Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Eddie was definitely not a normal kid. He knew that for sure. He was always reminded of it by everyone except his best friend, Richard Tozier.

Richie was sweet, but an idiot, he used humor as a coping mechanism and always had something smartass-y or sexual to say about someone’s mom. So obviously Richie was the last person Eddie wanted to tell about this problem. But who else was Eddie to tell?

“Wait wait wait wait wait. What happened?” Richie said adjusting his glasses and giving Eddie the look of a confused puppy.

Eddie groaned, throwing his head back, this would be his third time explaining. “I’m not explaining it again.” He sighed crossing his arms.

“So you went outside and your hand cracked, and when the blood hit the ground roses bloomed?”

“Yes Richie!” Eddie groaned throwing his arms up into the air. He knew it was hard to believe he wouldn’t of believed it if he didnt see it himself.

Richie looked at Eddie curiously, tilting his head then promptly picking up the boys hand and looking at the cut across the back of it. “So your hand just cracked because of the cold.” Richie was obviously trying to comprehend it, after all, the smaller boy had never given him  reason not to believe him, he was very honest.

Eddie bit his bottom lip and nodded. “I’ll take you to the roses.” Eddie said hoping that be proof enough.

“Deal.” Richie nodded. If he saw the roses he’d have more reason to believe Eddie.

That morning Eddie had woken up sooner than usual. He sighed sitting up and seeing the padded corners and desk edges. He’d never understand why his mom was so protective, even the knives were kept out of the boys reach, and he wasn’t allowed to use the stove or oven. The edges of the bath were padded and the bathroom had only carpet to prevent slipping, and never under any circumstances was Eddie allowed to  shower.

He’d quickly gotten fed up with the ‘safe’ living. He didn’t see this as safe. He saw this as an unhealthy fear. Even he’d grown to have obsessive anxiety and fear when he’d leave the house. He always had a first aid kit with him in one fanny pack and his vitamins and pills in the second.

This morning his mom wasn’t up before him, a rare blessing for Eddie. He quietly got out of bed and walked through the completely carpeted house.

Though it was cold, he hadn’t put any salve or lotion on his hands, though his mother always warned him his skin would dry. Dry skin was the least of his worries though. His mom had been giving him a hard time lately, and he feared she may take his friends away.

He walked past a sweet framed photo of his friend Bill’s 12th birthday. That was the day Eddie realized he wasn’t living a normal life and Bill’s parents behavior, though it was normal and natural, seemed reckless and careless to Eddie.

That was also the day he’d met the rest of Bill’s friends. Who welcomed Eddie into their small club of losers so lovingly, he’d only had the six friends for five years, but it felt like eternity. He loved them all so much, they’d been his first and only friends.

Eddie was now 17 as well as the rest of the losers, and if not 17 they were pretty close to it. But Eddie couldn’t wait to just move in with one of his friends the moment he turned 18. He was so tired of his hovering mother.

He picked up the picture and smiled with the sweet nostalgic feeling it gave him. He made sure to place it down gently. Even though there were no glass frames in the house, they were all plastic. And it had taken Eddie at least three years to convince his mom to get him a hanging mirror and not a stupid little makeup mirror to sit on his desk.

He carefully walked through the house, sliding open the glass door gently to the backyard silently. The cold air nipped at his hands and feet. He felt his skin getting tighter which he’d figured was normal. Till the back of his left hand tore and blood dripped to the ground. Eddie panicked and held the back of his hand in his other.

His eyes grew wide when he saw three red roses bloom from the three drops of blood in the grass.

‘This can’t be real.’ Was his last thought before rushing inside and getting dressed. Cleaning the tear and putting lotion and salve over his exposed skin.

He walked gently and carefully through the house again. Once he reached the garage he pulled his knee, wrist and elbow pads on before pulling on his helmet and riding his bike to his best friend Richie’s house.

That’s how he’d gotten to where he was now. In his backyard in front of the three red roses and a wide eyed Richie Tozier.

Eddie was definitely not a normal kid. He knew that for sure. He was always reminded of it by everyone. The list probably included his best friend Richard Tozier now, and he hoped that wasn’t true.

Chapter Text

Richie Tozier was quite a normal kid. A little dirty minded and real shit parents, but normal compared to most. Especially his best friend Eddie Kaspbrak, who was the absolute opposite of a normal kid.

It was quite early in the morning and Richie was awake to see the sunrise. Sitting in his windowsill, smoking one of his cigarettes out the window. He wouldn’t have been smoking if he knew little Eddie K was speeding his bike down to the Tozier residence.

He wasn’t expecting a knock on the door, although it didn’t surprise him, he thought it might just be the Derry cops coming to return his blacked out mother from whatever bar of street corner she’d slept at last night.

So reluctantly he put out his cigarette and walked down to answer the door. The knock definitely wasn’t the surprise the shock came from small little Eddie desperately dragging puffs from his inhaler, standing in Richie’s doorway.

“Eddie? What’re you doing out this early? Your mom’s going to have your head!” Richie said pulling Eddie inside and sitting him down. Getting him a glass of water.

“Rich- I- n-need-” Eddie had road his bike over way too fast. He was gasping and wheezing and not able to form coherent sentences.

“Woah there Spaghetti, slow down, you’re giving Billy a run for his money.” Richie chuckled trying to be light hearted. He knew something was really wrong when eddie kept trying to talk. “Alright Eds I’m sure whatever you need to tell me can wait till you aren’t dying.” Richie was being serious now.

Eddie nodded, taking all the puffs from his inhaler that he needed to be able to get his breathing straight. “Rich, I think there might be something wrong with me?”

Richie tilted his head confused. “Eds, there isn’t anything wrong with you alright? You’re one of the best people I know. Did Sonia say something?”

Eddie shook his head, he couldn’t even think to tell Richie not to call him ‘Eds’, which was another thing that tipped Richie off that something was definitely wrong, but he wasn’t going to accept that there was anything wrong with his little Eddie.

“No. She didn’t say anything RIchie, I did something, or something happened.. You’ll never believe me anyway so it doesn’t matter.” Eddie sighed, this was too crazy to tell anyone, bit Richie looked so concerned and confused that Eddie figured he owed him the truth.

“Well… I went outside this morning to catch some fresh air, but I didn’t put any salve or lotion on, and my hand immediately cracked…” Eddie was mumbling embarrassed.

Richie just looked even more confused. ‘This can’t be what Eddie nearly puked his lungs out over to tell me.’

Eddie held up his left hand showing Richie the crack. “I know what you’re thinking it’s not the crack itself that’s not why I came over.”

Richie took Eddie’s hand examining the cut, it looked weird, not just the way his hand cracked, but his blood. The dried blood was a bit more of a dark red violet than the usual bright red. It was a little too weird so he just put the boys hand on the arm of the couch.  “Then what is it Eddie?”

That was when Eddie knew Richie would take him seriously. He called him Eddie, not Spaghetti, not Eds, not any other damned stupid nickname, but Eddie. “My blood, when it dripped onto the ground, roses bloomed…” he whispered.

Richie gave Eddie a look like he should be in a madhouse. Eddie despised it.

“Hold on. Could you repeat everything you just said?” Richie was thinking he’d heard him wrong.

Eddie nodded timidly. “Even though it’s cold, I went out without any protection on my exposed skin, my hand cracked and then the blood that hit the ground sprouted three red roses.”

“Wait wait wait wait wait. What happened?” Richie said adjusting his glasses and giving Eddie the look of a confused puppy. It was more of a pleading look, like he was begging he’d heard Eddie wrong.

Eddie groaned, throwing his head back, this would be his third time explaining. “I’m not explaining it again.” He sighed crossing his arms.

“So you went outside and your hand cracked, and when the blood hit the ground roses bloomed?”

“Yes Richie!” Eddie groaned throwing his arms up into the air. He knew it was hard to believe he wouldn’t of believed it if he didnt see it himself.

Richie looked at Eddie curiously, tilting his head then promptly picking up the boys hand again and looking at the cut across the back of it. “So your hand just cracked because of the cold.” Richie was obviously trying to comprehend it, after all, the smaller boy had never given him  reason not to believe him, he was very honest. Also, Richie would never want to alienize the precious boy.

Eddie bit his bottom lip and nodded. “I’ll take you to the roses.” Eddie said hoping that be proof enough.

“Deal.” Richie nodded. If he saw the roses he’d have more reason to believe Eddie.

That’s how he’d gotten to where he was now. In the backyard of Eddie Kaspbrak in front of the three red roses, a wide eyed Richie Tozier, who’s first response was just to adjust his glasses.

Richie was normal kid, definitely. Especially compared to Eddie K. But there was no way in hell that Richie Tozier would make Eddie feel more out of place.

Chapter Text

Eddie bleeds and flowers bloom, that’s new. Also oddly fitting for the other boy, matches his gentle demeanor. There’s a sort of macabre poetic feel around that new fact.

What do I say to him? Where do we go from here? It was then Richie thought to look over at his friend, and he realized he’d been staring too long. Eddie looked like a kicked puppy, fidgeting in place a sure sign of his overthinking.

“Well what’s on your mind spaghetti?”

“What’s on /your/ mind.” Eddie countered, parroting Richie not wanting to make himself seem even more of a freak.

“I think we outta uproot these before mommy dearest wakes up, unless you think she won’t notice.” They could talk more about this if they have time after they’ve dealt with the plants, it was already 7:30 Sonia would be up soon and she’d have enough to say about Richie’s rust bucket of a truck out front with her precious little Eddie’s bike sitting up in the bed. Sonia and Richie couldn’t stand each other. Richie just seemed to get more careless and vulgar with age and Sonia didn’t need him around corrupting her sweet innocent Eddie. She didn’t know Eddie at all and that was clear to Richie.

Eddie got the short straw in the physical health department, and he was different but he was also complicated. He didn’t need protecting he could hold his own, he was quick with a verbal jab to defend his friends or himself, he also was firm on his boundaries and honest. Eddie kept his head down sure but at the end of the day he wasn’t helpless, and he hated feeling helpless. Richie knew this, not that Eddie ever told him directly, he didn’t have to, Richie just treats him differently and as a result he’s who Eddie comes to for the majority of his problems.

“No you’re right...” Eddie’s voice trailed off, he worried what Richie was thinking of all this. He also now had mixed feelings on the way he was brought up, maybe his mom was just coping the only way she knew possible. “She might kill you if she knows you know.” He was laughing it was supposed to be lighthearted, but Richie didn’t laugh.

“No yeah you might be right.” Richie sighed, crouching down and inspecting the blooms, the thorns on the stems were impossibly sharp, and serrated, interesting; “I mean she's spent your entire life making sure you never bleed,” even more interesting, the roses were not like a rose bush how one would normally see roses growing, they were vine like close to the ground like a ground covering plant, weird; “I’m the last one to play devil's advocate in reference to your mother, she’s awful and not just in terms of hovering, but I can relate to the fear of losing ya Spaghetti.” Ok so these actually should be relatively easy to get out of the ground.

Thank god Richie was examining the plants otherwise he might’ve caught the pink tint to Eddie's cheeks. “I don’t even want to begin to unpack that, it’s too early and my brain is kind of clouded by more pressing matters.”

Richie popped up from the ground and grabbed Eddie’s shoulders meeting his eyes before patting his head with one hand. “Don’t gotta unpack a thing Eds, C’mon I got so much random shit in Christine.” He spun on his heels and gestured for Eddie to follow him as he walked back to the truck. That is if one could call it a truck, Eddie and Stan swore it was more rust than car, and its paint was peeling and pale pink with red splotches showing sun damage, yeah, she sure looked like a death trap, but that truck could run.

She couldn’t when Richie got her for his 16th birthday, he saved for almost 3 years mowing neighbors lawns and helping Mike and his Grandpa on the farm. He poured a lot of hard work into making her run well and safe, he spent the entirety of their sophomore year, the entire summer and most of the school year working on it, the losers only stopped taking the bus about four months before the school year was going to end, two of which already passed, only two months till their last summer; the summer before Senior year.

Christine although a rust bucket was a labor of love. Richie had even let Beverly name her, considering Bev herself helped a lot when it came to tracking down parts and helping Richie save up for her, she was also there the day he bought her. Helped him get a sweet deal and even helped him roll the thing back to his house.

Bill and Mike also lent a helping hand in building her, getting the battery and engine hooked up would’ve been impossible without Mike’s grandpa. Even Ben, Stan and Eddie helped. Truly everyone was there at some point, sometimes all at once, the group was tight, and Richie spent all his free time working on that truck. So summer was mostly just everyone hanging out in Richie’s garage, that was a good summer, a very entertaining one for Eddie especially.

Richie’s been leaner ever since he started working on people’s yards for some extra cash in middle school, he will never be built like a meat head, but Rich has definitely filled out some muscle since then, that’s for sure. Truly that was the best thing Richie could’ve done, now he knows his car inside and out and can work on her without needing to pay a mechanic, and he’s like some sort of toned nerd, it was infuriating. Eddie had a lot of good memories from last summer specifically; his favorites were the nights it was just him and Richie in the Tozier garage.

The day Richie confirmed her safety after multiple secret test drives, and troubleshooting was probably the best of their lives; he had the other losers thinking she wouldn’t be driving till the middle of their senior year. He picked up Eddie on a Saturday before the sun rose by climbing the tree to his window and knocking, they spent the first few hours of the day driving around the town before picking up Bev next and then the rest of the gang. Christine only had 6 seats, so the other four boys were always squished together in the back. Richie made sure the “passenger princesses” always got the front two seats. Anytime he referred to them as such Bev always smacked his arm, and Eddie blushed.

Despite how infuriating he was for multiple reasons across the board, Richie cared a lot, and he loved hard. He would do anything for his friends; it was one of Eddie’s favorite things about Richie also a starch reminder watching him dig around in his truck bed so early to find tools to help the current predicament. Eddie wondered if Richie had even slept last night, he had a real bad habit of sleeping till midday or not sleeping at all.

“Ha! Jackpot!” Richie triumphantly held up a bucket that had both a spade and some garden sheers inside it. “Remember that community garden Bev joined last summer with Stan and Mike? She stashed the tools back here since I’m the ride now, I didn’t find them all but these should do the trick just fine.” he hopped down from the bed of his truck bucket in hand, and stumbling forward a bit, even if he’d toned up a bit he’s still good olé awkward clumsy Richie.

Eddie nodded softly. “Thank you for this.” He meant it genuinely, he was at a loss for what to do, and frankly it kind of shocked Eddie that Richie immediately seemed to have a course of action. Though Eddie figured Richie’s main concern was always flying under the adults' radar, he had to learn to live like that for his survival.

“Anything for my favorite spaghetti. Always have your back.” Richie had no idea what he was doing, or what the plan was, or if he was even making the right call; but Eddie had come to /him/, not Bill, not Stan or Mike, he chose to show up on Richie’s porch to ask him for help and Richie would rather die than turn him away. When Sonia started trying to cut Eddie out of their little group in freshman year Richie realized that losing Eddie might be one of the things he feared most in the world. Eddie’s defiance and knack he’d developed for sticking up to his mother aided in Richie’s confusing feelings and budding crush on his best friend. Fuck Sonia. And not in the hot way.

“Stop with the stupid nicknames.” Eddie shoved Richie playfully, he sounded so annoyed, but he was blushing like he always did whenever Richie called him by one of his little namesakes he’d invented over the many years of friendship.

“There he is! I was beginning to worry that a Skinwalker was wearing you as a suite.” Richie ruffled Eddie’s hair and tucked the bucket and tools under the other arm. Eddie swatted at Richie’s hand and pretended to spit at him.

“Gross Richie I don’t want to think about that, why would you even say that.” Eddie sighed as the two made their way back to deal with Eddie’s little garden. “Why is the sky blue? Why do all the planets orbit the sun? How did gravity get its name? Why do I say half the shit I say? Because I’m fucking funny Eds. Gotta keep everyone on their toes.” Eddie rolled his eyes and forced out an exasperated groan.

“You’re actually painfully predictable.” Richie set down the tools and grasped his heart. “Ouch! Oh harsh Eds how you’ve wounded me so.” He held the back of one of his hands to his head, still holding his heart with the other. In an annoyingly Shakespearean and overly exaggerated pose. Eddie chuckled softly at the dramatic display, Richie while insufferable, always had a way to lighten the mood and get everyone laughing.

“Alright now not to sound like your mom but I'm going to ask you sit this one out. These thorns are insane and if they pierce your skin, I have a feeling this would end up being counterintuitive.” Richie knelt on the ground, immediately flinching from the thorns when he started to rearrange the vines and cut away what he could discarding it into the bucket. In fairness, he was grabbing the plant as if it didn’t have any thorns at all, they were crunched for time so being careful wasn’t the first thing on Richie’s mind. It usually wasn’t the first thing on his mind.

Eddie didn’t say anything, but it struck a weird nerve he never knew was there to hear that from Richie. Richie was right of course if Eddie got cut and just started to grow more flowers there would be no progress made; but Richie was always the one advocating for Eddie, and uprooting roses seemed so simple, they’ve done more dangerous activities just hanging out together. So, Eddie just stood there, feeling misplaced and useless while Richie fixed a problem he had created.

Richie could feel the tension seeping out of Eddie and he /hated/ it. The roses were shredding his hands and his forearms, but he was moving as quickly as possible. Racing the clock of Sonia’s sleep schedule but mostly determined to finish his task so he could pick apart Eddie’s brain, he needed to know what was rattling around up there, and he hated that he could feel the unease seeping out of Eddie.

“Hey Spaghetti do me a favor and,” Richie was trying to think of something anything, a task that would make Eddie feel like he was helping but would also keep him from sticking his hands into the barbed wire that was the roses he’d unintentionally sprouted. “Can you go get a first aid kit together? I’m going to need it.” He laughed trying his best not to make a wrong step.

Eddie focused in and stared at Richie’s arms. “Fuck that's intense. I’m sorry.” Eddie felt worse than helpless now, he felt like a burden Richie was on his knees in his backyard getting himself all cut up all because Eddie didn’t heed his mother's warnings, regardless of how stupid they seemed.

Fuck, wrong step. Now Eddie’s blaming himself for a decision Richie actively thought through. “Nah I don’t accept that. You’re worth it. Just patch me up when I'm done Doctor K, I’m helping you out and you’ll return the favor.”

A confident nod, and a red face. Good, that seemed to quiet the voices for now and making Eddie flustered was always a bonus for Richie. He never let himself think about it too hard though, Eddie is a bashful guy.

Eddie snuck his way back into his house, opting to stock up with the supplies from the downstairs bathroom, not wanting to risk the trek past his mother's room. He saw a lot of red when he’d looked at Richie’s arms, so he gathered Neosporin, isopropyl alcohol, gauze, some large sterile cotton pads for the alcohol, and adhesive wraps. That should really be all he needed, the wounds were from plants so Band-Aids wouldn’t be smart as they’d lock in all that bacteria from outside. Proud of his haul he gathered everything up in his arms and scurried back outside to rejoin Richie.

Holy fuck that was harder than expected. The plants were uprooted but now Richie had to cover up the deep hole they’d left. The roots were so much deeper than you would think physically possible, thank god Richie had some muscle definition now or they’d have been royally fucked. He was out of breath by the time Eddie rejoined him, and overly cut up for just a fight with rose vines? They weren't bushes.

“Alright before you patch me up we gotta run to somewhere I can steal grass.”

“I can help with this part, plus there’s no way we have time to argue but I’m not letting you go for a stroll with your arms looking like that. Just go over on the side of the house, mom never goes out there. Come on.” Eddie led the way, and Richie used the spade to carve some small squares out of the ground.

Eddie took the spade from Richie and stabbed the squares they’d placed over the fresh dirt to blend them into the ground. He didn’t allow Richie to do anything aside from cut them the squares out of the ground, he didn't want those cuts getting even more dirty and gross, especially considering Eddie could see at least two splinters he’d have to pull out of the tall idiot's arms. Idiot. Stupid. Handsome. Dumb. Caring. Abrasive. Gentle-hearted. Vulgar. Selfless. Kind. Loving. Smooth brained Dumbass.

Richie picked up the bucket of chopped and pulled roses. “Right let’s get rid of this and get your bike out of Christine. Everything else can be explained away.” Damn, Richie was good at this. Eddie didn’t like that. Richie /had/ to be good at this; Eddie didn’t necessarily try to hide anything from Sonia. Sonia didn’t do much to stop him aside from mental warfare, and Eddie could usually get the upper hand on her manipulation and her gaslighting, all the lying and mental anguish, all the guilt tripping and being the only adult in the house at a child's age. Sonia was predictable, mentally abusive but predictable, and Eddie would take his mother over Richie’s any day.

Richie made haste, carrying everything quickly back to his beloved truck and pretending the cool air didn’t burn every single gash on his arms like someone were poking the fresh wounds with needles. Eddie followed Richie to his car carrying all the first aid equipment.

“Richie come on don’t make them worse.” Eddie kept his voice hushed, it was 8:30 now and his mom would be waking up soon. Richie was already in the back of the truck bed, where he had deposited the bucket of flowers, grabbing Eddie's bike and lifting it over his head in the worst display of masculinity Eddie had ever witnessed. He fake gagged.

Richie laughed placing the bike down on the ground and jumping out next to it. “Come on Spaghetti I know you love me and my new gun show.”

Fuck you Richie Tozier. Eddie could feel how red his face was. “Hardly. You’re insufferable.” Eddie crossed his arms over his chest and made a disgusted face at his friend.

Richie started walking Eddie's bike up to his garage where it belongs. “Yeah, yeah yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself. Your red face isn’t fooling me.”

Eddie threw the Neosporin at Richie's back. Deadshot exactly where he’d been aiming, right between his shoulder blades.

“Domestic violence Eddie. What will the courts think.” Richie tsked at him, not even turning around, he stuck the bike in the garage then met Eddie back by Christine, picking up the Neosporin on the way back.

“You ready to fix this?” Richie stuck his arms out grinning like an idiot. “Wow that’s some gross Deja vu.”

“Not funny Richie.” Eddie’s voice trailed off deep in thought about middle school, and just how hard life had been on Richie, on all of them actually. It was hard to watch each other struggle, but at least they did it together. Eddie didn’t like thinking about that time especially the state Richie had been in, it was nice to see life back in his eyes.

Richie just shrugged. “I thought it was funny. It’s at my expense you can laugh.” Richie didn’t really make jokes like that, he never knew what kind of response to expect, Bev would’ve laughed. Eddie just had a far off look on his face and shook his head in response. Richie decided to kill his next joke he had loaded up.

“I won’t laugh at that.” The air between them was thick and awkward for a short beat. Richie was the first to speak up.

“Let’s just get me patched up then yeah?”

“So I don’t know if you’ve noticed you big doof, but you’ve got some shit stuck under your skin.” Eddie explained grabbing one of Richie's arms and pointing out one of the larger splinters. Eddie felt sick this was technically his fault after all, why was this so bad? It’s not like he was going to need stitches or anything, but it looked like some sort of bob cat got ahold of him. “I need to run back inside and grab tweezers.”

Oh, Richie noticed all right, his arms and hands burned and itched. They were hot and he could feel the foreign objects sticking under his skin. He didn’t want Eddie to know just how awful it hurt; he could already tell that the other felt bad enough. He could read it on his face the way he was looking back at him, and the way he hadn’t stopped fidgeting. Getting ahead of Eddie’s over thinking was a hard race to win. Richie was pretty good at it usually, and he took pride in that, today was a special case. “No need Bev keeps a pair in the glove compartment.”

“Richie I'm not using tweezers Bev uses on her eyebrows for open wounds. That’s so unsanitary.”

“We’ve used them to pull splinters before. Plus I've got a lighter, and you have alcohol. We can sterilize them if it makes you feel better.”

Eddie let out an exasperated sigh. “Oh my god of course you have.” he shook his head and looked down at the pharmacy he was carrying. Frankly Eddie didn’t want to go back inside, his mom would be up any minute. He chewed on his lip contemplatively for a few beats before giving in. “Alright fine. But you /have/ to listen to the upkeep instructions this time.”

Richie swung the driver door open. “Deal.” He nodded before sliding across the bench seat all the way to the passenger side, patting the middle seat next to him. “Pop on in Doctor K, scoot in as close as you want.” Richie winked at him.

Blushing, again. “Shut up Richie.” He listened anyway, closing the door behind him, Richie was already heating up the tweezers with a lighter flame. Eddie set all his supplies down next to him in the driver seat, he couldn’t find the Neosporin for a split second, before realizing Richie had set it down on his leg to heat up the tweezers. Eddie grabbed the ointment off Richie's thigh.

“Kind of forward there, at least take me out first.” Richie teased grinning over at Eddie and waiting for the red tweezers to cool down a bit.

“Don’t flatter yourself, I just needed the ointment.” Eddie sighed taking the tweezers from Richie, once they were still warm to the touch but not enough to burn.

“You keep telling yourself that I know you can’t resist my rugged charm.” That made Eddie laugh out loud.

“God you’re an idiot.” Eddie was wiping the tweezers down with the alcohol.

“You love me.” Eddie just hummed in response before grabbing Richie's arm and pulling one of the larger thorns out, careful not to break any of it, but causing Richie to draw in a sharp and shocked breath in response. “Damn Eddie you know I like it rough but warn a man.” His teeth were gritted. Eddie felt like maybe that had been a bit too mean.

“That’s what you get for being insufferable all morning.” Eddie mumbled in response, even though he truly did feel bad for hurting Richie, he was fixing him up yes, but he was the reason Richie needed doctoring in the first place. That only ever happened on one other occasion, when Richie got into a fight for him sophomore year, Richie used his suspension to work on his car more. Eddie begged him never to do something like that on his behalf again, Richie promised and so far he kept up his end.

Richie smiled wide and genuine. Eddie had been acting off all morning; he seemed to be slowly falling back into their usual back and forth. “That's it, tell me how it is. I love your sassy mouth.”

Eddie turned crimson. Somehow Richie had always been able to read him like an open book, Eddie had mixed feelings about it, though it did make their general bond and connection easier. Eddie didn’t realize that he had frozen in his tracks, deep in thought about Richie and how lucky he was, to have someone like him in his life.

Everything they’d been through, all the confusing glances and random situations. When Richie’s dad died right before sixth grade started, when Eddie started seeing his mother for the monster she was, when Richie's mom started drinking and getting physical, when Richie stopped living and started surviving as a result picking up some very unhealthy habits and coping mechanisms.

“Hey Eddie?”

“Doctor Spaghetti-head where’d you go?” That got Eddie’s attention, but he didn’t have the energy to tell Richie off for the dumbass name. Shocking both he threw himself on Richie, rapping his arms around his shoulders and instantly regretting it, but now scared to let go and look at Richie’s face.

“Woah, what's gotten into you.” It was more of a statement than a question, more worried than celebratory, even though a rare hug from Eddie filled Richie with so many different emotions each time. Under different circumstances, he would be cheering.

There have been times he relied on a hug exactly like this to hold all his shattered pieces together, he quickly held Eddie close to him. Not even thinking about the potential of staining his shirt. Worried that Eddie might take his comment the wrong way and pull away. He didn’t even care about irritating the cuts and splinters in his arms, Eddie was worth it, any small moment like this meant the world to him.

“Thank you. Thank you for coming, and listening. Thank you for not running or treating me like a freak. You believed me, which is insane. You’re insane. You immediately solved my problem at your own expense I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Word vomit, Eddie practically threw up all his emotions onto him. Richie didn’t mind though, he couldn’t help but smile. There was a time when they were younger when all those ‘thank yous’ would’ve been replaced by ‘sorrys’. Richie knew Eddie still felt like burden from time to time, but he was making progress unapologetically taking up space in this world, exactly as he should.

“Woah hey dude. We are freaks we’re all freaks. That will never change, this is an interesting development but, I’d never...” He trailed off. Richie was trying to be careful with his words here; this was a sensitive time. Don’t fuck it up. “You’re still Eddie. You get me better than anyone, and I get you. That’s how it’s always been and that’s how it’ll always be alright?” Eddie finally took a breath. Loosening his grip but Richie wasn’t ready to let go yet. “You don’t have to move yet I’m comfortable.”

“Richie your arms.”

“I’ve got you, we both need this I think just let me-” He cut himself off with a sigh, leaning into the cushioned seat and tightening his hold on Eddie, ignoring the insistent burn once again. “I got you, this is nice.” It had been a long time since they’d woken up at a sleepover tangled together and pretended to stay asleep, or since Richie had gotten so high he asked Eddie to lay on top of him to ‘keep his soul stuck in his body’.

“Ye-yeah o-ok.” Eddie relaxed and buried his face into Richie’s shoulder. This was familiar, like all the other random moments like this they don’t speak about. Eddie tended to store these memories in his mind to pick apart later, and Richie pretended they never happened to save himself the heartache.

Only a few more moments passed, couldn’t have been longer than 30 seconds, maybe even a full minute. Though it felt like an eternity before Eddie finally spoke up. “My moms going to wake up eventually.”

Richie groaned, giving one final squeeze before tossing his head back dramatically and folding his arms behind his head. Eddie chuckled softly at him, always a performance, and crawled off his lap.

Richie whistled at him. “Could get used to that.”

“Excuse me? Used to what?” Eddie snapped his head back at Richie. Squinting his eyes at him.

“You crawling off my lap like that.” Richie coughed immediately as a result of Eddie open palm smacking him on his chest. “Hot.” Richie wheezed which made them both burst into laughter.

“Don’t hate me but,” Richie contorted his face into an awkward forced smile. “You chose the wrong day to wear white.”

Eddie’s face went as white as his shirt; he started panicking immediately. His mom was going to have his head; worse she would ask questions about where the blood came from. His ears started ringing just before Richie’s voice cut through the static. Had he been hyperventilating? “Hey dude, we can just switch shirts.” Richie offered shrugging. His voice had been gentle, bending down only enough so they could see each other's faces. Fuck Sonia. No kid should ever have that reaction to their parents seeing any amount of blood on them. Eddie deserved to feel safe in his home, the evil witch.

Sharing clothes wasn’t new by a long shot, but the offer still had Eddie blushing, hopefully that wasn’t noticeable. He didn’t know what was wrong with him this morning, actually he knew exactly what was wrong his mind was racing about so many different topics, but regardless he needed to get a grip.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea. Thank you, Richie.” He then grimaced at the shirt he noticed Richie wearing. All of Richie’s sleep shirts were some of the most embarrassing pieces of clothing Eddie had ever witnessed. This specifically, was a troll face shirt, but the shirt itself was black and the troll face was white. Honestly it looked like some sort of eldritch horror.

“Hey listen man. Don’t disrespect my swag alright?” Richie noted Eddie’s obvious distaste of his shirt. Bringing his arms back down and placing them in front of Eddie who immediately got to work picking out everything, starting with the bigger splinters.

“Richie. Stop talking.”

“As you wish.” Those stupid three words always made Eddie blush. Richie had adopted the habit after the whole group had caved to watch ‘the princess bride’ with Ben. It made Eddie want to smack him; Richie was a no-good flirt.

Eddie worked mostly in silence aside from Richie’s breathing fluctuating based on the level of pain. After removing at least seven splinters of various sizes, only two of which in his arms, the other five were in the palms of his hands, Eddie started pouring some rubbing alcohol onto a cotton pad. Ouch.

Richie drew in a sharp breath once he smelled the alcohol in the air, he almost wished there had been more splinters for Eddie to focus on. “Try not to enjoy this part too much.”

“No promises Richie two-inchie.” Before Richie had time to respond or even process the nickname Eddie placed the wet pad to one of the deeper cuts that had a significant amount of dirt in it, making sure to clean out all the grime.

Richie jumped in his seat and let out a pained groan, well it was more like a mix between a growl and a groan. Consecutively smacking first, the dashboard and then his forehead a few times each.

“You couldn’t have tried to keep the dirt out of these?” Eddie bit back the profuse apologies threatening to spill out of his mouth. He felt awful, guilty. Unfortunately, he knew Richie and he wouldn’t allow that, always there to help any of his friends even at his own expense.

“I was rushing.” Richie forced out of gritted teeth as Eddie moved onto the next dirtied cut, now Eddie felt even worse.

“Just let me get all the dirt out. I’ll be done before you know it.” That was a lie, this part felt like it lasted forever, especially when Eddie got to his hands. After both arms had been cleaned up Richie had sweat beading on his forehead, he felt dramatic but truly his arms were covered. Too many wounds to count, none deep enough for stitches but all deeper than anyone would expect from simple gardening or yard work, Richie was used to the general cuts and scrapes from yard work. It wasn’t just simple gardening or yard work though. Richie decided to stop thinking about it, like he tended to do with most things.

“I hated that.”

“I know and you’re also going to hate this, put your arms out the window.” Richie gave Eddie the biggest saddest puppy eyes he could muster while turning the crank to roll down Christine’s window. Richie knew what was next. Eddie had fixed him up too many times to count, reluctantly he stuck both his arms out the window.

Eddie awkwardly crawled on top of him to dump a decent amount of alcohol over his arms. This time he did say I’m sorry under his breath in response to Richie's full-bodied flinch in his seated position. Richie didn’t hear him; he was too busy feeling like an idiot and wishing his pain tolerance was higher. This was worse than the stick and pokes he and Bev started giving each other the summer before sophomore year, Eddie almost killed him when he told him they gave each other tattoos in the bed of the filthy new truck they’d bought, the same night they rolled her home.

Eddie backed away from Richie and gently tugged his shoulder. Richie brought his arms back into the truck holding them out for Eddie, his eyes were watering, just from the sheer intensity and sting from the alcohol.

Eddie entertained the idea of running his hand through Richie’s hair, he didn’t. Instead, he dug through Richie’s glove compartment and grabbed the bottle of sanitizer Richie kept in here. Mostly for Eddie.

After sanitizing his hands, he gently messaged the antibiotic ointment into Richie’s arms, starting with any abrasions above his elbow and working his way down to his hands. Richie relaxed back into the bench seat, letting out a rather large sigh of relief. Eddie smiled to himself; he always tried to make this part soothing. He was pretty good at it.

Once he was satisfied with the amount of ointment applied, he started to unpack the gauze from their sterile bags and tear the pads apart, thinning them out, he wanted these to be as breathable as possible for the healing process. Working quickly and diligently Eddie applied each pad, careful not to place any upside down on the fuzzier side to Richie’s skin. That would be a nightmare.

He took care while wrapping Richie’s forearms in the adhesive wrap, not too tight not too lose. The bandaging went all the way from Richie’s elbows to his fingers on both arms. It’s not that his fingers weren’t shredded up, they were, it was awful. Eddie just knew Richie well enough; it was better not to wrap his fingers and to just keep a closer eye on the wounds there.

Richie’s arms were sore, he decided not to mention it. He also made the decision not to think about how much driving home was going to hurt. “You should change the bandages tonight.” Richie laughed out loud in response to the outlandish suggestion.

“You think I can do this by myself, you flatter me.” Eddie looked at Richie’s bandaged arms chewing on his lip contemplatively again. Richie was right, anyone would struggle to wrap both of their forearms to completion. Not to mention the fact that Richie has always relied on Eddie to fix him up and never listened to the aftercare instructions.

“Ok then, I’ll come over later and stay the night since it’s Saturday, but you’re going to have to find a way to get to me Sunday night.”

“That should be easy enough, been a few months since I crawled through your window. I was starting to miss it.” Richie already had a perfect plan; he usually was quick on his feet when Eddie was involved.

‘Yeah. Me too.’ If only he could say it out loud. Instead, Eddie just smacked Richie’s shoulder and started gathering his things. Completely taken aback when Richie started pulling his shirt off. “Woah! Richie what the hell are you-” Richie was holding his shirt out to Eddie looking more confused than he’d seen him all morning.

“We’re switching remember?”

“Oh right.” Eddie’s face burned, that was embarrassing.

“Damn Eddie I have more class than to just immediately strip. Have faith in me. Where’s the foreplay?”

Eddie whacked Richie again, three more times in the same shoulder. “You. Are. So. Nasty.” He spoke between hits, then pulling Richie’s shirt on and passing him the bloodstained one he had been wearing.

“How is it that you’re the one bleeding but I’m the one with the most blood on me.”

“You jumped into my arms remember?” Eddie could hear the smirk, and the smug tone seeping from Richie's voice.

“That is not what happened! I- uh- You could’ve let go! That was a rhetorical question!”

“And you could’ve argued. I would’ve let go then.” Eddie’s face was redder than Richie had ever seen; to be fair, they never talked about those small secret moments between them.

“Richie shut up!” Richie raised his hands in surrender and Eddie hurried out of the truck with his belongings. Eddie then turned to the truck before shutting the door. “Let’s refrain from texting about this, my mom still looks through my phone.”

“I know the drill Eds, don’t worry. That took longer than expected so we can talk about it later when you come over.” It was already 9:30, Sonia woke up anywhere between now and ten.

Eddie nodded closing the door as Richie scooted into the drivers side, then scurrying up the driveway in the stupid troll face shirt that felt like it swallowed him. Eddie waved over his shoulder, knowing Richie wouldn’t drive off before he got inside, then disappeared into his mother's house.

Richie sat out front waiting a couple of seconds before starting his truck, thinking hard about how that morning had played out. It was definitely interesting to say the least. He started his truck not too long after Eddie had gone inside. He didn’t want to still be there when Sonia woke. He didn’t know that she was already awake making her way to her sons room, by the time Eddie got back inside