you began to feel like home- reddie

chapter 8

It was around five when they'd got into the costumes, deciding to go trick or treating early. Eddie laughed at Richie's terrible makeup skills as he did the clown makeup in the bathroom mirror. His hair was stuck up a bit, and his hands covered in fake scissors. They make the walk downstairs, waving to Ashley before they left. They went all around the neighbourhood, only getting a few weird looks. They were laughing the whole time, and got two bags full of all different kinds of candy.

The boys got back to Richies at around 7, an hour and a half before the other losers supposed to be arriving. They got upstairs, dipping the sweets into a pile on the bed. Eddie was giggling like mad, acting as if he were a child. They decided they'd get out of their costumes, getting into casual clothes and went into the bathroom. Eddie was using one of his makeup wipes to clean Richie up, as he sometimes wore eyeliner. He was holding Richies chin up, while rubbing softly at the skin. The boy was careful while cleaning the clown off of him, while Richie moaned about how long it was taking. "I'm bored." He says, trying to move his head to look at Eddie. The other boy just grabbed his chin harder, moving it back into place. He sighed, moving over to the other side. "Well Rich, this won't take much longer." He says, rubbing the boys face again. Richie groans, looking at the time on his phone. It read 7:45, and he guessed this wouldn't be done for another 15 minutes.

"Ed's, i don't mind if the others see the makeup." He says, looking down at him slightly. Eddies grasp on his chin lightens, as he looks up at Richie. "Won't they make fun of us if they know we'd gone out for halloween?" He says looking him in the eyes. Richie looks dumbfounded, as he moves his chin out of Eddies grasp completely. He holds the boys shoulders, his eyes scanning over his face. "And what makes you think that? We're all losers Ed's. I bet bev and ben did some couple  costume thing without us knowing." He says, laughing a little. It gets a giggle out of Eddie, before he sighs, throwing the wipe in the bin. "Alright, if you want to look like an idiot don't blame it on me." He says, walking out of the bathroom laughing slightly.

Soon, 8:15 rolled around and the boys weren't expecting a knock on the door. Richie got up from his bed, jogging downstairs a little. He picked up the candy bowl that was on the side going up to the door. To his surprise, he saw mike standing there, with Stanley to his right and Bill to his left. Richie let them in, leading them to the living room. He told them to wait there while he got his radio and headed back upstairs. He walked into his room to see Eddie not in there, and walked out back into the hallway. He knocks slightly on the door of the spare room, seeing Eddie through the gap. He's sitting on the bed, with his inhaler in one hand and the other hand shaking.

Richie crosses the room to sit next to him, startling the boy a little. His face is red, dried tears on his face. He watches as Eddie takes another puff from his asthma before throwing it back on the bed somewhere. And then he starts to fiddle with his hands, like he always does. And like Richie always does, he takes the boys hands to stop them from fiddling, holding them in his own. Eddie looks up at him, while Richie smiles at him lightly. And then Eddies hugging him, sniffling slightly. He's taken aback slightly, before pulling his arms round the boy, holding on tightly. He can tell Eddie doesn't want to talk about it so he gets up, holding a hand to help Eddie up. He tells him to go downstairs, as some of their friends are down there before he dashes into his room to get the radio from his desk, then going back downstairs.

He plugs it in, messing with it for a little before a song starts to play. Then another knock at the door, at around 8:25. Ben and Beverly stand on the other side, hand in hand. Richie allows them in, bowing before closing the door. They listen to music, sitting and chatting all scattered about across the living room. A few trick or treaters knock, and they give out sweets (only a few though, they wanted most for themselves.) And then, 9:30 comes about and Mike says he needs to head back home. They all hug him and wish him safe journeys, as his house was on the outskirts of derry.

The other losers then decided to have a dance party, messing about with one another. Ben and Bev are dancing together, giggling with one another. Stan and Eddie are fake slow dancing, while Bill and Richie are just dancing on their own. They all do that for a little while before they get worn out, Richie deciding to chuck on a movie. Since it was halloween, Eddie knew a horror movie would be chosen out otherwise it wouldn't truly be a halloween night. He quickly excused himself to get a drink while they were picking between The gremlins or Poltergeist. Richie had followed Eddie out, saying he was going to get a drink also. When he'd gone into the kitchen he saw Eddie biting on his nails and sighed.

"What's wrong?" He asks, the boy looking up at him. He shakes his head, just putting his nails to his mouth again. Richie crossed the short distance between them and pulled his hand out of his mouth. "Tell me." He says, looking the boy in the eye. Eddie sighs, before speaking. "I don't like horrors." He states, not daring to look Richie in the eye like he'd judge him. "That's ok, you can hold my hand every time you get scared. You ok with that?" He asks, the boy now looking at him. He slowly nods, before they both head back into the living room and get snuggled into some blankets on a sofa.

Richie feels Eddie squeeze his hand nearly every five minutes, the boy shaking from time to time. He personally didn't think that The gremlins was that scary, but he was sure Eddie had hardly watched any horrors in his life with the way his mother is.

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Eddie is awake, and he's panicking. He reaches over for his inhaler to only find it isn't there. He panics even more, his breathing becoming heavy. He's crying, the nightmare still fresh in his mind. He doesn't want to wake Richie up, so he puts his hand in his mouth to cover up his sobs but that only makes his breathing worse. Suddenly the other boy is awake and whispering comforting words to him, while holding him. Eddies crying a lot, struggling to breath more than he was before. "Rich, Rich inhaler." He manages to get out, through his crying. Richie suddenly gets up, leaving Eddies side to go into the spare room. He comes back, and then holds Eddies face, pressing the inhaler into his mouth.

Eddies breathing soon goes back to normal, and his tears slow down. Richies sitting next to him, looking over at the alarm, and he also looks over. It's around half three on Sunday morning, and Eddie sighs. "Do you want to talk about it?" He hears, and immediately nods his head, rubbing at his eyes. He lays back down, his back facing Richie. He hears the other boy move about, before feeling a hand wrap around his waist. "What are you doing?" He asks, as he's pulled back. He gasps quietly, because Richie had pulled him to his chest. "I'm cuddling you, i always used to cuddle Ashley when she had a nightmare." Richie mumbles, before rubbing his head into the pillow. His breath evens out after a few minutes, as Eddie let's his eyes close. He cuddles closer to Richie as he starts to drift off himself, the nightmare forgotten by now.