golden > reddie oneshots

The Irony of Forgetting

by:
@SevlinRipley on ao3
or
@noahschnapp on tumblr

♥ reddie
♥ 10,195 words
♥ this is probably my favorite one shot ever
♥ fluffy and sooo cute

♡
✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

The first few days, Eddie paced the floor enough to get shin splints. Mike, upon visiting, had forced him into a chair by the shoulder, and once his body hit cushion, the crash hit. Adrenaline gone, Eddie had sunken in, and practically curled in on himself. Eventually he'd fallen asleep with his cheek pressed to his kneecap, the tops of his thighs pressed to his chest, and Bill's flannel over his shoulders.

So when he awakens, his bones ache and his muscles are on pins and needles. The pain in his neck from being pressed too far forward, down, and to one side, makes him wince several times over before he really gets his eyes open. He's stretching his neck up, up, up, and letting his legs fall to the ground, with a slap of his feet to linoleum, when he dares his first glance at Richie, heart already aching with the expectation that as per the last 72+ hours, Richie will be resting back into his pillows, face completely smooth looking deceitfully peaceful. Fucking comas.

Only, Richie... is not asleep. Eddie's lungs get stuck, and his jaw drops open as he looks at Richie, who's covered in a dim blue overhead light, while the rest of the room has gone dark with the night.

"Hey sleepyhead."

And that's Richie saying that to him. Eddie. Like Richie hasn't been fucking out for days.

Eddie, stupidly, chokes up at the tone, eyes stinging as Richie blinks at him with a soft smile on his face, and lifts his hand to wave. A small grimace crosses Richie's face, as the IVs pull on the back of his hand, and he turns a little frown Eddie's way. "That hurt," he grouses, but the tone he uses borders on amusement, as he flexes that same hand over his thigh.

Swallowing back the relief and the surprise, Eddie rises on shaky legs, coming closer to the bed. He feels a rush of want go through him. Something that feels a lot like need, pushing him to hug Richie, cradle Richie's head into his chest. Even more stupidly, Eddie feels like swatting Richie's arm and asking just where the fuck he's been, cause it certainly hasn't been here with Eddie, like he was meant to be. Asshole. How could Richie fucking leave him like that?

Without doing any of those things, Eddie picks up Richie's glasses from the table near the bed, and folds them out, onto Richie's face.

He watches as Richie blinks several more times, and then realization dawns on his face. "Oh," Richie says, "That's much better." So light, so inconsequential that Eddie feels a laugh bubble up in his chest, just before it clenches tight again.

"Rich, you - did you call the nurse? I -" Eddie didn't hear one come in, if Richie did. He can't imagine he slept through what surely was a big to-do, right?

Mouth gaping open, Richie sucks in a little breath, brows tightening just slightly, and then he closes his mouth, shakes his head, and then finally says, "I... don't really know what's going on, actually. So I just thought I'd wait for you to wake up."

Pursing his mouth, Eddie shakes his own head, and sighs in exasperation before reaching over Richie to press the call button, where it'll signal the nurse's station. "That was a stupid thing to do. You should've at least woken me up."

At that, Richie gets this sort of patronizing look on his face, but it's soft as he lilts his head to the side, looking at Eddie as if he's this fascinating specimen Richie's studying. "You were too cute to wake up."