It Comes To Hawkins

The Losers Club

Richie woke up to blinding light and hushed voices. He wanted to break down and sob (again), but Richie screwed up his face. He shouldn't. He's not fucking weak! God. Whatever. Blearily, Richie opened his eyes slowly and took in his surroundings. After replaying what had happened in the past 24 hours, Richie groaned. Alright. Richie made a mental list in his head.

1.) Pennywise was back.
2.) Karen and Ted both saw his powers.
3.) The party saw his powers (will they be scared of him? They already knew he had powers but... El hasn't hurt one of them, she had control of her powers.) 
4.) He can't control said powers.
5.) The losers are coming!
6.) He needs to apologize to Mike for yelling at him (even though he sort of deserved it? Actually... eh. Not really but fuck it) and for pushing him away with his powers and for the Pennywise incident. OH SHIT
7.) Mike saw Pennywise and Pennywise saw Mike therefore Mike is in danger.
8.) He may be suicidal but isn't everyone just a bit?
9.) cut the fucking list down that is waaaay too many numbers.

Richie sighed. Turning over and paying attention to the other people in the next room, he heard something way too fucking familiar.
"Eddie. Please don't-" Stan pleaded for what sounded like the hundredth time.
"What?! It's not my fault Richie got himself hurt again! You know I've missed him! We all have!!" Eddie, in all his hypochondriacal glory, fumed.
"That doesn't mean that you can jump-" Stan again, sounding like they had already had this conversation.
"I wasn't going to fucking jump on him!! I was just gonna... whatever. Fuck you guys." Richie could hear Eddie slump and hear Bev snort.
"It's okay Eddie, he'll wake up soon. Then we can all say hi." Ah Ben. How he had missed this. Richie opened his eyes all the way and slowly got up. Trying not to make a sound, he shuffled to the door.
"Sup fuckers!" Richie plastered a shit eating grin on his face while leaning on the door.
"Richie!!" A chorus of yells flooded his ears.
"I heard you missed-" Richie started but was cut off by a body hitting his and making him stumble backwards. Eddie. Richie smiled and winced, though he tried not to show it. Eddie was way more important than not being in pain, after all, he was used to hurting.
"Fuck Richie. You better start calling more, I- we fucking missed you." Eddie mumbled into Richie's black band t-shirt.
"Hey, Eddie Spaghetti!" Richie started, but continued on even though Eddie pushed him and said it wasn't his name. Richie used a softer tone when he said, "Missed you too. In fact! I miss all of you!! Anything exiting happen in Derry when I was away?" Richie hinted, though he couldn't say anything related to It as he was sure others were listening. People other than the Party. The Losers got what he was saying.
"No." Bev stepped forward to give him a hug. "Everything's fine in Derry, well, everything's the same in Derry." She kissed his non-bruised cheek when hugging him. He held tightly onto her and smiled.
"Good."
After Bev, he quickly hugged Stan, Ben, Mike (fuck, his hugs though!), And finally, Big Bill, still trying not to wince. Though Bill caught it and hugged him softly. Richie appreciated that and smiled at him warmly.
"Oh shit. Richie! What happened?!" Eddie said, finally seeing Richie's bruises and the way he favored his right leg.
"Your mom and I had a scream worthy-"
"Shut the fuck up Richie!" Eddie was so cute when he was mad. Richie just gazed at Eddie for a second, getting lost in his eyes.
"You're staring." Oops! Longer than a second.
"I'm gazing." Richie said before he could filter his mouth.
"It's creepy." How dare he. Richie almost fake gasped.
"It's romantic."
Eddie almost blushed, but pushed him slightly. Richie grinned.
"R-Rich. What re-really happened." Bill cut in, eyeing Richie's wounds.
"You know the..uh.. dog that attacked the kids in Derry? Well, I saw that dog yesterday at night...I got the dog to leave but I fell and scraped myself up a bit... it didn't do all the damage on me but that takes a bit more explaining."
The losers sucked in a breath at the confirmation from Richie himself and not just what Bill heard over the phone.
"Fuck." Stan whispered. Richie winced. He felt so bad to bring Stan the Man into all this. Again. Especially after his experience with Pennywise the first time.
"Can we get that explanation now?" Eddie asked.
"Yeah, let me find the Party. You'll like them.. they're like us, but a bit more nerdy. I know. How is that possible right? Well it's fucking possible." Richie walked down the hallway and found The party plus Steve and some other girl at the door. "Ah. Found you. Hey Steve." Steve grinned. "Who the fuck are you?" Richie directed at Robin, not unkindly, rather exasperated. There were too many people in this fucking house. He was starting to get claustrophobic.
"Robin." She drawled, clearly pointing out his rudeness. Richie nodded. She seemed cool.
"Anyway." He stepped away so the party could see The Losers. "You've probably seen each other but because I know the Losers, they didn't introduce themselves except maybe Ben."
A sound of confirmation reached his ears and he smiled. "Well then. Introductions are in place. This," Richie pointed at Bill. "is Big Bill, Stuttering Bill, or Billiam."
"B-Bill." He cut in.
"Molly fuckin Ringwald." Richie pointed at Bev.
"Bev." She rolled her eyes.
He turned to Mike. "Homeschool."
"Mike."
"Haystack."
"But you also know me as Ben." Richie smiled at his politeness and shook his head.
"And this, last but certainly not least, is Ed's, Eddie Spaghetti, Or Ed's spagheds.
"None of those are my name dickhead! It's just Eddie." He fumed and Richie giggled, ruffling his hair.
Turning to the Party, Richie said, "wanna introduce yourselves or shall I?" Richie asked with a smirk. Mike stepped forward.
"Mike."
"I'm Will."
"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Dustin."
"Lucas."
"Max."
"El."
"Steve."
"Mom of the group." Dustin added.
"Robin."
"Now then! I believe if we are to help each other with this...situation, the Losers will need an explanation."
Mike grumbled but agreed. He wasn't too happy with telling more people of what happened when they weren't supposed to, but Richie was right. If the Losers were going to help, they might as well know what already happened in Hawkins. Taking them down to the basement, he and the others explained what happened last summer and the year before. Before long, the losers told their story again to Steve (who made a noise of exclamation when Richie told them he beat Pennywise with a baseball bat) and Robin (who told them at least there weren't Russians). Finally, the losers were caught up about everything. Well... not everything. Not about the connection between El and Richie. Or his powers. But...that was a conversation for another day. Richie didn't feel up to it today. Or ever. The losers started talking about the Pennywise situation and who It has killed. Deciding to jump back into the conversation, Richie said, "you think Pennywise is at the Lab?"
All conversation halted and everyone turned to look at Richie.
"Well," he continued. "it makes sense. It likes to play games

(wanna play a game, Richie? How about truth or dare?)

with us. So, to make more people scared... it would hide out in the lab. There are too many memories for too many people. It makes sense."
"But last time it was in the sewers. Didn't you say if followed a pattern of every 27 years? So it's probably going to stay like that, in patterns. Therefore in the sewers." Will said.
"You don't get it." Eddie spoke up. "It is... unpredictable and childish but always has one goal. To scare the shit out of us until we... float."
The losers all cringed.
"Float?" Lucas asked.
"Remember when I told you I was in the dead lights? Well, you float up when you're in the dead lights. And when you're killed by Pennywise, you float even higher. It used to taunt us by saying... by saying 'you'll float too'"
Bill choked on his breath and started coughing.
"S-sorry."
Shit. Hearing that again must've been hard for Bill because of Georgie.

(you lied and I died)

All the other losers caught this and winced.
"Okay. Game plan. We need to go to the Lab." Max said.
"No. You're staying. This is our fight." Beverly said. Ben nodded.
"Yeah. We can't have more people get hurt." He explained.
"We've done it before!" Dustin argued.
"Not with Pennywise. It turns into the fear you cower at in your dreams, the fear you can't have anyone know. The fear that makes you cringe thinking about. It will tear the flesh off your bones and leave scars that you won't be able to heal from while laughing." Stan murmured, showing his still blood red scar on his palm. "It came so close to killing me... we can't allow you to come with us. As Bev said, this is our fight."
God. Stan and his speeches.
"You are not allowing us to do anything. This is our town. And we will fight for it. With or without you." El spoke up for the first time since the discussion began.
Richie groaned. "Well fuck."