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reddielibrary · 5 years

Text

everything changes (when the sun goes down)

Written by @richictozicr

Gift for @stansbooty

Pairing: Richie Tozier x Eddie Kaspbrak

Word count: 10,167

Rating: Mature

AO3 Link

Summary: Gifted separate powers from Maturin, the seven Losers are brought together at age 13 and given five years to perfect their gifts before ultimately coming to face the unnamed monster that they call IT. Richie Tozier knows their survival odds are slim, they don't know enough about what they're fighting for it to be any other way, and before the time to face this monster comes and they inevitably die, all he wants is to be brave enough to finally tell Eddie Kaspbrak how he actually feels about him. But his clock is close to running out.

Eddie was waiting for him around the corner of the school, in an alley that was often left empty and secluded. The moment he saw Richie’s bruised face, he gaped at him and moved forward, hands coming out to touch him by the shoulder. The first time Eddie had reached for him like that when he was bruised and injured, he had flinched away on instinct. He didn't now.

“Shit, Rich, what the fuck happened?”

Richie shrugged. “Tyler and his dickhead friends. The only thing that ever happens, really.”

Eddie studied him carefully, knowing there was more and trying to decide if he would get anything more out of Richie if he pressed him. He wouldn’t today and he seemed to know it because he just said, “Okay, sit down then, fuck.”

Richie hesitated and then shook his head. “Let’s just go to the Barrens. Do it there.”

“Your face is fucking blue and black, Richie! What if we run into your mom? What are you going to do then, dickwad? Tell her you tripped and tonight tell her that it just went away? Really? Because if you do that, you better fucking record it because I’m going to want to see that shit go down.”

“When do we ever run into her?” Richie asked in exasperation. He knew he was right, the way to the Barrens was pretty much empty and the odds of running into either of his parents were a million to one. But he could tell by the way Eddie spoke that it came from worry for Richie so he lowered himself onto the ground against the wall for Eddie to work. “Just be fast.”

“I’m always fast,” Eddie said with a roll of his eyes.

Richie smirked, unable to help himself, and said, “For whatever girl swipes your v-card, I really fucking hope not.”

Eddie scowled at him furiously. “Hey, asshole, do you want me to fucking do this or not? Cuz you can just stay all swollen and bruised up and gross and shit, won’t bother me.” He stared down at Richie challengingly for a moment and then cupped Riche’s face in his hands, ignoring the taller boy’s hiss at the feeling. Once the initial sting left, Richie tried to ignore how hard his heart was beating in his chest because of the contact, keeping his eyes set on the ground below them.

Richie could feel the tingling sensation of the bruises and split lip healing up and then it was over and Eddie’s touch was gone and, even though he’d just been fucking healed, he felt almost as if he were missing something. “Thanks,” he said quietly, pushing himself to his feet clumsily. Eddie reached to help him, his hands clasping around Richie’s left arm, and Richie looked at him just in time for their eyes to meet. He glanced away quickly, unable to bring himself to hold contact, not when he still had the words that had prompted his dumb ass to hit a bully in the face ringing in his head. Fag, fairy . He hated it, he was sick of it, and standing up to them had been worth the ass-kicking he had gotten just thirty minutes ago. “We should go.”

He could feel Eddie’s confused gaze tearing into him as Richie started to walk through the alley, stuffing his hands in his pockets. It was only seconds before Eddie had caught up to him, which was rather impressive given how much longer Richie’s legs were. “You’re getting good at that,” Richie said, unable to stand the silence between them. "At fixing us up like that."

Eddie offered a half-shrug in response. “It’s been a few years.” Five, to be exact.

It had started with Bill, the year they turned thirteen. His little brother had died horribly, his arm torn off never to be found, and then Bill had heard Georgie’s voice one night when he had gone into his empty bedroom. It kept happening and Bill had thought he was losing his mind with grief until he saw him in the basement. That was Bill’s gift: mediumship or something like that.

Right after Bill was Mike, even though they weren’t quite friends yet. When being nearly run over by Bowers, he had managed to create a force field for himself that had probably saved his life or at least saved him from several broken bones. Stan was next; discovering that he had the ability to leave his body and travel through various realms of existence.

Next to gain abilities had been Beverly. She had sought them out because of her visions, claiming that if they didn’t band together they would all be dead in five years’ time, and so would half the town at least. Eddie had soon after healed Ben from his run-in with Bowers. In the following days, Ben realized he had control over the earth and its properties. Richie was last, much to his frustration.

His abilities had refused to show at all until the day that they met Mike, the day that they became the Lucky Seven. It was immediately following the rock fight when, as Bowers and his crew went clambering back up the hill, Richie had managed to animate a piece of rope that was lying on the ground. It had immediately set itself to tripping Bowers, further humiliating him as he made his exit.

The truth was that life as witches was really not much different from life had been when they were thirteen-years-old. Richie still went to school, hung out with his friends, got his ass kicked either for existing or some dumb comment he had made (granted, his gift of animation also led to him getting himself into trouble when attempting to get back at bullies), and then hung out with his friends some more. The only thing that had changed was that instead of just sitting around reading comics or building dams, they practiced.

They had to be ready was the short of it. Mike, Bill, Bev, and Stan kept reminding them of that, that they had these powers for a reason, that It was coming back. It, that had killed Georgie and several other kids, had been biding its time and waiting but time was almost up. Stan was the one who had initially passed the message along. He claimed that their abilities had been gifted to them by Maturin, that he had called Stan to another Realm and explained that they were the only ones who could stop It.

It and Maturin were ancient creatures from another dimension. There wasn’t an exact word for whatever It was, really, but Bill had taken to calling it a Glamour, after a Gaelic entity, and that fit well enough. It had crossed over to their realm and, while Maturin was unable to follow, he had gifted the seven Losers their abilities so that they could stop It when it struck again.

Richie didn’t understand it and had been very vocal about it through the years, that picking seven kids seemingly at random to save the fucking world or town or whatever was illogical, but the others only ignored him when he brought it up and the truth was he knew it wasn’t important. Illogical or not, it was true and they had to learn how to possibly fight something that they knew nearly nothing about.

Now, he stopped as they reached the entrance to the clubhouse, the main place that they had taken to practicing during the day. At night they’d branch out to the barrens or the quarry, but not usually during the day. He looked up at Eddie through his glasses with a small smirk. “Want me to go first so I can catch you?”

“Shut up asshole,” was the simple response, though the other boy was smiling as he moved past him and climbed down. Richie chuckled to himself as he followed, dropping easily onto the dirt as he turned and surveyed the other losers. They’d grown up a lot over the years. Mike and Ben were both shaped like jocks, though only Mike was out of the two. Ben had a particular disdain for the main coach at school.

Beverly had grown into herself beautifully, and if Richie wasn’t painfully in love with someone else or good friends with someone in love with her, he might have asked her out. She sat on the old hammock now, a cigarette placed between two fingers as one ripped-jean-clad leg hung out of the hammock. Richie easily made his way to her side and she handed him a smoke without a word. “You’re old enough to buy your own as of last month,” she said simply but lit the end of it for him anyway.

“Ah, but yours are so much better Bevvy,” he told her, grinning around the cigarette between his teeth, his hands coming to rest on one of the beams holding it up as he easily swung himself back and forth. “You give them to me with love.”

“I give them to you out of tolerance ,” she replied with a loose grin, putting one booted foot up against his abdomen and pushing a little so that the hammock swung slightly back. Richie laughed and glanced back at the other Losers, bringing one hand down to pull his cigarette out of his mouth as he exhaled the smoke.

“Do we know when exactly we’re all set to die by the way?” Richie asked lightly, leading to Bev kicking him lightly and dropping her foot.

“Beep beep,” she said as she swung back and forth and Richie shrugged his shoulders lightly as though he wasn’t actually fucking terrified that Bev had said they would be dead in five years five fucking years ago.

“I haven’t seen anything,” she said quietly. “Not yet.”

“Then we better puh-puh-prepare,” Bill said, shoving himself off of the wall.

______

It was another month before anything changed and the waiting was easily the worst part. Richie found himself crawling through Eddie’s window more nights than one in an attempt to find some way to get through the night. Sometime this year, they would all die, but it wasn’t his own death he was afraid of. He couldn’t shake the vivid image that Bev’s words had painted that day so long ago, couldn’t shake the image of Eddie bleeding and wounded, impaled over him.

The day it all changed started with a bang. Richie woke up with sunlight streaming into the room and Eddie frantically shaking him to the point that he ended up rolling right off of the bed and crashing with a thud onto the ground. Grunting, he pushed himself up onto one elbow and looked at his friend with a sleepy expression, trying to figure out why the hell he was on the floor instead of the warm bed with the familiar, warm body.

Panic hit him then, panic that he had said or done something to give himself away, that he had spoken in his sleep, said Eddie’s name or something else, or that he had- For a terrible moment, he wondered if he had gotten morning wood but quickly realized that wasn’t the issue.

“We overslept,” Eddie hissed at him, throwing himself out of the bed as well and going to open the window. “You gotta go! Do you know what will happen if my mom catches you here? She will actually fucking combust, okay? She will fucking explode and you and I will both fucking die so I need you to fucking leave.”

Groaning Richie got to his feet and rolled his shoulders back as his face twisted into a grimace. “Yeah, yeah, I’m going. We used to have sleepovers all the time, I don’t know why it would suddenly be so bad.” But neither of them said anything to that because they both knew. They knew when Sonia Kaspbrak had become less tolerant of Richie being around the house, being around Eddie. They both knew that it was when whispers and taunts started being thrown the way that he liked boys. That was when she had gone from barely tolerating him to seeing him as too dirty, as something that would infect her little Eddie-Bear . Never mind that they were just rumors, or that he wasn't even gay, he was bisexual (not that Richie actually thought she would think that better). None of it mattered.

Richie opened the window again and slid his lanky legs out of it, leaning back with his hands on the raised window to look back at Eddie. “See you at the clubhouse later, Spaghetti.”

“Don’t call me that,” Eddie shot back as Richie laughed quietly, blew him a dramatic kiss for flare, and slid out of the window.

He went home, snuck in through his own window, changed clothes to a Rolling Stones t-shirt, an open button-up, and black, ripped jeans. He pulled on purple high tops and then went to the kitchen to eat with his parents. He was doing one of his impressions as his father laughed with the paper open (Richie was pretty sure his parents were two of the only people on the planet who actually read the paper anymore) when his phone beeped with a text.

He slid it out of his pocket and glanced down, his stomach dropping instantly as he saw it.

Bev 8:45 AM: Clubhouse. Now.

The text was rather ominous as it was, but as soon as he saw that it was to the entire group, he felt it. She knew something and all that Richie could do was hope that it wasn’t too late, that nobody was dead yet and, selfishly, he hoped that if someone was, it wasn’t one of the Losers. He excused himself as quickly and subtly as he could, hoping he didn’t look as sick as he felt, and started his trek to the Clubhouse, forcing himself not to cave and go by Eddie’s first.

As soon as he climbed down into the clubhouse, he felt the melancholic vibes, felt the seriousness of it. “What’s going on?” he asked, eyes flickering between them.

“Dunno yet,” Ben said, glancing at Bev, who was sitting on the ground against the wall, her hand shaking as she brought her cigarette to her lips. “Bev wanted to wait till we were all here to go through it all.”

Richie glanced at her and nodded before looking over the others. Bill stood next to Mike and Stan, all three of them pale with eyes set on Bev. Finally, his gaze stopped on Eddie, who was laying in the hammock, face creased with worry and anxiety. He went to stand beside the small boy on the hammock, one hand going to rest at the rope tying it to the ceiling. Once he was still, Bev started to speak.

_____

They were going to die. That was pretty much set in stone, even if no one was going to say it. It was back and they had one day to prepare to stop It. If they didn’t, they would die and it would feast on the town with nothing to slow it down. Bev had seen it all in her dreams the night before, had seen every detail. She didn’t tell them everything, but she didn’t have to. It was easy to see in how pale she was, how she shook as she sat there that it was going to be gruesome and none of their deaths were going to be easy. They would hurt, they would probably be bloody, and they probably wouldn’t end fast enough.

After she had finished, Stan had sat down in a corner and gone into another dimension in hopes of finding something to help them. So far he had found nothing but he seemed determined to keep trying. Richie was sure he would try all through the night.

The entire day was spent in practice, each of them working on their individual abilities, knowing they had to be better if they had any hope. Every so often, Bev would try to take a look at the future to see if it had changed. It hadn’t. They used different ideas of how to work together in both offense and defense, but it was to no real avail from what Beverly could tell.

When Bill called it for the night and told them all to go home and rest, to take advantage of time with loved ones, it was clear. This was a classic “last night on earth”.

They went separate ways, no one setting out to walk entirely on their own. Ben and Richie went together, hands in pockets as they wandered down the darkening streets. It wasn’t until they reached Richie’s block that Ben spoke up. “You should tell Eddie,” he said, voice scratching a little as it left his throat.

When Richie dared to look up, Ben’s eyes were settled on him and they shone with that determined look that Richie had always admired in him. He considered playing dumb, but it would be stupid. The truth was, he and Ben had never sat down and had a heart to heart about their individual pining, but they both knew. They bonded over it, somehow, even with the reluctance to speak of it. “I dunno,” he said quietly instead, feeling more cowardly than he ever had before.

“I’m gonna tell Bev,” Ben said finally. “I’m going to go home and call her, invite her over, let her hang out with me and my mom. My mom loves her, you know? And then… I dunno, after Mom goes to bed, I want to tell her.” He shrugged his muscular shoulders with a small smile as Richie gaped at him. “I have nothing to lose, right? If we’re going to die tomorrow… I want to die with my cards on the table.”

Richie felt like the ground had dropped out below him, unsure of what to say or even what to think. What would it be like to not harbor that secret? It was too difficult to imagine, too foreign. It was hard to remember a time that he wasn’t yearning for Eddie, that he wasn’t trying to act like every touch didn’t make his heart skyrocket in his chest.

“I think you should too,” Ben said softly, watching Richie with an empathetic look that said he understood. Richie knew he did.

“It’s different,” he said quietly, shaking his head. “It’s more complicated.”

He almost expected Ben to get frustrated, maybe tell him that love was love or some shit. Instead, Ben gave him a sad smile and said, “I know.” And something about those two words of confirmation actually made Richie feel better. Maybe it would be easier if they didn’t live in Derry, if Eddie’s mom wasn’t so prejudiced and hateful if the odds weren’t that Eddie was fucking straight. “But he looks at you too.” Richie stopped in his tracks, staring at Ben as if he had just spoken Klingon. Before he could even think of a response, Ben just smiled and patted him on the shoulder before going into his house.

Rich walked the rest of his way home alone, hands in his pockets, and when he got home, he ate with his parents and watched them as if trying to memorize their movements and the way they spoke. He watched his dad do a terrible Cookie Monster impression in an attempt to get Richie to lighten his mood, and he succeeded a little bit, though not enough to make them think nothing was wrong. Even Richie didn’t have a real cover to hide behind tonight. In the morning, he would go to meet the Losers to get ready and he may never see the two people who had raised him again. And nothing about that thought was okay.

He stayed up with them until they headed for their room at about ten o’clock, his mom pausing to kiss the top of his head and brush his cheek with her knuckles. He turned around, arm resting on the back of the couch, and watched them disappear from view. He sat there for another fifteen minutes before he made up his mind. He pulled out his phone and sent Ben a quick text of Thanks and then went out the front door.

By the time he was outside of Eddie’s window, he wasn’t sure if he was going to be able to follow through, if he would be able to tell Eddie the truth, that he had been in love with him since he knew what love was, but he knew that if he was going to die in 24 hours he wanted to spend this last chance for quality time with him at his side. It didn’t take long at all for him to realize the window was already opened and with a small flutter of his heart, he wondered if Eddie had done that purposefully in hopes he would come over. With the help of the once again animated tree, Richie hoisted himself into Eddie’s bedroom window into the dark room.

He landed ungracefully on the floor and when he looked up, he saw Eddie sitting on the edge of his bed with a small smile of amusement, dressed in a light purple t-shirt and checkered sleep pants. “Nice landing, Rich,” he said dully. Richie grinned up at him and crawled to the bed, pulling himself up to sit beside Eddie, only for Eddie to push him back onto the floor. “Hey, Rich, you’re still in your clothes you were in today and they’re filthy. We were in dirty water and dirt and Ben’s powers literally are controlling dirt, do not put your dirty ass on my bed and will you stop fucking grinning at me? I’m serious and I’m getting you clean clothes to sleep in.” He was still muttering about Richie’s filthy clothes and how he had half a mind to make him shower before letting him anywhere near his bed. Richie sat on the ground with a grin and leaned back on his hands.

Then Eddie stood over him with folded pants and a shirt in his hands and an expectant quirk of his brows. Richie got to his feet and took the clothes from him, watching as Eddie went to lay in one side of the bed and picked up his phone, the light of his phone shining against his face and against the headboard... Richie hesitated for a brief moment before shrugging off his overshirt and tugging off his t-shirt. He replaced them quickly with the clean one of Eddie’s and then unbuttoned his jeans to pull them down and off his hips. Before he could, his eyes lifted and he realized with a jolt that Eddie was looking at him, his features illuminated by the light of his phone still facing towards him. Richie couldn’t read his expression to save his life, especially since the moment that their eyes met, Eddie flushed and looked away, taking away any opportunity for Richie to figure it out. He pushed his jeans down most of the way and kicked them off the rest of it before pulling on the sleep pants and crawling into the bed beside Eddie.

As soon as Richie was in the bed, Eddie put his phone away and rolled over so that they were facing each other, the only sound in the room the quiet breathing between them. Richie found himself overwhelmed by the desire to reach out and touch Eddie’s cheek, to pull him into his chest and hold him like he hadn’t dared to for years. Eddie touched him first, causing Richie’s chest to contract around his furiously beating heart.

Eddie brushed his fingers over the glasses still on Richie’s face, tracing the frame all the way to Richie’s ear. It was suddenly very hard to breathe and Richie was forcing himself to, wondering if it sounded labored or not, not daring to take his eyes away from Eddie’s, not even daring to blink. “You left your glasses on,” the other boy whispered into the darkness.

The look on Eddie’s face was one that Richie hadn’t seen there before, he was pretty sure. There was something open and hard to read about it all at the same time, his eyelids lowered as he stared at Richie’s face, his lips parted just a little, just enough to be the biggest temptation Richie had ever faced in his life. He couldn’t even hear Eddie’s breathing it was so shallow.

“All the better to see you with my dear,” Richie croaked out in the best Grandma voice he could possibly do with Eddie this close and looking at him like that. Eddie snorted and carefully pulled off Richie’s glasses, the taller boy lifting his head off the pillow to help him. It was an intimate movement, Eddie’s hand brushing over Richie’s face carefully and, even without his glasses, Richie could see the care that Eddie folded them with before setting them on the nightstand.

“Ben’s telling Bev he’s in love with her,” Richie blurted, not even sure why. Part of him thought that it was to try to get the courage to tell Eddie the same thing, but part of him was thoroughly convinced that there was no way he’d find the courage at all.

Eddie nodded his head slowly, his hair brushing over the white pillowcase as he did. God, Richie wanted to run his hands through it in a completely non-platonic way, just once in his life. He wondered briefly if Eddie would say anything if he tried. “I thought he might,” he whispered back.

“Would you?” Richie asked softly, amazed at how strange his voice sounded, how unlike his own. “If you were… in love with Bill?”

Eddie stared at him then as if he had turned into a frog. “If I was in love with Bill,” he repeated dumbly and it almost sounded like he was giving Richie a chance to correct himself. Richie, however, had no idea what to say and, given how close they were and that they could die tomorrow, couldn’t figure out what was wrong with his question so he just nodded.

They looked at each other for a long moment then, Eddie’s gaze disbelieving and borderline annoyed, Richie’s a numb surprise that might have been at his own statement or at Eddie’s response. Finally, Eddie groaned and whispered, “You are the smartest dumbass I have ever met”, cupped Richie’s cheeks, and kissed him hard on the mouth.

He didn’t even feel surprised, Richie would notice later when he looked back on it. It felt too right to question it. Richie kissed Eddie back with fervor, his hand fumbling to cup the back of his neck and pull him in closer to him, suddenly frustrated that he was laying on his left arm. But it was over before he could free it, Eddie not even an inch away, lips still parted just like earlier (though now slick with saliva), eyes still closed. Richie took in the sight, his own breathing so shallow that he was surprised that he was getting enough oxygen at all.

He slowly brought his hand from the back of Eddie’s neck to his cheek, thumb tracing over his jaw gently, wiggling his right arm out from under him and reaching up to take one of Eddie’s. “I was gonna do that,” he whispered.

“You took too long,” Eddie murmured, slowly opening his gorgeous brown eyes. “And then you started talking about Bill and I just-” Richie cut him off, kissing him deeply and passionately with a low hum.

Eddie surprised him again, taking charge quickly as he ran his tongue over Richie’s bottom lip, which encouraged a moan from the taller boy. Seemingly spurred on by the response that he received, Eddie moved his hands to either side of Richie’s waist and rolled him onto his back, climbing on top of him and straddling him easily without breaking the kiss once. Richie made a muffled sound of surprise into his mouth, one hand coming to rest at Eddie’s hip and one finally burying itself in Eddie’s hair.

Eddie made a sound that made something low in Richie’s gut coil and all he could think about was getting him to make that sound again. He wrapped his arms tightly around Eddie’s waist then before flipping them over so that Eddie’s back landed on the mattress, prompting another low groan from the back of Eddie’s throat and Richie smirked into the kiss. But then Eddie was parting from it and they were staring at each other and Eddie’s pupils were blown with want.

“Is it okay if we… just do this tonight?” he whispered finally.

Richie blinked in surprise before saying, “Yeah, Eds, I didn’t even-”

Eddie cut him off before he could finish, “I just- I want to. I really want to, but I also… God, I want us to have… I don’t want to die before I get to have sex with you and so maybe…”

Richie felt himself grin a little as he finished, “Maybe we’ll stay alive then. So we can.” Eddie flushed and nodded, looking embarrassed. “You’re so fucking cute,” Richie whispered, reaching down to pinch at Eddie’s cheek. Eddie was fighting back a grin as he smacked Richie’s hand away playfully. “You know what? I think that’s pretty fucking smart.” Richie ran his fingers carefully through Eddie’s dark hair before using his hold there to tug him lower. “But c’mere and kiss me some more before bed, hmm?”

With a wide grin, Eddie leaned up, pausing with his lips a tantalizingly close distance from Richie’s, his hands coming to the hem of Rich’s shirt. “What do you think about having a little more contact though?” he whispered, lips almost brushing against Richie’s.

“I think you’re a fucking genius,” Richie said with a grin, leaning up to pull off his shirt. When his eyes fell back to Eddie, the smaller boy was in the process of doing the same and then his shirt landed on the floor somewhere next to Richie’s. He was tempted to make a joke about Eddie’s mom, just to cut the tension, but he found it impossible to speak when he was suddenly able to look at Eddie like he had been wanting to for so fucking long. He slowly traced his fingers over the lean muscles of Eddie’s abdomen and sucked in a sharp intake of breath, his eyes meeting Eddie’s hungrily. The other boy looked just as affected, just as lustful, his hand on Riche’s chest as well, and then they were kissing each other again, more desperately than before.

They spent most of the night like that, kissing, touching each other, whispering things like “We’re gonna make it”. By the end of the night, with Eddie in his arms and their chests pressed against each other, Richie almost believed it.

_____

Eddie’s alarm was the first thing that Richie heard in the morning, and he spent about five seconds trying to ignore it before he remembered what that alarm meant and what today was. He forced his eyes open and blinked hazily at Eddie, who was curled into him, head dipped into Richie’s chest, his breath tickling the skin and hair there. With some difficulty, Richie reached over and fumbled to find Eddie’s phone without disturbing him. When he finally got the alarm to stop, he pulled his arm back carefully, bringing his hand to cup Eddie’s jaw lightly as he let his eyes roam over his sleeping form.

His shirt was still off, his pants hanging loosely on his hips, revealing the curve of the bone beneath it and making Richie’s throat go dry at the sight. He let his other hand go down to Eddie’s hip and carefully rested his hand on it, his fingers tracing his hip bone in a feather-light touch. Eddie twitched a little in his sleep and Richie froze his fingers, looking down at his form as he wrestled with himself, knowing he ought to wake him up, that they had alarms set for a reason. He wanted to stay like this, to feel Eddie against him like he might not get to again, wanted to take in the sight. Suddenly, he felt ridiculous for taking so long in the first place.

He slowly leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to Eddie’s temple, letting his thumb rub circles just above the hem of his pants. “Morning, Eds,” he whispered softly, ducking his head to nose affectionately at the skin. There was a soft mumble of response as Eddie burrowed his head further into Richie’s chest. Richie carefully ran his fingers through Eddie's hair, leaning down to kiss his temple again. "I really would prefer us to stay here but…"

Eddie made a soft sound and pulled his head away from Richie's chest so he could look up at him, blinking the sleep out of his eyes. "Shit, right," he half mumbled, stretching carefully. He slid his hand to the back of Richie's head and carefully tugged him down and kissed him softly on the mouth. When he parted, Eddie’s eyes looked a little bit more alert as he looked back at Richie, his fingers still going through his dark curls. “Should have done this sooner.”

Richie closed his eyes and found himself leaning forward, letting his forehead brush lightly on Eddie’s. “Yeah, I know.” He leaned forward and kissed him again, slowly, adoringly, before parting and whispering reluctantly, “I need to go home… Before my parents get worried… I can pick you up on the way to the Clubhouse?” Eddie nodded slowly, his forehead rubbing a little on Richie’s as he did. Slowly Richie reached past him and took his glasses from the nightstand, sliding them onto his face with ease.

It was with severe reluctance that Richie slid out of bed and worked his way out of Eddie’s sweatpants before pulling on his jeans. When he glanced over his shoulder he saw brown eyes watching his every move intently. Eddie’s eyes were dark with lust and he looked unashamed to be caught looking, though his face was turning redder by the second. Richie grinned and buttoned his jeans before sliding back onto the bed, cupping the side of Eddie’s neck as he kissed him deeply. The kiss was returned with a forcefulness that before last night Richie wouldn’t have expected, but he knew now.

He had to force himself away so that he could pull his shirt on before pulling on his socks and shoes. He felt Eddie rubbing his back and closed his eyes as he leaned into it, letting out a soft hum. “I’ll be back in a few hours,” he murmured quietly.

Eddie pressed a kiss between his shoulder blades and whispered, “I know. I’ll see you then.” Richie turned and caught his lips in a quick, soft kiss before getting up and crossing to the window. He glanced back and looked at Eddie for a long moment as if he might never see him again which was ridiculous because they were going to see each other in a few hours and surely wouldn’t die before that. But all the same, how could he act like it was just another day? Like there wasn’t a reason they had finally had the courage to be honest with each other?

Forcing himself away, Richie climbed out of the window.

The morning was long. It was hard to pretend to be normal with his parents that morning, but Richie did his best, probably even better than he had done the night before. He laughed at the jokes from his dad, shot some back in return, did the voices that he knew they liked the best. And then he hugged his dad and kissed his mom on the cheek before leaving the house to get Eddie, trying to distract himself from how heavy his heart was as he did.

Getting Eddie was easier though and he felt a little bit more able to make himself think that they weren’t about to die tonight. Mrs. K opened the door when he knocked and Richie channeled all of his nervous energy into being the obnoxious kid that she knew and hated, instantly saying, “Hey-o Mrs. K! Top o’ the mornin’ to yah now! I’m here to collect Eddie, I am! We have important business of which to attend, yah see!”

Her eyes narrowed in that way it did when she was about to say something nasty, but before she could Eddie was shouldering past her. He paused to kiss her on the cheek and say a quick ‘bye mom’ before grabbing Richie at the elbow and pulling him down the walkway.

“Ah, yes, must be going now! Chop chop!” Richie said loudly as they rounded the corner. He could almost see the stink eye that he was getting through the tree and side of the house.

Eddie ducked his head, his lips curving as if trying not to laugh. “You don’t have to turn it to 150% with her every time, you know. She already doesn’t like you.”

“Aye,” Richie said, not dropping the accent until he continued, “but that’s just because she knows how much I like you.” He tossed his arm around Eddie’s neck and pinched at his cheeks. “Cuz you’re cute! Cute cute cute!”

Eddie made a strangled sound and leaned his entire body away from Richie, smacking lightly at his side as the taller boy’s arm dropped. “I hate it when you do that!”

“No you don’t,” Richie told him with a smile. Eddie failed to hide his own warm smile as he set his eyes on the sidewalk beneath them, instead of reaching out to intertwine his fingers with Richie’s.

As soon as they got into the Clubhouse, Richie’s eyes went to Stan sitting on the ground, eyes glazed over as he leaned his head back. By this point, it hardly took even a second for Richie to recognize that his friend was traveling astral planes. He glanced at the others wearily in a silent question. Without needing words at all, Mike said, “He’s getting information, he finally started getting stuff this morning. So far he’s figured out where It is. Under the house on Neibolt, in the sewers.

Eddie groaned and muttered, “Of course it is. Fucking disgusting.” Richie felt his lips quirk in the corner and reached out to take his hand again, not caring about the other Losers. He wasn’t sure if it was Last Day On Earth mentality or simply how long he’d wanted to do this, but he found it hard to care and judging by the way Eddie was gripping his hand in return he didn’t either.

It was only then that Richie noticed Bev positioned between Ben’s legs on the hammock, her head on his chest as they swung idly back and forth. Good for them. Richie caught Ben’s eye and smiled softly, offering a small thumbs up that made Ben laugh a little as he returned it.

They didn’t stay idle for long, quickly falling into their individual training exercises. Richie, Mike, and Ben moved to practice at the Quarry as they often did, and when they returned, there was a collection of weapons on the ground between their friends. It was a good idea, really, given that of the gifts, Richie and Ben had the most aggressive ones among them, but the sight of the weapons still filled Richie with an uncontrollable sense of dread. Maybe it was the reminder that this thing they were doing really was so dangerous to require things like an old machete, a fire poker, and so on. If they needed that stuff, they were really in deep shit.

When the sun started to set, the Losers climbed out of the Clubhouse and headed for the Neibolt house, all still on their bikes instead of cars, even though several of them owned cars now. Part of Richie had always thought the preference for bikes was because they reminded them of the days when they were younger and five years felt like an eternity and even with these new gifts they’d felt safe.

None of them felt safe when they got to the house. Even Richie was quiet as they moved inside until the smell hit him and he made a wisecrack about Eddie’s mom’s underwear drawer that led Eddie to elbow him lightly in the ribs and offer a week, “Beep, beep, Richie.”

Stan led them down, below the house, into the Derry sewers, where It apparently lived. “How do we find it?” Ben asked, glancing around their surroundings wearily.

“We won’t have to,” Stan breathed. “It knows we’re here.”

Sure enough, none of them had even taken a step before a red balloon started floating towards them, eerily slow and quiet. Richie couldn’t even hear the sounds of his friends’ breathing, or maybe he was so scared that he just couldn’t notice. The balloon came to a stop about half a foot in front of them, spinning around in a circle. On one side, the first one to face them, it had I ♡ Derry and then, as it turned, they saw You’ll Float Too printed clearly on the other.

The balloon popped with a crushingly loud sound that echoed all around the cave around them, but the sound was a thousand times better than the blood that flooded out of the balloon and rained over them all, drenching even the rocky ground below them. Richie wasn’t even sure that that was the worst part because they were still dripping, only seconds after that fucking balloon exploded when a sickening, clown laugh rang out.

There were two things that Richie had always been scared of. One was werewolves and the other was clowns. But no clown was as terrifying as the one that was now visible at the opposite end of the cavern. Richie reached automatically from Eddie’s hand, struggling to grip it when they were both still soaking with blood that they had all forgotten about.

The clown darted, gone just as suddenly as it had been there, though the laughter still filled the cave. The Losers gathered in a circle, back to back, all but Richie and Ben gripping the weapons tightly. A shield slowly grew around them, thanks to Mike, and Richie felt like he could breathe just a little better. Until the clown reappeared in a new spot but it quickly started to change. Its arms shook and stretched, its hands becoming claws that landed and dug into the ground in sudden claws.

Then It grew , sprouting up and up as new claws sprouted out of his sides. It became some kind of new thing as if a spider with claws for legs had decided it was a good idea to mate with a clown. It started to come towards them, each step making the floor of the cavern quake with such a force that Richie nearly fell over.

One claw came right down on the shield with such force that there was a sickening crack and all of them stared up in surprise. Nothing had ever been able to harm one of Mike’s shields before, nothing. But then there was another direct hit, right where the first had been, and a terrible, deep crack appeared in the top, like a crack on a hard contact lense.

The cavern ceiling started to shake, pieces of rock falling towards the monster. It was Ben’s doing, clearly, most likely in an attempt to distract It, which only worked when a large chunk hit it in the head, finally silencing the ringing laughter. “Mikey tuh-take it down! We’ll spuh-split up!” Bill screamed over the chaos as It lifted its claw again.

No sooner had the shield come down that It dove its claw right in their center, all of them throwing themselves away from it just before being impaled. Richie pushed himself up, eyes scanning the area for any sign of Eddie, relief filling him when he finally saw the other boy pushing himself to his feet stubbornly.

“Is everyone okay?” Eddie screamed out, but the only result of the question being asked was It turning its gaze on Eddie. It was in the same sickening moment that Eddie and Richie each realized that Eddie had dropped his machete when leaping from the circle.

Eddie jumped out of the way just in time, rolling away fast enough to put feet between him and It. Richie quickly sprang to action, animating the machete that had been dropped to the ground. The weapon sprang up, standing on the handle before spinning towards the giant monster and sinking itself into Its shoulder. The monster screamed, the sound echoing out of that terrible clown head but it quickly turned into that horrific laugh instead, the head swiveling to look right at Richie.

Richie backed up quickly, nearly stumbling over himself as he did, watching the thing take a step towards him, the claw sinking through one of the pieces of the ceiling, dividing the large clump of rock as if it were nothing at all. The same bit of ceiling suddenly twitched and Richie felt himself smirk, knowing already what was happening.

The rocks flew upwards towards the belly of the beast, splitting ways before reaching him and flying around and above him, only to clamp down on either side of his vicious, ugly head. “Yeah, Haystack!” Richie yelled, tossing his fist into the air.

The beast roared, stomping backward as it reeled from the blow. Richie saw what was about to happen just seconds too late to open his mouth, saw Stan on the ground behind the beast, staring up at it, just before the claw went piercing right through his friend’s left shoulder. Stan screamed and Mike and Bill both lurched towards him. As soon as It pulled its claw from Stan, Bill and Mike each took a side, pulling Stan to his feet as carefully as they could. He yelled out in pain that sounded so real and tormented that Richie felt his heart stop in his chest, his eyes glued to his oldest friend. Finally, he tore his gaze to Eddie. “Go!” he yelled, nodding after them. “They need you!”

Eddie hesitation lasted for such a brief period that if Richie didn’t know him so well he wouldn’t have noticed it at all. Then he gave Richie a nod and ran back towards the tunnel. Richie saw It start to turn towards the others making their move to get Stan to safety and hollered, “Hey, dumb ass!” It turned to him slowly, eyes narrowing, and Richie took that opportunity to grab the machete off the ground and throw it as far as he could, the enchanted weapon doing the rest of the work for him as it zipped towards the monster and hit it in the face.

Richie paused briefly before darting into the tunnel himself, half sliding and almost certainly skinning his side fiercely under his shirt. He pushed himself up, not even feeling it with the adrenaline pounding through his body. He saw Mike throw up a force field and exhaled in shaky relief, quickly shrugging out of his flannel and tossing it to Mike, who added it to Stan’s wound a top of another overshirt that looked like Bill’s. “How’s he doing?” Richie panted.

“Hanging in there,” Stan grunted hoarsely. “Wh-Where’s Bill?” His voice was weak enough that it made Richie feel like he might be sick, but he fought it back.

“He said he saw Georgie over there,” Eddie said, nodding towards deeper into the tunnel. He knelt down beside Stan and lifted the shirts to get a better look at the wound. His face twisted into an expression of such concern that, for the first time, Richie wondered if Eddie’s powers would be enough.

“Bill,” Stan grunted and Mike squeezed his right hand, looking desperately for someone to go get the seventh Loser.

Richie swallowed and nodded. “I’ll go.” He jogged down the tunnel, almost pausing when he heard the laughter echoing from behind him, in the cavern. He pulled to a stop beside Bill, who was crouched on the ground in deep conversation. Had Richie not seen Bill’s powers in use so many times by now, he would have thought his friend had lost it. “Bill? Stan wants you, I- Fuck, Bill, it’s so bad, I don’t know if Eddie can-”

Bill held up a hand and then nodded once at whoever he was talking to before looking up at Richie with worried eyes as he got to his feet unsteadily. Richie threw out a hand to help him up. “He has to if we have any ch-ch-chance,” he said unevenly. He didn’t stop to explain, instead of leading the way in a run to the others.

Stan didn’t look quite as terrible, the blood that had initially been coming from his lips had dried and wasn’t being replaced so Richie took that to be a good sign. Bill fell to his knees on Stan’s side opposite Mike and looked around at them. “Juh-Juh-Georgie and the others,” he said, half panting. The stitch Richie felt in his side from all of the running and diving of the last hour didn’t blame him. “They s-s-said-” He closed his eyes and took a long breath to steady himself, a long moment that the claw beating against the wall of the force field with sickening thuds and an occasional crack said they didn’t have, and said, “It’s from the other dimension, ruh-ruh-right? Its cuh-core is still there. That’s how we kuh-kuh-”

“That’s how we kill it,” Beverly finished slowly, her eyes lighting with sudden realization. “We need Stan to go kill it.” She closed her eyes and Richie knew she was scanning their future for change.

“It’s an e-e-egg,” Bill managed to get out, eyes flickering from Bev to Mike and then back to Stan. “It’s tethered by its o-own egg.”

Stan nodded, even as his eyes were half-lidded. “If it’s in its lair that would be why Maturin never knew.”

Mike shushed him in a gentle tone, hand cupping his cheek as he glanced at Bill again with worry in his eyes. “I’ve never held it under this much weight. It’s too strong, the field’s gonna come down any minute.”

“Using his powers is going to take a strain on him,” Eddie gasped out as the claw hit the side again and this time Richie could see the crack, like a sliver of a crack in a hard contact lense. “I think I’m going to have to keep the wound from reopening.”

Richie nodded, looking at Ben with a heavy exhale, a question in his eyes. Ben gave a single nod and lifted a hand, his eyes fixed on something behind It. “Ready?” he asked.

“Wait.” Bev scuffled with something on the ground before lifting with the fire poker. “I’m going to help you distract It. If Stan dies, we all die.” There was only a second’s hesitation on Ben’s face but then it was gone and he nodded once. Bev moved closer to him, her hand rubbing from his arm to his shoulder, whispering something that Richie didn’t even try to hear. He was sure it was private.

Richie caught Eddie’s gaze, noticing how scared the smaller boy looked. Eddie didn’t have to say it, he knew on his own that it was for Richie’s well being out there more than his own. Richie offered him a small smile that he hoped was comforting and got a weak one in return. Stan nudged Eddie lightly on the knee and nodded towards Richie. Eddie got up and moved to Richie, going to touch his face but pausing due to the blood on his palms.

“Be careful,” he said quietly.

Richie opened his mouth to make a wisecrack but closed it again before he could. He took in Eddie’s worried, tired, dirty face and said, “I love you.”

Eddie stared at him for a long moment, as if he couldn’t believe the words, or maybe he just couldn’t believe the timing. But then he lurched in and kissed him, purposefully keeping his hands from touching Richie. Richie reached out and took both of Eddie’s hands in his anyways and squeezed them as he kissed him back. But it was over too soon and Eddie whispered, “I love you too.” And nodded at him before pulling his hands back and kneeling down beside Stan.

Bev looked at Mike and nodded as if to tell him they were ready. Mike watched her for a long moment before turning his gaze on Ben and Richie as well. “Be careful. I’m going to throw up the shield again as soon as I can, so give us a warning if you need-”

“Just do it!” Richie half yelled, watching the claw thud again and the crack grow an inch.

“3,” Mike said, glancing at Ben. Ben curled his fist and a rock behind It slowly lifted and suddenly Richie understood. “2.” They watched it go higher. “1.”

The rock dropped and It screamed again, turning its head to look behind it. The field dropped and the three of them bolted outside, splitting up to take different sides of It. Ben had rocks flying, Bev occasionally climbed up the side of the cavern to scream at It to get its attention and sometimes throwing whatever she could, and Richie animated every weapon they had dropped that he could see, anything at all that he could see.

One of those fucking claws went flying towards Beverly and she leaped from the wall, tumbling onto the ground. Ben and Richie both shouted her name in unison until they saw her clamber to her feet. It became preoccupied, trying to pull its claw back out of the wall, as Bev darted away quickly. “I’m fine!” she shouted back at them.

“How much longer?!” Ben shouted towards the tunnel.

“He’s been in there a while!” Mike yelled back to them. “But we don’t know!”

Richie exchanged looks with Ben, easily catching the exhaustion on the large boy’s face. He felt it himself and he could see it in Beverly as well, could see it in the way she was moving just a little slower than before. “Come on, Stan,” Richie breathed to himself. “Bevvy, how we doing?”

“What, you want me to check now?!” Beverly shouted back, sounding like she might laugh if the situation wasn’t so fucking dire. Because even though they were getting exhausted, It wasn’t. It was just getting angrier, but its energy wasn’t lessening any as far as Richie could tell.

“Come here, I’ll cover you!” he shouted back. Beverly nodded once and sprinted to him, sliding to her knees behind him. Richie glanced around the cavern desperately, eyes finally catching on an old, rusty sheet of metal peeking out of some of the rock. It had probably been buried down here long ago. It animated to life quickly, wiggling its way from the rocks, though Ben saw what was happening and pulled the remaining rocks away from it. The sheet metal flew in front of Richie and Bev just as Its attention had gone to them.

Its claw, of course, pierced right through it, but it slowed the momentum enough to stop Richie from being impaled. It bounced around, continually blocking blows until Ben managed to get Its attention fixed back on him.

It was a few minutes of that when It smashed a rock thrown its way and its claw went barrelling towards Ben. The metal shot to him, slowing the blow by taking it long enough for Ben to dive out of the way. “Bev?” Richie half-shouted desperately, but her name had hardly left his lips when she appeared at his side.

“It kept changing until the end,” she panted. “But-”

She didn’t get to finish. It screamed, a terrible, deranged sound, and curled in on itself. One claw pierced the ground with such force that half of it vanished into the earth, but It didn’t seem to notice. It was still screaming and actually deteriorating. It fell apart, bit by bit, and they could see shining light beneath its flesh.

“- have to get in there!” Bev’s voice finally broke through Richie’s stupor, bringing his gaze over to their shielded friends. The force field was going down, Richie realized, and it was only then that he realized what was happening. Beverly grabbed his hand and they both ran to the entrance of the tunnel, meeting with Ben a few steps away. They dove inside once it was lifted enough and then Mike slammed it back down.

It was just in time. It exploded with a shriek and the light-filled the entire caver, so bright that it almost burned Richie’s skin even through the shield. Bits of the monster hit the shield, looking so disgusting that under different circumstances Richie might have hurled.

Instead, he just fell to his knees and then arms were around him and he felt Eddie’s forehead pressed against his own and heard Eddie’s exhausted whisper of, “We did it, Rich. We did it. We’re all alive. It’s over.” Richie brought his own shaking hand to cup the back of Eddie’s neck and sighed with relief.

____

“We had to be there,” Stan explained tiredly in response to Richie asking why they had had to go in the first place if killing it was in a different dimension altogether. He was leaning against Bill’s shoulder with Mike leaning on his. The three of them looked picture-perfect sitting like that in front of the Quarry, Richie thought.

Ben was sitting on the rocks, leaning back on one arm with Bev’s head in his lap as she lay on her side, looking at Stan as he spoke. Richie, for his part, was holding Eddie stubbornly on his lap against his chest, perched on a log with his own chin settled on Eddie’s shoulder.

After the battle had ended, they had all sat in the tunnels for what had probably ended up being an hour, laughing and crying and holding each other. Stan was going to be fine, he healed up fine once it was over, once he was able to relax and let Eddie help and wasn’t straining with his powers. Then they had gone to Bill’s and all fallen asleep together spread out across Bill’s bedroom, no one, not even Eddie, bothering to shower, though they all pretty much wrestled each other to go first in the morning. Once clean and fed, they had all gone home, reassured their parents that Bill had had a crisis and needed their help, and then met up in the Quarry where they were now.

“We had to be there,” Stan repeated, “because I travel astral planes, not locations. I could never have done that if we hadn’t been in the lair or if we hadn’t located It. It had to be there for the egg to be in reach and we had to be there to find It, do you see?”

Richie hummed in approval and tilted his head to kiss Eddie’s clothed shoulder before looking back up. “So. Is Maturin like our Charlie now?”

All of the Losers stilled and glanced at each other as if at a loss before Ben finally asked, “What?” with a laugh in his voice.

“Like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory?” Eddie asked with a slow blink as he turned to look at Richie.

Richie smirked and laughed, shaking his head. “No. Charlie like Charlie’s Angels. He’s this secret voice only Stan met who told us what to do and guided us through saving our whole town. Uh, hello? I think we’re basically super witch spies now. Super hot witch spies.”

Eddie was the first to start laughing, curling in on himself from laughing so hard and Richie grinned, gratified. The rest followed quickly, even Richie. “Beep, beep, Richie,” Bev managed to get out, shaking her head as the laughter subsided.

“I’m just saying, if we do this too often he ought to pay us or something,” Richie said, only to be beep-beeped again by Bill. Eddie was gazing up at him with adoring amusement and Richie just beamed right back, leaning down to kiss him long and deep enough that the other Losers started howling, whooping, and groaning dramatically.

It was hard to care though, and even Eddie didn’t seem to if the way his tongue was halfway down Richie’s throat was any indication. They had lived and, more importantly, they were together. So what could possibly dampen any of their spirits now?

#reddie #halloween event 2019 #richictozicr

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reddielibrary · 5 years

Text

Safe In Your Arms

Written by @richiehearteyestozier

Gift for @richictozicr

Pairing: Richie Tozier x Eddie Kaspbrak

Word count: 2166

Rating: Teen

AO3 link

Summary: Finally, it was Richie and Eddie's turn, and Eddie wrapped his hands around Richie's arm as they entered. Richie felt himself blush, grateful that no one could see him in the darkness. Or: The losers go to a haunted house, despite Eddie’s protests.

Eddie had made it very clear that he did not want to go. He’d always said that scary movies and haunted houses were for people that hadn’t actually lived through those things in real life. Richie was always quick to point out that they’d never actually been in a haunted house, just a clown infested one. Eddie was always quick to tell him to fuck off.

But everyone had known that Eddie would come anyway, because that’s what he did, he complained, but he was always there for his friends. That was why he was standing outside Derry’s scariest haunted house, looking like he wanted to be absolutely anywhere else. Richie looked to his friend, he looked nervous, his hand was absently feeling around in his pocket as he looked at the entrance (Richie noticed that he did that when he was anxious, he was pretty sure he was feeling for an inhaler that hadn’t been there in years).

“You don’t actually have to do this,” Ben offered, because he was tooth-achingly sweet. “I can stay back with you if you want.”

“I’m fine,” Eddie shook his head, “It’s just a stupid haunted house, it’s all fake.”

“Exaaactly,” Richie purred, throwing his arm around Eddie. “Besides Eddie Spaghetti, if you get too scared, just remember you have a big strong man next to you to protect you.”

Eddie just rolled his eyes, “You’re right, Richie, I probably should stay next to Mike,” Eddie shrugged out from under the taller boy’s weight and took a step towards Mike.

Mike grinned and put his arm around Eddie, mirroring what Richie had just been doing. “Don’t worry Eddie, I’ll protect you.”

Richie frowned, throwing his hand dramatically over his heart, “Ouch Eddie, that hurts, I really thought that you loved me. Does that make you a homewrecker Mikey?”

Mike chuckled.

Stan groaned, “So, are we actually going to in? Or are we just going to stand around and listen to Richie be an idiot all night?”

“Not you too, Stan the Man,” Richie feigned offense, but nonetheless he led the way to the entrance. There was a line, and Richie could feel the nerves of the rest of the group build with each passing moment.

They’d generally avoided scary things since Pennywise, almost as if their fear might single handedly bring him back and start the whole thing over again. But it had been two whole years since they’d left Neibolt, and (at least in Richies case) they were just really fucking ready to move on.

Eddie didn’t look so convinced.

At the front of the line, the bored looking teenager at the entrance split them up into groups.

“Maximum groups of three,” He explained, eyeing them. “And we’ll space them out.”

They decided that Ben and Bev would go together, then Stan, Bill, and Mike, then Richie and Eddie. Because that’s always how it worked, they were Richie and Eddie, they stuck together.

Ben and Bev went in, sinking into the dark building. Richie noticed their hands clasped together and tried not to imagine how Eddie’s hand would feel in his.

Next went Stan, Mike, and Bill, none of them looking particularly bothered.

Finally, it was Richie and Eddie’s turn, and Eddie wrapped his hands around Richie’s arm as they entered. Richie felt himself blush, grateful that no one could see him in the darkness.

Richie wasn’t scared, he figured that since he’d lived through multiple actual murderous clown attacks, some stupid props and guys in costumes couldn’t scare him.

Eddie, on the other hand jumped at every movement, when a guy in a werewolf costume jumped out at them from a doorway they’d been about to enter Eddie gripped his arm so hard it actually hurt (not that Richie would tell Eddie that).

“This was such a stupid idea,” Eddie muttered, they were in the middle of a room set up to resemble a hospital, and Richie noticed that this one bothered Eddie the most. There were hospital beds with dummies on them, fake blood bags, and jars full of mysterious substances. “This place probably isn’t even clean, we could contract some kind of horrific disease here.”

“There are no horrific diseases here, Eds,” Richie said, his voice low, “People go through these all the time.”

“That doesn’t mean that-“ He was cut off by one of the fake patients leaning up in bed, groaning and making a fake grab at them. Eddie hurried them to the next room, his eyes wide.

“You good Eddie?” Richie asked, taking his eyes momentarily off the path ahead to look down at the other boy.

Eddie shook his head, “I’m fucking great. I’m having the time of my life in a dirty old house that we for some reason entered for the sole reason of being scared.”

Richie chuckled, he took it as a good sign that Eddie wasn’t struggling for breath.

He was still looking down at Eddie, a fond smile on his face, when something jumped out in front of them. They both jumped back immediately, and Richie looked up to see a clown,

He immediately froze, his heart in his throat. The clown didn’t even look anything like Pennywise. He was one of those with a big red nose and a white face. They got the teeth down though, they were razor sharp, and fake blood dripped from his mouth. Richie was back in Neibolt in an instant, Pennywise advancing on him and Eddie, Eddie’s arm sitting limp in his lap. Richie had thought that they were going to die, he’d been absolutely certain, and all he’d wanted was for Eddie to look at him. Not at the fucking clown. He hadn’t wanted Eddie to feel the same terror he was, he’d thought that maybe he could distract him from it for just a moment.

He could feel Eddie grab his arm, and he thought that he was saying something, but he couldn’t hear it over the ringing in his ears.

—-

The clown came out of nowhere, one minute Richie was looking down at him with that smile, and Eddie was feeling like maybe this wasn’t so bad, and the next moment a fucking clown was jumping in front of him and fuck, why did it have to be a clown?

He felt Richie freeze up next to him, his breath catching. Eddie looked up to see that he was just staring at the clown, eyes wide.

“Richie?” Eddie asked, grabbing Richie’s arm. His hand came up to grab Eddie’s wrist, but he still wasn’t looking at him.”Rich? Are you okay?”

The clown lunged for Richie, grinning and bearing his sharp teeth. Richie stumbled backwards, taking Eddie with him, and the clown only moved toward them again.

“Back off asshole!” Eddie said, pushing down the fear seizing his body. “He’s fucking scared!”

The guy dropped the act, rolling his eyes and moving past them, “Jesus,” He muttered.

Richie still wasn’t moving, his breathing was only getting faster. His eyes were darting around the room.

“Rich,” Eddie said, pulling Richie by the arm to the side of the room. He could already hear people approaching behind him, there was a door off the main path and when Eddie pulled Richie towards it he didn’t resist.

It looked like they were in a closet, the room wasn’t decorated like the rest of the house, it had cleaning supplies and it was lit by one dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling.

Richie slid immediately to the floor, his back against the wall.

“Richie, are you okay?” Eddie asked, bending down to kneel in front of him. His mind was pulling up everything he knew about panic attacks, he felt his own chest constricting just thinking about it, but he kept it under control.

Richie was staring at him, his eyes searching his face. His chest rising and falling far too fast.

“You need to breathe, Rich, okay?” Richie had said that very thing to Eddie many times before, had walked him through his asthma attacks more times than he could count.

Eddie took a deep exaggerated breath in, and then out. “Breathe, okay? He’s not-we’re safe. He’s dead.”

Richie took a deep, slow, breath. In then out. He looked a little better, his eyes settled on Eddie’s, and he continued to take long slow breaths.

“Are you okay?” Eddie asked, he put his hands on Richie’s shoulders, this kind of stuff always grounded him when he was going through an attack. Richie’s hands on his arms, a comforting and familiar weight when the world was closing in on him.

Richie nodded, he seemed now like he was coming out of haze. He blinked, “I’m alright, it was just, stupid,” He looked down at his knees, still breathing deeply.

“It wasn’t stupid,” Eddie said immediately. “You’ve helped me through so many panic attacks and you’ve never thought they were stupid before,” He said quietly.

“That’s different,” Richie said, shaking his head, “That’s like, medical. I was just scared,” He was still as white as a ghost, but some of the color had slowly started returning to his face.

“That’s what a panic attack is, dipshit,” Eddie said, but there was no bite to the words, they came out far more gentle than Eddie had anticipated.

Richie didn’t look fully convinced, “It was just...” He paused, swallowing thickly ”Suddenly I was back there, and he was coming towards us. And I really fucking thought that we were going to die,” He took a deep breath in.

“I thought we were going to die too,” Eddie said.

“You wanna know what’s stupid?” Richie asked, smiling weakly at Eddie over his knees. “I thought I could like distract you, I just wanted you to look at me so that you didn’t die looking at that fucking clown. I don’t know, like I could distract you from an advancing monster just by holding onto your face tightly enough.”

Eddie swallowed thickly, he remembered that. The sharp pain in his arm, Bill by his side, Pennywise advancing on them, his fingers growing and sharpening into claws. Most of all, Richie, grabbing his face, not letting it go. Eddie, look at me, don’t look at him. Eddie. And if he hadn’t thought they’d been about to die, Eddie would have probably shoved him away, and told Richie to keep his grubby hands to himself, just to distract from the way his stomach flipped whenever Richie got too close. “Not stupid, I think it helped.”

There was something in the air now, and they were just sat there, looking at each other. And Eddie probably should have stood up, and pulled Richie out of there and out of that stupid haunted house, where they could meet back up with the other losers and pretend like he hadn’t just thought about kissing Richie in a disgusting little storage closet. But he didn’t, instead he just leaned in, slightly, and he knew he didn’t imagine it when Richie leaned in too.

Eddie’s breath caught in his chest when Richie closed the distance between their lips. And it was nothing like he’d ever imagined it (and he had imagined it, even if he hadn’t realized he was thinking about it). He’d never thought it would be in a tiny claustrophobic closet in shitty haunted house. But it was also everything he’d ever imagined because it was Richie, and his lips were softer than Eddie imagined and he was putting a hand on Eddie’s cheek.

Eddie pulled back, blinking at the other boy.

Richie looked at him nervously, “Was that-?”

Eddie knew how that question was going to finish. “Yeah, that was okay. That was, great.”

Richie grinned, “I thought you might say so, I’ve only ever gotten glowing reviews from your mom.”

“I cannot believe you just said that,” Eddie said, but he was still smiling, giddy and happy and feeling more than a little brave. “Can you ever not ruin a moment?”

Richie just kissed him again.

Eddie ran his hands through Richie’s hair, leaning forward on his knees.

This time it was Richie that pulled back, “Wow Eds,” He said, “Who knew you had a fear fetish? Am I going to have to pretend to be a damsel in distress every night?”

“God, this was a mistake,” Eddie said, standing up on shaky legs. He held his hand down to pull Richie up, who immediately wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.

When they were both sure that they could handle it, they reentered the haunted house. Eddie kept his hand firmly locked into Richie’s, and it was only when they reached the exit that he reluctantly released Richie’s hand.

The others were waiting outside for them, and if they noticed how long they’d spent in there, the way Richie and Eddie stayed a little closer to each other than usual, or their secret smiles and whispers, they didn’t say anything. Eddie was grateful for it.

#redd #halloween event 2019 #richiehearteyestozier

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