affection || reddie 💫

Chapter 34

After Richie had stormed out of the door, Eddie couldn't help but regret all the things he said to him, sure Richie was way out of line with looking through Eddies book, but Eddie shouldn't have pushed him so much to tell him why he threw up since now, Richie was gone. Eddie wasn't originally gonna go after Richie, since he was probably just heading home and needed some time to calm down, that's what Bev told him at least, but after a few minutes of sitting on the couch with the other losers at a dying party, getting sick of watching Stanley and Bill hornily give each other sex-eyes on the other side of the couch, he decided he needed to go find Richie and apologise, along with how much he just wanted to get out of there.

So now Eddie was walking through the dark streets in the direction of his boyfriends house, hoping to somehow find him along the way, he also considered going to places Richie would hideout in when he didn't wanna go home yet, the clubhouse, the arcade, the memorial park, but for now he continued to head to his house. It wasn't after a long time of walking and panicking about where his boyfriend could be that Eddie came across Richie, sitting with his head in his arms on the side of the road.

"Richie?"

Hearing Eddies voice, Richie immediately looked up, seeing the blurry face of his small-brunette boyfriend standing above him.

"Hey Ed's.." he forced out a half smile, blood running down from his nose.

Eddies eyes widened as he saw the bruises and marks all over Richies face, noticing his glasses were also missing and were instead folded up in his hand, the lens visibly cracked.

"Holy shit I've been looking everywhere for you, what the fuck happened??" Eddie panted, reaching down to help him up.

Richie kept his eyes glued to the ground as he stood up, trying to hide the look on his face, "Bowers happened.."

Eddie felt his heart drop at that and couldn't help but blame himself for letting this happen, "I'm sorry.." he whispered, stepping closer and pulling Richie down into a tight hug, "I'm so sorry for everything.."

Richie buried his face into the crook of Eddies neck, inhaling the familiar, comforting scent of him as tears began welling in his eyes. It wasn't long before Eddies shirt was getting damp with Richies tears and Eddie was rubbing small, soothing circles into his back, reassuring him that everything was going to be okay.

*Eddies house*

Richie was propped up on the bathroom sink, Eddie standing between his legs as he cleaned his wounds, causing Richie to hiss out in pain.

"Sorry.." Eddie said quietly, trying to dab away the blood from the side of Richies head.

Richie just closed his eyes and made a little whimpering sound, moving his head back a little.

"You gotta keep still Rich.." Eddie frowned, trying his best to not hurt Richie but at the same time trying to get all the blood off of his face. Richie sighed and moved his head forward, his eyes opening again even though they were still glued below him, Eddie pulled the wash-cloth away before slowly reaching out to stroke his boyfriends cheek, causing Richie to suddenly flinch at the movement.

It broke Eddies heart seeing that, seeing that Bowers had messed him up so badly that now Richie was even scared of his own boyfriends touch. Richie wasn't vulnerable a lot, because of how much he used his humour to defend himself or hide his emotions, but right now was the most vulnerable Eddie had ever seen him.
The only other times Eddie would see Richie vulnerable was when they'd kiss and he'd go all weak and sappy, which yes, Eddie did notice by the way, or when they'd get into a big argument. Right now though, it was a different kind of vulnerable, one that scared Eddie, seeing just how broken and torn apart Richie was by what Bowers has done to him, he hated seeing Richie like this, and if he was being honest he kinda missed Richies stupid jokes.