soulmates? - reddie

10

C/W: Aftermath of a hate crime

Connor left at 5 pm. Of course, Richie was bored, until his nurse brought him a decent dinner from the cafeteria, and a pudding cup. 

"Fuck yeah" He muttered, looking up at her and snickering. She gives him his pudding and promises to bring more. He talks her ear off, in need of a friend. Bored as all hell after she leaves, he finally looks at his phone, shooting up in bed, he can hear the heart monitor beeping faster as he panics. He ruined Eddie's trip. He sends apology after apology. He sends so many texts he loses count.

5:52

Eds Spagheds 🍝🍝❤️

Eds, I am so so so so sorry.

I'm okay, the doctor man fixed me up, and this bomb ass nurse

She brought me pudding

I didn't mean to ruin your trip

I'm really fine

Rich, I'd rather be with you than here 

I'm at my gate now

Can't wait to see you

I'm still sorry.

You'll freak

I'll just prepare you

Attachment

My god babe, I'm about to get on my  plane

Do you want anything when I get there?

Red and black nail polish?

On it.

Ily

Stupid

Richie looks down at his phone, the picture he sent. He tried to look okay, turning on his new playlist to boost his mood, throwing a peace sign up, pushing his hair back, and showing his fucking pudding cup. He still looks like he got hate-crimed, aka, he looks like shit. He sighs and hits the button to call his nurse, explaining to her he has a late visitor who'll stay the night, she doesn't object. Austin Webber's cover of Mamma Mia starts playing, getting a loud laugh from Richie. Of course this is an Eddie favorite, makes perfect sense. 

When Eddie's small frame is visible in the doorway, Rich is melting and already tearing up, reaching out his arms. The boy runs over at him and sets his bags down, squeezing Richie a little too hard.

"Fuck, ouch"

"Shit sorry." There's a moment of silence. "Wait, do you have broken fucking ribs? Richard Trashmouth Tozier! What did you do?"

Richie rolls his eyes and smiles "Hi there bub" He takes a deep breath and starts explaining what happened, gently. He spares many details. Eddie is crying at the end, which makes Rich cry, leaving them a crying cuddling mess. They laugh a few times,  and Eddie wipes at his eyes and quietly laughs at one of his bedridden boyfriend's jokes. He pulls the chair Connor was in, back to its spot by the bed.

He gets out all the polish he bought, wiping Richie's chipped nail polish off, and sighs. They talk about Eddie's trips for a minute, and what they'll do after they leave tomorrow. After that, it turns to a blissful silence, Rich using the hand that isn't painted to turn on the playlist, hearing Eddie hum along leaves a smile on his face. They paint Richie's nails mainly black, with red ring fingers. And when he isn't looking, Eddie paints a red heart on his right thumb, so that he can see it every day. Richie sings along to the songs he knows and they talk again, laughing. It's more fun and a more comfortable ambiance than when Connor was there, a sentiment Rich enjoys. When his nails are dry, he takes Eddie's hands and looks at all the polish in the bag

"I only asked for two"

"I wanted to play it safe" Richie chuckles and paints Eddie's nails. Red pinkies, orange ring fingers, yellow middle fingers, green pointers, and blue thumbs. He adds a small white heart to each finger, continuing to sing along. He smiles and kisses the brunette's lips, noticing that even with shaking hands he painted the nails perfectly, laying back into the bed.

"You're pretty" He sighs and goes to hold Eds's hand and then comes a question he didn't know he was dreading, but clearly was. 

"Were you alone the whole time after the Losers all left?"

He just can't lie to Eddie. "No Connor was here all day, showed up a little bit after we hung up."

"Connor? That late? Didn't he fucking cause this?"

Richie flinches at the raise of his partner's voice. "He.. he didn't ask for it to happen Eds, he came to tell me that, and it was late, so I told him to stay. He just kept me company"

"You should've told me he was here, he's your ex"

"We're just friends!" He laughs at the absurdity of Eddie's comeback "Nothing more! Please calm down Eds, people are trying to sleep."

Eddie nods and rolls his eyes "You know what, I need space, I'm just jet-lagged, that's it. I should go home." Eddie turns around, and Richie tries to stand up, whining, wincing, and leaning into the bed. Eddie snaps back around. "What are you doing get back into bed!"

Richie is starting to cry when he sits down on the bed and places his face in his hands "I'm sorry Eddie, it's just so much." he takes a deep breath and looks up to see concerned Eddie, making him cry harder "I'm just scared, I feel like a kid again. It was scary Eds, I didn't fight back it was like I couldn't. I just told Connor I felt numb but it's a lie. I needed you, but I thought you'd want to stay on your trip, and I lied." sobbing harder he adds "I need you tonight, please stay"

Eddie's face softens and he crawls in beside the sobbing boy, just rubbing his back and comforting him until they both lay down. He presses kisses to the bandages on Richie's face, a couple of kisses to his forehead and lips. Very gently, he lays his head on his boyfriend's chest, sighing as he keeps holding him and looks at his nails with a laugh

Feeling Richie's breath slow, he looks up and sees him sleeping. He wipes at the tearstained cheeks and stops the music, pulling a blanket over them and working to fall asleep himself, despite the pit of worry in his stomach. Eddie still isn't a fan of Connor, and won't forgive him, or start to like him easily, even if it bugs Richie, which he hates to say. Eddie reaches over and replaces the white heart on his left thumb with a black one. Both to represent Richie, and so that he matches with him just slightly when they hold hands. After his nail dries, Eddie snuggles back in and drifts off himself.

The next morning the whole friend group comes with balloons for Richie's check-out day, but opt to wait outside when they see the couple asleep so soundly.

Word count: 1093

A/N: What? Double upload my first day back? Of course! This chapter started as just filler, but I like giving Richie angst. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯