Chapter Text
March 7th. Richie’s Birthday. A Saturday and everything!
He was…16 now. Yup. Born in the later half of his grade, so half the Losers were already older. The last birthday they had was Stan’s— July 13th, just 10 days after Mike’s.
Now he was sat on his kitchen counter, eating cake with the Losers and his parents, all scattered around.
There were a couple of gifts on the kitchen windowsill, the breakfast nook kind.
“You feel old, yet?” Beverly nudged him with her elbow, knocking his fork to miss his mouth.
“Nope. I still feel like the same old 15 year old,” He ate the rightful peices of cake that fell.
“Hm. Yah I get it. My birthday was just back in February, and I still don’t feel different. Next year we’ll be 17 though! That’s crazy.”
“Hm. I didn’t think of that. That’s weird, it feels weird,” Richie scowled playfully.
“Yup, sure does. What do you think everyone got you for gifts?” Bev spoke in a hush, peering over at the nook.
“Ooh, I hope it’s a dinosaur.”
“Really,” Beverly laughed, shoving at his shoulder while he tried to bite back a smile, “I bet my gift is the best. I’m a thousand percent sure, actually. My gift is so awesome and amazing that you won’t even have to open the rest of ‘em up!”
“Yah yah, sure, Marsh. Way to boost your own ego. If you’re gift is so great why don’t you tell me what it is?”
“Oh, well, I would. But I might’ve actually forgotten what it is. Too much cake.”
Richie fell into a fit of laughter, setting his plate down on the counter beside him and slapping his knee. “Oh, you would!”
“Hey!” Bev failed to conceal her own laughter, infectious as ever.
“What’re you two cackling about over here?” Went poked at Richie’s shoulder, smiling.
“Oh, nothing. I’m just trying to guess what all the gifts are like i’m shaking ‘em on Christmas morning,” He poked his dad’s shoulder back.
“Yah? What do you think my gift is?”
“Probably a bag of frozen vegetables.”
“You need it, you have next to no good stuff in your body.”
Richie lit up, over-dramatically licking his lips and patting his stomach, “Oh i’ve got plenty of good stuff in my body if you know what I m—“ Beverly shoved his face to the side, pulling his body with it.
“Beep beep, Richie! Nobody wants to hear that!” Went and Beverly laughed loud and unforgiving.
He laughed and slid off the counter, taking his now empty plate to the dishwasher. “Oh i’m being ganged up on by my own father and wife!” Richie howled like a wolf, “I’m all on my lonesome!”
“You’re so overdramatic, Richie!” Eddie called from the counter he had propped himself up on.
“Can it, Kaspbrak! You’re not even in on this conversation!” Richie slid over in his socks on the tile and ran into Eddie. To prove a point, maybe? Not too sure. The hindsight on this one wasn’t very far.
“Richie!” Eddie scowled, wrapping his arms over and around Richie’s head while he wrapped his around Eddie’s waist.
“Eds!”
“You’re so destructive! You could’ve slipped, or broken something. Or both!”
“But I didn’t,” Richie sing-songed.
“Boys! And Miss Marsh,” Maggie clapped her hands together to call all attention, “It’s time to open presents, and then get ready for a movie!”
They all hummed in mutual understanding, moving to all herd to the living room, where Richie propped himself on the carpet in front of the TV, back to it. Everyone else scattered about on couches, the floor, and into a Laz-E-Boy that was not meant for three people.
The gift opening didn’t take long, but Richie cherished every moment of it. It was weird, how the room felt like it was just overflowing with love for one another. It was a funny feeling not often felt in the presence of Richie Trashmouth Tozier, and yet.
Beverly had gotten him a box full of an assortment of candy from the drug store (best gift award).
Mike had gotten him a couple of blank tapes (something that Richie was seriously running low on).
Eddie bought him a handful of arcade tokens and a tape for a Beastie Boys album (he loved him so much).
Bill had bought him a comic pack for some lesser known comics, to give Richie something new to read (the thought melted Richie’s insides).
Stan had bought him two hot wheels cars (Yowza! They were sure to beat Bill’s.)
Ben had gotten a pair of old, hand me down skates from Second Hand Rose (bless his heart! Richie was going to bust his chin trying to skate if it was the last thing he did).
His mom and dad had gotten him a joint gift of a record, Meat is Murder by The Smiths. (Given he could only play it in the living room, since that’s the only place they had a record player, but he loved his parents, they were so cool).
He gave everyone hugs and ‘thank you’s while they packed away re-usable bags and threw out old wrapping paper.
“Before we pick a movie, we have another gift!” Beverly tugged Richie’s arm up from couch.
Richie tilted his head to the side dumbly. Huh?
“We have one more, small gift. To…repay kindness for everything that you do for us and how you always show us all how much you love us,” Bev smiled shyly.
“But, you shouldn’t have to give me something in return for me just telling you all how much I appreciate you?” Richie furrowed his brows.
“But we wanted to. Plus, it’s a free gift, so don’t worry about it,” Beverly smiled.
“Well…okay. What is it?”
“Kisses,” She beamed, and gave him a kiss on the cheek, “You always try and tell people you appreciate them through small kisses, platonic kisses. So. That’s the whole gift.” (Platonic might be pushing it for one, small [hah] part of the Losers, but hey).
“I didn’t even notice I did that,” Richie stared in awe, voice hushed.
“You do it a lot,” Stan smiled, just enough to not be out of character, but still show he was happy. He gave Richie a quick kiss on the nose, “You always act like my mom when we say goodbye for the day, but I still think that it’s sweet.”
“You always say thank you by giving kisses too, when you don’t think you can say it enough,” Mike beamed, holding Richie’s face gently to give him two quick kisses, one to each cheek.
Richie could feel his face warm up, probably pink in the mellow lighting of the Tozier living room. He hummed weakly in acknowledgement. He just felt so overwhelmingly full of Love, that he couldn’t say anything else even if he knew what to.
“It’s uh-always a joke, but I know yuh-you mean it h-how you do,” Bill laughed and gave Richie’s knuckles a quick peck.
“You’re all so nice to me,” Richie mumbled, throat too full of feelings to speak any louder, but maybe that was a good thing.
“We’re just showing you how nice you are to us,” Ben smiled kindly, his face rosy and red while he gave Richie a kiss on the forehead.
Fuck he loved his friends so much.
“Of course I get the grossest ones,” Eddie pouted, holding Richie face in his hands and giving him small little kisses all over. Although Richie knew he wasn’t really upset about it.
“Stop, that tickles!” Richie batted at Eddie’s shoulder.
“See! It does!” Eddie laughed and pulled away, shoving gently back.
“Of course, you can never escape your mother’s love,” Maggie came up behind him, kissing the crown of his head.
Richie’s eyes brimmed with tears, happy ones.
“But, I don’t deserve you all to treat me so nice,” His voice shook.
“Don’t say that, of course you do,” Ben reassured.
“Okay,” Richie nodded, because he couldn’t say anything else. He held his arms out weakly, hoping that they just understood.
And they always did. They crowded in for a big group hug, Maggie resting her head on her son’s, arms around everybody else.
Richie sniffed and buried his face into someone’s hair, he wasn’t totally sure who because of the fog overtaking his lenses.
“Thank you,” He warbled.
“Of course,” Mike smiled, the other five losers humming in agreement.
“Now that we’ve been sappy and lame—“
“You’re literally crying ‘cause we all have you little kisses,” Eddie said.
“No one asked you,” Richie laughed. “As I was saying. Now that i’ve bawled my eyes out to little shows of affection, what movie should we watch?”
“Anybody uh-up for the f-first GhostBusters movie?” Bill suggested.
“We could always watch The Lost Boys—“
“Miss Tozier pick, she overrules.”
“Beverly no-“
“What about The Goonies?”
“Do we have The Goonies?”
“Yup.”
“Everyone for The Goonies say ”i”.”