Asleep // Reddie

three.

Richie woke up to a pair of unfamiliar lips on his.

Wait, no. These lips were definitely familiar, even though he'd only felt them once. And they were saltier than the last time, and they were blowing air into his mouth.

He gasped for breath instinctively, finally noticing the way his lungs were screaming for a gulp of fresh air. The figure on top of him- Eddie, he thought happily- pulled off of him, leaving him freezing cold. He was somehow soaking wet. How had he gotten wet? He remembered the sirens, and the kiss, and then- oh.

"He's awake." Someone, Ben, said. His words were followed with a whooping noise of delight, from what could only be Beverly.

Richie blinked several times, breaking away the salt that had crusted along his eyes, and clearing his vision of the water that had gotten into his eyes. He could see it now- it was still the dead of the night, and the moon shone brightly down on them. There was no screaming, or singing for that matter. It was quiet, besides the screaming of the wind.

"Don't ever pull that shit on us again, alright?" Beverly was kneeling beside him now, her words shaky as she ran a hand through his damp hair. Before he could answer, Richie was shooting up and coughing mouthful after mouthful of salt water up onto the deck. Christ, that shit burned. He wouldn't be swallowing normally for at least a couple days.

"How..." He began, and then coughed again several times. There was still a lot of fluid in his body, and his mouth gurgled before he could continue. What, had he swallowed the entire ocean while he was down there? "How did I get here?" He should be partially digesting in the stomach of a siren right about now.

"Eddie saved you." Bill said, casting an uneasy look at who Richie could now clearly see was Eddie. A stupid smile broke out on Richie's face as he looked at the man who he thought he would never see again. If he trusted himself enough to stand, he probably would have wrapped Eddie up in a painfully sappy embrace. If that's what he wanted. Richie had kind of... planted that kiss on him with no warning and no permission. Maybe Eddie would hit him. He could see his tiny fists of fury planting one right on his eye any minute now.

In his defense, he thought he would be dead before he had to deal with the aftermath.

"How?" Richie finally sputtered. Eddie was amazing, and Richie thought he could do anything, don't get him wrong. But breathe underwater? And fight off an entire pod of sirens? That was impossible for anyone.

"He should tell you himself." Bill kept staring hard at Eddie, who simply nodded and refused to meet his eyes. Richie could feel some kind of animosity or tension between the two of them, but why? How long had he been out?

"Let's all go back below deck, shall we?" Beverly said, and she began to herd the others towards the doors. Richie and Eddie both shot her a grateful smile, and she winked back at them. Beverly whispered something unintelligible to Eddie, and then shut the door behind her, leaving the two of them alone on deck like they had been so many times before. Except this time was different. Richie's pulse raced- he'd complicated things, just like he had feared.

"I guess I owe you the truth," Eddie began, settling himself on the deck next to Richie. "Please don't hate me."

"I would never hate you." Richie promised. (Would you hate me?)

Eddie took in a breath, steeling himself for whatever he was going to say next.

"You know how I never talk about my parents?" He asked, and Richie nodded. "Alright. So, my father was a surgeon on the mainland. That's where I got my training from. And my mother, well, she was, um," Eddie paused, licking his lips.

"You can tell me." Richie said, sounding a little bit more passionate than he'd meant to.

"She was a siren, Rich." Eddie's voice was below a whisper as he ducked his head.

"Are you serious?" Richie's eyes widened. He wasn't sure how to feel. Sad? Angry? Betrayed? In awe? Nonchalant? This was uncharted territory, even for a well traveled pirate like himself. "So.. did you call them here?" He asked, trying not to sound as hurt as he was about that possibility.

"Jesus, no. I would never do that. You guys are my family," Eddie responded immediately. "I'm not sure why they were here. Bored and hungry, most likely."

"Oh. Alright." Richie didn't know what else to say. Why hadn't Eddie told him sooner? They were close- he wished that Eddie had known that he could tell him anything.

"So, when you threw yourself overboard, I jumped down there too. I talked to them- well, sang to them, and we reached an agreement, so-"

"What kind of agreement? You didn't," Richie dropped his voice. "Sell yourself or anything?"

"No! Are you joking?" Eddie looked at him incredulously, making Richie's heart swell with the familiarity of it all. Some things never changed. "I can't believe you, I'm trying to have a serious conversation right now-"

"That was a serious question!"

"A serious conversation about my mysterious past and everything, and you can't just-"

"Alright, alright. I will remain quiet for the rest of the heart-to-heart talk," Richie sat criss-cross, his hands folded in his lap.

"Thank you-"

"Wait, can I at least know what the agreement was?" Richie asked, and Eddie groaned.

"I gave them the location of Henry Bowers' ship." He mumbled, his face a mixture of guilt and glee.

"That's my boy!" Richie crowed happily. "And they just accepted it?"

"They prefer people with 'blackened souls'. Their words, not mine. It's something about the poetic justice of it." Eddie shrugged, his lips twitching as they formed a slight smile.

"So you not only saved my life, but you took down our biggest enemy while doing it," Richie shook his head in disbelief. "You never fail to amaze me, Kaspbrak."

They sat there for a moment, smiling at each other like idiots.

"I feel like I should let you know that I'm not a siren, not really. I can just hold my breath longer and swim better than most. Sometimes I can sing, but I've never really tried, and I just found out I can make that weird screaming noise they make when they're angry. And honestly, I've spent my whole life denying this, so-"

"Eds, don't worry. I don't care that you're part fish or something. I just care that you're you." Richie reached out an absent minded hand, running it along Eddie's arm and letting it stop on his shoulder.

"So we're fine?" Eddie asked, looking at him with his unfairly beautiful brown eyes.

"We are more than fine." Richie laughed a little bit, and soon after, Eddie joined him.

"I have to ask- the thing you said earlier." Eddie paused.

"What about it?" Richie's pulse slowed, then quickened, then slowed again. This would go one of two ways, both of which Richie was not planning on experiencing. Again, he had assumed he would be dead by now.

"Did you mean it?"

"Of course I meant it. I don't joke about that kind of thing." Richie's brow furrowed.

"Richie, yes you do."

"Touche."

"I was going to say, 'me too'." Eddie mumbled. In turn, Richie's jaw dropped.

"Huh?" Real eloquent, Rich.

"I love you too. I have for a while. I was too scared to say it out loud." He blinked at Richie, unsure of where to go next. The good news was that Richie knew where to go next.

Richie kissed him again. This time, he was doing it the proper way. You know, without imminent and certain death looming over his head. It was slow, and warm, and Richie's entire body felt electrified.

If underwater was falling asleep, then this was coming alive.