Painless || Reddie

6

Eddie had been coming to the shop after school every day for almost two weeks now and boy did Richie regret it. He loved seeing the boy and making sure he got home safe but he was beginning to be a bit of a distraction for Rich. Not that Eddie himself was disruptive, he'd always sit quietly studying in the back room and not speak unless spoken to. But Richie couldn't help but steal multiple glances of the boy at least one hundred times an hour and those numbers were a little bit concerning. He's pretty sure his clients think he'd developed some sort of twitch.

Stan and Bev seemed to immediately fall in love with Eddie and always sat and chatted with him whenever they weren't with a client. Richie didn't mind but found himself slightly jealous. He was almost always with a client, being the owner and all, so his time with Eddie was usually limited to the car ride to Eddie's which was 10 minutes maximum. Richie did enjoy Bev's long spiels to him every morning about how amazing and intelligent Eddie was and how attractive and perfect for Richie he was. Richie would always just roll his eyes and shrug her off but a small part of him felt a warm feeling inside whenever she'd bring him up.

Stan and Eddie also seemed to form a close bond. They mostly talked about Bill though (because yes, Richie did ask Stan). Stan had pretty much ghosted Bill completely and Eddie was in a way playing Cupid for the two, encouraging Stan to message his friend. Richie found it pretty adorable.

This afternoon was a little bit different however. Bev and Stan both had clients for the rest of the afternoon and Richie was free as a bird. He tried not to show his excitement for his extra Eddie time but couldn't help it.

"Whatcha studying there, Eds?" Richie asked, taking a seat across from Eddie at the small table. Eddie put down his textbook and smiled warmly at him. Richie's mouth twitched slightly as he held back his grin.

"Biology. So fucking boring." Eddie simply stated and flicked the book closed. "I'd rather talk to you." He said excitedly.

"Wanna go get ice cream? I have the rest of the afternoon off." Richie suggested and Eddie's eyes lit up even more.

"Yes please!" He said jumping off his seat and carefully putting all of his stuff into his backpack.

As the younger boy stood up Richie couldn't help but admire his very bold sense of fashion. He dressed very feminine but it suited him very well. He usually wore oversized pastel coloured hoodies that went halfway down his thighs and usually spotted his fanny pack serving as a belt to give him some shape. But today he was wearing a simple light pink T-shirt and some too-short-for-Richie's-own-good shorts.

They headed out of the shop, Richie throwing Bev the keys before leaving with a simple "See ya in the morning guys!"

Eddie had to admit, he was pretty fuckin obsessed with Richie Tozier. Ever since he first saw him he'd immediately been attracted to him, hence why he tried several times to have sex with him while he was high. And now, that same Richie was taking him out for ice cream. He was practically bouncing in anticipation.

They entered the ice cream parlour and Richie nudged Eddie into a booth to his side, "Save our spot, I'll go order. What flavour you want, Eddie bear?" And even though he was just being Richie, Eddie blushed at the nickname.

"Vanilla, please." Eddie mumbled. And Richie was off to the front counter (not before muttering a quiet but audible "Boring.")

Eddie couldn't help but notice the ice cream parlour was pretty much empty and there wasn't really a need for him to be saving their seats, but Eddie was pretty lazy and wasn't going to complain about free ice cream.

When Richie returned with his vanilla ice cream cone and a chocolate one, handing the vanilla to Eddie, he took note of how Richie smiled at him. "There you go, you basic bitch."

Eddie laughs and immediately blushes again. He's not sure if Richie is flirting with him or not or even if he was gay. But he was itching to find out.

"So, Eddie Spaghetti, tell me about yourself I feel like both Bev and Stanley have the 4-1-1 but we're still pretty much strangers." He expresses and Eddie cringed as Richie took a bite out of his ice cream. Who does that? Fucking weirdo.

"Um. I don't know... I like to read, I guess. I'm really boring actually..." Eddie trailed off. He honestly didn't know what to say, Richie's question was too vague it stressed him out.

"What's your dream job?" Richie asked, being more specific. Eddie just shrugged, he honestly didn't know. Which was just stressing him out even more. "You have to know what you want to do out of high school? You study so hard?" Richie asked in surprise.

"I just... Like to get good grades." This was true. But also extremely boring. Richie was right, Eddie was a basic bitch.

Richie laughed at his response which still didn't help Eddie feel any better about himself. "Well what do you do for fun?" Richie tried a different angle and Eddie stopped to think.

He didn't really have a lot of hobbies, apart from reading. All he did on weekends was hang out with Bill, study or have sex with a boy he'd meet online. Eddie was a little bit of a slut but that really wasn't a personality trait.

"Wow... I'm so boring." Eddie said aloud causing Richie to chuckle.

"You are definitely not boring. The first three times we met you were three drastically different people."

"What? A scaredy cat, a whore and an almost murder victim?" Eddie snapped back at Richie with an accidental amount of aggression.

"Oh don't be dramatic... They probably wouldn't have KILLED you. Only irreversible maiming at best." Eddie laughed at Richie's joke. It wasn't really that funny but Eddie decided he needed to find out Richie's deal. He smiled up at the boy, biting his lip suggestively.

It was a subtle gesture that Richie didn't even notice. Richie's ice cream was melting down his hand and onto the table at this point. "Oh shit." Richie muttered and used his finger from his non ice cream holding hand to scoop up some of the droplets that had fallen onto the table and, to Eddie's absolute horror, licked it off his finger.

"Richie that's the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my whole life I'm going to fucking vomit!" Eddie cringed at the boy who's eyes went wide, "They probably haven't wiped down these tables all day what if someone sneezed on it? I can't believe you just did th-" Eddie immediately stopped his rant when Richie started laughing at him.

"Sorry mother." He said in between laughs, "You're such a killjoy sometimes, Eds. Live a little!"

Eddie glared at him. He knew he was in the right, what Richie did was so disgusting but he couldn't help but feel slightly embarrassed about his sudden outburst. The ice cream was still leaking down Richie's hand and he didn't seem bothered in the slightest. Eddie, on the other hand, was extremely bothered by it. He went to reach for a napkin to wipe the boy's hand when he thought of something different.

Purely for the sake of a scientific experiment to see how Richie would react; Eddie reached for his hand and brought it to his mouth. Slowly licking the chocolate off the boy's hand. Richie was dead-still for a moment, Eddie looked up at him through his eyelashes, putting on his most innocent "fuck me" eyes. Richie was just staring at him, then he snapped out of it and pulled his hand away.

"Jesus Christ, you're like a walking oxymoron, Eds. As I said, definitely not boring!" He explained before throwing away his left over ice cream and wiping his hands down with a napkin. Eddie had long since finished his ice cream, Richie only had so much left because he literally could not go ten seconds without talking. "Come on, let's go." Richie said before standing in front of the still seated Eddie. He pursed his lips, his experiment hadn't worked and he still didn't know if Richie wanted him or not.

Eddie quickly grabbed the leftover napkins still on their table and wiped up the rest of the ice cream Richie had spilt on the table before following Richie out. Unbeknownst to Eddie, Richie watched him clean up the mess with a thoughtful smile glued to his face the whole time.