Chapter Text
it was one of those cold mornings, the ones only the earliest arises could witness during the beginnings of summer. richie found himself awake at an unholy hour yet again, his body ignoring the fact that it was saturday. he rolled and rolled as the clock lost within the countless nicknacks on his nightstand continued ticking relentlessly. not wanting to wake his overworked parents, he quietly snuck out of his mess of a room and down the stairs, still clad in the oversized tshirt and lose shorts he slept in. he tiptoed to the garage, left open last night as usual, and hopped on his rickety bike, knowing exactly where the feathery clouds would take him.
plopping down on the hard ground, richie watched his skinny and bruised-up legs stretch out over the rough rocks overlooking the deep lake. nobody was around the town at this hour, providing him with a peaceful ride to the lake at the end of the barrens that left him in a calm trance, which he appreciated silently. as he settled down and looked around the oh-so familiar murky water, jagged rocks, and fluttering trees, he froze, realizing in a panic that somebody was here before him. a small, delicate figure crouched on a particularly large rock on the edge of the water, looking too focused on whatever was in said water to notice richie’s presence. his side was to richie, all it would take was a glance to his right to see him frozen and watching him. the boy on the rock had his hands in the water, looking like he was holding something beneath the murky surface.
a soft smile was on his beautiful face which, yea, richie had eyes (and those eyes were definitely staring by now) he could see his pretty freckles and fluttering eyelashes and his wispy brown hair-
richie swallowed, beginning to back up as silently as possible but luck was never on his side, of course, and the moment he took his third step backwards he stumbled right into his stupid bike much too loudly.
“shit!” he whisper-screamed, wide eyes turning to look back down at the boy in the lake to see if he’d disturbed him.
the boys head snapped in his direction, eyes all wide and pretty and now is SO not the time to be thinking about that, richie, so instead he pretended to be brave and walked right back to the edge of the rocks, swallowed once, took a deep breath, and spoke.
“uh hi i- i’m really sorry, i didn’t realize somebody else was here before me, i was just leaving,” he said, shyly trying to speak loud enough to be heard but quiet enough to not disturb the beauty of the forest’s silence.
to his weak heart’s horror, the boy’s face broke into a small smile, his nose scrunching just the slightest and richie really really wished he wasn’t a hopeless romantic who read entirely too many love stories. and as if the universe thought he could handle more, the boy began to speak.
“it’s okay,” he said, or maybe sang, richie wasn’t sure because his voice was so melodic and sweet and- “these tadpole eggs just hatched, wanna see?” the boy asked as he tipped his dead downwards again, his small smile widening as he watched the babies swim around.
richie thought he might die because when the fuck did pretty boys ever talk to him, much less invite him to look at tadpoles? he acted quickly, almost tripping as he walked to the side of the rocks and towards the hill that led down to the lake, where he found himself panting slightly with the effort it took to get down there that fast. he swallowed hard as he stepped towards the boy and immediately turned his head down to look at the water, finding that he was even better looking up close. shitshitshitshit was all his clearly genius mind provided him with as the boy brought up a handful of water containing a couple of tiny tadpoles. richie’s mouth was opening before he could stop it.
“what’s your name?” he blurted, still not making eye contact with the boy, instead focusing on the tadpoles in his hand like they were the most interesting thing he had ever seen.
“i’m eddie,” he said.
“eddie.” richie repeated dumbly.
“what’s yours?” eddie asked, and richie finally worked up the nerve to look up and meet his big, curious eyes.
“i’m richie” he said, feeling the slightest twinge of warmth on his cheeks at being closer to the boy and being able to get a better look at him.
“hi, richie” eddie smiled fully now, still meeting richie’s eyes as his hand dipped back into the water to put the tadpoles back. richie felt his stomach do a flip at his name being spoken by such a beautiful voice.
“d’you come here a lot? i’ve never seen you around” richie said, finally being able to even his breathing out as he became more used to eddie’s looks, if only a little.
“i do,” eddie nodded. “i mostly come at this hour, though. there’s less people.” he said softly.
richie blushed even harder, feeling extremely guilty that he had ruined the boys peace with his spontaneous trip. he stood quickly, albeit a bit clumsily, and scrambled to explain himself.
“i’m so sorry, i didn’t know this was like, your spot or whatever. i didn’t mean to disturb you, i just couldn’t go back to sleep-“ he rambled on.
eddie stood too and shook his head, waving his hands dismissively.
“don’t worry about it, richie, you didn’t disturb me. i’m glad i could show someone the tadpoles, i’ve actually been waiting for them to hatch for a while now” he explained enthusiastically.
richie thought his heart might really explode this time, because suddenly eddie was crouching back down and tugging him down by the wrist. when he let go, their fingers brushed together as lightly as the air felt. richie’s daydreams about holding eddies hand were interrupted with yet another touch from eddie, his tiny hands grabbing richie’s large ones and shaping them into a bowl-like shape.
“what- uh, whatcha doing?” richie asked, eyes wide and face hot.
eddie simply grinned at him.
the touch was gone as soon as it came, eddie now moving away to face the water again and grab another handful of water and tadpoles. richie was frozen in place, his mouth slightly agape. before he could do anything, eddie gently dumped the water from his hands onto richie’s.
“oh...” richie said, understanding.
he couldn’t help but laugh a little at the tadpoles swimming around his hands, the quick swishes of their tails tickling his hands. when he looked up to meet eddie’s eyes, he found that he was already watching him.
richie wondered how stars could live in someone’s eyes.