Chapter Text

Richie was at the kissing bridge, leaning over the edge. He was standing far from what he had carved into the bridge. It was always something he wanted to avoid remembering for no particular reason. Maybe it was just the incident with Bowers. Who fucking knows? That clown or something, probably. Richie looked at everything then picked his bike back off the ground, getting on and heading to the clubhouse.

Richie haphazardly let go of his bike once he got off, cringing when he realised it hit a tree and then the ground. He'll check for scratches or dents later. He didn't care much, but it was a nice bike! Richie climbed down into the clubhouse, keeping the hatch open. Not like anyone would be showing up.

Richie Tozier was 18 now, and quite friendless. The first to go was Eddie. His mother was terrified after seeing the state of him, thrown up on and very messed up. Beverly left not a month later to live with her aunt. Ben left a year after. He got accepted into an out of state high school that had a nice architect program that would help with college. And then there was Bill. Bill was.. Well, how do I say this.

Bill was missing. He had gone missing half a year after Ben left. It left Rich, Stan and Mike in shambles. Mostly Stan, but Mike and Richie understood and helped. They had killed It, so obviously it wasn't what caused the disappearance of their beloved friend.. Probably. Hopefully.

Bill, the last couple weeks before going missing, was constantly going on about something. It was either something about the 7, The Turtle and all that macroverse shit, Georgie, or It. Bill's parents had always neglected him since Georgie. Maybe it was better off he at least didn't have to deal with that. Richie just hoped Bill was somewhere good. Even if he was dead.. It would be better. Richie shuddered at that thought.

So. Eddie, Bev, Ben and Bill. That left Richie, Stan and Mike. Stan didn't leave yet only because his parents didn't want him to switch high schools. Mike never had an intention of leaving before he was ready to, whenever that was. Richie and the two remaining Losers still talk, just not as much. It was different, difficult. Too difficult for Richie.

He grabbed a comic, laying on the hammock. He tried to ignore everything, everyone. He just went on living the best he could. Which wasn't good. But that didn't matter. Probably.

It wasn't good and probably didn't matter because it was only, like, a few cuts here and there.

Or enough to make his entire arm bleed out. He winces at the memory, glancing at his forearm. There were scars up and down. They had taken weeks to only scar. Richie can't help but remember what happened.

Richie was sobbing. He had finally realised that soon enough he would be all alone. He would just be the trashmouth Tozier kid everyone knew him as. He half fell half got off his bed, making his way to his bathroom. He didn't know what he was doing or what he was gonna do but he didn't care enough to think about it. He silently closed the door, locking it as well. Then he started searching the drawers. Richie eventually found what he was apparently looking for. A razor blade. He felt himself smile despite the sobs that were escaping him. Richie sat himself in the bath tub on his knees, shaking and sobbing and laughing as he made deep cuts over his left arm. When he did the right arm, he almost dropped the razor blade multiple times from how much blood was on his left hand. He continued nonetheless, until he felt that both arms were done. He was satisfied. He was happy. Wait, no, he was mad. What if Eddie saw this? Would Eddie then finally realise what he did by leaving Richie, not calling or even sending fucking letters? Richie's thoughts clouded with how the other Loser's would react to this sight. They would finally understand. He kept telling himself this until he realised he had grabbed his head with his hands, pulling his knees up to sit like that. He was laughing a lot, very loud at that. He threw his glasses off, hearing frantic footsteps in the hall. There was banging on the door and the doorknob was rattling. Richie heard his parents, they were yelling at him to open the door. Not yelling at him. Yelling for him, to open the door. For once they weren't yelling at him. Richie had good parents, but his good parents had a bad kid.

Richie couldn't get up. He didn't know if he didn't want to or he just could not get up. His parents voices grew faint. Richie slowly leaned back in the bathtub, stretching his long legs as far as they would go in the tub. He stared at the ceiling and kept sobbing. Richie hugged himself, the blood soaking through his already blood-stained shirt. Wentworth Tozier soon unlocked the door from the outside, him and Maggie rushing in. Wentworth gently but quickly pulled Richie out of the bathtub, laying him on his lap. Richie had calmed a bit, which was odd. He had a sort of peace in his mind and body. Richie assumed this was the feeling of arriving death, perhaps, or he was just too dizzy from blood loss. Richie felt himself start to drift away. Wentworth and Maggie were saying things to Richie and to each other. Maggie left to call 911 while Wentworth whispered things to Richie in an attempt to comfort him. Richie, of course, was too far gone to even hear Wentworth anymore. Richie closed his eyes and let himself fall into darkness. A long, warm, comforting darkness.

The next moment he woke was in a hospital room with too much white everywhere. Way too much. Richie only stared at the ceiling, answering no questions or responding in any way. He had failed. That was the worst feeling of all. Knowing he had attempted suicide but dumb enough he failed that too. He would always be Richie Trashmouth Tozier. Just a Trashmouth. There was nothing more to him. His mother and father asked what was wrong when he started crying. Well, he wasn't necessarily crying. He had tears in his eyes, pouring down his face, but his expression hadnt changed. Richie looked at his parents and did what he was best at. He smiled at them then went back to staring at the ceiling. He went to sleep a few hours later, having quiet dreams. One was him and Eddie napping in the hammock while the other Loser's quietly talked. Another was Richie and Ben in the library. Richie got kicked out of that library and that dream. He had a very familiar dream with each of his friends. Beverly's was his favourite. They were sitting in a tree, smoking. That was all there was. It was a quiet, comforting moment that both found relaxing.

Richie ripped himself from the memories, throwing the comic on the ground. He held back tears as he sat up, covering his face with his hands, moving his glasses off. He heard someone walking outside. Assuming it was Mike or Stan, Richie wipes his face and put his glasses on. He picked the comic back up, moving to put it away.

"Rich? You down here?" Stan's voice came through to Richie and he begged himself not to cry.

"Yeah, what's up Stan the Man? Need something from the trashmouth Tozier?" Richie made his voice sound as normal as possible, a teasing tone.

"Well, yeah, but I also just wanted to see you. It's like 7pm and everyone is getting a bit worrie-" "What 'everyone', Stanley? You and three other people? Sorry, but I don't think everyone is the right term. They have to worry about me. They're my family and friends. No one else gives two shits for Richie Trashmouth Tozier, so don't be obliged to care just because they don't." Richie kept his voice monotone, waiting for any sort of fucking reaction from Stan.

"Richie.. I care about you because I want to. I'm not fucking obliged to.. You're one of the only Losers left, and I don't want to lose anyone else. I don't want to almost lose you again, Rich. You know that.." Stan's voice was quiet, and Richie heard the sorrow behind it. Richie immediately regretted what he said, wishing he could disappear.

"Yeah, I know.. I'm sorry, Stan.. I really am," Richie swallowed. He stood up, needing to duck down in the clubhouse already. He wasn't even 18 yet, but here he was standing at 6'3. Bill was about 6 ft when he went missing. Both of them had gotten crazy growth spurts at the same time. Richie didn't know how tall the others had grown by now. Stan and Mike had stopped growing at about 5'7. Eddie and Beverly probably didn't get too tall. Richie wasn't sure about those two or Ben.

"Let's just get you home, Richie.. Your parents are worried," Stan climbed out of the clubhouse, waiting for Richie. Stan had neatly parked his bike next to where Richie's was dropped. Richie picked his bike up, walking it out of the woods with Stan. Once they got to the sidewalk they started riding their bikes back home, having no conversation. Richie made a few jokes here and there, but otherwise it was a comfortable silence.

It was April and warm again. Richie liked spring and fall most. It got too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Spring and fall were perfect, especially for bike rides. It was Friday as well which is better.

Stan and Richie put their bikes in the garage, which confused Richie.

"Shouldn't you be heading home, Stanuel?" Stan cringed at the nickname, sighing.

"Your parents invited me and Mike over for dinner. Said since it's an important day, we should.. And it is an important day," Stan explained while walking into the house, taking his shoes off.

"What? Wait, what are you guys implying? I- What's so important? And why did you explain it in that tone?...Are-Are one of you fucking moving??" Richie felt his heartbeat quicken, followed by his breathing, his hands going to fists.

"No, Richie! No! Never. Not without you. You know that. It's just.... You should see her for yourself," Stan held Richie's hand and took him to the table.

Remember her? Yeah. Look at her now. Rather beautiful. Hair still short, the colour of a raging fire. Her great fashion sense, yet now it was nostalgic. A striped red and black shirt with overalls. She was more mature, of course. Not much taller. Remember? You used to be short.

Richie heard himself gasp, staring at who was sitting there. His parents were in the kitchen. It was just them. So he took that chance.

Richie didn't listen to what she had to say, walking around the table. Remember? He grabbed her collar, pulling her out of her seat. Beverly grabbed Richie's wrist, looking him in the eyes. Richie fucking towered over this poor girl. She had barely grown, she was only about 5'3, making Richie a foot taller.

"Richie, please, please, let me explain, Rich.." Beverly had tears in her eyes. She was distraught, he assumed, seeing him so angry to see her again. She was also probably sad or maybe very happy to see him.

"You have 10 seconds before I kick you out of my fucking house, Beverly," Richie was angry. He couldn't help but let that control him.

"Richie, please, I've been having nightmares. Rich, I didn't want to leave. Please, I've seen you die, and Stan and Mike and Eddie and Bill and B-..Ben. Richie, I couldn't handle it. A few months ago I had this horrible, terrible feeling. As if I wanted to kill myself. I don't know where it came from. I assumed something wasn't right but the moment I saw Stan and Mike, I realised what had happened. I knew something was wrong, and it was you, Richie, I had to come back. I needed to see at least one of us, Rich, please.. I'm sorry.." Beverly sniffed, moving her hand to gently remove Richie's hand from her collar. She cupped the side of Richie's face with her other hand, looking at him with those emerald eyes he hadn't seen in years. Remember those eyes. He felt and heard his breath start to come out all cut off and shaky. For a moment they stood like that.

He suddenly picked Beverly up to hug her so there wouldn't be strain. Richie was strong enough to keep her lifted up. He sobbed into Beverly's neck, his glasses doing nothing to help the situation. Beverly let herself cry as well. She didn't know how or why Richie had gotten to this state. He was somewhat strong, yes, but he looked pretty pale and still as skinny. But what did she expect? Something like her uncle, who went to the gym daily? She was mostly worried how upset Richie was. How bad his mental health had gotten. She fucking forgot almost everything about Derry, only remembering... deadlights, or something.. And a bunch of boys who loved her more than anyone else.

"Bevvie.. I missed you... E-Eds, he-he left, then you and then Ben and-..and then B-Bill.. Bill, he......"

"Shhh.. I know, Richie.. I know what happened.. It's okay... You don't have to explain.. I'm sorry, honey. I didn't want to leave..." Beverly cried more at the reminder that Bill had gone missing, but she didn't let it show in her voice.

Richie and Beverly stayed like that until Richie's arms started to shake. So he set Beverly down, hesitant to let her go fully. She held onto his hand, wiping his tears away with her other. Stan smiled at the sight. He and Mike had a similar reaction, just more positive emotion. There was a lot of hugging though, that was the similar thing.

"Bev?" Richie asked, squeezing her hand for a moment.

"Yeah, Rich?" Bev looked back into Richie's eyes.

Richie stayed silent for a few moments, trying to think of the words.

"I fucked your dad-" Beverly slapped Richie on the arm but laughed nonetheless, even Stan laughed for a moment.

"I always knew you were gay, Richie," Beverly smiled at him.

"Wait- No- That's- No, Beverly, I-I'm not gay, I just- I didn't want to disrespect your mother because she died and stuff and your dad was an asshole so I thought it'd be funny, maybe, I don't know- who said I was gay?" Richie smiled nervously, glancing between Beverly and Stan, which made matters worse.

"Uhh.. I have to disagree," Beverly looked out the window, confused. "Hey.. Is that Eddie?"

Richie whipped around to look through the window, met with nothing but his own reflection and his backyard. His face got hot as Beverly tried to cover her laugh. He turned back, crossing his arms and glaring down at Beverly.

"So not funny, Beverly," that caused her and Stan to burst out in laughter. "Horrible. You're a horrible person," Richie couldn't help but smile. He had discovered that being gay wasn't just liking the same gender. He liked both, that was that. It wasn't special or anything. Not for him anyway, it was just part of him.

They soon all had dinner, afterwards going to Richie's room. Mike had to go home but Stan was allowed to stay longer, and obviously Beverly would be staying until things were situated. They had a guest room so it was all worked out. They had a few drinks in Richie's room. Not a lot, just to ease the emotions and awkward conversations they may have. Richie was leaning against his bed, sitting on the floor. After crying for who knows how long and then eating a lot of food and then drinking, he was already half asleep.

He bid a groggy goodbye to Stan when he left. He and Beverly sat in a comfortable silence. The dream he had flashed through his mind, making him lift his head up and look around. It was as if they were sitting in that tree, smoking. Silent. Comfortable. He snapped out of the memory when Beverly leaned against Richie, offering him a cigarette. He took it, being too tired to grab his lighter.

He ended up being just inches from Beverly, using her cigarette to light his. He was focused on lighting the cigarette while Beverly waited for him to be done. When Richie realised how close he had gotten without even asking, he just looked at Beverly and smiled. When she smiled back he went back to leaning on the bed, only difference now being he was smoking.

"Eddie would hate this if he was here," Beverly said, her voice quiet and calm to match the mood.

"I can still hear him going on about lung cancer. I'm sure wherever the fuck he is he's sensing two people smoking and wants to yell at them about lung cancer and how it's addictive. I miss that little shit," Richie admitted.

"I missed all of you. I had all these nightmares of a bunch of men dying, I had no idea who they were til a week ago.." Beverly sighed, moving some hair out of her face.

"Do you want to sleep with me tonight?" he said, nonchalantly.

"Richie, that was so inappropriate," Beverly laughed.

"Wha- No! Beverly, I meant so neither of us are alone! You've been gone for years, and.. I missed you, all of you, more than you could imagine. I thought it would just be nice, but if you're uncomfortable with it, that's okay," Richie couldn't help but smile, remembering all the sleepovers he had with the other Loser's.

"Oh. Of course, then, Rich. That sounds much better than sleeping alone.. I always hated doing that in Derry, but obviously my... My dad didn't help.."

"Yeah. Just be warned I sleep in my boxers and a shirt, that's it. It's too fucking hot here to not-" Richie laughed a bit, Beverly just looked at him with a huge smile on her face.

"Same, dude, let's go!" Beverly high-fived Richie while they laughed.

Once finished smoking, the two started getting ready for bed. Normally they'd stay up late, but it had been too long of a night for that.

Richie was shaking. He hadn't smoked all day and almost wanted to smoke more but knew he shouldn't. He fumbled with the damn belt he earlier decided would be a good idea to wear. He paused as Beverly walked to him, already done changing. She gently grabbed Richie's hands to move them, undoing the belt for him. He felt his face get hot as he stared at what Beverly was doing. She was always like this, actually, she had always been like this around any of the Losers.

"I-Um-... Thank y-you-" Richie stuttered while Beverly dropped the belt onto the ground and looked up at him.

"Do you want me to do the rest?" Beverly smiled. Richie tensed up every muscle in his body to keep himself from shivering at Beverly's tease.

"I- No.. No- I-I'm fine..." Richie's voice faltered out and also happened to squeak in the same sentence.

Beverly laughed and got in bed, gesturing for Richie to follow. He just smiled and shook his head, taking his pants off. His glasses followed, being placed on his desk. He got in next to Beverly, reaching to turn the lamp off.

"I missed teasing you guys so much. I missed you," Beverly whispered. Richie smiled, humming in response. He turned onto his back. Beverly turned on her side, somewhat on her stomach. She stretched out and let her arm rest on Richie's chest, shuffling her way over to hug Richie from the side. Richie smiled at the extra warmth(even though he was quite frankly warm enough), feeling Beverly's leg bend and rest between Richie's legs. Not in a weird way, obviously. Richie could almost hear her playful smile, knowing that Richie didn't care one bit that she might be a bit of a bed hog. Richie closed his eyes and hoped he could fall asleep.

Unlucky for him, someone somewhere else was having one hell of a breakdown. Beverly and Richie both felt terrible.

Both were clueless on who or where.

Chapter Text

Eddie Kaspbrak was never one to listen to Mozart. Or Beethoven. Or any classical music. He hated it, actually. It bored the living shit out of him, but of course it's all his mother would allow him to listen to. He's no longer given electronics and the only source of news he can get is from his new friends at high school. His mother controls every part of his life. He was so fucking tired of it.

Eddie stopped the music. He knew damn well he had somewhere to be, people to see, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember who was making him feel this way. He felt empty, incomplete. What was it? Eddie sighed and very quietly walked over to open his door. He poked his head out and listened. The tv was off and his mother's room door was closed. She was asleep, just on cue. Eddie shut his door again, going to his window. He opened it, removing the net as he had done many times before. He slid down the roof, stopping himself by putting his feet on a branch then climbing onto it. He walked to the bigger part of the branch, climbing down the other branches. Eddie smiled once he reached the ground, walking around the backyard fence and away from the house. The school he went to had some trees near it and his school was only a 10 minute walk. It had a creek and some kids had built a very complex treehouse some time ago. Eddie spent a lot of time there. He couldn't stand that damn house.

Eddie stopped in front of the creek. There was a makeshift but stable bridge, which was really just part of a fence that had been taken down a while back. It had support beams, but otherwise it was quite sad. Eddie stared at the water. It was at least 5 feet across. Last he had checked it was only 2 feet deep. It depends on how much rain there's been and if there's something blocking the water or not. Eddie decided to take the bridge, walking on it quickly. He had gotten over many of his fears, but not all of them. Definitely not all of them.

Eddie got to the ladder of the treehouse, ready to climb it. He heard a twig snap or maybe leaves crunching. Maybe both. Eddie turned around, stumbling and falling backwards onto the ground. There was a tall figure at the other side of the creek, holding a balloon. The balloon popped and Eddie winced, closing his eyes tight. He gasped for breath, opening his eyes to stare ahead of him. It wasn't there anymore. So why did he feel as if he had fallen onto wood? Why did he feel as if he had seen that before? He must be more tired than he thought. Eddie took a moment to gather himself, standing back up. If there was some weird serial killer, he would know. There was a radio in the treehouse and he often listens in for news and reports. Eddie climbed up the ladder, plopping down onto a bean bag. He grabbed the radio and tuned into a random station, humming as a reaction when he ended up on a weather station.

Eddie was instantly confused. These weren't the normal voices when there was weather. Eddie turned the volume up.

"Today was just another day here in Maine. Temperatures got pretty hot, you may wanna dress more suitably for that! Our town's high school will be having prom soon! School ends in just a month or so," a staticky voice of a middle-aged man played through the radio. Eddie was so fucking confused. This isn't Maine, why is this playing? Eddie wondered more about where in Maine. He was really focused on where in Maine. He listened more intently. He didn't know why.

"Yep, you heard me, parents, Derry high school seniors will be having an outdoor graduation this year! Students that have passed with flying colours include: Greta Bowie, William Brown, Olivia Davis," Eddie felt a weird sort of nostalgia, maybe deja-vu. Derry. Derry, Maine. It seemed so familiar. Why? Eddie kept listening to the names.

"Stanley Uris and Richie Tozier! Congratulations to-" Eddie dropped the radio, practically jumping out of the treehouse. He bolted to the creek, stumbling and getting on his knees in front of the water.

Richie. Stanley. Richie fucking Tozier and Stanley Uris. Trashmouth! THE FUCKING LOSERS. I'M A FUCKING LOSER.

"Who the fuck are you?" Eddie stared at his reflection in the water. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU, EDDIE KASPBRAK?!" Eddie started to sob. He started to remember that damn boy. His curly, black hair. His too-big glasses. His Hawaiian shirts, his horrible jokes, his constant flirting.

Eddie took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and screamed. He screamed until he couldn't anymore. His breath came out with sobs. His chest was tight. His mind was all scrambled up. Eddie opened his eyes to look at his reflection. He watched as his shaky hands lowered into the icy cold water. His crying calmed but his breathing was still very messed up. The cold water gave him something to focus on.

Speaking of focusing, he tried to focus more on his reflection. He took one hand out, rubbing his eyes and then drying them with the end of his shirt. He looked at his reflection again. Once his eyes fully adjusted he sighed. He thought he had seen another pair of eyes. Probably just some weird eye trick. Eddie took a final deep breath and stood up, crossing the creek without using the bridge. Once in his room he got ready for bed. He scribbled a note for himself in the morning, just in case he were to forget. He laid under his blanket, shaking. He was freezing.

Eddie tried to think of what had happened in the past hour alone. He remembered that before he had snuck out, he felt very angry. He couldn't get it out of his mind that there were people smoking out in the world.

"Fucking idiot, Rich.." Eddie heard himself whisper. He quickly fell asleep afterwards. He had a dreamless, calm sleep.

Well. He did dream about this curly, black-haired boy with glasses that he hadn't quite grown into yet. Eddie couldn't quite figure out who the other people were. There were 5 others in that dream. But that boy, that's who Eddie will always remember. Always.

The next morning, Eddie read the note. He had surprisingly remembered everything without the note. Eddie laughed at his previous panic, carefully tucking the note into a notebook. He got ready for the day and went downstairs, grabbing some cereal. He quickly ate it and cleaned the bowl and spoon, putting them in the dishwasher. He wrote a note and left it on the counter for Sonia. Eddie put his shoes on and left, grabbing his bike and riding to the nearest fast-food place, somewhere Sonia would never look.

Eddie spotted some students in his school. He knew them pretty well so he went to sit with them. Eddie enjoyed the music playing. The conversations him and these other students were having were very inappropriate and something he knew damn well Sonia would not appreciate. That made him feel a lot better about this day. He had woken up in an extremely good mood anyways.

About an hour and a half later, Eddie found himself at a public library. It was a really good library. Eddie walked through the aisles and aisles of books, skimming through all the titles. He was so distracted by some of them he accidentally bumped into someone.

"Oh, Jesus, sorry," Eddie said in a quiet voice. He turned to look at the person he'd bumped into. The boy was about the same age as him. He was pretty skinny but not as much as Eddie. He looked tired but only physically, he also seemed very calm. He seemed very familiar.

"It's alright. Distracted by all the books too, hm?" The boy had stared at Eddie as long as Eddie had stared at him. Eddie immediately felt his ears get hot, he had probably weirded the poor boy out for fucks sake.

"Oh, yeah, sorry for staring by the way. You just seem-" "Familiar." The boy finished Eddie's sentence with him. Eddie nodded.

"I guess that just happens with some people. Do you- want to go talk for a while? Maybe there's a reason we seem so familiar to each other," the boy smiled and Eddie felt something weird inside. As if his stomach was doing flips, or as if his heart was twisting up, or his lungs were filling up. Eddie remembered that smile. He wasn't sure where from so he agreed and he sat down with the boy.

"Do you live here in New York?" Eddie asked, still studying the features of the boy he was now sitting next to.

"Yeah. But not here in Queens. I'm just here because my mom thought it would be good to go see more of New York, and because this place has the books I actually need unlike my school's library," the boy explained, gesturing to his books.

"That's nice. I live here, but I've only actually lived here for around 4 years, maybe 5 now that I think about it," Eddie looked at the boy's books. They were all about architecture. That was odd. He vaguely remembered someone loving architecture. Someone close to him.

"Me too. I don't really remember where I used to live though," the boy said. Eddie felt the boy's eyes burning into the side of his head. Eddie wasn't uncomfortable with it like he normally would be.

Eddie was piecing things together. He thought he had an answer. He just sighed and shook his head. It wouldn't make sense. He eventually decided it was worth it either way.

"I'm Eddie Kaspbrak. I used to live in Derry, Maine. Some of my best friends were Richie Tozier, Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough.. There were more... There was a girl, too. And I think I know you, you were one of my friends, weren't you?" Eddie looked at the boy who looked as panicked as Eddie had felt last night. "What's your name? I have to know."

The boy hesitated, as if he had lost his voice or his throat was dry. The boy stood up as if to reassure himself he wasn't dreaming. Eddie stood as well. Eddie wouldn't have in any other situation but this was potentially someone he knew and they were in the back corner of the library, no one else was around. The boy tried to speak for a few moments, but what he eventually got out was;

"Holy shit, Eddie," the boy whispered.

"Your name. I need your name," Eddie said quietly but with more force than before. He had to know who he was talking to.

"Ben. Ben Hanscom, but you knew that, didn't you?" Ben looked at Eddie with a smile. He was shaken up but was smiling anyway. Eddie smiled back and hugged Ben, willing himself not to cry in the middle of a public library. Ben returned the hug, Eddie hearing a laugh escape from both of them. Eddie had fucking found Ben. They both swayed in each others arms. Eddie eventually pulled away from Ben, laughing more.

"Holy shit, it's you!"

"It's me!" Ben was crying but he had the biggest, goofiest grin on his face. Eddie was sure he looked the same, that didn't matter. They had a lot to discuss, such as getting back to Derry. Eddie wasn't gonna forget again, he had to see everyone else. He was sure Ben would agree.

Chapter Text

A couple months ago..

Bill had always wondered what happened to his little brother. Once he found out about Pennywise he knew Georgie really had gone missing. Georgie wasn't dead. Just missing. Bill knew because Pennywise had never once used Georgie to scare him. Only mentioned Georgie.

So, Bill decided to go look for Georgie.

What did he get from that?

He used to ask that same question everyday. The answer? He got what he wanted.

Bill was packing a bag. He had all the essentials. Food for at least a week or two. Money to get even more food. Clothes. Shoes. Everything he would need in two bags.

He quietly walked through the hallway. He opened the door to his parents room. They were dead asleep. Bill walked to his mother. He very gently moved a stray strand of hair from her face, planting a gentle kiss on her cheek. He left the room as quiet as he had walked in. Bill went downstairs and got out his bike, letting his mind go on autopilot. He had memorised every route.

Bill knocked on the window that belonged to the boy he loved so much. He had propped his bike against the house, leaving the bags there as well. He was currently balancing on a tree branch. He knocked once again. He tried to keep his face neutral while Stan came to the window, quickly opening it to let Bill in.

"What are you doing here? Are you okay?" Stan was first annoyed but immediately concerned. Bill was shaking, he realised. He silently cursed himself then looked at Stan, feeling warm tears pool in his eyes. Why was he doing this? What was he going to get out of it?

"Woah, hey, what's wrong??" Stan carefully shut the window, grabbing one of Bill's hands afterwards. Bill looked at the ground then closed his eyes tight. He sniffled as the tears escaped from his eyes. Stan pulled him close, hugging him. Bill hugged back tightly, burying his face into Stan's chest. Stan whispered to him, trying to calm him. Eventually Stan took Bill to his bed, sitting on it and Bill practically just sat on his lap.

Once Bill stopped crying, he was so tired he could just fall asleep right then and there. He knew he couldn't do that.

"Are you able to tell me what happened now, Bill? Was it.. Your parents? Or a nightmare, or.." Stan waited patiently for Bill.

"I'm leaving," Bill managed to whisper. He heard Stan's heartbeat spike.

"Like.. Like you're moving? I- Bill, we can just.. We can just call, I'm sure.... I'm sorry.. Are you moving?" Stan's voice shook for a moment. Bill felt Stan tighten the hug between the two.

"No, I'm... I'm leaving, Stan. I can't bear it anymore," Bill took a deep breath.

Stan was silent for quite some time before speaking again.

"Are you saying.. You're going to-.. K-Ki-" "No. Never, Stan. I'm running away. I'm going to look for G-.. Guh-Guh-Guh-Georgie," Bill could never say Georgie's name without his stutter coming back. He had gone to a private speech therapist and she helped a lot but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't say his own brother's name.

"Oh, Bill.." Stan sighed, scooting to the middle of the bed with Bill. He let Bill stay on his lap, one of Bill's legs on either side of him. Stan wrapped his arms around Bill's waist, resting his forehead on Bill's shoulder.

"I came to say goodbye, Stan.." Stan pulled Bill closer, lifting his head back up to look at him. "And- And I love you. And this."

Bill gently kissed Stan, wrapping his arms around Stan's shoulders. Stan returned the action. Bill never wanted to leave that moment. Neither of them did. Bill pulled away.

"I have to g-" "No, you don't. it's 2 fucking am. You have time. And you're not leaving me with only that simple of a kiss," Stan moved, causing Bill to fall back, onto the bed. Stan got over him and kissed him once again. And again. And again, again, again.

Bill was out of breath. His hair just felt messy and his lips felt wet and a bit swollen to be quite honest. Stan was still over him, planting gentle kisses on his cheek and jawline.

"I really need to go.." Bill mumbled.

"No, you don't," Stan said once again.

"Stan, please-" "No, Bill, I'm gonna convince you to stay wether you like it or not. I can't lose you as well."

"I'll visit you."

"What?"

"I said I'll visit you. Only you. I-.. I don't know if I could go too long without seeing you, especially after, um.. This. You. Yeah-" Bill explained, awkwardly.

"So I did convince you," Stan smiled.

"You're a great convincer. And by convincer, I mainly mean kisser," Bill couldn't help but also smile, looking at the boy he loved so. "I don't know how often I will visit. I might.. I might go into the sewers first. Then maybe, uh.. Neibolt... If there's nothing there, I'm gonna find my way to New York. That's where.. That's where Eddie is, I think, Ben too.. I won't really look for them, but it's New York. I assume Georgie got kidnapped or something. He's gotta be somewhere," Bill let himself ramble before Stan silenced him with another kiss. This one, however, was a slow and passionate kiss.

"Just visit, dipshit, okay?" Stan smiled weakly.

"You got it, Stan the Man," Bill smiled back.

Once Bill was back on the branch, Stan leaned out to give him one last kiss.

"Just in case you don't visit," Stan said, nonchalantly.

Bill nodded, climbing down the tree. He put the backpack on and the other he had strapped to his bike so it wouldn't fall or hit anything. He rode off, not looking behind him. He knew he would immediately go back to Stan if he did.

Stan closed the window, eventually closing the blinds. He laid in bed, curling up on his side. He finally let himself cry.

He knew Bill was not going to visit.

He just knew.

Bill entered the sewers, turning his flashlight on. He walked and walked and walked, finding nothing but remains from 5 years ago, all the shit that hadn't been drained out by the clown. The occasional shoe, the clump of hair or so, maybe even an entire fucking head. Bill shuddered, walking past it all. He had been keeping a trail of string so he wouldn't get lost.

He eventually stopped walking, staring ahead of him. He had found nothing. He sighed, turning back around. He pulled on the string, fear filling his entire body. It was loose. He started to wind it up, and after only a minute, half the string was in his hand. It had been cut, or maybe it broke. Bill didn't care for the answer. He bolted down the sewers, getting extremely twisted around and lost.

It had taken Bill 2 days to make his way out of the sewers. He didn't remember them being such a maze. The moment he saw the exit he had to contain his happiness. His bike was still there, so were his bags. After making sure everything was intact, he changed his clothes. He went on a route most don't, towards the Neibolt house.

Bill didn't spend too much time there. He had a feeling of being watched the entire time. He only made it far enough the place they had fought Pennywise. He remembered a lot of things from there, the worst being Stan. How Stan had gotten so injured. He still had the scars. Bill turned around, leaving the Neibolt house and what was under it behind him. He got on his bike, heading to the only place he knew he could go. Out of town. To New York. He had no idea what was calling him there, but he knew he had to go.

Present

"Georgie! Come on, we have to go!" Bill called up the stairs, waiting for Georgie.

Georgie had been kidnapped on that rainy day. He was taken all the way to New York. The guys had been caught, but by that time Georgie had found a way to escape from them and had no idea that the police had gotten there. Georgie wandered around Manhattan for days before a couple had found him. The couple weren't able to have kids themselves and there was this child in need of help right in front of them. Of course, they took him in and helped him. No matter how much they asked, Georgie didn't tell them his last name. He eventually admitted to having forgotten. The men who kidnapped him had hit him hard on the head. His memories were very jumbled.

Bill had only found Georgie because he had also run into the couple. Their names are unknown to Bill, mostly because Georgie had practically tackled Bill upon seeing him. They had stared at each other beforehand. Bill had been writing millions of notes to himself. He found out forgetting things was really easy when you leave Derry. The moment he laid eyes on that boy he knew it was Georgie. It was the fact he didn't know if Georgie remembered him. The silence from them staring at each other was broken by the younger lady of the couple.

"Georgie, this is William. He goes by-" "BILL!" Georgie shouted, jumping out of the chair he was at and running to Bill. Georgie was 13 now. It had been 5 years. You would assume Bill wouldn't be able to catch the 13 year old boy that jumped up to wrap his arms around Bill's shoulders, but Bill stood at a solid 6ft and caught the 5'4 boy perfectly. Bill hugged him back, sitting on his knees right there. Georgie was crying into his shoulder. Bill attempted to calm Georgie, rubbing his back and quietly shushing him, though Bill was crying as well. After only 5 minutes but what seemed like 2, Georgie was wiping his tears away and studying Bill's face.

"Are you mad, Bill? I lost the boat! And- and then I trusted strangers, please don't be mad," Bill stared at his little brother, surprised he still remembered the boat. Bill shook his head, explaining he would never be mad. He never was.

So now Bill was here, waiting for Georgie to come downstairs with all the things he wanted to keep. He had stayed here a couple of days to get better food and clean up. The lesbian couple who had helped them said they would take them to Derry if they promised to call and write to them. They promised. Georgie ran down the stairs, stopping next to Bill. Georgie grinned up at Bill and he smiled back.

"Let's go, Georgie," Bill started to head out to the car where the couple was waiting.

"I'm not used to your voice. I only remember you having a stutter," Georgie said, walking beside Bill.

"Well, I went to a private speech therapist. The only word I was never able to say no matter how much practice was Georgie. But not anymore," Bill smiled, helping Georgie put his bags in the trunk.

"Wow. I'm super important then. Also, how come you're so tall?? I want to be tall, this is so fucking unfair," Georgie huffed, crossing his arms. Bill laughed then realised what his little brother just said.

"Woahh, where'd that language come from??" Bill looked at his brother as they both got in the backseats.

"You and your friends all talked like that when you were my age, even younger, I don't see the problem," Georgie looked back at his brother.

"Alright, you got me," Bill sighed.

Then, just like that, they were on their way to Derry. Bill knew Stan was going to kill him. He hadn't been gone too long, right?

Chapter Text

Ben hammered the nail into the wood, trying to keep his balance on the ladder. One of and really his only friend had three younger siblings. They all wanted a treehouse but Ben's friend, Carson Timbens, was too busy with things at home. Ben, of course, offered to build it for Carson. Carson had to go to Queens over the weekends. This high school wasn't in Queens and Carson had to be home over weekends to help with the house. Ben was building this tree house near where the Timbens lived. It was near a school but he didn't think it was on the property. There was a creek nearby. Ben had been working on it for months and was almost done, nailing in the last beam of the rails. He had moved to New York for a good architectural high school. He used to live in Maine but he wasn't sure where specifically. The only person he remembered from there was Beverly Marsh. He barely remembered her as well, only that he had liked her for a long time.

Ben finished the nailing and climbed down the ladder, going right back up, this time using the wood ladder steps he had nailed into the tree itself. He walked around in the treehouse, making sure everything was stable.

Just a couple hours later, all the things the Timbens kids wanted in the treehouse was there. They knew other people, mainly students of the school, would see this and hang out up there so the only good thing they put up there was a radio. Otherwise it was just a hang out area for them.

That was 7 months ago. Ben was back in Queens, not to visit Carson or any of the Timbens family. He just felt like he needed to be there. His mother drove him, it was a Friday. The first thing he did was go check out the treehouse, making sure it was holding up, which of course it was. He left the wooded area as soon as he had looked at the treehouse thoroughly. He had an uneasy feeling in the area for no reason.

Ben spent the rest of his day at the hotel he and his mother were in. His mother was down in the lobby to talk to other women there. Ben never understood adults. He took this alone time to do some exercises. Ben had been very, very strict on his weight. There was a scar on his stomach that made him feel even worse about it. He was on a diet that had been working greatly for the past 4 years. He did exercises at times as well. This was his routine. Suddenly, his routine was interrupted.

Ben looked out the hotel window, towards the high school. He felt like he should go back to the treehouse. He didn't know why. It almost scared him. Almost. He told his mom he was going out for a short walk to relax a bit after his exercising. She reluctantly agreed and let him go. Ben was quick to leave the building, rushing to the forest. He walked very quietly there, careful not to make any noise from leaves and sticks on the ground. He heard yelling but it was mixed with sobs and he couldn't get what was said.

Ben rushed to the nearest tree, peeking around. Why was he snooping? There was a boy about his age, very familiar. He wondered what the boy was doing at this time of night, crying next to a creek. Then the boy screamed, very loud. Ben watched in horror as the so familiar boy screamed his heart out, eventually the scream faltered into loud, ugly sobs. The next thing Ben knew, he was next to that boy. The kid had no idea he was there, he was so distraught. Ben looked at the boys face through the reflection of the water. The boy lowered his hands to the water, seeming to calm down. Ben took that as a sign to leave. Something about him standing next to the boy had calmed both of them. Ben didn't like the odd feeling and left, even quieter than he had came. Ben returned to the hotel and quickly got ready for bed.

That night is a night not even I could explain. 8 people all having something good and something bad happen to them in just the span of an hour. The same hour for all of them. I can't explain this to you, but I can explain the dream Ben had that night. He dreamt of a fire, a small, warm fire. It did not burn unless it wanted to. It never burned Ben. Never. The fire kept Ben happy, making him feel as if he had no problems at all. If only I could tell you that was a reality. Sadly, it isn't.

Not yet it isn't.

The next morning, Ben woke up to his alarm. His mother was downstairs having breakfast. Ben got ready for the day and went down, grabbing something simple and something he could eat with his diet. He bid his mother a quick goodbye, going on his morning walk. Ben made his way to the library.

Ben was there for two hours. He had read half the books he had selected, taking notes from all of them. He had half left and got more books so he had the same amount he started with. As he was trying to decide if he wanted one more or not, a very familiar boy bumped into him.

"Oh, Jesus, sorry-" Ben heard the boy say in a low voice. Ben turned to look at the boy. They stared at each other for some time.

"It's alright. Distracted by all the books too, hm?" Ben smiled as the boys ears turned red from embarrassment.

"Oh, yeah, sorry for staring by the way. You just seem-" "Familiar." Ben finished the sentence with the boy. They looked at each other for another moment. Ben recognised him from last night. But that wasn't why he was familiar.

"I guess that just happens with some people. Do you-.. want to go talk for a while? Maybe there's a reason we seem so familiar to each other," Ben's smile grew more confident as he watched the boy's face twist with emotion. The boy reached for his pocket, reached for something that wasn't there anymore. Ben knew the boy was feeling the same, as if he was just given something he hadn't had in a long, long time. Ben and the mystery boy went to sit at a table, in a back corner of the library.

"Do you live here in New York?" The boy asked, Ben felt him burning holes into the side of his head. For some reason, he didn't mind.

"Yeah. But not here in Queens. I'm just here because my mom thought it would be good to go see more of New York, and because this place has the books I actually need unlike my school's library," Ben explained, gesturing to his books. He was proud of his selection to be honest.

"That's nice. I live here, but I've only actually lived here for around 4 years, maybe 5 now that I think about it," Mystery Boy looked at Ben's books, a confused and mildly frustrated expression painted on his face.

"Me too. I don't really remember where I used to live though," Ben said said. Ben knew Mystery Boy felt his eyes burning into the side of his head. The boy wasn't uncomfortable with it like most people normally would be.

Ben waited patiently as Mystery Boy tried to think of something to say, clearly having trouble with what to say or how to say it.

"I'm Eddie Kaspbrak," Ben felt his heartbeat spike, his eyes widened as he stared at Eddie. "I used to live in Derry, Maine. Some of my best friends were Richie Tozier, Stanley Uris, Bill Denbrough.. There were more... There was a girl, too. And I think I know you, you were one of my friends, weren't you?" Eddie looked at Ben, Ben assumed by Eddie's expression he had figured out Ben was the one there last night.. "What's your name? I have to know."

Ben's throat was suddenly dry. He couldn't find the words to speak. He stood up, grounding himself. He was remembering things. He remembered Eddie, that short boy scared of anything and everything until proven safe, even then he might still be scared. Ben remembered Eddie and Beverly, a little bit of Bill, maybe someone named Mike? In all this remembering and all the confusing, all Ben could get out was;

"Holy shit, Eddie," Ben whispered.

"Your name. I need your name," Eddie said quietly but with more force than before.

"Ben. Ben Hanscom, but you knew that, didn't you?" Ben looked at Eddie with a smile. He was shaken up but was smiling anyway. Eddie smiled back and hugged Ben. Ben didn't care where he was, he let himself cry tears of joy and sorrow. Ben returned the hug, hearing a laugh escape from both of them. Bed had fucking found Eddie. They both swayed in each others arms. Eddie eventually pulled away from Ben, laughing more.

"Holy shit, it's you!"

"It's me!" Ben was crying but he knew he had the biggest, goofiest grin on his face. Eddie looked the same. Ben knew they had a lot to discuss, such as getting back to Derry. Ben knew that was on Eddie's mind, he just felt it. He was gonna go to the ends of the Earth with Eddie if he asked him to. Ben was not going to leave Eddie's side again.

Chapter Text

Beverly walked through the hall of her school, on her way to the auditorium. She had joined theatre her freshman year hoping to make new friends, which she did. Beverly was a senior now. She opened the door, walking backstage and listening to what was going on. They weren't doing anything in particular currently, Beverly smiled to herself and poked her head out of the curtains, looking at everyone. Some were on stage and some were in the seats. Beverly spotted her friends, a mix of girls and boys, majority boys.

One of Beverly's friends spotted her, shushing the rest of the group and they also looked to Beverly. Most of the boys started shaking their heads, everyone else nodding and encouraging the plan Beverly had already made. Bev backed away from the curtains, ready to burst through and shout to surprise everyone who hadn't seen her.

Beverly stopped in her tracks. Her forearms burned. Bev started remembering things she never would have imagined were possible. Beverly backed up more, knocking over one of the props. Beverly remembered her father, her stupid father. That clown, those lights, the light, the fucking lights.

Beverly screamed. She didn't even know she was screaming. She was screaming loud, sitting on her knees. Her hands gripped her hair and she was scared she would pull some of it out. Beverly started sobbing, her forearms burned and all she could see when she opened her eyes was a bathroom. It was blurry yet familiar. Beverly closed her eyes, her sobbing and screaming continuing. She didn't know what was happening or what she was saying. If you ask anyone, they'll say she first screamed normally, then started to scream out to someone. She started screaming for someone named Ben, someone named Bill and another named Richie.

Beverly was still seeing that bathroom, hearing knocking on a door, people yelling through the door. She closed her eyes tight, letting out a strained, half-scream, half-sob. When she opened her eyes again she was looking down in the bathroom now. Whoever she was seeing had their legs stretched out, though they barely fit the bathtub. Their arms were covered in deep, burning, bleeding cuts, There were black-framed glasses in the person's laps. Beverly sobbed more and more, keeping her eyes closed. She didn't know who she was seeing or why she was seeing through their eyes and feeling their pain. Beverly was angry at them, whoever they were. Why the fuck did she have to feel their pain? She didn't know the person. Wait, did she see black framed glasses?

Beverly opened her eyes, looking up. Her hands fell to her side, bent at the elbows so she could fidget with the necklace she had on that day. Beverly allowed herself to see and feel whatever this person was seeing and feeling.

He was in the bathtub, watching his arms bleed out. Beverly heard him laugh weakly. Bev sobbed again as he turned to look at the door, this boy's parents running in to look at him. Beverly tried taking deep breaths.

"Why are you doing this?" Beverly thought to herself. "What caused you to do this?"

"I do not remember myself sounding like that. Are you some beautiful fucking angel coming to lead me to Heaven or are you some sexy demon coming to drag me to hell?" Beverly sobbed more as the voice came through to her. It was Richie. She knew it. "You sound familiar though.." There was silence as Richie's father pulled him out of the bathtub. Everything was getting more blurry. "Beverly? Did you die?.." Beverly screamed again, hating what was happening, hating it all, hating herself, she wished she was dead, she wished she was dead, she wished she was dead.

Beverly gasped for air. She had been so out of it that the theatre teachers had to bring her into the hallway, pouring cold water onto her head. It's all they could think of doing. Beverly jolted up, coughing a bit. She wiped tears from her eyes, looking at her forearms. They were red and still burning a bit. It looked as if she had poured hot water on them. Beverly took deep breaths as she gained back all her senses. The theatre teachers stayed quiet, not wanting to cause anything else.

"What the hell happened?" Beverly said with a hoarse, quiet voice.

"You had a sort of episode. It was, um, how do I say this.. How do we explain to her?" Mrs. Davis looked at Mr. Peterson, neither knowing how to explain it. Beverly found herself standing up, walking back into the auditorium despite her teachers trying to stop her. She was dazed. Bev walked to her friends, tugging on the sleeve of the tallest in the group. His name was Hayes. Hayes looked at Beverly, immediately getting concerned.

"What happened, Bev?" Hayes whispered, moving to stand in front of Beverly, shielding her from everyone else. Beverly appreciated that.

"I was going to ask you that," Bev whispered back, putting her hands on his chest and leaning onto Hayes, who hugged her.

"You just started screaming and crying. I ran backstage with a couple of our friends and the teachers. Whenever you opened your eyes, they were... They were white, Bevvie. Why was that?" Hayes only sounded concerned which calmed Beverly, happy he wasn't angry. Why would he be angry?..

"I don't know," Beverly whispered.

Beverly knew the answer.

She had been a deer caught in deadlights.

The day of getting plane tickets.

Beverly had just gotten one plane ticket for herself. She was going to Derry. She had a phone number in an old yearbook from middle school. It was the home phone of the Tozier house. Beverly had been putting off calling that number for months. It had been months since the accident happened. She had to know if Richie was alive.

Beverly walked to her home phone, hesitating, fidgeting with the paper she had ripped out of the yearbook. Beverly finally picked the phone up, dialling the number.

"Tozier residence," a women said, Beverly ever so faintly heard the laugh of a man and a boy in the background, who were probably doing something stupid together. "This is Maggie Tozier speaking, who is this?"

"Um, hello," Beverly's voice shook. "My name is Beverly Marsh, I used to be friends with your son. I.. I was calling to say I'm coming to visit Derry in a week. Something.. Something happened a few months ago, and I really want to see Richie, would it be possible for me to stay with you guys?"

"Oh, Beverly! You two were friends for some time. I'm sad that ended a few years ago. Of course you can stay here until you go back home. Do you want to speak with Richie? He would be overjoyed to speak with you."

"No! No. I- Sorry, Mrs. Tozier. I want my first interaction with him to be in person after these 5 years. Don't tell him about this. I want to know how he genuinely will react to seeing me after years, especially since I haven't called or... Sorry, Mrs. Tozier, I'm rambling. I forgot a lot about Derry until a few months ago. I have one question before I go."

"It's alright, dear. I won't tell him anything, but be warned he will be angry with you. Only Stanley and Mike are left in Derry. Richie hasn't.. He hasn't been doing well. What's your question?"

"Did.. Did Richie try to kill himself? A few months ago? I.. I had a strange dream, a nightmare, that night. I can't make much from it except there being a lot of blood and seeing Richie in the middle of it. It's probably just a crazy nightmare and I don't want to worry you with that thought but I have to know," Beverly lied a lot. She lied to classmates, teachers, her aunt and other family. She never once had lied to someone she knew and trusted. Especially about something so serious.

"Yes. He did," Maggie's quiet voice came through after a few seconds. "He lived, otherwise I would have told you visiting would be pointless if you wanted to see him. He's alright now. We've helped him through a lot."

"Thank you, Mrs. Tozier. I'm sorry for bringing up such a sensitive topic. I have to go now, I'll see you guys in a week. Thank you, bye."

"It's no problem, honey. See you then. Goodbye," Beverly hung up the phone right after she heard the goodbye. She felt terrible, yet somehow relieved.

The night before the trip.

Beverly packed her suitcase and backpack with everything essential. She was determined to get to Derry tonight. Everything had to go right, at least right enough to get her there. She didn't know if she would come back or if she would want to come back. She only knew she had to see Richie. She had to see him.

Beverly got dropped off at the airport by some friends. Her aunt and other family didn't know she was doing this. She left them a note and knew at least her aunt would be pissed off and worried. None of them wanted Beverly back in Derry after what they had found out about her father.

Beverly hugged her friends goodbye, even kissing some of them on the cheek.

Beverly waited in the airport for only an hour or so.

She was so tired by the time she got in her seat she fell right asleep. It was about 1am anyways. She had horrible nightmares the entire time, thankfully she looked sound asleep to everyone around her. No screaming or sobbing like usual.

Beverly got off the plane, going to meet with Maggie. The entire trip was really a blur for Beverly. One moment she was saying goodbye to her friends, the next moment she was looking up at Richie Tozier, the boy she thought was dead. The boy she had hated for brief moments. The boy she loved now that she could see him again.

Beverly never wanted to leave again.

Chapter Text

    Beverly took a deep breath, relaxing her body as she remembered what happened yesterday. She was in Richie's bedroom. She was comfortable and safe. Richie leaned over her, grabbing his glasses to put them on. Beverly shimmied backwards, being a little spoon to Richie. She knew Richie was smiling and that his face was red.

    "Bevvie, we gotta go downstairs and get breakfast," Richie said, softly. He leaned his head down, his forehead resting on the side of Beverly's face. Beverly didn't respond, curious what Richie would do to try and wake her up.

    "Bevvie.." Richie was silent for a moment then moved to place a gentle kiss on Beverly's cheek. She couldn't help but smile, turning on to her back, so Richie was above her.

    Richie rolled his eyes with a smile. "Of course you were awake."

    "You kissed me," she spoke, her voice being softer than expected.

    "You used to kiss us on the cheek all the time, Bev," Richie reminded her, his smile softening. "I'll do it again."

    "Do it, then," she teased. Richie just leaned down again, kissing her cheek gently once more. He kissed her cheek a few more times, all in different spots, trailing down to her jawline. That's when Beverly stopped him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders to hug him and roll them over so she was on top of him now, resting her head on his chest.

    "Just because you kissed me doesn't mean I wanna get up just yet," She whispered.

    "I assumed so, I guess we can stay here for a bit longer," Richie hummed.

    After a few moments of silence, Richie's stomach growled very loudly. Beverly burst out laughing, sitting up. Richie was also laughing, covering his face with his hands. Beverly got up, holding her hand out for Richie. He took it and got up as well. Beverly just smiled up at him, pushing his glasses up a bit.

    "I'm going to go change, I'll meet you downstairs," Beverly said, walking over to the door. She looked down the hall to make sure no one was there then walked to the guest bedroom, closing the door behind her. As she looked through the dresser she had clumsily thrown her clothes into, she felt weird.

    She felt extremely happy. Why was she so happy? She couldn't help but laugh a little bit. She grabbed a pair of jeans and turned around, dropping them immediately with a gasp, backing up into the dresser.

    Richie watched as Beverly checked the hallway for people, then he changed. He always changed pretty quick, mainly because he didn't try, so today he had on shorts, a white t-shirt, and a Hawaiian shirt. He had never stopped wearing Hawaiian shirts. Richie walked downstairs, his parents not there. They had already gone to work. Richie was happy about that for some reason. Actually, he was happy about everything. For no reason. He didn't even get a bit frustrated when there was no cereal left. He felt tears pool in his eyes. He wiped them away but they just came right back. Richie remembered Beverly. Beverly. Shit, was she okay? Was he crying because of the Connection?

    "Beverly?!" Richie shouted as he ran up the stairs, opening the door to the guest room. He stared at the scene in front of him.

    "Holy shiiittt, what the fuck?!" Richie felt his own tears pool in his eyes.

    Beverly was standing in the middle of the room, very excitedly hugging someone. Bill. It was Bill. It had been a year. A solid year. He was grown now, he didn't look tired anymore. He did, actually. But only in a peaceful way. As if he had found som- Oh, you're kidding me.

    "No fucking way. No fucking way, you didn't. That's why you left?! Where is he?" Richie said as he walked over to Bill, Beverly pulling away to quickly just put shorts on rather than her jeans. Richie stared at Bill for a moment or two, Bill smiled. That broke Richie. He gave in and hugged Bill, letting out a breathy, shaky sob.

    "Welcome back home, Bill," Richie whispered. He wasn't wrong. Bill had spent a lot of time with Richie at his house because of Bill's parents. The Toziers never said no to Bill staying as long as he needed.

    "Thanks, Rich," Bill replied, resting his head on Richie's shoulder.

    Beverly eventually joined the hug, hugging Bill more than Richie. They stayed that way for a bit, just until they were ready to talk.

    "Richie, what did you mean by 'where is he'?" Beverly asked while brushing her hair.

    "He meant that," Bill pointed to the window he had presumably climbed through last night. All the Losers did that to one of the others at one point.

    Richie and Beverly turned to the window where a young boy sat. He had to be the same age that the Loser's had been when they first fought Pennywise. Beverly stared at the boy, confused, but seemingly happy. Probably because Richie was extremely happy.

    "GEORGIE! HOLY SHIT, LITTLE DUDE!" Richie held open his arms as Georgie laughed, jumping off the window frame and running to Richie, hugging him. "You're so damn tall! You're taller than Beverly! Oh my god, no fucking way, how old are you?? You have to be at least 12 by now," Richie didn't hold back on the cussing.

    "I'm 13!" Georgie said proudly, grinning up at Richie. Richie grinned back, picking Georgie up to hug him better and spin him around, then set him down again.

    "Where the fuck did you go, you little rascal?" Richie asked, his voice calm now. He ruffled Georgie's hair a bit, then noticed a bad scar on his arm. Richie immediately crouched down, gently grabbing Georgie's arm to look more closely at the scar. It was all across the outer part of his arm, as if had almost been torn almost in half. Richie looked at Georgie, very concerned.

    "The guys did that to me. They took me when I was 8, and they always treated me horribly. They would throw me around and hurt me. My arm just happened to be a big target. One guy grabbed my wrist and the other cut up there near my shoulder. I don't remember exactly what they did. That's just what I think they did. All I know for sure is that the next morning it had already healed and scarred. It was fucking weird," Richie didn't laugh at the last part like he normally would. He just stared at Georgie, then carefully hugged him again. Georgie stood there for a while, then leaned into Richie and hugged him back. Bill sighed, slowly. Richie understood that feeling, the feeling of fear that you don't need anymore.

    Once Georgie and Richie had their moment, Georgie looked at Beverly, staring at her for a while. Richie knew that tall height ran in the Denbrough family, but holy shit, Georgie was 13 and taller than the 17 year-old Beverly. Granted, from what Bev knew, her mom was very short as well, and her height has nothing to do with a plot line of this world that is very much real and exists.

    "Who the fuck are you?" Georgie said, extremely confused. He had gone missing before ever knowing about Beverly.

    Beverly laughed. "My name is Beverly. I made out with your brother twice when we were like 12-" "BEV!" Bill looked at Beverly in disbelief, upset she would ever bring that up again.

    "I'm sorry. My brother is the gayest person you'll meet. That's hard to believe," Georgie crossed his arms, looking skeptical. Bill just went silent.

    "T-T-T-T-Thats not- Oh, f-fuck m-m-m-my life. I-I-I'm not.. Guh-Guh-Gay," Bill hugged himself. Even with the private speech therapy, he never was good on sensitive topics.

    "Bill, Big Bill, buddy, it's fine. We all know I've liked Eddie since 2nd fucking grade," Richie rolled his eyes at himself. "Derry is a homophobic town, but you've got homo sexual friends," Richie was still convinced he would never see Eddie again, or Ben. They had everyone but those two.

    Bill just shrugged, staring at the ground.

    "Stan," Bill's voice shook. "How.. Huh-How is he? I- I sorta... Maybe, uh.. Talked to him before running away and then we like discussed things and I said I'd visit him but. Obviously didn't do that," Bill seemed to shrink, Georgie stared at him like Bill had just told them he was a ghost.

    "YOU RAN AWAY??" Georgie practically screamed.

    "DID YOU KISS?!" Beverly said right afterwards.

    "Stan will murder you, Bill," Richie said calmly, with a laugh.

    "Yes, Georgie, I ran away. I thought I told you that.. And, yeah, we kissed. Many times. I-I-I-I'm gay, whatever," Bill mumbled something to himself a few times, the other three let him. Richie knew what it was. Beverly might know. Georgie had an idea. "He is gonna murder me. Any chance you two could break it to him slowly?" Bill gestured to Beverly and Richie.

    "Nope. That's uhhh.. That's your own fuckin problem," Richie laughed nervously. Stan was terrifying enough, imagine dealing with a furious, heart-broken Stan.

    "Yeah. Tell him yourself," Beverly shrugged.

    "Tell your boyfriend later. Breakfast now," Richie and Georgie said at the same time. They smiled at each other and fist-bumped.

    The four went downstairs, getting their breakfast which for that morning had to be bacon and eggs and toast.

    "Holy shit, Rich, I forgot how good your breakfast is," Bill smiled while eating.

    "Yep. Learned from my mom and Stan's mom," Richie smiled proudly while making Georgie an omelette. Beverly ate quietly, happy that they were together again. Bill, on the other hand, was eating like it was his first and last meal. Rich and Bev assumed he hadn't eaten too well before finding Georgie.

    "Bill, slow down, hun," Beverly said calmly. "If you haven't eaten much from the time you were searching, you might get a stomach ache or worse."

    Bill stopped eating for a moment, thinking about what Beverly said. He had already eaten way more than half of what Richie made him, and he had gotten a lot. Georgie had been with someone, and was cared for and his health had improved greatly. Bill had not. Like, at all. He looked paler than before, more tired. Now that Richie really looked, Bill was actually tired. He was tired, looked sick, and probably was about to be sick.

    "Bill? You gonna alright?" Richie asked as he gave Georgie his omelette, turning the stove off afterwards.

    Bill stared at the table, looking nervous. Richie felt that nervousness, but only slightly. Beverly must have as well as she shifted in her seat, not eating.

    "Bill. What's on your mind? You're making all of us except Georgie nervous," Richie put a hand on Bill's shoulder.

    "I-I-I-I-I just ruh-ruh-remembered.. S-Something," Bill looked at the wall, then quickly glanced around the room. "S-S-S-Something t-that hasn't huh-huh-huh-huh-happened. T-T-That never huh-happened here."

    "What is it, Bill?" Beverly asked, clearly having an idea of what it is.

    Bill glanced at Georgie, about to explain, then practically jumped out of his seat and took off to the bathroom. Beverly stood up, pale, from.. Fear.

    Richie cringed as he heard Bill emptying his stomach, Richie was walking up the stairs to the bathroom. He had to make sure Bill was alright, and figure out what had caused the fear. Fear. The last thing they needed.

    "Bill?" Richie gently knocked on the door. "Beverly will be up to give you water soon. Do you want a toothbrush or mouthwash or something as well?"

    Bill groaned in response, Richie hesitantly opened the door. He hadn't used this specific bathroom unless needed. Bill was leaning against the wall, knees up and his arms resting on his knees.

    "What happened, Bill?" Richie asked gently, flushing the toilet and sitting next to Bill.

    "I-... I-I-I saw.... It," Bill finally said, shaking. His stutter had come back. Richie couldn't tell if that was from fear or from remembering It. Probably both. "I-It was.. It was s-s-s-so buh-buh-big. Th-Th-There were suh-suh-suh-so many l-legs, Ruh-Ruh-Richie. Suh-So m-m-m-m-m-many."

    Richie felt Bill's fear. He felt his own as well. He didn't know how to respond or what to do, so he wrapped an arm around Bill's shoulders to comfort him. To comfort both of them. They heard footsteps rushing up the stairs. Beverly walked in, closing the door. For a moment, she looked at the two with understanding in her eyes. She was still scared just like them, her hands were shaking. She suddenly placed the water next to Bill and sat next to Richie. They all sat in silence, Bill drank the water slowly. They were all comfortable with the other, trying to calm down, trying to breathe, trying to think. This would be a great time to crack a joke.

    "Alright, story time, why do we all hate bathrooms?" Richie said, staring at the ceiling. A small laugh escaped Bill, it was quiet and hoarse, but it made them all feel better.

    "The, uh.. Bathroom accident. When we were younger. Richie, you wouldn't.... Remember. We left you outside, but, I never forgot it. Even after moving," Beverly took a deep breath. Richie held his hand up a bit, offering for Beverly. She accepted and held Richie's hand at their sides.

    "What did happen in that bathroom, Bevvie? I remember the explanation, but my dumbass brain never understood the seriousness of it.. You don't have to explain, of course," Richie spoke softly. He felt Bill's hand brush against his forearm, then hold Richie's other hand gently. Richie let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, so did Beverly. They all felt much calmer. Bill leaned onto Richie, eyes closed, but still paying attention.

    "I, uh.. I was reading a postcard, in my bathtub. My dad couldn't see it, so bathtub was the best bet. I was really happy, but then I heard-... I heard voices from the sink," Beverly glanced up at the sink, then stares at the ground again. "I went over and tried listening, and they stopped. My dad asleep, I went to grab his measuring tape, and I made it go all the way down the pipe. I felt something weird poking at the end, and when I pulled it up, there was.... Hair. Blood and hair, stuck on the end of it," Beverly closed her eyes, trying to remember the scene more. "More and more hair came out of the sink, grabbing my arms and my head. Pulling me closer. I was screaming, there was blood bubbling out of the sink. I kept screaming. Then the blood, like a broken fire hydrant, gushed out of the sink, all over my bathroom, all over me."

    Richie knew he really shouldn't ask. He did it anyway, "And your mouth was open?"

    "Yes, Richie. I was screaming. It got in my mouth," Beverly sighed.

    "..Why buh-buh-buh-blood? Was th-th-that your fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-fear?" Bill struggled to say 'fear'. Really, they all did.

    Beverly stayed silent, considering her words. Richie squeezed her hand.

    "I had started my first period. I couldn't let my dad know. He would.... Consider me a woman," Beverly shook as she spoke, scooting closer to Richie. (Richie was always the one they hugged, he was the tallest and also always hugged back. So now you know that.)

    The boys sat in silence, sharing the same idea. Well, it wasn't that they were sharing it because of the Connection, they just both knew what Beverly meant.

    "I a-a-always threw up in b-b-b-b-bathrooms. It happened more o-o-often than you p-p-probably think, with my puh-puh-puh-puh- parents never caring," Bill explained, mentioning his parents with disgust. Richie nodded, staring at the wall. He felt the gaze of the other two on him. He had been hoping he wouldn't have to share, but of course he had to joke. Richie knew Beverly had felt what he had felt, but he wasn't sure how until today. Richie's forearms starting to feel weird, almost tingle, or burn. Richie tried taking some deep breaths, but still was shaking. His eyes trailed down from the wall to the bathtub. He stared at it, Beverly and Bill asking him things. He didn't respond, he barely heard them.

    "Richie, why is this happening?" Richie heard that voice mixed with something he remembered, "Why are you doing this?", it was the same voice, that was Beverly, Richie had heard her that day, that stupid day, it was her that he heard in his head. Not some spirit coming to take him from this hellish world.

    Richie snapped out of it, ripping his hands from Beverly and Bill. He covered his face, pushing his glasses up into his hair. Richie kept taking deep breaths but they spiralled into strained gasps. He heard Beverly and Bill trying to calm him down. He was having a fucking panic attack, of course he was, so stupid, he should be able to stop himself. Beverly was strong enough. Why wasn't he? He should be able to stop this. He should be able to stop remembering things. He should be able to do that. Richie started to calm his breathing, but his wrists still burned. He knew he was gonna regret this.

    Richie leaned his head onto the wall, glasses falling down into an uncomfortable position. He rolled up his sleeves clumsily, pointing to the bathtub. He took a strained breath, then a normal one, then started to breathe mostly calm. Sounds became clear to him again, the feeling in his wrists died down to a tingle.

    "Didn't mean to be so dramatic," Richie chuckled weakly, adjusting his glasses. "You know now. I guess... Beverly, please tell me you weren't.. In my head. That day."

    Beverly sighed, gently holding Richie's hand again, rolling up his sleeve. Bill did the same to the other arm, Richie smiled thankfully at them both.

    "Only one thing. Two, I guess. It was after you had heard me," Beverly looked at Richie, a smile soon appearing on her freckled face. "I don't think it matters anymore."

    "I-I-I-I was a-at a buh-buh-buh-bridge. Wuh-Wuh-When I felt that, I-I mean. A-A-A-A-Almost jumped o-over the fuh-fucking edge. I n-never thought t-that was you, Rich. I-I-I never th-th-th-thought you w-would.. T-T-T-Try to..." Bill couldn't finish his sentence, instead holding Richie's hand up to gently kiss the back of it. Richie softly smiled again. He fucking loved these idiots.

    "Georgie is probably worried, guys.. I think we need to go back," Richie barely finished his sentence when they heard someone knock on the front door. The three instinctively jumped to their feet, Richie being the first to go downstairs, Beverly helping a shaky Bill down afterwards. He took a deep breath and opened the door, sighing when he saw Stan. Richie then inhaled sharply as Stan's expression went from neutral to shocked in one second, staring past Richie.

    "Bill."

Chapter Text

    "Bill," Stan whispered, his voice shaky, his eyes and expression filled with sadness and anger.

    "Stan, before you do anyth-" Richie was cut off as Stan stormed in, walking right up to Bill. Stan stared up at Bill, fists clenched.

    "Well?" Stan said, his well-known sass showing. Bill stumbled over his words, gave up, and looked at Stan, confused as ever. "How fucking stupid are you, Bill? GEORGIE!" Stan suddenly shouted for the 13-year-old, crossing his arms. Georgie soon walked into the main hallway, fidgeting with his hands.

    "Stan!" Georgie smiled, going to hug Stan. Before he could take a step towards the older boy, Stan held up a finger to stop him.

    "Good to know you fucking found him. Now how about me? Where do I belong in your life? How much do I matter to you, Bill?" Stan was fuming. Richie's mind flashed back to when Stan had somehow gotten separated, yelling at all of them when they found him. Richie stared at the two, knowing Stan was not one to mess with.

    "Ruh-Ruh-Ruh-Richie, is that y-y-y-y-you? I-I-I do-don't like that meh-meh-meh-memory," Bill swallowed, looking at Richie. Richie nodded slowly.

    "Can we take this outside?" Richie asked, suddenly feeling strong anger. He knew where it was from. "Now. Right fucking now. Let's go, backyard, come on," Richie grabbed Stan and Bill by the arm, taking them to the backyard. Georgie and Beverly followed, standing away from the three boys.

    Stan slapped Richie's arm away, then slapped Bill across the face. Hard. Richie cringed.

    "Fuck you, William Denbrough. Fuck you," Stan was breathing heavy, tears pooling in his eyes. They all knew, even Georgie, that behind all the rage was a year worth of tears.

    "Stan," Bill said slowly, rubbing his already-red cheek. He looked at Stan. "You knew I wasn't going to visit.. I know you knew..."

    "THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU STILL LIE TO MY FACE?!" Stan practically screamed, the tears starting to flow. Beverly covered Georgie's ears and took him back inside.

    "You wouldn't let me leave either way," Bill spoke slowly but sternly, in a sense. He was frustrated. At himself, of course.

    "Why didn't you take me with you? Why couldn't you have just not gone?! Do you know how hard it is to lie to the last two of my best friends who were left, having to pretend all my sadness was because you had gone missing, not because you had told me and still left?!" Stan put his hands in his hair, then rubbed the sides of his head. Where the scars were.

    "I see things, Stan.. I had to go," Bill reached a hand out to hold Stan's, Stan didn't react. Bill pulled Stan into a small hug, staying like that. Richie leaned onto the railing of the back porch, waiting for what was happening to play out. He would step in only if needed.

    "Why did you leave me?" Stan sobbed. "You promised you wouldn't leave me! You promised!.." Stan hit Bill on the chest, not enough to hurt much. Stan's voice was weak now. Richie felt like his heart was in a million pieces. Bill probably felt even worse.

    "I'm sorry. I-I-I-I-I know that duh-doesn't mean m-m-much, but I truly do apologise. I-I'm so sorry, Stan," Bill kissed Stan on the forehead, pulling him closer. None of the three said anything, Richie waited on them.

    "I p-p-p-p-puked 10 minutes ago, Stan. Can I g-go get something to h-h-help me not feel like shuh-shuh-shuh-shit physically?" Bill finally said, Stan just nodded his head.

    "I hate you," Stan pulled away, turning his head to hide a smile. Bill smiled back. Richie felt warm inside as he remembered that day at the barrens. So similar.

    The three went inside to find Beverly and Georgie wrestling in the living room, arguing about Bev being ginger. Georgie was convinced she was Irish. Beverly was convinced Georgie is an idiot. Stan started laughing, Bill as well before Beverly glared at the two. Richie went over, pulling Beverly away and up on her feet. Bill did the same for Georgie. Beverly crossed her arms, staring at Richie, who was holding her by the back of the shirt.

    "Sorry, babe, only Eddie's stare works on me-" "I WILL KISS YOU."

    Everyone stared at Beverly, confused, baffled, bewildered, disoriented if you will.

    "What would kissing me d-" "Shut you up and distract you so I can tackle that little gremlin." Richie slowly put his hand over his heart, pretending to be deeply offended. "I'm so upset. You think I'm that dumb," Richie said in his best, fake offended voice. "If you want to kiss me, just say so," Richie grinned. No one laughed. His smile wiped off his face, he sighed. "Just don't fight in my living room please. Do that outside,"

    Richie suddenly felt off, but shrugged it away. He didn't want to ruin the moment again.

    "Anyways," Stan started, reaching for his pocket. "I brought a peace offering," He joked, holding up a pack of cigarettes. "Because I lost your last one, Rich," Stan smiled and tossed them to Richie, who didn't react. Richie jumped when the pack hit him, immediately picking it up off the floor to put in his pocket.

    "Thanks," Richie flatly said, staring out the window.

    "What's wrong now?" Georgie asked, a bit annoying, reasonably.

    Richie just laughed, "Balloon, at the drain," was all he got out before they all heard a loud pop from outside.

    "Holy shit, no," Stan mumbled, grabbing Bill's arm. Georgie was only confused.

    "What's so bad about a balloon that popped? Some kids were probably just messing around," Georgie said, looking to the window. Beverly grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. The group crowded near the wall, away from the window. "What is it?? Is someone gonna explain??" Georgie groaned.

    "Beep beep, Georgie," Beverly said.

    "Hey, that's for me," Richie glanced away from the window to look at Beverly, then instantly back to the window.

    "Beep beep, Richie," Stan retorted to Richie's comment.

    The group stayed where they were for some time, waiting for something, anything. Nothing happened. Richie let out a sigh and the other three did as well, Georgie being even more confused.

    "Can you explain NOW?" Georgie went to sit on the couch, the others doing the same. Bill sat next to Georgie, Stan at the end of the couch next to Bill. Beverly and Richie squished at the other end, even though they had room. They wanted to be close.

    "Georgie.. Things, h-..Huh-huh-happened, while you were gone. H-Horrible things. It's where we got all our s-s-scars from. Mental and physical ones," Bill started, looking at Richie desperately but silently asking for help.

    "There was a... A killer- Uhm.. A killer on the loose. Kids kept going missing. We thought you were one of the killer's victims, until recently of course. He kidnapped Beverly. We all went to save her, because police didn't believe us. Neither did our parents. Beverly had... Seen her father die. By the killer's hands. Then he took her. We went to find her, the only place we thought to look was uh.. Sewers. No one thinks to look there but children. We all had to fight a grown ass adult. Stan got his scars from it, I got my scars from it, we all got scars from it. Eddie broke his arm before that event, fighting the same guy with fail. I guess... It was personal," Richie clenched his fists, feeling a lot of anger swell up in him. "The guy dressed as a clown to lure kids in. Used red balloons specifically. He was a cannibal, kidnapper, killer, torturer, loved to see children scared. Everything you could ever imagine is evil into one body, one being, one evil fucking being. Managed to know all of our secrets, all of our fears, all of our weak points. The only reason we killed..." Richie stared at the ground as he came to a realisation. "Tried to.. T-Tried to kill him, or at least scared him off was because he had Bill and I beat him with a bat. He-... Ran away.... I really fucking hope he's dead," Richie finished, laughing nervously. He felt like he was going insane. The Losers all were realising what Richie had.

    "Everyone's fine now. Totally," Richie laughed again. "Just some trauma.. Scars. I need to shut up, beep beep, me, fucking hell.." Richie resting his face in his hands, groaning quietly.

    "And I thought I had it bad," Georgie said.

    "Hey, no, don't say that. We all had shit happen. It's all traumatic," Stan explained, holding Bill's hand tightly.

    "W-W-We'll get through all of it t-t-t-together," Bill spoke quietly, ruffling Georgie's hair up. "But I-I-I need you to puh-puh-puh-puh-promise me something, Georgie."

    "What is it, Billy?"

    "Stay with one of us at all times in Duh-Duh-Duh-Duh-Derry. At all times. T-T-T-This town isn't what it m-may seem to be," Bill looked at Georgie. "I know you're 13. Y-You probably think you can tuh-tuh-tuh-take care of yourself, b-but you can't yet. We b-barely.." Bill took a breath, "We barely survived. I don't need you d-d-d-d-dying on me, o-o-okay?"

    "Okay, Billy.." Georgie said after careful consideration, understanding the seriousness of the situation. He leaned onto his older brother, looking tired. "I just wanted to eat breakfast with you guys."

    "Fucking tell me about it," Richie groaned, standing up to clear the table and do the dishes.

    That night, Richie and Beverly slept together again. Bill was on the floor of the bedroom, Georgie also there. This was only because Richie's parents knew to knock first, unless it was serious or an emergency, and none of them wanted the Tozier parents to know about Bill and Georgie. They would insist on calling their parents, and that would not be good. They can do that tomorrow.

    The Losers all shared dreams that night. What they were, I can't say. They were personal, okay?

    When the woke up, I can tell you, they woke up at about 8:57am with great feelings of anxiety, especially Richie.

    It was a familiar anxiety.

Meanwhile..

    "Ben! Hurry your ass up!" Eddie shouted, trying to hold a small suitcase and adjust his backpack while running from his neighbourhood.

    "I'm faster than you, I just have more stuff!" Ben replied, catching up to Eddie.

    "I know, dumbass, but my mom woke up!" Eddie could distantly hear his mother screaming her stupid nickname for him, he couldn't tell if he actually heard it or imagined it. Either way, this duo was running away. It was about 9am. Eddie had woken up early to pack everything, running as fast as he could out of the house. His mother was already awake, of course, and tried to stop him. She was much too slow. Ben had been waiting outside of Eddie's house.

    "My mom is waiting at the library. Your mom will have finally realised to call the police by the time we get to airport, right?" Ben teased, though he wasn't completely wrong. Eddie's mom probably would pass out from fear before calling the police.

    "Currecto-Mundo," Eddie said without thinking.

    Ben laughed. "You sound like Richie."

    Eddie hummed in response. He had been thinking of Richie a lot the past two days. I mean, he's literally running away just to go to the town he does not want to return to but will for this curly, black-haired boy with glasses frames Eddie remembered being too big for him. Eddie was doing all this for Richie. Eddie suddenly felt anger swell up, quickly replaced by an empty feeling. Eddie felt as if he had been hit in the chest, short winded. He reached for his pocket, then cursed himself for still having that habit. Eddie caught his breath, him and Ben walking in a comfortable silence.

    "Hey, could I ask a maybe uncomfortable question?" Eddie broke the silence finally, adjusting his backpack strap again.

    "I may or may not answer, but sure," Ben replied.

    "How long have you, uh.. Been working on your weight?" Eddie awkwardly asked, rubbing the back of his neck for a moment.

    "Since I moved. I have this scar, I don't yet remember from where or.. Who, I guess. I hated seeing it every day, and the bullying. Wanted my high school experience to be less bully-filled, you know?" Ben explained, yawning.

    "Oh. I get it," Eddie responded, spotting the library in the distance.

    The car ride to the airport was about 30 minutes, Eddie lived that close. His mother wanted that in case of emergencies. She was fucking crazy.

    Eddie knew he was gonna return to Derry. He didn't remember anything but his friends, and some terrifying nightmares he had when he lived there.

    One of his favourite memories, which happened to annoy him as well, was fighting over a hammock. With Richie, of course. Eddie fought him for the room, hitting him on his face with his foot. Richie hadn't seriously cared. That fucker was probably really happy Eddie even tolerated his stupid sense of humour, his dumb fashion sense, and of course his jokes that either landed perfectly or missed completely. Eddie stared out the window as he tried to imagine what Richie looked like now. All he got was a blurry interpretation of a tall, curly-haired 17 year old. Or was Richie 18? Either way.

    The flight was only about an hour or so long. Maine wasn't that far. The two would have to find some way to get to their section of Derry, the airport they were now at was 30 minutes away from their childhood town.

    Ben had gotten bus tickets. As much as Eddie hated public transportation, his love for the Losers stood stronger. Much stronger.

    Eddie and Ben took time on the bus to share memories with each other, remembering more little by little. Eddie also took notice of Ben's features now that it has been 5 years. Ben had been hit by puberty as much as Eddie, but Ben made his own puberty. He had been working out, dieting, all of that. His hair was well taken care of, he had light stubble. Eddie shaved whenever he saw facial hair. He just didn't like it. Ben on the other hand rocked it. Eddie had always seen Ben as someone who could be angered when you pushed the right buttons, but without knowing him now, Ben looked badass. If Eddie didn't have Richie on his mind, Ben might find his way in there at times. Actually, he was already in Eddie's train of thought, but Eddie couldn't look away. He felt his ears get warm as Ben stared at his notebook, oblivious to Eddie currently. Ben was trying to find something he had written sown a while ago. Eddie took this time to really study Ben, taking in any detail he recently missed. Ben's hair was very well taken care of, fluffy, unlike Richie's hair which Eddie remembered always being slick and stuck to the boy's face. Ben had a straight posture, defined shoulders, everything a woman would want in a man. Eddie was not a woman. Was that stopping him from thinking that to himself? Not at all, no.

    Ben felt Eddie staring at him, but he could literally care less. He had one friend and now he had his old friend back. He didn't care if Eddie stared at him for hours. Ben also knew Eddie was curious, considering Ben looked practically unrecognisable. Ben had been extremely strict on everything that would affect his body in some way, which was essentially everything. Ben finally found what he was looking for, pointing at it for Eddie to look.

    "Found it. It was jumbled in my school notes. I had a vivid dream when napping and had to write it down, this page was the one open," Ben's notes were really neat, but only handwriting. It was actually chaos. Topics changed every sentence, small doodles and shapes filled the previous empty spaces on the page. What the duo were looking for was written at the bottom of the page.

    "Two with different sight. One a gift, the second a mystery. One with the warmth yet burn of the sun, a blessing and a curse. One that stands out, the mind a library on fire. One with the sense of Turtle, everything heightened greatly in the dark. One with access to the Archive. One with the ties to everything, everywhere. An extra, with the power to withstand any wind or rain," Eddie spoke quietly, having to lean close to read Ben's writing. It was tiny to fit the whole thing. "Must've been one crazy fucking dream, that's for sure."

    "A turtle told me it," Ben said flatly. Eddie just snorted.

    "Gotta love all the mentions of turtles with no explanation," he stated. "Also, yesterday, did you like.. Feel sick in the morning? Like at 10am. I just randomly felt nauseous, kind of nervous, then afterwards irrationally scared. Maybe just me."

    "I didn't feel it as strong as you did, but yeah," Ben had always felt a bit odd with his emotions for the past 5 years.

    Eddie hummed a response, leaning his head onto Ben's shoulder and yawned. This whole experience must have been exhausting for Eddie. Ben probably should tell him about the treehouse night, when Ben saw Eddie breaking down. He decided it'd be better to tell him after they got off the bus. They only had like 7 minutes left anyway.

    "Huh," Ben noted. Eddie looked at him, Ben noticed in his peripheral vision. "Nothing. Just.. 7 is occurring a lot today. I woke up at 7:07am, we got to the airport at 10:07, there's 7 main things in the dream thing, and we have about 7 minutes left," Eddie sat back up, looking excited.

    "Holy shit!" Eddie was whisper yelling, not wanting to draw attention in a bus. "We're almost there already? No fucking way," Eddie looked out the window, Ben did as well. He closed his notebook and put it away as the familiar town of Derry passed by. The bus stop had to be only a couple minutes away now.

    Eddie stepped off the bus, taking a deep breath. Ben followed behind him. They thanked the driver then stared out at the town.

    "Yep. Absolute shit, just like we left it," Ben said, completely fucking serious. Eddie and him laughed. "Where are we gonna stay? You know we don't live here anymore."

    "Richie," Eddie said softly, but with confidence. He looked into a big rain puddle near them, feeling drawn to it. He didn't move, but did stare at the puddle. "There's more to this Pennywise shit than we know," the boys shuddered at the name. "And I want to get to the bottom of it. Richie is still living here. I know it. The others are here as well. They don't live here. But they're here."

    "Are you going off gut instinct or like.. Do you stalk them somehow?" Ben teased, Eddie finally looked away from the puddle.

    "No, that's disgusting, I don't want to see what Richie does in his free time," Eddie playfully rolled his eyes, remembering all of Richie's jack-off jokes.

    Ben laughed. The two walked through the town to attempt to remember more, didn't work. Just regular childhood memories. They made their way to the street Stan lived, or hopefully still lives, on. Eddie took another deep breath and they walked to the front porch, suitcases to the side.

    Before either could think about knocking, the door opened to laughter. Bill, their Big Bill, kissed Stan, Stanley, the Stan, on the cheek as they were about to leave. Eddie and Ben stared in shock. Not at the kiss. They didn't care about that. They were more worried that Bill looked like shit and only recently recovered from an ED or some shit. The four all looked at each other. Bill dropped a flashlight, Stan's jaw dropped.

    "What the fuck."

Chapter Text

Howdy y'all

I swear I'm not southern. My family is, but not me-

Anyway howdy howdy howdy everyone welcome to the chapter where I literally just throw information at you and you've gotta figure it out ✨ have fun

Ages;
-----------
Richie: HE'S 18 AND IM A DUMBASS! HIS BIRTHDAY IS MARCH AND IN THE FIC ITS APRIL.
As you can see Im not smart. Ill fix it from chapter 1 :')
Beverly: 17
Mike: 18
Eddie: 17
Stan: 17
Bill: 18
Ben: 17
Georgie: 13

Currently, everyone is in Derry.
Eddie and Ben have yet to see the others, only seeing Stan and Bill so far.

Each Loser has an ability, those will be revealed later.

Beverly and Richie are Bi.
Eddie, Stan, and Bill are gay.
Ben is pansexual.
Mike is just.. confused. He may be aroace-
Georgie literally doesn't give a shit about romance! :D like me

This story takes place 5 years(so 1994) after the first movie. I've (incredibly sadly) never read the books, but what I do know, some of it is mixed with this story, of course with my own creative tweaks. Some of these next few chapters may be genuine fillers from the plot. May do some smut. Idk. Not the best at writing that but hey gotta start somewhere- Anyhow. I've been hinting that Beverly and Richie have some sort of feelings between them but stronger feelings for other people(Eddie and Ben-) so that may be where some smut and/or angst comes in.

That's all I could think of
If you have any questions on other specific things or just regular old Q's go ahead and comment :D

I'm starting to work on another little project. I started playing Undertale again so I'm into that again. Sorry for such a whack schedule and such a rushed plotline lmao, I'll try to do better- But for now posting will be VERY WHACK until I figure it out

Anyway!! Hope you guys like the story so far, consider leaving kudos or sharing to some of your friends? Doesn't matter to me I just like asking 🪩

(Btw. Don't do stupid :D that's my job, keep yourselves safe and keep reading!)

((another cool author: WholeLottaSky !!!))

Chapter Text

Beverly closed her eyes as Richie kissed her neck, one of his hands on her waist, the other trailing up and down her body. She shivered as his hand gently slid down her leg, the gentility of it feeling amazing. How did they get here? Beverly wasn't sure. One second they were saying goodbye to Stan, Bill, and Georgie, the next she was in Richie's bed.

"You seem confused," Richie mumbled through the kissing, sneaking in a bit of licking, he was only doing this because this was all Beverly had said he can do so far.

"What are we doing, Rich?" Beverly opened her eyes.

"Hmmmm.." Richie gently bit at Beverly's neck, kissing over the spot. "Being horny? Taking out built-up feelings on each other? I don't know. You tell me, Bevvie.." Richie practically moaned Beverly's name just to tease more.

"What about.. Eddie? I thought you..." Richie quickly squeezed Beverly's thigh, kissing her neck roughly.

"Mention his name again, I might just act like you're him, my bisexual ass won't mind," Richie huffed. "If you want me or need me to stop, then I will."

Beverly stayed silent for a moment, Richie stopping to look up at her.

"No," Beverly pulled Richie into a messy kiss, both gasping into the others mouth. Beverly ran her hands up to Richie's hair, gripping it. Richie's hand still snaked over Beverly's body, quicker and with more intent. His hand eventually stopped at her waist, his cold skin sneaking beneath her shirt.

They parted from the other, Beverly left out of breath. Richie snuck his other hand up her shirt as well, looking at her for consent. Beverly nodded and he took her shirt off, tossing it to the end of the bed. His gaze travelled down her body. She felt her ears grow warm. As he was distracted, she moved her hand, purposefully fumbling at the end of his shirt. Richie took the hint and pulled his shirt off.

Beverly sat up, resting her hands on his chest. Richie changed their positions so she was on his lap, straddling him. Beverly smiled as he continued his original goal, his kissing and biting and licking trailing down to her chest, above her breasts. He kissed close to her cleavage, suddenly stopping. Beverly felt his breath on her chest.

"Richie.." Beverly's voice was quiet and breathy.

"Mmmh?" Richie hummed, mouth currently occupied on her chest.

"You're not cut out for this," Beverly didn't give Richie a chance to ask what she meant, instead kissing him. She rolled her hips closer to him, Richie's hands finding their way to her waist again.

Beverly kept going, kissing him, moving her hips, kissing him, moving.. Richie's hands tightly gripped onto her waist. He was out of breath, felt dizzy, but in an "I'm okay, it's a good dizzy" sort of way.

Bev finally let Richie catch his breath, stopping her movement much against Richie's opinion. Beverly moved her hands to his pants, undoing the button and zipper. Richie leaned against the wall, eyes closed. Beverly lifted herself up enough, tugging his pants down. Richie moved as well, to help. Once they were off, Beverly moved Richie so he was laying on the bed, Beverly on top of him. She put two fingers at the waistband of Richie's boxers, sliding them down, stopping and pressing down. Richie let out a groan, taking his glasses off. Beverly smiled and started rubbing.

Both of them knew they didn't necessarily want to actually have sex, so this was the closest they would get. They both had stronger feelings for other people, feelings reserved for other people.

Richie's breath grew faster as Beverly continued, small groans and a moan or two escaping from him. Beverly suddenly stopped, moving to kiss Richie. He practically sobbed into the kiss, most likely now uncomfortable without the warmth of Beverly's fingers.

"Hey big guy," Richie couldn't help but laugh quietly at the nickname. "Let's go shower. You first, I'll join after a few minutes. If I'm gonna.. satisfy someone, we all know who it's gonna be.."

Richie nodded and once gathering his senses, grabbed fresh clothes and a towel.

Richie paused as he opened the bathroom door, looking down the hall. He stared at his mother, who had just gotten home from work to grab some lunch. He grinned nervously.

"Just gonna.. Uhhmmm.. Shower? You know- Don't kill me- Or tell dad," Richie looked away and quickly went into the bathroom, starting the shower up.

Beverly grabbed her clothes from the dresser, Richie had given her a towel, walking into the hallway. She noticed Maggie halfway to her and Wentworth's bedroom, staring at Beverly, very confused. Beverly offered her a polite smile, going into the bathroom quickly. Richie was already in the shower. Beverly waited until Richie poked his head out and said she could join.

The two mostly faced away from each other, washing themselves off as the other put in shampoo or conditioner or body wash.

"Do you want to take a bath? To relax. If not it's totally fine and shit just uhh... I don't know really," Richie asked awkwardly, keeping his voice low since the shower doesn't cover all noise.

"Sure. Stan and Bill won't be back for another hour, right?" Beverly let the water wash her body off, sighing at the feeling. The water was cold, only because Richie said, in quote, "mental health is shit, cold water is not."

"Alright. I'll make at least the bathwater warm," Richie chuckled and once the two were done, Richie turned the shower off. He locked the drain, turning the bath on instead. He sat in the tub, squished in. The two decided it would be better to sit next to each other, with their knees up against their chests. They decided this so neither had to sit on the drain. The two stayed in the bath for some time, enjoying each others company.

Richie got out first, drying off quickly and started to put his clothes on. Beverly sat on her knees and rested her arms on the edge of the tub, head resting on her arms. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the remaining warmth of the water.

"Bevvie.." Beverly felt a gentle hand lift her chin up, leaning in to kiss her. She knew it was Richie, yet when she opened her eyes-

"OW! Shit, what the fuck?!" Richie fell back, hand grabbing the top of the counter so he didn't continue his fall. "Beverly, what was that for?! You could've just said no!"

Beverly stared at Richie as the blurriness faded. This wasn't her bathroom, this wasn't her house, she wasn't a kid again... And Richie wasn't her father. Beverly felt herself start to shake, arm lowering back into the water. She looked at her knuckles, which were already red. She had a really strong punch.

"Beverly?? Hello??" Richie was standing now. He had tears in his eyes, only because he was punched in the nose. He furrowed his brow in confusion, feeling blood on his lip. He touched it oh so gently, looking at his finger. There was blood. His nose was bleeding. "Damn.." Richie looked in the mirror then grabbed a first aid kit from the cabinet beneath the sink, started to clean up the blood. "Shit, that's a lot of fucking blood.." The blood had dripped onto the floor and counter before Richie noticed.

"Oh my god.. I'm so sorry, I'm sorry, Richie, oh god," Beverly got out of the bath, grabbing her towel and wrapping it around herself so it stayed up. She reached her hand up to cup the side of Richie's face, but he grabbed her hand before she could. He looked down at her, sighing.

"I didn't mean to, I swear.." Beverly's voice was barely a whisper. She was shaking, terrified in a way.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, Beverly. You know I won't hurt you... If you need me to stop calling you Bevvie then I will, I know your dad called you that.. Is that why you punched me in the nose?" Richie guided Beverly's hand to his shoulder as she calmed down. "Did something.. just snap, and you saw him?"

"Yes." Beverly nodded. "That's why.. But you don't have to stop calling me that," Beverly felt water dripping down her neck and shivered.

"Alright.." Richie pulled Beverly closer and kissed her gingerly. Beverly could taste the sharp, metallic blood leftover on his lips. She deepened the kiss, Richie following her lead soon after.

Beverly pulled away, touching her lips. There was a bit of blood.

"I can't tell if you just literally and really take my breath away, or I'm losing a lot of blood from that punch-" Richie grinned despite blood practically pouring down from his nose, trailing over and around his mouth and down his chin, dripping onto the floor.

"There's no way I caused that.. Holy shit.. You need to- I.. Stop the bleeding for right now and let me change-" Richie did as she said, only waiting a couple minutes. Beverly cleaned the blood that had dripped and then rushed Richie downstairs, hoping Maggie might still be there.

"Mrs. Tozier?? Are you still home??" Beverly and Richie walked into the kitchen, Maggie stood in the doorway to the dining room.

"Yes, I got extra lunch time today- RICHIE!" Maggie almost dropped her sandwich upon seeing Richie. The gauze he had used to hold against his nose had been soaked through. There were three pieces of gauze there!

"I'm fffffine-fine," Richie cleared his throat. "Shit, it's in my throat.." he murmured to himself as Beverly and Maggie led him to the dining table. He sat down and waited for Maggie to return. Once she did,

"How did this happen? What were you doing? How the hell is your nose even bleeding this much?? Did you fall and hit it on the bathtub?!" Maggie was frantically cleaning all the blood up, eventually using more gauze in Richie's nostril to stop the bleeding.

"Beverly punched me," Richie laughed.

"On-On accident! He scared me and my reflexes kicked in, I had no idea I could even punch that hard anyway! It was a triggered punch!" Beverly crossed her arms.

Maggie only sighed.

"It should be fine in a few minutes, I'd give it about 10 or 15," Maggie was a nurse and the mother of the dumbest kid in Derry, so she had most of this memorised.

"Thanks mom," Richie adjusted his glasses and leaned back in the chair.

"I need to get back to work. Don't do.. anything more, please?" Maggie gave them a teasing grin, then gathered her stuff and left.

Beverly sat in the chair next to Richie's. They sat in silence for some time, Beverly tapping her finger on the table.

"My punch wasn't the real reason you bled that much, was it?.." Beverly broke the silence with the question she had been dying to ask.

"No," Richie finally spoke after a few moments. "You know what It was doing.."

"But It's dead."

"Bullshit, we know it isn't. It lives on through our fucking fear, Bev, get that through your damn head," Beverly watched as the leaves of a decorative but alive plant shrivelled at the edges, seeming to math Richie's anger. She didn't question it.

"I'm not an idiot, Rich."

"I never said you were!"

"You implied it."

"As if."

The two sat in silence yet again. Then there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it," Richie grumbled as he took the gauze out, throwing it away. He walked to the door and opened it. Beverly got up and stopped in the entrance area, seeing who was there.

Richie stood, gripping the side of the door with his whole hand. He stared in front of him, fists clenching more and more, nails digging into the door.

"Richie.." Said the teenager. Eddie, who had grown into his looks just like them all, stood in front of Richie. Stan and the Denbrough brothers stood to the side, Ben was to the other side of Eddie. Beverly heard herself gasp, covering her mouth with her hands, a sob escaping her.

Richie slammed the door in Eddie's face before anyone could say anything and stomped off to the backdoor. Beverly rushed to open the door, leaping into Ben's arms. He hugged back tightly, as if he would never let go.

"Richie!" Eddie ran after Richie, following him into his backyard. "Richie, can we please talk?!"

Richie looked down at his feet as the grass surrounding him turned brown and crisp. Dead.

"Could've talked to me anytime in the past 5 years, but you didn't, did you?" Richie couldn't help but turn to look at Eddie, swallowing back all emotion. His breathing faltered as he stared at Eddie. Eddie, who was his childhood crush. Eddie, who was finally back. Eddie, who he knew always loved him romantically or not. Eddie, who was tearing up and about to cry but kept it together for this idiotic, teenage boy.

"You're an asshole."

"I know. Sorry."

"You left me. Us, you left us."

"Yeah. I know."

"Why should I forgive you?"

"..Because I ran away from home to see you."

".."

"I ran away. I defied my mother for only the second time in my life. I rode a bus for you. I cried in a public library for you. I walked through a dirty, muddy, freezing creek 2 feet deep for you. I swear to god, everything I do is for you, Richie, it's all for you. I'm head over heels for you, I'm downright in love with you and- and my dreams are filled with you, my thoughts are always on you, I-... I just can't stop thinking about you.."

Richie saw the grass turn green again, this time brighter and longer. He felt himself crying, but everything Eddie had just said was all he needed ever. Of course, his anxiety-ridden body didn't agree to that. He was shaky and had too much adrenaline he didn't know what to do with.

Richie fell to his knees, almost falling forward before Eddie caught him, hugging him and sobbing into Richie's shirt. Richie grabbed onto Eddie wherever his hands found, half-panicked half-sobbing breaths came from both of them, more so from Richie.

"Why did you leave, why did you leave, why did you leave?!" Richie sobbed, clinging to the shorter boy. "I almost took my life, I almost- I almost- I almost let myself bleed out, why did you leave me?!"

Eddie only hugged Richie tighter. The others eventually came into the backyard as well, only watching and quietly having conversation while the boys let everything out.

They were together again. That's all that matters.

Chapter Text

"Spagheds! Lets get a move on, the movie won't wait on us," Richie called up the stairs, hearing Eddie shuffle out of their room.

"It isn't even time to leave yet, asshole! I have time," Eddie waited at the top of the stairs and Richie rushed up the stairs to help Eddie down. As they walked down the stairs, Eddie buttoned up the rest of his shirt, covering the scar that wasn't healing as well as anyone wanted.

"I know, but that gives us time to do this," Richie took Eddie's hand as he got to the last step, pulling him over and into a kiss. Eddie, out of habit, put his hands into Richie's hair. One of Richie's hands rested on the side of Eddie's neck, the other on his waist.

When Eddie finally pulled away, reaching to his pocket for something that hadn't been there for 28 years. Richie, smile wiped off his face, held Eddie's hands. Eddie looked at the ground, embarrassed.

"You don't need that."

"I still feel like I do, Richie."

"You know what I feel right now?"

Eddie looked back up at Richie, sighing. He nodded.

"Horny as fuck because I have the hottest husband in the world."

"Richieyoufuckungdickwad!" Eddie slapped Richie on the arm, not being able to stop the smile that grew on his face

"It's true! All of it!"

"I'm married to a horny, hairy, piece of shit, aren't I?" Eddie looked at Richie as they walked to the living room. Richie sat on the couch, smirking as he pulled Eddie over again.

"Yeah. And I'm married to someone who wants to fuck a horny, hairy, piece of shit," Richie winked as he grabbed Eddie, putting him on his lap. Eddie laughed, followed by Richie. Couldn't help but notice Eddie stopped abruptly, grabbing at his chest in pain.

Bill gasped through his nose, hands shooting up to Stan's shoulders to push him away. Bill coughed for a bit and leaned on the wall, his friends trying to say things to him. He couldn't hear them, all he heard was ringing and the voices of those adults he just saw, of Richie and Eddie just grown up. He still saw them when he opened his eyes until it suddenly all stopped and it went silent. Bill was staring at Richie and Eddie right now. They were back to normal. Bill slid to the ground and started to take deep breaths, calming himself.

"Bill? What the fuck just happened?" Upon getting only a terrified stare from Bill, Stan moved to sit next to him, putting an arm around his shoulders.

"Bill?" Eddie's voice came through to Bill clearer than any other voice, it suddenly mixed with the voice of the older Eddie that Bill had just seen. Bill started to breathe quicker.

"What's happening to him? Billy?!" Georgie walked into the kitchen, much to the Losers disapproval. They didn't want him to see his older brother this way.

"Guh-Guh-Georgie-" Bill couldn't help but tear up, desperately trying to calm down.

The Losers all sat in Richie's living room. Bill, shakily holding a cup of water, was next to Stan. Richie and Eddie sat very close to each other, quietly talking. Beverly sat quietly, glancing at Bill every so often. Ben sat next
to her, Georgie was on the floor at Bill's feet. Mike was yet to arrive.

"Your eyes were white," said Beverly.

"What?" Bill spoke quietly. The room went silent as Richie and Eddie put their attention to the current problem.

"They were white. Like what happen to mine. When I saw Richie try to-" Beverly stopped herself as Richie tensed up, staring at her. Stan, Beverly and Richie were the only ones in the room to know, and Richie had a light hoodie on.

"Try to what?.." Eddie's quiet voice practically broke the three that knew, not wanting him to know.

"Try to.." Beverly looked at Richie.

"Hey, Georgie?" Richie stood up and grabbed his walkman. "How about you listen to some music? I.. I don't want you hearing this, okay? ..Sorry," Richie quickly added, handing the walkman to Georgie.

"Woah. I remember Bill having one of these! Sweet!" Georgie took it without question, putting the headphones on and turning it up enough that everyone else could ever so faintly hear it.

Richie didn't sit back down, instead he fumbled with the end of his hoodie, looking both terrified and guilty.

"I, um.." Richie cleared his throat. "I didn't really. D-Do so well after Bill.. Ran away.... Fuck, what am I saying, I was fucking horrible! I was wasted every other night, I was yelling at Mike and Stan every chance I got, I had no respect for anyone or myself, and-.... And, I-" Richie gulped and ran his hand through his hair, tears threatening to poor down his face. He pulled the hoodie off and let out a breath he was holding, sitting back down next to Eddie.

"I tried to kill myself."

Richie's voice was extremely quiet, almost scary compared to his usual loudness. The room went silent once again, other than Nirvana quietly playing through the walkman.

Stan and Beverly exchanged glances. Bill stared at the ground, tears streamed down his face but he made no sound. Ben was trying to process it all, slowly coming to accept it.

And then Eddie. Oh fuck, Eddie. Richie wanted to scream, throw things, he wanted to put himself back in that damn bathtub but this time without his parents coming to save him. Richie stared at Eddie and only Eddie, waiting for a response.

Eddie's breath was shaky and he kept wiping away new tears that ran down his face. Richie gently pulled Eddie over and hugged him. He kissed a little bit under Eddie's eyes a couple times, as if he was kissing away the tears, he wasn't really sure what he was doing. It wasn't as if they hadn't kissed each other before.

"Bill's eyes were white. Just like mine in Neibolt, and just like mine when I saw Richie try to kill himself," Beverly finally broke the silence.

"Y-You.. Saw h-h-him try?" Bill's hands were shaking more now and he had to set the cup down.

"Yes. I was at theatre practice, and... I had an episode," Beverly leaned back onto the couch, sighing.

"Oh, Jesus.." Stan covered his face with his hands. "This is all so fucked up, it's all fucked up."

"Yeah.. We know, Stan.." Richie ran two fingers up and down his other arm. The scars were deep, they had been so deep as cuts that Richie's arm felt more like a Cheez-It groove now, but that's a futuristic reference for you guys since I can't compare it to anything else.

"Bill, why did your eyes go white? You couldn't have seen any of us except maybe Mike. Did something happen to Mike?" Beverly sat on the edge of the couch now. All the Losers present did, waiting for his response.

"No-No, I-.... I suh-suh-suh-see things. Th-That's all," Bill looked at his hands as Stan stared at Bill.

"Bullshit. You've said that before. To me. Before you left," Bill shrunk in Stan's stare, despite Stan being the shorter of the two. "Will you at least tell us what you fucking see this time, Bill?"

"I-I SEE US! O-O-Okay?! All of us. Not willingly. I saw Eddie and Richie, Eddie- He-.." Bill's breath caught in his throat and he swallowed back tears. "He had a healing wound on his chest. A bad one," Beverly tensed as Bill talked in a hushed tone. "I-I-I-It seemed to-to be from..... F-F-F-From P-P-P-P-P-Pennywise."

Eddie and Richie were holding the others hand tightly. Eddie went pale

"Oh god, no, so it was true- No-" Beverly was visibly shaking and Richie, being either a dumbass or just knowing what to do(probably both), got up and walked her outside. To smoke, of course.

Bill sat with his face in his hands, quietly sobbing.

"Come on, Bill.." Stan gently took Bill's hand and took him to the kitchen. Georgie took the headphones off and looked to Eddie for explanation. Eddie sighed and suggested a board game. Georgie agreed.

In the kitchen, Bill held Stan close.

"What did you see? What did you see that made you leave, Bill?" Stan rested his forehead on Bills chest.

"...Y-You- But, but I also saw Guh-Guh-Georgie-" Bill spoke through the sobs, stopping to calm down and stop crying. "I s-s-s-saw Guh-Georgie back w-w-w-w-with me, we were older, much o-o-older, a-a-and I just had to go look for him, S-Stan."

"What did you see of me?"

Bill hesitated. "N-N-Not much."

"You're lying."

"F-F-F-F-F-F--FUCK!" Bill turned his head to not scream into Stan's ear. Stan had gotten used to that happening when Bill was frustrated or upset.

"Everything okay in there, guys??" Eddie's voice came through from the living room.

"It's okay! Just Bill's stutter," Stan pulled away, only enough to look at Bill.

"Take your time. Tell me what you saw, Bill... Please.." Stan normally didn't result to seeming more upset than he really was, but maybe he was right now, or maybe he just wanted the answer.

"..Y-You k-k-k-k-k-k-k-k-JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! YOU FUCKING KILL YOURSELF, STAN! A-ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?!"

"STOP FUCKING YELLING AT ME!"

Bill quickly and gently pushed Stan away. He leaned against the counter, crossing one arm with the other up to cover his face. Stan didn't realise it at first. He was angry, but also scared at the fact Bill implied he will kill himself, not that he might. Stan had always considered doing that if It came back, but he never thought he actually would.

"I'm s-s-sorry for y-y-y-yelling..." Bill's voice was quiet.

Georgie, Eddie and Ben hesitantly walked into the kitchen. Georgie wanted to hug his brother but also didn't want to cause anything. Eddie was the one who stepped up.

"Bill, let's go.." Eddie spoke softly as he walked back out of the kitchen, Bill following.

Stan walked to the sink, leaning on the counter with his hands. He turned the water on and put one hand under it.

"For fucks sake, just go, Jesus Christ.." Stan didn't hear them leave over the running water, but he assumed they left.

Stan washed his face with the cold water, trying to process what had happened. Ben and Eddie were back. Richie had attempted. Bill sees the future. Stan was going to attempt and succeed. Eddie was going to get stabbed by It. Holy shit, that's a lot.

"I thought I told you to go!" Stan turned as he finished drying his face, expecting Ben or maybe Eddie. Instead he was faced with Bill. Not.. his Bill. This was the 13 year old who hadn't yet grown tall. The boy who hadn't gotten over his stutter, the bot who blamed himself for Georgie's disappearance. The boy Stan had fallen in love with.

Stan stared at him. His auburn hair, the horrible haircut he somehow made look acceptable, his undeveloped fashion sense. This younger Bill sighed and looked down, then up at Stan, eyes slightly squinted.

"You promised.."

Stan eventually nodded, holding back tears.

"Don't break it."

Another nod.

"I hate you," Stan said, monotone. Then he smiled. Just like that summer.

Stan walked past the younger Bill, who was maybe a hallucination, maybe a trick from It, who fucking knows. He didn't look back and instead found the other four. He stood in the doorway, not saying anything. He blinked, and when opening his eyes again, the other four were freaking out.

"The fuck is up with Richie's lights? Who forgot to pay the bills??" Eddie stood up. Bill stood as well, holding Georgie close.

"I d-d-d-don't think it's the luh-luh-lighting system.. M-Mrs. and Mr. Tozier have g-good jobs," Bill looked around the room, eyes stopping at Stan. Stan got flushed and looked away, clearing his throat.

"The fuck are you four going on about?" Stan looked back and kept calm. "The lights are perfectly fine. Can you see something I can't?"

"Uh, yeah. The lights went out, could be from not paying electricity bills, a faulty wire, or.... You know" Ben explained, refusing to say It.

"No they aren't??" Stan looked at the lights. It didn't burn his eyes. "What the fuck?.. They are off-" Stan finally turned back to look at where the younger Bill had stood. In his place was a rogue red ballon.

"Oh fuck, oh shit, no, holy shit- I'm going to leave, there's a FUCKING balloon," Stan backed into the living room and felt Eddie stop him.

"Stan, we can't see shit. The only light is coming from the windows and the backdoor. How can you see?" Eddie pulled a flashlight from his pocket.

"I've always been like this, you guys know that! In the sewers, in Neibolt, I was never confused or squinting! The only reason we got lost down there was because it turned into some fucking maze, but I could still see! I could hear every fucking water droplet, I could see everything, I could hear everything, everything I touched felt ten times grosser down there," Stan rambled as Eddie turned the flashlight on. Ben whispered something in Eddie's ear.

"I fucking heard that, what Turtle shit are you going on about this time? Heightened senses? Big whoop, had them my whole life. Point the flashlight into the kitchen already," Stan closed his eyes for only a second, and when he opened them again Eddie was shining the light into the kitchen. Stan's eyes adjusted as quick as he could blink, except he hadn't blinked. The light shined on a boy, hanging from the ceiling. Stan first assume it was him. Then the boy slowly spun and Stan saw the black, curly hair and the too-big glasses. The hanged Richie faced them now and Stan had to cover Eddie's mouth so he wouldn't scream. Eddie's tears got all over Stan's hand. The hanged Richie had blood pouring out of his forearms, skin much paler than normal, and eyes bloodshot. It suddenly smiled.

"You could be one of us, Stan. One of us. Floating." The Fake-Richie laughed as a fake Stan and Bill stood from behind the counter, demonic screaming coming from them. The Fake-Stan had two cuts going down his arms and the Fake-Bill seemed to have been drowned. Stan grabbed Eddie's hand and ran outside, Ben and Bill grabbed Georgie and followed as quickly as possible.

"What the hell is going on?!-" Richie put his cigarette out as Eddie ran and hugged him tightly, sobbing into his chest. They fell to the ground as Richie comforted Eddie, who was having a panic attack at this rate.

"Eddie, honey, you need to breathe," Beverly sat next to them and helped Richie, guiding Eddie through breathing techniques.

Georgie screamed as they all heard banging on the back door, which currently was only being kept closed by Ben. The Fake-Richie was banging on it, soon joined in by the Fake-Bill and Fake-Stan. They were all screaming at The Losers, yelling gibberish.

"What the fuck is that, what the ACTUAL FUCK is that?!" Richie tried to stay calm for Eddie but just couldn't. How could anyone?

"It's not real! It's n-n-n-not real!" Bill mumbled this to himself but still went to help Ben keep the door closed. Eventually, the fakes went silent and walked into the house, disappearing to everyone because of the darkness inside and the reflection of the glass door.

"My mom! My mom, she- Oh, fuck!" Richie tried to leave Eddie but Eddie insisted on following him.

"There's n-no way y-y-you're going in t-t-t-t-there," Bill and Ben still stood in front of the door.

"What else do you suggest, dipfuck? Go around to the front and beg my mother not to go into her own house because there's dead versions of three of us in there?!" Richie ran his hand through his hair, getting it out of his face.

"Y-Y-Y-Y-You know you c-c-cant, Richie! D-D-Don't be so stubborn!" Bill crossed his arms.

Richie fell silent,

As did the others.

His arms fell to his sides, some of his hair fell back into his face.

"Stubborn?" Richie laughed. "You wanna talk to me about stubborn? Who's the one who went off by himself just to find his brother?! Who's the one who dragged us down into a goddamn HELLhouse for his brother?! Who was the one who fucked up our lives all because he wanted his brother?! I'm not the damn stubborn one, I'm being fucking rational and so help me, Bill, I will NOT hesitate to punch you for payback when you punched me 5 fucking years ago! Or did you forget that too?! You ALL fucking forgot! Except you, Stan. We're chill. Sorry I'm yelling at your know-it-all boyfriend, Stanuel, but I do not want to see my mother DIE by a demonic, crazy-ass version of MYSELF THATS MOCKING MY OWN SUICIDE!" Richie started to catch his breath, grabbing a pocket knife from, well, his pocket. "And unlike you, Bill, I didn't do anything when my sister died, because that was my own fucking problem. I got through it without dragging my friends through hell, but I'm not letting my mother die either," Richie started to push Bill away. "Now move."

No one stopped Richie from going into his house with Eddie. In fact, Beverly joined them. The rest silently went to the front to wait for Richie's mom to get home.

"Rich? I don't like this. I really don't fucking like this, this was a horrible plan-" Eddie was in between Richie and Beverly as they went to the basement in single-file.

"You'll be alright, Spagheds. You know I love you, I wouldn't put you in harms way.. Well, I wouldn't put you in harms way for the fun of it, at least..." Richie got to the bottom of the stairs and stopped. Eddie held his breath as he heard the gentle, quiet movement of water. Richie gingerly moved Eddie's hand to shine into the basement. There was about 4 inches of water covering the floor.

"Shit. My basement has carpet!" Richie sighed dramatically as he walked into the water, starting to look for the panel that has the emergency power. Beverly followed after, and Eddie hesitated at the step. "Eds! Let's go! I need light!" Richie called for him and Eddie answered with a shriek cut short. Eddie was in the water. It was somehow much, much deeper. He was not drowning. Not being pulled down. He was carefully drifting down, air bubbles slowly floating up from his face. He watched as a hand grabbed his flashlight then tried to find him. Something stopped the hand from reaching further down. Eddie faintly heard banging on the floor, his friends yelling for him. He closed his eyes as he felt his body reach the bottom. It was smooth wood. He felt calm. He felt like he was at home. He was used to this. How familiar..

The light from above went out and the water rapidly drained, yet Eddie lay still as if he was a statue. He heard Richie yell for him one last time before he slipped into unconsciousness.

Richie splashed into the water, desperately trying to somehow reach Eddie. Beverly was yelling for him to calm down, he only stopped when the lights turned on. There was a loud, high-pitched sound, so much so that the two covered their ears and closed their eyes. When they opened them again, everything was dry. As if there had never been water. The power was back to normal. Richie stared at the ground in disbelief, sitting on his knees. All he could do was try to breathe as Beverly hugged him.

Eddie was gone.

Chapter Text

Eddie opened his eyes to Richie, but.. younger? Like back from that summer.

"Heya Eds. Glad you finally woke up," Richie grinned and helped Eddie up. Eddie realised he was also a kid again, still shorter than Richie. He looked down to a yellow shirt with Coca-Cola in red on it, his old red shorts and fanny pack. There were scabbed scratches on his knees and he had on only socks. "I was tempted to kiss you with you all sleeping-beauty like," Richie continued as he led Eddie through rows and rows and rows of bookshelves. "But then I realised that's a bit stupid-" Owls of all species flew around, moving books, papers, files, photos, and artefacts. There were Maine Coons pulling small baskets of of the same things around. The animals knew where to put them and where to take them.

Richie took Eddie to a clearing of all the shelves. A statue of a turtle loomed over them in the very middle. The ceiling rounded and sunshine came through the stained glass, beautiful colours cascading down to reach the floor. Eddie gasped, stopping in his tracks. It was amazing.

"Eds? Why'd you stop?" Eddie snapped back to attention as Richie turned back, walking up to Eddie.

"You're not actually Richie, are you?" Eddie was surprised by his voice, he forgot how squeaky he was as a kid.

"I can be if you want to be." Richie smiled.

"What the fuck does that mean?"

"Well, if you would much rather hang around Stan or need Bill's advice, maybe Beverly's kindness, then they would be here for you. Of course, you'd have to find them, there would be no fun if they just walked up to you." Richie, Fake-Richie, whatever, adjusted his glasses and then sneezed, having to adjust them again.

"So you're some dick pretending to be Richie?"

"No! I am Richie! Just.. Only how you remember him. I swear to God, Eds, I wouldn't pull something like that. HE may be mysterious but HE isn't a dick, think of me like Richie except sometimes I'm not as annoying to comply to your needs when you need to just calm down!" Richie held Eddie's hand again and led him to a door that wasn't connected to a wall. It was just a door. Eddie noticed there were some more of those around.

"What is this?" Eddie sighs.

"A door."

"Where the fuck does it lead?"

Richie shrugged then went over to one of the Maine Coons and attempted to pick it up. The cat let Richie, even though it was bigger than his torso. Eddie smiled at the interaction while Richie spun slowly with the cat in his arms, which was licking his cheek.

"Eddie!" Eddie turned around to see no one there.

"Spagheddie!! Do you wanna know where we are?" Richie placed the cat down and pet it's head before letting it go back to work.

"I've been wanting that since you woke me up."

"I knew that. I just wanted to annoy you." Richie grinned and led Eddie to the door again. He opened it and they walked through, ending up in another section of the library. This section was about 5 floors with large ladders and twisting, turning staircases.

"It's called the Archive. It keeps information on everything and everyone that has ever happened and lived. You know- Just in case," Richie picked up a book. It had no title or any words on the hard cover. It was a deep, royal blue with shiny gold and white accents. Richie opened it to the first page. Words appeared before their eyes, 'Bill Denbrough' in fancy, shiny letters. Richie turned to the beginning of the book. The same thing happened, tiny but readable words appearing on the page. Eddie caught one thing before Richie closed the book. '-involved in a car accident'. Eddie just sighed. He recalled Bill explaining the accident to The Losers more than once, only when they asked. Never did he explain it for no reason.

"The Archive is run by Maturin, remember him? Turtle guy? Well, anyways," Richie continued without letting Eddie answer. "He just kinda wanted this? So.. He made it. You know? No mortal, much less human, has been here before. You're important, Spagheds," Richie beamed at Eddie yet again. The Archive lights flickered twice then went to normal. The sunlight slowly dimmed, night sky.. The Universe showing through the windows.

"You gotta go," Richie placed the book down and looked at Eddie.

"Will I see you again?" Eddie felt connected to this Richie. Probably because he had missed the real Richie too much.

Richie smiled. "Of course, Eddie my love." And with that, Eddie closed his eyes. He felt Richie place a soft kiss on his cheek and smile.

Then The Archive simply fell away.

Chapter Text

Eddie burst out of the water of the bathtub, choking on the air. He took rough, deep breaths and gathered his senses. He finally looked to his side and saw Bill, Richie, and Beverly frozen in spot, it appeared the boys were fighting over a necklace. Eddie pushed his hair out of his face.

"Why the fuck does it look like you guys were all gonna take a bath together?" Eddie realised the water was cold and shivered slightly. Beverly had a bra and shorts on, nothing The Losers hadn't seen before. Richie had on no shirt and then shorts, Bill was the same. Meanwhile Eddie was fully clothed, freezing, and dizzy.

"W-W-W-Where the h-h-hell did you come fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-from?" Bill stood normally, handing the necklace to Richie. Richie didn't take it.

"Oh my god, you're back.." Richie put his glasses back on and sniffed, going over to help Eddie out of the bathtub. "Where did you go?! What happened? Are you hurt?!" Eddie stared at Richie for a few moments.

Eddie's eyes rolled back before closing and his body went limp, falling onto Richie. Bill helped get Eddie someplace else, into new clothes, and kept warm. The Losers gathered in Richie's room to check on Eddie. Georgie was with Richie's parents, who promised not to contact the Denbroughs.

"At least look away, Jesus Christ-" Richie felt his ears redden just as he felt the stares of 'The Three Bs', Bill, Ben and Beverly. They were the only ones(including Eddie but he's passed out) who hadn't seen him shirtless in 5 years. Beverly had, but only in the.. 'Heat of the moment', and hadn't studied anything. Richie had more scars on his body. He just didn't tell anyone about those until he was rushed to the hospital. Richie was facing his dresser, gripping the shirt he was going to put on.

Richie stared at the shirt and took a shaky breath, finally putting it on. Beverly and Bill had borrowed some of his shirts as well. Beverly was completely swimming in it while it fit Bill perfectly.

"Sorry, Richie.." Ben mumbled, looking at the ground.

Richie hummed a response then went and sat on the edge of his bed, next to Eddie. He moved some hair out of Eddie's face, taking in his features. He really had grown, and Richie had missed it..

"We gotta find out where Eddie went," Mike finally spoke up. Richie nodded in agreement, followed by the other three.

"So we're ignoring that Bill, Richie and Beverly were gonna take a bath together?" Stan crossed his arms.

"I've done worse, Stanny," Richie looked at Stan and grinned.

"Don't remind me." Stan rolled his eyes

"It's not like I haven't bathed with you guys before. I didn't give a shit back then, I still don't now," Beverly explained. Bill simply shrugged, not having a reason.

"Guys, the point of this conversation?" Mike spoke up again.

"Right. Sorry, Mike," Stan apologised.

The Losers all got comfortable in Richie's room and talked. They discussed possibilities, but most seemed inaccurate or plain out stupid.

They'd have to wait til Eddie woke up. Does he even know where he was?

Chapter Text

"What the fuck am I supposed to do?! Bill's eyes are white! What did we do for Beverly that time? I fucking forgot!" Stan was holding Bill's arm, scared to let him go in case he were to.. Float, or something.

"Ben kissed her!" Richie stood next to Eddie, Beverly on the other side of him. Beverly looked confused.

"That's how you woke me up?!" Ben looked at Beverly and nodded nervously. "..Glad it was you, Ben."

"Straight people, ugh," Richie joked.

"Richie, need I remind you-" "Shut up Beverly! They don't need to know that!"

"Shut up! Everyone shut up!" Eddie was still one of the smallest in the group, but he was still one of the loudest. "Just kiss him. That's what worked for Beverly, and you and Bill... You have a thing, right?" Eddie looked around awkwardly. All The Losers had liked Bill at least once for one moment. Then it was Beverly.

Stan flushed and stared at the ground.

"Stanuel, I swear if you don't do it, I will," Richie crossed his arms. Eddie looked at him, baffled.

"I'll fight Richie to do it myself," Beverly crossed her arms as well, staring at Stan. Ben just shrugged.

"I will too! Make up your mind, Stan, before this turns into an all-for-one," Eddie rolled his eyes.

"Jesus Christ, do you all like my boyfriend??"

Stan got various nods and yes's from everyone in the room.

"You all say I was everyone's first crush but it was Bill and we all know it," Beverly sighed. "Just kiss your boyfriend."

"Fine, fine!" Stan looked at Bill, who's eyes were still white and he looked paler than Stan remembered. Stan sighed and kissed Bill, after only a couple seconds was he pushed away by Bill, who stumbled back into the wall.

Chapter Text

"Richie?" Bill spoke quietly since it was later in the night.

"What's up, Big Bill?" Richie took his glasses off to clean them. Eddie had woken up to explain what happened, but fell asleep halfway through. It was mostly incoherent gibberish anyways. All they got out of it was that he had been safe. Beverly had also decided to call it a night and laid next to Eddie, drifting off. Stan and Ben were downstairs, getting some late night snacks. Richie sat at his desk, Bill sat in the window, and Mike was reading a book. Georgie was sleeping in Maggie and Wentworth's room, needing sleep but knowing he'd be more comfortable with adults, or parents in this case.

"I-I'm sorry.. For calling you stubborn." Bill sighed and looked outside, to the ground. "I was being s-stupid."

"It's.. Not okay that you said that, but I forgive you. Can't hold a grudge against our great leader Big Bill," Richie continued to clean his glasses.

"Can I a-also ask a question?" Bill looked over at Richie.

"Shoot."

"You had a sister?" Richie dropped his glasses and stared at his wall.

"Shit- I forgot I-... I mean.." Richie cursed himself and picked his glasses up, putting them on again. "Yes. I had two. I.. Only have one now. She's older than me and went off to college 4 years ago. Eddie.. Eddie knew her well. So did Stan, but otherwise whenever you or the others came over she never really showed up."

"O-Oh.. What's her name?"

"Morgan. Morgan Tozier, she was the first born. Then me. Then.... Sophie. Sophie Tozier, my little sister.. Honestly, I don't know what happened to her, but.. She's dead, I'm sure. I just know she is. I just fucking hope that It wasn't the cause. She died a year before Morgan left. So, it lines up with when It awoke.." Richie's voice shook.

Bill nodded solemnly.

"I'm sorry, a-again.. Georgie just.. You know. He was my whole world. I'm sorry about your sister and I hope It didn't cause her death either. I'm sure she was an awesome sister, r-right?" Bill let one leg hang out of the window.

"Imagine me as a girl. That's what she acted like, mostly because Morgan was never around. The day I missed at the last week of school? We held a funeral for Soph. We didn't want to believe she was dead, but.. we had to mourn somehow," Richie stood up and opened his door. "I'm gonna go check on the others, make sure they aren't doing anything stupid."

And with that, Richie walked downstairs and to the kitchen. Stan was playfully yelling at Ben because he apparently "Made the crackers wrong", which he did, they were supposed to be little cracker sandwiches but Ben had taken it literally and put tiny pieces of turkey, lettuce and tomato on them. Richie just laughed it off and made the same amount of sandwiches, except with cheese and turkey. Ben face palmed.

"When I think sandwich, I think.. This," Ben gestured to his cracker sandwiches. "Sorry," he sighed but smiled at the two. They smiled back and grabbed the snacks, taking them upstairs.

"Guess who made healthy cracker sandwiches!" Richie said quietly and placed the snacks he grabbed in the middle of his room, Stan and Ben placed the other snacks there as well.

"RICHIE!" Stan suddenly jolted up, startling everyone who wasn't asleep. Beverly and Eddie were asleep. Mike had gone downstairs with Ben to sleep in the living room. The remaining Losers that were upstairs and awake drank til they forgot or didn't care about the events that had recently happened.

"What?? What's the problem?? No ones dying right? If not there's no reason to yell because my head hurts," Richie sluggishly sat up, setting down the mostly empty glass he had filled with whiskey that he had snuck upstairs a few nights ago.

"We have school tomorrow."

"Oh, shit, that is a problem-" The room fell silent before Richie fell back under his desk, carefully finishing the last couple drops of the whiskey. "Deal with it later.."

"My parents are gonna kill me.." Stan stumbled as he stood, but walked to gather the wine glasses. He put them and the half empty whiskey bottle back to where Richie had them, then stumbled back and fell onto Bill's lap.

"Fuck-" Bill tensed up from the fall but the two were too tired and drunk to fully register any pain.

"Sorry, baby.." Stan slurred his words. He stretched his legs and turned to his side on Bill's lap. It was dark, but Richie could see Bill blush anyway.

"I'm gonna.. Go get water for tomorrow morning.." Richie did as he said he was going to. He stopped at the top of the stairs. Great. He rarely walked well sober, how the fuck was he supposed to do this? He decided to walk normal, but down. So he did.

Maggie jolted up as she heard the banging in the house. Wentworth soon woke as well, Georgie looked to have been awake just before Maggie.

"Georgie, hon, stay here, alright? Wentworth will stay as well," Maggie got up and put a cardigan on over her night clothes. It was most likely Richie or one of his many friends. She just hoped nothing bad happened.

Maggie walked out of her bedroom and to the stairs, and saw Richie sitting at the bottom. He was trying to grab his glasses, which were broken on the ground. Maggie switched the stairway light on and rushed down, careful to avoid the glass. She turned more lights on, Mike and Ben sitting up in disapproval.

"Richard Tozier, what the hell happened?" Maggie spoke calmly as she swept the broken lenses up with a handheld broom and pan. Her son sat against the wall with tears in his eyes and blood on his face. His hands were also bleeding, and he was shaking all over.

"Fell.." Was all he managed to get out.

"Richie, I know you, you couldn't have fallen from the very top unless you had your eyes closed," Maggie rushed to brush all the glass into the trash can. She grabbed some paper towels and folded them, getting them damp to clean up glass bits she may have missed.

"If I tell you... You'll be mad at me?" Richie sniffed and hid his face from his mother.

"Richard Wentworth Tozier. Are you drunk?" Maggie stared at her son as Mike and Ben slowly made their way over, nervous just from Maggie's mom aura. She is a terrifying woman, even more so as a mom.

Richie finally nodded and Maggie let put an exasperated sigh, throwing the paper towels away.

"Everyone who is awake and able, get your ass down here! Wake everyone up!" Maggie went to turn the rest of the lights on. Mike helped Richie to the table. Richie's hands still bled, so did his face. Maggie was glad he hadn't gotten any glass in his eyes.

Wentworth and Georgie were the first to come down. Georgie shied away from everyone and stayed near Mike. Bill and Stan soon followed, going slow down the stairs. Maggie groaned as she realised they were also drunk. Soon Beverly came down, practically carrying Eddie as he was still half asleep. Once everyone was in the room, and Eddie gathered his senses, Maggie spoke.

"Who brought the alcohol?"

The room filled with silence, except for shaky breaths and sobs coming from Richie.

"Went, call 911, Richie has glass in his hands and face," At that demand, Wentworth went to the home phone. Eddie went to Richie, attempting to comfort him. Stan traced some of the scars on his face, Richie's bleeding reminding him of his own wounds from that summer.

"It would be understandable if my son had snuck alcohol into his room, but I just want to know. Was it any of you? I won't call your parents, Mike, or you Stan. Or you, Bill," The three visibly relaxed.

"I-I-I f-fucking snuck it, o-okay?" Richie's voice startled everyone. It was slurred and quiet, coming out stutter-y from his crying. "I-I'm ssorry... It's habit, I-I-I can't-" Eddie hushed Richie as he broke into more sobs. Alcohol either turned Richie's emotions off or cranked them all the way up. In this case, it's the second one. Maggie and Wentworth rarely punished Richie, especially for something such as drinking. It was only because Stan and Bill had drank too, and Maggie was worried they were forced. Stan was Jewish, his parents would die, resurrect themselves, and then kill Stan if they ever found out. Not to mention they also had school tomorrow.

"Stan, you have school tomorrow. Depending on how Richie does in the hospital, he may or may not be there. Please go get some water with Bill and go back to bed. You can sleep in the guest room," Stan and Bill did as she told. "Beverly, Eddie, you can go back to bed or come with us with Richie to the hospital."

Sirens were starting to be heard. Mike and Ben reset their makeshift beds on the couches and sat, awake, listening to everything that was happening.

Maggie and Wentworth helped get Richie to the ambulance, Eddie and Beverly tagged along.

Ben and Mike laid in awkward silence. Neither knew if the other wanted to talk or sleep. Then they heard laughing cut off short by something from upstairs and ultimately decided going to sleep would be better if Stan and Bill were awake upstairs, drunk.

7:30am

Stan stood in front of Richie's mirror, buttoning up his shirt. Bill walked into the doorway and stopped to yawn and stretch his arms.

"D-Do you have to go?" Bill mumbled as he walked to hug Stan from behind, kissing his neck over fading hickies.

"Yes, my parents are probably mad enough, I can't afford to miss anymore. They're out of state for business and can't even get to me if they wanted to. You can come with me if you want, though I'm not sure if it's really allowed," Stan fixed his shirt collar then turned to face Bill, placing his hands on his chest.

Bill made a face then shrugged it off and kissed Stan. Stan's hands shot up to cup Bill's face and they backed up into the counter. "I hate that fucking school," Bill said between the kissing. Stan smiled and bit Bill's lip, hard, and slightly pulled on it. Bill fell short of breath quickly, pulling away. His lip was bleeding now. "T-The fuck was that for?"

Stan grabbed Bill's shirt collar and pulled him much closer, lips just inches apart.

"So you have a reminder all day of what I've missed for a year," Stan smiled as Bill stuttered to find an answer. He found none, gave up, and kissed Stan again.

Stan put one hand on the counter to pull himself up and sit there, being at level with Bill now. He could taste the blood on Bill's lip as their kiss deepened. Stan felt Bill shiver as they made out.

"Stan-" Bill was out of breath but Stanley did not care. "S-Stan.." Hearing Bill desperately try to get air only made Stan more determined to keep kissing him. Stan only stopped when Bill let out a whine, nonverbally begging to stop.

"You're a slut," Stanley said, monotone.

"A-..A-Asshole," Bill rested his head on Stan's chest, trying to catch his breath.

"Payback from last night."

"You loved last night, Stan."

"Shut up. I gotta go to school."

"Fine."

Stan walked down the stairs, stopping at the middle. He gripped the rail and shivered. It was freezing. He was terrified. Stan didn't want to go downstairs in case something was there. He flinched as he heard walking and moving, hearing no voices.

Stan got to the bottom of the stairs and saw Richie walking into the house, bandages on his face and hands, but otherwise okay. He weakly smiled at Stan as he walked to the kitchen to get water. Maggie, Wentworth, Beverly and Eddie all walked in as well. Beverly went upstairs immediately.

"It's our day off. Stan, go ahead and get to school. Your bike is still in the garage," Stan nodded at what Maggie told him as the she and her husband went back to their bedroom. Mike and Ben sat in the living room watching Georgie play Mario on the Nintendo 64. Georgie was really good at it, apparently.

Richie grumbled incoherent things to himself as he went upstairs to get ready. Beverly soon came downstairs, ready for the day.

"HEY LOSERS!" Beverly hopped over the couch and sat between Mike and Ben. "So we're back in Derry, what are we gonna do? Our oh so amazing fellow Losers will be in school."

"I have to go work on the farm, per usual, remember?" Beverly took a moment then nodded and smiled.

"Forgot about that, my bad. Sorry Mikey," Beverly leaned onto Ben.

"I'm up for anything. Maybe going down to the barrens or the quarry?" Ben suggested.

"In what swimwear?" Beverly was now focused on the TV as were the other three, watching Georgie easily beat the boss level.

Ben shrugged.

"It's called a store, guys," Mike sighed as they all laughed. "Just buy some swimwear."

"With what money??" Beverly had money, but that was for her trip back. Her face went neutral at that thought and her eyes drifted to her hands, on her lap. Would she be going back? Her aunt was a sweet lady but she didn't feel at home. This was home, right? Beverly didn't know anymore.

"You can always ask some of us? We have extra saved from stuff," Mike got up and noticed Stan, smiling at him. Stan smiled back and continued making his lunch.

"Well, I guess so. But who's able to give us some other than you, Richie and Stan?" Beverly stood as well, pulling Ben up after her.

"I have money, guys- I built and fixed things for people a lot while I was gone, and I brought it with me," Ben explained as he grabbed his wallet from his pocket. "At least $385?"

The others just stared at him in bewilderment. ($385 is the equivalent to $784 in 2023.)

"Yeah- I know. But we can at least buy what we need now," Ben smiled.

Stan finished making his lunch by the time Bill came downstairs. Stanley put his lunch in his backpack and walked to Bill, getting on his tip toes to plant a simple kiss on Bill's lips.

"Shorty." Bill smiled.

"Shut up." Stan and Bill walked to the garage and Stan grabbed his bike, grateful he had remembered to park it neatly.

"Stan!" Richie poked his head through the garage door. "Your parents are calling you. Tell your mom I say hi." Richie winked and got his bike.

"Ew, no, never in a million years, Richie." Bill held Stan's bike as he rushed into the house to talk to his father. Stan had to explain he was on his way to school right now, and had to hang up on his dad mid-sentence. He may get grounded or something, but right now he'd rather not be late.

12:47pm

Beverly and Eddie were playfully arguing over the topic of dyed hair and how to properly treat it. They continuously splashed the other or forced them underwater for only a couple moments. Up atop the cliff, Ben and Bill were standing, waiting to jump down.

"Biggest splash gets to kiss B-Beverly, and Eddie," Bill looked at Ben.

"She's my girlfriend, and Eddie undeniably likes Richie."

"And? I-I've kissed her before, Eddie too, but only on the cheek. Welcome back to The L-L-Losers Club, we kiss each other for sport."

"That does sound about right." Ben shrugged.

"HEY! WHO-WHOEVER MAKES THE BIGGEST SPLASH HAS TO BE KISSED BY YOU TWO!" Bill shouted down to the other two.

"I'M GONNA KISS YOU SO HARD YOU'LL FEEL LIKE YOU DROWNED!" Eddie shrieked with laughter at his own comment and so did Beverly. Bill laughed quietly.

"Ladies first."

"D-Dude, that's so unfair. I'm not that frail."

"I have abs. I'm more man than you are right now, Bill."

"Fuck y-you." Bill ran and jumped off the edge, taking a breath before hitting the water. He resurfaced and took a big breath, getting the water out of his face.

"8/10," Beverly said, perching on a rock. Eddie stood on part of the rock.

"8 for me as well," Eddie sneezed after giving his rating. Bill swam to the rock and stood behind Eddie.

Ben soon canon-balled after Bill, making a pretty big splash.

"9!" Beverly shouted the moment Ben resurfaced.

"7! Could've had a bigger range," Eddie crossed his arms. "Shit- That makes both of you at 8."

"I'll kiss all of you," Beverly stood on the highest point of the rock, turning to face all three of them at the same time. She smiled.

"R-Richie care if we kiss, Eds?" Bill looked at Eddie. Eddie shrugged.

"I'm not really sure. I'm sure he wouldn't. Not like I would ever fall for two ginger idiots," Eddie grinned.

"Hey, that's my ginger idiot!" Ben stood on the side of the rock on the other side of Beverly, standing next to her, looking shorter.

"I'm auburn, t-t-technically," Bill slicked his wet hair back, keeping the water out of his face. He had let his hair grow out over the year he was gone. It was the same length as Beverly's, but not as well kept or as styled.

"Same fucking thing," Eddie crossed his arms and they stood in silence.

"Another competition idea! We all kiss each other and see who kisses best," Beverly swayed on the rock and Ben helped her down. They had been drinking, but not too much. Just enough to get a little over the edge chaotic.

"I'm fine with that," Eddie agreed.

"It's n-not like we have anything e-e-e-else to do."

"Yeah. No clown. Eddie's arm isn't broken.. Beverly's father is dead. Uh, I'm not leaking hamburger helper," The four laughed at Ben quoting Richie from that summer. While it was terrifying and traumatising, it was a fun summer and they always had something to do.

"I say Beverly will be the best kisser," Eddie got into the water and went back to the small clearing they always dried off in, grabbing his towel and cup of highball. He took a little in his mouth and swallowed, still trying to get used to drinking alcohol, even if it was mixed with soda.

"Aww, thanks Eddie baby," Beverly followed Eddie, the other two as well. She grabbed her towel and started drying off.

"I say Bill or Beverly," Ben said as he dried his face off.

"Really? I think it's you or Eds," Beverly started to dry her hair, which had been kept short all throughout high school.

"No m-matter what, Stan is the best k-kisser. I know he isn't h-h-h-here, but just saying."

"How are we gonna go through with this plan?" Eddie sat on a rock, towel wrapped around him.

The other three shrugged. It was a funny and experimental plan, but would it be too awkward?

"As so," Beverly was the first to step up and decide, just going for it. She kissed Eddie. Bill and Ben turned away.

"N-Never kissed a boy before?" Bill quickly dried his hair and strands fell into his face.

"No. I've only ever loved Bev. But I don't care about gender I guess," Ben smiled at Bill. Bill smiled back and kissed him.

Eddie wasn't prepared for Beverly to kiss him. The alcohol, he found, made him very giggly and relaxed with everything. So he returned the kiss. Beverly was being gentle with Eddie, he appreciated it, but wanted more. For.. Competition reasons? He needed accurate results, you know?

Bill and Ben didn't give two shits about the kiss. They just acted as if the other was their partner. That made it.. Messy.

The four now sat on the rocks, three of them out of breath. The one who wasn't being Eddie, used to being out of breath and able to calm down quickly.

"Beverly's a fucking 10. I don't care anymore. I'm gay, but woah," Eddie couldn't help but smile again. The other three felt warm and tingly, staring at the boy who used to be the tiniest, most paranoid one of them all. Now their little Eddie was grown, drinking alcohol, not caring what his mother might think, and kissing girls and boys. "Bill is a 9. Ben also a 9."

"Beverly is a 10, yeah." Ben smiled shyly. "Bill is a 9, Eddie is a 7. Sorry Eds."

"No, it's fine. I'm not really experienced."

"I p-personally thought that Eddie was an 8. Beverly was 9, Ben was a 7," Bill was true to his word, Stan always was a 10 for him.

"Eddie was a 10 for me. I liked his little giggles of joy when I'd kiss him again. Ben was a 10, he's nice. Bill.." Beverly stopped at Bill. "6. Not as good as I remembered. Guess that stutter going away made you a bad kisser," She grinned mischievously as Bill gawked at her, pretending to be extremely offended.

"W-W-Whatever. You j-j-j-just spoiled yourself with Ben and Eddie before me," Bill teased back.

"Actually, I spoiled myself with Richie before any of you," Beverly dropped her cup as she realised what she said, covering her mouth with her hand. Ben and Bill looked at her, confused, because why would their gay as hell best friend do something with Beverly and not tell them? Eddie looked at Beverly slowly, questioning her silently. "I-I mean..... Shit."

"Did you kiss him or something before we got here?" Ben asked quietly, though not mad.

"Um.. More. We did... A lot more," Beverly looked away from everyone, picking her cup up again. She sighed, standing to get more of her highball mix.

"Did you have sex with my soon-to-be-boyfriend?" Eddie joked, though it came off a bit rude on accident.

"No, but I gave him a handjob through his boxers. We didn't want to get any closer. Our virginity is saved for... O-Other people. Not that I'm a virgin, hah.." Beverly stood facing away from them, slightly shaking.

"What? Wait, who.." Ben sat clueless as Bill and Eddie shared looks.

"Al Marsh, Derry-famous rapist.. It's fine. He found out about my period and... Took care of it. Thank god I hadn't gotten fucking pregnant. I managed to kick him off before the bastard finished and I got dressed on the run to my bathroom and then. Then I killed him, so.. You know the story from there, Bill went to my house and found him dead with a note written in blood, and then you guys found me, and then Ben kissed me," Beverly took a deep breath. "Now we're here," She finally finished. The three sat in silence. They had never had to deal with that. Sure, some dumb catcallers in high school thinking they're funny, but never rape or sexual assault.

"It's fine. It doesn't really affect me anymore. I know it seems bad, but I've gone to therapy for it and I've talked to friends, and I.. Forgot about it until now. I guess Derry is a real shit show, huh?" Beverly went back to where she was sitting, drinking more of her highball.

"I'm sorry that happened, Bevvie," Eddie spoke softly, wrapping his towel around himself more. "I got assaulted in my freshman year, by a senior.. She thought it was funny to do it, thought it was funny how I screamed at her to stop, how I cried.. Needless to say, I did what my mom said for the next 2 years.." Eddie sighed.

Beverly solemnly nodded.

"This got d-d-d-d-depressing fast," Bill said.

"That's Derry for you," Ben agreed.

"I'm getting back in the water to cool off," Eddie got up, leaving his towel on the rock. He took only 2 steps into the water and shot down, disappearing with a splash and a shriek.

Beverly gasped and stood up, Bill did as well. Ben stared at the water in shock.

"It's- It's fine! This happened before, he's gonna show up in an hour or so, right??" Beverly went into the water where Eddie had fallen. Bill took a step back, seeing the water around her legs start boiling and steaming. "He said- he said he was safe last time, but what if he goes somewhere else?! What if he isn't safe, what do we do?!" Beverly turned to look at the other two. Her hair and body was completely dry now, it had all steamed off in the matter of 10 seconds.

"Bev.. You're h-h-h-h-h-hot- Like- F-F-Fuck! You're on fire, almost," Bill stood next to Ben. They felt the heat coming off of Beverly.

"What?" Beverly looked down to see the rising steam and screamed, falling down into the water. She started panicking, breathing quicker and quicker. The water around her was steaming and boiling, her skin was turning red where she was sitting in the water.

"S-SHE'S BURNING HERSELF!" Bill started to run into the water, but Ben stopped him and ran in instead. Ben grabbed Beverly and winced, his hands now red. He picked Beverly up bridal style and ignored the pain, taking her deeper into the water where it was colder and she would cool down.

"Deep breaths, Bev, please, deep breaths, you have to calm down," Ben showed as little emotion as he could despite being in extreme pain from being burned.

Beverly finally started to breathe normally. It was too late for her skin, first and second degree burns also scattered all across her body. Ben's arms, hands, and part of his chest had been burned. All the burns were red, the second-degree burns made their skin peel. Beverly fainted in Ben's arms. Her blood had just boiled.

Richie sat in science, Stan carefully putting precise drops of one chemical into the other. The assignment was to figure out what six substances were, and this one they think is vinegar. They weren't sure, so they're testing it.

"Stan," Richie said quietly, staring at the beaker of supposedly-vinegar.

"What do you need now?"

"My.. My hand. I'm scared to look at it, it's burning," Richie gulped and took a deep breath, swallowing tears back the second time that school day.

Stan quickly finished putting the drops in, then looked at Richie's bandaged hands.

"Holy shit, Richie, your skin is fucking peeling, what did you do?!" Stan whisper-yelled at Richie, everyone else was talking casually, they couldn't hear the boys.

"I don't fucking know! It just started burning, I assumed my medicine wore off or something but the cuts didn't burn they stung." Richie whisper-yelled at the same level as Stan. Richie flinched and felt hot, immediately becoming weak. Stan seemed to feel it too.

"M-Mrs. Brown?" Stan weakly looked up at their teacher, already sweating. "I think me and Richie-.. U-Um, might've inhaled too much of something by a-accident," Stan was short if breath and couldn't focus. "I-It's so bright," he closed his eyes tight and covered his ears. "N-Nurse?"

"Oh, good lord, get to the nurse! You two look worse than my mama when she had strep," Mrs. Brown had moved here from the South. Most students mocked her comparisons and accent.

Richie and Stan leaned on each other, stumbling to the door.

"Henry! Be a dear and go help them to the nurses office, would you?" Mrs. Brown called out. Richie and Stan froze, turning to see one Henry Bowers stand politely and walk to them, smiling for a moment, awkwardly. They stared at him for a couple seconds before Stan almost passed out and Henry got on the other side of Stan, helping him and Richie to the nurse.

"When the hell did you get out of the psych ward, Bowers?" Richie didn't know when to watch his tongue.

"Don't push it, Tozier. You aren't the only one with PTSD from It. I did shit, yeah, but I lost my friends and murdered my dad. I'm trying, okay? I didn't have to help you or Stan," Henry looked forward as they walked through the hall. Richie was surprised Henry even remembered Stan's name.

"W-W-What happened to us being a bunch of.. Faggots, huh?" Stan slurred his words.

"Yeah, well, your faggot group members aren't the only gay people to exist, kay? Don't push it, Urine," Henry sighed and opened the door to the nurses office, setting Stan down on a chair, followed by Richie.

"Mr. Bowers! What happened to these two?" The nurse was on the younger side, sweet and caring, but could put anyone in their place if needed.

"They said they might've inhaled too many fumes from one of our Lab classes. I don't think that's too likely, it looks like they're sick but didn't start noticing until now," Henry stood by the wall, hands in his pockets.

"Alright. I'll check their temperatures, you able to get them cups of cold water?" Ms. Peterson stood and grabbed the thermometer, taking Stan's temperature first. "102.3, jeez, kid, what happened to you?"

"Got beat up by a clown when I was 12 and almost eaten by a painting lady," Stan's words were still slurred and his head was limp. Richie and Henry stared at Stan and gave him silent death threats.

"Uhmm.. Delirious is going on the list," Ms. Peterson changed out the thermometer and took Richie's temperature. "101.6, I hope you two don't have strep."

The moment the nurse turned away, Richie slapped Stan on the arm and crossed his arms, too tired to verbally criticise Stan.

"I'm calling your parents, alright?"

"Ms. Peterson? Stan's parents aren't home.. They're on a business trip. My parents have their days off today, can you only call them? Stan practically lives at my house," Richie took his glasses off and leaned his head back, taking quiet, deep breaths. He was sweating and his hands still burned, part of his forearms as well now.

"Sure, I don't see the harm in that," Ms. Peterson dialled Richie's parents.

Henry came over and stood in front of them.

"Is this... Is.. Is It doing this?" Henry whispered to them, looking scared.

Stan could only shake his head. "B-Beverly," Richie put his glasses back on and wiped sweat off his face. "You wouldn't get it, Bowers. The Losers Club is back in town, surprise, we're all... F-Fucked up more. January embers, Beverly's hair is figuratively on fire, woohoooo.."

"Are you delirious or are you serious about that and just can't control your trash mouth?" Henry crossed his arms.

"Both," Richie laughed only once.

"I'm meeting you at your house. I can say I don't feel well from you two. We need to discuss.. This," Henry moved so the nurse could talk to them again.

Honestly, it was all a blur for Stan and Richie. One moment they were doing a Lab, and the next they're laying on Richie's bed with damp, cold rags on their foreheads and Maggie Tozier talking to Henry. fucking. Bowers.

Just. Lovely.

Chapter Text

Bill held the door for Ben, who had to carry Beverly all the way home.

"Mom!" Bill closed the door and rushed to the bottom of the stairs as Ben placed Beverly on the couch. "Mom- Maggie? Mom! W-We need help!"

Maggie hurried to the top of the stairs. "What? What's wrong, Bill?" She walked down the stairs.

"I-It's, Bev- She's.. She's burned! And- And her-her s-s-skin, it's," Bill swallowed. "It's p-p-p-p-p-peeling and red, and- We don't know what happened!"

"Where's Eddie?!" Maggie grabbed everything she would need and sat on the ground in front of Beverly, taking in the situation and the intensity of all the burns. "He should've been with you, yeah?"

"H-He.. We don't know," Bill admitted, groaning as he put his shirt on. The teens were still in swimwear, Beverly was perfectly dry though.

"The hell is going on down here?" Henry walked down the stairs, leaning on the wall.

Bill froze. So did Ben. The two slowly turned to look at Henry. Bill took a shaky breath.

"W-W-W-Why are you h-h-here, B-Bowers?" Bill stood tall, literally and figuratively, but still shook ever so slightly.

"I helped your friends out of school. They were.. burning up." Henry looked over to the couch and started towards it. Bill moved to stand in front of him, stopping him.

"Y-Y-You don't get to s-s-s-see her," Bill stared down Henry, being only an inch taller.

"Why's that, Bill?" Henry crossed his arms, looking annoyed and tired. "Scared I'll do something to her? I know it's so god damn hard to believe, but something happened, and I've changed. I'm not gonna hurt your fucking girlfriend," Henry rolled his eyes.

"Beverly isn't my girlfriend, Henry," Bill sighed but let Henry go to check on Beverly. Bill did the same. Maggie was gently getting the second-degree burns cleaned off and damp, putting aloe-vera on them soon after. When she was done with all of them, she looked at Bill.

"Bill, could you grab the bandages from Richie's room? They're in his bedside table counter," Maggie put light coats of aloe on the first degree burns.

Bill nodded and went upstairs to get the bandages.

"Why are the bandages in your sons room, Mrs. Tozier?" Henry seemed confused, but looked more concerned for Beverly's state. Ben could tell Henry was piecing it all together.

"Oh. He gets hurt a lot, that's all," Maggie sighed.

"Okay," Henry exchanged a glance with Ben. A knowing glance. A "I-saw-the-scars" glance.

Bill finally returned and handed two rolls of bandages to Maggie, along with scissors if needed. Maggie started to bandage Beverly's burns, most second-degree ones being on her legs and arms.

Beverly stirred, letting out a small groan. She took shaky breaths. Her eyes opened just enough.

"Mrs.. Tozier?" Beverly winced at speaking, arms moving to hug herself. Maggie quickly grabbed some of her unharmed skin, keeping her arms down.

"Yes, honey, it's me.. You got burned badly, Beverly, and I'm helping. Please don't move," Maggie continued to bandage Beverly up.

Beverly let out pained groans, trying to get weight off her back.

"Beverly, honey, is your back burned?" Maggie started bandaging the other burns faster, she was almost done with all of them.

"Yes," Beverly's voice was barely a whisper and she was crying. "Stop it! S-Stop it, please, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts-" Beverly sobbed.

"I'm sorry, Beverly, I hadn't checked your back. I'm going to help you sit up, alright?" Maggie finished bandaging Beverly's legs and arms, then gently held Beverly's hand. Beverly nodded. Just as she said, Maggie helped Beverly sit up. Sure enough, there were two long burns across Beverly's back.

"Sweetie, this is going to hurt. I'm so sorry," Maggie put the damp rag onto part of the burn, gently. Beverly, regardless of the gentility of the touch, screamed and started sobbing into her arm, which was covering her eyes.

"It burns! It burns, stop it, stop it, stop it! I don't want this, please! Stop!" Beverly was shaking all over, her legs pulled up to her chest now.

Richie rushed downstairs and pushed past Henry, sitting next to his mother to comfort Beverly.

"Bev, look at me, Beverly. I need you to look at me, okay?" Richie held Beverly's hand, moving to sit on the edge of the couch next to Beverly.

"Richie! You need to go upstairs, you're sick!" Maggie continued gingerly treating the burns.

"For fucks sake, I'm not sick, mom, I'm feeling what Beverly is!" Richie looked at Beverly again, holding back his own tears. "Beverly, please look at me. You're safe here, it's gonna be over soon, I promise you.." Beverly hesitated, but looked at Richie. Her sobbing slowly calmed, but her breathing was still fucked up.

"I promise you'll be okay, Bev.. No one will hurt you. He won't hurt you," Richie said the last part to Beverly only. His free arm rested around Beverly's legs, hand on her shoulder. A hug of some sorts. Beverly nodded and took a shaky breath, legs stretching back out to the couch. Richie quickly guided one of Beverly's legs to go around him so he could be in front of her, his leg going over her other leg to rest against the couch cushions. Richie then hugged her, his arms going around her shoulders to not harm her back. Beverly hugged back, then went limp. Everyone in the room froze momentarily, fearing the worst. Then they heard the soft breathing and occasional whimper from Beverly. She was asleep.

"Richie, I'm glad you're so empathetic, but you're crazy sick.. We don't want Beverly to be in any more pain than she already is in," Maggie gently wrapped bandages around Beverly's torso to cover the burns.

"I told you, I feel what she does. We all do. Why else would Ben also be burned? Look at my arm, mom.. Please, believe me this one time.." Richie was supporting Beverly, holding her up for Maggie to bandage. Richie was able to hold his arm out to Maggie. The hand that had been bandaged significantly more then the other. The skin was red, spreading from under the bandage, it was peeling. Just like Beverly's burns.

Maggie sat in shock, trying to process what she was seeing. She finished the bandaging, and Richie ever so gently placed Beverly back down, not caring how the others may find their position awkward.

"Rich, I-.. How? How did that.. How is that possible, Richie, how?" Maggie sighed and ran her hand through her hair, looking dazed.

"I have an explanation, I swear I do, but-... But you have to wait until we're all here. We can sit in the backyard and explain. It's... Do you remember the summer of 89, mom?.." Richie adjusted Beverly's position to make sure she was comfortable enough, then got up and stood next to Henry.

"Yes, I recall.. You and your friends got into a rock fight with Henry and his friends. You were always out doing who-knows-what. You came home.. Covered in blood, multiple times. You'd rant about Eddie, how you helped with his arm. You'd.... You would wake up screaming, Richie. What happened that summer, Richie? Why did Stan show up at our doorstep with unusual puncture wounds around his face? Why did so many kids go missing?" Maggie stood up as she spoke, holding the last roll of bandages as if her life depended on it.

Henry looked at Richie, nudging him gently. Richie was in tears.

"I said later, didn't I?" Richie's voice shook. Then he gave out, sniffling and a single sob escaping him before he held his breath.

"Will any of you even tell me the truth later?" Maggie stared at Richie, worried and desperate for answers.

"M-M-Mom, i-i-i-it's... I-It's really hard. T-To explain. Things h-h-happened that no one w-w-w-w-would believe unless they saw I-I-It themself. All of our i-i-injures and t-t-t-t-t-trauma came from that summer. Something happened, s-s-s-something so unexplainable, Henry w-w-was sent to the fuh-fuh-fuh-fuh-fucking psych ward for explaining the truth," Bill glanced at Henry, apologetically.

"The clown," Maggie said. "You're telling me Henry's psychopathic rant about a crazy alien-clown telling him what to do and who to kill, practically controlling him, was all true? This- This Pennywise guy-" "STOP SAYING IT AS IF IT HAS A NAME!" Richie butted in. "It's a creature of un-relentless power, terror, horror, it-it-" Richie groaned and grabbed his hair, turning in a circle to try and gather his thoughts. "It made a statue chase me with a giant axe! It mocked me for being a fucking faggot!"

"Richard Tozier!" Maggie stared at her son.

"That's not even the worst part! It mocked me. By pretending to be Eddie. It mocked all of us, you know what it did to Beverly?! Showed her Al Marsh face to face, even though he was dead, because news flash, he raped her! You know what this bastard," Richie pointed to Henry, "did to Ben?! Took him to the bridge and started carving his fucking name into Ben's stomach! He was, and I quote my younger self, leaking hamburger helper!" Henry stood awkwardly, still annoyed.

"Don't get me started on Bill! He's the one who dragged us down there!" Bill tensed up. "To find who?! Georgie! And you know where Georgie was?! Fucking New York! We were dragged all the way to fucking Neibolt for some kid who wasn't even there! I beat up an alien-clown-bitch monster with a bat at 13 years old for Georgie! And now we all have to deal with this stupid connection, mental and physical connection, where we feel what each other feel. You know how much that fucking sucks, mom? I almost made everyone else kill themself because of my stupid attempt! Bill almost threw himself off a bridge that same day, all because he felt what I had! So, yeah, it's true! It is alive, and down in Neibolt just waiting for the right moment to-" Richie was cut off short. His eyes got an odd look to them. He swayed, then looked at Henry, who looked at him confused. Richie looked down at his sleeves. Blood was slowly soaking through them, blood dripping down to his fingers. Richie shakily held up his arms, carefully rolling the sleeves up. He let out a laugh as he watched his scars start to open.

"Richie? Why are you laughing? What's wrong with your arms?" Ben looked at Richie. Richie looked back, tears streaming down his face.

"Of course you can't see it, hah," Richie stared at his arms again, despite only the scars being there. Richie then turned and made his way upstairs. Maggie sighed, Henry helped carry Beverly upstairs so Maggie could get her into actual clothes. Henry waited in Richie's room, making sure Stan didn't get worse.

Bill and Ben quickly followed Richie, up to the bathroom. Richie stood in front of the sink, sobbing. Bill went to hug Richie, then looked into the mirror. Richie's scars had opened. The cuts that had healed were bleeding profusely. Richie looked at Bill through the mirror, terrified.

"Why me?" Richie whispered. "I don't want to relive this," he said. "Bill, please, help me."

Bill stared at Richie's face through the mirror, equally as terrified. He couldn't find the words, instead he turned Richie away from the mirror and hugged him tight. It took a few moments, but Richie hugged Bill back, sobbing into his shoulder. Bill opened his eyes to look into the mirror again. He stared at the reflection as a message in ink appeared on the mirror, or through the mirror. Bill wasn't sure. "Turn the water on," it read. Bill didn't know what to do, but something urged him to nod. He nodded once, and a smiley face appeared under the message. Then a heart. Then more words.

"Tell Che I'm coming to get him." Bill's eyes widened as he realised this was Eddie talking to him. Somehow, he was communicating to Bill.

"H-H-Hey, Che? I need to turn the w-w-w-w-water on," Bill spoke softly.

Richie nodded and pulled away from Bill, standing next to Ben. Bill looked at Richie's arms through the reflection, seeing the bleeding had stopped. It was normal again.

Bill guessed only he could see the message. He stared at in confusion.

"Bath water," the words appeared again.

Bill went to the bathtub and turned the water on, only enough for an inch to fill the bottom. Bill crouched next to the tub as Richie came and stood next to him, sniffling and wiping his eyes.

"What are you doing?" Richie spoke quietly.

"Eddie told me to," Bill looked at Richie and smiled.

Bill stood, waiting for Eddie.

Soon the water rippled, and Eddie burst out, holding himself up with only his arms. Only his shoulders, arms and head were visible. Not to mention he was younger. He was Eddie from 1989. He had a cast.

"Richie! Grab my hand, Bill you grab Rich's, Ben you grab Bill's-" Eddie held his casted arm up for Richie, other hand holding the side of the bath tub.

Richie immediately grabbed Eddie's hand. Bill grabbed Richie's other hand, Ben taking Bill's free hand. Eddie let go of the tub and fell back through the water, taking the three with him. Bill felt like he was drowning, they all did. Soon they hit ground, or floor, something, and it went dark.

Eddie had fucking pulled them through.

Chapter Text

Richie came to, turning his head to cough. Surprisingly, no water came up. He hadn't been drowning. He turned his head back, and finally opened his eyes. Eddie was sitting next to him, staring down at him. No.. Eddie? 1989 Eddie..

"Hey, dickwad." Nope. Just Eddie. Richie sat up, facing Eddie.

"The fuck is this place?" Richie covered his mouth as his squeaky voice came through.

"The Archive. I pulled you guys down here," Eddie pointed to Ben and Bill.

"Why are we 13 again?." Richie stared at Eddie.

"I think it's because.. This place was made by Maturin. We discovered his existence at this age. It varies between the months of summer of '89, though. Last time I hadn't had the broken arm," Eddie gestured to his cast, then stood up. Richie also stood.

"So this is where you went?.." Richie slowly stepped in a circle, taking in the beautiful library. He stopped at Eddie again, and looked back at the short boy in front of him. He sighed and smiled as memories flooded back to him.

"Mhm," Eddie nodded.

"I'm gonna kiss you when you get us out of here."

"What?" Eddie stared at Richie, trying not to smile.

"You heard me," Richie turned to one of the many aisles of bookshelves and started walking through it, Eddie following, grabbing Richie's arm and turning him back around.

"If anything, do it now. Everything I do here I remember so much more vividly than any other memory," Eddie stood in front of Richie, who was in front of a bookshelf.

"Sure about that, Spagheds?" Richie grinned as Eddie rolled his eyes.

"Fuck you," Eddie sighed then got on his tip toes, kissing Richie. Richie melted into the kiss, hands gently resting on Eddie's waist.

Richie had felt more alive than ever, he felt safe and- and alive. Maybe that's because he was making all his childhood dreams happen, but at the age he wanted them to happen.

He shouldn't push it, he really shouldn't, but..

"If we can only kiss here, can we fuck at my house?" Richie put his hand at the back of Eddie's head to keep their lips close.

"Wha-Wh- I- Why-" Eddie blushed uncontrollably, and Richie smiled as he felt Eddie's breath on his lips. "Is sex all you think about, Richie?"

Richie shrugged. "I'm back in my 13-year-old mentality from 1989, Eds. Of course sex is all I think about," Richie was, obviously, joking. But there was some truth to it. He genuinely felt younger, still more alive, and ecstatic that his scars were finally fucking gone.

"You're a bitch," Eddie pulled Richie back into the kiss anyways.

"Then why kiss me?" Richie mumbled through the kiss.

"Cause I like your mouth, dumbass," Eddie finally shut Richie up, turning the kiss into a make out session.

Eddie quickly pulled away, leaving Richie dazed. He wiped his mouth and walked back to where Bill and Ben were, leaning over Bill. He was waking up. Richie finally walked over, looking down at Bill as well.

Bill quickly sat up and leaned over the floor, coughing a lot more than Richie had. Richie put his hand on Bill's back.

"Hey, Bill, you need to breathe. Deep breaths," Richie rubbed Bill's back until his breathing calmed and the coughing ceased.

"R-R-Richie?" Bill looked up at Richie and stared in shock, only for a few moments. He shakily stood up, Richie helping him. "Wh-wh-wh-why are we y-y-y-y-young? H-How did this h-h-happen?" Bill looked at Eddie then turned to look at Ben.

"It's how this place works. You're always the same age as some event that happened from the summer of '89," Richie explained.

"Yeah, more or less. It's weird," Eddie went to Ben and sat next to him, calmly checking to make sure he was okay. Richie looked at Eddie, his loving gaze he had lost years ago finally returned.

Ben woke up soon, but with no coughing. He was too focused.. On his body.

"The fuck is this? What sort of.. Hellish trick is this?" Ben stared at his hands, standing next to a table.

"Hey, you're still cute as fuck," Richie crossed his arms.

"Beep beep, Richie!" Eddie sighed. "Sorry, Ben. We all know how long you worked on your body. Just know we all still love you, man, and you're always our Ben."

Ben sighed and looked down, tears threatening to burst out of his eyes. Richie saw this and hugged Ben, Eddie and Bill joining in soon after.

"It's temporary, man, and we don't care about it anyways," Richie smiled into Ben's shirt.

"Y-Yeah. Y-Y-You're still a L-L-L-Loser along with us, B-B-Ben," Bill probably didn't appreciate his stutter being back either.

Eddie nodded in agreement to the others.

"Bill?" Eddie looked up from a book. A deep royal blue with silver and gold accents, no words at all. Bill snapped to attention, placing his book down. His was a deep, velvety red with soft orange and bold red accents. "How did... How did you get you stutter, again?"

Bill hesitated, curious. "A car crash? I've told you before.."

"It was a car crash?! I thought you were born with it!" Ben looked up from his book. A leather cover with deep brown stitching in it, it looked more like a journal. It had metallic white and black accents, with papers, marks and notes sticking out every other page. "Jeez, I'm sorry, Bill."

"O-Oh. It's fine. I w-w-was 3 I th-th-th-th-think," Bill looked back to his book. "G-G-Got hit and th-thrown against the side of a building. I-I was a-a-a-apparently unconscious for hours b-b-before my.. B-B-Before my m-m-m-mother found me," Bill told the story from memory.

"This book says the person who hit you was never known or found?" Eddie looked down at his book, then up at Bill again.

"N-Nope. Motherfucker c-c-came from nowhere a-a-a-and left wi-without a trace," Bill sighed and kept reading his book.

"Huh. Weird, not even the book knows.."

"I'm r-r-r-r-reading about B-B-Beverly," the three rolled their eyes, expecting that answer. "H-How bout y-y-y-you guys?"

"You, obviously," Eddie said.

"Mikey. It's.. Pretty interesting, but really sad," Ben looked at his book.

They looked up at Richie, hearing a sniff from him. He was red in the face, staring at his book. It was shorter than the others. Much. Shorter.

"Rich?" Eddie closed his book and set it down, getting up to walk to Richie.

"No, I-.. I'm fine, just-" Richie rubbed his eyes. "I think this one isn't our Georgie, i-it's about him, but," Richie hesitated and leaned back in his chair. "Georgie Denbrough ran through the streets, trying to keep up with his poor, poor boat. He ran into a traffic stopper, hitting his head. Georgie fell over, dazed, before continuing to the drain. He called out for the boat, not wanting it to go through the drain-" Richie let out a choked sob. "Georgie looked into the drain, trying to find the paper boat. Suddenly, eyes appeared to him. He jumped at first," Richie took a deep breath. "But soon a clown appeared to him, speaking of a circus, with popcorn and candy. Georgie swears he heard music and could smell the popcorn. The clown... The clown held the boat for Georgie, and Georgie reached further and further in before-" Richie slammed the book down and rushed to the statue of Maturin, banging on the base of it with his hand. "WHY US?! WHY US, WHY US, WHY US?!" Richie fell to his knees and sat on the floor, sobbing. Eddie rushed over to help him, Bill as well.

Ben looked at the book, it was on the last page. He stared at in horror, then finally joined the others.

They now all sat at one table, 8 books in front of them. One for each of the Losers, plus their Georgie. The other book of Georgie had disappeared. Maybe an owl or cat had picked it up when they weren't looking. They weren't sure.

"H-H-How did it end?" Bill finally spoke, looking at Richie. "W-With G-G-G-Georgie.."

Ben and Richie shifted awkwardly.

"It... Ate.. Georgie," Richie choked out. "H-His arm first. Then.. Dragged him into the sewers. Then the book ended."

Bill shuddered and covered his mouth as his too-imaginative-mind gave him a mental image. Eddie swallowed and closed his eyes, trying to block the image out as well.

"Guys!" Stan's voice rang through the aisles and aisles of books, and he eventually walked up to them from who knows where. "The fuck are you still doing here?" The light from the windows quickly dimmed.

"Sorry Stan! We'll leave," Eddie collected 3 of the books. "Can we take these?"

"He doesn't care," Stan said, flatly.

"Woah, woah, woah! Since when was Stan here??" Richie took 3 books, Bill and Ben took the last two.

"I'm not. Just a messenger, would you have preferred Beverly? Or like.. Your mom?" Stan crossed his arms.

"I dunno.. Just weird," Richie stood next to Eddie, Bill and Ben joining so they're standing in a cluster.

"Well, we're all weird," Stan said, then walked to Bill and smiled at him, whispering something no one else could hear. Eddie suddenly fell through the floor, Followed by Ben then Richie. Bill lingered for a few seconds longer, staring into Stan's eyes.

"He's sick. Go check on him," Stan poked at Bill's forehead, and Bill fell from The Archive.

Bill stumbled and caught himself on the brick wall, looking around as he realised it was raining. It was a cold rain. He stood and looked to his left, seeing the staircase going up to Derry High School. Bill heard the school bell ring and took off, not wanting to deal with the crowd of students. The familiar students, his former classmates and neighbours. He ran until he found himself at the Clubhouse, and stepped down into it, surprised to see Mike sleeping on the hammock.

Eddie fell onto a tree branch, cold raindrops making him realise that son of a bitch Maturin sent them home through rain. Eddie groaned, sitting up in the tree. He was only a couple feet up, so he shakily climbed down. He looked around, realising he was near the kissing bridge. Eddie sighed and trekked up the path, dizzy and off-balance. Upon getting to the bridge, he leaned on the railing, trying to catch his breath. His back ached badly, it was probably gonna bruise.

"The fuck happened to you?" Eddie looked up to see Greta fucking Bowie. "You look like you just went through hell."

Eddie tried to speak, but his vision went out before he could. He felt himself fall and hit the wood, and everything blacked out again.

Ben opened his eyes. He was standing back in the bathroom, Beverly holding the curtain open and staring at him. The bathtub was filled and Beverly had a towel over her body.

"This is awkward."

"I guess. How'd you, uh.. Get in here?" Beverly relaxed her arm that had moved the curtain.

"Uhm. Eddie pulled us to that library place. Dunno where everyone else is," Ben stood awkwardly.

"You.. Wanna join me?"

"Sure," Ben got out of the tub to get out of his clothes.

Richie gasped, swallowing a mouthful of water. He struggled to get his surroundings, eventually a hand grabbing his shirt and pulling him out of the water. He gasped for breath and started coughing, turning his head away from whoever saved him so his body could get the water out his lungs without getting it over the person. He blacked out for just a moment after, well, at least for a minute after. He came to again to the sound of running water and quiet shouting, the person who saved him was holding his head in their lap. Who the fuck had the audacity?

"I think we need to take him home!" It was Eddie. It was.. Younger Eddie. Was Richie still in The Archive? No, he was.. He sat up, looking at his hands, his clothes. He was still 18.

So why the fuck, when he turned around, was the original Losers club of 1989 standing behind him, scared out of their lives after pulling him out of the sewer water?

Chapter Text

Richie felt his stomach churn and he quickly looked away from everyone, throwing up into the water Eddie had just pulled him from. He heard Eddie gag and Stan groaned.

"Who the fuck is he?" Richie heard.. Himself. He heard his 1989 self speak, whispering to anyone who may have an answer. No one but Richie had one. He tried to gather more of his senses, standing up and stumbling until he managed to lean on a wall.

"Dude, actually, who the fuck are you?" 89-Richie repeated his question.

94-Richie looked at his younger self, then Eddie, then Bill and then finally Stan. He looked away, feeling like he was gonna throw up again. He had just swallowed sewer water by accident. 94-Richie heard Eddie take a few steps back, 89-Richie as well. Just in case he threw up again.

94-Richie groaned as the feeling finally went away, and he stood straight up.

"You know," 94-Richie started. "I could ask you the same thing, shortshit," 94-Richie decided to go down the path that was safest, and pretend not to know them.

"I'm not that fucking short! Shut up! Who even are you?!" 89-Richie once again repeated his question.

"Jesus Christ! My name is Finn!" Finn, that was 94-Richie's name for now. He'll use it and respond to it. A backstory is needed now. He'll improvise it.

"Okay well how the fuck did you show up randomly in the disgusting grey-water?" Eddie started making his way out of the sewer, not wanting to be in it anymore. Richie and Bill followed, then 'Finn' did as well.

"I don't know, you tell me! That- That thing was gonna eat me!" Finn decided his backstory would be he was one of the first to go missing but somehow wasn't eaten by It. Good plan. Yep.

"What thing?" Stan asked.

"The- The- The fucking! Clown?! Pennywise!" Finn froze. Sounds of bones cracking and muscles snapping echoed through the sewer, and Finn couldn't move. He felt like he was gonna throw up again.

"Dude, you okay?" Stan's voice came through again.

"Th-The clown.." Finn whispered. He was starting to believe his own backstory now. "It.. It lives in the sewers. It eats humans, but God It loves eating children even more," Bill tensed up as Finn said that all. The noise finally stopped and Finn walked further from the sewer, not looking behind him.

"What?! That's crazy talk! There's no fucking clown in the sewers that eats children," Richie rolled his eyes. Finn just stared at him.

"You're wrong, and you'll find out soon enough, because like I said, It. Eats. Children," Finn took a deep breath and then looked at the ground. "You have no idea what I saw in there. So many kids, fucking floating. The bitch eats them like meals and scaring them gives It extra seasoning. It finds some way to get to you, wether it be trust or fear, and then It just snatches you right up and either saves you for later or eats you on the spot. I was saved for later but I didn't have the fucking time to be scared of that ugly ass clown! I had to get out, but- but I don't remember what happened after that," 94-Richie was glad he had taking a couple acting classes in high school, because 'Finn' was holding back tears and was shaking.

"Anyone else think he's crazy?" 89-Richie finally said something after Finn's long rant.

"B-B-B-B-Beep beep, R-Richie! You s-s-saw Betty's s-shoe, h-h-h-he's telling the tr-truth. I bel-believe him," Bill stood next to Finn.

"Ugh. You're both crazy, you ever think Betty was just being a total idiot and got her ass lost then fucking starved?" Finn rolled his eyes at Richie.

"Let's just get out of here! Finn needs to get to some sort of hospital," Stan was right. 94-Richie, despite only acting, was exhausted. He assumed whatever had pulled him to the past was making his backstory come true. He felt a sudden stinging in his shin, and almost doubled over in pain.

"Stan is right! Look, he's fucking bleeding from his leg like a waterfall!" Eddie pulled Richie further from the sewer entrance.

"Shit- It wasn't supposed to open up again!" Finn stumbled back but still stood. "We- We do need to go, please, help me-" Finn stared at the young boys with fear in his eyes, tears pouring from them just like the blood in his leg. Then he fell back onto the rocks, unconscious.

"Is he okay?" Finn opened his eyes, everything was blurry. Well, his glasses were off, that explained it. He coughed a couple times, blinking rapidly to adjust to the damn hospital lights. Eddie, Stan, Richie and Bill were standing in the room. Finn looked at himself, realising he had been cleaned up. His leg was majorly bandaged, and he groaned as he tried to look for his glasses.

"Please stay still! You're hurt very bad," the nurse talking to the Losers rushed to Finn, putting his glasses on for him. "You were bit by a wild animal, your lucky all that sewer water didn't infect it. It was one wild bite. Your neck is also bruised, try to avoid moving it too bad," the nurse checked Finn's temperature quickly. He was fine.

"How did I get here?" Finn's words were slurred. He guessed they had given him a lot of painkillers and other anaesthetics.

"These boys brought you here. Speaking of which, I still need more information. They knew nothing but your first name, Mr. Finn," The nurse grabbed a clipboard. Finn read her tag. It said Naomi.

"All yours, Ms Naomi," Finn closed his eyes again.

"Last name?"

Finn swallowed. He searched his brain. Maybe, just maybe..

"Finn. Last name. Have you forgotten?" Naomi stood patiently.

"Wolf.... Wolfhard," Finn took a deep breath. It was happening again. The thing that brought him here was twisting the world for him and him only. "My parents. They live on," Finn stuttered for the address, until it came to him. He blurted out the address, not even comprehending what he had said.

"Thank you, Finn. Your parents names?"

"I... I don't remember that," Finn sighed. "I-I'm sorry, everything is so scrambled."

"Oh, it's alright. Do you have any siblings?"

"No.. I don't think so..."

"How about friends? Or other family? Do you have any prescribed medicine?"

"I have a lot of friends," Finn's words slurred a lot until he opened his eyes again, keeping himself awake. "I dunno... I have antidepressants and.. Something for ADHD."

"Okay. Anymore? Or any physical condition medicine?"

"Hmmm... No, but I have PTSD.. Um, I'm healthy physically," 94-Richie wasn't even sure what he was saying anymore. He had fallen so far down into this lie that came true the more he said. He knew he was Richie, but right now.. He was Finn Wolfhard.

"Thank you for all that, Finn," Naomi got up. "Boys, may I talk to you?" The Losers nodded and followed her into the hall.

Finn was released the day after. He was supposed to use crutches, but could care less. He was in the clubhouse, since that's where the Losers needed him. Bill held something in his hands.

"What is that?" Finn turned his body to face Bill, careful to not move his neck much.

"They did a report on you. You've been out for three days, we just now got it. They got pictures of your injuries," Stan took the papers from Bill, handing them to Finn.

Finn stared at the photos. His leg. It had a bunch of bite marks in one spot only, varying in size, shape and depth. It had bled extremely bad.

"There's no way anyone would believe that's just an animal bite.." Finn stared in disbelief. He looked at the next photo. It was of his neck, which had a huge bruise on the back of it. It was red all around as well. Finn sighed, looking at the next photo. It showed his face. His glasses were askew, his face dirtied with sewer water and blood.

"God, I looked like shit! Do I look better now?!" Finn handed the photos back, staring at the Losers.

"Ye-" Eddie's mouth was covered by Richie's hand.

"No."

"Okay, listen here, grease-hair, your glasses are too big for your damn face, your hair is self-explanatory, and you dress how I do! Only I can pull off Hawaiian shirts daily!" Finn crossed his arms. Richie stood, dumb-founded.

"You dress like a faggot," Richie finally muttered out.

"What, you want a cookie for figuring that out? It's obvious, dipshit," Finn stared at Richie, half-humoured, half-annoyed.

"Shut up!"

"Didn't I just say you dressed like me? Your just a mini faggot, mini-fag," Finn rolled his eyes and scoffed.

Richie only crossed his arms. "He's fucking crazy. I'm leaving."

"R-R-R-Richie! H-He knows things! D-D-Don't you dare l-l-l-l-leave!" Bill took the photos from Stan, placing them on a bookshelf.

"Fine! Whatever, fucking-" Richie grumbled to himself as he half-hazardly sat in the hammock, arms still crossed.

"Jesus, you guys need to get it together," Finn rolled his eyes again.

"You're so annoying!" Richie spoke up again.

"Beep beep, Richie! That's your name, right? The fuck is it short for? Richard?" Finn stood slightly taller, though he still barely fit in the clubhouse.

"Yeah, actually! What is yours short for? Finnicky Faggot??" Richie stood again and walked right up to Finn.

"Don't think that no one had seen it," Finn stared at Richie. God, he really did hate himself. "I knew I recognised your name from somewhere."

"What are you even talking about?" Richie was practically fuming, hating the fact this random stranger was getting into his head.

"I volunteer at your school, shortshit. Richie Tozier sucks flamer cock is written everywhere in both bathrooms," Finn flinched back as Richie lifted his arm up. The young boy froze, unsure of how or why. Finn looked at his own hand as panicked breaths came from Richie. It was outstretched, holding Richie in place. Finn moved to the side,m and ripped his hand away from the direction of Richie, and the boy fell forward, barely missing Finn.

"What the fuck?! What did you do?!" Eddie rushed to Richie, helping him sit up as Eddie brushed dirt from Richie's face.

"I don't know! I wasn't trying to! He was about to punch me!" Finn sighed, staring at his hand for a moment.

"Are you okay, Che?" Eddie fixed Richie's glasses, then checked for scratches on his face.

"I'm fine, Eds.."

"Don't call me that."

"Look, whatever happened- I-, ugh.." Finn groaned. "I need to find someone. Marsh- Beverly Marsh," Finn started towards the ladder.

"The whore??" Richie blurted.

"No, the badass redhead I help out on weekends! Stop listening to rumours already, dickwad!" Finn climbed the ladder carefully, leaving the rest behind. He knew Al wouldn't be home at this time, it was too early in the day. He walked away from the clubhouse, still limping. He stopped in his tracks as he heard.. the laugh... He stared ahead of him as he saw a figure standing behind a tree. It leaned to the side, revealing the sharp, pointy teeth of a smile. The piercing eyes.. orange hair... stupid face.

"Guys!" Finn called through the hatch, frozen in place as the clown began to walk towards him. "I-It's- Help!" Finn then screamed as the clown suddenly was in front of him.

"Heya, Richie! Long time no see!" Finn backed up into a tree as the clown began laughing. He fell to the ground and closed his eyes tight.

When he opened his eyes, all he saw was a mouth. Sharp teeth surrounding his face. There were orbs.. Bright orbs..

Finn began screaming and screaming, kicking and punching at the clown until something came over him. His vision went black.

"Is he awake?! Alive?! How the fuck did he get up there?!" Stan's voice reached through to Finn. He opened his eyes and then instantly grabbed a branch above him. He was 15 feet above the ground and all that had caught him was the branch he now clung to.

"What the hell?! What is this?! What the actual fuck?! Where did It go?!" Finn yelled down at his younger self and friends.

"It disappeared when we came out of the clubhouse! Get down here and explain what the fuck that thing was!" Eddie's voice reached Finn now and the older boy carefully climbed down the tree the best he could. He leaned against the trunk, panting heavily.

"Don't puke. Or pass out." Stan said.

"You got it, Stan the man.." Finn slid down to the ground and sat there, trying to calm himself.

This was gonna require a lot of explaining..

Earlier, but in the future again, with the others..

Bill quietly walked to Mike, smiling down as his friend slept soundly. He guessed Mike had finished his farm work early and came here to chill. Bill gently sat on the floor, against one of the wood beams.

He assumed the other Losers that had been in the library had also been transported through the rain.. He hoped everyone made it okay. He leaned his head back and sighed quietly as the rain fell gently onto the ground above him.

"Hey.. When did you get here?" Bill opened his eyes to see Mike now sitting on the hammock. Bill smiled. "You're soaked, too, geez, what happened?"

"T-T-That thing with Eddie happened. H-How he g-g-goes somewhere when in w-water. He took us th-th-there, but we a-a-a-all came back separated," Bill explained carefully.

"Oh. That makes sense, I guess," Mike stood and stretched for a moment, then sat next to Bill on the floor. "Stan is sick.. I thought you should know."

"I al-al-al-already knew... I was told in that L-L-Library place," Bill sighed quietly.

"Oh. Okay," Mike sighs as well. They sit in silence for some time.

"Do-Do-Do you have anything y-y-y-you need to tell me?" Bill finally asked the question that had been nagging at him. "I-I-I feel like you've been di-distant from me since I got back.. Are y-you still upset I l-l-left in the first place?" Bill meant no harm in his questions.

Mike stayed silent for a few moments. "Nah, man.. It's just me. Don't blame yourself or anything, I just.." Mike didn't finish his sentence, letting it fade into silence again.

"J-Just what?" Bill turned his head to look at Mike. Mike looked at Bill.

Mike tried to find the words, he really did. But instead he acted on his thoughts.

Bill was surprised when Mike suddenly kissed him. Yet.. he didn't pull away. He actually leaned into the kiss and returned it. He didn't know why.

Mike showed no sign of stopping soon. Bill let him continue, the kiss being loving yet passionate. The taller brought his hand up to Mike's face, gently cupping it. He was lost in this kiss.

Mike kept his eyes closed for a couple moments longer once Bill finally pulled away. Then he turned his head away again.

"We shouldn't have done that."

"I-I know."

"You shouldn't have let me."

"I kn-kn-kn-know."

"That was a stupid idea.."

"I-If you keep making me say 'I know', I'm g-g-g-gonna stutter so much I'll accidentally s-s-summon a demon," Bill finally said. Mike chuckled lightly but the smile and joy faded from his face quickly.

"Why'd you kiss me back?" Mike finally asked.

Bill thought on it for a moment. "I guess we a-a-all have that Connec-ection.. I-I-It didn't feel wrong f-for me to kiss you back. I th-th-think I've kissed a-all the Losers except you until just now anyways," Bill says, face flushed.

"What is up with that?" Mike says, elbowing Bill playfully. "What makes you so special?"

"I-I-I have a bigger dick than Richie, o-o-obviously," Bill says, teasing back.

"I wouldn't be surprised," Mike agreed nonetheless.

"J-Just a joke though. Richie has a bigger shoe size," Bill says, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

"That's because Rich is a fucking oaf," Mike laughs quietly.

"That's true.. Anyw-ways, my point is.. I-I-I love all of you- j-just.. Stan happens to l-l-love me a lot m-more than I thought. I l-love him back. Plus, w-would he really be mad if he found out you kissed me? I-It isn't like we h-had s-" "Okayy! I get the point!" Mike said as he laughed again. "You're a good friend, Bill.. Thanks." Bill smiled.

"You a-are too, Mikey."

Eddie opened his eyes to a dull lighting. He groaned slightly as he saw the room. Pink and girly. The fuck? At least the walls were grey.

"Oh, good, you're up," Eddie carefully sat up and looked to a desk in the room, where Greta sat looking all prim and proper. She had two of her friends with her, though Eddie had no idea who they were. "Do I know you from somewhere? You passed out before you could answer my questions. Are you alright now?" Eddie had to try his best not to gag as he fucking saw Greta Bowie pout at him. He took a deep breath and tried to play it cool. They didn't recognise him at all, he had gone through a pretty big puberty.

"Yeah, I'm fine.. Thanks. You wouldn't know me. I'm not from around here, I'm from New York," Eddie kept his face neutral as Greta's friends whispered to each other upon hearing his voice which had, surprisingly, significantly lowered as well.

"Oh, wow! New York? That sounds hella cool. How did you ever afford that?" Greta questioned Eddie, awe in her eyes.

Eddie smiled sweetly, but he was just gonna fuck with them. "Oh, I'm a child prodigy. I work as an architect and I'm already a billionaire, so I bought a big apartment for me and my family in New York."

The three girls all wow'd at the same time then sighed longingly. He heard one of the girls whisper, "A billionaire and a caring man? Jackpot.."

"I do have to get back to my aunt's house though, ladies." Eddie stood carefully and started towards the door, then looks back at them and winks. "Though it was truly a pleasure to meet you." Eddie calmly walks out and closes the door behind him, then as quietly as he can, books it downstairs and out of that house. He runs as fast as he can back to Richie's house and just prays he got back safely.

Chapter Text

Heyooo

So I've been dealing with a lot of overstimulation and mental health issues lately. I know I posted quite a few Star Wars oneshots very quickly a while ago, but I am still working on this! The next chapter will be up in a few days, probably. I have weekly therapy appointments as well and that is a contributing factor as to why work sometimes isn't uploaded. Thanks for understanding, reading and sticking with me through this! (By the way, if you read my Bad Guys fic, that may be coming back soon!)

Thank you,
Bugs <3

Chapter Text

Finn sits nervously in the middle of the clubhouse, the 4 young Losers around him.

"How.. How do you know so much about this clown? Didn't you say it only had you for a couple days?" Stan finally breaks the silence.

Finn stays quiet for a moment.

He's thinking so loud he wouldn't be surprised if any of them heard his thoughts.

He's gonna tell them.

"My name is Richie Tozier. I'm in love with my best friend, Eddie Kaspbrak, and I hang out with what we call the Losers Club. Where I'm from, we already defeated It, and it's 1994. I'm 18 years old, and I'm really fucking depressed after almost all of my friends left Derry in high school, but they're back. Me, Mike and Stan are the only ones who truly remember everything.." Finn speaks quietly, revealing the entire truth. "We went to the Neibolt house and deep down into the sewers, saving Beverly, but killing ourselves in the process. We're traumatised, hurt, scarred, scared, and we're just kids.. I underage drink, I tried to kill myself, I almost slept with Beverly a couple days ago, Stan is sick, Beverly is burned, Eddie- Eddie, Jesus Christ, I don't even know- There's something off about Eddie. There's something off about all of them.. Derry is a haunted fucking town. I know you don't believe me, and I get that.. I wouldn't believe me either, but with all I've seen.. You've gotta believe me."

They sit in deep silence for some time.

"Prove it," Richie says, face a bit red from blush and tears.

"Richie, your little sister died just two months ago. Stan, you.. You're scared of your father. Bill, you blame yourself for Georgie's disappearance, and-..." Finn looks at Eddie, trying his best not to cry. "Eddie, it's bullshit. It's all bullshit, and you know it."

Eddie's face freezes at the words. Bill shrinks where he sits. Stan dips his head. Richie takes his glasses off to bury his eyes in his sleeve.

"I need to find Beverly," Finn says quietly. "I'm leaving for real this time.. I'll give you time to process. I guess I'm sleeping at my fake house tonight, and you guys know my address." He sighs and stands to walk to the ladder. He sighs then leaves the clubhouse. I have no idea what I'm getting myself into, he thinks silently as he walks away.

Richie walks quietly to Beverly's apartment, standing on the fire escape, knocking gently on Beverly's window. He waits patiently, waving carefully as the young Beverly opens the window, leaning out a bit. She looks confused, but as she slowly studies Richie's face, she comes to the realisation.

"Richie?" She whispers. Richie and Beverly had a bit of a secret - they had known each other since elementary school, but they never hung out with the other original Losers until the rest also met Beverly. "What- What happened? Why are you older?? You look exhausted!" Beverly asks all the questions as she steps out of the window, then looks up at Richie. "Why the hell are you so tall??"

"Yeah, funny story.." Richie leans against the railing, crossing his arms. "I'm kinda from the future."

Beverly puts her hands on her hips, thinking. "Is.. This something to do with that clown you just told me about a couple days ago?"

Richie nods. "Basically, in 5 years we all split up and regroup, we have this Connection and we each have a sort of ability. Like, I can.. I can control things. If it lives, I can control it. Eddie can go to this library place to get information.. You can set yourself on fire, kinda. I'm not sure of everyone else.. Oh, Stan has heightened senses in the dark," Beverly's face is extremely bewildered at this information. She's silent for some time.

"Oh.. Oh, okay.." She finally says, quietly. "Why are you here then?"

Richie hesitates. "I.. I need you to help Richie, your Richie, for me, okay? He's... He's gonna try and kill himself.. I don't want him going through that.."

Beverly sighs gently and nods. "I'll try."

Richie feels a raindrop on his shoulder. A few more fall onto him, thunder distantly rumbling. He sticks his hand out of the fire escape. As he watches the raindrops begin to pour onto his hand, his eyes widen as he becomes almost transparent. He pulls his hand back and wipes it on his jacket. His hand returns to normal.

"Scuse me, miss, gonna need a paper and pencil," Richie climbs through Beverly's window and finds a paper and a pencil, frantically writes down everything the Losers need to know about It, and then climbs back out. "Okay, I wrote like everything you need to know on that paper. I have to go, I need to get back to my Eddie and my Losers, Stan is sick and yeah, it's a lot. Stay safe, okay? Trust your instincts," Richie puts his hand on the young Beverly's shoulder. She nods and gives him a quick hug. He rushes down the apartment stairs, into the rain, and falls into a puddle. Not, like, trips, that's likely with Richie, but no- He fell into the Library.

Bill sits on the edge of Richie's bed, gently holding an asleep-Stan's hand. Something had happened to him because of the burns.. He just didn't know what. No one did. Beverly sits on the floor, smoking. Ben is next to her, about to fall asleep. Eddie hasn't gotten back yet, Mike went to the library. Richie... They don't know.

"B-B-Bev, did you just.." Bill looks at her, confused to say the least. Her lighter was on Richie's desk, yet she had just lit her cigarette?

"What? Oh-" Beverly takes a drag and then holds the cigarette with two fingers. "So.. With the whole burning thing, because I kind of lost control and freaked out over nothing, I realised that's gotta be my thing, right? Like how Stan's senses are way better than ours, how Eddie can be in that library place, how you see the future.. I think, if I'm correct," Beverly holds her free hand palm up, makes a fist, and then puts her index and middle finger out. Sparks begin to crack at the tip of her fingers, and then a small fire hovers over her fingertips. She smiles. "So I get the fire powers, how about that?"

Ben watches as it happens, and ever so quietly.. "January embers.."

Beverly looks at him and smiles, closing her hand into a fist as the fire goes out. "My heart burns there too."

Bill smiles at the two before looking to Stan, sighing softly.

All of them but Stan perk up as the door downstairs opens and footsteps run up to the room. Eddie bursts in, almost starts to say something, then just sighs and flops onto the floor with a loud thump.

"You okay, Eds?" Beverly asks with a chuckle.

"I just had to deal with Greta fucking Bowie and her friends. I passed out after coming back and they just-" Eddie groans and flips to his back. Thunder rumbles in the distance.

"They didn't like, recognise you?" Beverly asks around her cigarette.

"No. You know the statistics of you getting lung cancer are-"

Bill chuckles a bit as Eddie begins rambling from where he lays on the floor. He closes his eyes as rain begins pouring outside. He listens to it for a couple minutes, and then jumps when a loud bang comes from outside Richie's window. Everyone stares at the window in fear. Someone opens the window from outside..

"That hurt like a fucking boulder to my ass I swear to fuck I broke my tailbone goddamnit-" Richie climbs in through the window as another strand of curses spill from his mouth. He stands straight up and sighs. He looks at everyone, exhaustion and relief taking over his face. Eddie stands and goes to Richie.

"Your ass okay?" Eddie deadpans.

"My beautiful ass is okay," Richie grins, closing the window behind him. "My ego, not so much. Mental stability, not so much either."

"So.. was your travel delayed, or did you just happen to show up far away?" Eddie questions as Richie sits at his desk. Eddie props himself up on the desk next to Richie as the taller turns the chair around to face everyone.

"Maturin blew me to the past, the bitch," Richie sighs, leaning back in the chair. Eddie moves behind the chair and gently begins playing with Richie's half-dry hair.

"The past?" Beverly tilts her head.

"Yeah.. I swallowed a shit ton of sewer water too, it was shit.. almost literally shit. Uhm.." Richie stares at the ground in silence.

"What else happened?" Ben asks quietly.

"I saw It.. And It recognised me," Richie takes his jacket off and stands as he begins taking his soaked shirt off. He goes to his closet and grabs a new shirt, quickly changing into it. "And then.." Richie sighs and just looks down, crossing his arms. He shakes his head and grabs two more dry pieces of clothing and walks out of the room. Eddie thinks on it, then follows.

"Hey, Richie, what happened?" Eddie's voice is quiet, but serious. He closes the door after he enters the bathroom.

"Deadlights happened," that's all Richie says as he unbuttons his jeans and struggles to get them off since they're wet. He grabs a towel and begins drying his legs off.

"You saw the deadlights?.." Eddie's eyes travel over Richie's body before he looks away, leaning against the door with his arms crossed.

"Yeah. Then I saw us dying and dying and dying and dying until I woke up, no kiss needed. I just woke up," Richie sighs. Eddie closes his eyes as the taller boy changes his underwear and gets a new pair on, then puts shorts on. Eddie opens his eyes again.

"That's.. weird. I'm sorry," Eddie sighs, then walks to Richie. Richie pushes his hair back before gently grabbing Eddie's hand, his other hand going to the younger's waist. Richie holds him close, lowering his head to rest on Eddie's shoulder.

"It's some fucking bullshit.. I don't know how Beverly could live seeing that every night," Richie whispers. Eddie only sighs and nods, reaching his hand up to Richie's head. He gently rests his hand in his hair, just trying to be there for Richie.

Richie raises his head, his eyes on Eddie's.

"What?" Eddie says softly, but finds himself shifting closer.

"Nothing.. Nothing, I just really want to.." Richie doesn't finish his sentence, instead leaning in to kiss Eddie. Eddie returns the kiss, both arms now up and around Richie's shoulders, pulling him down a bit.

"I've wanted you for so fucking long.." Richie hums against Eddie's mouth, his hands suddenly grabbing Eddie's thighs and lifting him up onto the counter. Eddie only kisses him again, hands sliding to his chest as Richie's hands rest on either side of Eddie.

"I'm in love with a horny, hairy, piece of shit, aren't I?" Eddie laughs quietly into the kiss.

"Mhmmmm," Richie agrees. "And I'm in love with someone who wants to fuck a horny, hairy, piece of shit.."

Eddie laughs into the kiss again, then has to pull away to stop laughing. Richie smiles at him and leans down to kiss his neck, resulting in more laughter.

"Richie, please, your house is full of people-" Eddie says softly, his laughter ceasing.

"Oh fucking well," Richie grins and kisses Eddie again, this time deeper and more passionate.

A knock suddenly rings at the bathroom door.

"Richie! Hurry up in there, I'm cleaning the house, your sister is gonna be here in an hour!" Maggie's voice came through. Richie sighs nervously and pulls away. Eddie hops down from the counter.

"You got it ma! Give me a second, will you?" Richie's mom walks away from the door and downstairs.

Richie and Eddie sneak back out and into Richie's room, where Stan now sits awake on the bed.

"What the fuck happened? How long have I been asleep?" Stan rubs his head as he moves to sit next to Bill.

"Uhh.. T-T-T-Two days, ish?" Bill answers as he does the math in his head.

"And you didn't like.. take me to a hospital? That could've been a coma!" Stan says, but smiles.

"Two days?" Richie and Eddie say at the same time.

Bill nods.

"So I was in the past for two days.."

"And I was passed out for a day."

The room is heavy with confusion. It seems that's all there is lately.

"So.. My sister is coming over. You guys don't look too much like shit so I guess that's okay," Richie jokes. Eddie sighs.

"Speak for yourself, mop-head," Stan retorts, standing up to stretch.

"Alright, Stanny-boy, what happened to you? Why'd you like.. Pass out from the burns?" Richie asks the burning(pun intended) question everyone had been wondering.

"Remember how my senses are like- Batshit crazy?" Stan says. Everyone nods a bit. "Yeah, apparently when I'm in danger like that they go haywire even more and then it caused me to pass out from overwhelming stuff and ugh."

Everyone nods again, processing that.

"Richie! Your sister is here!" Richie lit up and ran out of his room and down the stairs to greet Morgan, who had long dirty-blonde hair like her mother. Richie hugged his older sister and picked her up, spinning her around with a grin. She laughs.

"Oh my god, Che, you're so tall!" Morgan says, grinning. He sets her down.

"It's been 4 years, so, yeah, I'm grown," Richie grins more. He looks up the stairs to see all his friends leaning against the railing or on the top stairs, waiting. "Oh! Let me introduce you to my friends."

The Losers all come down and sit in the living room as some of Morgan's childhood friends come in and go to talk to the Tozier parents. Richie stands behind the couch as his friends sit there.

"This is Bill, you remember him," Richie pats Bill on the head, fluffing his auburn hair up. Morgan nods and smiles.

"Richie, I remember Bill, Stan and Eddie," the three boys she listed grin.

"Oh.. Okay," Richie points to Beverly. "This is Beverly Marsh, coolest girl you'll ever meet," Beverly smiles. Richie points to Ben. "And that's Ben Hanscom, who I've dubbed as haystack."

"Alright. Well, it's nice to meet you two," Morgan smiles, shaking the hands of Beverly and Ben. She takes notice of Beverly's bandages, and Ben's, and then Richie's, but decides it'll be better to.. not question it.

A knock comes from the door.

"Richie, can you get that?" Maggie says from the kitchen.

"Jeez, ma, did you invite all of Derry? It's just Morgan!" Richie replies, but walks to the front door and opens it. In walks Mike, who looks worried. Mike ushers Georgie in quickly as if he was hiding the young teen. Morgan gasps and Georgie smiles, running over to her. She grins and hugs him, beginning to ask where he was and what happened. Richie lets in Mike, and then the other people waiting.. Which happens to be Henry, who was with Mike, and then two others-

Richie, Mike and Henry all rush to the living room and grab Bill and Georgie, pulling them to the back porch.

"What?! What- Wh-What is it?" Bill asks, looking confused at the three taller boys, one hand resting on Georgie's shoulder, who also seemed to know what was going on. The three all look at each other then back at Bill, speaking at the same time.

"Your parents are here."

Chapter Text

“What?” Bill spits out, looking to Georgie. Henry crosses his arms and shrugs a little, not knowing what to say or how to say it. A common occurrence since he came back, probably trying to be better, but not knowing what to say to do so.

“Your parents are here,” Mike repeats, gesturing to the back door. Bill looks at it, seeing distinct figures of people moving around in the house.

“I-I heard you, b-b-b-but, who-who invited th-them?” Bill stumbles over his words a lot more, showing his confusion and fear.

“My parents, probably,” Richie mutters under his breath, turning to the door. He steps inside, the door closing fast but Mike catches it before it slams, slowly closing it.

Richie beelines straight for his mom, forcing a smile at her.

“Sorry, can I steal my mom for a second?” He tries with his best, polite voice. Sharon gives him a smile and nods, and Richie essentially drags his mother to the room over.

“What is it, Rich?” Maggie looks up at him, curious to what he’s got to say.

“You invited the Denbroughs?” Is all he says.

Maggie stares at him, looks to the wall and thinks. He lets the words settle into the air, waiting. He looks over as one of the houseplants begins wilting, and he takes some deep breaths, the plant returns to normal.

“Oh. Oh, I did.”

“Yeah you did!” Richie exclaims, laughing out of frustration. “Of all people in Derry you could have invited..”

“Richie, I’m so sorry, where’s Bill and Georgie?”

*

Mike and Henry walk right through the house, looking to the stairs. Bill and Georgie stand beside them, mostly covered. Mike sees Richie through the door leading into the dining room, talking.. arguing? With his mom. He looks back to the stairs as they keep rushing to them.

“Mike!” Someone calls out, and he turns around to see Sharon and Zach standing in the kitchen.

“Oh, hey!” Mike starts awkwardly, glancing back at Henry, Bill and Georgie, who have disappeared up the stairs.

“How have you been?” Sharon smiles kindly. Mike forces a grin and walks over to lean on the other side of the kitchen island.

“Pretty good..” Mike mumbles in response.

“Who were those boys?” Zach questions, gesturing to the stairs.

“Oh.. That was Henry Bowers, one of his friends and the friend’s little brother. They probably went up to talk with.. Eddie,” Mike feels like he’s gonna throw up. He sucked at lying despite all the lying he did at home. Maybe that’s why he was always caught. And why he was constantly grounded.

He dismisses the thought.

*

Georgie was practically yanked up the stairs by Henry and Billy. He wasn’t that short, he was Beverly’s height already. Granted they were tall, way tall. He wanted to see his parents, why couldn’t he see his parents? He huffs as they enter Richie’s room where Eddie is the only one there, laying on the bed, seeming to try and nap. He sits up when they enter, scooting to the edge of the bed, cocking an eyebrow.

“What’s.. going on?” He asks carefully, eyeing the three of them as Billy sighs and flops down on the bed.

“Sharon and Zach are here,” Henry says as he opens up the window to sit in it.

“A-A-A-A-Are you s-s-seriously on a f-f-first name basis w-with my puh-puh-puh-parents?” Billy stutters out, his voice muffled in the blanket.

“They don’t deserve the respectful titles of Mr and Mrs,” Henry counters back.

“Mmh,” is all Billy responds with.

“Why can’t I see them?” Georgie finally speaks up. Henry looks away, out the window, meanwhile Billy sits up to be next to Eddie.

“You can see them, kid,” Henry looks back at him. “Bill can’t. They were assholes. Every kid in Derry knows that.”

“I was in New York for 5 years!” He says back. “How were they assholes?”

“They were mentally abusive, Georgie. Like my mom was,” Eddie answers as he stands, going to Richie’s desk and rummaging around in the drawers for something.

“But they were so nice..” He doesn’t want to believe it.

“They b-b-blamed me for your di-di-di-disappearance,” Billy says quietly.

Georgie crosses his arms and plops down on the ground, his back to the wall. He stares at the ground.

It’s possible. It’s very possible! Maybe if I had just been more careful. Why wasn’t I more careful? I should’ve stayed in the damn house.

*

The door opens and Richie marches in, going to Eddie’s side.

“Sour mood,” Eddie remarks after glancing to Richie, and his hand reaches up and pinches Richie’s cheek as a joke. Richie makes a face.

“Hey, that’s my thing!” Richie then pinches both of Eddie’s cheeks. “Cute, cute, cute!”

Eddie groans and massages his now-red cheeks. From blush or from pinching, who knew.

“My mom realised her mistake. She says as long as you two don’t show your faces, it’ll be fine.” Richie walked by Georgie and ruffles his chestnut hair, opening his closet to look for something.

“With how long you spent in there, how did you lose something?” Henry attempts to joke, resulting in a small laugh from Richie but no one else.

“Didn’t lose it. Just gotta look,” with that, Richie reaches behind a box and reveals a pack of cigarettes, going over to the window and gesturing for Henry to move. He doesn’t. Richie kicks his legs out of the way and sits on the other side of the window. He takes a lighter from his desk. Lighting a cigarette, he moves to lay out on the roof, back to the shingles, his legs hooked on the windowsill to keep him steady as he lets the smoke carry away in the warm spring air.

“Today’s gonna be a nightmare,” Eddie mutters as he opens the door to go downstairs, and try to deal with the situation.

Chapter Text

I am going to be rewriting this fic. Chapter by chapter, word by word. Not really lmao, I’m just going to edit everything and likely completely revamp many chapters as I rewrite the plot to actually make sense and be a good story. I was like, 13 while writing this and had, no fucking clue what I was doing. I’m trying to better balance all my interests, and I’m starting here.

I’m actually going to likely start a new work for this rather than replace all of this. That way this one is still up for reference of my shitty writing compared to what will be better. This time I’ll actually plan things out lmao. But thanks to all of you for the support, and I’ll update this to give more information on what the new work is going to be about and where to find it and all of that. I appreciate all the kudos and reads, and I’m excited to actually make this story something that makes SENSE. And doesn’t mischaracterise the Losers like crazy.

Also I must’ve been on something when I brought in Bowers. I hate Bowers. He can. Smd or smth.

Anyway I’m literally Richie Tozier peace out