#The flavor text might be a little long but it sparked too much joy to get rid of so I kept it anyway

[bi-bi-richie]

12 Flavors (4 / 12)

Richie takes Eddie on a date to a special ice cream parlor every month. He spends the dates reminding Eddie of milestones they’ve shared throughout their relationship, all the while falling even deeper in love.

Ao3

chapter 1 , chapter 2 , chapter 3 

“How about a surprise flavor today?” The old man behind the counter asks Richie before he can even order. Richie is caught off guard by the question but he has to admit, he didn’t even have a clue for a flavor. He’s purposely been ordering what he does based on the moment he wants to look back on. The first was cookie dough, both his and Eddie’s favorite flavor and besides each other, something sweet while they look back on one of the most important moments of their lives. The second being vanilla for when Eddie asked him out because it’s, well, vanilla. Plain but sweet, asking someone out is the start of something, not the best but you savor it. The third, chocolate, was bold with a strong flavor you’ll always remember, Richie likes to think of their first date as such.

This flavor, he hadn’t the slightest idea. He was hoping that it would just pop into his head when he saw the flavors on display. It didn’t. Thank god for this old man they keep meeting.

“God yes, please suggest something.” The man chuckles and heads over to scoop out the surprise flavor. Richie looks over at Eddie who is sitting at their usual spot looking down at his phone with a smile. Richie smiles too, the lighting on his smaller boyfriend is making his features so soft. Of course, Richie knows he’s not all soft, but the way he looks is captivating. He almost forgets about the ice cream he’s waiting for.

Eddie isn’t smiling at his phone for the reason Richie thinks he might be. He’s rereading the texts they’ve shared to find clues that might help him figure out why they keep going on these monthly ice cream dates. Don’t get him wrong, he’s absolutely adoring having something to look forward to every month now. It just doesn’t make any sense why all of a sudden Richie is dragging him off to a place with such emotional value. He’s asked before but Richie brushes it off. A part of him likes the mystery but he’s feeling kind of desperate to the point of consuming his thoughts even during the rest of the month. He’s pretty sure not a day has passed that he doesn’t wonder about these dates.

He half expected Richie to skip out on this date because it’s April Fools Day. In fact, leading up to the date he was kind of nervous that they would skip it. He may be confused beyond belief but he still enjoys the dates.

“Thank you very much!” Richie says as he grabs the ice cream from the man’s hand. He looks down at the chosen flavor and his thankful expression quickly changes into an amused confused one.

“Well uh, what flavor is it?” He asks with a chuckle. The old man chuckles with him.

“Cotton candy, for April Fools Day. Just something to make you smile.” Richie huffs with a smile and nods his head. He goes to walk over to Eddie but does a backtrack to ask one more thing.

Eddie finally decides to put his phone to rest, he’s not finding any clues and he still wants to spend time with his boyfriend. Right as he puts his phone down he feels something way too cold fall right down his shirt. An ice cube.

Eddie squeaks in surprise and arches his back in a poor attempt to get away from it. “Richie!”

Richie, who has been laughing since he dropped the ice cube down his shirt, just laughs into his own shoulder drying not to drop the ice cream. Eddie runs his hands up and down his back trying to fish the ice cube out best he can but in the end he needs Richie’s ridiculously long arms to get it. When he does, Richie presses a kiss to Eddie’s temple.

“April Fools, Edward Spaghedward!” He cheered happily. Eddie punched him hard in the arm and rolled his eyes but didn’t bother to hide his smile.

“You’re an absolute dick, Richard.” He says as he grabs his ice cream from Richie’s hand.

“That’s my name! Besides, you love my little jokes!” Eddie scoffs at that.

“Oh please, they usually leave me soaked.” He guesteres to his back by reaching behind him and ghosting his hand up and down. Richie nods his head like he understands Eddie’s point.

“Yeah, but there’s no way you hate them.”

…

Four months. Four months he’s shared with Eddie and Richie never has ever felt more in love in his life. In the past four months, Eddie bought a new apartment and asked Richie to move in with him. Eddie told him at first that it was for financial reasons but as soon as Richie moved in he admitted that money was only half the reason.

Eddie has never had a long term relationship before. He was open to trying at one point but nobody interested him and people that showed interest in him only wanted sex. And, sure, four months isn’t that long. In fact he told Richie that when they were discussing it, but there was just so much there. Eddie’s never felt the way he does with Richie and he knows that he doesn’t wanna miss a moment he could be spending with him. Of course he doesn’t mean to sound clingy but it’s true.

Lucky for him, Richie doesn’t think it’s clingy. He actually agrees with Eddie and admits that he thinks Eddie is one of the best things that’s ever happened to him. They moved in not to long after and have been happy since.

On this particular week, Eddie has been in a weird mood. He spent the week before visiting his mom back in Derry because she told him that the hospital confirmed she only had a few months left to live. It didn’t shock Eddie to find out that the doctor had actually said that she should start eating better and exercise more or she won’t expect to live much longer. He was furious, but he didn’t wanna start a fight with her. He fought anyway.

The last time Eddie saw his mom, she told him she was no son of his. Eddie accepted this, after all, it’s how he met Richie. But when he got the phone call he felt the guilt bubble in his gut at the thought of leaving her. Yeah, he knew deep down that it was a lie, but she’s his mom so he feels like he has to show up.

She tried to meddle in his love life by suggesting a woman she met in town named Myra. Eddie started the fight by telling her that she needed to stop suggesting people like she did before when she knew he was gay. The fight ended when he told her that Richie loved him even if she didn’t.

But that’s got Eddie wondering. Does Richie love him? Sure, they’ve been dating for four months but never in that time have either of them said that they loved each other. Eddie knew he loved Richie though. In any pathetic past relationship he had, he never told them that he loved them. Probably because he never did. He’s nervous about loving Richie though, it’s the first time he’s been in love with anyone.

Anxiety chipped away at him constantly after the fight, was he falling in love too fast? Did Richie love him? Was Eddie just falling for the first guy who showed him sympathy? He threw that last thought away the moment he thought it. He loves Richie, not because he comforted him after a fight with his mom.

The gut wrenching question sticks with him as he walks into his shared apartment on a friday night. He’s not tired but he feels pretty out of it as he fumbles with the keys to the door. Maybe he’d talk to Richie about this, maybe they can have a mature and hopefully not awkward conversation about their feelings. Yeah, Eddie likes the sound of that.

He doesn’t get that. The minute he opens the door he’s met with a green flash that hits the wall next to him with a loud pop and squirts water all over him and the floor. It’s a water balloon. Eddie lets out a squeak in surprise before he registers that the only way that water balloon could’ve been thrown was from his boyfriend’s hand.

“Richard. Fucking. Tozier.” He spat out with amusement in his voice. He can see the top of his black curly hair head from behind the couch and a bucket filled with more green balloons.

“There’s another bucket by the table, I’ll give you a two minute head start!” Eddie giggled in disbelief but ran over to where the bucket was with blue balloons. Eddie knows he was thinking of something before this, but in the sudden excitement he couldn’t bring himself to remember or care.

Eddie dove to the floor and positioned the white chairs to protect his base. He went to grab two balloons for each hand then crouched so he could just barely see where his boyfriend was. It didn’t take long for Richie to realize Eddie was in full fighting mode, so he threw a balloon in what he hoped was the right angle to hit Eddie. It wasn’t, it splattered on the wall above him which sparked a surprised yet delighted squeak out of Eddie. He fired back by throwing one of his balloons which just barely missed Richie’s head. As anyone hearing this story could imagine, they broke out into a full on water balloon fight. Richie was blindly throwing them half the time and Eddie stood up one too many times.

They barely hit each other at all despite how many had been thrown. Eddie’s kind of relieved at that, I’d like not to be spending the rest of tonight treating a black eye on my boyfriend. But he spoke too soon, as soon as the thought passed he chucked one of his balloons and hit Richie right in the face causing him to fall backwards and yelp.

Eddie felt triumph at first but that faded pretty quickly when he realized he just hit his boyfriend pretty hard. He stumbled over to Richie as he tried not to slip on the split water. He could hear some muffled noises coming from where his boyfriend had collapsed on the floor.

“Shit, Rich, you okay?” He asked as he looked over to see Richie on his stomach with his back going up and down in rapid motions. For a second Eddie thought he might be crying, but then he rolled over to reveal the only wetness on his face was the water he was hit with.

He was laughing, giggling like a little kid who heard a stupid joke. His face was so full of joy and love it drove Eddie to start laughing with him. He dropped next to Richie and dug his face into his chest and laughed loudly without a care. When they finally started to calm down, Richie grabbed Eddie’s face with both his hands and stared into his eyes. Eddie could get lost in Richie’s beautiful blue eyes, but right now all he can see in them is pure love. All the love a man can offer. Eddie realizes in that moment, that all that love is his.

“I love you, Eddie.” He whispers so quietly, like he’s afraid of Eddie rejecting him.

Eddie feels… nothing he thought he would. All the anxiety he felt before when he even thought about it didn’t dare show its ugly head. Instead, he laughs. He laughs like he’s high off the feeling of being so and totally in love. Oh, he’s so deep in love.

Richie lays there confused but laughs with him. When Eddie speaks again he eases any second thought Richie was having.

“Oh, Richie. I love you too. I love you so fucking much.” Then he kisses him. A sickly sweet kiss that leaves both of them breathless but they’re both so in love they don’t fucking care.

…

“I guess I don’t hate them, Rich. They make me love you.” Richie huffs out a laugh and leans over to kiss his head.

“I love you too.”

#reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #it 2017 #the losers club #my writing #12 flavors