#anyway. brain is mush but you get the gist

[tevos]

‘and she’s not self-destructing. not on my watch’ and the way carla immediately looks at betsy when she says this. goddamn.

[snarkspawn]

may I offer you more soft kenbig in these trying times

[sunshinebuddie]

prompt for a hc maybe?? richie going missing and eddie doesn’t stop looking for him and when he finally finds him, he admits he was planning something cute

Eddie paced back and forth in front of the quarry, kicking stones with hisConverse-clad feet and watching them splash into the water. He checked his phone.Richie was supposed to meet him there 2 and a half hours ago but, clearly, hadforgotten their plans as usual.

Eddie sighed. He wondered why he always put up with Richie’s shit every day.With him making crude jokes, standing Eddie up, teasing him, calling him “Eds”despite how much Eddie hated it (even though, secretly, he loved it. But hewasn’t going to tell Richie that).

He rolled his eyes and began walking away from the water and through thetrees to the street. He couldn’t be bothered waiting anymore. If Richie wasn’tgoing to bother putting effort into this relationship, than neither was Eddie.

But Eddie stopped as he reached the middle of the street. 2 and a halfhours? That was definitely a longer amount of time than usual when Richieforgot their plans. Normally Eddie would wait half an hour or an hour, andeventually Rich would show up. He’d be huffing and puffing and out of breath, andEddie would offer him his inhaler to steady his breathing. Richie would shovethe inhaler away and hastily kiss Eddie, telling him how sorry he was and howmuch he loved him and that it would never happen again. But the very next week,it would.

But that was 30 minutes, or an hour. Eddie certainly had never ever waitedmore than 2 hours for his boyfriend to show.

Panic set in at the sudden thought of something bad happening to Richie, andEddie began running. He didn’t even think of running home to get his car, orsimply trying to call Richie on his mobile. He just ran and didn’t stop untilhe reached Richie’s feral looking apartment building. He found the apartmentnumber 20 buzzer and rung it repeatedly, praying for Richie’s voice to comethrough the speaker like usual with an “oh, fuck! Eds, I’m so sorry!” But afteranxiously swaying his body from side to side for a few minutes, Eddie came tothe conclusion that Richie wasn’t at home.

He wasn’t at home?

Where else could he be?

Eddie wracked his brain, then began running towards the first place he couldthink of - Bill and Stan’s house. Again, the thought to go and get his carnever even entered his mind. All Eddie wanted to do was find his boy. To knowRichie was safe.

He was thanking God that all of the losers houses were close by as he rusheddown Bostik Street, raced up Bill and Stan’s driveway and began knocking on thefront door with so much force that it felt as if his knuckles may bleed.

“Stanley?! Bill?!” Eddie shouted, followed by another series of desperateknocks.

“What’s up?” Stan asked in a rushed tone, the door almost hitting the wallafter he’d ripped it open.

“I don’t know where Richie is! He was supposed to meet me at the quarryhours ago and he’s not at his apartment! I feel like I’m losing my mind,Stanley, I don’t know where he could be! Have you seen him?” Eddie’s words cameout of his mouth so quickly that Stan almost missed them. But he’d caughtenough to know the gist. He didn’t know exactly where Richie was, however he did know that he was with Bill. But hewas sworn to secrecy by the trash-mouth himself. So instead of having theweight of a lie resting on his shoulders, Stan decided to answer Eddie’squestion in a way that let him tell the truth without actually giving awaywhere Richie was.

“I haven’t actually seen him today, Eddie,” Stan answered honestly. I thinkhe might have been with Bill, but I don’t know where they went.”

“Oh, God. They could be anywhere!” Eddie exclaimed. He thanked Stan for hishelp and began running once again. To where, he didn’t know. No thoughts otherthan finding Richie were entering his mind.

Stanley checked his phone, a message from Bill popping up with a simple “ready!”

“Hey, Eddie!” Stan called out. “Wait up, I’ll drive!”

The two boys drove around town in search for their loved ones. Stan wastelling the truth when he said he hadn’t known where Richie and Bill went.Well, that was until Bill texted him the address. His tight grip on thesteering wheel never loosened for a second as they drove down the streets ofDerry.

“Where do you think they went, Stan?” Eddie asked. He was a lot calmer now.Stan had put the radio on and 80’s hits played softly throughout the car,greatly reducing Eddie’s stress levels.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Bill forgets to tell me everything,” Stan laughed. “He’sso damn absentminded sometimes.”

“But, you’re married?” Eddie said, confusion laced in his tone. “Marriedpeople tell each other everything, don’t they?”

“Marriage isn’t always about telling each other everything, Eddie. It’sabout trusting each other enough to know that you don’t have to tell each other everything. You don’t always have to know where the other person is, because you trustthem enough to know that there’s no need to worry. It’s about coming home atthe end of the day and having that one person there that you can share whateveryou want to with. And knowing that, if you don’t want to share anything aboutthe day with them, you don’t have to. You can just sit on the couch in silence,and it doesn’t matter. Because you’re still with them.”

“Wow,” Eddie gasped. “That’s… Kind of, really beautiful, Stan.”

“Yeah, Billy turned me to mush,” Stan chuckled. Eddied laughed along withhim in agreement, not realising the road they were headed down until Stan hadparked the car.

“Why are we at Derry High?” Eddie asked. He gazed out at the old buildingwhich he had graduated from 5 years prior, his eyebrows furrowed in utterconfusion.

Stan smiled brightly at him. “Go to your year 7 English class.”

“Wha- why? What’s going on?”

“Just… Trust me here, Eddie. Go.”

Eddie nodded and reluctantly stepped out of the car. He threw his short legsover the old rusted front gate, then began walking into the school.

As he wandered the hall, memories of himself and the losers club cameflooding back: fights with Henry and the Bowers gang, making out with Richieagainst the lockers, jokes and banter going back and forth between the group.It made Eddie feel nostalgic, almost like he missed this hellhole.

He kept going down the hall until he reached classroom 50A, his old year 7English room. It was the only room with the door closed and, when he opened itto be greeted with nothing but darkness, the only room with the blinds down.

Eddie peered back down the hall to see that Stan’s car now contained bothhimself and Bill. They both smiled at Eddie before the car disappeared andEddie was left alone to the dark classroom.

“Rich?” He asked quietly. His fear of the dark kicked in and Eddie quicklyreached his hand out to the left, struggling to find the light switch. Once hedid, he was greeted with a plain old classroom. The whiteboard read “Welcome toyear 7 English with Mrs. Clarin!” Eddie chuckled, remembering that that’s whatwas written on that very same board all those years ago.

He walked further into the empty classroom. “Richie?” He said again, thistime slightly louder.

He walked over to Richie’s old desk and chair in the very back corner of theclassroom and sat down. A white piece of paper was lying on the desk, fresh inkscribbled on it. Eddie picked it up and read it out loud: “if u r reading thisthen it means u r in my chair. get out looser”

A sudden realisation hit Eddie. This was the exact note that he had readback in 7th grade. He’d sat down in this very chair, and read thisvery note, which caused him to move a seat to the right. And seconds after he’dread the note in year 7, Richie Tozier had walked into the classroom and sat inthat back corner chair.

Eddie looked up as he heard the door creak, and in walked Richie. He had astack of random year 7 books in his hands, and was wearing  the same shirt he’d worn on the first day ofschool.

Eddie laughed. “What the hell are you doing?”

“You’re in my chair,” Richie said, gesturing to the desk that Eddie wascurrently occupying. “Get out, loser.”

Eddie giggled and moved out of Richie’s old seat and into his own. “What’sall this about?”

Richie took a deep breath in and smiled. “Do you remember the first time weever met?” Eddie nodded. How could he ever forget? “It was right here. In thesevery seats. After you read that note and saw me sit here, it looked like you weregonna shit fucking bricks, Eds.”

The two of them laughed as they remembered the day so clearly. “You were terrifyingback then, Rich.”

“Hey, I still am!” Richie protested. “Anyway. The second I saw you, I justfelt something. I didn’t know what it was back then. Course, then I found out Iwas fucking gay when I was 15 and everything made sense.” Eddie would havelaughed, but for some reason this felt more serious than Richie usually was.And he also was waiting for Richie to explain why the hell they were in theirold school.

“Look, I’m not great with words,” Richie said as he stood up from his chair.He grabbed Eddie’s hands and pulled up the smaller boy, keeping their handsintertwined as he continued talking. “But the second I saw you, Eds, I knew I wantedto spend the rest of my life with you.”

Eddie gasped as he realised what was happening, and tears began welling upin his eyes. As he looked into Richie’s, he could see tear drops threatening toescape the taller boys too.

“And when I look at you now, I know more than ever how badly I want that.Eddie, please marry me?”

Eddie didn’t say anything. He just nodded his head and the tears from bothboys came rushing out. They wrapped their arms around each other as sobs ofhappiness wracked through their bodies.

“Yes, God, of course,” Eddie whispered into Richie’s ear. He pulled out ofthe hug and grabbed Richie’s freckled face in his small hands and pushed theirlips together. They moved in sink for a few moments before they needed air andpulled apart, though they continued crying.

“That’s why you stood me up?” Eddie chuckled as he wiped the tears from hisface.

Richie nodded, laughter escaping his mouth as he too wiped his face with hisarm sleeves. “Yeah. Well, Bill was supposed to pick you up at the quarry totake you here, but I fucking slept in and then I forgot to tell you I wouldn’tbe there. It’s hard work planning something cute!”

“You idiot,” Eddie laughed.

“I can’t believe you want to marry me.”

“God. I can’t believe it too.”