Chapter Text
Fifteen-year-old Eddie stood near the bakery in the market of Hogsville, eyeing the sad loaf of bread that had fallen to the cold cobblestone ground. No one had picked it up, and he couldn’t bear seeing good food go to waste. He stepped forward and bent down to pick it up, then dusted it off with his coat, seeing as his hands were actually quite dirty from a lack of places to wash in this god awful town.
As he finished getting some grass off of the loaf (about to put it back on the shelf), the baker’s gaze drifted from a customer to the loaf of bread, which unfortunately looked very much like it was being stolen.
“You! Boy!”
Eddie’s eyes snapped up. “M-me?” he looked behind him… maybe there was another boy there?
“Yes, you!”
Eddie turned back to the baker, who had become ten times scarier looking during the point five seconds that Eddie hadn’t been looking.
“Are you stealing my bread, boy?”
“What?! No, no I swear I was just-”
“Save it, thief. I’ve half a mind to have you arrested for this.”
“What? No, I promise I was only picking it up from the ground… it fell.”
“What a horrible lie. Give it back now and I’ll spare you.”
Eddie thought, spare me? Was he gonna kill me or something? “That’s what I was going to d-” before Eddie could say another word, someone grabbed his arm, pulling him at a bajillion miles per hour.
The guy pulling him was wearing a big cloak and hood. “Follow me.”
“Well you are pulling me by my arm, do I have a choice?”
“Oh, haha. Sorry” the guy let go, for some reason fully trusting that Eddie would follow him as he ran… which is what Eddie did.
“Where are we going? Who are you? Why did you-”
The guy grabbed Eddie’s arm again and pulled him into an alley. He took his hood off and smiled.
Eddie stared at the guy. He looked like he was Eddie’s age. And damn , this guy was hot. His curly hair was so unbrushed that it looked intentional. His bright, brown eyes stared at Eddie with mischief and pure excitement. “Oh dear lord.”
“Excuse me?”
Eddie had meant to say that in his head.
“I mean… oh dear lord… you made me steal this bread!”
“What? You mean you were telling the truth to that baker?”
“ Yes ! Of course I was! It had fallen and I was dusting it off with my coat.”
“Why would you dust bread off with fabric?” the guy laughed (and Eddie’s heart skipped a few beats… then sped until it was nearly beating out of his chest).
“My hands were dirty so I wanted to hold it with my coat… I dunno I was just-”
The guy laughed again. “You’re cute,” he ran a hand through his hair. “Man I thought I was helping you get away with a bread heist. But I guess I just dragged you into one.”
“Yes, that’s exactly what you’ve done.”
“So what’s your name, bread boy?”
“Edward… Eddie. And I certainly did not give you permission to call me bread boy. ”
“Okay, Eddie Bready. I’m Richard. Richie.”
Eddie blushed. “Eddie Bready?”
“Yeah. ‘dunno about you but I think it’s cute,” Richie looked up at the sky. “The sun’s setting. Come with me.”
“Woah, woah, woah. Where are you taking me?”
“To my ship,” Richie walked backward whilst pulling a (very cute) smile.
“Your ship? Why are you taking me to a ship?” Eddie didn’t move.
Richie stopped and his smile softened. “Well, I assume you’re all alone out here.”
“How would you know that.”
“Because you slept on a pile of sandbags last night.”
Eddie’s blush came back even brighter. “Ok that's fair- WAIT… have you been watching me??”
“Ok I see how that could seem a bit… strange… but we’ve been searching for more kids to join us on our journey to Derry Island. We need a few extra hands on the ship. We docked here three weeks ago and I saw you come into town… I waited for a good time to talk to you and a bread heist seemed like the perfect time.”
“Wh- okay first of all, who’s we ?”
“Oh yeah! We is my crew. Beverly, Stan, Micheal, Benjamin, and William,” he counted on his fingers as he listed the names. “A gaggle of misfit orphans.”
“... you’re all orphans?”
“As far as we know.”
Eddie stayed silent for a second.
Richie rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at his scuffed up shoes. “Look, it’s fine if you don’t want to come with me… I know I kinda just ambushed you,” he looked up, his facial expression far more vulnerable looking, “but... I saw you there last night… just sitting alone eating scraps. I just felt like I was watching another me. The kids on that ship and I… we’re gonna do great things when we get where we’re going. We could use someone like you. And I think you might be in need of someone like us.”
“Gee thanks.” Eddie’s face mirrored Richie’s. “And I guess you’re right. But… What do you mean you could use someone like me ? From what you say you saw last night, I’m pretty useless.”
“That’s not true.”
“Name one reason I could be of use to you and your crew.”
“You have a brain. And a heart.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means every single person on that ship is a thief. A smuggler. You might be able to help us get stuff without making enemies everywhere we go.”
“And you can’t do that yourselves?”
“People’ve spread the word about us. Someone new could be good for us. They won’t know you’re with us. They won’t arrest what they aren’t looking for.”
“So you just wanna use me because I don’t steal all my food?”
“What? No of course not… I.. we- look… I don’t mean I wanna use you. I mean we’ve dug ourselves into some holes and done some things to people we should not have done things to. You could teach us some things… especially me. We’ve run out of brainpower. Maybe one more brain is all we need.”
“And who says that brain is mine?”
“I do,” Richie sighed. “Eddie I’ve searched from kingdom to kingdom for someone like you. But it never works, because no one will leave home, no one has a brain, no one isn’t a thief just like us. No one cleans bread with a coat.”
Eddie cringed, but then looked at Richie like he was surrendering. “You really want me to come with you?”
“If you will.”
Eddie paused for a moment, looked around at the empty alleyway, then looked back at Richie. “I guess there’s nothing for me here, anyway.”