope​, @thorn-harvester-ven​, @wheezyeds​, @vipertooth​, @tozierking​, @billdenbrough (also let me know if you want added!)

Richie was not coming home for the holidays season. He never wanted to face Derry again, he lived in California now. He was happy there, that was where his life was, his apartment, his future. He simply could not face the life he had left behind three years earlier. Left vowing he would never return unless under the most desperate of situations. It had worked thus far, Richie always managing to come up with some sort of excuse when breaks from school had come around. Too much school work, doing summer trips abroad, having a his full time job and being unable to time off. He knew every time he told his mother he wasn’t going to make it that it broke her heart a little bit more. He almost dreaded the day she stopped asking him almost as much as he longed for it. 

There wasn’t much getting out of it this time, though, he knew. His sister had made it clear enough, with a short but firm text message, explaining all about how its her first Christmas since getting engaged and how Richie hadn’t even met Bryan yet and how he was breaking their mother’s heart and Richie felt guilt deep in his bones as he promised Elle that he’d be there this year. 

So now he was getting off at the Bangor Airport and his palms were sweating, his heart had been racing in his chest faster and faster the closer he got to Maine. His knees were shaking as he walked through the airport, looking for his family. His stomach jumped as his gaze caught sight of somebody who was clearly here for him, though the last person he would have expected to see.

“Eddie Spaghetti.” Richie cried, breaking into a sprint on his still shaky knees. He had missed his friends as much as his family, with a deep ache that he spent the majority of his last few years buiring deep inside of him by keeping busy and not giving him a chance to think about them. He’d kept in light contact with them, but he knew that he’d been shutting them out. And he knew that they knew it, too. 

Richie launched himself at Eddie, jumping up into his arms and wrapping himself around him koala-style. Eddie let out a loud and annoyed noise, but Richie could hear the laughter underneath it. “Goddamn it, Richard.” Eddie grunted and wrapped his arms around Richie’s waist to help hold him up. “You’re fucking six teet tall, what the fuck. Get off me.”

Eddie’s arms squeezed tighter around Richie’s waist in contradiction of his own words and Richie smiled against his best friend’s head. He finally dropped down with his feet on the ground, and found that his knees were no longer weak. He beamed at Eddie, reaching out to pinch his cheeks. Eddie swatted his away, cheeks turning a light shade of pink. “What brings you to this lovely airport, Eddie my love? Thought my old man wanted to pick me up and lecture me whole way back to Derry about what a terrible son I’ve been.” 

Eddie shrugged one shoulder, smiling down at his feet for a moment. “You know how your parents get right before a party, all stressed and manic. I volunteered to come get you, and don’t worry. I can still give you a great lecture about what a piece of shit son you’ve been the last couple years. And friend.”

Richie grumbled under his breath and stuck his hands into his jean back pockets. “Yeah, I feel like I’m going to be heading on the Richie Tozier apology tour.”

“It’s the least you can do.” Eddie said a little sharply, but his cheeks were still pink and his eyes were twinkling as he looked Richie up and down. “But don’t worry, you’ll have lots of time. Everybody is gonna be at the party tomorrow night, you can stand up and make a giant speech in front of the whole damn crowd if that’s still your style. Let’s go get your bags.”

“Oh, I didn’t bring any bags.” Richie said with a shrug.

Eddie’s mouth dropped open, and he blinked at Richie a few times before he furrowed his brow. “You’re here for two weeks? And you didn’t bring a single bag? Nothing? What are you supposed to wear?”

“I have clothes and shit back home!” Richie waved off Eddie’s concerns. “Nothing to worry about, Eds! Now show me to that Kaspbrak love wagon.”

Eddie rolled his eyes but allowed Eddie to wrap an arm around him and guided them outside into the chilly Maine air. Richie shivered brutally the moment he reached out into snow flurries, and let out a mildly horrified noise from the back of his throat. “Oh, fucking Maine. I’d forgotten. Please tell me you parked close, Eddie.”

Eddie chuckled, and tugged a woolly hat with a pom pom out of the pocket of his featherdown coat and reached over to stuff it onto Richie’s messy curls. “Awe, poor California boy can’t handle the cold? Forgetting your roots?”

“Listen, man.” Richie said through chattering teeth as Eddie linked arms with him and guided him quickly through the overly crowded parking lot. “I’ve barely even wore a sweater in the last three years. I was a l-l-l-egend in Cali, dude! I went sw-swimming in mid-winter while people st-st-arted at me like I was a lunatic!” 

“And now you’re shivering like a little bitch and stuttering like Bill Denbrough aged 12 in Maine.” Eddie chuckled, dropping Richie’s arm to move over and unlock the car doors. Richie tugged frantically at the passenger seat and dove into car. He buckled up quickly, knowing Eddie would demand it, and pulled his legs up to his chest. He wrapped his arms around them and pressed his face into his knees. 

Eddie dropped into the driver’s seat and seemed to take his damn time turning the car on. “Turn the heat on, turn the heat on.” Richie cried. “Please I’m going to die!” 

“You’re not going to die.” Eddie turned the car on, shaking his head. “You’re so fucking dramatic, Richard.” 

Richie shivered, holding his legs as close to his chest as he could manage without completely folding into himself. “Heat… please I beg you.”

“What if I told you the heater is broken?” Eddie asked, starting to pull out of the parking lot and getting caught up in a long line. Richie let out a distressed noise that almost sounded like a sob and Eddie’s heart tugged in his chest. “God, Rich, I’m just kidding. I wouldn’t let something in my car stay broken! Who the fuck do you think I am?”

Richie sighed as Eddie reached out and kicked the heater up. Richie sighed, and by the time they were finally pulling out of the cramming parking lot he’d let his legs down onto the floor of the car and was filling up with nerves once again. “So are we allowed to put on music or would that be too distracting from the lecture you’re going to give me?”

Eddie sighed, tapping at the steering wheel. “I’m not going to lecture you, Richie. I get it… mostly. I don’t really like coming home to Derry, either. It wasn’t a great place for any of us.” Eddie glanced at Richie from the corner of his eye and shook his head. “But we didn’t all have a family that as good as yours, Rich. And we didn’t cut each other out, either. I don’t know what happened, Richie. It’s like you cross over the Derry town line and you straight up forgot that everybody here existed.”

Richie sighed and leaned his head against the car window, though the chill stung at his skin. “I didn’t. I thought about you guys everyday.” 

Eddie was quiet for a moment, fingers still tapping the steering wheel as they drove down the dark highway. Despite how busy the airport parking lot had been, the highway was nearly empty aside from them. “I spent a while wondering if maybe I’d done something wrong… after everything that happened senior year. If I’d made you hate me.” 

Richie closed his eyes, brain dragging up all the things he didn’t want to remember. The things he’d pointedly kept from his mind over the last three years. Eddie Kaspbrak under the lights at prom, Eddie Kaspbrak’s lips on his in front of everybody at their graduation, Eddie Kaspbrak’s tears when he told Richie they couldn’t be together because distance would ruin their relationship and their friendship. “I don’t hate you, Eds.” Richie said softly. “I could never.”

“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.” Eddie chuckled. “Because I wanted to hate you. Somedays I did. Most of the time I just missed you.”

Richie’s heart clenched in his chest and he clenched his fingers sharply against the meat of his thigh. “I’m sorry, Eds.” Richie squeezed his eyes shut, leg shaking underneath him. This isn’t his strong suit, talking to people like this. Being open in any sense of the word had always been Richie’s deepest struggle. It had likely been the reason he hadn’t bothered to fight for him and Eddie in the first place. 

“I wanna say it’s okay, but it’s not really.” Eddie shrugged one shoulder and kept his eyes on the road. It was starting to snow harder, getting harder to see through, and Richie wondered for a moment about how he’d forgotten that snow was beautiful when you weren’t freezing. His gaze slid from the front windshield and he looked at Eddie, knowing that he found him more beautiful than he would ever find snow. 

“I get that.” Richie said. “Honestly, I’m surprised you’re even bothering to see me. I definitely didn’t expect you to be coming to my parents party tomorrow.” 

“I’ve gone to your parents’ party every year, Richie.” Eddie said simply with a shrug of his shoulder and half a smile. “I helped you set up every year in high school and I wasn’t about to stop just because you were being a dick to everybody. It’s always been the best excuse to get away from my mother during the holidays, as much as it pissed her off.”

“I always thought you liked it so much because it pissed her off.” Richie said with a small smile, pressing the back of his hand to his mouth to hide his smile. Eddie’s lips twitched up in hint of his own grin, though he made no move to confirm or deny it. “I always sort of thought that’s why you spend so much time with me, to be honest. Nobody ever got under her skin like I did.” Eddie’s gazed jerked to look at him, something deep and worrisome in his eyes. Richie’s heart started racing in his chest, and palms began to sweat. “You know, the only time she ever got along with me was when I was giving her the good dick. A very serious love-hate relationship.”

“God, you’re fucking disgusting!” Eddie cried, letting go of the wheel to smack Richie in the arm. “You actually haven’t grown out of Your Mom jokes? You’re twenty-one man!” 

Richie shook his head and let out a soft huff of a laugh. Silence settled in the vehicle and Richie wondered for a moment if he’d be able to open up the door and roll out. He cleared his throat and scratched at the back of his head. “So… your mom is still the worst then?”

Eddie rolled his eyes and let out a frustrated groan. “As if she’d ever be anything less than terrible.” He said. “You know what he’s like. Every time I come home she spends the entire time crying and whining and begging me to stay. That I shouldn’t go back to school, that I’m sick and she needs to take care of me. The usual bullshit.” 

Richie frowned at his hands, shaking his head. Not for the first time, Richie Tozier wondered at the strength of Eddie Kaspbrak. Richie had known many brave and amazing people in his life, but he didn’t think anybody would ever be on the level of Eddie. Eddie, who could walk directly into the face of abuse and hold his ground and still be the kindest person he’d ever had the honour of knowing. 

“Thank you for coming to pick me up.” Richie said quietly, pointedly staring out the front windshield even as he could feel Eddie watching him from the corner of his eye. “And thank you for not hating me.” 

“I could never hate you, Richie.” Eddie said. “Trust me. I tried. Unfortunately, I think caring about somebody for 16 year is hard to turn off.”

“Yeah.” Richie agreed. He grabbed his phone from the pocket of his jeans and began fiddling with the car radio. Eddie chuckled at him, and Richie finally managed to hook his phone up to the bluetooth. Smiling, he clicked onto his private Spaghetti Songs playlist and hit shuffle. He hadn’t listened to this playlist in a  ages, but he’d never had the heart to delete it. The smile that broke out on Eddie’s face as Cut to the Feeling by Carly Rae Jepson started playing made Richie overly happy that he never got rid of it. 

They spent the rest of the ride in a comfortable relaxation, singing along to the gushy and lovely pop songs that weren’t usually Richie’s type of music but he couldn’t deny the little bubble of happy they gave him whenever he reminded hearing them for the first time and being reminded of Eddie. Nor the bubble of fondness he got in his chest when looked at Eddie and watched him sing along to every single one.

They pulled into Derry and Richie felt the panic begin to settle into his chest once again. His leg started bouncing and he felt that the air in the car got heavier. When they pulled into the Tozier’s driveway, Richie felt that maybe he’d been cemented to his seat. Eddie turned off the car and unbuckled, opening the car door before pausing. He slowed the door slowly and turned to Richie with a small frown. “Rich?”

“Yeah, I’m good.” Richie said, staring blankly ahead and now biting at his thumb nail. Eddie’s hand reached out and wrapped around Richie’s wrist, pulling it away from his mouth and holding it in his lap. Richie turned to look at him slowly, and thought maybe this was the first time Richie was really looking Eddie since he’d picked him up. He’d grown his hair out since the summer after high school, curling around his ears and the base of his neck. His face was freckled even with the darkness that came with winter and his shoulders had definitely broadened. He wondered randomly for a moment if Eddie still ran.  “I’m fine. I just… need a moment.”

Eddie pulled Richie’s arm into his lap and rested against the seat of the car. “Okay. But I’ve already turned the car off so it’s about to get really cold in here and you’re a little California baby now.” Richie reached over and flicked Eddie in the ear. Eddie swatted at him with the hand that didn’t have a tight grip about Richie’s wrist. “And I can see Alex’s face in the window, so she knows you’re here.”

Richie looked over and sure enough, he could see his little sister peering out from between the curtains. His stomach tensed with anxiety as his heart leapt with love. “Alright.” He said with a soft sigh. “Let’s fucking get this over with then.”

“That’s the spirit.” Eddie said with a laugh. He patted Richie on the shoulder twice then ducked out of the car. Richie took another moment to try and gather himself together before quickly figuring out that he wasn’t going to get any more prepared than he was right now. 

Richie kicked off his boots as he came in the house, and didn’t have a chance to take them off before somebody was latching themselves tightly around his midsection.”RICHIE!” Alex cried, pressing her face directly into his stomach. Alexandria Tozier had been a shock to Went and Maggie, barely four years old when Richie had moved out, and he adored her. 

“Hey kiddo.” Richie said, trying to cover up how his voice cracked and broke as he squeezed his baby sister. She stepped back and Richie got his first good look at her. Her hair was longer and waved down her back, and her huge grin was missing several teeth. “Look at you! You’re all grown up, you in high school yet?”

Alex broke into giggles, wrapping her arms back around Richie’s stomach. “Noooo Richie. I’m only in grade two.”

“Grade two!” Richie gasped overdramatically, bending slightly and grunting as he heaved Alex up into his arms. Alex looked at him seriously for a moment then cracked into a grin and Richie couldn’t help but smile back. He kicked off his boots and walked into the crowded living room, holding Alex to his chest like a shield. 

“Richie!” Maggie cried as he entered, coming forward to wrap her arms around her son. Richie leaned down and kissed his mother on the cheek, and Alex rested her head on Richie’s shoulder. Her eyes were already drooping and Richie couldn’t help but wonder if she was staying up past her bedtime to see him.

Eddie was chatting with Wentworth across the living room and Richie’s heart began to race in his chest. He tossed Alex down onto the couch touchdown style, leaving her laughing into the cushions as he walked over to them. 

“Hey Pops.” Richie said, scratching at the back of his neck. 

Went turned to him, expression stoney. “Edward has told me there’s no need for me to lecture you since he has that covered. I trust that is true.” 

“Yes sir.” Richie replied with a somber nod. 

Went broke into a smile and pulled Richie in for a hug. “It’s good to have you home, son. Hope to see you around here more often.”

Richie thought of how much Alex had grown, of sitting with Eddie in the car listening to music and felt his father’s warmth around. “Yeah, Dad. Absolutely.”

“Only issue,” Eddie broke into the father-son moment with a sing song voice. Richie turned and Eddie beamed at him. “I basically live in your room when I’m back in Derry, so you’re going to have to share your bed with me.”

Richie’s brain stalled at the thought of Eddie living in his childhood bedroom for the last three years and he wasn’t quite sure if he felt uncomfortable with it or not, but his brain got caught up in the even scarier thought of sharing a bed with Eddie. 

As the evening went on, Richie tried with all his might not to think about the last time he and Eddie had laid together in that bed. It had been Eddie’s last night in Derry, the two of them curled under the blankets and watching shitty movies and drinking so much soda that Eddie had gotten a stomach ache. A good old fashioned middle school style sleepover. That is until Eddie had rolled over with tears in eyes, and apologized that they couldn’t be together the way they wanted, and kissed him. Everything else that happened between them that night hurt too much to think about, and Eddie had left the next morning without a single word about it. Richie had barely spoken to him since- until today.

Everything died down quickly, and Richie found that he was exhausted. After helping his mom put Alex to bed, though he suspected that the nighttime routine was a little elaborated for his presence, Richie said goodnight to his family and Eddie and dragged his ass up to his childhood bedroom. 

Everything seemed smaller than Richie remembered, and the walls were littered with posters of bands that Richie hadn’t listened to in years. He smiled, though he wasn’t quite sure what was getting to him in the moment, and opened up the top drawer of his dresser. Most of the clothes he’d left behind had actually once belonged to one of the other Losers, and Richie ended up in a too-large T-shirt that was most likely Ben’s, and a pair of sweatpants that were just short enough in the leg to be Bill’s. He crawled into bed and sleep took faster than it had in ages.

He was woken a bit later by the door opening and closing. He rolled over onto his back and squinted, but he couldn’t see shit in the dark without his glasses.

“It’s just me.” Eddie said in soft whisper. “I didn’t mean to wake you. Go back to sleep.”

Richie rolled over, more than happy to do that. He’d started to doze when the bed dipped under the weight of Eddie climbing in beside him. Richie grunted and burrowed himself deeper into the blankets.

“Rich?” Eddie whispered. Richie groaned in response. “Are you sure you’re okay with sharing with me? This is your bed, and I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. I don’t live here, I can go back and stay with my Ma-”

“Eddie if you think I’m even gonna let you to stay at your mom’s, you’re insane.” Richie said, his voice croaking with half-sleep. “If I was uncomfortable with you in my bed, I would’ve fucking told you. We’ve shared this bed a hundred million times or more. We’re only going to start having an issue if you don’t shut the fuck up and let me sleep.”

Eddie chuckled, and when he spoke his voice sounded a little awestruck. “Richie Tozier telling somebody to shut the fuck up? That must be a first.”

“There’s about to be a second.” Richie grumbled, grabbing a pillow out from where Eddie was leaning and whacking him in the face with it. Eddie laughed and Richie felt him finally lay down completely beside him. 

It was definitely the best sleep Richie had had in months, but he wasn’t about to go around announcing it. 

The next morning, Richie woke up alone in his bed and felt a momentary panic when he took in his whereabouts. It took a moment for everything to come sinking back in, and Richie groaned as he put the pieces back together. He flung the blankets up over his head and wondered if he’d be able to get away with wasting the day away in bed. He never came home for the holidays, maybe if he just stayed in his room, his family would just forget he was there.

The bedroom door came swinging open immediately after Richie’s thoughts trailed off, and he forced himself not to make any noise or sudden movements. 

“Asshole, get up.” His older sister, Alyssa, called into the room. “Mom and Dad need you and Eddie to go pick up some stuff for the party tonight.”

“Why do I have to do it?” Richie grumbled. “I was in a different state yesterday! That kind of shit takes a lot out of a guy!”

Alyssa grabbed the blankets that were still hung over Richie’s head and tossed them away. She glared down at him, hands on her hips, and Richie couldn’t help but think she looked exactly like their mother. “Last ones in do the bitch work. And you have like, three years worth of bitch work to make up for. So let’s go, move your ass, Tozier.”

“Fuck you, Tozier.”

Richie rolled out bed quite literally, letting himself drop to the floor. He didn’t need to look up to know that Alyssa was rolling her eyes as she walked away out of his room. Richie rummaged back through the drawer o’ missing clothes, and came out with a large grey sweater- much too large to belong to Richie himself- and pulled back on the jeans from the day before. Tossing his outgrown hair up into a bun on top of his head, Richie half stumbled down the stairs and into the kitchen. 

Maggie barely looked up at him as she handed him a cup of steaming hot chocolate and Richie leaned in to kiss her on the forehead. He turned towards the table and found Eddie sitting there, eating a blueberry muffin and glaring at him. “Got an issue, Kaspbrak?” Richie challenged, sitting down across from him and grabbing his own muffin from the plate. 

“Are you wearing the same jeans from yesterday?” Eddie asked with a crinkle of his nose.

“Judging by the look on your face, you already know the answer to that, Eduardo.” 

Eddie fake gagged. “Richie, that’s so fucking disgusting, are you kidding? What? You’re just going to wear the same pants the entire time you’re here? You’re going to get an… an infection or something. God, Richie. When we go out today, you’re getting some clothes.” Richie opened his mouth but Eddie put his hand out. “And don’t even try to complain to me, it’s your own damn fault for not bringing any stuff when you knew you were going to be here for a week.”

Richie rolled his eyes and didn’t bother trying to cover up his pout. He’d had to borrow a coat from his dad, and was forced to venture out into two feet of snow in his Converse sneakers and Eddie was talking a mile a minute at his side. 

“I’m not fucking buying a pair of boots, Eddie.” Richie rolled his eyes as he dropped into the passenger seat of Eddie’s car. “They’re like 60 bucks a pair, and I live in fucking California. I’m not spending $60 on something I’m only going to use for a week. I’m a broke college student, just like you.”

“Please.” Eddie scoffed, pulling out of the driveway and starting slowly down the snowy road. “If you say so.” 

They drove in an almost eerily comfortable silence. No music, not taking, just them while Richie tried to ignore how immensely he was enjoying Eddie’s company. Richie curled up in the passenger seat, head pressed against the window and he sighed. He watched his breath fog up the glass and slowly traced a R + E into the fog with his finger. He immediately wiped it away with the palm of his hand and glanced over his shoulder, relaxing when it seemed that Eddie hadn’t noticed.

Eddie pulled into the parking lot of Shaw’s Supermarket and Richie stayed curled up in his seat until Eddie came around and yanked the door open. “Come on.” He said with a huff. “I’m not going to do the shopping by myself. Move it.”

Richie groaned, and made exaggerated stomps out of the car. He kept his arms crossed as they hurried through the parking lot and Eddie grabbed them a cart. As soon as Eddie had his bearings on the cart, Richie leap over it and curled up inside, crossed legged and grinning up at Eddie. 

“The cart is for groceries, not your lazy ass.” Eddie grumbled, but he started pushing the cart into the store nonetheless. Richie spun around in the cart, grabbing things off the shelves when Eddie pointed them out and holding them on his lap. 

Eddie maintained that Richie was being lazy and merely looking for an excuse to get out of the shopping as much as possible, but Richie firmly believed that the trip went by faster without Eddie having to stop for every single item they needed to grab. 

“That would have been true either way, you’d just also be walking, dickhead.” Eddie argued after Richie had leap out of the cart and was helping him unload everything onto the belt. “Maybe we could have taken turns pushing the cart even.”

“Awe, Eds, that’s the funniest joke you’ve ever made.” Richie said over his shoulder as he paid the cashier. Richie grabbed as many bags as he could carry and they dragged everything back to car. 

Richie turned on Christmas Carols on the drive back to his house, and after mild complaining- Eddie even sang along with him. 

As they arrived back at the Toziers, they realized how many extra cars were now parked outside. There was space for Eddie to pull into the driveway- no doubt at Maggie’s demand for the safety of her much needed groceries- and Richie found that anxiety from the night before quickly settling back into his gut. 

“Relax, Rich.” Eddie said in a calming voice. His hand dropped down on Richie’s thigh and squeezed. Richie’s breath picked up, Eddie successfully doing the opposite of calming him down. “Richie. I can feel you freaking out. What is your problem?”

“I can’t go in there, Eddie.” Richie said, voice pitched and words rushed together. Richie suddenly felt fifteen again, deeply in love with his best friend and afraid to do anything. A boy who likes boy is a dead boy, Richie thought to himself and remembered growing up in this horrific town around people he could only hope would accept him but he was never sure. He was never sure, he isn’t sure. 

But Eddie with looking at him with wide eyes, concerned and open. Willing to listen to whatever Richie was struggling with and it made Richie so nervous he could throw up. 

Richie ran both hands over his face and sighed loudly. “I cut off everybody I loved, Eds. They’re all in that fucking house, I can’t go in there. I wouldn’t be able to stand it. I can’t go in there and lie to them, or dodge their fucking questions of why I never come home. I just can’t.” 

“Why do you have to lie?” Eddie asked, frowning deeply.  

“Because I can't just go in there and be all ‘hey everybody! Sorry you haven’t seen me in three years but I went off to college and stopped repressing my homosexuality and now I’m a big giant gay! Surprise! I didn’t bring any present!’” 

Richie blurted out the sentence in a span of seconds, words all pressed together until they were barely coherent and Eddie blinked at him as his brain attempted to detangle the mess. His eyes widened as he finally did, and he turned off the car. He buckled himself and almost fell out of the door in his haste to get out. 

Tears stung at his eyes as Richie’s brain spiraled down the dark panic of Eddie turning his back on him. Luckily for Richie, Eddie had only been out of the car long enough to rush around to the passenger side and yank it open. 

“Come on, out. Let’s go.” Eddie forcibly unbuckled Richie and tugged him out of the car. Hand in hand, Eddie dragged him around the house and towards the backyard. 

“Uh, Eds?” Richie’s knees shook brutally as they walked. “What about the groceries?”

“It’s cold enough.” Eddie said sharply. “It’ll basically be like it being a fridge. Relax. This is more important.” 

Eddie sat down on the swing set and Richie sat down slowly on the other side. He suddenly remembered all the summer and fall days Richie and his friends would run around on this small swing set. He wondered if Alex and her friends even played on it, and he hoped desperately that they did. 

It had started snowing lightly, like flakes falling into their hair. Richie, despite the lingering anxiety, couldn’t help but smile at the way Eddie’s cheeks were starting to redden with the chill. Richie pushed his swing enough to sway, enough to just have something to do. 

“Richie-“ Eddie started then paused. He bit down on his bottom lip and furrowed his brow. “I don’t know how to say this politely, so I’m just going to spit it down. Richie. Your family knows you’re gay.”

Richie’s mouth dropped open. He closed his sharply, just to open it again. He shook his head, and closed his eyes. Swallowing deeply, when he opened them again, Eddie was still staring at him softly. “How do you know that?”

Eddie laughed. “Dude, do you know how much I’ve had to hear your mom talk about how she thought we were dating in high school? I’m not sure she believes me when I say that we weren’t.” 

“I’m not sure I believe you either.” Richie said quietly, so quietly that he was almost surprised that Eddie even heard him. But Eddie let a small noise, almost as though he was pained. 

Suddenly, Eddie’s hands were on Richie’s cheeks and pulling him in. Eddie’s lips were cold and Richie knew his were chapped and probably not very nice, but there was something so heartachingly familiar about kissing Eddie that Richie couldn’t help but sink into it completely. 

Eddie pulled back slowly, letting their foreheads stay pressed together. Richie fluttered his eyes open, looking at Eddie with hooded lids. “Why’d you do that?” Richie whispered. 

“I’m sorry.” Eddie said sounding mournful. “For… saying we shouldn’t be together and everything that happened before I left for New York. It wasn’t fucking fair to you, you deserved so much better.” Eddie shook his head, pushing Richie’s head as they moved together. “God. I loved you so much and I knew I was hurting you. I was always so sure that the reason you wouldn't come back to Derry because of me.”

Richie shrugged and brought his hands down to rest on Eddie’s hips. “There was a lot of versions. But…” Richie smiled bashfully. “I think I’m glad I came back this time.” 

Eddie smiled back and pressed a kiss to Richie’s forehead. 

[mitchmarnier]

you’re the one who talks me down.

pairing: eddie kaspbrak/richie tozier [reddie] rating: explicit  chapter warnings: drinking, internalized homophobia, explicit sexual content word count: 7,120 chapter count: 1 of ? summary: “It’s sort of like a game.” Eddie suddenly felt overwhelming bold. “When I... When I watch your show. I would try to figure out what was you, and what was written for you. I think I did pretty much, especially now that I know you actually don’t write your own stuff.” Richie chuckled, but he continued to give Eddie a slightly confused look. “I thought you said you didn’t know me? How could you tell I didn’t write my own stuff?”

read on ao3.

perma taglist: @jwilliambyers, @eddiecare, @kasbprak  @ripeddiekaspbrak, @appojoos, @sloppybitchrich, @aizeninlefox, @chaotickaspbrak, @eddiefuckinkaspbrak, @purplepoisonedgem, @edstozler, @emgays, @anellope, @thorn-harvester-ven, @wheezyeds, @tozierpunks (also let me know if you want added!) 

“So my ex-girlfriend caught me masturbating to her friend’s Facebook page...”

Eddie rolled his eyes, scoffing, but he didn’t turn the radio off. It wasn’t to say that Eddie was obsessed with this guy. Eddie wasn’t the type to follow celebrities or even really care, and this guy... he wasn’t even a real celebrity. He was just some random guy who does stand up on cable television. He wasn’t even that funny, he was vulgar and sometimes it seemed like even he didn’t enjoy his own jokes. Something about the guy called to Eddie, drew him in and he couldn’t help himself from watching every time his trashy show came on the TV.

Richie “Trashmouth” Tozier. Whenever somebody asked him, he didn’t have an answer to why he liked him so much. Nothing about his act was Eddie’s style, or something he’d enjoy. Outside of Eddie, his own girlfriend was the only person who knew that Eddie watched the show- and she expressed her displeasure about it every time.

Oh, Eddie bear, you shouldn’t watch such things! The language is just terrible, the jokes aren’t funny! We should watch something much better, this isn’t a good show, Eddie, Eddie can we please put on something else? I hate this show!

Eddie sometimes thought that Myra hated it so much because Eddie loved it, and she feared that. Truthfully, her hatred of it only served to make Eddie want to watch it more. And somehow, it became a thing for him. Watching this terrible comedy show, seeing if it would ever get a laugh out of him. And sometimes... sometimes it did. Sometimes the Trashmouthed comedian would hit a joke just right, and Eddie wouldn’t be able to stop laughing. The kind of laugh that put an ache in his chest, a kind of laughter that he didn’t think he’d felt anywhere before. At least not in a very long time. The laughter itself was familiar in a sense, but Eddie wasn’t sure where he’d laughed like that before. Certainly not any time in his memory.

Myra was waiting in Eddie’s apartment when he got home. They’d been together less than a year- nine months, Eddie told himself. Nine months together- but Myra had spent most of her time in Eddie’s apartment since they’d begun dating. She’d even started dropping hints that she thought that they should move in together officially- all things that Eddie had attempted to dodge that conversation whenever it had come up.

Nine months was too soon to think about moving in together. Way too soon.

“Hey, Myra.” Eddie tossed his car keys onto the table. Eddie’s apartment was small, the perfect size he needed for himself. A bedroom, a bathroom and joined living room/kitchen. There was a laundry room downstairs and the laundry card was included with rent. His bedroom even had a window, even if it was just the view of a back alley and garbage bins. “How was your day?”

Because Eddie asked her about her day, even when Eddie knew she sat around his apartment all day doing nothing. In the last nine months, Myra had worked less and less until Eddie couldn’t remember the last time she’d worked. Couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen her leave the apartment that wasn’t with him.

“You’re late.” Myra replied, and Eddie cringed. He turned around, preparing himself for the wide, puppy eyed look his girlfriend would be giving him. Sure enough, she was putting on the full show right down to the trembling bottom lip. “You said you would be home at 4:30.”

It was only 4:45, but Eddie knew better than to argue. “I know, honey, I’m so sorry. My last charge went late, they had a big route. I had to drive around nearly the whole city,  then back again. I thought I’d be home by 4:30 this morning, but things came up. I’m sorry.”

“What if I had prepared a dinner for you, Eddie?” Myra asked. “It would’ve been sitting here, getting cold!”

Myra had never made Eddie dinner once in their entire relationship. She always insisted that Eddie take her out for dinner or otherwise Eddie cooked. Which meant they went out for dinner a lot, because Eddie’s cooking skills had peaked at grilled cheese and assorted boxed pastas.

“Why would have had dinner at 4:30, Myra?” Eddie asked tiredly, running fingers through his hair. By the end of the day, his curls were always coming through. He tried to never draw attention to it because he knew Myra hated the curls- hated them the same way his mother had hated them while he was growing up. Hated how they made him look messy, anything else than perfectly put together.

Eddie didn’t always hate his curls, but he supposed it was easier to put them away and keep people happy rather than constantly fight against them. Everytime Eddie looked in the mirror before gelling his curls away, he got the oddest tug in his stomach. Some sort of vague memory that his brain couldn't touch. Then he’d slick the curls away, and the feelings would leave with them.

“Edward.” Myra said in that ugly, reprimanding tone that reminded Eddie so much of his mother that it made the hairs on his arms stand on end. “Don’t mess up your hair like that! It already looks so dirty when you get home. Take a shower and we can go out for dinner.”

“So, if you didn’t have dinner waiting then what are being you so pissy about?”

The words tumbled out of Eddie’s mouth before they’d touched his brain. His mouth just pushed them out without a single thought. Absolutely no regard for his self preservation, it almost felt like he wasn’t Eddie at all. But maybe he was. Maybe he was more Eddie than he’d been in a long time.

“You can’t talk to me like that! Eddie!” Myra burst into loud, messy sobs but Eddie saw then that not a single tear was dripping down her face. “You’re supposed to love me! You don’t talk to people you love like that!”

What about how you talk to me everyday? Eddie didn’t let the words leave his mouth this time, but it really fought against him. In his fight not to say the horrible thing, he said what was probably a much worse thing. “When did I say I loved you?”

The words dropped into the room but didn’t explode. The couple stood on either side of the room, just staring at one another. Eddie was half holding his breath, readying himself for the break down. It wouldn’t be the first time that Eddie had said something that set Myra off with a little thing he said- and this was a much, much worse thing.

When a single tear began to slip down Myra’s cheek, Eddie clenched his jaw and readied himself for the absolute worst.

“Eddie, how could say something like that to me?” Myra sobbed loudly, placing her hands over her eyes. Which was safe for them both, since Eddie immediately rolled his eyes at her voice. “How could you say that? Just because you’re tired doesn’t mean you can be so mean!”

“I wasn’t tired until I got home.” Eddie snapped. “So, maybe I should just go back out!”

Myra’s nostrils flared, and her fists clenched. Eddie backed up slightly, but clenched his jaw all the same. “Eddie. Go take a shower and we will go out for dinner. Then we can come home and go to bed, and we’ll both feel better in the morning.”

“I never feel better in the morning!” Eddie shouted. “It’s never better.”

The silence rang between for them a long time, Eddie’s chest heaving. Myra glowered deeply at him. “You’ve been listening to that disgusting comedian again, haven’t you? You always get like this after you’ve listened to him!”

Eddie stalled, the words clicking around inside his brain. Almost turning into a full thought. Almost, almost, almost. Why did Eddie feel like his whole life had been one big almost? His chest began to get very tight, and he found himself reaching for the inhaler in his pocket but he froze. Eddie didn’t need an inhaler, he just needed to get out of this building.

“I have to go.” Eddie said sharply, stumbling towards the door. He could hear Myra crying after him. “I have to go. I’m sorry. I can’t do this, I have to go.”

Myra followed him to the door of the apartment, but didn’t go any further. As Eddie knew she wouldn’t. Maybe it wasn’t exactly winning any argument, running away like that, but Eddie knew well enough that Myra would never chase him down.

Eddie ran all the way down the 15 flights of stairs to get from his apartment to the ground, and then made it all the way to his car before he realized that he’d left his car keys on the kitchen table.

Groaning, Eddie ran his fingers through the already messed up curls. It wasn’t the smartest idea to go wandering around the streets of New York when the sun was starting to set, but there was no way in hell Eddie was going back up into that apartment with his tail between his legs. Sure, it was his and he logically could just kick her out but something about going back in the first place just felt too much like admitted defeat. She wasn’t going to win this time.

Stuffing his hands into his back pockets, Eddie started his slow walk down the streets. He had no destination in mind, no plan at all. No destination, and nothing to be sure of when he got home either. Except that when he got there, Myra would be sitting up waiting for him.

So Eddie walked. He walked and he walked until he something finally caught his eye. A bright sign, pink and yellow. It certainly wasn’t the first light that Eddie had seen on his walk, there had been more and more as the sky had gotten dark. Hundreds of colourful signs, none meaning anything. But this one... this one brought Eddie to a pause.

It was a bar, which hadn’t been Eddie’s scene since college. He supposed he’d spent more of his first year of college in the campus bars than in any of his classes. It had many been the time of his life, freshly free from his mother and spending his nights with his tongue down the throats of random, different-

Eddie cringed, the back of his head almost started to ache. Like his whole brain was trying to claw its way free from his skull while he stared at this stupid, bright bar sign. He shouldn’t go in, logic told him.

Maybe Eddie Kaspbrak was fucking tired of logic, though.  

The music in the bar was fucking horrible, that was the first thing Eddie noticed when he got inside. The next thing, of course, was the smell of sweat with a hint of sex, but that was to be expected. Eddie knew that smell, it was an old friend. Disgusting as it was, it was comforting. Freeing.

Eddie waved through the crowds of people towards the bar and sat down, pleasantly surprised when he found the stools twirled under his ass. Giggling to himself, Eddie turned the chair back around to the pretty bartender, who was watching him with a smile.

“Well there, sweetie.” She laughed. “Aren’t you just the cutest thing to walk through those doors all night. You better keep an eye on yourself, cutie, because they’re gonna be coming at you like flies to honey.”

Eddie chuckled a little awkwardly, ordering his drink. Vodka cranberry, something he hadn’t touched in almost five years. Now whenever Eddie indulged in any sort of drinking, it was a soft blush wine with his dinner.  His mother had never approved of alcohol in the house growing up, and while Myra was a fan of wine herself, she was always quick to pass judgement on Eddie after more than glass.

Alcohol is bad for your health, Eddie bear! It will react poorly with your medication! You’re not supposed to drink when you’re taking medicine!

But Eddie was always taking medicine, he was sure he had been his whole life. Alcohol had never bothered it before, he doubted it was going to start now. Turning away, sipping his drink through the little black straw, Eddie finally got a look at the place around him. He couldn’t help himself from rolling his eyes. Of course this is where his feet would take him.

Girls up on one another, men kissing each other in corners. Eddie swallowed roughly, thinking on how his stomach should be turning but instead was it was flaring up with heat. He sipped a little more dedicatedly, thinking to himself about how he should be leaving. This isn’t where he was supposed to be because he wasn’t... he wasn’t...

“I’m sorry, but do I know you?”

Eddie’s heart pretty much fell out of his ass at the voice in his ear. He let out a small squeak and nearly ended up falling out of his bar stool. The man... oh god, the man... looked startled, reaching out quickly to help Eddie settle back in his seat.

“Oh, fuck, I’m sorry, dude.” He laughed, running his hands through his hair. It was slightly greasy looking, and there was some sort of dark stain on his yellow shirt. It was gross and Eddie’s entire body felt overly hot.

“You’re.... you’re Richie Tozier.” Eddie gasped.

Richie Tozier’s eyes widened and he broke into a huge smile. “So we did know each other! I thought you looked fucking familiar-”

“No, no, we’ve never met.” Eddie quickly corrected him. “I just... I watch your show. That’s all. You don’t know me.”

Richie suddenly leaned away, eyes wide. “I’ve been coming to this bar once a month for nearly two years, and I’ve never been recognized before. Gay people.... don’t watch my shit, I don’t think. Or if they do, they don’t say anything because they don’t wanna talk to the not-funny guy.”

Eddie snorted.

Richie narrowed his eyes. “You know, if you watch my show that probably means you’ve got bad taste. I should probably leave right now.”

“You’re criticizing my taste for watching your shows, but they’re literally your shows.”

“I don’t write my own jokes.” Richie snickered, signalling to the bartender for a refill of his drink.

“I knew it! I fucking knew it!” Eddie cheered, pushing the straw away from his cup and chugging the rest of the drink. The bartender placed a new drink in front of them both, Richie nodding at her with a smile.

Richie laughed, and it felt like it tickled something at the back of Eddie’s mind.

“It’s sort of like a game.” Eddie suddenly felt overwhelming bold. “When I... When I watch your show. I would try to figure out what was you, and what was written for you. I think I did pretty well, especially now that I know you actually don’t write your own stuff.”

Richie chuckled, but he continued to give Eddie a slightly confused look. “I thought you said you didn’t know me? How could you tell I didn’t write my own stuff?”

Eddie felt himself blush and prayed it wasn’t noticeable under the darkness of the bar. “I don’t know, but I feel like I could just tell. When you were being yourself, and when you were being somebody you were pretending to be.”

Richie looked like he been clubbed over the back of the head, and Eddie frowned. Silence fell over them for a moment, conversation replaced with the mulling sounds from the bar behind them.

“Uhm,” Eddie cleared his throat awkwardly. He leaned in towards Richie, then quickly leaned away again. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, that's just...” Richie smiled with a look of disconnect. “Just reminded me of ... something.”

Eddie nodded as he picked up his drink and began to sip at it again. “So you said you come here once a month? I’ve never heard anything about you being gay.”

Richie scratched at his cheek as he chuckled. “Well, like I said... I don’t really get recognized here, because nobody here really knows anything about my show. So, this is a safe place for me. I can be whatever I want here.”

Eddie felt a weird mixture of discomfort and familiarity settle in his chest, and he nodded. “I guess you can’t really come out when all the jokes they make for you are about fucking women.”

Richie nodded, then shrugged a little bit. He tossed back his entire drink in one go. “That’s always been my thing. As a kid, before I told anybody, I made jokes about fucking women. I was balls deep in a chick from the age of eleven, if my stories are to be believed.”

Eddie laughed. “Yeah, I get that. It’s probably not easy to be out when you’re trying to be a big hot shot. Not that it’s working for you.”

“Hey.” Richie pointed at Eddie and waggled his eyebrows. “You can’t even talk, cutie. You knew who I was.”

Eddie groaned loudly as he twisted in his chair again. “Don’t call me cute.”

“I didn’t call you cute.” Richie said. “I called you cutie. There’s a very distinct difference.”

The beat of the music suddenly changed from something borderline country and annoying to something with a slicker beat, something that pulsed right in Eddie’s stomach. He shifted closer to Richie, his hand touching Richie’s where it was wrapped around his glass. “What’s the difference then?”

Richie blinked at him, his mouth opened slightly before he smirked. He leaned into Eddie’s space, facing inches apart. “The difference is you aren’t just cute- you’re fucking hot.”

Eddie gasped, his hands shook as he pushed forward. He cupped the back of Richie’s hair, tugged his face forward and kissed him harshly. He felt Richie gasp against his mouth, his hands came down and gripped Eddie’s thighs.

“Shit.” Richie mumbled against Eddie’s mouth as he squeezed Eddie’s thighs. “Who are you?”

“I’m the guy who’s about to make your night a fuck ton of a lot more interesting.” Eddie said as he yanked Richie back in for a rougher kiss. He pushed himself forward until he was out of his stool, standing above Richie and forcing his head back to kiss deeper.

Eddie had nearly climbed into Richie’s lap right there at the bar when Richie let out a rough laugh. “I’m as interested in exhibitionism as the next guy, but I think this might be a little much. I’m not looking to get arrested.”

Eddie let out a soft sigh and he dug his nails into Richie’s hair. He gave it a sharp, testing tug and Richie groaned. “Then take me somewhere else, Richie.”

Richie jumped to his feet, his chest collided with Eddie’s and nearly made him fall back into his seat. Richie’s hand gripped tight at Eddie’s and the next thing he knew, he was tugged through the crowds of drunk strangers and shoved into a bar bathroom stall.

“Fuck.” Eddie whimpered when Richie’s lips immediately connected to Eddie’s neck, hands pressed against the stall on either side of Eddie’s head. Eddie melted into him, hands curled tight in Richie’s hair, pushing his knees up to cage Richie in as much as he could without being wrapped around him completely.

Eddie felt Richie’s hard cock pressed against him through both their jeans and Eddie couldn’t hold back the moan that tumbled out from his lips. Richie grunted against him, his hips rolled forward and Eddie’s head smacked against the wall.

“Jesus fucking Christ.... Richie...” Eddie whimpered as he pulled on the curls. There was something inside of him that told him what he needed to do, it was such a natural process. His body knew Richie, what Richie wanted. He was too caught up in his own feelings to give it a second thought as he rubbed himself down against Richie’s leg.

“I don’t normally do this,” Eddie babbled. Richie let out a soft moan against Eddie’s neck, then tug his teeth into the skin. Eddie cried out, eyes closed tight. He shook his head against and moaned. “I… I don’t do this.. I don’t… You… I….”

“It’s okay,” Richie said. A hand made its way up Eddie’s shirt, blunt nails ran down his sides. Eddie gave a full body shudder.

“Shit, I-” Eddie was already further gone than he had ever been on the rare occasions that he and Myra had had sex. This was leagues different, something Eddie hadn’t felt in so long he couldn’t remember the last time it had happened for him. Sure as hell not like this.

“This is so good, you’re so good, why is this so good…” Eddie openly whimpered against Richie’s ear, prompting Richie’s nails to dig into his skin deeper. Eddie let out a small, almost pitiful whine at the bite of pain.

Richie’s hand pressed against Eddie’s cheek, pressing his finger tips into the skin. “Shhh…” Richie whispered before sucking a small mark against Eddie’s collar bone. “You’re being too loud. Do you want somebody to hear you?”

Eddie moaned.

He felt Richie’s teeth graze against his skin before a huff of breath that could only be a laugh ghosted over him. “You do, don’t you? Got a kink there? Wanna get caught? Want people to see you like this?”

Eddie bucked against Richie, back arched and eyes squeezed shut. “You’re not fucking me in a bathroom stall. There’s too many fucking germs. I’m not getting some nasty diseases for a little dick.”

“Trust me, baby. It’s not little.” Richie whispered.

Eddie groaned, very much not out of pleasure and Richie pulled back. His brow was furrowed and a ghost of a smile sat on his face. He ran his tongue along his bottom lip, and Eddie’s breath caught.

“So, what do you want to do?” Richie asked, hips pulsing up against Eddie’s.

Eddie choked out a moan. “You got an apartment?”

“I got a hotel room.” Richie said with a twinkle in his eyes.

“That fucking works.”

The cab ride back to Richie’s hotel room was oddly PG. Eddie could feel the nerves coming off of him, the risk of being seen, the risk of somebody knowing. Eddie supposed that he should have felt the same- the amount of people in this city that knew him, that had no idea about who he was, what he wanted- the risk was huge. But something about this- something about Richie fucking Tozier- took away any of the nerves he knew he should have been been feeling.

Eddie reached out and squeezed at Richie’s hand. Richie turned him and smiled. He gave him a short nod as they exited the cab, immediately dropping hands. They moved quickly through the hotel lobby and kept their distance from one another until Richie unlocked his room and they slipped inside.

Eddie was on him in a second. He backed Richie up against the door and yanked his shirt from his body. Eddie dropped forward, fingers pushed under Richie’s waist band, while he dropped open mouthed kisses all over his chest.

Richie moaned and pushed his hand into Eddie’s hair. Not pulling like Eddie had done earlier, but softly pushing the flop of hair out of Eddie’s face.

“God,” Richie sighed, the veins in his neck tensing out as Eddie sucked at the skin of his chest. “I fucking love those curls, god damn.”

Eddie’s heart stuttered, and his hips followed the motion. His hands rushed out and he yanked Richie’s jeans open and shoved them down his legs. Eddie’s breath hitched at the sight of Richie’s cock through some questionably patterned underwear, and he ducked forward to mouth at it through the fabric.

Richie tossed his head backwards, the smacking noise it made against the door ringing through the empty hotel room. Eddie chuckled against Richie’s cock then pressed his tongue against covered head.

“Can you…” Richie moaned as he stuffed his hand against his mouth. He dropped his hand and rested both in Eddie’s hair. “Please.”

Eddie froze, hands half-way pulling Richie free. He looked up at him through his lashes, and grinned. “It’s Eddie. By the way.”

Richie laughed and rubbed his fingers against Eddie’s scalp. Eddie hummed, eyes closed lightly. “Fuck. Thank you, I really didn’t wanna fucking ask you that now.”

Eddie reached into Richie’s underwear, and pulled his cock free. He couldn’t help the small moan that escaped him at the sight, and he refused to glance up and look at the smirk that he knew was on Richie’s face,

Richie made his amusement clear either way, of course. “See something you like?”

“Shut the fuck up,” Eddie said seriously. “Or you can take care of this yourself.”

One of Richie’s hands dropped from Eddie’s hair to wrap around his own cock. He slowly stroked himself, stopping as he reached where Eddie’s hand was still wrapped around him. Eddie felt a weak noise get punched out of him as he watched Richie tease himself in his face.

“Is that what you want me to do?” Richie asked him in a low voice.

Eddie exhaled heavily before batting Richie’s hand away. He rested Richie’s cock in his open mouth and rubbed his tongue against the sensitive head. Richie’s exhale was long and shaky as his hands came down and rested on Eddie’s shoulders.

“Fuck, Eddie. Please.” Richie said, hands tensed into Eddie’s shoulders.

Eddie took as much of Richie’s length into his mouth as he could manage in one go, almost impressed by how much he was able to fit. He’d known going into this that, of course, it wasn’t his first time with a dick in his mouth but he’d assumed that it would be slow moving for him. And yet… he rocked back into it like he was born to be doing it.

“Holy shit… Eds….”

Something about that unexpected nickname spilling from Richie’s mouth broke some sort of dam inside Eddie that he hadn’t noticed was holding him back. Eddie took a deep breath and swallowed Richie down, feeling his cock pressed against the back of his throat for a moment. He brought his hand up and cupped Richie’s balls, not quite a massage but a tease at the potential.

Richie whimpered- actually whimpered- as he gave shallow thrusts into Eddie’s mouth. He began to let out a steady stream of whispered curses, hands gripped tight on Eddie’s shoulders.

“Oh, fuck, Eddie…” Richie groaned. “If you don’t stop this is going to be over way too fucking quick, Eddie… Eds, fuck…..”

Eddie sighed happily and he leaned backward, stripping Richie’s cock in front of his face. Richie stared down at Eddie, mouth hung open and pupils so dilated Eddie couldn’t tell where the brown began anymore.

“I’m gonna cum….” Richie almost coughed out as he took his cock from Eddie’s grip. He rested against the door as he caught his breath. Eddie felt like his body was on fire as he ripped his own jeans open and shoved his hand inside. As he palmed at his aching cock, he dropped forward and rested his head against Richie’s shin. He mouthed at Richie’s clothed length as he rocked into his own hand.

He was suddenly on his back as Richie dropped to his knees above him. He pulled Eddie’s hands out of his pants before he crawled forward and straddled Eddie’s hips. Eddie stared up at him, more than a little dazed. He couldn’t imagine how wrecked he must have looked in that moment, laid out on Richie’s hotel room floor, clothed hard on pushed through the opening of his jeans and shirt riding up to expose his stomach.

Richie’s eyes raked over Eddie, mouth open and eyes blown wide. He rubbed his hands up Eddie’s chest, caught the hem of his shirt and pulled it over Eddie’s head. He let out a small moan as he looked over Eddie’s bare torso, hands rested on the heated skin.

“You’re so fucking beautiful, Eds.”

Eddie’s eyes rolled back in his head as Richie began to map out Eddie’s chest with his lips. He lapped against Eddie’s nipple. He sucked it into his mouth as he began to rut his hips upwards against Eddie’s.

Eddie moaned and grabbed at Richie’s back. “Holy shit, fucking hell… Why are we on the floor? Is your act so bad you can’t afford a hotel room with a fucking bed?”

Richie pulled back, sat perfectly on top of Eddie’s throbbing cock. “Do you always complain this much?”

Eddie shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

Richie laughed as he leaned down to kiss him. He cupped Eddie’s cheeks with both hands while he kissed him almost too slowly and sweetly for what Eddie felt like this was. Eddie shoved at Richie’s chest, kissed his neck once gently then smiled up at him. “Bed, please.”

“You say please… yet it still sounds like a demand.” Richie said with a smirk while he grabbed Eddie underneath his thighs and scooped him up. Eddie’s arm wrapped around Richie’s neck, face pressed against Richie’s neck to hide his smile.

Richie tossed Eddie onto the bed and he pushed himself backwards against the pillows as he watched Richie rip his jeans and underwear off. His cock slapped up against his stomach but Eddie barely had a moment to be shook before Richie dropped down onto the bed and crawled over him.

Richie shoved at Eddie’s underwear, breathing heavily in Eddie’s ears as he freed him. They pressed together, bare skin everywhere and for a moment Eddie thought…. Have we done this before?

Richie pulled back with a long blink, mouth open as though he were going to speak. Going to mention the feeling that had rocked through them both. The recognition.

Eddie didn’t want to talk about it. He grabbed Richie by the neck and yanked him back down, kissing him hard and fast. It took Richie less than a second to get back into it, kissing Eddie in an almost frantic fashion. Eddie tugged at Richie’s curls as Richie rocked their bare cocks together.

“Fuck, please….” Eddie moaned and wrapped his legs around Richie’s waist. He held him close, arms tight around Richie’s shoulders. Eddie shook around him while Richie pressed feather light kisses to his neck, where Eddie already knew there were bruises.

“Hey, listen…” Richie whispered in his ear. “We don’t have to do anything. I’m not one of those gross celebrity assholes… you can leave right now if that’s what you want.”

Eddie rubbed his thumb along Richie’s jaw. “I don’t want to be anywhere else.”

Richie rocked softly against Eddie, their dicks sliding together, smooth with precum. Eddie whimpered, practically clawing at Richie’s back. He wondered for a fleeting moment if he was leaving scratches but pushed the thought away when Richie’s cock pressed against his just perfectly.

“Richie… Richie, I want you to fuck me.” Eddie cried out. “Do you have lube? A condom?”

“No, Eddie.” Richie deadpanned. “I went to a gay bar with absolutely no lube or condoms in my possession. I like living on the edge.”

Eddie chuckled and he dropped his head forward to rest on Richie’s chest. “Alright, alright, asshole. Just wanted to be sure. I haven’t… I haven’t done anything like this in a really long time.”

“What, are you like a virgin?” Richie chuckled, then immediately sobered. “Uh, that’s cool if you are. We can go slow…. Or we can just not, I mean, we don’t have to.”

“I’m not a fucking virgin!” Eddie snapped. “I lost my virginity when I was…” Eddie trailed off, frowning, unable to remember his first time. He’d been young, high school, he knew that but everything else, everything about it was blank. Just… gone. “I’m not a virgin.”

Richie leaned in, kissing him softly. Eddie ignored the butterflies he felt as Richie pulled away. “I’m going to get everything we need... If you’re sure.”

Eddie grabbed Richie face and pulled him down, nose touching but lips not. “Stop fucking asking me if I’m sure.”

“Consent is key, Eds.”

Why does he keep calling me that? Eddie thought as he watched Richie jump from the end of the bed and ruffle through his suitcase on the floor. And why do I feel like it’s important?

Richie launched himself back onto the bed, on his knees, his cock bobbing up and slapping him the stomach as he bounced. Eddie pressed his lips together to keep from laughing but Richie was already giggling as he crawled back over Eddie’s body.

“I’m sorry,” he laughed. “That was probably so not sexy at all.”

Eddie looped his arms around Richie’s shoulders. “It wasn’t.” Eddie pulled Richie down on top of him, kissing him slowly once. “But that’s okay. I’ll let you fuck me anyway.”

“Somebody must be gagging for it…” Richie sighed and squeezed the weight on Eddie’s hips. “How long has it been since you got a good dickin’?”

“I don’t know…” Eddie said honestly, head tilted back as Richie started stroking his cock slowly. “I… I fooled around in college, and there was.. Fuck… I think there was somebody important in high school but… I.. I had a girlfriend…”

Richie slowed his hand and looked slightly at Eddie. “Are you bi?”

Eddie closed his eyes, licked his lips. “No.” He said firmly. “I’m not. I never have been.”

Richie gave Eddie a sad smile before he slid down Eddie’s body, occasionally pressing a kiss to the skin as he moved down. He pushed Eddie’s thighs apart, and leaned in to suck a mark where Eddie’s thighs met his ass. Eddie shook, let out a whimper. “Please…”

Richie popped the bottle of lube opened and looked up at Eddie through his lashes. “Are you sure about this? Because it could be uncomfy… especially if you haven’t done this in a while and-”

“Richie.” Eddie sighed in frustration. “Just stick your fingers in me! This isn’t my first rodeo!”

Richie looked up at him for a moment before he raised his brow and chuckled. “Well, yeehaw.”

“Oh my God, never fucking mind. Do not fucking touch me.” Eddie cried as he kicked Richie lightly in the side of the head with his socked foot. Richie laughed, biting at Eddie’s calf. Eddie let out a loud shriek of a giggle, feet kicking at Richie’s face. “Go away you dirty kinky cowboy!!”

Richie flopped down on top of Eddie, chest to chest, and Eddie sighed. His arms wrapped around Richie’s back as he held Richie to him despite his own protests.

Richie kissed Eddie’s cheek. “We’re backtracking. I’m officially further away from having my fingers in your ass.”

Eddie grabbed Richie’s face and yanked him down, pressing his fingers against Richie’s jaw and forced his mouth open. He kissed him, hard and messy. It was all teeth and tongue and fucking spit… it should have been disgusting, but Eddie’s heart was almost yearning for something. For more. For exactly this always.

Their hips were rocking together again, and Eddie felt his orgasm building way too quick. Eddie dug his nails into the back of Richie’s neck and pulled away, panting. “Okay, you need to fuck me because I’m literally going to cum and you haven’t done shit to earn it.”

He expected Richie to laugh, but Richie just cocked a brow. He dove down Eddie’s body, and licked slowly up the length of Eddie’s cock. It twitched for attention as Richie pulled back, but Eddie only barely had the chance to slap a hand over his mouth to smother his whining as Richie began to mouth at his balls.

“Fuck……” Eddie moaned loudly and deeply as Richie began to rub his fingers over Eddie’s hole. Eddie’s thighs shook on either side of Richie’s head, and his stomach half-caved in with the weight of his breathing. “It’s like you… it’s like you know…”

Richie chuckled against Eddie’s skin before he pressed soft kisses to Eddie’s leaking cock, slowly working Eddie open with one finger. Eddie let out small, broken moans that grew louder and higher as Richie added a second finger and scissored them apart.

Richie sucked kisses to Eddie’s stomach, around his cock but he never put his mouth where Eddie longed for it. Eddie rolled his hips down onto Richie’s hand, letting out a deep groan from the back of his throat when Richie finally jabbed three fingers into him.

“Rich, come on, fuck me.” Eddie grabbed at Richie’s hair, tugged upwards. Richie hissed and bit down on Eddie’s hip. “Fuck me.”

“I’ll fuck you when you’re ready.” Richie growled. He grabbed the bottle of lube from beside him and squeezed out what seemed like entirely too much lube into his free hand. Eddie cringed as Richie brought the hand closer to him, but he moaned as Richie rubbed it around his still pulsing fingers.

“Richie, I’m fucking serious…” Eddie whimpered as rode Richie’s fingers for all they were worth. The heat in his stomach was almost unbearable, threatened to swallow him up and cause him to burst into flames. “If you don’t fuck me right now, I could realistically die.”

Richie looked up, one brow raised. “What a way to go though….”

“Get your dick in me.” Eddie cried as he rolled his hips down frantically. Richie let out a soft little chuckle as he pulled his fingers free too quickly. Eddie choked out a moan at the sudden loss. He slapped his hands over his face, palms dug into his eyes until he saw stars. He felt Richie’s hands wrap around his wrists and pull them away. He frowned at down at Eddie, eyes soft. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

Eddie nodded. He gave Richie a weak smile, and wrapped his legs around Richie’s waist. Pulled him in close, right on top of him. He bit at Richie’s bottom lip, gave it a tug. “I’ll be great if you fuck me good.”

“Oh, trust me, Eds.” Richie chuckled. He grabbed the condom he’d rested beside them, ripped it open with his teeth, and slid it on slowly. Eddie felt his mouth water at the sight of him. He didn’t know he was making small whining noises, but Richie grinned at the sound.

He leaned back over Eddie’s body and rubbed the head of his cock against Eddie’s hole. When they both moaned, Eddie reached up and cupped the back of Richie’s head. He pressed their foreheads together. A broken, choked moan was pulled from Eddie’s throat as Richie finally bottomed out. Eddie clutched at the back of Richie’s neck. “Fuck….”

“Fuck is right.” Richie said, voice hoarse and half-broken. He rubbed his thumb under Eddie’s eye and watched them flutter shut. “You’re so beautiful, Eds.”

Eddie rocked down on Richie’s cock to draw out a rough moan. He gasped, and pushed down again. Richie whimpered against Eddie, then caught his lips in a rough kiss. Eddie panted against him as Richie began to rock his hips into him. He went slow, dragging himself out of Eddie to push back in slowly.

Eddie moaned and whined, kissing Richie back whenever he had a mind to do so. Eddie didn’t have much of a mind to do anything, anymore. His moved frantically, grabbed at Richie wherever he could. Tugged his hair, ran his nails down his back. Richie’s hips thrusted just that little bit rougher as Eddie’s nails broke through his skin.

“Please…. Please, faster.” Eddie curled his body up in the sort of over exposed position that he hated the idea of. He held Richie tightly against his body, his arms around Richie’s neck, legs tight around his waist. He could feel Richie mouthing anywhere he could reach on Eddie’s shoulders and neck. Not even kissing, just a frantic wet mouth meeting his skin over and over. “Please.”

Richie pulled out slowly and snapped his hips back in hard. The walls broke down then as Richie fucked into Eddie hard and fast. Eddie threw his head back, Richie immediately latching onto his neck with lips and teeth. Eddie squeezed his eyes shut, letting the feeling of Richie become his everything.

“Yes…” Eddie moaned out as Richie’s cock jabbed against his spot. Eddie rolled his hips up, letting his cock rub against Richie’s stomach. “Yes… yess… yes.”

Richie spewed words into his ears but Eddie couldn’t make sense of them, completely overwhelmed by the feeling of Richie fucking against his prostate. “Oh, shit!” Eddie cried as his whole body tensed then relief waved over him. He shook as he came between them, all over his and Richie’s chests.

“Oh my God, Eddie.” Richie moaned, completely lost in the feeling of how Eddie clenched around him and shook underneath him. In only took a few more quick thrusts before Richie was tossed over the edge and collapsing against Eddie’s sticky chest.

Richie pushed Eddie’s sweaty bangs from his face as they lay together on the bed to catch their breath. Eddie blinked up at Richie and gave him a slow smile.

“Thanks. That was decent.”

Richie coughed, then burst out into laughter. “You’re a little fucking spit fire, aren’t you, Eds?”

Eddie leaned forward and nipped at Richie’s bottom lip. He tugged on it until it ripped from his teeth and slapped back against Richie’s mouth. Richie laughed and gave Eddie’s thigh as squeeze.

Eddie hummed happily. “I should probably get going.” He said. He sat up and winced at the sticky, disgusting feeling of his own body.

Richie pouted as he wrapped his arms around Eddie’s waist and pulled him back to the bed, on top of him this time. “Don’t go. Stay. We can order room service… watch bad hotel television…” Richie pressed his lips against Eddie’s ear to send a shiver down his spine. “Take a shower.”

“Do you normally keep your one night stands in your room overnight?” Eddie challenged with a raise of his brow.

Richie’s face dropped slightly. “No but I…” He cleared his throat, and loosened his grip on Eddie’s hips. “Sorry. Forget it. You can go, I’ll call you a cab if you..”

Eddie’s heart clenched and hugged Richie to him. “Shut up, of course I’ll stay. But I’m showering alone. I want to actually get clean.”

Richie beamed at him. “That’s fine. We’ll just shower together in the morning then.”

“In your fucking dreams, Tozier.”

[mitchmarnier]

SEMI CHARMED LIFE | CHAPTER FOURTEEN| 3.7K | 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: CUTEST COUPLE. Richie traced his hands over the words, smiling softly as he took in the appearance of himself and Beverly Marsh at fifteen. Hair that hadn’t been tamed on either part, paisley patterns and braces on Richie’s teeth. Himself looking like the best thing that could ever happen to him was standing there with Beverly Marsh in his arms, having their picture taken for their high school yearbook. | “I think… I think you, Richie Tozier, are the only good guy I’ve ever dated.” Richie looked down at her with a bemused smile. “Beverly, aren’t you married?” |  Richie, it’s been ten years, man. I’ll regret what I did to you every day for the rest of my life but I’d really like to move past this. You were my best friend for fifteen years before that, and I... I’ve always missed you.” “You know….” Richie shook his head and frowned. “I thought I was past this, I thought I was easily eight years past what you did. But now I’m here, looking at you and having to listen to you go on about what a great experience you had at school and how in love you are and I…. I want to be happy for you, Stanley, but I can’t. Because you stepped on me to get it.” | “Wow…” Eddie chuckled slowly.  “You’ve got some      serious    issues, Beverly Marsh. Get the fuck out of here.”

Author’s note/Warnings: A vague mention of a suicide attempt mentioned in this chapter!

permatags: @thundercatseddie​, @eddiekabsprak​, @appojoos​, @s-s-georgie​, @kaspwitch​, @jwilliambyers​, @tozierking​, @eddiefuckinkaspbrak​, @sloppybitchardtozier​, @chaotickaspbrak​, @vipertooth​, @edstozler​, @anellope​, @tozierpunks​, @thorn-harvester-ven​, @wheezyeds​, @emgays​, @thegoths​, @wilding-throught-thehallways​, @reddie-to-cryy​​,

Beverly hugged Richie’s sweater tighter around herself and settled on the subway bench. She’d lied to Ben, after everything at the Kaspbraks’. Promised she had a place to stay, somewhere to go that wasn’t work. And Ben, bless him… Ben had believed her. People needed to stop taking her at face value, because she somehow now managed to lie without flinching. She didn’t know when she became this person, but she knew that a younger version of herself would be disgusted by it. Maybe this version of her was disgusted, too. 

Beverly leaned onto her side and curled up, jacket still tightly around her. She didn’t remember falling asleep, but she must have because next time Beverly opened her eyes, a teenage Richie Tozier was sitting on the bench beside her head. 

“SHIT!” Beverly cried, scrambling to sit up. Richie smiled at her, braced-faced and acne covered. Curls completely fly away and nose covered in freckles. Fifteen years old, maybe sixteen. But he sure as hell didn’t match Beverly’s twenty eight years. “Fuck, I’m loosing it.” 

“We can agree on that,” Richie said, grinning childishly at her. “What the hell are you doing, Beverly? Come on.” 

Beverly let out a shaky breath. “Okay, is there like… acid in the air? Or something.”

“I think you have to physically take acid,” Richie said, crinkling up his nose. “But I don’t really know. But I can promise you that you’re not on any drugs or anything weirder than it seems.”

“So I’m just crazy.”

“No crazier than you’ve always been.” Richie said, bouncing up to his feet and holding a hand out to her. “I’m here to help you, Bev. Help you get your shit together before you ruin everything for good.”

“I’ve already ruined everything for good.” Beverly said, refusing to accept the hand that Richie was holding out to her. “Eddie hates me, you hate me… I cheated on husband, and I ruined things with Ben, and I… I’m living on a subway bench! I’ve hit rock fucking bottom. 

“We all hit rock bottom at some point.” Richie said, words too wise for his young-again face. “That doesn’t mean your life is over, or that you can never crawl back up. It just means you need to look back and figure out where shit went batty.”

Beverly exhaled hard, and grabbed Richie’s hand. There was a pull in her gut, like she’d started the drop off a huge rollercoaster. She squeezed her eyes shut to swallow back the rush of  nausea and when she opened them, she was standing in much too familiar living room. One she hadn’t seen in over a decade, but she suddenly recognized without a doubt. She sighed, the sight of herself and even younger Richie sitting on the white couch not far from where she was now standing. 

“Oh my God,” Beverly groaned, rolling her eyes. “You guys really just let me walk around dressed like that?”

The Richie by her side chuckled and knocked at Beverly with his elbow. “You looked beautiful. You always looked beautiful, but something about this night… You know.”

“Yeah.” Beverly whispered. She turned to Richie and swallowed roughly. “Why did you bring me here, Richie? I know what happens.”

“No, you don’t.” Richie said with a shrug. “And that’s your problem. You think you know, but you don’t. All you know is what you remember happening to you. But there’s always something else going on around you, but you don’t see.”

Beverly looked back at the couch, taking in the sight of her teenage self and Richie sitting pressed together on Greta Keene’s fancy couch. Teenage Beverly ran her fingers through Richie’s curls, leaning close enough that she was half on his lap. It was the moment of something, Beverly remembered this night. Before this, before Richie in those ugly yellow shorts and too much alcohol in both their systems, Beverly had never considered Richie as anything more than her annoying Trashmouth friend. After this night, he was her boyfriend… for a long time. Her first heartbreak. 

“So, what am I missing here?” Beverly asked, watching Richie lean in closer to herself and knock their noses together. 

“Eddie.” Richie said simply, looking over his shoulder. Beverly followed his gaze, seeing a tiny, 14 year old Eddie Kaspbrak leaning against the wall of the living room. He was making a show of talking to Bill, but Eddie could see where Eddie’s eye line was. Where it followed to. A weird sense of guilt fell into her stomach.

“That whole time?” Beverly asked Richie, unable to take her eyes off of Eddie. Eddie, with perfectly styled hair, and polo shirts. Tube socks, and fanny pants. This Eddie barely looked a day older than the day than the day Beverly had befriended. She loved him so fucking much. 

Richie made a clicking sound with his tongue. “You doubt it? After everything, you’d think you’d have accepted that Eddie and I belong together.”

“I don’t…” Beverly sighed. “I just didn’t think it went that far back. I never thought…”

“You had no reason to.” Richie said. “Let yourself off that hook before you put yourself on it. You aren’t a bad person for dating somebody that somebody else- especially if you didn’t know.”

“I can’t decide if I should feel guilty for dating somebody my friend liked or…” Beverly sighed. “Pissed that one of my friends liked my boyfriend.”

Teenage Eddie suddenly thumbled with his drink, the solo cup dropped to the ground. Eddie stammered out some sort of apology to Bill then booked from the house. Beverly whipped around quickly, seeing now that she and Richie were finally kissing. 

“Well.” Richie cleared his throat. “You know what happens next here. Do you want to see what happened outside?”

“No.” Beverly meekly, but they were older outside.

Eddie gripped at a tree in the yard, heaving for a second before vomiting. He collapsed against the trunk, hugging himself to it, breaking into loud and messy sobs. Beverly pressed her hand over her mouth, wanting to look away but finding herself unable to do so. 

“Horrible.” Richie said, devote of any emotion. 

“We’re just gonna… stand here and watch him?” Beverly gasped. “Can we… help him? Richie!”

Richie smiled. “This was almost fifteen years ago, Beverly. You can’t jump in change anything. It’s already been done.”

“Then why are you showing me this?” Beverly cried. “Are you trying to make me feel guilty for dating you? Because Eddie liked you? Well, I don’t! I’m sorry he was hurting, but that’s my fault. I didn’t even know.”

“I didn’t know, either.” Richie said. “That’s not on us, Beverly, it’s not. Nobody blames you, not me, not Eddie. But this stuff you need to know. But you don’t understand.”

“What the fuck is this? A fucking Christmas carol?” Beverly snapped. 

“Yeah.” Richie laughed. “Just call me Ghost of Boyfriend Past.”

“As long as you’re the only one.” Beverly grumbled, turning away from Eddie’s sobbing form. “That’s pretty much all I can handle.”

Richie scoffed, with a sharp shake of his head. “Who else would it be? Ben? Big Bill? Boring.”

“Richie, I’m literally married and-” Beverly was cut off by Richie waving his hands in her face. She glowered at him, arms crossed angrily. 

Richie wrapped his hands around her wrist, with another shake of his head. “We don’t have time for all that.” He said. “There’s too much to do, too much to see.”

Beverly barely had time to react to anything before she found herself no longer standing outside Greta’s house, but sitting in the back bench seat of Richie’s shitty old beat up truck. They were sitting out by the old abandoned railroad tracks. Trains had long stopped coming out there, even since the boy had been killed out in Castle Rock, they’d been slowing the travel through smaller towns. 

This wasn’t just a regular hang out, smoke, maybe fool around like the usual “sitting in Richie’s truck at the railroad” and Beverly knew it immediately. Could feel the tension in the air. Could see how Richie was pressed right up against the truck window, sitting as far as away from Beverly as he could in the small space.

“Why are we here?” Beverly whispered, though she knew that their younger selves couldn’t hear her speaking. “I remember what happened. I was there.”

“You remember what you wanted to think happened.” Richie said back. “I told you. You don’t really know anything.”

“That’s rude.” Beverly snapped. She wondered if it was acceptable to punch a hallucination of a sixteen year old, or if it was still frowned upon morally. “I don’t know what this has to do with Eddie. He wasn’t even here.”

“This isn’t about Eddie.” Richie said. “None of this about one thing. It’s about you, about me, about Eddie… Bill. It’s about everything that happened that made your situation like this, Bev.”

Beverly felt her face burn. “You know about the stuff with Bill?” 

“Objectively, I know everything that has ever been and ever will be.” Richie said, stroking a long invisible beard. Beverly rolled her eyes. “But if you’re asking me if your Richie knew about you and Bill, then yes. I knew the whole time.”

Beverly looked down at her hands, but Richie pulled her chin back up to look at younger version of herself.

“I’m sorry,” young Richie was saying to her, hands tight around the steering wheel. He was staring out the windshield and Beverly remembered the feeling in her gut when Richie refused to look at her all too well. “I just… I’m confused. I have a lot of shit I need to figure out.”

“I don’t understand.” Young Beverly said, and she hated hearing the broken cracks in her voice. She wasn’t sure what kind of cosmic joke was forcing her to physically relive her first heart break, but she wanted to destroy it with her bare hands. “We were fine yesterday! Things were good, I thought-”

“I’m sorry.” Young Richie said again, eyes squeezed shut. “I can’t explain it right now, I don’t know how. I just need this to be over right now. I love you, Beverly, but I can’t do this.” 

Beverly could see her younger self pressing her hands to her mouth to keep from crying, and she thought she could feel what that Beverly was feeling. The swirling of her stomach and the clenching of her heart. The feeling of looking at the person she thought she was in love with, and seeing somebody she didn’t know. Couldn’t understand anymore. 

She watched herself grab at the handle of the truck and tumble off, taking off at a run into the night. Richie called after her weakly, once, then leaned over to close the truck door and crash his forehead against the steering wheel. 

Beverly and her Younger Richie were suddenly standing outside the truck, and she was watching herself run down the streets. On a reflex she started to run after herself, but Richie appeared in front of her and caught her once again. “That’s where we’re going next.”

“Why do you get to decide where we go?” Beverly cried. “You’re not real!”

“I’m as real as any of this.” Richie said roughly, though he let Beverly go and stepped back. He crossed his arms over his chest, and suddenly looked so young and so real that Beverly’s breath caught and her palms began to sweat. She’d lost her fucking mind, it was official. She couldn’t even control her own halluications. 

“Stop.” Richie rolled her eyes. “I’m not a dream, or a fucking hallucation.” 

Beverly blinked, and sighed heavily. “Then what the fuck are you? Because this… this doesn’t make any sense and I don’t want to be here!”

“Well, you can’t leave until you see everything.” Richie said, voice cold and detached. It didn’t even sound like the voice of a human anymore. “And you still don’t get it.”

“I get it, okay?” Beverly cried. “Richie was in love with Eddie the whole damn time, I was some sort of gay cover. Fuck him. What the fuck ever. Let me go back to-”

“To your subway bench?” Richie sneered. “If I wanted to show you how much Richie and Eddie love each other, I could do that.” 

Beverly thought she was maybe going to get whiplash as the world flashed around her while they stood in the same spot.

Eddie and Richie carrying boxes into a tiny apartment. Eddie and Richie sitting on swings in the Derry, snow in their hair. Eddie dropping down onto one knee at a tiny coffee shop. Them bringing boxes into the house they lived in now. Eddie picking up a small bundle of pink blankets in the hospital. Richie climbing in a crib to soothe a crying Frankie…

“Or I could show you the real truth.” Richie said simply, as the scenes began to change. 

Eddie walking out of Richie’s bedroom, hands pressed over his face while tears were still visible under them. Eddie and Richie standing in the middle of the road, rain pouring down on them, screaming at each other. Richie sitting in a dark living room, staring at nothing, while Eddie cried on his knees in front of him. Eddie holding Richie’s hand in a speeding ambulance, them hugging in a hospital room, packed suitcase on the bed behind them- 

They were standing in the hallway of Derry High School when Beverly’s head stopped spinning. They stood in front of their lockers, Beverly having a casual conversation with Bill and Eddie when Richie made his way down the hallway, carrying a cardboard box. He ignored his friends greetings as he yanked his locker open and started throwing his belongings into the box. 

“No.” Beverly said softly, mouthing curling up in disgust and stomach bubbling. “I don’t want to see this again. Richie, I don’t-”

“It doesn’t matter.” Richie said quietly, eyes stuck on the scene unfolding in front of them.

“What are you doing?” Eddie asked, and Beverly could hear the panic in his voice. She had been able to hear it back then, in the real moment, too. 

“Apparently I cheated on the SATs.” Richie said, not taking his face away from his locker. Not looking at anything he threw into the box. “They expelled me.”

Beverly’s stomach dropped to her feet, and she remembered feeling the exact same sensation in the moment as well.

“What?” She’d cried. “That’s such bullshit, Richie! You’re the best student in our year, why the fuck would you cheat on the SATs? You don’t need to.”

“You have to fight this.” Eddie said pleaded, and Beverly saw something in him this time. Something that she hadn’t noticed in real time. The way Eddie trembled when he reached for Richie, the way his entire face seemed to collapse when Richie jerked away from him. 

“You were together then.” Beverly said, not a question.

“Yeah.” Her Richie answered anyway. 

“They have a witness.” Then Richie said coldly. He closed the now empty locker and removed his lock. “Somebody said they saw me, or some shit. It’s over. It’s done.”

“Rich-Rich-eRichie.” Bill stammered, but Richie waved him off. 

“It’s fine.” Then Richie said. “I’ll see you guys around.” 

Eddie took off after him as Richie walked from the school, books and locker decorations all in a box. Beverly knew before it happened that they were going to outside standing with them. Richie had almost made it to Maggie’s waiting car, when Eddie caught up to him. 

“Richie, Richie, wait, please.” Eddie pleaded, only wheezing for a moment. Richie placed his little box into the back seat and turned around slightly. The open, vulnerable pain on his face was something Beverly had never seen before on the teen. “Please, we can still fight it, we can-”

“No, we can’t.” Richie cried, voice breaking. “I’m not graduating, I’m not going to UCLA or NYU or anywhere we applied. I can’t, they’ve made up their minds. It’s fucking over, Eddie.” 

Eddie jerked back as though Richie had slapped him, and the words rang in Beverly’s brain. Eddie’s shoulders hunched up higher towards his ears, and he swayed slightly on the spot. “What’s over, Richie?”

Richie glanced around at the amount of students wandering around the front of the school, students who were looking, students who could hear. He turned back to Eddie with a look that Beverly couldn’t really describe but could feel like a punch to the gut. 

Eddie stared after him with his mouth dropped open as Richie climbed into the front seat of his mother’s car and pulled out of the parking lot. 

“God.” Beverly breathed out and rubbed a hand over her face. “That’s so…” She shook her head. “What’s next you’re going to make me live through? What? What else do you need? You want me to feel bad for Eddie, I do! Okay, I do! What sort of terrible awful memories do you have lined up for me? Eddie’s dad dying, everytime Henry Bowers abused one of us?”

Another flash. A dark park, Richie on his back, Patrick Hockstetter on top of him. Stanley Uris behind them, baseball bat in the hand, swinging-

Beverly gagged, spinning around and clapping her hands over her mouth. The scene changed again, her standing in her own childhood bedroom. Mike Hanlon laying across the bed with her, Stan sitting straight backed in her desk seat.

“I cheated off Richie on the SATs,” Stan said in a empty voice, sounding perfectly rehearsed. Beverly remembered the chill that ripped through her body at Stan’s words, and her arms broken into goosebumps just hearing it again. “They called me into the office about it, and I… I told them he cheated off me. That I’d saw him, but I didn’t want to get him in trouble. 

Stan and Richie in diapers, bathtub running behind them while Maggie crouched down in front of them with a rubber duck in each hand. Richie standing and applauding at Stan’s bar mitzvah. Stan’s baseball colliding with the back of Patrick Hockstetter’s head and and knocking him away from a half conscious Richie. Richie wrapping a towel around bloodied wrists. 

“I don’t know why I did it.” Stan said slowly, Beverly and Mike both staring at him without blinking. “I just knew I couldn’t fail, that I needed to get a good grade and this test was right there and I just did it. I didn’t think we’d get caught, that Richie would never know what I did and then they confronted me and I panicked. I couldn’t get expelled, I couldn’t, so I just-” 

“You don’t have to explain it to us.” Mike interrupted, but Beverly remembered wanting to say things much, much worse to Stan in that moment. “The only person who can forgive you is Richie.”

The scene twisted once again, but Beverly and Richie were now in some sleazy looking New York Club. Beverly wiped at the tears that started to fall down her face. Richie rubbed at her arms. As she pulled her face back, trying to catch her breath, she caught sight of Richie stumbling out the front door into the dark NYC streets. She watched the guy in the leather jacket accept a bill from  his friends and followed after him. “God. What now.”

“Not out there.” Richie said somberly. “We’re not here for me. We’re here for you.”

Beverly turned around and let her eyes fully adjust to the ugly bar lighting, and she suddenly recognized it. Recognized herself, sitting alone at the bar. The man who had given the money to the friend who had followed after Richie noticed her and got up. Beverly realized who he was now. Tom.

“What did that guy do to you, Richie?” Beverly asked, feeling her heart begin to hammer in his chest.

“Not the point, Bev.” Richie said sadly. “This is your story, no matter how connected everything always is.”

Beverly shook her head, watching Tom putting on the charms for her. He didn’t seem nearly as attractive as Beverly remembered him being all those years ago. He just looked like another scumbag in a bar, and Beverly was disappointed in herself for going home with the loser that night. Never mind the path it lead her on.

“Did you ever like him at all?” Richie asked her.

“Did you ever like me at all?” Beverly shot back. Richie raised his brow at her and she sighed. “I thought I did. I wanted to.”

“Yeah.” Richie said, giving her a soft smile. “Me too.”

Beverly gave him a smile back. “I know that it wasn’t meant to be and Richie. I didn’t even think so when I threw that shit in Eddie’s face. It was some stupid defensive bullshit and I never meant those things to him for a second, I just didn’t know how to take them back or make anything better.”

Richie shrugged one shoulder, eyes still stuck on Beverly’s husband. “So, what are you going to do now? When you go back to the real life? You have a husband waiting for you, a nice round of apologies to make…”

“I don’t know.” Beverly breathed out. “I could go back to Tom, I should. I need a place to live and we’re married and he loves me. I thought I loved him once, I could do it again. What other options do I have, really?”

 Standing outside Derry Middle School, a completely unsigned yearbook in her hands. Ben slipped a A Derry postcard with a poem into her book bag. A slow dance in the school gym at senior prom. Drinking in a Derry hotel room. Kissing in front of beautiful, empty houses. 

“Okay.” Beverly rolled her eyes. “That one was a little unnecessary.” 

“Was it?” Richie challenged with a grin. Beverly opened her mouth to respond, but suddenly found herself opening her eyes on a subway bench. She sat up, and pulled the sweater tighter around her. She found suddenly that it didn’t smell like Richie anymore. 

She took her time walking through the streets of NYC before reaching her designation. She buzzed into the building.

“Hello?” The groggy voice on the outside side answered.

“Hey, it’s me.” She said through a voice crack. “Can I come up?”