Chapter Text
“Why did you even bring that? To my home?”
“Mike, everyone loves Root Beer. It is an American classic. Which is more than I can say about whatever the fuck that is.”
“Oh, now you don’t know what Sprite is? And root beer is not an American classic, cherry coke is the American classic! Root beer is just gross and Sprite is way more refreshing. It wins in every category.”
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“YOU don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!”
“Damn, Eds, your boyfriend can argue about anything.” Ben said with a laugh from where he was sitting with Eddie on the couch, watching Mike and Richie go at it.
“I feel obligated to defend him and say that Mike is antagonizing him.” Eddie defended, although that subsequent rolling of his eyes weakened the defense slightly.
“I resent that.” Mike pointed at him for emphasis but came and sat next to them anyway. Not before he pointedly grabbed a can of sprite, though. “Are Bev and Bill almost here?”
“Yeah, they said they were leaving the pizza place about fifteen minutes ago so they should be here soon.” Stan said. Eddie hadn’t even known he was awake, since the boy had been napping on Mike’s couch for the past 20 minutes.
“Oh, good morning sleepy head.” Eddie teased. Stan levelled him with a glare.
“Shut up. You’re the one who told me to watch Fringe. I blame you for me not being able to do anything but binge watch it. Even when I should be sleeping.” Eddie’s responding laugh was cut off when he felt his boyfriend plop into his lap.
“Eds, you like root beer more than sprite, right?”
“Wow, you’re still on that?” Mike groaned.
“I prefer vanilla coke, actually.” Eddie replied, making both boys gasp dramatically.
“I’m dating a crazy motherfucker,” Richie groaned, somehow managing to spread himself out more over Eddie, “He’s crazy!”
“Is Richie talking in third person again?” Bill said as he walked in, carrying five large pizzas boxes. They needed a lot of food, because, despite her size, Bev alone usually ate one whole pizza herself. Then of course, Richie and Mike literally never stopped eating, so they needed a lot.
“FOOD!” Richie yelled the war cry and they clambered off the couches to grab food.
It was nice to hang out, all of them together. Ever since Richie and Eddie started dating, the two of their groups had merged together pretty perfectly. They ate lunch together every day and the classes Eddie used to be all alone in, he now had Bev or Ben or Mike. It was nice.
They usually all met up at the quarry or Bill’s house, but Mike’s uncle had just let him move into the cellar which was much bigger and had its own TV and fridge.
And Mike’s uncle was away for the weekend, so the closest thing they had to actual supervision was Stan.
After everyone got food, they all piled on and around the couch so that they could settle in and watch movies. Of course, there was a vicious argument about which one to start with, but Richie made a strong case for The Goonies and when Richie argued for something, he most definitely got it. He probably definitely should be on the debate team.
So that was why Eddie thought it was weird when halfway through the movie he realized Richie hadn’t made one joke since the first sequence. He had actually been pretty still and calm, and Eddie should know since he was sitting in his lap.
Eddie looked up at Richie and saw him staring just to the side of the TV, face totally blank. And that… wasn’t good.
“Richie, you okay?” Eddie forced himself to whisper. Richie’s eyes snapped towards Eddie, looking shocked and shaking his head a little.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” He replied, squeezing Eddie’s hand a little, but he wasn’t convinced. Richie was still tense and his leg was now tapping incessantly.
Eddie weighed his options. The tricky thing was, Eddie knew Richie. He knew a lot, probably more than he should know about a boy he had only been dating for two weeks, and they hadn’t talked about it yet. He and Richie had yet to address the elephant in the room that they were both well aware of the other’s deepest darkest secrets.
And one of those secrets was that Richie was bipolar. And although over the past few weeks both of them had been doing pretty well, mental illness-wise, that didn’t mean either of them were cured.
“Hey,” Eddie said, tugging Richie’s hand, “Let’s go for a walk, yeah? Please?”
“Eds, I’m fine.” Richie insisted. He almost sounded annoyed, but Eddie just stood up and tugged his hand again.
“Please?” Eddie added and Richie just looked up at him with wide eyes before nodding and standing too.
“Everything g-g-good?” Bill asked, looking worried. Eddie just nodded.
“We’re gonna go on a walk. I’m just getting a little antsy, sitting for so long.” Eddie lied. Richie squeezed his hand in appreciation.
“Oh, okay. Don’t go too far, yeah?” Mike added.
“Of course, we won’t be too long.” Eddie assured, before leading Richie up the stairs and out of the room.
“You guys aren’t leaving to have sex in the barn are you?” Mike called after them, which Richie responded to with a finger thrown over his shoulder and nothing more (which was another indicator that something as wrong. Richie never passed up the opportunity for a sex joke).
Eddie laced Richie’s fingers with his as they walked outside, letting the door swing shut behind them with a definitive click. Richie looked down at him with that smile that never seemed to leave his lips.
“I take it you want to talk?” Richie asked and wow that was a lot of bitterness in one short sentence that was said with a smile.
“We don’t have to just yet. We can just walk.” Eddie reasoned with a shrug. He noticed a swing set on the other side of the yard and started walking towards that.
“Okay.” Richie muttered, following Eddie’s lead. Eddie could feel the other boy’s eyes on him but he didn’t want to look over just yet, instead looking up at the clouds that were slowly moving across the blue sky.
The two of them were quiet for a long, fragile moment.
“Can I push you?” Richie asked when they got to the swing set and Eddie looked up at it suspiciously.
“It doesn’t look too sturdy…” Eddie complained, but when he turned finally and looked at his boyfriend, he saw the hopeful expression on his face and decided to get on the swing anyway.
“Alright, I suppose you can.” Eddie jumped up on the swing and Richie ran his hands along Eddie’s sides as he moved around him to get ready to push.
“You know, some might say this is a pretty romantic moment.” Richie teased as he pulled Eddie back a bit, gently running his hands over Eddie’s forearms before pushing him gently on the swing.
“Some might. The amount of rust that’s on this thing might make it a little less romantic but…”
“Nah, I don’t think so.” Richie argued, voice fond. They went like that for a while, not talking, just swinging, until finally Richie let Eddie gently come to a stop and instead climbed into the seat next to him, looking kind of resigned.
“You wanna talk about what happened back there?” Eddie asked, twisting his seat to turn to face Richie next to him, “It seemed like you were dissociating.” He said bluntly and Richie winced.
“I might’ve been.”
“Richie, come on. It’s me. You can talk to me about this stuff.” Eddie pleaded as he grabbed Richie’s hands and intertwined them with his.
“It’s just… fuck. I thought things were better. They had been so much better with you and with everyone and yes, I knew in the back of my mind that this fucking shit would come back but it still fucking sucks. It sucks that I can be surrounded by the people I love the most and still... feel like I’m going numb. I hate it.” Richie groaned. He kicked the dirt with the toe of this shoe angrily.
“Rich, I’m so sorry,” he stood up out of his swing and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend, pulling his head to his chest. He felt Richie wrap his arms around him in return as Eddie slid his hands in to Richie’s hair, “I wish there was something I could do.” He whispered, feeling helpless as he felt Richie’s gentle sobs.
“You’re doing it right now,” Richie said against his chest, “Just being here means… so much.”
Eddie nodded and just kept holding his boyfriend to him, running his fingers through his hair soothingly.
“I’m not going anywhere.” Eddie whispered and felt Richie take a deep breath.
“I’m so sorry, Eds. God, this is so embarrassing.” Richie whined, burrowing his head further into Eddie’s chest.
“Hey,” Eddie snapped, pulling back slightly so Richie could look up at him, “Don’t say that. Do you think I should be embarrassed about last week when I had that anxiety attack at the carnival? Or when I had to stop when we were making out because I needed my inhaler even though I don’t have asthma? Or when-”
“No, of course not, Eds, but that’s dif-”
“It is the same exact thing. So beep-fucking beep, Richie. We all need help sometimes babe, please don’t be afraid to ask me for it.” Eddie tried to sound as sincere as possible and he was pretty sure he got the message across when Richie smiled at him blindingly and then leaned up to press their lips together sweetly.
“I am so lucky.” Richie muttered, wiping away the tears from under his glasses.
“Me too. I think that’s the longest amount of time I’ve ever heard you not make a joke?” Eddie teased. Richie barked out a laugh.
“Don’t get used to it, Eddie Spaghetti. Jokes are 80% of my soul.”
“80% jokes, 20% pure adoration of Eddie Kaspbrak.”
“You’re not wrong.”
###
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell is going on here?” Eddie asked, shocked, as they descended the steps into the basement. He waved a hand in front of his face to try and unclog the smell from his nose but he knew it would be futile.
Bev looked up at him with wide eyes from where she was holding the bong, staring at him for a long moment before blowing out a stream of smoke.
“I don’t know.” Beverly responded, handing the bong to Mike next to her.
“They’re smoking marijuana, Eddie.” Stan said from where he was sitting in Bill’s lap on the couch.
“And Stan is pouting about it.” Ben teased, reaching his leg over to kick Stan’s gently. His eyes were already a little red and Stan glared at him.
“Am not.” Stan retorted.
“You are… a little bit, babe.” Bill said, squeezing his arms around him tighter. Stan just rolled his eyes.
“I just know I’m gonna be the one that has to take care of you loaded fucks! Too much responsibility.” He groaned, throwing his hands up in the air dramatically and Richie laughed.
“You’re such a drama queen, Stanley. You know if you smoked some yourself, you wouldn’t have to take care of anyone. We can make Bill the designated, if you think we need one so bad.” Richie reasoned.
“Hey! Why me?” Bill protested.
“Well, everyone else is already high.” Richie said with a shrug, laughing as Mike tried to make rings with the smoke he blew out of his mouth.
“You’re not. Eddie isn’t.” Stan pointed out and Richie looked up at his boyfriend, who was still standing at his shoulder despite Richie having plopped onto the carpet next to Mike.
“You wanna smoke with me, right Eddie Spaghetti?” Richie asked and instead of the scolding for the nickname that he expected, he just saw Eddie looking down at him with concerned eyes.
“You sure this is a good idea?” he whispered, running his fingers through Richie’s curls, “After you were just-” Richie cut him off with a nod.
“Yeah, it’ll help. Especially after you put me in a better mood.” Richie assured with a grin. Eddie smiled and looked around at the group nervously before sighing loudly.
“Okay, I guess I’ll try it.” he said, causing a majority of the group to cheer, “But there is not fucking way I am putting my mouth on that thing without sanitizing it first.” Eddie swore as he stared at the bong with disgust.
“No worries, babe. You want me to roll you a blunt?”
“I just used the last skin for Ben’s, sorry. Just shotgun him?” Bev suggested with a glint in her eye and Richie grinned.
“Well, twist my leg why don’t you.” Richie laughed and Eddie looked suspicious.
“What is shotgun? Are you gonna kill him?” Stan asked, leaning a little off of Bill. Beverly laughed and shook her head.
“No, it’s just an easier way to smoke.” Bev assured, “You’ll see.”
“Here, Eds, sit next to me.” Richie pulled his boyfriend down next to him and took the offered bong. “Okay, you ready?” Richie asked him. Eddie’s brown eyes were wide and he was biting his lip nervously and fuck he was so cute.
“As I’ll ever be.” Eddie breathed. Richie smiled widely at him before looking down, lighting the bowl, and taking a long hit. He pulled the smoke into his lungs before turning to Eddie, who was looking at him like he had no idea what was going on.
Richie pulled him close and fit their lips together, blowing out slow. And of course, Eddie immediately pulled back and started coughing. Richie laughed and shook his head.
“Eds! You didn’t even breathe in!” Richie poked Eddie’s chest, “You have to pull it to your lungs, like with your inhaler.” Richie explained and Eddie shook his head as if to clear it.
“Yeah, sorry, I know that, you just… distracted me.” He said with a blush that made Richie fight a smirk.
“It’s okay. Let’s try again.” Richie said softly, already feeling his head go a little mushy around the edges. He took another pull off the bong and when he leaned towards Eddie this time, the boy had a determined look in his eyes that made Richie want to groan.
They fit their lips together again and Richie felt Eddie suck the smoke in as he blew out and fuck if it wasn’t the hottest thing he had ever done, and that said a lot considering he knew for a fact that all of his friends were currently staring at him.
Even knowing that, the feel of Eddie’s lips on his was electric. It wasn’t the first time they’d kissed, not at all, but this somehow felt more intimate.
When Richie pulled back, Eddie’s eyes were dazed and he was staring at Richie, still holding his breath. After a long moment, Richie finally prompted him, “You know you can blow the smoke out now.”
“Oh thank God,” he said as he pushed the smoke out of his lungs, “I didn’t know how long I was supposed to hold it in.” Which of course made everyone in the circle laugh, including Eddie, who brought a hand to his mouth when the noises that came out sounded more like giggles.
“I’ll try it if you do that, Bill.” Stan added, mid-laugh, making Bill blush.
“It was pretty hot.” Bill admitted, tucking his face into Stan’s neck.
“Oh my God, you’re so in love with Eddie.”
###
Richie felt all floaty and perfect and warm. He had Eddie in his lap and his friends all around him and they were watching Miss Congeniality and literally nothing was wrong.
“I think I wanna buy some chickens.” Bill mused a loud, staring at the corner with a blank, heavy-lidded stare.
“You’re not buying chickens.” Stan responded immediately, sitting up straighter and looking at his boyfriend like he was crazy.
“Why not? Mike has chickens.” Bill pouted.
“No I don’t. We have sheep, no chickens.” Mike said, not lifting his head from where it was pillowed on Ben’s thigh.
“If you get chickens, Bill, we should get three and name them Adele, Shakira, and Beyoncé.” Richie told him as if stating a revelation. Which in his opinion he was.
“You can’t name a chicken Beyoncé! It’s blasphemy!” Eddie argued, pushing Richie’s shoulder and then promptly laying back down on it.
“I don’t think I could… not name one Beyoncé, though, Ed.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s true. I guess… Okay, I approve those names, Bill.”
“He’s not buying chickens!” Stan groaned, “Why are you guys encouraging him? Bev, a little help?” But she was useless, giggling loudly on floor at the whole situation.
“We should play truth or dare!” she said with a gasp, sitting up straight. Eddie laughed and shook his head.
“Sorry, no. Stan and I made a rule a long time ago that said Bill can’t play that game anymore.” Eddie explained and Richie… heard it. But he had to really focus, because Eddie was running his hand over Richie’s forearm, making random patterns and it was incredibly distracting. As was the whole of his warmth pressed against him and the way the smell of his hair was right under Richie’s nose and the way his shorts were bunched a little higher up on his thigh with the way he was sitting and-
He was just very very distracting.
“Aww, why not?” Beverly groaned.
“He’s just bad at it.” Stan said, laughing, “He either goes way too big with all his dares or way to small. It’s either, I dare you to do a somersault or I dare you to call your mom and tell her you’ve been kidnapped and you’re dying!” Everyone laughed in response, making Bill pout.
“I’m not that bad!”
“It’s that bad.” Stan grinned, “Its okay. Let’s play and Bill can only offer truths, no dares.”
“Yay!!” Bev exclaimed. She grabbed the empty Sprite bottle from the table and gestured for everyone to join her on the floor, “We can use this to decide who goes so there’s no favoritism. Because let’s be honest, Richie would pick Eddie every time, so.”
“That’s fair.” Richie said as he wrapped his arm around Eddie and pulled him tight to his side, with only minimal grumbling in response since the boy was all pliable and happy.
“Okay, me first!” Beverly said excitedly, grabbing the bottle and giving it a big spin, “Richie!” she screamed when it landed on him and honestly, he hadn’t even noticed. Eddie was biting his lip now and Richie found it pointless to look at anything else.
But then it was his turn so, he supposed he had to stop staring.
“Truth or dare, trashmouth?” Bev asked and Richie didn’t even have to think about it.
“Dare.”
“Okay… I dare you to spin the bottle and whoever it lands on… you have to give a sincere and complete compliment that doesn’t involve any jokes at all.” Beverly explained and… it was a lot of words said fast but yeah, he could do that.
“Here goes,” Richie muttered and when the bottle landed on Mike he smiled. All of them would’ve been easy but this one is literally the easiest ever, “Mike! That’s so easy. Mike,” Richie said, looking directly into the boy’s eyes, “You are literally the nicest person I have ever met. It isn’t this obvious kind of sweetness either, it is like this genuine, casual, beautiful sweetness that extends so deep within you and it is just so easy to talk to you about anything and so easy to be your friend because you are nice and dependable and I am so glad I met you. You’re also very funny. And you have amazing thighs.”
“Oh, wow, that was really nice, Richie, thank you.” Mike said, smiling widely. Richie, of course, blew a kiss to him before reaching down to spin the bottle himself.
“Billy!” Richie yelled, pumped as FUCK, “Truth or dare, my man?”
“D-dare, I guess.” Bill chose, sounding completely resigned. Richie cackled and thought for a long moment.
“I dare you to… twerk on Stan.” Richie announced. The sounds of everyone’s laughter was the only thing that could cover up Bill’s moans of protest.
“I have N-NO idea how to twerk! I have no ass!” Bill argued.
“No! You have a great ass!” Ben cut in through his laughter and everyone agreed.
“Here, I’ll teach you.” Mike said, hopping up and pulling Bill and Stan with him. He sat Stan, who was almost redder than Bill from how much he was laughing, down on the couch and moved Bill in front of him.
“Okay, just lean forward and put your hands on your knees,” Mike demonstrated, getting hands on as Bev pulled out her camera to record it, despite Bill’s half-hearted glares, “Then try to move your very lower back like… inwards. And then down? Do you know what I mean? Like that! Yeah! That’s good!”
“Can this be over now?” Stan asked from the couch, staring at the scene before him through the cracks in his fingers.
“Oh please, y-you loved it.” Bill teased as he stood up and pulled Stan back to the circle with him, “thanks for the help, Mike.” Bill added, finally laughing too now.
“Of course, Billy! You’re a quick learner.”
“It was the best thing I’ve ever seen.” Ben giggled as he rested his head on Beverly’s shoulder, clutching his stomach, “I want to tattoo it on the inside of my eyelids.”
“Okay, okay, let’s move on.” Bill insisted, “Eddie!”
“Huh!” Eddie said, snapping up, “I was not asleep.” He said immediately, rubbing at his eyes.
“Oh my god, stop it, you are so fucking cute.” Richie groaned, burying his face in Eddie’s hair.
“Ugh, stop, is it my turn? Are we still playing truth or dare?” Eddie asked, looking around, his usually wide eyes droopy.
“Yes, truth or dare, Ed?” Bill asked.
“Truth.” Eddie answered definitively.
“Coward.” Ben said under a cough and Eddie stared at him indignantly.
“Hey! Truths can be scary too! Plus, Bill can’t do dares. It’s against the rules.” He pouted and Ben nodded in agreement.
“That’s fair I guess. Okay, what’s the truth?” Ben asked, turning to Bill. Bill looked around, seeming kind of stressed.
“Um… I don’t wanna do this wrong but… biggest kink? Is that too much, Stan? T-too little? I can’t even tell. My confidence has been sh-shaken.” Bill asked and Stan laughed and kissed his cheek.
“It’s perfect, babe. Eddie, biggest kink?” Stan repeated. Eddie thought about it for a second and Richie tried not to look too excited to find out.
“I’m not sure what qualifies as a kink. Like is being on top, me liking riding, is that a kink? Or just a thing? Or does it have to be like spanking?”
“Okay, I’m dead. I have to go.” Richie groaned, “I can’t do this.” Eddie laughed on his lap and that was not helping.
“Shut up, Richie,” Beverly rolled her eyes across from him, “Let your boyfriend tell us more about his sexual preferences.”
“Why is everyone in love with my boyfriend? @God why?”
“Aww, I love it when you speak in meme, babe.” Eddie teased, “Oh! I changed my mind, I don’t wanna reveal anything personal so let’s just say Richie is my kink.” Eddie said proudly and Richie scoffed.
“Eds, you kind of already revealed the personal thing.” Richie laughed. Eddie opened his mouth to argue but then shut it slowly.
“Oh, right. Sorry.” Eddie leaned back against Richie and groaned again, “Do we have to keep playing? I’m really sleepy.”
“I can’t decide if I love it or if I am disappointed by the fact that he’s a fall-asleep-high-person.” Ben mused, staring up at Eddie.
“I love it. I get cuddles.” Richie said, wrapping his arms around his boyfriend, “But I do think I should take him home. You guys keep playing though. I’ll text you later?” everyone nodded in agreement and waved their goodbyes as they walked out, Eddie’s head still resting on Richie’s shoulder.
“You wanna come to my place or should I take you back to yours?” Richie asked the snuggly boy in his arms.
“Hmm, can’t go home. I smell like weed. I’ll just call and say I’m sleeping over at Bill’s… if it’s okay if I stay at yours?”
“Of course, Eds. Of course.” He literally wouldn’t want it any other way.