#reddie sickfic

[swooningdelirium]

reddie? in 2024? embarrassing tbh but here’s a fluffy little sickfic i wrote last year

He awoke to a shiver that ravaged him from the inside out and rendered every last hair on his body standing on end. With sweat matting his hair to his temples, Eddie rolled over to check the digital clock on his bedside. His eyes burned, but he willed them to focus. When he could finally make out the numbers, he saw that is was just past 4AM. Eddie shuddered. Even through the veil of delirium that blurred the room around him, he could feel a cumbersome panic rise in his chest. As he placed a sweaty palm to his forehead, the placebo pills and waiting rooms of his childhood burst forth at nauseating speed. His stomach lurched. He shook his mother’s nagging voice from the recesses of his mind and assured himself that whatever was wrong wasn’t fatal. He was fine. It was all okay.

Richie still lay beside him, snoring softly. His body radiated a heat too alluring for a chilled Eddie to ignore. Eddie snuggled up closer to him, assuming the big spoon position for once, and whimpered:

“Richie, I don’t feel good.” He winced at how childish he sounded, but couldn’t help it.

Richie rolled over with a grumble, instinctively pulling Eddie in closer and burying his face into the pit of his shoulder. “Hm?”

“Rich…” Eddie trailed off, a lump beginning to form in his throat. “Something’s wrong.”

Richie jolted upright and switched on the bedside lamp, taking in Eddie’s pale, sweaty form for the first time. “…Oh. Yeah. You don’t look so good, baby,” Richie’s brows furrowed, his voice still thick with sleep. When he saw the anxiety flash across his love’s weary face, he quickly added, “You’re alright, though. I promise. I’m right here.”

He placed Eddie’s arm over his own shoulders and gently helped him sit up against the headboard. He leaned forward and planted a prolonged kiss onto Eddie’s forehead. He was, in fact, burning up. Shit. This would send him spiraling. He pulled Eddie’s head to his chest as hatred for his estranged mother-in-law flooded every fiber of his being. It broke him enough having to see Eds like this without thinking of all he had endured when they were kids. As if they weren’t already going through enough.

“It’s okay. Everybody gets sick,” Richie whispered into the top of Eddie’s head. “You definitely do have a fever, though. We’ll have to check on that. What else are you feeling right now, my love? What hurts?”

Before Eddie could answer, he erupted into a coughing fit that sent him barrelling toward the bathroom with Richie in tow. Just as he entered, Richie found him hunched over the toilet, retching. Tears streamed down his face. He knelt beside his partner and rubbed his back in soft, circular motions.

“I know, Eds,” he murmured. “I know. You’re okay.” Eddie gasped for air with each fleeting moment his stomach settled before inevitably starting again. Whether he was short of breath from pain or panic, Richie couldn’t tell.

When the vomiting subsided and Eddie nodded upon being asked if he was done, Richie led him back to bed and placed the lightest throw blanket on top of him. “Okay. I’m gonna go get you some medicine and some water. Anything else?” Eddie shook his head weakly. “Alright, my love. We’ll take your temperature when I come back too, okay?” He reached out to hold Eddie’s face and stroked his cheekbone with his thumb. God, he was warm. “I’ll be right back.”

Eddie opted to close his eyes for just a minute. A prolonged blink, really. It must have been longer, though. He only opened them again when the creak of floorboards indicated that Richie was back with supplies from their comically well-stocked medicine cabinet. He placed the thermometer and miscellaneous medications on the nightstand, immediately heading back toward the kitchen. Eddie heard faintly running water for a moment before the tap turned off and Richie returned with a washcloth and small bowl of water. He placed these items next to the others and reached for the thermometer.

“Okay. Let’s check that temperature now,” he said in that tone that always put Eddie at ease. The only voice that could bring him down from the panic. He leaned over his Eddie and placed the thermometer under his tongue, holding his hand while they waited for a reading.

At the tone, Richie removed the thermometer, which read 102.8. Eddie wouldn’t take that well. Inhaling sharply, he showed Eddie the number and squeezed his hand. “That’s alright. It just means your body is fighting extra hard, okay?” He felt Eddie’s already rapid breathing quicken, but he paused for a deep breath.

“Can you maybe take it again?” Eddie rasped, barely audible. His throat was still so raw from upheaving the contents of his stomach. “I just want to make sure.”

“Okay,” he murmured, kissing away a stray tear on Eddie’s cheek. “We’ll do it one more time.”

Once again, he placed the thermometer under Eddie’s tongue and waited for the tone. When he heard it, he removed it to see that it now read 103 on the dot. He gently pressed the power button and placed it back in the sleeve without showing Eddie.

“Yeah, honey. It was right the first time.”

“That’s a really high fever,” Eddie whimpered miserably.

“Oh, Eds. I know it’s scary.” Richie placed one hand on Eddie’s shoulder while he used the other to open the bottle of liquid cold and flu medicine. “You’re okay. It’s just a bug. Try not to let the number scare you too much. We’re gonna take that fever down, okay?” Richie extended the bottle cap full of medicine to Eddie’s mouth. “Drink this, baby.” Eddie obliged as Richie submerged the cloth into the bowl, wrung it out, and placed it on his forehead. He shivered against the sudden cold, but didn’t resist. “I know you’re already cold, but we have to bring this temperature down. It’ll make you better. I promise.”

Eddie nodded. He looked small. Smaller than Richie had seen him in as long as he could remember. He forced out the memory of a tiny, terrified Eddie in that dingy Neilbolt basement with his arm contorted at a sickening angle. He needed to be here, now. Eds needed him in the present.

Richie checked the clock. It was nearing 5 A.M. “I’ll call us both out of work a little later.”

“Do you think I’ll need antibiotics? Or maybe some infusions? What if this is serious? I think we should go-” Eddie winced. The thought of the hospital threw his stomach into another bout of nausea.

“How about this,” Richie began, “I’ll check your temperature again in an hour or so. If it isn’t any better, I’ll take you to the doctor. For now, though, I think it’s alright if we stay here. Just you and me. How does that sound?”

Eddie nodded weakly and reached his arms toward Richie.

“Yeah?” Richie whispered, climbing back into bed. “Do you just want to be held?” Eddie nodded again, a whimper escaping his throat. “Okay, why don’t you drink a bit more water for me and then you can try going back to sleep.”

Eddie obediently took some small, cautious sips before returning the glass to its place by the bed.

“Good job, baby. Now try and get some rest.” Eddie drifted off before he was even finished closing his eyes, but his husband remained awake, holding him close as he shivered through the sunrise.

…

It was only when he felt Richie’s lips on his forehead again that his eyes fluttered open.

“Hi,” Eddie smiled though his head was pounding and his body ached.

“Hi,” Richie pulled his love back into his arms. “Did you sleep okay?”

“Mmm-hm.”

“Good. Do you think you could eat anything right now? Crackers maybe?”

Eddie stifled a gag. “Definitely not,” he confessed.

“I didn’t think so. That’s alright. We’ll try and get something on your stomach in a little bit. How about we just take your temperature for right now?” Richie swallowed as he asked the question, praying the fever had gone down. What if it had gotten higher? Eddie would freak. His poor Eddie.

Eddie seemed to be reading his mind as he took in a shuddering breath. “I guess we should check it again.”

Richie planted a quick kiss on Eddie’s cheek before taking the thermometer back out of the sleeve. “Okay, baby. You ready?”

Eddie parted his lips and raised his tongue. Richie winced as he watched the number on the screen climb past 101, then 102. He sighed in relief, however, once it stopped at 102.4 and the tone sounded.

“See?” Rich felt an immense weight lift from his shoulders. “You’re getting better already.”

Eddie heaved a sigh. “That’s still high,” he mumbled.

“It is,” Richie admitted, “but I’m going to take care of you. We’re going to get you better.”

Eddie rested his head on his husband’s chest, allowing Richie’s steady heartbeat to ease his own. “Okay,” he conceded. “Do you want to just go back to sleep for a little while?”

Rich chuckled as he wet the cloth again and gently dabbed his love’s forehead and cheeks. “I thought you’d never ask.”

He placed the washcloth back onto Eddie’s brow and held him tightly, wishing the roles were reversed. As terrified of germs as his Eddie was- as much as he had been through- it all fell by the wayside if Richie was sick. And though Eddie would make him see a doctor for so much as a head cold, he remained collected. All that mattered in the moment was that his love got better.

That’s what Richie would do for him now.

As Eddie turned to his side and his breathing evened, Richie covered the both of them with an extra blanket and held the cloth in place on his forehead so the boy he loved would sleep soundly.

[fixhbones]

WIP GAME !!!!

Rules: In a new post, post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them, and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have WIPs.

(i was tagged by beloved mutual @pimpedoutgreenears )

i have 250+ wips so i’m going to break this down a LOT and not including many 💀

i’ll be tagging anyone who wants to join in, as well as: @cowardlybean , @scrunkle , @ctpalt, @cupofd1rt , @choofs (no pressure to anyone to do it lol)

this will be Long so it’s under the cut

MP100

-teruki moving

-fox curse serirei

-ritsu and that maid dress (calfhooves inspired me to finally start writing that one forever ago)

-shou and his family

-shou being invisible

-college ritshou

-fem ritshou

-shou unintentionally joining the kageyamas vacation

-i beat the shit out of reigen

-ritshou fake dating

-runaway

-multi-dimensional/universe shit

-hockey

-‘stray cat’ shou ; ‘house cat’ ritsu

-yuritshou again

-ritshou live together

-terumob transgender agenda (all girls school)

-fist fighting and kissing

-terumob furries

-unconventional love

-graffiti taggers ritshou

-sick fic pt2

-terumob and psychic powers

-lab baby shou PTSD

-shou star and tree metaphors

-ritsu melts

-shou like. dying

-reigen and shou funny familial relationship

-shou is bad at emotions and feelings

Bungo Stray Dogs

-lab baby escapee skk fic

-ranpoe angst

-ranpoe and eyelashes

-skk runaway

-skk and sea monsters

-summer camp

-highschool au

-skk highschool au version 2

-skk highschool au version 3

-chuuya and carnage

-mamas boy (chuuya and verlaine au)

-truth or dare (girl skk)

-ooc double black and humanity

-skk highschool au version 4

-dazai and The Horrors

-cryptids au

-halloween through the years

-summer camp au (again lol)

-ranpo and dazai pm au

-dazai gets braces

-ghostbuster au

-chuuya getting an education in the pm

-skk graffiti taggers au (again)

-girl scouts au

-kyousano and skk older sister + their younger brother

-wierd twist on a spider-man au

-teen skk + jealous dazai

-lonely summers

-chuuya “i’m back in the fucking building again” nakahara

-skk taking care of eachother

-skk yuri

-skk yuri and anatomy

-

MCYT/DSMP

-necromancer crimeboys version 1

- version 2

-crow crimeboys

-c!tommy 🤝 a pearl (mitski)

-lab baby c!tommy

-lab baby brothers c!crimeboys

-horror summer camp au

-accidently adopting a raccoon shapeshifter

-vigilante fic

-the forest is breathing

-unreliable narrator depressed wilbur

-pirate crimeboys

-the undead’s guide to feeling alive

-c!beeduo traditional enderian wedding

-night in the woods au (wilbur is mae)

-subway masks

-wilbur and tommy sons of the sun and moon respectively

-nasicaä crimeboys au

-crimeboys over the garden wall au

-cryptids au

-crimeboys binary stars

-chainsaw man au

-wilbur buries himself

-skater and rollerblader rivalry lmao

-los compensinos inspired 2

- horror fic 2

-cranboo time traveler au

-crimeboys cryptids au version 2?

-ode to a moon

IT

-losers club friends giving

-richie and bev dye hair

-losers college au (winter edition)

- summer camp au (it haunts me)

-loser adults are losers and have video calls

-reddie in eddie’s attic

-losers go trick or treating

-eddie takes care of richie

-richie and Big Dog

-bev accidental wingman of the century

-reddie romcon irony angst

-camcorder findings

-whale city 👍

-youtube video transcript

-pharmacy photo developing

-mama tozier being the best

-richie and stan’s kids

-mac n cheese

-mama tozier being the best again

-werewolf x witch

-loser kids

-violence

Persona 5

-hockey kid akechi

-magical girl au

-foster care

MISC

-life happenings (Night In The Woods)

-sunnflower runaway (Omori)

-bad ending 2.0 (Omori)

-sickfic (hirano to kagiura)

-langa being left handed (SK8)

-renga being dumbly in love (SK8)

-pearlina (splatoon)

[cowboylikeekatie]

dying in sickness but picture day is tuesday for me and i can’t miss school because u can fail if u miss too much class (i’m going to write a reddie sickfic tomorrow to cope) (whenever i get sick or i have a big change in my life i write it to the losers club it can be fun)

[eddiekaspbrxks]

@eddieklapbak​: Hi :) i love your fics and I’ve only read a couple of them ( i need to read more ) but i was wondering if you’d be interested in writing a reddie fic where eddie gets a really bad flu and hes pissed about it because hes eddie but richie comes in hot taking really good care of him and shit ??? If that’s too fluffy or boring dont worry about it

(i redirected this to my sideblog for organisation’s sake, I hope that’s okay)

Word Count: 1281

AO3 link in notes

Eddie Kaspbrak supposes that one would expect, were someone to go on a week-long skiing trip with his six best friends, and were they to come down with a cold sent directly from hell—an analogy Eddie hadn’t ever expected to use, but which after ten hours lying in bed with a headache and a hacking cough seemed rather fitting—for their boyfriend to take care of them. One wouldn’t have expected, though, that Eddie would come down with a cold (him, of all the fucking people—Bev shared cigarettes with anyone she met, and Richie, god knows, probably hadn’t washed his hands in months), or that, when it happened, the boyfriend in question would be Richie Tozier. Richie and medication wasn’t a combination he’d exactly fantasized about, and he wasn’t sure that it was going to work out without at least a heart attack and maybe a very, very small house fire.

Or a fucking huge one, who knows. There’s no overestimating Richie.

“So,” Richie cries in a British accent, walking into the room with Eddie’s toiletry bag nestled in his arms, “come on then, talk me through this.” He unzips the bag—it’s “almost as big as your suitcase,” Stan had said, (which is ridiculous, it’s a solid quarter at most, and bright red, just in case Eddie’s in a hurry and needs to see it from a mile away (or in case Richie needs to find it, because holy shit that kid is blind, but he doesn’t seem to be showing any appreciation for Eddie’s color-picking skills at the moment), and dumps the contents onto the bed.

“Dude, careful with that—if you break my aspirator, I swear to god—” Eddie cries, leaping up a little and then grimacing when his head throbs.

“Hate to break it to you, Eddie Spaghetti, but you’ve got bigger issues right now than your made-up asthma.”

“Shut up, your fucking nasal voice is making my head hurt,” Eddie moans, covering his face with his hands.

“I’m serious, Eds,” Richie says, face mock solemn. “Your worst fears have come true. This is what you’ve been protecting yourself from your whole life, and alas, your brave efforts have gone to waste. Edward,” he places a hand on Eddie’s shoulder, “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I’m not sure you’re going to make it out of this alive.”

“It’s a cold, man.”

“I know!” Richie cries, like a proud parent. “The first cold of your life! You’re finally growing up.” Eddie kicks him halfheartedly, to which Richie pleads in his Southern Belle voice “Please forgive me, Eddie, light of my life, oh please, I’ll die if you’re mad at me, just die!” He collapses  in a fit of giggles.

Eddie stares at him, dumbfounded. “You know I broke my arm when I was thirteen, right? You were there?”

“Oh, was that when the demon clown attacked us?” Richie’s eyebrows knit together, and Eddie resists both the urge to roll his eyes and the urge to grin like an idiot. “Huh, I must have forgotten.”

Eddie laughs a little. “Okay, my medication. Let’s see if you know what to do.”

“Oh, I don’t think I could go two years living with you without all of that rubbing off on me,” Richie says sweetly.

“I’m nothing if not influential.”

“No, I was thinking more like a pubic rash. I mean, we’ve done plenty of rubbing—”

“Holy fucking shit, beep beep, Trashmouth.”

“Alright, I’m just saying—”

“I wasn’t kidding when I said your voice was giving me a headache, and I’m much too poor and sickly to get a pill myself, so come on, pass them over.”

Richie shuffles through the pile clumsily, making Eddie cringe. “A ha!” he cries, pulling out a little bottle. Eddie notes the color of the cap, the shape of the letters familiar in his head. Richie picks up the glass of water he’d brought with the toiletry bag and holds it out to Eddie along with the pill. “Come on, eat up. As much as I’d love to do the whole here comes the airplane spiel, you seem to think you still have a dignity to be hurt, and I’d never deprive you of that fantasy—”

“That’s aspirin, you dumbass,” Eddie says, putting a hand in front of his mouth to stop Richie doing just that. “You’re not supposed to take it with a cold.”

“But it’s aspirin. It’s for headaches, that’s how aspirin works. You take it, your headache goes away. Right?”

“Yeah, but it’s not good for colds. Something to do with, like, your sinuses, or something. Give me the panadol, that’ll help.”

“Why are we here? To suffer? When did they make medicine complicated?”

“Why isn’t Ben in here? Ben would shut up when I tell him to.”

“Aw, you would never tell me to shut up, Eddie baby.”

“Shut up. Just, shut up. There.”

Richie pouts. “For that, I’m doing the airplane schtick.”

“Oh, my god,” Eddie groans.

“Open up!” Richie sings, pinching the pill between his thumb and index finger. “Come on, open the airport, here we come! Vrrrrrrrrrrr…”

“I will not, give me that—”

“ Vrrrr... c’mon,, or the little passengers won’t be able to get off in your little mouth!”

“Richie, what the fuck, only you could make this game disgusting.”

“Aw, you love it, Eds,” Richie says, and he pounces on Eddie, tickling his sides. Eddie bursts out laughing, kicking at him, and suddenly they’re kids again, wrestling in a hammock, taking any excuse to touch each other.

Eddie coughs, and the moment stops, his head throbbing from the movement. “Fuck,” he breathes, coughing again, voice raspy. Richie’s up in a second, grabbing the glass of water and placing it in Eddie’s hands.

“Here. Breathe slow, hyperventilating will make it worse, I think.”

“I know how a fucking cold works, Rich—” he says, but another cough rises up.

Richie holds his hand until the coughing fit passes, and then Eddie lies back.

“God, I hate this,” Eddie mumbles, careful not to raise his voice for fear that another coughing fit starts. “I can’t believe I’m stuck in here.”

“Hey, it’ll be great,” Richie says softly, laying next to Eddie and laying his head on his shoulder. “Who wants to be out there skiing when you could be lying bedridden and, fuck, and, uh, bedraggled, with me?”

“I think you think I like you more than I actually do.”

“Aw, I know you love me,” Richie says, and Eddie doesn’t have to look to tell that he’s grinning.

“Sure, keep telling yourself that, man.”

“Oh, I will,” Richie says, and leans over, pressing his lips to Eddie’s.

“I’m sick, dimwit. Deathly.”

“You know I’d risk death for you, Eddie Spaghetti.” Eddie rolls his eyes, but he’s grinning, too, and he leans in and kisses Richie again.

“Fine, I guess I love you,” Eddie concedes.

Richie raises his eyebrows. “That’s two Kaspbraks I’ve heard that from, now.”

“How are you an adult?”

“Get it? Because your mom—”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eddie says, cutting him off. And Richie beams, all scruffy elbows and messy edges and Eddie can’t believe that there could ever be a universe where they hadn’t found each other.

A/N: there's a decent chance that the whole aspirin bit is bullshit,,, i did about five minutes of research on this and some websites said do NOT take aspirin and some said nothing so imma just put it in oops

[celt-the-flame-3110]

Eddie grabbed the hem of Richie's shirt, attempting to pull it off, but Richie didn't lift his arms at all to assist him. He even murmured a small, “Noooo…”

Eddie gave his boyfriend a sympathetic smile. "Come on, Rich. I'm trying to make you feel better."

Richie finally, but lazily, lifted his arms. "I already feel better. You—a type-a, workaholic—took a day off of work to take care of me. Besides, you already gave me a shitton of meds."

Eddie scoffed, pulling the shirt off. "Two medicines is not a 'shitton.'"

"Well that one pill tasted like shit." Richie pouted.

"I let you chase it with Sprite. Come on. I just have one more thing, then I'll cuddle you as long as you want me to."

Richie seemed to perk up at that. It was very weak, but he perked up nonetheless.

Eddie grabbed a small jar of vapo rub out of the drawer nightstand next to his side of the bed.

When Richie saw the small, blue jar he let out a long groan. The sound was short-lived by the coughing fit it sent him into.

This is when Eddie would’ve started rubbing his back soothingly but Richie was currently lying on his back. So Eddie started rubbing what he hoped was comforting circles into his chest instead.

“Don’t be dramatic. It only makes it worse.”

“Eddie…” Richie whined, his voice raspy and nasally at the same time. “You know I hate that shit. It makes your skin burn.”

“Rich, it’s medicated. If it didn’t tingle, it wouldn’t work so well. Come on, let me put some on you. I promise It’ll be fast and we can cuddle after.”

Unless Richie was unconscious, Eddie wouldn’t do anything to care for him without his explicit permission. Eddie knew how much that sucked.

Richie sniffled as he inhaled, then muttered, “Okay, fine…”

Eddie uncapped the jar, trying not to shy away at the smell.

His mother would slather that shit all over his body, whether he needed it or not. He became accustomed to the stench but still hated it. But Richie needed this right now. He had been coughing and congested for the past two days and it has only gotten worse.

Eddie smoothed the gross smelling ointment all over Richie’s chest, making sure to apply it thickly. He even rubbed some up and down Richie’s throat.

Finally, Eddie was able to cap the jar and put it back in its proper place. He snatched a wet wipe from the same drawer and cleaned his hand off.

“Eddie…” Richie whined. “It burns.”

A small part of Eddie wanted to scoff at Richie’s complaining. Eddie had to be practically covered from head to toe with this shit when he was a child and he whined less than this.

But Eddie wouldn’t do that in a thousand years. He remembered desperately wanting to be comforted when he was a child and the only comfort his mother had for him was even more pills. He wasn’t going to make his one and only feel anything close to that.

Eddie reached a hand forward and brushed his fingers through Richie’s hair, earning a sigh from him. “I know, baby. I’m sorry. It’ll stop burning so much after a while. Here… You wanna cuddle with me?”

Richie nodded, looking straight-up pathetic.

Eddie leaned back against the headboard, opening his arms for his lover. Richie crawled into his arms—somehow managing to fold his ridiculous long limbs into such a small space—and let out a content noise once he was situated.

Every fiber of Eddie’s being was screaming at him to get away from Richie. To shove Richie off of him, run down the stairs, out the front door, and drive to the next town over. Then to thoroughly sanitize his entire body, take some medicine, and throw in a Hail Mary for good measure.

But he didn’t do that. Because he had gotten therapy and—while he couldn’t keep this up for long and would have to at least wash his hands soon—he had gotten considerably better. Eddie was slowly working through his trauma and he was able to hold Richie while he was sick. He wouldn’t be able to do the same for anyone else but he loved Richie.

Eddie started gently scratching Richie’s back. Richie let out a groan, this one not drawing any coughs out of him.

“Try to get some sleep.” Eddie murmured, leaning down to press a very quick kiss to the crown of Richie’s head.

Eddie wished he could kiss Richie all over his adorable face but putting his lips on Richie for longer than half a second while he was sick wasn’t something he could do yet. Eddie was determined to work on it, though.

Richie took notice and smiled sleepily up at him. “M’kay, Eds. I love you.”

Even though Eddie could practically feel the germs crawling on his lips, he was able to smile back. “I love you too, Rich.”

[stupidwithu]

I’m the loser (you know I’m gonna come undone)

this is extremely self-indulgent and honestly not that well written but it’s here now

summary: Eddie’s sick and Richie loves him.

Richie Tozier x Eddie Kaspbrak (IT)

__________

Eddie collapses into the hammock with a deep-rooted sigh. Subconsciously, his legs swing over the edge of it, in the direction of Richie’s head, who catches both Eddie’s ankles in a single hand.

“Occupado, asshole.”

“Fuck you,” Eddie says emptily. His voice is unusually subdued, Richie thinks, and the taller boy crinkles his nose at the sound of it.

“What’s your problem?” Eddie glares.

“What’s yours?”

Their banter is jaded. For once, there’s no venom – or even humor – behind Richie’s words. Just curiosity.

Eddie, on the other hand, seems… off.

“Eds?”

Eddie groans.

“You okay?”

Eddie offers a sock-clad tap to Richie’s left cheek. Richie slaps his foot away, rolling his eyes when it comes right back, knocking the rims off the bridge of his nose.

“I’m serious,” Richie exhales. “You look—”

“Like shit,” Stanley finishes. Richie narrows his eyes at him, like he’s just now remembering he and Eddie aren’t alone.

This seems to catch the rest of the losers’ attention. They turn in almost-creepy unison to face the boys with looks that are equal parts interest and concern. Richie blushes. He nudges Eddie away.

Eddie makes himself known with a soft whimper, curling in on himself with his back to the group (Richie can still see his face, all scrunched up and irritated). He doesn’t like the attention he’s getting. Not now. Not like this.

“I just don’t feel good, okay?” His voice is muffled by his own knees, pressed against his lips like he’s trying to make himself smaller. “Leave me alone.”

Richie’s seconds away from a Seriously, Eds? How old are you? when Bill cuts him off.

“What’s wr… what’s wrong, Eddie?”

For some reason, watching his friends fret over the boy before him makes Richie feel strange. An uncomfortable sensation bubbles up in his stomach and his blood goes warm. He swallows hard, opens his mouth, and says nothing.

In a matter of seconds, Beverly is crouched at Eddie’s side, one of her hands finding residence beneath his hair. Bill stands behind her, arms crossed, and Ben’s there too, like he wants to make sure he looks useful and caring, in case Bev happens to look his way.

Stanley and Mike keep their distance, and Richie doesn’t blame them, because a few hushed whispers into the love triangle’s apprehensive exchange and Eddie’s bolting upright, pushing them away – or at least attempting to. Richie scrambles to plant a foot on the ground to keep himself from falling as Eddie rocks the hammock.

“Stop!” He screeches. “Stop fucking touching me. I mean it!”

He’s breathing heavy. Richie can tell he’s got more to say.

“Eddie—” Ben starts, but Beverly gives the smallest shake of her head and he purses his lips. How does she do it?

“Guys,” Mike says then, and all heads but Eddie’s follow his voice. He cocks his head in the direction of the clubhouse entrance. “A word?”

With hesitant, almost shameful movements, they follow Mike and Stan up the ladder and into the afternoon sun.

Richie lingers a few seconds longer. He’s hoping Eddie will ask him to stay.

As if on cue, he tugs feebly at Richie’s wrist.

Eddie doesn’t say anything, not even when Richie tries one of his more annoying nicknames, but he doesn’t loosen his grip, either, and nobody seems to mind when they don’t move at all.

_____

When Eddie wakes, it’s to the feeling of Richie’s hands cupping both sides of his face.

For a moment, the soft yet slightly panicked brush of Richie’s skin against his cheeks makes Eddie think he’s at the Neibolt house again. His arm jolts in protest, but it doesn’t hurt like it did before. It’s not broken, and that’s not where they are.

The clubhouse, Eddie remembers slowly.

While he was asleep, it got dark. Richie switched positions somewhere between Stanley saying goodbye and Bev popping back in to kiss Eddie’s forehead. They’re laying in the same direction now, still in the hammock, bodies pushed together so that Eddie’s fanny pack is pressed uncomfortably to Richie’s torso. A surge of guilt runs through him. He wonders how long they’ve been like this. Eddie almost thinks he remembers Richie playing with his hair, but he might’ve dreamt that.

“Wha—Where’s everyone?”

“Not here,” Richie shrugs. He’s sweating, Eddie notices. How the fuck? It’s freezing. “Bill was the last one to leave, like an hour ago. I would’ve gone, too, but you just looked so adorable laying here all feverish and helpless, I—”

“Beep beep,” Eddie coughs. “R-Richie.”

“Oh, come on!” Richie has an argument on the tip of his tongue (that was not means for a beeping, Eds), but it falls to nothing when the coughing doesn’t stop. “Eddie!”

Eddie tries to sit up, but he’s light in the hammock and Richie’s weighing it down. He makes it halfway up before collapsing into Richie’s chest, pushing against him without an ounce of strength. He starts to wheeze, and Richie springs into action.

He falls to his knees before a now-seated Eddie, who hacks into the crook of his elbow. Richie winces, rather unhelpfully, giving one of his shoulders a tight squeeze. “C’mon, Eds. It’s okay. Breathe.”

When he’s able, Eddie punches Richie in the chest. “I’m trying, dipshit.”

Richie just smiles.

“I’m sorry you’re sick.”

Eddie frowns. Richie sounds so sincere. “I’m not—”

“Ben said he’d stop by with meds and if those don’t help, I’ll—”

Eddie pales.

“Shit, are you gonna puke?”

Eddie ignores him. “What meds?”

“I don’t fucking know, like, fever reducer…? I’m not a doctor.”

Eddie stands, nearly knocking Richie over in the process. A sudden fury crosses over his features. He fumbles with the buckle of his fanny pack, but his hands are trembling.

Richie rises in a matter of seconds, towering over him in a more natural stance. He covers Eddie’s hands with his own, an uncharacteristic gentleness overcoming him. “What do you need?”

Richie reaches for the zipper just as Eddie gets the belt undone. He tosses the bag as far as he can manage. It hits the wall then crashes against the ground with an empty thud. Richie flinches.

“Eddie?”

“Nothing! I don’t—I don’t fucking need anything in there!”

“Uh,”

“I don’t need medicine, Richie.”

Richie makes a weird face. Eddie wants to punch him. “Oh.”

“Fucking what, Richie?”

“This is about Sonia.”

“What?!” Eddie’s eyes go wide. “No, it isn’t.”

“Of course it is.” Richie runs a hand over his face. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it sooner! That fucking bitch traumatized you.”

“N-no.”

“You’re not sick, Eddie Bear, but you are sick—like with the flu or some shit, it’s actually disgusting—”

Eddie swings, but Richie avoids the hit easily.

“Stop!”

“I’m sorry she lied to you.” Sincere again. It’s not a good color on Richie, Eddie thinks. “That’s, like, a lot to unpack and it’s getting late, but you know your mom’s a piece of shit and I don’t think—”

“Fuck you, Richie.”

At that, Richie stops. Not because of the dark hatred that his favorite person in the entire world just spat at him, but because Eddie’s crying. Actually, openly sobbing. Eddie was furious and screeching and burning red and Richie blinked and now his face is wet and blotchy and he’s hiccupping and fucking crying. Just like that.

“Eds…”

“My mom loves me.”

“I—”

“Shut the fuck up. Just—just, for once in your goddamn life, Richie—”

“That’s not fair.”

“Shut the fuck up!”

Eddie’s furious again, but it’s short-lived. He takes a half-step forward before his knees buckle and he collapses into Richie’s open arms. He’s sick, gross, and mean but Richie doesn’t even blink. He pulls him close, waiting patiently as Eddie cries into his shirt.

“My mom loves me,” he sobs.

One of Richie’s hands snakes up Eddie’s neck, simultaneously testing his fever and taking the ends of his hair between his fingers in a soothing gesture. The other arm’s around his waist, keeping him steady. Eddie’s otherwise completely limp, clenching and unclenching the damp fabric on Richie’s back.

“I love you,” Richie says without thinking. Eddie sniffles. “I just mean… of course your mom loves you, Eds, she just—I don’t know. She just—She doesn’t—”

Richie pauses, takes a deep breath. He knows what he wants to say. He just doesn’t know if Eddie wants to hear it. Honestly, he thinks he already knows.

“The losers love you,” he corrects. “And we don’t want to see you sick, or hurting, like, ever…” he sighs. “Look at you, Eds.”

He’s referring to Eddie’s sickly pale skin – save for the bright pink fever and the tear stains – and his glossy eyes and his chapped lips and the way his tiny body shakes and his voice cracks. Richie knows he’ll be fine, but he can’t help the way his heart breaks.

“I didn’t think about how hard it must be for you. Meds, after everything… You don’t have to take them if you don’t want to. We just thought it might help if you woke up still feeling shitty and it seems like—”

Richie cuts himself off again. He clears his throat. “Anyways, are you done needing consoling? Because I’m not good at it and if you ever tell anyone I’m saying all this sappy shit, Edward, so help me—”

Eddie squeezes him tight. “I’ll take them.”

“Okay.”

“Please don’t take me home.”

“Okay.”

“I’m sorry—”

“Don’t be.”

“—I just wanna be here, just for a little while longer.”

“Okay.”

Richie would stay with him all night, if he asked.

Eddie pulls away, just slightly, and Richie helps him stand on his own. They’re silent for a while. Eddie’s staring, but Richie can’t bring himself to meet his gaze.

“I’m sorry,” he repeats.

Richie wants to kiss the words off his lips. He leans down and kisses his clammy forehead instead.

Eddie’s eyes are wide and Richie’s are closed, until Richie pulls away and they blink their expressions back to normal.

“I, uh, I love you too, Rich.”

[poorlilbeans]

Clinging on to Magic

IT Chapter two commission for the lovely @taylortut :D

(au where everything is fine and nothing hurts because i’m Babey)

“Hey, are you okay?” Eddie whispered. He never was great at whispering, and Richie’s face burned as he felt all the eyes at the table fall on him.

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not eating.”

Shit, had it been that long since he’d taken a bite? Richie glanced around the table, and sure enough, everyone else’s plates were nearly empty.

“Oh. Zoned out, I guess,” he laughed, praying Eddie would just leave the matter alone. He didn’t though. He just kept staring, and Richie could practically feel the embarrassment burning holes in his resolve. “I’m just not that hungry,” he admitted.

“Does your stomach hurt?” Eddie ventured. His voice was soft, sweet, but Richie could already see him subtly shifting his chair away.

“No,” he answered honestly. It wasn’t enough. Seriously, were these guys aware of how intimidating it was, just staring at someone like that? He paused, waited for the conversation to pick up again- waited for all those eyes to move off of him and back to their food. When it didn’t happen, he leaned back in his chair, frustrated. “My throat, alright? My throat hurts,” he admitted, finally. His face burned ever hotter at the concerned stares of his friends.

“You’re sick,” Mike concluded. Beside him, Eddie breathed a sigh of relief that someone else had said the words, so he didn’t have to.

“Maybe. I don’t know. I’m fine, I just feel shitty. It doesn’t matter.”

“You’re kind of contradicting yourself,” Ben spoke up tentatively. Richie sighed, burying his face in his hands and knocking his glasses askew. Eddie’s heart flipped; he hated seeing Richie embarrassed like this… still, it was better than letting him stay out and continue to overexert himself, right? He leaned close to Richie’s ear, silently cursing himself for not noticing the heat radiating from his head earlier.

“No one’s going to be mad if you need to go home,” he whispered. Richie didn’t move.

“If you don’t want me here, you can just tell me,” he answered. He’d been hoping the teasing would be clear in his tone, but judging by the way his friends faces fell, it wasn’t.

“That’s not what I meant,” Eddie started, and god damn it he sounded so worried, so sad, and Richie felt like the biggest asshole on the planet.

“I know. I’m sorry, I just…”

“You just don’t feel well.”

“Yeah.” Richie leaned back in his chair again, a deep ache in sparking in his back at the movement. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s n-not your f-f-fault, Richie,” Bill placated from across the table.

“Yeah,” Bev added, “We really should’ve noticed something was up with the lack of shitty jokes all evening.” And Richie just looked so sad, so guilty… germs could be damned, and Eddie reached under the table and took his hand.

“I’ll drive you home, okay?”

“I can take a cab,” Richie said, eyes cast down.

“I know,” Eddie answered fondly as he rose from his chair, producing his car keys from his jeans pocket. “Let’s go.”

             “-chie?” Are you okay?”

“Hmmm?”

“There you are,” Eddie smiled, but it was a sad kind of smile. It made Richie feel sad, but it was a distant kind of sad; a liquidy, confusing sort of exhaustion was at the forefront, the kind that make it hard to talk and move and exist because he just couldn’t quite remember how.

“I said we’re here,” Eddie repeated. Getting the message, Richie reached over to unclasp his seat belt, a task that was suddenly unreasonably difficult. He tried one, two, three, four times and the damned thing finally clicked open. He turned proudly, only to startle when he realized that Eddie had already appeared beside him and opened the passenger side door.

“When’d you get so fast, Eds?” Richie mumbled, amazed, and wow, there was that smile again. It was so cute. It made it look like Eddie really, really loved him, and that was just absurd, right? He was just a comedian. He was a thing to be laughed at, not to be loved, but here Eddie was, looking at him with a dimply smile and a sparkle in his caramel brown eyes, and goddamn, that was just wonderful, wasn’t it?

           He leaned on Eddie maybe a little bit more than he needed to walking into his apartment building and waiting for the elevator, but he was warm and cool at the same time and it felt like magic. Richie was sure he couldn’t be blamed for clinging on to magic, right? And then the elevator dinged, and Richie cursed it for breaking the illusion,  for ending that moment of perfect quiet he’d found pushing his forehead into the soft crook of Eddie’s neck. He felt a moment of panic, then, because Eddie was tugging him into the elevator; he was almost home, and that meant Eddie was going to leave soon and he would be all alone! The thought was just unbearable and Richie felt himself tearing up before he could stop it. He sniffled reflexively, a gross, wet, deep gurgling sound rumbling through his sinuses, and the tears came faster at the humiliation. Then they were moving, up, up, up… it felt wobbly, and Richie found himself woozily shifting even more of his weight onto Eddie’s shoulder. Eddie’s hand was tracing a slow, soothing path around Richie’s back, his own quiet way of offering comfort; he was never quite sure what to do when Richie cried, but this… this was nice. The elevator dinged again and Richie whined against his will, the monster of cold loneliness looming ever closer.

“It’s alright, Rich, we’re almost there. You can lie down soon,” Eddie offered. Richie wanted to tell him that that wasn’t the problem- that he was misinterpreting his tears, but Eddie was only trying to help, so he kept his mouth shut.

           The two of them wobbled up to Richie’s apartment, and Eddie reached around into Richie’s pocket, tickling his hip to grab his keys. He twitched a little at the sensation, and felt a giggle bubble up his throat despite himself. Eddie’s mouth twitched upward, he couldn’t help but notice, but the deep crease between his brows didn’t ease as he practically carried Richie past the threshold and toward his bedroom.

           He was deposited on his bed, then, and a deep shiver ran up and down is spine as Eddie carefully palmed his forehead, his cheek, his neck.

“Shit, you feel really hot… you have a thermometer, right?” Eddie asked, already up and skittering toward the bathroom.

“I already know I’m hot,” Richie called after him. “Everyone knows! I’m smoking hot!” Eddie didn’t answer, seemingly preoccupied with making an absolutely ungodly amount of noise clattering around in the cupboard and the medicine cabinet. Richie closed his eyes, his headache making a very unwelcome reappearance in response to all the racket. The pain seemed to ease off moments later, though, when cool fingers started stroking his head, combing through his curly hair.

“I couldn’t find it… or any meds for that matter. Where do you keep your cold and flu stuff?”

“Mnn?” Richie eloquently replied, already feeling Eddie’s gentle touch soothing him to sleep. The fingers left his hair, much to his dismay, and reappeared moments later to tap him repeatedly on the forehead. “Heyyyyy,” he whined opening his eyes a crack.

“Where do you keep your medicine and your thermometer?” Eddie repeated.

“Oh,” Richie chuckled deliriously, taking Eddie’s wrist and nuzzling into the palm of his hand. “I don’t have any.” Eddie drew a long, trembling breath, a familiar look of panic settling into his expression.

“Well, you need some. I’ll go out to the convenience store and get you some stuff, alright?”

“Noooo, please!” Richie blurted out, embarrassment returning a little at the high, childish pitch his voice took on. “Just stay for a little longer, please?” After a long pause, Eddie sighed.

“Fine. I’ll stay until you fall asleep, alright? Then I’ll go shopping, and I’ll be back before you even wake up.” He sat back on the bed, smiling a little when Richie began snuggling his hand again. Then, he stopped, and forced all the sad sweetness he could muster into his dark brown eyes as he pouted,

“Will you hold me?” He watched with some (okay a lot) satisfaction as Eddie blushed, but after a beat, he complied, and carefully climbed into the bed with him. Richie unashamedly wrapped his arms around his waist, whatever reservations he normally held completely burned away by fever.

“Have I mentioned how hot I am?” Richie asked as Eddie reached down and pulled his glasses off of his face.

“Yes,” Eddie laughed. “Thrice now, I believe.”

“Mhm,” Richie hummed. Without the barrier of his glasses in his way, he smooshed his face into Eddie’s chest wishing his nose wasn’t so stuffed so he could breathe in the comforting scent of his deodorant. “And my dick is huge.”

“Uh huh, I’m sure it is…” Eddie’s lovely fingers reappeared in his hair, and for the first time all day Richie felt completely, one hundred percent at peace. The world was still spinning, and his throat, his head, his… his everything was all aching, but with a cuddle like this, how could he complain, really? The rise and fall of Eddie’s chest as he restrained his laughter jostled Richie’s head up and down, and the world spun up, up, up, until he was floating a way into sweet, quiet unconsciousness.

             Eddie’s heart was pounding as he shuffled up and down the aisles of the pharmacy. Thermometer, Tylenol, Asprin… should he get some Advil, too? Maybe he should, just to be safe. Pills or liquid, though? Shit, he should’ve asked… Eddie quickly felt his chest tightening, his vision whiting out at the corners as he drew in panicked little gasps of breath. He needed to calm down. This was just a cold. Or the flu. Or Bronchitis. Pneumonia. The plague. Shit, shit…

Eddie ducked into an empty aisle, leaning down over his cart to catch his breath. In, out. In, out. Don’t panic. Everything is going to be fine. In, out. In, out.

           He carefully counted his breaths for the rest of the trips, scuttling around to find cough syrup, both drowsy and non-drowsy, juice, soup, throat lozenges… should he get Gravol? Richie said his stomach wasn’t upset, but… just in case. His tossed it in the basket. The bill was pretty expensive, and Eddie couldn’t help avert his eyes when he noticed the confused and ever so slightly judgmental look the cashier wore with every new package of medicine he scanned. Whatever, what did he know? Eddie just liked to be prepared! Shit, should he have gotten Gatorade? Fuck. Maybe he could grab some at the convenience store on the way back.

           Aside from a quick pit stop on the way, the trek back to Richie’s building was a blur. What if he was getting worse? Maybe he’d woken up and found himself all alone, with no medicine in him and no one to look after him, no one to tell him everything was going to be alright. With every passing moment Eddie got more worried and more frustrated with himself for not just taking Richie back to his own place. He practically sprinted all the way back, only stopping to catch his breath once he was in the elevator. Anticipation built as he jammed Richie’s key into the lock, ready to find him crying or being sick or something.

           Richie was still asleep. Of course he was, he was exhausted. What was Eddie thinking? He let out the breath he’d been holding, much of the tension bleeding out of his body in a huge rush. Knowing now that he had some time to spare, he set about stocking Richie’s kitchen with sick-friendly foods and beverages, and his bathroom cabinets with a lifetime supply off cold and flu supplies. Then, he made his way back into the bedroom with a glass of water in one hand, a brand new thermometer and Tylenol Cold and Flu in the other. He set the water on the nightstand and climbed back into the bed, hoping to coax Richie to wakefulness with a soothing hand on his head. However, the second he made contact Richie jolted awake with a violent, wet coughing fit. Heartbeat picking up speed once more, Eddie grabbed him by the shoulders and heaved him into a sitting position, trying to be as subtle as possible about holding his breath and turning his head away as Richie worked his way through the fit. Once he was finished, Eddie turned back, and sympathy swirled in his stomach as he took in Richie’s flushed, sweaty face, the tears welling up in his eyes from all the coughing.

“Hey, I’m back,” he said, wanting to kick himself for saying something so silly and obvious. “I’m going to take your temperature, okay?” Richie moaned and dropped his head on Eddie’s shoulder, but opened his mouth obediently nevertheless. Eddie placed the thermometer under his tongue, and tried his best to soothe him as he struggled to breathe around it. Once it beeped, Eddie’s heart skipped an anxious beat at the reading. Then again, any number on that thing would have probably made him feel anxious.

“I have pills for you, okay?” he coaxed, pleased when Richie sat up straighter, and swallowed the pills with a water chase and no complaint. He even took a few extra sips of the water before almost dropping the glass in his lap, sleepiness clearly taking over once more. Smiling fondly, Eddie took the glass and put it back on the nightstand, and helped Richie to lie back down.

“It’s alright, you can sleep now,” he cooed. Richie’s brows furrowed as he squirmed, trying to get comfortable.

“Will you stay?” he mumbled. Honestly, Eddie thought, how could he not?

“Of course, I will,” he answered. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

             Eddie woke with a jolt, with no memory of how or when he’d fallen asleep. This wasn’t his bed, or his room…

The memories all came whirling back when he heard a distressed whimper beside him. He fumbled to turn the light on, and found Richie still sleeping, but not restfully. He was thrashing about, moaning and whimpering and crying. Panicked, Eddie grasped at his shoulders and shook, desperate to save him from whatever horrible dream had him so upset. Richie woke with a gasp, which turned into a cough, which turned into several coughs and then a few hiccuped sobs.

“Hey, hey, hey, I’m here, you’re alright,” Eddie tried, with no idea if what he was saying was helpful. It must have been, though, because Richie stopped crying and met his eyes, the wild terror in his own dying down a little. “You’re alright,” Eddie repeated. “You were just having a bad dream. You’re safe.” Wordlessly, Richie scooted closer, clinging to Eddie like he wanted to just straight up climb inside of him. “Shh, it’s alright. Did you want to talk about it?” Eddie asked, not really expecting an answer.

“You were dead…” Richie whispered, and Eddie’s heart flipped. “You… there was this wolf following us, and it had yellow eyes and then…” he sniffled, burying his face in Eddie’s hip.

“It isn’t stupid,” Eddie prompted. Richie sniffled.

“It turned into a clown and it was ripping you apart. I was watching, and it was just ripping pieces off of you and eating them, but you weren’t dead yet. You were alive and screaming but I couldn’t move, and then he ate your heart and he… you…” Richie’s breath came in quick gasps for a moment before he broke off into delirious crying.

“It’s alright, it wasn’t real. I’m here,” Eddie whispered. He rubbed Richie’s quaking back, whispering soothing words until his sobs slowed to a stop, and held him tight until they both fell asleep again.

           When he woke next it was morning, and he was awakened by the harsh sound of Richie coughing. He sat up.

“Are you okay?!” he asked, raising a gentle hand to Richie’s back. “Do you need anything? Water?” Recovering from the fit, Richie raised an eyebrow, seemingly surprised by Eddie’s panic.

“I’m fine,” he rasped, and they both cringed at the gravelly sound of his voice. He blushed when Eddie reached out to feel his forehead.

“You feel a lot cooler,” he breathed, and for a moment they just looked at each other; Eddie could practically feel crackling static between them. Feeling his own face heat up, he pulled back. “I’ll get you something for that cough. Oh, and are you hungry? What do you want for breakfast?”

“I’d like some Spaghetti please,” Richie wheezed, grinning and offering a wink. Eddie rolled his eyes.

“I’m serious, you need food in you.”

“Won’t you cuddle me first?”

“No. Food first.” Eddie did his best to sound stern, and Richie pouted for a moment, before quickly recovering.

“It’s fine, I’ve got a great cuddle session planned with your mom later tonight.”

“Just for that you’re getting unflavoured Buckley’s.”

“Nooooo,” Richie whined. Eddie smiled, relieved to be bantering again.

“Nope, it’s too late. Hell Juice for you, motherfucker.”

“Damn right I’m a Mother Fucker.”

“Fuck off.”

[aceeddiekaspbrak]

As someone with glasses as thick as richie toziers and there for probably eyes sight just as bad i just wanna say

that boy probably has some awful fucking headaches from em as he gets older in later teens especially with how he likes arcades and probably does a quite bit of pleasure reading

imagine him letting eddie w all his meds and paranoia take care of him when theyre real bad. asprins and cold compresses and ‘god your such a dumbass just take them off when it close!!’ 'god u blind fuck’

[takealottodragmeawayfromreddie]

Sick!Richie x Eddie Head Canon

-It all begins when Eddie starts to notice that Richie is quieter than usual. Like, he makes less stupid jokes and at first everyone is glad (bc he finally shuts up) but sooner than later Eddie is getting worried.

-A few days after, is obvious that Richie is not okay. He almost stops eating and is all tired and sneezy. At the same time, Eddie really is concerned about his health, but is more like “just go home and rest, you’re gonna infect us”, and of course Richie plays it cool and tells him that he’s okay.

-Richie’s condition continues to get worse and all his friends are worried. Even Eddie is scared for reasons other than getting sick himself, so he gets more serious and directly orders him to tell his parents. Richie is like “whatever” and Eddie (who is stucked between “don’t get closer, you’re gonna kill me with your flu” and “poor thing”) almost wants to grab him by his shirt collar and shake to make him understand the seriousness of the situation. So Richie gives up just to convince him to stop bothering him.

-Next day, Richie appears in school in an absolute zombie-state that even make his teachers worries. Eddie gets really angry and practically screams “I thought I told you to tell your parents”.

“And that’s what I did”. He barely can speak, his voice is completely broken.

“And what did they say?”.

“He didn’t care at all and she told me to take a pill and continue with my life”.

Richie just shrugs and Eddie’s face starts getting red. Of course he doesn’t believe him, but he doesn’t say anything because he has an idea.

-After school, the losers club goes to the movies and Eddie says he has something to do. Actually, his plan is to go to Richie’s house and accuse him with his parents himself. He does so and Mr. Tozier is like “goodness, these kids won’t get tired of bothering”, but Eddie acts extremely politely and explains the situation. Richie’s dad seems unimpressed and answers that they can’t have Richie being all sick and needy of attention at home, because they have important things to do.

-Eddie is like “wtf is your problem”, but keeps a calm attitude and tries to reason with him. Mr. Tozier just wants him to go away and finally agrees to let Richie stay at home if Eddie takes care of him. Obviously, Eddie is scared as fuck, because he know his mother will freak out and he doesn’t want to get sick, but he accepts the deal anyway.

-So next day, after school (Richie didn’t go to classes), when all his friends want to do cool, fun stuff, Eddie goes to Richie’s house with a protective mask, cleaning gloves and rainboots, in order to help him to get better. Richie barely has the strenght to make fun of his clothes. He’s in bed, sweating cold and on the verge of having hallucinations.

-It’s kinda funny how Eddie takes care of Richie, being so affraid of even get close to him. He only approaches the bed to leave a bowl of soup (Richie can’t stand solid food anymore) on the bedside table and, three times a day, the neccesary medicines. Eddie spends almost all day long (except for classes hours) at Richie’s place and tell his mother a bunch of really ridiculous excuses about it.

-At his worst, Richie spends all day lying face down, sleeping, barely breathing. To make sure he’s alive without getting too close, Eddie gets a broomstick, which he uses to sting him from the distance and, sometimes, change his position.

-As days go by, Richie starts feeling better. Near his recovery, Eddie brings him all kinds of comic books and other eighties kids’ stuff, to keep him happy and distracted from his excessive nasal fluids. They have a really good time together and, step by step, Eddie loses his worries about getting himself sick. He even can cover Richie with the blanket while he’s asleep.

-Sometimes the other losers pay visits. Richie is starting to act more as himself and making jokes again (you know, regular mother jokes). Eddie pretends to get angry but, inside, he’s very happy of getting his friend back. So is the rest of the group. But there’s also a certain sadness in Richie’s good mood, like he’d like to have Eddie as his family rather than his careless parents, who won’t even show up and ask him how he’s feeling. Eddie feels bad for him too.

-Richie finally recovers and returns to school. Eddie can’t help feeling really proud of him, even if he just let him take care of everything. He’s just so delighted of having his everyday friend back, and he doesn’t gets angry at him as much as before the flu episode.

-Watching Richie just being himself and healthy, Eddie starts to have feelings for him, but he decides that he’s going to ignore them because he doesn’t want to lose their friendship, without know that Richie has been experiencing exactly the same for weeks.

-The losers club just chills, all feeling really lucky of having each other... and then Eddie sneezes.

[meltastic]

4, 5, 9 and 20! :333♡ for the ship ask

4. What is/are your favorite trope(s)?

oh dear... I have to think long and hard about this one because i feel like there are a lot to choose from...

enemies to lovers is one of my favorite dynamics- but i'm picky, i need more of the 'they're so gay for each other all they can do is bicker', rather than deep loathing and hatred for one another. There is just, so so much homoerotic tension between characters that can't stand each other

touch starvation. this needs no explaining.

hurt/comfort. deep deep angst, put a hello kitty bandaid on that bitch!

god character shipped with some fucking normie guy

deeply unrequited turns requited by some miracle

anything sickfic, mentor/student, bully/victim,,,,

some honorable mentions: arranged marriage, hanahaki,,,,, there's definitely so much more but all of this is off the top of my head.

5. What is/are your least favorite trope(s)?

this is a really hard question to answer for me tbh. not much comes to mind...

i tend to dislike established relationship stuff unless i really, really like the ship. i like reading the getting together and the gay panic and longing. all that.

I can't think of much else, but i definitely do have stuff i dont love. i tend to be flexible tbh. there are few things i dislike. it's really more about how well executed the thing is, for me.

9. Are there any fandoms you don’t have any ships for?

nah lol. maybe madoka? idk

20. Do you prefer bigger fanbases or smaller ones?

it really depends! there are pros and cons to both!

i find that with bigger fanbases I have to really sift through a lot of fic to find stuff i'll enjoy-- but there's also endless content to choose from. bigger fanbases tend to have a lot more infighting and drama though.

some small fanbases are lovely, tight-knit communities. but there is also less fan content to consume! i find myself having to be more flexible with my preferences if i want to read some stuff!

usually in those fandoms, i find myself having to write the stuff i want to read. back before the IT movies came out.... i think it was me and like, ten other people writing reddie fics. ah, 2016. good times.

omg this got so long

[sickiestuf]

Hey ya'll, i'm still out here looking for emeto/whump/sickfic roleplays! I rp in some fandoms, mostly HP with Drarry, It with Reddie, and In Other Lands with Sunbrat, but am open to other popular fandoms! I also have lots of queer oc's that I can play as well uwu please feel free to message me and I can get ya'll my discord! 18+ only!

[reddie-fangirl24]

“It’s not that bad” for a Reddie sickfic!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR COMMISSION!

Support me on my Ko-Fi!

For the first time in who knows how long, Richie had a free night. No performances at all. Even better, he put his phone on silent so Steve couldn’t reach him. 

He and Eddie’s work schedules never coincided. So, that meant some needed time with his boyfriend. Yes, time to make jokes and have a food fight. They weren’t like most couples, that was for sure.

Richie had been looking forward to this night all week, specifically marking it on his calendar. As excited as he was while waiting for Eddie to return home, his stomach felt weird.

“Hey, Rich, I’m home!” Eddie’s voice called out when he came into the house. “Guess what I have?”

The familiar fumes of tasty pizza made Richie’s stomach turn. “A long one?” he smirked, leaning against the kitchen wall frame.

“Haha, very funny,” Eddie snarked as he took out the plates from the cabinet. “I ordered a with all your favorite toppings. And I got some chicken wings, too. We are going to have the best night!”

Trying to smile, Richie ignored the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach. There was no way that he was going to skip out on an epic night like this one. Making commentary to all their favorite shows was the reason why they couldn’t go to the movies. 

It was communication in their own language as Richie’s mother called it when they were kids. Moms were smart. Once (meaning more than just once) they got kicked out because their popcorn fight got out of control.

Richie took a couple of slices and a chicken wing. No way, what was he thinking? He had to fill his plate so Eddie wouldn’t be suspicious. Eddie always worried when Richie wasn’t acting like himself. 

“What do you want to watch?” Eddie asked, sitting on the couch.

“There’s that new series, The Strangers.” Richie was having trouble thinking. Luckily, he came up with something. If this were a night where he had to perform then he’d really be in trouble. 

As the night went on, Richie felt himself becoming increasingly worse. But he kept on eating along with Eddie who didn’t seem to notice. He was so engrossed in the series that he hardly paid attention to him. Watching TV was their favorite thing to do after all. 

“Wow, I can’t believe that she would do that!” Eddie commented on what was happening in the episode.

Feeling his stomach boiling like a minefield, anytime Richie opened his eyes, he couldn’t see straight. This was not the right night for this to be happening! Nights where he had to leave Eddie alone always made him guilty. Although he didn’t mind, Richie knew him too well. The image of Eddie sitting alone on the couch made Richie cringe, shivering.

“Rich, are you okay?” Eddie got his attention. He didn’t realize that he was curled up on the edge of the couch holding his stomach in pain.

“Huh? Oh, yeah...” Richie took a deep breath trying to smile.

Pausing the showing, not like he was paying attention anyway, Eddie felt his head. “You feel warm. You don’t look well.”

“It’s not that bad.” Of course, as soon as Richie said that his stomach plummeted. Bolting to the bathroom, Richie dropped to his knees in the knick of time. His legs shaking a bit, Eddie rubbed his hand over his boyfriend’s back, soothing him.

“Well, you have a small fever,” Eddie told him after the thermometer beeped. Sighing, he removed a strand of hair that was in the way of Richie’s eyes and pulling the covers up. “Have you been feeling like this all day?”

Sighing, at least Richie felt better. He averted his gaze, too guilty to look Eddie in the eyes who was not in any way angry with him. Sensing how Richie was feeling, Eddie held his hand.

“I just wanted this night to be great, Eds. We haven’t spent much time together. I didn’t want to ruin in,” Richie sounded like a child. His eyes drooped, indicating how tired he was.

Eddie snuggled up right next to him. “Oh, Rich, you could never do that.”

Richie was surprised that Eddie was actually cuddling with him. Normally, he’d stay away from him when he was sick, fearing the germs. Who was complaining? He loved this; having someone to hold him when he was sick. In the years that he spent alone, Richie craved for someone to hold him on the bad days, to tell him that he was good enough.

“I love you,” Richie uttered to Eddie.

Looking into his eyes, Eddie smiled in this endearing way. His stomach heated, but it wasn’t like before. “I love you, too.”

Who needed to have the best night ever when Richie already had everything that he needed to make every day the best. For the rest of the evening, he and Eddie relaxed in bed together.

[blondie1locks]

My favorite fanfics

IT:

https://jem-carstairs-is-perfection.tumblr.com/post/171736041685/richie-toziers-birthday-week-extravaganza. Richies birthday

https://toziertrashmouth.tumblr.com/post/166061614934/that-was-amazing-your-ideas-are-lit-personally

https://reddie-to-go.tumblr.com/post/168728940110/prompt-90-catch-me-if-you-can Horny Eddie makes things difficult for Richie

https://bxxpbxxprichie.tumblr.com/post/166571370442/can-you-do-a-hc-of-when-richie-gives-eddie-his Richie loves to kiss eddies neck and in this doc he gives him his first hickey.

https://edsbev.tumblr.com/post/171828786023/reddie-prompt-where-eddie-gets-really-affectionate Eddie is a cuddly sleepy boi

https://tinyarmedtrex.tumblr.com/post/172932754567/established-relationship-eddie-wakes-richie-up. Eddie wakes Richie up bc he’s horny af

https://thederrylibrary.tumblr.com/post/188381701554/hi-i-luv-ur-blog-could-u-help-do-a-rec-of-some Eddie sickfics

https://tinyarmedtrex.tumblr.com/post/178127028432/pda Reddie PDA

https://tinyarmedtrex.tumblr.com/post/188674669162/can-i-request-a-fic-for-richie-comforting-eddie Richie comforting Eddie after he has a panic attack

https://tinyarmedtrex.tumblr.com/post/190617604462/walk-through-fire-for-you Drunk Eddie

https://tinyarmedtrex.tumblr.com/post/172993744582/eddiemylovc-headcanon-where-eddie-likes-to-play Eddie likes to play with Richies fingers when he has anxiety

https://tinyarmedtrex.tumblr.com/post/182757666097/idk-if-youre-taking-requests-but-i-would-die-for Eddie talks gibberish when he’s half asleep Richie thinks it’s the cutest thing ever

https://richietoaster.tumblr.com/post/166343779520/nothings-gonna-hurt-you-baby Reddie Eddies mom sexually assaulted Eddie

https://richietoaster.tumblr.com/post/170233849435/love-your-body-right Reddie Nsfw

https://thederrylibrary.tumblr.com/post/189863508116/any-reddie-fics-where-eddie-has-a-panic-or-asthma Eddie panic/asthma attacks

https://toshitophchan.tumblr.com/post/166897684072/drunk-eddie-headcannons Drunk Eddie

https://richie-txzier.tumblr.com/post/173589774770/hey-there-you-havent-posted-in-a-while-but-i Sick Eddie

https://get-fcking-reddie.tumblr.com/post/168156831980/i-just-need-some-teen-reddie-where-the-losers-go More Drunk Eddie

TVD/The Originals:

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/10742178/1/Cursed-Disease Sick Damon Stefan takes care of him

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/8927233/1/What-Happened-to-You-Damon Damon hurt

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5626252/3/A-Little-Problem BABY DAMON

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7293991/1/ Damon’s Memories

Atla(Avatar):

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/7293991/1/ placed in the southern raiders episode nsfw kind of awkward/funny

https://m.fanfiction.net/s/6551546/1/Zuko-The-Traitor-s-Story Zuko story of banishment and scar was put in the ember island play

Harry Potter:

https://www.wattpad.com/amp/78641053 I’m a sucker for truth or dare/ never have I ever stories

https://www.fanfiction.net/community/SS-Romione/117640/ Romione

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12972248/1/All-of-Me-A-Romione-fanfiction Romione

https://accioromione.tumblr.com/fanfics Romione

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7959857/1/Dumbledore-s-Memories Dumbledore!!!

Glee:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9192977/35/Sick-Days Blaine motion sickness chapter 35 and otherss

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9192977/14/Sick-Days Blaine motion sick

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8640214/24/As-Long-As-You-re-There Blaine motion sick

https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/sick%21blaine sick Blaine

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10442608/1/Blaine-s-sick-day Sick Blaine

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9005424/1/Every-Breath-You-Take Blaine asthma attack

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10153484/4/Blaine-Anderson-is-Falling-Down sick Blaine Klaine never broke up

Criminal Minds:

https://www.wattpad.com/amp/345385666 Reid’s addiction

https://spencerreidsmiles.tumblr.com/post/162565190027/the-relapse/amp Reid’s relapse

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11017036/1/Dilaudid Reid and his addiction

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4988708/7/No-more-sweets Garcia and her eating disorder

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/4878954/Morgan-and-Garcia-Forever Some Morgan and Garcia stories

The Umbrella Academy:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18226634/chapters/43178648#workskin The Traumaversery of five PTSD this one was hard for me to read bc of my PTSD so if u also have it maybe sit this one out.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18116033/chapters/43433747#workskin Vulnerable Five

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18352262/chapters/44249146#workskin Fives struggles with food I recommend this writer

Please support the writers of these stories. all of these where/still are hyper fixations of mine and idk about u but I get strong emotional attachment to characters so if u want me to post any type of specific fanfic I will try to find one/write one

#masterpost #IT #reddie #TVD #Damon Salvatore #Umbrella Academy #Harry Potter #romione #glee #klaine #atla #sukka #criminal minds #the Originals

[coldairballoons]

ya’ll, i’m literally so sick right now (my parents think it’s the flu which is fan-fucking-tastic) and could use some sickfics to cope with my inevitable demise

i’m on a reddie kick rn but reddie, byler, hamratio, javid, jackcrutchie, jackdaveycrutchie, sprace, ralbert, curtwen, tedgens, anything please---

[wolftozier]

Reddie prompts bc you asked, maybe a sickfic? Or something to do with the winter in Maine (could combine the two) since it is that rn and we're all dying of various illnesses as per

hello darling! unfortunately, it’s actually summer over here in australia! so i had no winter inspiration for this :( i hope this is okay, though! i’ve never written a sickfic before so !!

this got to about 600 words? very short. hmu if you maybe want something longer!! i’m sure i could do something!!

Richie is never late to the Losers meetups. He’s skipped school to hang out with Mike. Eddie once watched him clean an entire kitchen, almost to Eddie’s standards, in just twenty minutes so they weren’t late to a birthday party.

He’s late today.

Eddie is not pacing, thank you very much. He just has extra energy. They’re supposed to be at the Barrens already, running through the trees and swimming and see who can climb the tallest tree. 

“He’ll be here,” Mike says, and smiles. It calms Eddie down, a little, but he doesn’t stop walking around.

“It’s been half an hour,” Bev says from the hammock, lazily swinging. “He knows where we’re hanging out today. We should just go.”

“Guys,” Eddie says, but everyone else agrees, and starts heading up and out of the clubhouse. Bev claps him on the shoulder.

“Idiot probably just forgot,” Bev says. “If you’re really worried, just go to his house.”

“I’m not worried,” Eddie says, but he sounds worried. He scowls, and follows everyone else to the Barrens. It’s fun - hanging out with everyone is always fun, no matter what bad news someone has brought to a meeting, but it isn’t as fun as it should be. Eddie is always looking over his shoulder, waiting for Richie to jump out of a bush or from a tree, or simply just be waiting at the cliff, saying I’ve waited ages for you losers!

-

“Hello, Eddie!” Mrs Tozier says. 

“Is Richie home?” Eddie asks.

“Yes.” Mrs Tozier says, but she doesn’t let Eddie inside. “He’s sick, darling. Lost his voice yesterday. I said that going outside and getting some sun would probably help, but he knows how you feel about germs. He’s just sleeping upstairs.”

“Can I see him?” Eddie says, and Mrs Tozier pauses, and then nods. Eddie goes up the stairs slowly, knowing Mrs Tozier was watching, but once he’s out of sight he runs, his shoes skidding when he stops in front of Richie’s bedroom door. He knocks, but there’s no answer. Eddie opens the door.

Richie’s asleep. He’s not snoring - something Eddie always thought Richie would do when he was sick - but his breaths sound heavy. He’s lying on his side, hugging a pillow, his blankets half on, half off. Eddie tries to resist the urge to take a photo.

“Richie?” Eddie says, and Richie’s eyes flutter. He reaches his arm over to his phone, and presses something. A mechanical voice reads out I’m sleeping. “Richie, it’s me.”

Richie’s eyes open properly, and he stares at Eddie. 

“Eddie,” Richie says, but his voice is so gone he only gets through the first syllable. He coughs wetly, and Eddie tries not to cringe. 

“I just- You didn’t show up at the clubhouse today,” Eddie says, and he can imagine Richie lighting up, and saying in one of his stupid voices, Aww, is Dr Eddie Spaghetti worried about little ol’ me? Real Richie does neither of those things, just looks at Eddie blankly.

“Sick,” Richie wheezes out.

“Yeah, I got that,” Eddie says. Richie smiles, and closes his eyes again, cuddling closer to his pillow. If Richie’s still tired, it probably means he still has another couple days of the sickness left. It would be best for Eddie to go now - he’s checked up on Richie, he knows he’s not dead, and now he knows Richie’s sick he won’t feel guilty calling Mrs Tozier in the morning to ask how Richie was feeling. 

Eddie should go, but he can’t find it in himself to want to.

“Shuffle over,” Eddie says, and Richie does. Eddie slips his shoes off, not bothering to untie the laces, and cuddles against Richie’s back. Richie hums, the sound broken from whatever was attacking his throat, and Eddie lets himself lean forward, and kiss the back of Richie’s neck. Richie won’t remember it when he’s better. “Sleep, Trashmouth.”

[fanatic-scribe]

Cherry Flavor

Fandoms: IT

Word Count: 2,222

Rating: Teen

Relationship: Reddie

Ao3: Here

Characters: Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak

Additional Tags: Sick Character, Sickfic, Some Cuddling

Summary:

Richie gets sick while on tour and it's up to Eddie to help him feel better.

Richie felt like his head was about to explode. This was definitely not his finest set, it didn’t help that the pressure in his head had grown past the level of comfortable halfway through. He was sick, really sick. The sinus headache has been brewing in his forehead all day and is finally acting its plan to kill the comedian. And it was doing a really good job at it.

Richie was doing his best to power through the set as best he could, the show must go on or some bullshit like that, but he just wanted it to be over as soon as possible. He was cold and achy, but the bright lights and clothes he wore made him feel sweaty and gross. Already having abandoned the idea of standing Richie had decided to sit in the uncomfortable wooden stool normally used for drinks. His normal classic glass of bourbon replaced with a bottle of water. If anyone in the audience could actually see him they would notice how pale and dead he looked. Well, more than usual anyway.

Thankfully, his throat was fine, leaving the impression that he was just a gross, sweaty, lazy man who couldn’t stop shaking. 

Fucking great.

Regardless, he finished his set hearing laughs and thunderous applause. Glad he switched to writing his own material. Even happier to finally be leaving the god damn stage and get to a fucking bed. He moved quickly past his agent trying to congratulate him on a good show, he knew the man was going to try and get him to spend time with fans after the show. Something about publicity or some shit like that. At this point it didn’t matter to him, he needed to lay down and pass out. 

Now.

-----------

“You look like shit.”

“Thanks, Eds. love you too.” Richie pressed his pointer and thumb against his temple trying to relieve the pressure. Eddie had meet Richie outside the hotel as he pulled up in his cab. With this show being close to where they lived Eddie had decided to spend his last few sets on the road with him. Eddie had not gone to this show because he had already seen his boyfriend’s set and he also wasn’t that big on being lost in a crowd again or the tag along backstage. That had been really awkward.

Eddie had known the moment Richie woke up that morning he was very sick, he had been sick all week but this morning was worse. Eddie suggested he should cancel the show for tonight. Richie refused, saying that his manager would never stop bitching if he let a stunt like that happen. Also, Richie was “no weak bitch” and could “handle anything Kaspbrak” so he didn’t need to cancel. 

He wished he canceled.

Eddie smiled slightly, happy to see that Richie still had a bit of bite to him. Slowly he grabbed the other man's waist before giving him a quick peck on the cheek, “Let’s get you feeling better.”

It was a long grueling walk back to their hotel room, somehow knowing that rest was so much closer made Richie feel even more weighed down by sickness. Once they got to the hotel room though Richie immediately fell face first onto the bed, still fully clothed and wearing shoes. Even though the harsh cold of an unused bed stung at his joints the bed was almost sinfully soft. It could have been the exhaustion but Richie could have sworn it was like laying down on a cloud. 

Richie was almost ready to fall asleep right there and then before he felt a light tug at his boot.

“Being sick doesn’t mean you can get dirt crumbs on the bed,” Eddie grumbled as he sat at the foot of the bed unlacing Richie’s boots. One by one he tugged them off and got up to set them neatly by the door before opening Richie’s bag to look for more comfortable clothes. “You need to learn how to fold your luggage,” Eddie muttered more to himself than anything as he pulled out wads of unfolded clothes, each one more covered in wrinkles than the last. Richie smiled to himself as he watched Eddie wonder in slight horror how many of his clothes were actually washed. 

Finally finding a pair of pajama pants, Eddie made his way back to the bed and ran a soothing hand other Richie’s back. “Babe, you should put on different pants,” Richie whined in response, knowing that meant he would have to move. “Don’t whine at me, you big baby.” Eddie couldn’t hide the amusement in his voice. “You’ll feel better if you're comfortable.”

Logically, Richie knew that was true, but the sick brain was very insistent that changing clothes was the worst thing he could possibly do right now. As much as Richie would have loved to listen to the sick brain Eddie was on the side of logic, gently flipping Richie onto his back and holding up the pants with a raised eyebrow. 

“Help me?” Richie said with a pout. Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Fine,” he set down the change of pants, “but only because you're sick. Don’t expect me to undress you when you’re too goddamn lazy to do it yourself.” Eddie reached forward and unfastened Richie's belt and buttons on his pants. Slowly, Eddie pulled off his jeans, his warm hands a stark difference to the chilly room that stung Richie’s sore muscles and joints. Richie managed to lift his hips to help but was just too tired to help as Eddie pulled the soft pajamas over his legs.

Eddie placed a gentle kiss on Richie’s forehead, “Gee Dr. K,” Richie said in his British accent, it got better with age but it was still terrible, “do all patients get this treatment or am I just incredibly lucky?”

“Alright if you can joke like that then your not too sick to finish changing.”

“Uhhhh, fine,” Richie whined as he sat up in the bed to unbutton his shirt and then pulled the undershirt over his head, he silently cursed himself for wearing two shirts. Immediately after his shirt was off his head Richie fell back onto the bed shifting so his head rested on the plush pillow. Richie felt the blanket and sheets being pulled over his body and tucked around him, as Richie lifted his head to see what was happening he realized he recognized the sheets around him.

“Eddie,” Eddie hummed a response as he riffled through his blue toiletries bag, “are these our sheets?” Eddie looked up from his bag with a deadpan expression.

“Yeah, I changed the sheets before you got here.” He pulled a few bottles out of his bag, “You never know how long ago these were washed, or if there are bed bugs or-”

“Alright alright, I get it. Germs and shit.” Richie lifted a hand to rub at his forehead and temples, “God I feel fucking horrible.”

“Don’t worry,” Eddie moved his hair and kissed Richie’s forehead, “I’ll make you feel better.”

Nobody would have expected Eddie to be this comfortable around a sick person. With his terrible health anxiety, other’s had know Eddie to almost quarantine himself at the first sign of flu season. Yet here he was taking care of a very sick Richie Tozier.

This was partly because recently Eddie had been getting help dealing with his anxieties. Really all the losers had. In a way they were each other's rock, they all had issues they needed to figure out and they would always be there for each other.

Also, Eddie was always the type of person to do anything for the people he loved. Even being exposed to terrible sickness.

The next few minutes consisted of a struggle to get Richie to take liquid medicine. Eddie insisted it was better and acted faster than the pill form, and Richie called bullshit because liquid medicine tasted like rotten ass. Even with Eddie insisting that the cherry flavored one wasn't as bad Richie still called bullshit on the grounds that cherry-flavored anything tasted like rotten ass. He also brought up the argument that he wasn't a child anymore and that flavored trick won't work on him.

Many insults were thrust back and forth, someone was called a “pussy bitch,” “slimy bitch goblin,” and “crotch hound” among other things before Richie finally relented. Sitting up in bed with his back against the bedpost to down three different viscous liquids, with a sour face after each gulp and gag. “Don’t be such a baby,” Eddie scoffed with an eye roll as he handed Richie a glass of water.

“Fuck you, Spaghetti man.” Richie downed the glass before setting the glass down on the nightstand. Eddie quickly grabbed it to take it to the bathroom sink to wash.

“You’re still gonna be a dick after I saved your life?” Eddie smirked before walking off with the glass to refill it. Richie chuckled to himself as he settled back into the bed, still with the sickly sour-sweet cherry taste in his throat. 

When Eddie set the newly filled glass of water on the nightstand before telling Richie he was going to get ready for bed. He handed Richie the remote and channel list before grabbing his other toiletry bag and headed to the bathroom. As Richie turned on the TV and flipped through the channels, pay no mind to the channel list, he could hear the sound of the shower being turned on. He knew Eddie would be there for some time, even with his health anxiety getting better he still had those fears and being around a sick person probably didn’t help. Richie settling on a channel playing reruns of Forensic Files and from the looks of the guide it was a marathon, something he could definitely stay on until Eddie was finished. As he watched the actors move across the screen with commentary from the narrator and those involved in the crime he felt his eyelids grow heavy.

---------

Richie wasn’t aware that he had fallen asleep until a shifting in the bed stirred him. Richie moved to rub the sleep from his eyes to see he had fallen asleep with his glasses on. The TV was still playing the same show but an entirely different episode, as he stretched his arms out he could make out the sound of the narrator talking about DNA. He still felt sore, but he was definitely better than before. The room seemed darker except for the glow of the TV illuminating the small space.

“Did you seriously fall asleep watching your murder shows?” Richie turned his head to see Eddie settling into the bed next to him, Richie could feel the soft silk of his pajamas against his skin. There was something very comforting in that, Eddie choosing to wear his silk pajamas even while sleeping in a hotel room. Richie wondered which pair he had brought.

It wasn’t until Eddie was pulling the covers over himself that Richie thought about how this could make Eddie uncomfortable. Even though he had gone leaps and bounds with his health anxiety recovery it was still there, and there were still things he was iffy about. Being next to a sick person was one of them. 

“Do you want me to move?” Richie asked.

“What?” Eddie looked at him like Richie had grown a second head, his face half in shadow from the dull glow from the tv.

“I'm, like, really sick and I don’t want to freak you out.”

“Richie that’s-”

“I can move to the couch if you want.”

“Richie-”

“Yeah, I’ll call the front desk and ask them for another set of blankets.” Richie was about to reach for the phone on the nightstand when he felt Eddie grab his wrist.

“Tozier, don’t be fucking stupid.” His voice more than a little stern the show had gone to commercial as an ad for some fast food chicken played in the background  “Just come here.” Eddie leaned back against the pillows and pulled Richie closer to him.

Followed Eddie’s lead, Richie slowly laid his head on Eddie’s silk-clad chest, one of Eddie’s arms was under Richie as he rubbed up and down Richie’s back. Richie was very aware of how sweaty his skin was from his nap earlier but Eddie didn’t say anything about it. Eventually, Richie relaxed into his lover’s chest, soothed by the steady heartbeat and the feel of his hands running through his hair. Eddie placed a kiss at the top of Richie’s head, “Richie, I love you so much. I don’t care if you are sick, I want to be there for you no matter what.”

“I love you too Eds.” Richie smiled to himself, “I promise to take care of you when I make you violently sick.”

“Shut up, Trashmouth.” Richie could feel the slight bump in his chest from a silent chuckle.

After a few minutes of holding each other Richie could feel his eyes closing again, soothed by the rhythmic sounds of Eddie’s heart against his ear. “Hey, uh, Richie?”

“Hmmm?” Richie hummed in response.

“Can we please change the channel?” Eddie held Richie close as he reached for the remote, “Your murder show is really starting to creep me out.”