Reddie Oneshots

Richie's Guitar Pt. 7

damn i forgot how long this au thingy is. i apologize
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Richie and Eddie were down in Richie's basement playing video games. Eddie was cross-legged in an over-sized beanbag chair, whilst Richie sat with his head hanging upside down over the lip of the sofa, gangly legs stretched up its back.

'I'm getting kinda hungry,' Eddie said, stomach growling.

'Don't blame your losses on your stomach, Kaspbrak,' Richie teased.

Eddie rolled his eyes, 'I beat you in the last game.'

'You're living in the past.'

Pressing pause, Eddie put his controller down and stretched his legs. 'I'm gonna get a snack. You want anything?'

'You're a snack. Can I have you?' Richie joked, batting his eyelashes.

'That is foul,' Eddie laughed, standing up. 'Never call me that again.'

'I'm sorry but I just can't promise that.' Richie readjusted to sit up straight. The world turned on its head. 'On a serious note, I would love some Cheetos.'

Eddie scowled, 'Do you know how many fucking additives are in those things?'

'Yeah, because you've told me sixty million times. They're delicious fucking additives.'

'Fine, I'll get them,' Eddie said, and without thinking, stooped slightly to kiss Richie's cheek before he stepped over his feet.

The gesture made Richie's heart flutter. It was the little intimate moments which Richie found himself analysing most, the moments which suggested that Eddie might think of them as an 'us' after all, that Eddie might reciprocate his feelings.

It was one thing that Eddie wanted to kiss him, enjoyed kissing him, and clearly, Richie was attractive to Eddie at least in some way, because of what had happened in the music room the other day, but it never left Richie's mind that those things weren't enough to believe that Eddie actually liked him as more than a friend, and he was terrified to ask.

Eddie left the room, feeling a small thrill from having kissed Richie inside the Tozier house outside the confines of Richie's bedroom. He didn't know why it made such a difference, but it did. He was smiling absentmindedly as he reached for the Cheetos in the cupboard. Then he went to the fridge and started to make himself a sandwich.

He was in a great mood. The day had felt more like a normal day, and those had been few and far between of late. Part of him had worried that he and Richie wouldn't be able to hang out together, alone, without the burden of heavy personal questions and intolerable sexual tension constantly muddying the atmosphere, but it seemed that they still could.

They'd chatted about Eddie's plans for college and Richie's awful job, Bill's new rust-bucket of a car and the fact that Stan was now on the baseball team, and that Mike was almost singlehandedly running the farm while Ben had picked up a carpentry apprenticeship, and that Bev was wearing clothes which she'd made herself which were actually not half bad.

They'd played video games, they'd exchanged old comic books, they'd listened to a couple of new records. It was easy, it was fun, and yet there were flirtatious jokes and salacious comments peppered in here and there which Eddie thought should have bothered him, should have jarred him, but they didn't.

Maggie Tozier came into the kitchen as Eddie was making a sandwich. 'Oh, Eddie, let me make that for you,' she insisted, ruffling his hair. 'I'll bring it down.'

'It's okay, Maggie, I'm nearly done,' Eddie said politely, smiling up at her. He loved Maggie; he thought she was one of the kindest people in the world. There had been many times through the years when he'd been in Richie's house and wished that he could have a mother like her.