Hold Me (Reddie)

I'll Save Him (Richie)

He didn't know how but he knew he would fix this. He knew he was fucked. He knew he was so fucked, and he knew that because of him Eddie was fucked too. What would Mrs. Kaspbrak do? Would she call his mother? Father? Richie was just standing there, outside the door that had just been shut in his face, trying to figure out what he could possibly do now. He needed to get to Eddie. He could sneak around the house...yes! Get to Eddie's window, apologize in person, and then tell him the bad news. If only Richie had thought this through beforehand. He didn't have to write a note in the first place, he could've just spoken to Eddie in person, and then they wouldn't be as fucked as they are now. Richie had to get to a window though, of that he was sure. He had to warn Eddie before that bitch of a mother he had did anything. Richie didn't think Mrs. Kaspbrak would ever hurt Eddie, but he really had no way to be sure. It was impossible to tell, damnit!

Richie found himself wandering into the tiny backyard. It was still bigger than his own, of course, and you could see Neibolt Street and the train yard through a small cluster of trees and bushes. Richie didn't look. He found Eddie's window, about three feet up from the ground, and knocked on it gently. He heard an audible gasp come from inside, and then the window opened. Eddie looked startled, and then glared at Richie. I almost forgot he was mad at me.

"Eds, I need to talk. Make sure your mother won't see me."

Eddie seemed to understand at that moment that this was more serious than a couple of jokes. "She won't. The door's blocked. What's up? Wanna crawl in?"

Richie took the next minute shimmying himself onto Eddie's bed through the window, and the few seconds after that to grab Eddie by the face and kiss him very deeply, just for his own satisfaction. "That might be the last time I'll be able to do that. It's still incredible though. Breathtaking."

"What's going on?"

"You know that letter you wrote me?"

Eddie nodded.

"Well, my dumb ass thought it would be a great idea to return the favor. Except I don't know shit about poetry so I just said 'hey Eddie Spaghetti I like kissing you from Richie' and then I came here to give it to you but then your mother answered the door and took it from me and read it and now I'm not allowed to see you anymore and she knows we kissed and now you're all caught up."

Eddie continued to stare at Richie, his eyes wide, and wheezed a little bit before grabbing his inhaler. "My mother knows? You can't act so casual! She's gonna fucking kill me I swear! Why the fuck would you let her find out like this? She's awful, Richie! She's awful! She talks about the married guys that live down the street, she screams and yells and oh lord Richie, she's going to fucking kill me and it's-"

Richie kissed Eddie on the lips again, gently, holding his hands and trying to calm him down. "We can get through anything. She won't hurt you, she won't lay a finger on you. I'll protect you." Richie found himself wanting Eddie more in that moment. Wanting to protect him. Wanting to kiss him, and hold his hands, and not care what anyone else would think. He liked Eddie. He liked Eddie so much it made him laugh a tiny bit, and then kiss him again. "To tell the truth, I've never imagined kissing a boy. It sounded odd. But it feels so natural, it feels..."

"Right."

————

Richie left not long after that, riding his bike. It was around ten, and he was tired, too tired to even notice he was taking the old route home. That was, until, he turned onto Neibolt Street and realized just where he was headed. He felt his heart race increasing drastically, but he told himself he would not turn back. We defeated It. The house is just a damn house since we defeated It. He approached it slowly, wobbling on his bike, and stopped in the moonlight to look at the creepy old shack. He could feel the fear all along his back as he peered at the dead plants in the hard and the broken hinges on the windows and door. And then a few yards to the side, right near the entrance of the train yard. That's where Henry Bowers slit the throats of his goons. Richie remembered reading about it, when the police found the bodies and such. The kind of thing made him shutter. That was caused by true evil, nothing more and nothing less.

"You should go home kid," someone said behind him, which startled him. For a minute there he thought one of two things. That the evil, It, wasn't really gone, or he had fully gone mad. But no, it was just a lady in a jumper and jeans walking a little golden retriever along the street. She was smiling warmly at Richie, probably just concerned because he was alone at ten o'clock at night.

"I'll be home soon, ma'am, I just got distracted. I'm not new to this section of town. My gang hangs about in the Barrens." But yesterday was the first time since September, Ricardo. You need to stop living in the past.

"My family's new, we moved into town about a month and a half ago. It's a nice place, isn't it?" The lady stopped, to talk to Richie, and the dog stopped too. A good dog it was. Like Bill's, before he died anyways. The lady had grey hair which was strange, because she looked kind of young. She had the face of a thirty year old.

"Can I ask you a weird question?" Richie asked. The woman looked confused, but nodded, so he continued anyways. "Do you think it's wrong that I just kissed my best friend?"

"Of course not, you seem like a charming young man. Did she not like it?"

"That's the thing," Richie informed her. "My pal's a boy."

The lady's eyes widened, but she was still smiling big even in her sudden shock. "If you like the kid that's all that matters. But you should still head on home now, I bet your parents are worried out of their minds. Good luck with that friend of yours. Maybe I'll see you around."

"Maybe," Richie repeated. I doubt it. He definitely wasn't a favorite in Derry. Most adults in the town hated him because of his loudmouth and his 'tomfoolery', but someone of the others just hated him because he was a loser. After all, it wasn't just kids who hated the losers. It just seemed to Richie that he was the only one who chose to be a loser. Eds was asthmatic, Bill stuttered, Stan was Jewish and Mike was black! None of that shit mattered. But being an annoying loudmouth? Oh that was just a choice. And even though it was, Richie Tozier still didn't change.