reddie oneshots

annoying

requested by hasselalva 💗

"Richie you're so annoying!" Eddie huffed in exaggeration after Richie stole the comic book out of his hands for the third time and held it over his head. Richie's hands quickly dropped and handed him the comic book back, Eddie thanked him and started reading again.

What Eddie hadn't seen, was the immediate fall of Richie's smile. The slouch of his usually set back shoulders, the energy to joke or laugh drain completely. Richie was a very resilient person, he could dish it out as well as he could take it, nothing ever got to him. But this struck him differently, this one word that just broke him completely. Annoying. His entire life he had feared being too annoying to have friends. He had cried himself to sleep countless nights, years ago, because he thought he would never make friends. Now he had the best group of friends he could ever want, and he was terrified of losing them. He gripped onto those friendships so tight he worried he was suffocating them sometimes. But no one had ever called him annoying. That word just struck a chord with him, especially coming from Eddie's mouth. The boy who made his heart flutter, who gave him a reason to smile and who he never wanted to leave his side.

Now, he sat himself down on a chair far from the hammock Eddie was laying in. He was fighting the hot tears out of his eyes, but eventually they started falling. He felt them race down his cheeks and drip off the edge of his nose. He quickly stood up, pushing past Ben so suddenly that the other boy fell over into Beverly. With the creak of the wooden stairs and a slam of the hatch, Richie was gone.

"What the hell was that?" Eddie asked, getting off the hammock and climbing up to the hatch, pushing it open and sticking his head out. He caught the final glimpse of Richie running away, he hadn't even taken his bike.

"Maybe he's just tired, or he's going to get something." Bill offered, shrugging off Eddie's concern. "It's Richie, he's never upset."

But from that day, things changed. For the next week, Richie wasn't the same. He was quiet, almost sad. Sometimes Stan would set him up for a great 'your mom' joke, and Richie just stared off. He declined whenever he was invited to do anything with them outside of school, and he started eating lunch in the library. To the losers, something was seriously wrong. To Richie, he was removing himself from the friend group. That's what they wanted. Of course they thought he was annoying, he was. His parents always said it, and now the day he feared had finally come, his friends thought it too.

On Friday, Eddie had had enough. Richie was his best friend, they had a different kind of friendship and without Richie, nothing was as fun. The others could say Richie would 'be fine' all they wanted, but Eddie wasn't going to sit around and wait. After school, he walked to Richie's house.

His parents' cars were gone, and Eddie knocked on the door three times. He knew Richie was home, why wasn't he answering? Eddie grabbed the spare key Richie had given him out of his fanny pack, unlocking the door and pushing it open with a slow creak. Richie's stuff was thrown on the ground at the door, but there was no other sign of the boy downstairs. Eddie started to get a sinking feeling, he didn't know what was wrong with Richie but he didn't like the eerie quietness of the house. Eddie went upstairs quickly, two steps at a time, and it was still silent.

Until, he got to Richie's door. Then he heard it, and what he heard made Eddie almost wish it was still quiet. He heard soft sobs and whimpers on the other side of the door, quiet cries of anguish cleary muffled by something. Eddie opened the door quickly, and Richie was hunched over a pillow on his bed, crying into it and gripping it so tightly that his knuckles were bright white. Eddie ran to him.

"Richie- Richie what's wrong?" Eddie sat on the bed next to him, his presence always calmed Richie. But this time, Richie just started crying harder. He turned, Eddie caught a quick glimpse of his red, tear stained face, pain in his eyes that Eddie had never seen before. Then, Richie buried his face in Eddie's chest and let himself sink into Eddie's arms. The curly haired boy cried still, sobs escaping his lips loudly into Eddie's shirt, his entire body shaking in Eddie's embrace. Eddie felt the tears well up in his eyes too, he'd never seen Richie in pain like this.

"I'm sorry Eddie... I shouldn't have taken the comic, I'm sorry.." Richie said through tears, muffled by his face pressed against Eddie. He was desperate for Eddie's forgiveness. Eddie creased his eyebrows and looked down at Richie, it took him a while to register what he was talking about. Eddie had completely forgotten about that incident from the weekend before.

"Rich... I don't care about that, is that why you're upset?" He asked, and Richie nodded slowly.

"I care about you... your friendship I mean- I- I just don't want to annoy you and I don't want to lose you... and I'm sorry I'm so annoying I'm so sorry.." Richie stumbled over his words, his head was an emotional mess of love for the boy holding him and hatred for himself.

How could Eddie have ever made Richie feel this way? He felt awful. "Oh god, I'm not upset with you. I wasn't even thinking when I said it Rich, I swear! I could never think you're annoying, I've been miserable without you lately..."

"Really?" Richie lifted his head up to face Eddie, his tear filled eyes glistening with hope. Eddie didn't think he was annoying.

"Of course." Eddie said reassuringly, his small hand finding Richie's cheek and cupping it. He didn't know what he was doing, but it felt right to touch him this way. Richie felt a blush creep up his neck and onto his cheeks at Eddie's touch.

Richie leaned up, connecting their lips. He let his hand rest on the back of Eddie's neck, supporting it while they kissed. Eddie melted into the kiss, their mouths moving together perfectly, leaving both boys in complete bliss. The kiss was sweet and slow, and Richie's lips were softer than Eddie had imagined.

Richie eventually pulled away from him, his eyes gleaming with joy and his smile back and better than ever. Eddie knew he was as red as a tomato, and he probably had the same goofy smile on his face as Richie, but he couldn't help it. And then they were kissing again, this time with more confidence as Richie wrapped his arms around the small boy's waist, pulling them completely against each other. Eddie couldn't get enough, he was craving this feeling every time they pulled away, and he never wanted to be further from Richie than they were right now. Richie grinned against Eddie's lips, and Eddie grinned back, pressing their foreheads together to admire Richie's beautiful smile. A smile he never wanted to disappear ever again.

The next day, Richie walked over to the group at the quarry. They had invited him two days ago, and he had declined. But it wasn't fair to them to keep them in the dark about why he was acting so weird lately. The losers all cheered excitedly when they saw Richie approaching, Eddie grinned knowingly at him.

"Okay, okay calm down." Richie bowed for them mockingly and chuckled. "I wanted to tell you guys why I've been acting so weird..."

The losers all nodded, looking at Richie intently because it was very rare that he was serious with them. Richie told them everything, from the nights he spent crying, begging for friends like the ones he had now, to the past week when his insecurities had gotten the best of him and he had shut off from the rest of them. By the end, Richie's voice was quivering and all the losers quickly surrounded him, pulling the trashmouth into a tight group hug.

"We love you Richie." Stan reassured him, rubbing Richie's back.

"Yeah, we wouldn't want anyone else as our Trashmouth Tozier. We couldn't live without the jokes." Beverly grinned, ruffling his messy curls.

The others all agreed and shared their appreciation for the boy engulfed in their arms, and Richie hugged them all back tightly, taking a shaky breath.

"Alright, someone's breath smells bad so you guys gotta get off." Richie laughed, his old self already back and at it again. Everyone except Eddie pulled away, but Eddie stayed with his head on Richie's chest, his arms around his waist tightly. Richie smiled down at him, kissing his head and hugging back tightly. The losers smiled approvingly at the two, and once they had separated, all of them set out to have a fun day at the quarry, all starting when Richie tackled Stan, pushing him off the edge into the water. The rest of them followed suit, and the hours of the day wasted away in the water. Richie knew these were his friends.