Random OneShots

Cursed tattoos pt.4

By: ceruleanandconvalescence on Ao3

Reddie

~~~~~

A day passes without Stan and Eddie responding to his messages, then another. And another.

His soulmates though, they've been going wild.

Writing shit like "Miss you" and "Wish you were here."

(Privately he hopes the messages are for him. But realistically, he knows they're not.)

He can't write back to them. He knows that. Obviously. But sometimes, when he's alone, he will. He'll draw and write and pretend that they can see it and they'll write back.

Soon, it's been a week and the only thing he's gotten from Stan and Eddie's radio silence is that they're having soulmate issues.

If he remembers, their exact words were, "We found our third soulmate, but they don't want us."

Richie doesn't know what the fuck that has to do with him, but whatever. It's not like he's ever felt unwanted (cue sarcasm here.)

"It's just. Fuck. They felt so safe. Y'know? I mean I barely knew them and it was just one date but...I felt at home."

"I know, honey," Bev pats his back, "You'll find that again. I promise."

He looks up at her, tear-stained face in pain, "What if I don't? People who don't find their soulmates before 30 never find them. You know that."

"Well, I just...have a feeling."

He rolls his eyes, "Glad to know my fate is up to your 'feelings.'"

Two days after that conversation, he sees Stan and Eddie for the first time in weeks. Fuck. He forgot they had a tattoo scheduled. He was gonna call out and eat ice cream. It was a whole plan. Instead, he's here and awkward as hell.

"Hey, guys," he nods, noticing they look about as shitty as he feels.

"Hello. Are we good to go back to Mike?" Stan replies, stiffly.

"Yeah sure. Whatever," Richie says back, annoyed.

They go back and shortly after, he can hear laughter mixed with the buzz of a tattoo gun.

30 minutes pass and Richie is bored out of his mind. He's fresh out of drawing ideas and has managed to wallow to a new low of self-pity.

Secretly, he's glad when Mike calls him back to help with cleaning Stan's tattoo.

That is until he sees it.

"What. The. Fuck?" Richie exclaims, looking at Stan's bare chest.

Mike is bewildered, "Dude. What?"

In response, Richie takes off his shirt, "That's my fucking bird," pointing to Stan's ribcage, where an old tattoo of a swallow sits, "It matches these," he points to his own tattoo of a sparrow and finch.

He takes in a breath, "What the fuck? Is this why you stopped talking to me? You don't want to hang out with the cursed freak?"

Eddie and Stan have matching looks of shock.

Eddie's eyebrows knit together as he asks, "Cursed?"

Mike pipes up, "I'm going to step out, but Rich," he turns to look at Richie, "If you need me to kick them out, I will," he steps out of the room.

"You never responded to us. You didn't want us anymore," Stan accuses, angrily.

"That's because I fucking couldn't!" Richie shouts, "I was cursed! I haven't been able to write through the soulmate bond in years!"

The pieces form together in Eddie's mind, "What? But we thought-"

"It doesn't matter," Richie turns around, wiping his eyes, "You don't want me. It's okay," he turns to leave, but Stan rises up and grabs his arm.

"Look, we fucked up. But we do want you. We thought you were dead and then we thought you hated soulmates-"

"I love you," Richie exclaims, "How the fuck could you think that. I've been drawing for you all these years, knowing you'll never see it. But you? You just decided to stop looking for me."

"Fuck Rich, stop. It wasn't like that. We suspected you were our soulmate and then when we figured it out we wrote to you. And when you never responded back we just...thought you didn't want to."

He turns back to face them, "God, of course I did. I do want you both. More than anything."

Stan pulls Richie into a hug, "I know we don't know you as well as we should but...I think I love you."

Eddie joins the hug as well, "Me too, 'Chee."

It's not perfect and won't make up for all the damage that's been done, but right now, Richie couldn't care less.

"I love you guys too," he responds, quietly.

Finally, with that last admission, something within Richie clicks, and he knows. He knows he's finally home.