More Than The Upside Down - An IT (2017) & Stranger Things Crossover

Look at Me

Eddie

He stared into Richie's luminous, yellow eyes as his friend continued to whimper.

"What the- What the fuck?" Richie yelled in astonishment, his voice was deeper now, almost monstrous. "Why the fuck is there fucking branches around m- are those dead bodies!?"

Eddie turned to Bill who held out his hand again, his eyes becoming swallowed in black. After a few moments, the bodies sank back into the ground and his eyes returned to their usual green.

Bill looked at Richie before muttering, "S-S-Sorry about that."

Eddie walked up to Richie, his heartbeat thrumming, "Richie, you need to calm down. Something's happened and I don't know if you remember, but you need to remain calm."

Richie looked down at his clawed hands as he began to panic, "What the fuck is wrong with my hands?"

Eddie walked over and grabbed his hand, "Richie. Richie, look at me."

His friend was beginning to snarl and growl at him.

He could feel Bill's hand wrap around his arm, tightly squeezing it.

"C-C-C'mon, maybe-maybe you should step back," Bill whispered to him.

Eddie shook his head at him before looking back at Richie, "Richie! You need to calm down, this is obviously some sort of strange new power that your body is developing. But you need to calm down before we can figure out what's going on."

Richie's eyes faded back to their natural brown as he cried out in pain. The cry went from something animalistic to a more human tone as his claws shrunk back into their normal fingernails. Eddie cringed as he heard Richie's spine snap and break into its regular position.

After Richie had returned to normal, he slumped into the branches. Eddie nodded at Cassie to let him down and before his friend could fall to the floor, he caught him.

"Jesus Tozier," Eddie grunted, taking his friend to the sofa and laying him there. "You're heavy as shit."

He checked his friend's pulse and felt it beat at a pace that was returning to normal. Eddie sighed and slumped onto the sofa beside Richie. Bill and Cassie joined them, with Bill sitting on the armrest and the younger twin standing beside him.

"E-E-Eddie," Bill started to ask him, "What w-w-were you and R-R-Richie doing when you shut the door?"

Eddie looked away, he felt his cheeks fire up out of shame and embarrassment, "I was checking his cuts and I didn't know if he wanted privacy or not."

Cassie said, "Eddie if it's something else, you can tell us. You know you can trust us, right?"

"That was all we were doing," He denied, although he knew he didn't sound very convincing.

"Eddie, look at me," Bill requested.

He reluctantly obeyed.

"We know you have feelings for him-" Bill began.

"It's pretty obvious, to be honest," Stan interrupted.

Bill glared at Stan before continuing, "I-It's okay to have feelings for him."

Eddie exhaled loudly, he couldn't hide the truth from his friends anymore, "So maybe we did kiss."

"And then he just went all psycho on you guys?" Stan estimated.

"S-S-Something must have t-t-triggered it," Bill guessed.

Eddie frowned before turning to Bill, "Wait, since when were you able to raise the dead?"

"I-I-I don't know," Bill replied.

"Maybe something's triggering something within you and Cassie," Stan suggested.

Bill looked around at all of them, "W-W-Whatever i-i-it is, we sh-should just be careful for now. Especially you E-E-Eddie, we might a-a-accept you b-b-but a lot of people won't."

Stan and Cassie nodded and that was the end of the conversation. Eddie spent the rest of the afternoon dozing in and out of sleep due to pure exhaustion and anxiety at what had just happened and if it would happen again. The rest of the group slumbered cosily. At one point, he woke up with Richie's arms curled around him as the taller boy grinned at him cheekily. Eddie jumped and almost shrieked. Before he could though, Richie pulled him into a gentle kiss.

Eddie kissed him back and snuggled further into the other boy's arms. Finally feeling sleepy enough, but he kept his eyelids open. Just to see Richie's caring brown eyes.

"Go back to sleep," Richie whispered softly in his ear. "I'm okay now."

Hearing those words eased Eddie's mind and he fell into a dreamless, but pleasurable sleep. Remembering the soothing feel of Richie's hands on his arms, snuggling him closer to the taller boy's chest.