#them moving in together is one of my fav hcs so lets add a lil something something

[sunshinereddie]

i love the idea of eddie moving into richie’s place after ch2 and eddie’s divorce and being all domestic together, you know cooking dinner together and falling asleep on the couch together and pretending they’re not in love with each other and all that, BUT i also love to imagine that period of time when they first move in together and they’re still getting used to each other’s quirks and habits and learning how to live together in the same space

imagine eddie’s reaction to richie’s bachelor apartment that he does not clean enough. richie has to remind himself that all of eddie’s bitching about not letting the dirty dishes stack up in the sink and putting dirty clothes in the hamper instead of on the floor comes from a good place. richie has to admit that his place IS nicer when it’s clean, but does eddie really have to wake up at 7am on a saturday to vacuum?

it takes richie a while to get used to the fact that he’s living with another person now, and to not shit his pants when he gets up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and sees eddie sitting on the couch in the living room bc he can’t sleep. (on a bit of a sadder note, it also takes eddie a while to get out of the habit of saying “morning, myra” when he sleepily walks into the kitchen in the morning and sees somebody there…. richie tries not to take offence)

eddie goes into absolute shock when he sees the contents of richie’s fridge- not a vegetable in sight!!!!- and then learns that richie orders takeout almost every night. eddie refuses to keep this up so he forces richie to the grocery store- except this is not a fun domestic trip to the grocery store, eddie has his list of nutritious food and ingredients and that’s all they’re getting, so no richie, you can’t buy another bag of chips, i don’t care that they’re on sale, you already have two unopened bags of cheetos at home.

richie realizes that now that he’s not living alone, he can’t really walk around……. indecently, as he used to. it takes a lot of mental reminders to put on pants before he leaves his bedroom in the morning, but he thinks its for the best after the time he accidentally walked naked back to his bedroom after his shower and ran into eddie in the hallway and eddie's face had turned more red than beverly's hair. (eddie also has to get used to the fact that richie usually just walks around with a towel around his waist after he showers, and eddie tries not to think about the reason why he gets all warm and his stomach feels tingly whenever richie does that. eddie is sure that he is feeling Normal Friend feelings.)

sometimes their difference of opinion on certain things do lead to arguments- but this is healthy for them. eddie is used to having arguments with his mother and myra- and in those arguments, he was never right, he learned to just listen and agree with whatever they said. but with richie, he listens to eddie's side, and even if he doesn't 100% agree, he'll try to understand eddie's side, and they'll work together to come to a solution. richie on the other hand, he's been living in his own world for so long, that it's refreshing for somebody to knock him down sometimes and remind him that he's not always right about everything. and while their first couple of arguments do hurt ('we're best friends, we shouldn't be arguing!'), over time they learn how to healthily argue and debate and most importantly- apologize and forgive.

but despite all these new changes to the way they live, neither richie nor eddie would have it any other way. eddie is just so relieved to finally be out of that marriage and he feels so lucky to be able to live with somebody like richie, who really cares for him and who eddie can feel safe around. and for richie, living with eddie is a reminder for him to take care of himself. living with eddie makes richie actually get out of bed in the morning (if not because eddie is a light in richie's life, then definitely because if richie's not up by 11:30 eddie will come into his room and turn on the lights and open up the curtains), to feed himself and drink water, to laugh and to sincerely enjoy life.

it takes some time for the two of them to get used to living together, but when they do, it's the best arrangement they could have asked for.