casual : stozier

SIX

"one day together, what're you thinking? how does it feel to be dating sex icon richie tozier? "

"shut up, rich." stanley scoffed, immediately taking off his shirt the moment he got into his room and richie had closed the door. richie held in a sex joke. 

the two had just gotten out of the bathroom in the hall, the both of them ready to go to sleep. well, kind of. for stanley, that meant reading, and for richie, that meant being on his phone.

"they believed it so easily, too," 

richie watched as stanley got out his book and flipped himself under the covers. rather than sit on his own bed, he flicked off the light, waited for stanley to turn the lamp on, and sat on stanley's bed with him. stan hummed a soft, "welcome" to him. richie leaned his back onto the wall.

richie looked at his phone in his left hand and turned his head a little to stanley. 

stan noticed him looking over and offered his own left hand. richie took it, humming happily. 

this was the way they worked, soft gestures in the middle of the night. 

stanley read, holding his book strangely to accommodate only having one hand to read it. he felt like this closeness between them had always existed. that wasn't true, of course. this had been a thing strictly this year as they had shared a room.

richie had never really questioned why he did these things. that wasn't to say he hadn't thought about it, and that wasn't to say he wasn't nervous as all hell to kiss stanley, even though he knew it was fake. 

stanley flipped a page, and the soft noise was all that was heard from within their room. 

after he finished a chapter, he put the book down softly. 

"rich, i'm sleeping now." 

richie understood and got up, back into his own bed.

"by the way, stan, are the pet names okay?"

"...yeah. they're okay."

"cool." richie turned on his side, facing the wall. he put a hand against his face, and found his face rather warm. 

"goodnight, richie." stanley pulled his duvet up to his neck and sighed happily.

"goodnight, staniel."