No One But You ✔️ Reddie

Five

Eddie looked at the scar on his hand, healed over, pink and latticed, as he leant over the railings of the kissing bridge, waiting for Richie to meet him.

'What you doing, Spaghetti? Palm reading?' Richie hollered. He grinned as he sauntered over, hands shoved in his pockets. 'What does your love line say?'

Eddie blushed, 'Fuck off, Trashmouth.'

'I can tell you if you want. I'm a great palm-reader,' Richie bragged. He couldn't help himself with Eddie, couldn't help bragging, couldn't help but invent ways to touch him. It was easier now, in this time following the final fight with It, to be gentler with Eddie. They'd been through things together, bonded closer than they ever had before. It was okay for Richie to take the mask off. In fact, he enjoyed that when he did, Eddie let his slip too.

'Oh yeah? What does yours say then?' Eddie challenged, folding his arms.

Richie frowned and came up behind Eddie so that he could hold up his palm for them both to see. 'Well let's see, shall we? Here's my love line.' He reached around Eddie's shoulder with his other hand to point. Eddie could feel Richie's chest pushing into his shoulder blades, the breath skating past his neck. 'And would you look at that. Just one big long line. One true love.'

Eddie's heart thudded. 'Oh, yeah?'

Richie sniffed, 'Me and your mom are gonna be so happy.'

Eddie elbowed him, 'You're such an asshole.'

'Want me to read yours or not?' Richie asked, coming around to Eddie's front. Without waiting for a response, he grabbed Eddie's hand.

Eddie got an electric shock as Richie's fingers curled around his own. He thought about the last time that this hand was in Richie's: when they'd been standing in the circle making the blood pact, swearing to come back and fight It if It ever came back again. He'd still had the cast on then, with its big red V editing the signature. That arm, holding Richie's hand.

'If you make another your mom joke, I will fucking kill you.' Eddie warned.

'Nah, nah, I won't,' Richie promised. 'Okay, so here's your love line,' he mused, letting his fingertip graze across the markings, across the great pink scar, along the soft webbing between his knuckles. 'Hm, very interesting. Very interesting. Seems like just about everyone's going to fall madly in love with you, but,' he cringed.

'What?' Eddie's brow furrowed, trying not to read into the fact that Richie said everyone and not every girl.

'You refuse to kiss anyone in case you catch a disease from all the bacteria in the human mouth,' Richie rolled his eyes and grinned, letting Eddie's hand go. He knew it was a cheap shot, but he wondered if Eddie remembered the time that he'd told Richie that, before Richie had smacked his lips against his cheek. Surreptitiously, his eyes darted over to the carving he'd made.

'That's not funny, fuckface,' Eddie said, but there wasn't any venom in it. Vaguely, he remembered a time earlier that summer when he'd fallen from his bike, when Richie had patched him up and, in his own words, kissed it better despite Eddie's protests about the bacteria. Eddie wondered if Richie remembered this too, if this is what he was referring to. After all, it was the same spot. Before he could think too hard, Eddie said, 'Besides, I've already been kissed, and it didn't seem to do any harm.'

Richie's heart stopped. 'What? When?'

'By you, asshole. Remember?' Eddie laughed. 'Jesus, and if I don't catch anything from you, of all people, then I'm probably set.'

Richie bit his lip, 'Does that count?' he asked, turning to lean over the railings and stare out over the horizon.

'Probably not,' Eddie admitted, sidling next to him, just close enough that their resting elbows knocked together. 'But it's all I've got.'

'Loser,' Richie said quietly.

'Fuck you. It's not like you've got better.' Eddie said.

Indignant, Richie stood tall, 'What? Course I do.' He saw Eddie already lowering his eyelids. 'Your mom is a great kisser. And she doesn't kiss on the cheek. Or my lips. She prefers –'

'Beep beep, Richie.' Eddie nudged him, hard, turning to face him with that angry pinkness in his cheeks. 'You said you wouldn't make another your mom joke.'

'I didn't mean indefinitely,' Richie rebuked, locking Eddie's gaze, his brown eyes and pouted lips. He thought about what it would be like to kiss him properly. It would be so easy, right here in this perfect place, the carving already marking it in advance, the final closing piece to a summer filled with equal parts beautiful and haunting memories. His face was so close to Eddie's. All he had to do was close the gap. 'Fuck it,' he whispered to himself, and leaned in.

Startled, Eddie recoiled, 'Whoa!' His eyes spread wide like a woodland creature, his knuckles white as they still gripped the railings. Richie had just tried to kiss him. Richie had literally leaned in to kiss him. And he'd missed it, the look of terror still on his face as his heart thudded in his chest. He'd fought a killer clown and won, he'd been chased by a leper and won, he'd stood up to his mom and won, but nothing could have prepared him for the reality of Richie trying to kiss him.

'Oh, fuck.' Richie said, stepping back, his neck craning away, shoving his hands back into his pockets and taking them out again, awkward. 'Sorry.' He scratched the back of his neck. 'I gotta go,' he announced, and then he ran.

'Richie!' Eddie called out after him, finally regaining his voice. It was squeaking and hoarse. 'Richie!' he tried again, but Richie had vanished around the street corner. His mouth hung open long after the name had left his lips, stunned. 'Fuck,' he mumbled under his breath. 'Fuck, fuck.' With a groan, he knelt to the floor and rested his forehead against the wooden planks of the bridge.

He stayed there motionless for a moment, trying to comprehend what it meant, trying to work out where he went from here. He put himself in Richie's shoes and imagined how he would have felt if Richie had pulled away, shocked. The dark boil in his stomach told him.

Slowly, he stood and started to walk, trying to figure out where to go or what to do. He was so locked in his own thoughts that he never noticed the R + E carved just a few inches away.