Runt in Shining Armor (Reddie) - COMPLETED

Temporarily Blinding Henry Bowers

((Hey! First of all, uh, I made a lil Reddie playlist thing. I'll probably add more in the future but this is it now: http://8tracks.com/trashmouth_tozier/another-reddie-playlist))

Triggers: Fighting, blood, violence

   "Shh..." Richie whispers, despite him not saying anything. Eddie squints. "I didn't-"

   "I know- now you are though!" Richie scream-whispers. "Sorry!!" he scream-whispers back. "That's alright..." Richie replies, listening again for voices. He put his ear up to the wall- one of the only useful things he's ever learned in science. Sound travels better through solids than through air, because the particles are more condensed.

"You little punks in here?" Belch said irritably, not actually wanting to find them. He opened the closet door. Richie's instincts kicked in, as he instantly went to stand in front of Eddie. If Belch Huggins wanted to hurt Eds, they'd have to go through Richie first.

   As Eddie silently planned his funeral in his head, Henry shoved his way through Vic and Belch, smiling. "Making out in the janitors' closet, are we, queers?" he joked, pulling out his pocket knife.

   Thinking quickly, Richie grabbed a random bottle from the shelf and unscrewed the cap, lunging the bottle toward Bowers. The blue liquid splashed everywhere, soaking his clothes, but mostly getting in his eyes. He absentmindedly dropped the knife, putting his hands on his eyes, screaming for Vic to help him. "It fucking burns!!! Oh, I'll GET you queers! I'll fuckin' get ya!!" he threatens, stumbling backwards a bit. Richie lunged for the knife before anyone could notice Henry dropped it, looking back at Eddie.

   Eddie stares at the boy in pure shock, clearly looking impressed. Richie smirks at him, flashing the knife, then casually walking out of the janitors' closet. Belch's head slowly turns to look at them. "C'mon, Henry-" he mumbles, trying to get him to walk to the nurse.

   As the two boys exit the horror scene, Eddie asks Richie why he stayed and protected him, instead of running off for himself.

   "Well, listen, Eddie," he says, trying to come up with a last-minute explanation. "I've taken beatings from them before... and worse," he explains, whispering the last part. "I just didn't want them having the satisfaction of terrorizing you this time. That's all."

"Oh...?" he says, looking up at him. "Yup.. anyway." Richie holds the door open for Eddie, leading him to his bus. They get on quietly, as the rest of the kids yelled and screamed, excited for the weekend. Richie leaned against the window, as Eddie sat down next to him.

They rode in silence.

~ t i m e s k i p ~

"Okay Eddie, you're gonna have to take off your shirt-"

"What-? That's dumb- why?!"

"You want me to get the blood stains out, or not?" he asked, staring at Eddie. Richie raises a brow. "Uh- okay... but... do you have another shirt I could put on while you're cleaning mine-" Eddie replies, waiting for Richie's answer. "Uh, yeah dude- I don't know what you've got to hide, we're both boys, but alright. Stay here," he says, running upstairs.

Eddie's eyes dart around the laundry room, not really knowing what to do. He waits patiently. Not longer, Richie arrives, with one of his shirts. "Here you go, Eds."

He nods, waiting for Richie to turn away. "You gonna give me the shirt or what-?" he asks impatiently. "Turn around! Jeez- wh..."

Richie squints at him. "Yeah- okay. Alright. Okay." He turns around, facing the laundry room door. Richie thinks to himself about how dumb this was.

Eddie quickly slips his blood-stained shirt off, taking another glance at Richie to make sure he didn't see his binder. He puts Richie's shirt on, which was kinda big, due to the height difference. Eddie pokes Richie on the shoulder.

"You done-?" he asks, turning around. "Yeah- here."

Richie sprays the bloody part of Eddie's shirt with something his mom used to use when he vomited somewhere. Ah, memories. Eddie watches, kind of interested, but not entirely sure why.

~ t i m e s k i p ~

"Eddieeeeee!!! I was so worried about you!" squeals his obese mother, Sonia Kaspbrak. Richie stares at her, not even being noticed. "Where were you!? I called the school and they said you were on your bus..! I almost called the police... Eddie, please be considerate next time! I couldn't bear to live without you..." she exclaims, on the verge of tears. "Mom..." Eddie mumbles, giving Richie the look.

Richie smirks and watches. "I just missed my bus, that's all- and I rode the bus with a friend-" he explains, looking up at his mom.

"Which friend? Already the first day of school and you're going home with a stranger?" she huffs. "Who is it-" Sonia asks, only now noticing the other skinny, dark-haired boy in her house. "Hi Ms. K," he greets, smiling a bit, only for the sake of being polite.

~ t i m e s k i p ~

After one loooong talk with Richie (with Eddie watching) about how her son was "sensitive" and "required constant attention" (oh i can definitely do that Richie thought to himself), she finally accepted Richie as Eddie's new friend.

For a minute there was an awkward silence between the three. The kind of awkward silence when a girl brings her boyfriend over to dinner, and he does something just so insanely bizzare that her parents never speak to him again. That kind. Then Sonia's eyebrows shoot up in realization. "Do you want to see Eddie's baby pictures?" she says, already in the process of digging through a drawer for her photo album.

Richie gives Eddie a smug look, then says, "Oh, sure, Ms. K!"

This sends Eddie into a fucking panic attack. "Mom- no, he doesn't-"

"He doesn't what? He should feel the same joy that I first had when I took these pictures!" Sonia says, pulling out a thick photo album. "No! Mom- he doesn't- can I talk to you?..."

"Aw, Eddie... I know it's embarrassing for you. But only a few, okay?" she says, not realizing the trauma she's about to cause Eddie in a few seconds. Sonia opens up her album to the very first picture they had- when Eddie was born.

Richie squints at the picture, then looks back at Eddie, only now realizing he wasn't born biologically male.

Eddie starts tearing up, running up to his room, before he could have a full meltdown.