Breathe ⭐️ Reddie

17

The end of Richie's training didn't go well. He seemed to be in a daze, just following along with the motions. After two hours of climbing and throwing knives, Henry Bowers entered the room and challenged him to a fight. That's when Bev decided Richie was done training for the day.

No one said anything to stop them leaving, and the others followed as they made their way to the cafeteria.

They had all just begun to eat when a man and woman, both adults, sat across from Richie.

"You must be Richard," the man said, holding out his hand. "I'm Zack, and this is my wife Sharon. We are two of the superiors that oversee the Hive."

"Oh, uh, yes, I'm, um, I'm Richie," Richie stuttered out. He still wasn't used to meeting officials and hoped that his stutter wouldn't be frowned upon.

To his relief, Sharon smiled. "We don't need you to panic or stutter," she said, putting an arm over Bill's shoulders, "our son does enough of that."

"M-mom!" Bill said with a glare. "Th-they know I c-can't talk. D-do you really ha-have to bring it u-up?"

Sharon smiled again and Zack chuckled. "Sorry, Bill. Anyway, we just wanted to see if you've settled in. I hope you have somewhat; Eddie put up quite the battle to make sure we let you stay," Sharon said with a wink.

Richie winced at the mention of Eddie's name, hating that he was blushing. "Yeah, I've tried," he muttered, trying to maintain eye contact.

Zack nodded the looked to the rest of the group. "Well, once you've finished lunch I'd like for you all to report to the lab. That includes you, Richie. Eddie's already there trying to go over the details of the mission, but he's not a technology genius and there's always something  he could have missed. You're ranked third, Richie, so we expect big things from you." With that, Sharon and Zack stood and left, heading down an empty hallway.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Richie slammed his head into the table and groaned.
Everyone looked at him in pity. It couldn't have been easy, not knowing why Eddie was mad at him.

Stan refused to say why Eddie was upset, because he thought it was best to let the two figure out what was going on with them. He stood up, telling the group that he was going to meet up with Eddie beforehand and go over some details. Bill followed to help with the technology piece.

"W-we need Eddie t-to either talk w-with Richie or t-to stay a-away. Richie d-didn't do an-anything to d-deserve Eddie's at-attitude," Bill said with a clenched jaw. He had gotten to know Richie a little over the course of his testing, and he felt bad for him. His biggest fear was disappointing people he loved and cared about, and he felt as though he was disappointing Eddie.

"Yeah, we do," Stan agreed, taking Bill's hand in his. They had been dating for nearly a month, but very few people knew. "Richie needs support and Eddie's a bitch. I know why he's being a bitch, though."

"W-why?"

"He thinks Richie is a distraction and we know from his testing that his biggest fear is failing a job and being kicked out of the Hive, even though that doesn't happen. He said they can't be together, but I think he's just scared."

Bill gripped Stan's hand tighter. "P-promise me th-that won't h-happen to us?"

Stan smiled. "Don't worry. I'm not a psycho and neither are you."

"I h-hope for R-Richie's sake th-that Eddie gets h-his shit together."

Stan sighed. "Me too."

What they didn't know was Eddie had been standing just around the corner and had been struggling to hold in his tears with every word they said.

•••
Stan and Bill entered the lab just after Eddie sprinted back, tears in his eyes.

"It's been two fucking days. Why am I so attached to him?!" Eddie thought to himself, gripping his hair as tears ran down his cheeks.

"Hey, we're here to start seeing what we can find," Stan said from behind Eddie, sitting in a chair next to him. He noticed Eddie crying but showed no sympathy. "Pull it together, would you? Richie's gonna be here soon because Bill's parents put him on the mission with us. You caused this drama, so don't upset him more by crying. Got it?"

Eddie had never heard Stan speak so cruelly, but he nodded anyway, sniffing and wiping his tears away.

Bill began to work with the computer, using the recording from the earpiece Eddie used that day to run voice recognition. He managed to find the cameras around the club when the others entered the room.

"What've you guys gotten so far?" Bev called, pulling up a chair to look at the computer.

"N-nothing. No v-voice recognition. Th-the bar didn't e-even have sec-security cameras. It w-was meant to s-stay secret," Bill said, eyebrows furrowed in focus.

They all continued to watch Bill, and soon Ben, work to try to figure out how to narrow down what was going on.

"Eddie said that this guy said he was working with others, right?" Richie asked after an hour of them focusing on the computer.

"Yeah, I did," Eddie answered, trying to figure out where Richie was going with it. "What're you thinking?"

Richie was grateful Eddie was talking to him, but didn't acknowledge him. "If he was working with others, maybe they're around the club somewhere. If we can find them, we may be able to find where they met and trace them," Richie said.

Ben and Bill looked at each other, then shared a nod. Richie was definitely meant to be a member.

"Ever worked with tech before, Richie?" Ben asked.

Richie shrugged. "I know how to do a few things."

"Can you show us what you're thinking then?"

Richie gave a brief nod before taking Ben's spot. He began zooming into the places around the club, comparing people walking down the street leading up to, during, and after Eddie went into the club.

"Here," he said, pointing at four men in black suits. "These guys all stay within a hundred yards of the club, but while they moved around, they were always just shifting spots."

"Follow their position for the full time, focusing on after I left the club," Eddie said, scooting closer to Richie, eyes zoned in on the screen.

Richie found it adorable that he was so focused. "Why does he have to be so goddamned cute all the time?" Richie thought in annoyance.

Ignoring his inner thoughts, Richie went over the positions of the men, until he found them grouped together in an alleyway five blocks away from the club. They had a large van and all of them had guns.

Richie let out an mental sigh of relief. He had heard what happened and how Eddie punched the guy and ran. If Eddie hadn't, he could've been kidnapped. For some reason it worried him, even though if that had happened they'd have never met anyway.

"Get their plate," Stan said.

Bill zoomed in on the truck and found the plate, analyzing it. "Fuck," he whispered.

"What?" Stan asked.

"It's not registered to anyone. They must've changed plates and destroyed it when they realized we could track them down," Ben said.

"So what do we do?" Eddie asked.

"I c-can talk t-to my parents. Th-they might have a p-plan," Bill said, printing off their findings and putting them in a folder.

They all stood to leave, but Eddie grabbed Richie's arm before he could.

Richie turned around, confused. "What's up?" he asked, acting as though Eddie hadn't treated him like shit all day.

"Can we talk, please?"

"You want to talk to me?" Richie asked, eyebrows raised. Eddie nodded eagerly and Richie gave him a weak smile. "Lead the way then, Eds."