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The Autumn wind takes over the field outside of Mike Hanlon’s farm house, rustling the wheat and long grasses. The silver moon is the only light that shines on the two Loser’s faces, other than the light hues from the barn. Soft laughter sounds from the large building every few minutes, spreading like fire through the clearing, inexplicably warming the whole radius of the area.
Because of the setting of early Fall, most of the grasses found around the area have turned golden and yellow, akin to the hues of the late sun. The crisp air is fresh in the way that it feels after fresh rain or in the early morning. Surrounded by so much nature, for a few miles in most directions, every Loser is overcome with a sense of safety, letting themselves be secure away from Derry, for once. It’s cold enough outside that Eddie is dressed in pants and a sweatshirt, conveniently stolen right off of Richie’s back, leaving Richie with a t-shirt and shorts, while still looking happy with it.
Eddie can only feel an intense urge to go back inside. He’s shivering in the cold, even with his long sleeves. “Shit, why did we have to come out here? Why do I let you convince me to do this shit?”
“Because of my irresistible charm,” Richie replies with a crooked smile that's pointed closer to the sky. “And, because of that.”
Richie gestures upwards with both of his arms, in a glorious motion of, look upon our God, the sky. His manic grin seems to expand while looking at the sky and quickly whipping his head back to Eddie to gauge the shorter boy’s reaction.
Eddie stares at Richie then moves his gaze up to the sky. Stars litter themselves across the sky in beautiful patterns showing what might be the clearest night of the year. Eddie can definitely see the cloudy dust that makes up the Milky Way in the dark abyss, only slightly, though, and all the twinkling lights surrounding it form into some familiar constellations and some unfamiliar ones. He wonders if all of them have been identified into designs throughout the years by other human beings, or just the brightest ones.
All of a sudden Eddie feels infinitesimal in comparison to the universe around him and in awe of the beauty that the world can hold. He’s never seen the sky so clear. It’s probably because he’s never been at Mike’s house this late at night, but wow.
His mouth apparently started to hang open so Richie taps it with the back of his hand and Eddie snaps it shut with a click of his teeth and glares at Richie.
Richie just gives him a lopsided smile and hums in jubilation. “I knew you would like it. It’s beautiful, right?”
“Damn right,” Eddie glances back up at the sky.
“Let’s lay down,” Richie suggests, with a tug on Eddie’s arm.
“Ew, what the fuck, no,” Eddie spits at him while Richie is already flattening himself out in the tall grass, patting the space next to him for Eddie to lay down. “What about the dirt? Germs? Bugs?” Eddie pouts at the ground like it personally affronted him.
“Eds, nothing will hurt you down here,” Richie reassures. “We’ve been here a million times, Spaghetti-man.”
Eddie sighs and reluctantly sits down on the floor, drawing his knees close to his chest, hands tucked around them. He has to crane his head to view the stars properly and Richie frowns at this. Richie’s lying on his side as tries to pull his hands out from the crooks of Eddie’s knees.
“Lay down,” Richie whines. “I want ya to look at the beautiful nighttime sky, my darlin’.” Richie says this last bit with a, (weirdly flirty), Southern twang, that makes Eddie’s face turn pinker than the cold weather had already made him.
“Ticks, Richard, ticks,” Eddie points out.
“Who cares? If you die, I die with you,” the taller boy promises, like he’s not giving his entire life away to Eddie in the simplest way possible. “Then you won’t be alone in Hell.”
“What makes you think I’m going to Hell, dickweed?” Eddie flicks him on the head.
“It’s because you aren’t laying down with me.”
“Holy shit, you dramatic little bitch,” Eddie groans. “Fine, Jesus fuck,” Eddie surrenders, letting himself fall carefully backwards onto the dirty grass.
Richie cheers, and Eddie pinches him on the shoulder to shut him up. Richie does end up being quiet, but he has this annoying triumphant smirk on his face.
Eddie rolls his eyes, and turns to look at the stars once again. That’s what they’re out there for, after all. Stargazing. And it’s odd, because the both of them usually get bored very easily, but right now they can effortlessly sit in silence for almost ten minutes, solely staring at the sky. Neither of the boys get bored. It’s simple to stare at the sky, not because anything new is showing up, but because it’s almost impossible to map out every single intricacy that the picture has to offer. It’s also very difficult for one to get tired of the endless wonder that the full sky has to offer, especially for two teenage boys, yet to experience any world outside of their hometown. Richie’s only been out of state five times in his life, each time only for a day or two to see his family in Vermont. Eddie’s been out of the state even less. Twice, he thinks.
The sky provides a sense of togetherness with the rest of the world. A few moments ago, Eddie was feeling miniscule in comparison to the galaxy that’s out there, but now all he can feel is the exultation of being in cooperation and being a part of that galaxy. He knows that Richie can feel it too.
Eddie’s briefly reminded of this story that he read about once- many men discover an elephant, each of the men blind. They gather around the large animal, all of them resolving to go to different areas of the being to feel out what it is. One man says that it’s a fan, only being able to feel its ears. One man says it’s a snake, only being able to feel its trunk. One man says it’s a spear, only being able to feel its tusk- and so on. The elephant is everything, and everyone else is just a blind man feeling the elephant, trying to figure out the world. Eddie, simply another blind man only seeing part of the full story, would love to discover the wonders of the universe with Richie at his side.
After a few more minutes of drawn out silence, Richie clears his throat and points up at one particularly bright star. “That one’s yours,” he says with an affectionate smile.
Eddie puts on an annoyed face, but he’s really very touched at the gesture of Richie gifting him a whole star. Doesn’t Richie know that Eddie would give him the whole universe in response? “Why not the brightest one? Dick.”
Richie shrugs, obviously revving up to some joke as his smile becomes more mischievous. “You don’t get the best, ‘cus I already gave it to your mom when she saw stars last night.”
Eddie slaps at Richie’s shoulder, turning to the other boy so quickly that his hair whips to the side in the wind. He sits up, only slightly though, his forearms holding himself up behind him. Richie’s hair is pushed back by the breeze, as he stares resolutely up at the sky, mostly ignoring Eddie’s disdain. God, he’s beautiful with the starlight on his face like this and his curly hair messy and violent-looking. His stupid glasses magnify his brown eyes much too much to not get him bullies, but Eddie wouldn’t have Richie without them.
Eddie guesses that Richie’s right- Eddie doesn’t deserve the brightest star. As the brightest boy in the whole universe, Richie does.
Eddie carefully takes up Richie’s hand in his own, holding it tenderly yet firmly while he repositions himself to lay down again. Richie squeezes his hand, once, then twice, and stops at three times. A leftover Tozierism from Richie’s childhood- Eddie remembers Maggie holding Richie’s small five year old hand and squeezing three times. Richie had giggled and squeezed three times back, in response. Eddie had asked what that had meant, and Maggie took his hand in her free one and squished Eddie’s hand, (which was even smaller than Richie’s, as Eddie has always been), punctuating each compression with its own word: “I. Love. You.” Eddie thinks that was the first that he had felt real parental love, and it filled him with an intense sense of affection for the entire Tozier family.
Either way, ever since he was a child, Richie would squeeze people’s hands three times when he wanted to say, “I love you,” but didn’t want them to know. Eddie is the only Loser who really knows what it means, and also the person who is on the receiving end of these squeezes the most.
Eddie grins to himself and gives Richie three squeezes too.
“Richie and Eddie against the world,” Richie murmurs.
“The Losers too, I guess,” Eddie mocks, jokingly.
Richie laughs. “Okay!” He sits up, still holding Eddie’s hand. Eddie sits up too. “I think it’s time to go inside, my darling Eds. The Losers will be missing us.”
Eddie pouts.
Richie chuckles. “Now you wanna be outside, of course.”
“Shut up,” Eddie snaps. “It’s nice out here. I like it.”
The other boy smiles, taking his hand out of Eddie’s, and bringing it up to his forehead, brushing Eddie’s wavy hair out of the way. “My pretty Eds,” he says, not patronizing, nor joking, and Eddie doesn’t feel upset at the comment. He only feels a rush of endorphins, giving him a delight that settles solid in his belly.
Richie presses a short kiss to Eddie’s forehead and his lips are chapped as they get when the seasons change. Then, he pins another kiss on Eddie, this time skimming against his lips. Richie’s breath smells like the gross mixture of gin and Coke that he had been sipping on earlier in the night- Eddie himself usually doesn’t drink too much, but Richie always goes all out, sometimes drinking alcohol straight up, and sometimes mixing it with any liquid that he can get his fingers on.
“I love you,” Eddie whispers and his breath shows up in front of him in a pale white cloud.
“I love you too,” Richie utters back, still sounding amazed every time that Eddie says that to him.
“Okay, I guess we’ll go inside.” Eddie stands up, offering his hand for Richie to use to get up, and to hold. Richie accepts it graciously.
They walk back into Mike’s barn with their fingers entwined, and their lips pink with the cold.