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October 18, 1991.
It's been two years since the Losers killed It, but it still feels like yesterday for them. Bev had managed to convince her aunt to come live in Derry so she didn't have to leave and she was currently sitting on the floor of Richie's basement smoking a cigarette.
"Come on guys, fall break started three days ago and we've done nothing," Stan complained. He sat cross-legged on a chair, leaning forward to join the group sitting in a circle.
"Well, what's there to do? We live in Derry, Stan. The best thing we have is an arcade," Eddie retorted. He and Richie were sitting parallel to eachother, wedged in a hammock that they had brought from their old clubhouse.
"I can always do Eddie's mom, but we're not really an open relationship," Richie joked, laughing when Eddie scowled and tapped his face with his foot.
"How about w-we g-g-go a town over and che-check out what they have over t-there?" Bill suggested, looking up from his comic book.
"I can't miss that much work, if you guys wanna go it's fine with me but my grandpa wants me in the slaughterhouse," Mike groaned. Everyone, including his grandpa, knew how much he hated that job, but he still made him do it.
"You got any ideas, Ben?" Beverly asked, taking a long drag from her cigarette. He shook his head, not fully paying attention to the conversation at hand.
"Wait guys- what time is it? My mom's gonna kill me if I stay out past 8!" Eddie exclaimed. Everyone looked around to see if they had a watch or a clock until Bill chimed in.
"I-it's s-se-seven fourty f-five right now," He said, looking at his wristwatch.
"Ugh! Alright guys, I'll see you all tomorrow," Eddie said, starting to go up Richie's stairs.
"Woah, I'm going with you, Eds! I have to tell my missus goodnight or she'll be blowing up our landline!" Richie said, following his friend. Bev gave him a knowing look as he climbed up the stairs behind Eddie. Soon enough, the rest of the club followed in pursuit and all grabbed their bikes to go back to their homes.
"Eddie, wait up for me!" Richie said, pedalling fast to catch up.
"If you're gonna make another joke about my mom, I'm sticking a pipe between your wheels," Eddie said, but Richie couldn't tell if he was joking or not.
"You know, I have a pipe to stick between your wheels," he retorted flirtatiously. If it hadn't been so dark, Richie would be sure that Eddie's cheeks turned a light shade of pink.
"Shut up, asshole! You're so not allowed to say hi to my mom anymore!" Eddie yelled.
"Protective of her? Cute, Eds," Richie said. They had just reached Eddie's house and he was about to turn around until he realized he could ask to stay the night. Once he saw Eddie in his bedroom through the window, he started to climb the tree to reach his window like he had done many times before.
"Eddie! Eddie Spaghetti, let me in!" Richie whisper-yelled, knocking on the glass window.
"Wha- why are you still here?" Eddie asked.
"Thought it'd be fun to have a sleepover- just you and me!" Richie said, crawling in through the window and almost knocking stuff off of Eddie's bed with his gangly limbs.
"Alright, sounds good to me. I'm gonna take a shower quickly, you can play a video game if you want," Eddie said, leaving his room to turn on the shower. Richie settled on Super Mario, and he played that for a while (and was winning) until Eddie came out of the shower. He was wearing shorts and a large t-shirt and his hair was damp.
"Is that my shirt??" Richie exclaimed, realizing that he had one that went missing.
"Um, maybe? I think you lended it to me and I just forgot to give it back." Eddie replied sheepishly.
"You can go shower now if you want, I'll just play a game," Eddie said.
"Great idea Eds, but I didn't bring a change of clothes."
"You could wear mine," Eddie shrugged.
"Aw, how domestic! How cute! Normally I'd accept if I wasn't half a foot taller than you and if you weren't a size extra small," Richie said. Eddie rolled his eyes.
"I guess just wear what you have on now... but you're not allowed under my sheets with your dirty jeans!" Eddie said.
"Fine, fine, mister clean freak," Richie teased. He went to the spotless bathroom and shut the door, only now noticing that the shower was still wet from before. He got undressed and quickly showered, not wanting to use a lot of hot water. He got back in his old clothes, wishing he thought ahead and packed pajamas.
"Oh Eddieee, I'm back!" Richie said in a sing-song voice. The short boy scooted over on his bed to make room, and Richie immediately plopped down and spread his limbs to make a starfish pose.
"Richie! Now I have no room to sleep!" Eddie giggled.
"Nah, you can find a way. Perseverance, am I right?" Richie responded. Eddie turned off his game, choosing to lay down as well and stare at the ceiling.
"Richie?"
"What's up?"
The two boys turned to look at eachother, their faces only inches away. Eddie could even see his reflection in Richie's glasses.
"Do you ever think about like... that summer?" Eddie's voice was quiet, obviously skeptical to bring up the topic.
"All the time," Richie said. He could still hear It's voice telling him about his own secret- one he hadn't even come to terms with when the clown brought it up.
"Do you remember what you saw in that house?" Eddie asked.
"I... Hardly," Richie replied, realizing almost everything he had experienced was gone from his memory.
"Sometimes I feel like it was just a really, really, weird dream. But then I remember how real it all felt and-"
"Why are we bringing this up?" Richie asked, not wanting to remember the trauma inflicted upon him.
"Back in the house, I remember It told me about a secret and I'm tired of keeping this hidden away from everyone," Eddie's voice suddenly grew serious.
"Wait- did It tell us the same thing?" Richie asked. He was hopeful, but knowing that they live in Derry, he knew the chances of Eddie being gay weren't too high.
"How would I know? Okay, so," Eddie started, sitting up. Richie followed, leaning back on his palms.
"Richie I-"
"EddieIminlovewithyouandIhavebeenforyearsseriouslyhowareyousooblivious!!?" Richie said extremely quickly. He felt bad for interrupting but he needed to say it while he had the courage. Eddie was silent for a bit.
"Eds?"
And then he grabbed Richie by the collar and then they were kissing.
"Holy shit, Rich, you are so bad at kissing," Eddie laughed.
"Hey, I was surprised! That's so not fair!" Richie said, shoving the other boy.
"Gimme another chance to prove myself, bro!" He said while smiling.
"Hmm, let me think about that," Eddie said, fake stalling. Richie pounced on him, play fighting like how they usually did.
"Get off me you heathen!" Eddie said smiling. Richie fell to the side, laying next to Eddie.
"We're like Romeo and Juliet but without the double suicide," Richie said.
"Wow, you can read?" Eddie replied.
"Ha-ha. Very funny. Yes, I have more hobbies other than being the best boyfriend in the world."
"Richie, for a sleepover, there has not been a lot of sleeping. I'm fucking tired," Eddie responded.
"Whaaaaat? We're having so much fun though," Richie whined, rolling over and pouting at Eddie.
"C'mon, my mom is gonna wake up in a couple hours so we need to sleep and then you need to crawl back out that window," Eddie said.
"Yeah, it'd be a shame if your mom saw me since she's so in love with me but I'm totally gay for you," Richie responded. Eddie rolled his eyes and shoved Richie.
"Beep beep, Richie. Go to sleep, dumbass," he said.
----
In the morning, the two woke up at 7 completely tangled in eachother.
"Separation anxiety much?" Richie said.
"Yeah, good morning to you too, Rich," Eddie responded. He looked at the clock by his bed.
"Dude my mom is waking up in ten minutes! You have to go, like, now!" he exclaimed.
"What? No breakfast in bed? You're a terrible one night stand," Richie joked.
"Very funny, this isn't even a one night stand because we didn't have sex and you're too in love with me to leave," Eddie said back, half joking. Richie looked at him with pleading eyes.
"Pleaaaseee let me stay! I promise I'll tell your mom we can't fuck anymore because I'm in love with you!" Richie said, switching to a southern belle voice halfway through his sentence.
"Nah, you have to get out. Leave. Begone." Richie opened the window, starting ro climb out.
"You know, Rapunzel actually used her hair to let the prince down from her castle. You could use your extensive amounts of gauze and medical tape to let me down, y'know!" Richie said. Eddie rolled his eyes. Richie jumped off the slanted roof, doing a parkour-esque roll at the bottom. "
Are you okay?" Eddie asked from his room.
"Better than ever, Spagheds!" Richie shouted back, before shortly adding "Love you!" Eddie's face heated up.
"I- Uh, love you too!" He shouted. He watched Richie pick his bike up off of the ground and start riding back to his house.
Eddie sighed.
𝘏𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘢 𝘣𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘳?