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In the century he'd been alive Richie had gotten used to two constants, that his eye sight would always be terrible, no matter how many times he came back to life, no matter what injuries his body miraculously healed, his eyesight remained terrible, and waking up next to Eddie Kaspbrak.
So, when he woke up without him in his arms it took alot of self control for him not to immediatly freak out. Instead, he grabbed his glasses and the gun they kept by their bed and went to find him. Trying to be quiet so as not to wake the others, which was not his fortay, he stepped over Aidren on the floor and past Bill who was snoring on the sofa to get to the kitchen where the light was on.
Sure enough Eddie was sat at the counter, staring into a pint of icecream. He looked almost as young as the day Richie met him, but his eyes betrayed him, there was somthing old and worn in those eyes.
"Ah Ha! Erwischt!" Richie smirked when Eddie almost jumped out of his skin.
"Idiot," Eddie hissed, "rücksichtsloser Idiot!"
Richie just laughed and carefully closed the kitchen door behind them to prevent the rest of the waking up.
"Did I wake you?" Eddie asked. Richie shrugged.
"Sort of, you know I can't sleep without my Eddie-Bear," he teased and took a seat next to Eddie at the kitchen counter, "are you eating Stans icecream? He's gonna kill you. Literally."
Eddie put a spoonful in his mouth.
"I'll survive," he said very seriously, and managed to last all of two seconds before they both burst into childish giggles.
"Bad dreams?" Richie asked when they'd calmed down. They all got them, how could they not? They'd seen literal lifetimes of war and the worst parts of humanity. Eddie nodded.
"Do you wanna talk about it?" Richie asked, helping himself to Stan's icecream as well, like Eddie said, they'd survive.
"It's stupid," Eddie said.
"My speciality," Richie teased, but Eddie didn't say anything, "come on it can't be as stupid as that time I tried to get Bev to peirce my tounge."
Eddie didn't laugh, he was once again looking miserably into his icecream. Richie's heart ached for him.
"Come on, it's just me," he said more softly this time.
Eddie sighed and leant his head on Richie's shoulder.
"It was... It was the 1940s, I was in Germany again," Eddie shivered.
"Oh Eds," Richie whispered and wrapped an arm tight around him. They'd all had to watch some horrific things happen during that time, unable to do anything about it, and Richie knew that to keep his cover Eddie had had to take part in some of them, and order others to be done. Things he refused to talk about, even to Richie. Richie didn't push, if Eddie needed time they had an abundance of it. If immortality had taught him anything it was patience, even if he was still young (relatively speaking.)
"You did everything you could," he assured Eddie who had began to cry, silent tears running down his face, "you helped so many people-"
"And let so many others die," Eddie said.
"You can't think like that Eds, you're not responsible for every life, we cant-"
"Ich weiß!" Eddie snapped, he took a deep breath and continued steadily, playing with Richie's hands as he did so, and avoiding his gaze, "but I still feel guilty, I know it's not rational, but I still feel it. I know that if it wasn't me it would have been someone else who ordered those things, but it was me, and I have to live with that... For a long time."
Richie sighed.
"I know," he said, then turned to cup Eddie's face in his hands, to look deep into those impossibly kind brown eyes, "but you're a good person Eds, one of the best I've met. After all these years, after everything we've seen, you're still as kind and good as the day I met you, you've helped more people than you could possibly know Eds, and the fact you're beating yourself up over the ones you couldn't just proves how good you still are. You are better than this world has ever and will ever deserve."
He wiped away Eddie's tears and smiled.
"Besides," Richie said, determined to lighten the mood after such a heavy confession, "I don't know what more you could have done other than find Hitler and kill the bastard yourself," he said, and Eddie laughed.
"I would have beaten the shit out of him," he said.
"I know," Richie sighed playfully, "it would have been so hot."
He grinned as Eddie muffled a laugh in the crook of his neck. He loved that sound, it had been years and he still loved it, he knew he could never tire of it and that he would do anything to hear it.
"Danke dir, mein Liebling," Eddie said.
"Anytime," Richie told him, "I'm yours, to do with as you please," he gave a bow and winked, once again making Eddie laugh.
"Idiot," Eddie said, but his eyes sparkled with fondness. Richie knew he was incredibly lucky to be loved by such a man, such a beautiful, stubborn, feirce, infuriating bastard. He would spend however long he had trying to do enough good to make it up to the universe.
But he had far more important things than the universe to be worrying about.
"Are you ready to go back to bed Mein kleiner Schatz?" He asked. It was a testement to how tired Eddie was that he didn't protest to the nickname, it was one Richie only used when he was being paticularly sappy or paticularly annoying.
"Yes," Eddie agreed, putting Stan's icecream back in the freezer, "you really are a sweet talker you know."
"Yeah, I know," Richie came up behind him and wrapped his arms around his waist, "I was a real hit with the ladies in my day."
"Bullshit," Eddie said, leaning into him.
"No its true, they were lining up around the block for a dance with Sweet-Tounge Tozier," Richie bragged, snickering to himself about the inudendo, "and I was never one to dissapoint. Do you remember that summer in Chicago 1920...2? Was it?"
Eddie did, the 20s were a bit of a blur, with them still being firmly in their honeymoon stage, both with eachother and their immortality. It was a good time to be invincible. That summer had been a paticually good one though, he could remember the bright lights of the Speakeasy they frequented, hot, sticky afternoons in their crappy apartment, Richie playing piano each night, free drinks, smuggling liquor, dancing. It was before they'd met any of the others, which was probably for the best, if they thought they were bad now, they would not have been able to handle them back then.
"I remember that woman who couldn't keep her hands off of you," Eddie hissed, "she was in love with you."
She had been a pretty thing as well, blonde with big blue eyes and the petite figure which had been so popular at the time. He could see her even all these years later, her silver dress sparkling in the light as Richie span her around, her sickening giggles. Their love had been new then, and terrifying. Not only was he already head over heels for Richie, he was the only person he knew like him at the time, losing him would mean spending the rest of time alone.
"I don't know if I'd go that far," Richie said, smirking when he felt Eddie tense in his arms.
"I would," Eddie grumbled.
She'd simpered over him for weeks, long after Eddie lost patience with it, and long after Richie told her he was taken by an 'adorable German firecraker'. She used to lean on Richies piano as he played, laughing too loudly at his jokes and singing along.
"Well, you showed her."
Eddie smirked. It had all gotten too much when she kissed Richie after one of his sets. She hadn't been as pretty when there was a long scar down her face.
That had been the end of their time in Chicago.
"Ich tat."
Richie knew he shouldn't encourage Eddie's possessive streak, but it was a little late for that, besides, fate was stupid enough to throw them together, it should have seen this coming.
"She didn't like your glasses," Eddie remembered, he leant heavily on Richie as they made their way back to their room, "she used to talk about how much more handsome you'd be if you didn't wear them, I heard her one night."
"She wouldn't be the first," Richie said, unbothered. Eddie scowled.
"They're wrong," he said, "I love them."
"You're bias," Richie said.
"They're very you," Eddie argued stubbornly, "and I love you."
"You don't want me to get that Laser eye surgery then?" Richie teased, knowing it would only irritate Eddie further.
Eddie didn't dissapoint. Eddie never disappointed.
"If you do I'll stab you in the eye with a chopstick."
And he thinks he doesn't have a way with words, Richie thought, smiling to himself.
"Kinky."
They headed back to bed and settled into the position they'd become accustomed to over the years. Richie with his back to the wall with his arms wrapped around Eddie infront of him. It was the safest way, since Richie was as blind as a bat without his glasses, the fact he got to feel Eddies heartbeat and breathe in his warm, clean smell every time he woke up as a definate bonus however.
"Do you know what I think?" Richie whispered, finally breaking the comfortable silence they'd settled into. He knew Eddie wasn't asleep, no amount of denial would make the fact he snored any less true. No matter how hard Eddie tried.
"I didn't even know you could think," Eddie said inevitably.
"Ho ho! Edward-Spagetward gets off a good one!"
"Don't call me that," Eddie muttered, rolling over to look at Richie, "what do you think?"
"I think we deserve a holiday," Richie said, "after that lab bullshit."
Eddie hummed into his chest.
"We could take a year off and do Europe again," Richie went on, "eat Italian pizza, go to those German Christmas markets and eat all the gross German food you ate as a kid, see how the grand neices and nephews are. Buy Bill one of those Viking helmets with the horns on he hates so much."
Eddie chuckled.
"And one of those plastic drinking horns," he said.
"I love the way you think Eds," Richie began running his fingers through the other man's hair.
They had a tradition of buying crappy gifts for their family whenever they went away, especially if it was of their time period. Richie's personal favourite was the Abraham Lincoln bobble head they'd gotten Mike.
"Maybe we can go back to that fancy hotel in Malta," Richie raised his eyebrows suggestively, even though there was no one to see it and felt Eddie smile into the crook of his neck.
He was already drifting off, this time with much sweeter memories in his head.
"Ich liebe dich," he muttered. Richie kissed his forehead.
"I love you too Wenig Liebes."