love... or whatever||reddie

009

Richie walked into Bills house without knocking first, and headed into the living room to see if Bill and Eddie were there.

When Richie saw the boys weren't in the living room he checked the basement. Once Richie opened the door leading downstairs he heard Eddie and Bill yelling over something. Richie rolled his eyes and assumed they were yelling over some ridiculous game.

Once Richie reached the bottom of the stairs he notice that neither of them had noticed his presence he decided to take full advantage of it.

"WHAT UP FUCKERS" he yelled, making both of the boys jump.

"Jesus Christ, Richie," Eddie sighed rubbing his eyes and setting down the game controller.

"Now big bill," Richie started to question as he sat between the two boys. "Is eddie," —he stopped to pick up the controller that Eddie has previously had—"any good at video games?"

"No, he s-sucks" Bill started, "he feels bad when he kills video game people and he doesn't know what buttons do what and it's a whole mess," he rubbed his temples and Richie chuckled a little bit.

"So w-what brings you to t-the Denbrough house h-hold?" Bill said smiling.

"Dads drunk again," Richie shrugged, it happened often and he didn't make a big deal out of it and didn't want any one else to either, basically all his friends knew that a respected it.

Bill and Eddie slowly nodded their heads. They knew what that probably meant and didn't want to ask for more detail about it.

"Anyways," Bill checked the time on the arch on his wrist, "it's almost midnight, I'm gonna go to bed. Uh, Richie y-you can sleep on the couch or o-on the mattress I have set up f-for Eddie already with him, it's w-whatever," Bill stuttered, standing up.

Before Eddie or Richie could say anything to Bill he was already walking away up to his room.

"I can uh, you know sleep on the couch," Richie commented scratching the back of his neck.

"Don't be ridiculous you and I can share a mattress," Eddie nudged Richie and Richie gave him a small smile in response.

Then, the two just sat in silence.

"Right now, right fucking now" Eddie thought to himself "just come out to Richie, just fucking do it" but he couldn't say the words, he didn't know how to. Would he just come out and say "hey I'm gay," or would he ease into it like "I've got something to tell you"

Eddie was snapped out of his thoughts when he saw a hand wave in front of his face. "Hey, Eds you good? You seem to be in pretty deep thought," Richie said. Eddie looked at Richie and pursed his lips in response.

"Yeah, because I am dingbat," Eddie smiled, Richie just rolled his eyes playfully.

"What so you can call me nicknames but I can't call you any?" Richie replied.

"I didn't come up with the nickname so it's different. Plus your nicknames are dumb," Eddie said shrugging it off like it was no big deal.

And then it was silent again, Eddie pondering over if he should tell Richie he's gay and Richie pondering if he should shoot his shot and kiss Eddie.

"Maybe we should, head up to Bills room. He probably thinks we are like making out or something," Richie nervously laughed and stood up.

Eddie looked at Richie and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Wait"— Eddie stopped Richie as he started to walk away by grabbing his hand. Richie looked at their hands and then at Eddie, once Eddie noticed he let go of Richies hand.

"I um, I need advice," he finished. Richie slowly nodded his head and sat down across from Eddie.

"You had Bev, ya know, to help you come out," Eddie started, Richie just looked at him and slowly nodded his head confused at what Eddie was getting at.

"Now I need you, to help me," Eddie exhaled, he didn't even notice he was holding his breath and wondered if he would need to get his inhaler out.

Richie raised his eyebrows in shock unable to form any words. "Help, like, coming out?"

Eddie just slowly nodded his head.

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckkkkkk" was all Eddie could think.

"Coming out as like what? Gay, Bi, Pan, Ace?" Richie questioned.

Richie wouldn't be surprised if Eddie was ace, or gay, oh god. "What happened to gay people having the best gay-dar?" Richie thought to himself.

"Uh, gay..." Eddie sighed, he looked down and played with his fingers.

"Okay well, who do you want to know?" Richie asked still a bit taken back, but relived at the same time.

"I don't know," Eddie shrugged, "probably just the losers, I mean we know my mom can't know," Eddie slightly chuckled.

"Right, I know. Okay well I think the first thing is you need to know that we love you, all of us so-called 'losers' love you, and we support you no matter what," Richie said Eddie just nodded.

"And it's not like you'll be the odd one out of all of us, if that's what you're worried about," Richie continued.

"It's my mom, I'm worried she's find out and then she'lldisownmeandillbeallalone"
Eddie spook quickly. He stood up and reached into his backpack, he grabbed his inhaler and pulled the trigger.

Richie just watched it all happen, worried to say the wrong thing. Once Eddie put his inhaler back he went and sat down across from Richie again.

"Eddie, listen, you won't be alone. And who says your mother will even find out? I mean she doesn't want us together right now but here we are," Richie half heartily smiled.

Eddie let out a huff of a laugh which caused Richie to smile too.

"Thank you, Rich," Eddie said meeting his eyes with Richies. Richie just smiled and nodded his head.

"Come on, Eds. Now B-Bill thinks we are actually making out," Richie said standing up. He looked down and saw Eddie smiling to himself, which Richie noticed Eddie seemed to do quite often.

"Yeah, okay" Eddie said looking up at Richie smiling. Eddie stood up, Richie and Eddie made eye contact for a second which resulted in both of them smiling to each other.

Eddie and Richie walked upstairs to Bills room next to each other. Once they got to his door they slowly and quietly opened the door, trying to make sure not to wake up the stuttering boy.

The two walked over to the mattress and laid down next to each other. Eddie had his back facing Richie and Richie was laying flat on his back. Neither of them said anything, both too deep in their own train of thoughts to sleep.

After what seemed like a while, Eddie drifted into sleep and then Richie did the same.

They woke up the next morning

Tangled in each others arms