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Eddie had made it very clear that he did not want to go. He'd always said that scary movies and haunted houses were for people that hadn't actually lived through those things in real life. Richie was always quick to point out that they'd never actually been in a haunted house, just a clown infested one. Eddie was always quick to tell him to fuck off.
But everyone had known that Eddie would come anyway, because that's what he did, he complained, but he was always there for his friends. That was why he was standing outside Derry's scariest haunted house, looking like he wanted to be absolutely anywhere else. Richie looked to his friend, he looked nervous, his hand was absently feeling around in his pocket as he looked at the entrance (Richie noticed that he did that when he was anxious, he was pretty sure he was feeling for an inhaler that hadn't been there in years).
"You don't actually have to do this," Ben offered, because he was tooth-achingly sweet. "I can stay back with you if you want."
"I'm fine," Eddie shook his head, "It's just a stupid haunted house, it's all fake."
"Exaaactly," Richie purred, throwing his arm around Eddie. "Besides Eddie Spaghetti, if you get too scared, just remember you have a big strong man next to you to protect you."
Eddie just rolled his eyes, "You're right, Richie, I probably should stay next to Mike," Eddie shrugged out from under the taller boy's weight and took a step towards Mike.
Mike grinned and put his arm around Eddie, mirroring what Richie had just been doing. "Don't worry Eddie, I'll protect you."
Richie frowned, throwing his hand dramatically over his heart, "Ouch Eddie, that hurts, I really thought that you loved me. Does that make you a homewrecker Mikey?"
Mike chuckled.
Stan groaned, "So, are we actually going to in? Or are we just going to stand around and listen to Richie be an idiot all night?"
"Not you too, Stan the Man," Richie feigned offense, but nonetheless he led the way to the entrance. There was a line, and Richie could feel the nerves of the rest of the group build with each passing moment.
They'd generally avoided scary things since Pennywise, almost as if their fear might single handedly bring him back and start the whole thing over again. But it had been two whole years since they'd left Neibolt, and (at least in Richies case) they were just really fucking ready to move on.
Eddie didn't look so convinced.
At the front of the line, the bored looking teenager at the entrance split them up into groups.
"Maximum groups of three," He explained, eyeing them. "And we'll space them out."
They decided that Ben and Bev would go together, then Stan, Bill, and Mike, then Richie and Eddie. Because that's always how it worked, they were Richie and Eddie, they stuck together.
Ben and Bev went in, sinking into the dark building. Richie noticed their hands clasped together and tried not to imagine how Eddie's hand would feel in his.
Next went Stan, Mike, and Bill, none of them looking particularly bothered.
Finally, it was Richie and Eddie's turn, and Eddie wrapped his hands around Richie's arm as they entered. Richie felt himself blush, grateful that no one could see him in the darkness.
Richie wasn't scared, he figured that since he'd lived through multiple actual murderous clown attacks, some stupid props and guys in costumes couldn't scare him.
Eddie, on the other hand jumped at every movement, when a guy in a werewolf costume jumped out at them from a doorway they'd been about to enter Eddie gripped his arm so hard it actually hurt (not that Richie would tell Eddie that).
"This was such a stupid idea," Eddie muttered, they were in the middle of a room set up to resemble a hospital, and Richie noticed that this one bothered Eddie the most. There were hospital beds with dummies on them, fake blood bags, and jars full of mysterious substances. "This place probably isn't even clean, we could contract some kind of horrific disease here."
"There are no horrific diseases here, Eds," Richie said, his voice low, "People go through these all the time."
"That doesn't mean that-" He was cut off by one of the fake patients leaning up in bed, groaning and making a fake grab at them. Eddie hurried them to the next room, his eyes wide.
"You good Eddie?" Richie asked, taking his eyes momentarily off the path ahead to look down at the other boy.
Eddie shook his head, "I'm fucking great. I'm having the time of my life in a dirty old house that we for some reason entered for the sole reason of being scared."
Richie chuckled, he took it as a good sign that Eddie wasn't struggling for breath.
He was still looking down at Eddie, a fond smile on his face, when something jumped out in front of them. They both jumped back immediately, and Richie looked up to see a clown.
He immediately froze, his heart in his throat. The clown didn't even look anything like Pennywise. He was one of those with a big red nose and a white face. They got the teeth down though, they were razor sharp, and fake blood dripped from his mouth. Richie was back in Neibolt in an instant, Pennywise advancing on him and Eddie, Eddie's arm sitting limp in his lap. Richie had thought that they were going to die, he'd been absolutely certain, and all he'd wanted was for Eddie to look at him. Not at the fucking clown. He hadn't wanted Eddie to feel the same terror he was, he'd thought that maybe he could distract him from it for just a moment.
He could feel Eddie grab his arm, and he thought that he was saying something, but he couldn't hear it over the ringing in his ears.
—-
The clown came out of nowhere, one minute Richie was looking down at him with that smile, and Eddie was feeling like maybe this wasn't so bad, and the next moment a fucking clown was jumping in front of him and fuck, why did it have to be a clown?
He felt Richie freeze up next to him, his breath catching. Eddie looked up to see that he was just staring at the clown, eyes wide.
"Richie?" Eddie asked, grabbing Richie's arm. His hand came up to grab Eddie's wrist, but he still wasn't looking at him."Rich? Are you okay?"
The clown lunged for Richie, grinning and bearing his sharp teeth. Richie stumbled backwards, taking Eddie with him, and the clown only moved toward them again.
"Back off asshole!" Eddie said, pushing down the fear seizing his body. "He's fucking scared!"
The guy dropped the act, rolling his eyes and moving past them, "Jesus," He muttered.
Richie still wasn't moving, his breathing was only getting faster. His eyes were darting around the room.
"Rich," Eddie said, pulling Richie by the arm to the side of the room. He could already hear people approaching behind him, there was a door off the main path and when Eddie pulled Richie towards it he didn't resist.
It looked like they were in a closet, the room wasn't decorated like the rest of the house, it had cleaning supplies and it was lit by one dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling.
Richie slid immediately to the floor, his back against the wall.
"Richie, are you okay?" Eddie asked, bending down to kneel in front of him. His mind was pulling up everything he knew about panic attacks, he felt his own chest constricting just thinking about it, but he kept it under control.
Richie was staring at him, his eyes searching his face. His chest rising and falling far too fast.
"You need to breathe, Rich, okay?" Richie had said that very thing to Eddie many times before, had walked him through his asthma attacks more times than he could count.
Eddie took a deep exaggerated breath in, and then out. "Breathe, okay? He's not-we're safe. He's dead."
Richie took a deep, slow, breath. In then out. He looked a little better, his eyes settled on Eddie's, and he continued to take long slow breaths.
"Are you okay?" Eddie asked, he put his hands on Richie's shoulders, this kind of stuff always grounded him when he was going through an attack. Richie's hands on his arms, a comforting and familiar weight when the world was closing in on him.
Richie nodded, he seemed now like he was coming out of haze. He blinked, "I'm alright, it was just, stupid," He looked down at his knees, still breathing deeply.
"It wasn't stupid," Eddie said immediately. "You've helped me through so many panic attacks and you've never thought they were stupid before," He said quietly.
"That's different," Richie said, shaking his head, "That's like, medical. I was just scared," He was still as white as a ghost, but some of the color had slowly started returning to his face.
"That's what a panic attack is, dipshit," Eddie said, but there was no bite to the words, they came out far more gentle than Eddie had anticipated.
Richie didn't look fully convinced, "It was just..." He paused, swallowing thickly "Suddenly I was back there, and he was coming towards us. And I really fucking thought that we were going to die," He took a deep breath in.
"I thought we were going to die too," Eddie said.
"You wanna know what's stupid?" Richie asked, smiling weakly at Eddie over his knees. "I thought I could like distract you, I just wanted you to look at me so that you didn't die looking at that fucking clown. I don't know, like I could distract you from an advancing monster just by holding onto your face tightly enough."
Eddie swallowed thickly, he remembered that. The sharp pain in his arm, Bill by his side, Pennywise advancing on them, his fingers growing and sharpening into claws. Most of all, Richie, grabbing his face, not letting it go. Eddie, look at me, don't look at him. Eddie. And if he hadn't thought they'd been about to die, Eddie would have probably shoved him away, and told Richie to keep his grubby hands to himself, just to distract from the way his stomach flipped whenever Richie got too close. "Not stupid, I think it helped."
There was something in the air now, and they were just sat there, looking at each other. And Eddie probably should have stood up, and pulled Richie out of there and out of that stupid haunted house, where they could meet back up with the other losers and pretend like he hadn't just thought about kissing Richie in a disgusting little storage closet. But he didn't, instead he just leaned in, slightly, and he knew he didn't imagine it when Richie leaned in too.
Eddie's breath caught in his chest when Richie closed the distance between their lips. And it was nothing like he'd ever imagined it (and he had imagined it, even if he hadn't realized he was thinking about it). He'd never thought it would be in a tiny claustrophobic closet in shitty haunted house. But it was also everything he'd ever imagined because it was Richie, and his lips were softer than Eddie imagined and he was putting a hand on Eddie's cheek.
Eddie pulled back, blinking at the other boy.
Richie looked at him nervously, "Was that-?"
Eddie knew how that question was going to finish. "Yeah, that was okay. That was, great."
Richie grinned, "I thought you might say so, I've only ever gotten glowing reviews from your mom."
"I cannot believe you just said that," Eddie said, but he was still smiling, giddy and happy and feeling more than a little brave. "Can you ever not ruin a moment?"
Richie just kissed him again.
Eddie ran his hands through Richie's hair, leaning forward on his knees.
This time it was Richie that pulled back, "Wow Eds," He said, "Who knew you had a fear fetish? Am I going to have to pretend to be a damsel in distress every night?"
"God, this was a mistake," Eddie said, standing up on shaky legs. He held his hand down to pull Richie up, who immediately wrapped his arms around the smaller boy.
When they were both sure that they could handle it, they reentered the haunted house. Eddie kept his hand firmly locked into Richie's, and it was only when they reached the exit that he reluctantly released Richie's hand.
The others were waiting outside for them, and if they noticed how long they'd spent in there, the way Richie and Eddie stayed a little closer to each other than usual, or their secret smiles and whispers, they didn't say anything. Eddie was grateful for it.