𝔭𝔞𝔯𝔱𝔶 𝔴𝔦𝔱𝔥 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔡𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔫𝔰. || 𝔯𝔢𝔡𝔡𝔦𝔢

🌹 [ N I N E ] 🌹

written by richie. i cried while writing this i hope y'all enjoy. thanks for all the love and support it's unreal! there's a trigger warning for self harm and suicidal thoughts. say safe guys. my mental health was shit for a while so sorry for the delay 🥺❤️
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Stan took a shaky breath and placed his sweaty palms on the bathroom sink. His shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and he watched as a tear fell down his face and into the sink. He glanced up and stared at his reflection. His skin was pale and his lips were chapped and bloody. He lifted his left hand up to his face and hastily wiped away the tears, trying his hardest not to look at his right arm, which was actively bleeding on to his bathroom floor.

"Stanley, sweetie, I'm leaving your clean laundry out here. Put it up before your dad gets home." His mom interrupted his rapid thinking and Stan cleared his throat before responding.

"Yes ma'am."

He picked up everything he had laid out and quickly shoved them into his medicine cabinet, knowing that's the only place his mom never checked. He grabbed the clean white towel that had been hanging off the side of the sink and methodically wiped the blood that had dropped onto the porcelain. The box of Hello Kitty Bandaids was placed perfectly on the bottom shelf of his medicine cabinet, and he grabbed the box just as calmly as he had done everything else. Part of him really wished that he had grabbed a normal box, but the other part enjoyed the calming presence. Not that he would ever admit it.

As soon as Stan had finished cleaning up the mess he had made, Mike rematerialized on the side of his bathtub.

"Stanley, you promised me you would stop."

"Yeah, well, I crossed my fingers. It doesn't count."

Michael sighed and tried to stop the sadness building in the pit of his... well of his something. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to feel things, now that he was dead, but he knew for a fact that he did. He felt sad when Stan was sad, happy when he was happy. He cried when Stan did. He left when Stan asked him too. He was there to help Stanley, but he couldn't help but be overwhelmed by the boy he had met. To him, Stan was an enigma, and he probably always would be.

"Am I a bad person Michael?", Stan didn't look up. He continued to stare into the drain hole of his sink.

"If you were bad do you think I would be here?"

"You're here because obviously I've gone crazy. Me and Bev have just gone psycho or something. Shared psychosis or something. There's a rational reason for why you're... here. But the thing is, you aren't really here, are you?"

"I don't know what else I have to do to prove to you that you aren't crazy! I am a real person, that really exists, and really died. You can look it up!"

"Then I must have seen your face somewhere. I can't take this anymore, you're obviously a figment of my imagination."

Michael rolled his eyes and followed Stan out of the bathroom. Stanley grabbed his laundry and neatly put it up. Everything about Stan was neat. His room was impeccably clean, his clothes were always ironed, his shoes always shined. There were no imperfections, no discrepancies. Except for the bright pink bandaid that covered his arm. The rest of his scars covered his legs, hidden so his parents wouldn't see. No one would ever see, Stan made sure of it.

Michael loved Stan. Even if Stanley didn't think Michael was real, he still loved him. Even if Stanley didn't listen to Michael, he still loved him. No matter what, he still loved him. He tried not to, because Stan could annoy the hell out of him.

"Okay, didn't you see Richie and Eddie? Do you think Beverly is crazy?"

"Yes!"

"You are impossible Stanley!"

"Thank you Michael"

Michael disappeared again with a grin as Stanley finished putting up his laundry. He decided that Eddie and Richie were... well they would be useful. He hoped.

He popped into Beverly's room, and although he knew it was rude to come unannounced he didn't know how else he was supposed to show up. He was prepared to see Beverly, and hopefully Richie and Eddie, but what he saw surprised him. Richie and Eddie were
laid out on Bev's (who was no where to be seen) carpet. A bottle of nail polish was floating beside Richie as he painted his nails a glittery black colour. Eddie was playing with Richie's hair absentmindedly, but when he realized Mike was standing in front of them, he stopped abruptly.

"Mikey my boy! What's poppin!" Richie shouted gleefully, knocking over the bottle of black nail polish. Not that it could spill anything anyway.

"Hey guys! I'm really sorry to show up unannounced," Mike could see the embarrassment creeping into Eddie's face, "but I need help."

"What's the issue with your tissue Michelle?"

Mike laughed at Richie's carefree attitude and felt glad that he seemed so genuinely happy to see him.

"Stan still doesn't believe I'm real. How'd you guys convince Beverly she wasn't-"

"Crazy?" Richie cut him off.

"Don't interrupt Richie. We didn't really convince her. She just kind of accepted that we're here and she can't do anything about it. Look, Stan's... different. I mean, he's probably not as quick to accept as Bev. Just give him time." Eddie finally spoke up.

"Speaking of Beverly, where is she? I was hoping to talk to her to." Mike asked.

"Oh she's out with Benny Boy." Richie made kissy noises that spiraled into obscene moans. Eddie grimaced at his behaviour and turned back to Michael.

"She's out studying with a nice boy named Ben. She should be back right about now actually." 

"Oh. You don't mind if I stick around do you?"

"Not at all!" Eddie seemed so cheerful, but in a way that sort of terrified Mike.

"You know what, you're okay Mike. You should hang out more often!" Richie had finally stopped moaning like a pornstar to contribute to the conversation.

Just then the bedroom door swung open to reveal a rather furious looking Beverly Marsh.

"RICHIE FUCKING TOZIER! IF YOU WEREN'T ALREADY DEAD I WOULD KILL YOU RIGHT NOW."

Richie looked to Michael for help, but it was obvious he had done the smart thing and went back to Stan as soon as he had seen Beverly's face.

"Hey Bev!" Richie stretched out the words so long it sounded like he was singing. Eddie, who was hiding away in a corner, was trying not to laugh.

"Richie, you ruined my date with a perfectly nice guy!"

"HAHA! So you admit, it was a date!"

Eddie was cracking up, laughing so loud even Beverly couldn't stay mad that long.

"I hate both of you, so much." She said in between the giggles she was trying, and failing, to hide.

"Yea, we love you too Bev."