Painless || Reddie

4

Richie had dumbly forgotten to ask Stan for a little bit of discretion about the events that had occurred in their kitchen that morning. So, naturally, as soon as he'd walked into work a half hour after Stan. Beverly had bombarded him with questions in regards to his sexuality. Richie was extremely thankful there wasn't a client in the shop as she suggests at an absurd volume that they should all go to a gay club.

"No. Shut up." Richie said simply before checking the books to check when his first client was coming in.

The bell dinged and Richie's head shot up. Dumbly thinking in the back of his mind that it could possibly be the intriguing Eddie. To his slight disappointment it was Ben, Beverly's boyfriend. His disappointment disappeared however when he noticed Ben'e hands were holding a very large Krispy Kreme box.

"Morning guys!" He said cheerfully. Everyone greeted Ben's boyfriend and they chatted idly in the back room whilst eating the donuts for a while until Beverly's client arrived.

Ben headed to leave when Stan stopped him, "Hey Ben, hang on I have a super weird question to ask you." Ben turned around a looked at the boy. Richie looked between both of them confused but also intrigued.

"You teach at the high school down the road, right?" He asked.

Richie immediately bursted our laughing. "Well I'm only a TA but yeah, why?" Ben asked cluelessly.

Richie continued laughing, even harder. "Oh my god you're trying to keep tabs on your high school boyfriend! Stan you're too much." He started cackling.

Stan just rolled his eyes and muttered a simple, "shut the fuck up, dickface." And turned back to Ben.

"Wait you're dating a student? Uh I don't think you should be telling me that, I mean that's..." Ben trailed off unsure what to say. "But wait, who is it? What's his name?" He asked suddenly curious.

"I'm not dating him, I just wanted to know if you knew of him, that's all." Stan defended. "And his name's Bill Denbrough."

Ben's eyes lit up at the mention of the boy's name, "Oh! He's in one of the English classes I help out in. He's one of the only people who actually treat me with respect. Everyone else in that school are pretty evil. I feel a bit bad for the kid though he's a bit of an outcast but he's really great. I'm pretty sure he only has one really close friend, who can be super annoying and always corrects my grammar when I'm just trying to teach the class something but he's a good kid too."

"Eddie?" Richie questioned, not even thinking before he spoke.

"Are you also fucking an underaged kid, Rich! What the fuck guys!" Ben snapped.

"No, no, no, Ben. No one's fucking anyone underage. Bill's eighteen and my dick retracts into itself when the short one speaks. So chill out." Richie snapped, maybe a little harshly at Ben but also didn't really care.

"Okay... well, I'm gonna go now please stay at least 10 yards away from that damn school for the love of god." Ben joked before leaving quickly.

Richie didn't have much time to process much of the conversation before his client walked in and he proceeded to permanently mark his client with his girlfriend's name across his chest that Richie knew would not end well. But hey, money's money.

X

Richie had just finished his final client of the day. Bev and Stan had long since gone home and he was left to close the shop his own, not that he minded of course. He headed out the back way to the parlour and walked through the car park and near a small alleyway where the bins were located.

He suddenly heard a crash and a loud yell followed by a, "Shut him up, Patrick! And hold him fucking still for fucks sake!"

Richie knew he wasn't the best person in the world. He also knew that someone was being attacked in that alleyway a few steps ahead of him. Richie stopped for a second. Considering his options. He was big and covered in tattoos, he was intimidating, but what if they had weapons. His moral contemplations were interrupted by a high pitched, "HELP!" And Richie's mind went blank and he dropped his garbage bag and bolted to the sound. He wasn't positive that it was Eddie but it sounded enough like him to send Richie to his aid.

What Richie saw around the corner made his heart almost stop. He was right it was Eddie shrieking for help, he was pinned up to the wall by an abnormally tall boy with long black hair. He saw red when he saw what the other boy was doing. He had pulled up Eddie's shirt and had a knife to the boy's stomach. It looked like he was carving a word into his flesh.

"What the fuck is going on here!" Richie bellowed furiously. His voice and stance extremely intimidating. The boys immediately dropped Eddie to the ground and bolted in the other direction.

Richie considered running after the pricks but decided to focus his attention on the wounded boy curled up on the ground, leaned against the wall he'd previously been pinned against. He ran over and kneeled down in front of him, looking down at the crying boy, "Hey..." he started softly, "You okay?"

Eddie suddenly snapped his head up to Richie and glared at him. His eyes were red and teary and his cheeks were stained wet as well. "No I'm not fucking okay! Why the fuck would I be okay!" He snapped, starting to breathe extremely heavily by working himself up. He reached into his fanny pack, grabbing an inhaler and taking a puff. Richie tried not to smile at how much of a loser this kid was. "Can you like... Get me a bandage or something before I bleed out!" He snapped again.

Richie reached for the boy's blood soaked shirt, "Let me just see-"

"Don't fucking touch me!" Eddie whacked his hand away and started crying even harder.

"Can I help you into my shop? I have some stuff to help get you cleaned up." Richie offered again, trying to calm the boy. Eddie nodded slightly and Richie wrapped an arm around his side and slowly helped him up. Eddie let out a quiet whine as he began to move. "It'll be okay, Ed's."