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princecupcakee · 4 years

Text

Park Bench | Reddie

Read on AO3

Rating: E

Pairing: Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak

Word Count: 3,112

Chapter: 1/8

Next Chapters: Chapter 2 (AO3), Chapter 3 (AO3), Chapter 4 (AO3)

Summary: Recently divorced and ‘incapable of love’, Eddie Kaspbrak moves to Los Angeles for work and a small, small hope of a fresh start. Broken up and never dated again, Richie Tozier tries to get back into love with help from his love of music. Quickly meeting eyes and one concert later, they think that maybe love isn’t that bad. So they try it one more time.

Chapter 1: Richie Tozier’s Plan, Eddie Kaspbrak’s First Vinyl & Beverly Marsh’s Plan

Tags/Warnings: Angst / Unhappy Ending / theres only one sex scene but this is explicit anyway / Bisexual Richie Tozier / Gay Eddie Kaspbrak / Post-Divorce / Implied/Referenced Cheating / Inspired By Remembering Sunday (All Time Low) / Inspired by The Book Ninja by Ali Berg / Implied/Referenced Child Abuse / Implied/Referenced Abuse / Implied/Referenced Manipulation

Tag-list: @richietoaster, @s-s-georgie, @mikeuris, @gazebobullshit, @that-weird-girls-blog, @tozierking, @thoughtfullyyoungduck, @s-onora, @bellarosewrites, @lermanslogan, @ambitiousskychild, @ghostnebula, @vanillaredvelvet,

(Ask if you wanna be on the tag-list!!)

Chapter 1

Richie Tozier’s Plan

If Richie’s love life was written into a song, it would be called ‘Disaster’; named after his sad attempts at everything even just slightly involved with it. It would be a ballad, slow at first, some depressing line about how dreams don’t become reality. The chorus would hit loud, deafening if rock music wasn’t something you’d find yourself listening to, ‘He loved the sound of their romance’ is the loudest line in the chorus followed by: ‘But he messed up the steps to the dance’ then a sudden melancholy beat, ‘He failed his audition and he lost his chance.’ Toward the end of the song, as the sounds of the drums faded, and a slow guitar was the dominant sound, ‘It’s hopeless’ and the song would close.

Richie’s love life was an utter disaster if you tried to put it to words. He hadn’t had a single normal date in a very long time (he wonders if he ever did, really.) It wasn’t as simple as, ‘I spilled my drink and now there’s going to be a stain and that embarrassing’ those dates wouldn’t stand a chance on his. A few from his museum of failed dates:

Exhibit A -

James: Hey, I saw that you live in Los Angeles

Richie: Yeah! What about you?

James: I just got out of jail and my ex changed the locks. I really need a place to stay?

Exhibit B -

“I love this band so much,” Abigail gushed.

“Me, too! I’m really glad we were able to catch them here.”

And later that night on the news: ‘Woman arrested for jumping on stage to pull a strand of hair from a celebrity in a Los Angeles concert.’

Exhibit C - Connor. Connor Bowers was perfect with Richie, at least as Richie thought. The two had been dating for 2 years until Richie proposed, only to be rejected. Connor confessed that he was cheating, that he didn’t even actually like men. The night they got together, Richie had bought him a drink. Connor really only wanted to try it, but it clearly wasn’t for him. The next morning though, when they woke up in Connor’s bedroom, Richie decided that they were together. Richie wasn’t really thinking, he was just in desperate need for love. After Richie was kicked out of Connor’s apartment, he ended up in Stan’s house, unable to stay alone his own.

Richie never really moved out of Stan and Patty’s house. They didn’t really mind Richie living there, but they did mind that Richie was still bitter about the breakup. Stan and Richie have been friends since they were kids, he’s seen Richie in every way. Patty and Richie became close friends right when Stan introduced them. They would try to set Richie up with a few of their friends but he would just sulk in his room. He claims to be ‘done with love in the most chill way possible’ but the sad love songs, the bitterness on Valentines, and the sulking would beg to differ.“Love isn’t that bad you know, you could try”

“I don’t need to try. I’m fine,” Richie countered.

“There’s a lot of fish in the sea,” Patty said, kindly.

“Not anymore. All I get is plastic bags now,” Richie said bitterly.

Stan sighed, “you’re just gonna be alone forever?”

“Yes,” Richie replied immediately, standing up to get ready for work. Aside from a few comedy gigs, he works at a little record store a few minutes from where he lives. The store had the best speakers, phonographs, Walkmans, discs, headphones, everything. Richie loved it there, always being surrounded by music. The store was always pretty empty, aside from the occasional customer, it was just him. Like its always been.

He took his car from the driveway, heading for the city.

~~~

“Morning, Ben, Bev,” Richie nodded at them, smiling.

“Good morning Richie,” Beverly greeted with a wave, “How have you been?” Beverly was Ben’s wife, she has always been nice to Richie. ‘Nice’ didn’t compose of only greetings and coffee and being professional, they were close friends who went out to movies and heard each other’s lives play. Beverly designed clothing lines, while Ben was an architect. They don’t spend much time in the store, usually just leaving it with Richie.

“Pretty good, you?”

“Fine, but this one forgot to fix the thing on this table yesterday and was insanely worried all night,” Beverly pointed to Ben over her shoulder.

“It could break!” Ben argued, continuing to fix whatever was wrong with the table. Beverly walked over to Richie, who is sat down on the sofa. “So… I have this friend. He’s smart, good-looking, and really nice-“

“No, Bev, I’m not going to date. I’m single and unwilling to mingle.”

“More like, single and afraid to mingle,” she tiredly rolls her eyes, “Richie, there are good people out there, you just have to try.”

“I don’t see that. All the good people are with the other good people. Look at you and Ben! Both of you are like, super hot and nice. Guys like me got no chance- not saying that I want a chance, because I’m fine being alone.”

“You just have to keep looking.”

“Its a waste of energy to ‘keep looking.’ People who like me are not okay. Remember Abigail? Not to mention, people have shit taste in music.”

“You’re such a music snob,” She weakly laughs and shakes her head.

“Alright, its good. The screws were just-“ Ben says, getting up and walking to them.

“Ben, we love you but I don’t understand a single thing you say about architecture and furniture, and whatever else there is,” Bev jokes.

“I try. I’m out for today though, I have meeting, and I’m not sure if I’ll be back,” Ben says to Richie.

“Thats fine, I’ll just sit back here,” Richie smiles putting his hands behind his head and leaning further into the sofa.

“See you then.”

Richie picked up a vinyl and put it in the player. He had been playing around with cassettes, and a few of his own vinyl for a few hours now (‘few’ probably not being the case) and thinking and writing. After he’s finished a chunk of the script he was working on for his Friday performance at a local bar, he had gotten bored and just casually sat by the sofa. ‘Love’ the word danced around his head, taunting him. Or at least, to him, it was taunting. ’He woke up from dreaming and put on his shoes’ sung the player.

The song carried him around as he sang, “Forgive me I’m trying to find, my calling, I’m calling at night. I don’t mean to be a bother but have you seen this girl?” The lyrics took him strongly, his heart tight and loose at the same time, feeling each beat. He drums his fingers on the sofa, following the beats, “She’s been running through my dreams. And its driving me crazy it seems. I’m going to ask her to marry me.”

“you’re such a music snob,” rang in his ears, and he knew what he was going to do. He ran to his collection of vinyl seated by the left of the speakers, under the small table and began to search. He had his own few pieces of vinyl in the store, his own music that he listened to on the empty days of work. The Beatles, Green Day, Aerosmith, he took all the classics in his hands and grinned.

~~~

“Explain to me your plan again?” Stan asked, shocked.

“I’m going to get the best vinyl, write my number or email- whatever, and see who calls. Go on a date, see what happens. I’m gonna leave the vinyl all around the city’s subway all that, ” Richie explains excitedly.

“That might actually work!” Patty says, joining Richie’s excitement.

“This can get you more crazy dates than the ones you got before, Rich,” Stan says, unsure.

“Then, its material for my shows! Like Abigail and James!”

“See, Stan? Its great! Richie tries to go back to dating and he gets show material, win-win!” Patty hopes.

“Where will you get all the vinyl your leaving?”

“Thats the only downside, I’m going to use my own vinyl, maybe beg Ben to let me use the ones at the store?”

Stan sighs, softly smiling and nods, “this could work.”

~~~

‘Hot Fuss’ sat on his lap as he traced over the letters. Richie was in doubt now, his heart racing as he sat in the train. This was the first vinyl he would be leaving for this project of his. His stop was in a few minutes, so he pulled out the Sharpie from his pocket, bit the cap off, and wrote: ‘If you’ve enjoyed listening to this, would you enjoy a date too? Email me, Richie Tozier, @Remembering_Records.’ Richie set the vinyl down subtly and walked. “@Remembering_Records?” Stan asks.

“I was listening to Remembering Sunday, it was influenced,” Richie replies, hopping over the gap, he takes a deep breath and looks over at Stan, “Let’s hope this works,” he smiles, dashing away.

Eddie Kaspbrak’s First Vinyl

“I can’t believe we’re not using our cars,” Eddie mumbles, grumpily.

“Says the New Yorker,” Mike jokes.

“I drive there! Bill’s from there too! Subway stations are so unsanitary, so many people-“

“P-please! Enough with the com-complaining!” Bill says, frustrated, “M-Mike’s car broke down, and there’s no other way to get to B-Ben and Bev’s shop.”

“Its your day off! You landed in LA at midnight, and now we’re going to meet up with old friends,” Mike says happily, walking into the train.

“Exactly! Midnight. I shouldn’t be running around in this germ-infested-“

Mike looks at him tiredly.

“—I’m doing this because Ben and Bev are great and they’re our place to stay, Florida,” Eddie rolls his eyes.

Eddie doesn’t fit in LA. At all. He’s not used to the weather, the lifestyle, everything. He doesn’t like it here and just wants to go home. And Los Angeles seems to not want him here either. He lost one out of three of his suitcases the moment he got down, he had to wait an hour for Mike and Bill to pick him up from the airport, Mike’s car breaks down on the way to meet a friend, and now he’s taking the dirty subway.

He’s only really here for work. All three of them are. Bill and Eddie are from New York, and Mike is from Florida. They were transferred to the Los Angeles branch as a way to teach and help the new workers there. Bill’s ex-girlfriend, Beverly, lives in Los Angeles with her husband. They’re all good friends and Ben and Beverly offered to let them stay at their house (scratch that- mansion) for as long as they’re there. Of course, they took the offer instead of some crummy hotel, too far from their jobs.

Now here he is, on a train, heading to EighthNote to meet Ben and Beverly. But something isn’t right in this train, Eddie doesn’t know if this is just Los Angeles, but there, two seats away, is a light blue, paper casing, with the words ‘The Killers Hot Fuss’ sprawled across its center.

“Look, its Hot Fuss,” Mike points, “someone must’ve lost it.”

“We could put it in the l-lost and found,” Bill mumbles.

“Do not touch that. Who knows where its been?” Eddie says immediately, grabbing Bill's wrist and lightly pulling him back.

But Mike was already on his way to the seat, hand already about to grab the record. Until some guy in his late twenties took the record and sat on the seat. “Oh, is this yours?” He asks Mike.

“Oh, no, it isn’t mine,” Mike says walking back to Bill and Eddie.

~~~

On a street corner, a glass door, big windows, and a small wood sign that says EighthNote hanging above, Ben and Bev were talking inside when Bill, Mike, and Eddie walked in. “Ben! Bev!” Mike smiles, arms open wide.

“Its been so long!” Beverly sings, piling them into a group hug.

“It really has. I didn’t even know you had this shop,” Eddie says, admiring the speakers.

“At this point, it isn’t even ours, one our friends who work here basically one the place at this point,” Ben explains.

“You guys have a whole staff for this?”

“Nah, its just one of our friends. We pretty much just lay around here, the few customers here and there,” Beverly smiles, “he’s got comedy gigs though, he should honestly be a star now.”

“What’s his name?”

“Richie. We met him through Patty—one of my friends who model for me— her husband, Stan.”

“I’m probably pulling at strings here but are you talking about Stan Uris?” Mike asks, surprised.

“Yeah! How do you know him?”

“Best ex I ever had.”

Beverly laughs cheekily, “do tell.”

“Nothing! I just know from college, we dated a while, then he swooned for a girl, Patty Blum.”

“Thats her alright. Gorgeous.”

Eddie had moved on from the speakers by then, knowing they’d be reminiscing college in the next few minutes. Eddie only knows Ben and Beverly through Bill. Bill and Beverly had dated in college, but broke up and just stuck to being friends. Nothing is really awkward between them, all still close. Ben and Eddie both get along with architecture. He really just wanted something to do, he didn’t know what anything in this store was. “Its the thing from the train,” Eddie points, not exactly talking to anyone.

“Oh yeah,” Mike says walking over to Eddie. Mike’s reply startling him.

“Train?” Ben asks.

“We found a vinyl in the train on our way here,” Bill explains.

The conversation didn’t go into the details anymore, as Beverly took the record and put it in… Eddie didn’t know what that was. Was he supposed to? He saw Walkmans from his classmates when he was in middle school, but he never paid too much attention to it. He simply didn’t have the time or energy to care. Its just music. The song started oddly, in Eddie’s opinion. ‘Save some face, you know you’ve only got one’

“What the fuck is this?” Eddie wondered as the song continued.

“You’ve never heard ‘Smile Like You Mean It’?” Bill asks making Eddie slightly uncomfortable.

“I- No?”

Beverly cheekily grinning, “Well, since you’re in LA with us, you’re gonna finally see what good music is.”

~~~

The day took longer than Eddie had hoped, but now, he was in a car (thank God) heading the Marsh’s house. Grateful that Bill and Mike were just as exhausted and quiet as he was, he finally caught up with his thoughts. He was finally able to think again, about how the shop looked, how much he disliked the album Beverly basically threw at his ears, how cute the boy who walked into the shop earlier- no. No. Not what should be running threw his head right now. “Do you guys know the guy who walked into EighthNote earlier?”

“The tall, Hawaiian shirt guy with the glasses?” Mike asked, not looking at Eddie as he turned the wheel.

“Yeah.”

“I th-think that was the guy who works there. Who would randomly bring food into a store and y-yell ‘I brought Chinese, fuckers!’ If they didn’t work there?” Bill answers.

“Right,” Eddie says, his mind wandering away from the topic. He found himself opening his phone and searching ‘Hot Fuss’ into Spotify’s search bar. As much as he’d hate to admit it, it wasn’t that bad. And the guy at the store was cute.

Beverly Marsh’s Plan

“I brought Chinese, fuckers!” Richie shouted as he walked into the store. He instantly dropped his hands when he saw a man right in front of him.

After a quite lengthy moment of staring, “Excuse me,” he said, moving to the right of Richie, out the door, two men following after.

“Who were they?” Richie asked, setting the food on the table in front of him.

“Old friends of ours. They’re gonna be staying at our place,” Beverly explains.

“Okay,” Richie drags the word, “anyway, I have an amazing plan that was already put into action before any of you two hets try to stop me—”

“Uh-huh,” Ben cautiously nods.

“— so. Here’s how it works. I’m gonna set out a bunch of vinyl and shit on subways, with an email written on the back, and see how calls. I write if they wanna go on a date on the back, and if you’re worried if that'll be a bunch of people like Abigail and shit, I’m not saying you’re wrong. But if it is, it’s show material. It’s gonna be great.”

“This is amazing! You should’ve told us earlier, I totally would’ve come with you!” Beverly laughs.

“Wait. Did you start today?” Ben asks.

“Yeah, why?”

“Which?” Ben smirks at Beverly, as she returns the look.

“Hot Fuss,” Richie smiles. Ben and Beverly snicker. Richie rolls his eyes, “Yeah I know I played Mr. Brightside to a girl before, but I didn’t know the song was about cheating!”

Beverly’s laughter doubles, “That’s not it but okay.”

“Whatever. But, anyway, who was the short guy earlier?”

“We told you, old friends. Why?” Ben says.

“Dunno. He was kinda cute I guess.”

“See? I told you you’d like him. That was the guy I was telling you about,” Beverly smiles knowingly.

“You tried to set up Eddie and Richie?” Ben wonders. Beverly sneaks a wink at Ben, “There’s a concert next weekend, right?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Think you could get us three more tickets?”

“Sure?”

~~~

Beverly walked into to her and Ben’s room, grinning. “Are you gonna explain why you’re so happy?” Ben asks.

“We’re gonna get Richie and Eddie together.”

Ben gives an unsure look at her, “Richie’s going back to dating with this vinyls-on-trains thing he’s doing. Are you sure you want to set him up? You know how unhappy he is about love and stuff, its surprising enough that he’s willing to try again.”

Beverly takes a moment to think. She knows Ben is right, but she also knows that this will be good for both Eddie and Richie. Well, the second one, she isn’t so sure of. “I guess,” Beverly says, slightly disheartened, “but, we could ask them and, y’know, try?” She says hopefully.

“As much as I worry about this, I also think that it could be good. We’ll take them both to the concert and see where they go from there. What do you think?”

“Perfect,” Beverly smiles.

#reddie #reddie fic #it #it chap one #it chap two #remembering Sunday + The book ninja au

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byeoltoyuki · 5 years

Text

Just One Week ⇾ KTH

↳Pairing : You x Taehyung

Genre : Fluff / Slight Angst / idol!au

Warnings: Do not listen/watch 'Winter Bear' prior to reading this fic. You might pass out from cuteness overload. He is so sooooft...

Words: +14k

Author: Yuna

Summary : When you head back to your home town for 2 weeks to visit your family during your holidays, you didn't imagine it would start with Kim Taehyung nearly stealing your luggage. Then stealing your time. And then stealing your heart.

✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻✻

Sunday

The airport of your hometown, because it was not located in the most touristic area of your country, was not usually very busy so whenever you came back home to visit your family, getting your luggage back and exiting the place was a quick affair. Today however, it seemed like three flights had landed at the same time and therefore a massive crowd of people was making their way to the baggage claim area. It was pretty annoying seeing as the airport was so small that it had only one baggage belt for all flights and therefore everything was mixed together. You made your way to collect your belongings and sneaked in the middle of a group of people, staring at the suitcases spinning on the belt, looking for yours. You were going to be there for a while.

It had been a while since you came back home to visit your family, you were working in another country and flying home was expensive. But this time you had managed to get a full two weeks of holidays so you booked a flight home right away. Your plans were straight forward: you were going to relax the first week since most of your relatives were working, and the second one would be used to visit most of them as they would be free since it was the kids' school holidays. You had been looking forward to it, you could not remember the last time you were able to spend some time in your hometown without having the urgency of visiting every single people you knew. It was going to be nice to enjoy all the areas you used to frequent when you were a teenager attending school in the area.

You were pulled from your thoughts as you noticed a luggage similar to yours passing in front of you. You pulled it from the belt and looked for the sticker you had placed next to the name tag to confirm it was yours. But it was not there.

"Great, someone's got the same suitcase as me." You initiated to place it back on the belt when you caught sight of a man on the other side who turned around to leave the area, with a luggage similar to yours. And then you noticed your sticker.

"Sorry... Excuse me! EXCUSE ME!" You put back the luggage you had grabbed on the floor and started running towards the man who did not stop, not realising you were speaking to him. Finally, you reached him and touched his shoulder to grab his attention. When he turned around, you lost your breath for a second when you recognised Kim Taehyung from the Korean band BTS, a group you liked a lot among many others. For a second you forgot what you wanted to say and he seemed to notice it, a worried look crossing his face. You regained your composure and said:

"That's my luggage you have here." You pointed at the suitcase he was pulling. He looked down at it, surprised.

"What? Are you sure? I mean I am pretty sure that is mine…"

You bent on your knees and turned the luggage you had grabbed from belt to observe it properly.

"You are Kim Taehyung right?" you asked.

"Er... yes?" he said hesitantly, the worried look back on his face.

"Well I can't read Korean but I assume that's what it says on this luggage. Also, I have a sticker on mine behind the handle. And my name." You pointed at the name tag on his luggage and his face reddened when he realised his mistake, his ears suddenly becoming a bit red.

"Oh my, I am so sorry! I did not realise... Thank you for calling me and I apologise for not stopping before, I thought you were…"

"A fan? A stalker? Well I am a fan, but certainly not a stalker. There you go." You got back up and pushed his luggage towards him, trying very hard not to show how cute you found his embarrassment to be.

"Thank you... Y/N!" He said after you told him your name. "I really appreciate."

"It is my pleasure, I don't think you would have had any use of my skirts and dresses. Or my underwear. So let's just agree I saved your life."

"Well, it would have been a great excuse to do some shopping... Let's just say you saved my wallet."

"Does your wallet really need saving? Aren't you rich or something? If anything, I stopped you from spending your money here and killed the local economy!"

"So let's agree on that then."

The both of you smiled, amused by your exchange, when another male's voice interrupted.

"Are you alright Taehyung?"

You turned to see Park Jimin joining his friend's side, frowning slightly. Your eyes widened when you recognised the man and Taehyung did the presentations.

"Oh right, sorry Jimin, this is Y/N, she stopped me from swapping my bag with hers."

You bowed to him slightly when you saw him do that first, copying his custom. He raised his head back up with a smirk on his face, clearly making fun of Taehyung's distracted head.

"Thank you very much Y/N, sorry about Taehyung, he tends to have his mind in other places."

"Not a problem." You chuckled. "Are you guys going to be here a while?"

"Just for a week." Jimin started and Taehyung took over.

"We are filming a special video together for a duo and our company found that this town has a very nice historical towncentre, so they thought it would be cool to shoot it here. Plus it is not a big touristic place so we should be pretty anonymous for a week."

"Well to be fair you did run into a fan just a few minutes after landing, I'd say that's not a really good start." You laughed and the boys joined you.

"True. But you're alright, somehow I don't think you are going to tell the whole world of our presence here." Taehyung added with a gentle smile.

"Your secret is safe with me!" You pinched your fingers together and pretended to zip your mouth shut.

***

Monday

You woke up pretty late on the following day, mostly because of the jetlag. So when you got up, it was to find the house empty. You were not hungry for breakfast because of the time difference so you decided to take your time getting ready in the hope that once you would be finished with your shower and getting dressed, you'd be craving some food. However that was not the case and you ended up debating on what to do next, you had a meeting with a friend planned in 2 hours to spend the afternoon with. You remembered a coffee shop you used to go regularly during high school, not far from the place you had agreed to meet your friend. Memories of the delicious pastries and hot drinks they used to serve made your mouth water and you instantly decided you would go there before your catch up.

The coffee shop was located in a small historical square, only reserved to pedestrian. The square was bordered with various little shops that were selling clothes, jewellery... There was even a bookstore at which you made a quick stop to grab a book to read with your coffee. The coffee shop had not changed whatsoever in the years you were gone and as soon as you stepped inside, memories of your teenage years flooded in your head: the numerous times you stopped for a hot chocolate in the morning because you had forgotten to eat breakfast, your first date with your first boyfriend when you shared a pastry... You ordered your favourite latte and headed back outside to settle down in the sitting area in front of the shop and observe the passers-by get on with their lives.

The weather was very nice, it was sunny but not too warm since it was the middle of spring, you only wore a light jacket on top of your cardigan and you realised you could probably sit outside for hours. You started reading your book for a good 45 minutes before taking a break to order another coffee, when you received it, you sat back and enjoyed looking at the square which was now buzzing with activity. Because it was a Monday, today was not the busiest you had ever seen this square, but there were still a fair amount of people looking at the shop windows. You spotted a mother with her young son walking by, the boy clearly not in a happy mood and complaining.

"But mum! These are girls' clothes! I don't want to wear that, it's lame!" he whined.

"It's not because it's your sister's jumper that it is only for girls. You look absolutely fine so stop it!" The mother argued back before they both disappeared in the crowd.

You smiled, remembering when you had to wear your brother's clothes, including that one time for carnival where your mother decided she would not buy you the Esmeralda costume you wanted but instead made you recycle your brother's ninja turtle costume. You giggled at the memory and somehow this topic reminded you of yesterday's unexpected meeting with Kim Taehyung the suitcase thief. It was lucky you caught him before he left the airport or he really would not have had anything to wear! You wondered where he and Jimin were today and what areas of your town they would shoot their video in. It was exciting to know that at some point in the upcoming months you would watch a video of a duo between the two men in the place you grew up in. You took a small sip of your coffee and caught a glimpse of a familiar silhouette standing on the other side of the square. You straightened up and finally realised it was Taehyung!

He was walking with a small group of people that included Jimin and a couple of middle-aged men that seemed to be in charge. One of them was pointing his fingers at various historical buildings of the square while the others were taking pictures and notes. Jimin and Taehyung were observing with interest and you guessed they were doing some location research for the music video.

Eventually, Taehyung turned to look at the other side of the square where you were sitting and spotted you instantly. You weren't too sure what to do, not even certain he remembered you, but then a boxy smile appeared at the corners of his mouth. You smiled back, amused when you saw him waving at you enthusiastically and you raised your hand to wave back. If it was possible, his smile stretched even wider and he pinched the sides of his jumper to shake it. The message was clear, he was telling you 'I am wearing my own clothes!'. You chuckled and gave him a thumbs up. He then tried to grab Jimin's attention to tell him he found you but he was speaking with a couple of people and seemed extremely focused so Taehyung looked back at you, a bit disappointed and shrugged his shoulders. Feeling the conversation (if you can call your signs communication that) coming to an end, you raised your cup of coffee for the man to see, pointed at it and then pointed at the coffee shop behind you, then you showed another thumbs up to imply it was good, and finished by rubbing your stomach. Taehyung laughed from afar, he could not hear you but he could well imagine you going 'Yuuuuuum' based on the look on your face. He did not have the time to show you he understood as a man called for his attention and showed him a notebook. He concentrated on the task at hand and when the man let him go, he looked back and noticed that you had gone, a bit disappointed.

***

Tuesday

You came back to the coffee shop the following day, earlier in the morning as you were starting to catch up on your jetlag. You planned to spend some time there to carry on reading your book before heading to your mother's workplace to grab lunch with her. When you arrived though, you were surprised to find Jimin and Taehyung sitting at one of the tables, immersed in their conversation. You stopped at the sight and hesitated whether or not you should stop for a coffee as planned, realising it could look like you were stalking them, especially considering the fact you were planning on staying there for a couple of hours. You wavered, contemplating your options, and finally, you decided to follow your original plan and sat a the furthest table you could find, pretending you did not notice the two of them.

A few minutes later though, as you came back outside with your drink in hand, Taehyung noticed you and called you up:

"Oh hey Y/N!"

Taken aback, you did not react on the spot and by the the time you came back to your senses, Taehyung had gotten up and approached you to say Hi.

"Third time in three days! What are the odds?" He said enthusiastically.

"Pretty high actually, I did say this was a small town." You joked lightly.

"What are you doing here anyway? I thought you guys were going to be super busy all week?"

"It's the first day of shooting today and these things always end up starting late so we thought we'd follow your recommendation and check out what the coffee taste like here!".

"And?" You inquired .

"Soooo good!" He exaggerated , making you laugh. His cheerfulness was communicative and your smile matched his after just under a minute of meeting him again. "What about you? Are you coming here everyday?"

"Hm not really, It just happened that way. I am here on holidays for two weeks but all my relatives are working until next week so I am just finding things to be busy with. And this used to be one of my favourite places to visit when I was at school so..." You started explaining to him before you interrupted yourself when you noticed Jimin looking at you.

Taehyung followed your gaze and undertook to introduce you to him again. "Jimin, this is Y/N from the airport, do you remember?"

"You nearly stole her luggage? Yes I remember Tae." He said sarcastically. "Hi, how have you been?" He spoke to you directly.

You didn't have the time to respond that Taehyung was already asking you another question.

"Are you sitting all the way there?" he pointed at your table. "Come sit with us Y/N!"

"Erm I..." You hesitated. "No it's fine, I don't want to disturb you, you guys are busy."

But Taehyung was already pulling a chair while Jimin sat back down, smiling at you.

"Please, that'd be nice!" he said.

"And you could tell us all about the places we should take a look at while we're here this week!" Taehyung finally added.

You could see through his enthusiasm that he was really keen on having you sit with them for a bit and you couldn't help but feel flattered at his perseverance. You did not hesitate much longer and put your coffee on their table before heading back to yours and grab your belongings. You sat down with the two men and tackled all the places you knew they could not miss on their stay in the area, Jimin was smiling slightly while Taehyung was listening to your every words, even taking notes of your recommendation on his phone. From the best restaurants in town, local historical buildings and locations, down to the best place to watch a sunset after a long day at work. Time went by really quickly and before you knew it, Jimin looked at the time on his phone and interrupted Taehyung who was telling you of his favourite park to visit in South Korea with passion. You noticed the slight disappointment on his face when he heard the news of having to go, but it disappeared quickly as he turned around to speak to you again.

"It was great seeing you again Y/N, thank you so much for spending some of your time with us! I will definitely try to check out the manor you told us about."

You blushed slightly as he unexpectedly pulled you into a rapid hug to say goodbye, but you regained your composure to wave the two of them off as they left for their next engagement.

***

Wednesday

It was halfway through the week when you had been asked by your mother to do the weekly food shopping. So when you got up from bed, you took your time to get ready, enjoying some television while having the biggest breakfast with everything you loved. You caught up on the latest episodes of your series and somehow ended up watching your favourite live performances of BTS. It was surreal to think of what happened in the last few days: meeting two members of the group, with one of them nearly stealing your luggage! You still could not believe you had befriended Taehyung in the short encounters you had with him, but it was so easy to speak with him. You smiled at the memory of how excited he was the day before when you discussed the things to do in the area. You felt a bit nostalgic, thinking it was probably the last time you would see him, before shaking your head, thinking you had been lucky enough to have some quality conversations with him and it would be greedy to want more.

At about midday, you decided that you have had enough of being lazy and motivated yourself to do your chores. You left your house and got into your car without forgetting the shopping bags. You planned on stopping in town to grab some lunch after doing the food shopping and made sure to grab your book, you had nearly reached the end of the story so you were impatient to know how it finished!

The supermarket was not busy at all as most people were working so you had plenty of time to walk between alleys and pick up your items. The job was done quickly and before you knew it, you were back in your car, heading to the town centre, singing loudly to 'Idol', clearly, meeting Taehyung an Jimin had an impact and you were craving to listen to some BTS songs. You interrupted your bad singing as you noticed a familiar figure walking on the side of the road, it caught your attention because you were currently driving on a double lane that was far from the closest houses or shops. It was the last place you expected to see a pedestrian and as you overtook him and looked into your mirrors, you recognised Taehyung.

"What the hell??" You pulled to the side of the road, 100 metres ahead of the man and stood out of your car.

You waved at the man who stopped walking for a second, dubious, before recognising you all of a sudden and waving back enthusiastically. You saw him running towards you with one of his boxy smiles you were starting to get used to and welcomed him with a:

"Fourth day in a row! Nice to see you again Taehyung."

You observed the man catching his breath for a second and couldn't stop yourself from admiring his features, from the red of his cheeks because of the cool weather, to the messy hair because of the running. You gave yourself a mental slap and listened to his question.

"Y/N! What are you doing here?"

You looked around you and burst out laughing.

"Me? Should I not be asking YOU that? Of all the places I recommended for you to visit, you decided the side of a random road was the best one?"

You saw Taehyung blush slightly and scratch the back of his head in embarrassment, he was adorable.

"I was actually trying to go to that Manor you recommended, so I took the bus... But I must have taken the wrong one or got off too early... Either way, I got lost. But it's alright I don't mind! I get to see a bit of the area and the countryside!"

You looked at him trying to justify himself and to your eyes, he was getting cuter by the second.

"Well, the manor is this way." You pointed to the direction with your finger. "So my guess is you did take the correct line, but there are another 5 miles to get there, so you definitely got off too early!"

Taehyung looked towards the direction you were pointing before pulling his phone from his pocket to look at something. You interrupted him.

"I'll drive you." You walked back to your car and open the driver's door, setting a foot inside. "It's gonna take you at least an hour to get there, jump in!"

The man smiled at you and joined you on the other side of the car, he opened the passenger door and suddenly froze as he was about to enter the vehicle.

"Are you alright over there?" You asked from where you sat.

Taehyung finally joined you and distractedly said he was fine. You wondered what must have crossed his mind but brushed the thought away as his happy self was back and he started a conversation with you. You did not know that the reason Taehyung was startled was because he realised how happy with the situation he was and that he enjoyed seeing you, that certainly was an unexpected feeling for him.

Ignoring what was going on in his head, you observed:

"You've got a nice camera, you enjoy photography?"

"Yes, I take it with me whenever I can, you never know when you'll find something nice to shoot or when inspiration will strike! Do you have any passions yourself?"

"I actually own a similar camera to yours, just a different brand, and I can relate to what you are saying about taking it everywhere just in case, but I am not as thorough as you. It gets heavy walking around with all the different lenses I own!"

Taehyung laughed lightly and the both of you carried on discussing the topic. It was agreeable for the both of you to find someone with a similar interest and before you realised, you were arriving to the location of the manor. Taehyung stopped talking and his eyes opened wide.

"Wow." he exclaimed.

You observed him from the corner of your eyes, finding his reaction adorable, but completely understandable. The manor was more like a castle, surrounded by gorgeous gardens, so the man probably did not expect that.

"Have you eaten yet?" Taehyung surprised you with his question.

"Er no, I was on my way to the town centre when I found you."

"Me neither." He pointed to a burger restaurant just outside of the historical property. "Do you want to stop there quickly to grab a bite?"

The next thing you know, you were stepping out of the restaurant, both eating an ice cream as a dessert. Taehyung had insisted to pay for the meals, saying it was his fault you had to stop and could not go home, and even though you assured him it was fine and you were actually happy with the situation, he would not waver. So at the end of the meal, you dragged him to a separate ice cream station and told him to pick a flavour.

You were now walking towards the 'castle', licking the delicious dessert happily, when Taehyung slowed down and pulled his camera out of its bag, taking a shot of his hand holding the ice cream with the monument in the background. You smiled, thinking it was exactly the kind of thing you would do when visiting a new place. You waited a couple of seconds when an idea crossed your mind; Taehyung was about to lower down his arm, having finished taking the shot he wanted, when you joined him by his side and lifted your arm to bring your ice cream next to his. He turned his head to you, surprised and you blushed, realising what you had just done. You were feeling so comfortable with him that you just acted the way you would do with your friends and family. But surprisingly, Taehyung's smile grew wider and he pulled his camera to take the picture, he then looked at the small screen displaying the new image before showing it to you. You were dubious, feeling something was not quite right and by the man's face, you could tell he was of the same opinion, then, without exchanging a single word, you both crossed your arm so that your ice creams would form a triangle, with the manor sitting in the middle of it. Taehyung snapped the new pose and you straight away looked at it together. It was perfect.

You probably spent 2 hours inside the manor, admiring the beauty of the place, and sometimes looking for Taehyung who would get distracted and lose track of the group you were visiting with. The problem was that you were too a bit like Taehyung, and eventually the two of you were left on your own to continue the visit without your guide. It was not really an issue, you knew this place really well after all. So instead you took advantage of this situation to make it a visit of your own. When you deemed that you had seen enough rooms, you led Taehyung to the first floor terrace outside to have a look at the panorama. The view of the gardens was outstanding and the sunny weather was making it even better, you were chatting comfortably with Taehyung, telling him what you remembered of the history of this place, exchanging ideas for the photos he was taking. It was such a fun unexpected day with him, you did not want it to end.

"I totally disagree, that character's death was absolutely uncalled for! His sister was the one who schemed the whole thing, she was the mastermind and yet not the one who got punished!"

"Well he should have been smarter and keep his distances. But in my opinion, he was pretty boring anyway so that's not a big loss."

The two of you were exchanging opinion on a TV series you both realised you liked. Suddenly, Taehyung stopped and looked around, analysing his surroundings. You recognised the look of him having an idea and tried not to disturb him, curious to see what he would do. He moved away and leaned on the balustrade to shoot his picture before coming back to you, handing you the camera to look at the image. It was gorgeous, you could see both the castle and the gardens, you smiled at the man.

"You have a good eye, It is beautiful Taehyung."

The man smiled back at you before frowning slightly, expressing his hesitation to you:

"I wish I could have stepped further back so I could get this fountain in the shot, it would have made a great symmetry with this window." he pointed at an element on the image, a bit disappointed.

An idea started to emerge in your brain then, and you teased him slightly:

"You know what you're missing in your photos?"

Taehyung looked at you with surprise, not expecting you to say something like that, and stayed silent, unsure of what he was supposed to say.

"The element of danger. And risk." you declared before extending your arm to grab his camera. Startled, he handed it out to you without thinking and within seconds you were leaving.

"What... What are you doing?!" Taehyung asked as he saw you sneak under the security cordon, ignoring the sign that said 'Do Not Enter - Staff Only'.

"Wait don't go there!" he shouted while you disappeared.

"Trust me. And look at the view while I'm gone" you winked at him.

You were gone for a whole five minutes and Taehyung had the time to contemplate the view, but his thoughts somehow drifted towards you and this newly found friendship that arrived unexpectedly. He had traveled many times to locations before but this was the first time he met someone he connected with so quickly. He spent his life meeting new people, thousands and thousands of them, but actually developing a relationship with someone was rare. He was missing this spontaneity of speaking with someone with no ulterior motives than to just chat and exchange interests and jokes. It was so refreshing to discover a new country with a new person and actually feel normal, without the pressure and the stress of looking after his actions in the fear it would end up on the internet. The hint of a smile appeared on the man's lips, before he turned around suddenly, hearing you coming back from your mischievous action.

"I think you are going to like this shot." You told him while looking at the pictures you've just taken on the back screen of the camera.

"I did not realise I made friends with a criminal, I am not looking for problems you know!"

You could have taken this seriously if it wasn't for Taehyung's amused smile.

"Ssh, not so loud!" You whispered loudly in a conspiracy kind of way. "I'll let you in a secret, you can show me any "Do not enter" sign of this town, and I'll know where it is! I am a major outlaw here!"

Both you and him giggled after that little game, and eventually Taehyung asked to see the pictures you had taken on his camera. You hesitated for a second, you had not only taken the shot he tried to do earlier with the gardens and the fountain, but you also had taken a couple of pictures of Taehyung observing the panorama from the castle's balcony without him noticing. You thought he probably would enjoy them, seeing how he posts pictures of himself as a tourist here and then, but the thought of him seeing them in front of you made you blush. You decided to be honest:

"Ok, I have to say, I may have taken a couple of extra shots, but don't look at them now! You are so good at photography, I am a bit embarrassed to show you. So please look at them later once I am gone? Please?"

Taehyung seemed surprised at first and then nodded with a gentle smile on his face. He was finding your embarrassment adorable so he made you his promise without hesitation. He took the camera from your hands and held it in front of the two of you so you could select the image he was trying to take earlier.

"Wow Y/N, this is amazing! I did not realise you could see so much better from higher up. The angle looks so different!"

"The power of criminals." you teased him before he punched back your arm lightly.

The rest of the afternoon disappeared very quickly, 'time flies when you're having fun' as they say... The two of you were now walking to your car, you had offered to drive Taehyung back to his hotel rather than letting him take the risk of taking a bus and getting lost again. He had accepted happily. You were already sitting on the driver's seat while the man was having a last look at the Manor House with a smile. Suddenly, an idea crossed his mind and he bent his head to look at you inside the car, looking excited.

"Y/N, let's take a photo!"

"What?" You asked, stunned.

"Come on out! Let's take a picture together, as a memory!"

Flustered, you observed the man taking a few steps away from the vehicle and get his phone out of his pocket. Seeing as you did not move, he waved at you as if he was saying "What are you doing? Come on!". You unfastened your seatbelt and got out of the car, your legs somehow feeling like marshmallow. When you reached Taehyung's side, he grabbed your wrist and turned you around so the both of you would have the castle behind. He lifted his phone in the air to take a selfie and strike a pose, making a V with his fingers. You smiled shyly, still flustered by his invitation.

"That is not the pretty smile I saw all day Y/N, please do it again for the picture!"

You blushed even more and managed to smile naturally as soon as you regained your composure. Taehyung then looked at the photo with a smile and showed it to you. You observed the image fondly, feeling Taehyung's gaze on you and decided that, actually, you wanted that picture too! You took out your phone from your pocket, unlocked it and extended your arm as far as possible so that the two of you would fit in the frame. Unfortunately your arms were significantly smaller than the man's and what seemed easy for him was a struggle for you. No matter how you angled the phone, it was impossible to fit everything in, you, Taehyung or even the castle! The young man laughed at your troubles and took a step behind you, lowered himself on his legs and dropped his head on your shoulder. You blushed furiously at the contact and instinctively turned your face to look at him. He then took advantage of your distraction to take your phone from your hands and snap a handful of pictures without warnings.

"Taehyung, what...!" you started.

He ignored you and carried on taking pictures.

"I am not stopping until you smile, beautiful!"

It was as if his last sentence finally unlocked your shyness and liberated you to be fully comfortable with him, so you smiled as brightly as his presence had made your day and you could see from the selfie mode on your phone that, as soon as he noticed that, his smile grew even wider, although you did not think it possible. You ended up playing around for a bit, taking probably a thousand different selfies of the two of you smiling, laughing, acting silly, sulking, showing your tongues, making the V sign with your fingers…

Eventually you both managed to sit in the car, ready to leave. You were busy wiping out the tears of laughter blurring your vision when you heard Taehyung asking:

"So, where to?"

You looked at him, stumped.

"I thought I was taking you back to your hotel? Don't you have a big day of work tomorrow?"

Instantly, Taehyung started pouting and your heart skipped a beat.

"But I want to spend more time with you and have more fun discovering the area. I am bored to death at the hotel!"

"I am sure Jimin would be happy to hear that." You teased him, ignoring what he said about spending more time with you on purpose, for your own sanity.

Taehyung shrugged his shoulders, claiming Jimin would not mind, they saw each other everyday after all, and shortly after, he turned in his seat to face you, a serious look on his face.

"But, for real though, I am having so much fun with you, and I can't remember the last time I was able to act so naturally around someone I just met. I'd love for this day to carry on... If you don't have anything else planned that is?"

"Erm, Yes... I mean no..." You stuttered before taking a big breath. "I have nothing planned for the rest of my day, my week even, but there is just that one tiny thing I should have done a few hours ago before I picked you up…"

"What is it?"

"I really need to drop the food shopping at my house. It is all in special bags that keep the food cold but some items really should be in the fridge as soon as possible now…"

"Well if you don't find me too creepy or scary I am happy to give you a hand dropping these at your house if it means we get to stay together a little bit longer!"

You paused to make it seem like you were thinking about it, but really your choice was already made, at this stage you just wanted to tease him a little bit. You saw the young man staring at you, a hopeful look on his face, and it made you happy. You enjoyed the feeling of having someone wanting to spend time with you. As soon as you agreed with the plan, you had the joy of seeing Taehyung's face brightening up before he put on his seatbelt with excitement.

After a short drive to your house, you invited Taehyung to wait for you in the living room while you were sorting out the food shopping in the kitchen. Within seconds of discovering the room, he noticed your Nintendo Switch with excitement and you turned it on for him to have a look at your games. When you had done what you needed, you joined him in the living room only to find him customizing a vehicle on Mario Kart.

"Having fun?" You asked, surprising him.

"Care to join me for a game?" He patted the space on the floor next to him.

You ended up losing track of time, probably racing each other for a good hour before your phone rang and interrupted the race you were in. You paused the game and startled the man by doing so, he was going to complain and ask why you stopped the game when he heard you speak:

"Oh hi Mum... Yes it's all done... In half an hour?? What time is it?" You glanced at the clock and realised it was just passed 6pm, which meant she was going to come back anytime soon. "Actually I am with a friend at home now... No I don't think he will..." You looked over to Taehyung who was staying quiet next to you. "Actually, I don't think I'll be around for dinner either so don't wait for me... Ok that's fine... Drive safe... Love you too…"

You hung up the phone and looked over to your new friend.

"Have you got any plans tonight?"

A bright smile from the young man welcomed your question as he confirmed that he didn't whatsoever.

30 minutes later, after finishing a competitive game of Mario Kart (and losing, you hated to admit it but Taehyung was significantly better than you), the two of you were back in your car. You had not told Taehyung where you were taking him even though he had strong suspicions since he helped you pack blankets and some food in the car. You were both currently singing loudly to your 'Feel Good' playlist as you called it, which was a mixture of songs that made you happy such as Uptown Funk from Bruno Mars or September from Earth, Wind & Fire. However, you were so caught up in your singing that you forgot another song that makes you really happy and that happened to be on your playlist too... Idol, from no others than Taehyung's group. Awkward. By the time you realised what was playing, Taehyung had caught your phone to stop you from changing the song and started to rap happily along Namjoon's voice.

"You can call me Artist, you can call me Idol!" He raised his hands in the air, mimicking his hyung's signature moves.

You blushed furiously as you felt his eyes on you, staring at you with a mischievous smile. If he had any doubt that you knew his group and was a BTS fan, it no longer existed. Surprisingly though, he did not tease you that much apart from the intense staring and you finally started singing with him for the last chorus. When you eventually reached your destination, Taehyung stepped out of the car and he admired the area with a broad smile.

"Is this the hill you recommended? The one with the perfect view of the city and the most amazing sunset?"

You nodded and opened your car to grab what you brought. Taehyung came to your rescue as soon as he saw you struggling with the big blankets and cushions you piled up in your arms, taking them away from you. The hill was completely covered in grass and wild flowers, and a few other people had the same idea as you as you could see several groups and couples spread out in the field, waiting for the sun to set. You picked an empty spot, isolated from the rest of the crowd, and installed your blankets before settling down and observe the view.

The sun was not going to come down for another hour so you engaged in a relaxed conversation to pass the time, snacking on some food you thought of bringing.

"Have you lived here all your life?" Taehyung asked.

"Until I graduated from uni, so most my life really. Then I found a job abroad and just went for it. All I wanted to get out of this place, but now that I live somewhere else…"

"You realised how much it means to you, and how precious your hometown can be…"

You turned your eyes to the man, amused.

"You can relate?"

"I left Daegu when I was pretty young. It's not that I was looking forward to leave, I was pursuing my dreams so I was super excited. But I didn't realise what I had there until I left…"

A peaceful silence settled between the two of you, like an understanding. It was so easy speaking to him, laugh with him, share things to him. Everything felt so natural. This friendship, this relationship, was developing so quickly, any other times you would have been frightened and slowed things down. But it felt so comforting, unique and precious that you didn't want to use the brakes. Maybe it was the inevitable time limit this relationship had that made it like that, so it was easier to embrace the moment, knowing it could all be finished once you drive him back to his hotel. You had been incredibly lucky to meet him 4 times in a row, but you doubted it would happen again, it was a small town indeed but he did mention earlier that in the upcoming days he would be incredibly busy shooting his scenes for the music video, so he would no longer have time for himself to hang around town.

"You see that big park over there?" You broke the silence and pointed your finger to the horizon. Taehyung looked up and nodded. "Next to it was my primary school, I went there from the age of 3 to 10. Every week we would walk to that park with the entire class to practice a sport. I have a lot of memories of those walks, it always took us so long, imagine walking a class of thirty 9 years old kids, so with my friends we got into the habits of telling each other stories. A lot of them were horror ones! I remember this specific story about a cursed doll that would wake up during the night and count numbers while saying where she was, slowly making her way to the bedrooms, until she reaches the parents' room, become silent, and when she starts counting again, she has added another 2, because she had killed the parents, and she was now coming to your bedroom."

"Sounds scary."

"It was. Especially that young!"

"I take it you like horror stories then?"

"Oh no! Quite the opposite! I hate them with a passion! And I blame this doll for starting the trauma! Seriously, put me in front of a scary film and I will not sleep for 2 weeks."

Taehyung cracked up and encouraged you to tell him more, so you started another story of your childhood.

"After primary school, I went to that school over there, with the tower." You pointed towards the direction of the building while the man was trying to find it. But he struggled and even though you tried to give him other indications, such as buildings nearby, he would still not find it. So without thinking, you got up on your knees and placed yourself behind his back, placing your head on his shoulder next to his, and your arm on the other side of his face.

"Right there, do you see it now?" you asked him, pointing your finger again. When no answers followed, you turned your head to look at him and was surprised to find him staring at you, your nose brushing against his as your faces were so close from each other. By instinct, your head pulled back away from his a little, giving you more space to see the blush spreading on his cheeks. To be fair, you could feel your own cheeks heating up too. That is when you noticed the little mole under his nose... You gave yourself a mental slap as now was certainly not the time. Taehyung turned his head back towards the view and raised his arms.

"I think I can see it now, is it next to the orange building? Where there are three trees forming a triangle?"

You welcomed the distraction gratefully.

"Yes! That's the one." You cleared you throat, stepping back from your position and sitting back next to him, wondering what the hell came across your mind to do that. "I spent four years in that school, until I turned 15. I don't really have great memories there to be honest, I was an awkward child, quite shy and a few kids ended up bullying me. But I met one of my best friends there, so there is some positive to take out from it."

You smiled a little, for good figure, not really meaning it. For a second you got lost in your memories, reminiscing about these times. When suddenly a large warm hand enveloped yours, entwining his fingers with yours. There was no need to look as you knew it was Taehyung's, obviously. You squeezed back his hand and continued:

"Then, I ended up in that school over there, until I turned 18. Now you can't miss that one, it was huge. And right next to the main shopping avenue!"

"Oh I see it! Did you end up doing more shopping than studies?" He joked around.

"I'll have you known that I was a very good student mister!"

The man looked at you, with an expecting smirk painted on his face.

"Alright! I might have skipped class a couple of times during the sales period! I was broke okay? I had to be the first to catch a good deal when there was one!"

"Haha don't worry, I'm not one to scold you about shopping!"

"Again, we are back on that luggage thing, I am now convinced you wanted to get the wrong one so you could buy new clothes!" You teased him about that time you met at the airport, nudging him with your shoulder.

A clear laugh tickled your ears, Taehyung was laughing wholeheartedly, and it was the most beautiful sound you had ever heard. What you did not realise though, was that at the same time, Taehyung was contemplating your happy smile, thinking it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. When he calmed down from his laughter, he said with a soft smile on his lips:

"It was just a happy coincidence."

The two of you carried on discussing for a while, until the sky finally darkened and the sun started going down, painting the horizon in bright pinks, oranges, purples and blues. The spectacle was breath-taking and during the whole sunset, Taehyung did not let go of your hand. When you both settled into a comfortable silence to watch the beautiful sky, you managed to summon enough courage to drop your head onto his shoulders, using it as a head rest. You felt the surprise from Taehyung, his head turning your way to witness you resting on him. Your heart was beating like crazy, wondering what the hell you had just done again for the second time in one evening. And you weren't even drunk. But the atmosphere was so special and intimate that you wanted to enjoy it at its fullest. With no chances for regrets later.

You courage paid off and heart made a full loop in your chest when you felt his head rest on top of yours. You both stayed like that for a while until the sun had completely disappeared and the sky was pitch dark. When eventually you looked around you, it was only to see that you were the last ones around and everybody else had left. A quick look on your phone revealed that it was way past 11pm.

"Taehyung, you need to be back at your hotel! You will be shattered tomorrow…"

The man stayed silent for a second and you were not able to tell what was crossing his mind at the time. He looked disappointed, happy, relaxed... All of them at the same time and maybe something else you could not pinpoint... Hesitation.

Eventually he got up, pulling you from the ground with his hand still linked to yours.

"Alright, let's go back to the real world then."

***

Thursday

You woke up pretty late on that day. You went to bed much later than usual after all, you dropped Taehyung back to his hotel and once you got home yourself, you struggled to fall asleep, spinning endlessly in your bed. Your brain had refused to turn off, playing over and over again the events of the previous days. How you met Taehyung at the airport when he nearly took your luggage for his, how you saw him again from afar the following day, how you met him again at the same coffee place and ended up having a drink with him and Jimin... And how you spent the whole of Wednesday with him, visiting a castle, joking around, taking pictures, taking selfies, and watching that sunset together…

It felt so unreal to have spent moments like these with a man like that. Like for any celebrities you stanned, you had perfectly embraced the fact that you would not see them any closer than on stage or on a TV screen.

But you actually spent a day with Taehyung, and you held each other’s hand. And it felt so natural and easy that you were struggling to process it ACTUALLY happened. And that you may have developed a crush on him. Now that's a truth bomb that blew up in your face when you woke up, right before the moment that it was over, you two would not see each other again. You were a tiny bit angry at Taehyung for messing up with your head like that, especially after what he did when you dropped him at the hotel.

After a good 20 minutes in the car, driving the man to his hotel, you stopped in front of the entrance, putting your warning lights on as you were not planning to park since you were just dropping the man off. That's when you realised that the two of you had been completely silent during the journey and although it had been comfortable, now it was starting to get awkward.

"So..." You had started and Taehyung had turned his head to you, an expecting look on his face.

"Yes..." He said.

"I had an amazing time Taehyung. It was so great to spend some time with you like that, I had a lot of fun." You smiled softly and concluded. "I can't wait to listen to that new song you are preparing with Jimin, it's going to be amazing I'm sure!"

All things considered now that you were thinking back to what happened, he did look a bit disappointed after you said that, he maybe was hoping for something else.

"Thank you for your kindness Y/N, I had the best day. For real. I haven't felt like that in a long time."

He smiled at you one more time, before opening the car door and throwing his legs outside. He got up, turned around and grabbed the door in his hand as he bent down to look at you. He stared at you for a few seconds, visibly searching for his words:

"Take care Y/N." He finally said.

You raised your hand to wave at him shyly, when suddenly he engulfed himself back in the car, sat on the passenger seat and leaned over you to give you a quick kiss on the cheek. He got back out of the car as quickly as possible, closed the door and finally walked in his hotel.

You sighed at the memory of last night, the whole reason why you spent the beginning of the night spinning in your bed. You had totally developed a crush on him. Too bad were never going to see him again.

Your day went pretty quickly, you managed to busy yourself by visiting your mother at her work, having lunch with her since you skipped dinner the night before to spend the time with Taehyung. You had been tempted to go back in the town centre as you had been doing the last few days, but you had no real reasons for it so the only explanation to it was that you were hoping to meet with Taehyung again. But you knew he was going to be really busy so that would only feed your hope to end up in disappointment. So you behaved yourself.

And eventually, it was the evening and you were watching a film with your mother after dinner. You were scrolling mindlessly on your phone at the same time since you had seen this film before and did not need to pay full attention to it. When the twitter notification saying that @bts_twt tweeted on their account, you paid no special attention to it and clicked on it by instinct. Your heart jumped when you saw the picture that was posted.

It was the photo of Taehyung you had taken at the manor the previous day, without him knowing. The one where you ignored the sign that was forbidding entry to this section of the castle. The picture you asked Taehyung not to look at until you were gone. It had completely slipped out of your mind, but clearly not Taehyung's as he took a look at it, and probably even enjoyed it since he posted it on the official BTS twitter account. You checked the caption, written in English for once, and giggled lightly.

'This picture is a crime'

You remembered fondly how Taehyung called you a criminal when you came back from the forbidden balcony and clicked on the tweet to see people's responses.

'The real crime here is how beautiful you look!'

'My new phone background!'

'OMG how is it even allowed to be so handsome?'

That was very true, he was so beautiful on this image, the perfect candid shot, unaware he had his picture taken. You saved the image in your phone, grateful to have an extra souvenir from this day you spent with him (on top of the million selfies you took together), when an idea emerged in your head.

You clicked on the tweet to write a response yourself, taking a few seconds to think of the best way to let him know it was you, without others understanding, if he ever came across the tweet anyway. A quick search on Google images and you found your happiness. So you posted a picture of a very similar sign to the one that was displayed at the castle 'Do Not Enter - Staff Only' and wrote a few words 'I'll let you in a secret, you can show me any "Do not enter" sign of this town, and I'll know where it is!'. It was exactly what you said to Taehyung after coming back from your little 'expedition' and nobody else apart from him should understand the reference.

Your heart was racing like crazy after you tweeted your comment. It was ridiculous really, there were already thousands of tweets responding to his post, what were the chances of him seeing it? Why did he even tweet that? The picture made sense, he posted pictures of himself for the fans regularly, but the caption was very specific. Was he trying to get in touch with you? Were you just imagining things because you missed him already?

You put your phone down on your side, pretending to be chilled about it. But all you wanted to do really was to stare at the screen without interruption, hoping for an answer, a clue, something. But you knew better than to do that, expecting to be disappointed and hurt, so in order to protect yourself, you even turned your phone upside down so you would not see if you received a notification. By some sort of miracle, you managed to push the matter out of your brain for the rest of the duration of the film you were watching, and when your mum got up to go to bed, you reached out and grabbed it, turning the screen on.

You had received a DM on Twitter, from an account you did not know, and there was nothing written by the look of it, just 'XX sent you an image'. Curious, you opened the app and took a look at the message.

It was the picture Taehyung had taken of the manor's gardens, the one that ended up in you 'breaking the law' to get another angle for that image. Or a very similar one. You heart clenched, you were hoping it was Taehyung. It could only really be him, using a private twitter account with nothing on it. You wondered for a second why he would only send you a pic rather than just tell you it was him, but then you understand he did the same as you, he tried to be cautious, he probably needed to confirm it was you for sure. So you thought for a while of what the best response would be and ended up sending him a picture of the manor itself, there was no room for doubts here, it was the historical building you both visited.

You press 'sent' and waited for a response, your heart racing like crazy in your chest. It was like the person on the other end had been waiting for your answer with impatience because in the same minute, you received a response: the picture of your two hands holding the ice cream cones, crossed, with the castle sitting in the middle. You started gigging without being able to control it, making little jumps of excitement on your sofa.

It was HIM.

It was definitely Taehyung.

Only him had that picture.

You decided to carry on sending him pictures, before starting speaking to him for real, so you debated to send him one of the million selfies the two of you took. But you quickly changed your mind, it was the internet and it was better to be cautious. You searched on your phone for an appropriate image and found a selfie of yourself from the day, displaying the brightest smile, with a tiny Taehyung far in the background behind you. You edited the picture by adding a little sun emoji on top of the man's face and sent it once you made sure it was safe.

The picture you received in return made you squeal as you were not expecting it. Taehyung had sent you back one of the selfies you took, where he had his arm thrown around your shoulder and your heads were leaning against each other's. Giving up on sending pictures, you texted him.

'Hi there 🙂 Fancy seeing you here'

'Hi Y/N, missed me?'

'Actually I did, my day was really boring today after yesterday's craziness. How was yours?'

'Really busy, we finished shooting really late, I've got back to my hotel about an hour ago and I am up at 6am tomorrow for more.'

'Aaw you are working really hard, you can do it!'

'Thank you 🙂 Tomorrow I should be finishing around 6pm, and then it will be another big day like today on Saturday as it will be the last day to shoot the video.'

'And then you're going back to Korea on Sunday morning...' you concluded sadly.

Taehyung didn't respond straight away after your last message, but the app was indicating that he was typing, then not saying anything, then typing again... You realised he was probably deleting what he was writing and was struggling on finding what to respond. You felt guilty, wondering if you should have just kept your disappointment for yourself. A new message finally appeared:

'Are you free tomorrow at 6pm?'

***

Friday

It was nearly 6pm when you got in the car to head to the hotel Taehyung was staying in with Jimin and the rest of Big Hit's team. After he asked you if you were free on Friday, he invited you to come over to his hotel to spend the evening together one last time before he left, to have a few drinks, play some games... "I'm not accepting 'no' for an answer!" he said. He confirmed he would be finished by the time you arrived at the hotel, and that Jimin would be there as well, so you guys can get to know each other. He seemed really excited about that last part and you felt touched to know that he wanted his bestfriend to get to know you.

You entered the main hall of the hotel and found a couple of sofas at the back to wait for Taehyung to come and pick you up. 5 minutes later though, it wasn't his blond locks that appeared but Jimin's shy smile. You waved at each other and when he finally reached you he explained:

"Taehyung is not finished with his scenes yet, he just sent me a text to let me know and make sure I get you. Sorry about that!"

You followed the young man to the suite where he and Taehyung stayed in for the duration of their stay in your home town and admired the beauty of what is basically a small apartment in a hotel with separate bedrooms, a living room, a bathroom and a small kitchen area.

"Wow that is an impressive hotel room." you stated.

Jimin smiled at your comment and invited you to sit on the sofa in the 'living room'. The area had a sofa, 2 armchairs, a coffee table, a mini-fridge and a large TV, on which you noticed a Nintendo Switch plugged to it, most likely Taehyung's. Now you understood why he asked you to bring your own games. You sat on the edge of the sofa, a bit awkwardly, unsure of what to do next. Until Jimin started speaking and decided to make it even more awkward.

"So Y/N. I heard you and Taehyung did things two days ago!"

"What?!"

For a short moment, your stomach had dropped, wondering what the hell Taehyung had told his friend. What could he have mentioned? Did he talk about the time at the hill? Did he mention the fact he held your hand? Or when he gave you a kiss on the cheek when you separated? You would have thought that was the kind of things to keep in private, but going by Jimin's comment, did he tell him all of that? And was it a big deal anyway? It certainly affected you and shook your heart, making you realise you definitely developed a crush on the man. But maybe he did not see it that way, he is a very openly affectionate person in the first place, so maybe you were getting all worked up over nothing.

"Wow, I was not expecting your face to change like that. I was teasing you!" He smiled and crashed in the sofa next to you. "Taehyung told me you guys visited that castle and checked out that hill with the nice view and sunset! He showed me a thousand pictures as well. So many of them. I don't even think he showed them all...". He finished with a tone reflecting despair.

You saw an opportunity here to tease him back and get revenge.

"Oh I see! Do you want me to show you my pictures?" You took your phone out of your pocket and unlocked it.

The pleasure you had in watching Jimin's face drop was indescribable and a smirk quickly appeared on your face. When Jimin realised what game you were playing, he burst out laughing, followed closely by you. When you both calmed down, you started chatting of nothing and everything, you were pleasantly surprised to see how easy it was to speak with him, thinking he would have been a lot more shy with you. You had a common topic of discussing how distracted Taehyung could be to end up getting lost like he did on Wednesday, he had apparently done the same mistake a few years ago in Norway, leaving the rest of the group worried.

Without noticing, an hour went by, you were both sipping on some white wine Jimin opened. Well. You were sipping. Not Jimin. He was drinking the alcohol like it was water and teased you on how slow you were to finish your glass. It was all fun, but you knew your limits and you did not want to be drunk by the time Taehyung finally arrived. Because wine made you sleepy and that would not be good. You don't know how it happened but you were now playing 'Just Dance' with Jimin in front of the TV. Jimin started talking about Taehyung's games and how he was rarely playing with him because he was not fond of the games he owned, and you somehow gave yourself the mission to find game he would enjoy so he could play it with Taehyung.

You blamed it on the alcohol giving you the courage to do things you would never do with someone you barely knew.

Jimin had been really excited to discover a song from Blackpink in the game and you had both been dancing to the choreography of DDU-DU DDU-DU on repeat.

That is how Taehyung found you shortly after, moving to the beat of the song (pretty approximately on your side if you had to be honest, whilst Jimin was obviously nailing every move). He stopped on the doorstep as he observed the scene in front of him, neither Jimin or yourself had realised he was there.

"OH WAIT 'TIL I DO WHAT I..." You both shouted as you raised your arms, absorbed by the moves on the screen.

"...Hit you with that ddu-du ddu-du du!" Taehyung appeared between the two of you, holding his fingers like they were guns and followed the choreography.

Jimin seemed unphased by his best friend's sudden appearance and carried on dancing. You, on the opposite, were stunned and stayed still for a few seconds before the reality of the game caught you back.

"Wait... How are you doing this move with your shoulders?!" you asked suddenly to no one in particular.

You played a couple more songs, laughing brightly, teasing each other on your various dancing skills (you stood in-between the two men and kept bumping into them as your clumsiness was through the roof today, probably not helped by the couple of glasses you had drunk. Eventually, Taehyung joined you and Jimin, grabbing himself a drink, and you spent the rest of the evening chatting in the living room, joking around, playing games together, taking pictures... It was the perfect evening between friends and once again, you were marveled at how easy it was to be friends with them. Especially with Taehyung, it had always felt very easy and natural with him, and tonight was no exception.

Slowly, as the evening went by, everybody calmed down and you started watching videos on Youtube, showing each other funny clips, cool dance clips of other artists. Jimin was the first one to fall asleep, he was sitting on his own on a single comfy chair, while you and Taehyung were sharing the large sofa. Well actually you were alone on the sofa and your new friend was leaning against your legs on the floor. You had your feet propped up on the coffee and your hand was tangled in his hair, mindlessly stroking them, while Taehyung was humming happily.

"Hey Y/N..." Taehyung broke the silence with a whisper.

"Yeah..?"

"I am leaving the day after tomorrow…"

Unsure of what to respond to that, you stayed silent. A knot had formed in your throat anyway, threatening to make you cry if you tried to force words out of your mouth.

"I think you need to show me the town centre under the night lights before I leave."

You smiled gently. And off you were.

Your hometown at midnight was eerie, there was absolutely nobody in the streets and your footsteps were resonating against the cobblestones of the old town. It was a beautiful sight to watch the old buildings illuminated by special lights, even for you, even though you had grown up here. You never had many occasions to visit the town centre after midnight as a child, for obvious reasons. You shared a few anecdotes with Taehyung as you walked past some places that triggered your memory and it felt nice to see he was genuinely interested in you, asking more questions about your life. You wanted to do the same, but the knot in your throat would reappear every time you thought of something to ask him, since you knew that his answer would always imply him being far away.

After a while, you both agreed to get a taxi. Once in it, Taehyung asked for you to be the first one dropped off home. You couldn't help but notice that it did not make sense as you would drive past the hotel first, but maybe Taehyung just did not realise that. You refused to let your mind think any further than that, but you did nothing to correct it, enjoying every last second you got to spend with him for the last time. It would usually take a good twenty minutes to drive from the town centre to your family house, however, because it was the middle of the night, there was absolutely no traffic and you realised it was going to take half the time to get home. You mentioned it to Taehyung who didn't say anything in response. But it's not like there was anything to say to be honest. It was completely silent in the taxi, apart from the music playing on the radio, and you felt like the atmosphere had changed. Your mind was buzzing with all the things you wanted to tell Taehyung, but you stopped yourself from saying anything that was related to how you felt about him. You tried to think of other topics, but it always came back to the urge you had to confess to him. So you stayed quiet, biting your lip to stop you from opening your mouth.

"When are you going to pick up your car at the hotel tomorrow?" Taehyung surprised you with his question.

"Mmh... Probably in the morning, I'll get my mother to drop me on her way to work so I don't need to pay for a taxi."

"Ah ok…"

The car became quiet again.

"What time is your schedule tomorrow?"

Taehyung looked at the time on his phone.

"I am supposed to be on set with Jimin in 6 hours. And then we don't really have a finish time. The plan is to finish by 10pm to get the night shots done, but realistically and based on experience, we'll finish 3-4 hours late."

"Oh wow, hopefully you can have a lie-in in the morning. You deserve that much."

A small smile appeared on the man's face.

"My plane is in the morning... I might no go to sleep at all."

You did not respond anything to that. And he did not add anything either. It was unspoken, but you had both looked for extra options to see each other again, and find none. It was the end.

'Do I take a left here miss?" The drive broke the silence and asked you.

"Oh yeah." You leaned forward to make sure he could hear you properly.

"Take a left and then straight over to the end of the road. It is the last house on the left."

You sat back in your seat, your heart racing at the prospect of saying good bye, when your felt a large hand grabbing yours gently. You looked at Taehyung, surprised, but he was looking out of the window. So you did the same and pretended to not notice it. Finally, the taxi came to a stop and your hands separated. You opened the door and said:

"Well. This is me…"

"Yes…"

"I hope you have a good last day tomorrow and that your schedule goes smoothly." You blurted out rapidly, afraid to let another awkward silence settle between you two.

"Thanks. Enjoy the rest of your holidays here."

You smiled at each other. And you concluded first.

"Ok so... Bye Taehyung." you waved at him with a shy smile.

"I'll miss you."

"Me too. Take care of yourself please."

You closed the door and the taxi started driving straight away. You observed the car turning around and hoped to catch one last glance at the man on the back seat. But the back windows were tinted, you wiped out a single tear from your cheek with your hand and headed back inside your house.

***

Saturday

You woke up with great difficulty in the morning and a slight hangover from the alcohol Jimin made you drink the previous night. You cursed at him for being such bad influence and your mind wandered off to Taehyung, wondering if he woke up fine this morning for his last day of shooting. Soon enough you were in your mum's car heading to the hotel to get your own vehicle back. As you were driving in the town centre, one of the street was blocked and a diversion was put in place, creating a little bit of traffic.

"Oh I forgot they were planning on blocking this road today." Your mum said. "I read it a couple of weeks ago on the town's newspaper, something to do with a film being shot here."

That's when it clicked in your mind.

"It's a music video actually…".

You spotted a couple of guys who seemed to be part of the Big Hit team heading inside the shut down area, but couldn't see anything else, or anyone else.

Eventually your mum dropped you at your destination and you were already driving back to your house, making a giant detour in order to avoid the town centre. To avoid traffic you told yourself.

Your plan for the day was to distract yourself enough to not think about Taehyung's last day in your country, so you had organised a full on clean of the house, followed by lunch with your mother, before meeting friends in the afternoon in another town. That should do it.

It worked just fine for most of the day really. You left no room for your thoughts to wander around when scrubbing the kitchen tiles, your mother was so happy to have you with her for lunch she didn't stop talking even for a second, and you hadn't seen your friend for so long that you had a lot to catch up on! Including meeting the adorable puppy she had just adopted a couple of weeks ago. You spent hours playing with the baby dog, taking pictures with him and posting them on your social medias , trying to teach him tricks with your friend (but all the baby cared was to bite your fingers with his sharp needle teeth).

The next thing you know, it was 10pm and you were back home, debating between watching a film and playing a game on your console. That is when you gave up on your resolution. Taking your console out of its bag reminded you of Taehyung, and a wave of melancholy took over you and you started missing the man. You picked up your phone and opened up Twitter, mindlessly heading on BTS' twitter account, to see if he had posted anything about his day.

"He is probably still working." you whispered to yourself, seeing what the time was on the screen. However when the page loaded you let out a gasp.

A picture of Taehyung with his dog Yeontan was published a couple of hours ago with the caption in english: 'I'm cute with my puppy too!'. It was clearly an old picture, as the young man had a different hair colour on the photo. Your mind went wild the second you saw the caption and the adorable picture. You gave up on putting some distance between you and him, you gave up trying not to think about him, how he was, what he was doing. You wondered if he posted this because of the images you shared earlier in the day with your friend's puppy. You wondered if it meant he was stalking your social media profiles. You wondered if he was thinking of you too.

You grabbed a pillow, shoved your face in it and let out a scream of frustration. You didn't know what to do. Respond to the tweet? Send him a message? Ignore it? Despair swallowed you whole once again when you remembered that, whatever that was, he was still leaving in the early hours of the following morning. In the next 6 hours. You ended up watching Friends for the next couple of hours, not really paying attention to the show.

Your phone vibrated in your hands and you were surprised to see that you had received a message from a Twitter account you did not recognise.

"Hi Y/N, it's Jimin!"

You sat up straight on the sofa, surprised to be contacted by him.

"Oh hi! You ok? How did you get my twitter handle?" you responded.

"I stole Taehyung's phone to get it."

You blushed intensely when you realised that Jimin might have read your conversations with Taehyung.

"And can I ask why you did that? lol" you asked.

"Y/N. We are friends right?"

"Er... Yes?" You started to get worried with the turn the conversation was taking.

"And friends tell each other the truth right?" he continued.

"I guess so, when it is for their best interest I imagine."

"Exactly! So I'm going to tell you exactly what I said to Tae today."

"Ok?" You were really wondering where this whole conversation was heading now.

"Just go for it. Be brave. Take a leap of faith."

"Hm... Not sure I am following you here Jimin..." In reality you had a sneaking suspicion Jimin realised you liked his friend and wanted you to tell him that. But just to make sure you were not going to make a fool of yourself, you played dumb.

"Oh come on! Meet me halfway here! I'll just add one more thing: Tae has been miserable all day, and even more since he posted that picture on Twitter and is thinking that you didn't see it."

"Right. I get the message."

You really did, and Jimin finally gave you the last bit of convincing you needed. You shoot up from your seat, turning the TV off and grabbing your coat.

"I can't believe I had to intervene that much." Jimin carried texting you as you were getting ready. "I swear next time I will make you both pay for my services!"

Not wanting to leave him on read, but not wanting to take the time to respond with a full sentence, you just sent him a thumbs up emoji and shoved your phone in your pocket, grabbing your car keys on the way out.

Your best guess to find Taehyung, based on your discussion with him the day before on how every single schedule finished late, was to go to the town centre, where you knew they were filming today. When you parked though, you were surprised to see the street was not closed anymore and members of staff were carrying the filming materials to vehicles.

"Y/N!"

You turned around to look where you heard your name shouted from, only to see Jimin waving happily at you.

"What are you doing here?" he asked you when you reached each other.

"I followed your advice! I took a leap of faith. I came to see Taehyung, is he around?" you asked the man

"Argh! Why didn't you ask me where he was before you left, silly?!"

"Because you were complaining about interfering and threatening to make me pay for your services so I thought I wouldn't make my debt any bigger!"

Jimin laughed and you joined him.

"To be honest, I am not sure where he went." Jimin finally said. "We are meant to leave to the airport shortly, I even got my luggages with me. I guess he would have gone to the hotel to pick up his stuff? I am not sure though, he has been gone a while now.

"Thanks Jimin, I owe you one!" You thanked him as you were already heading to your car."

"You owe me two actually!" You managed to hear Jimin shouting back to you and laughed. You waved goodbye in response.

A few minutes later, you had parked at the hotel they had been staying for the past week, making the comment to yourself that in all the years you lived in this town, you had never spent this much time in this area than this week alone.

You entered the hotel lobby and headed out to Taehyung's room, you had no patience for the lift, so you took the stairs and climbed them two by twos. Eventually, you arrived in front of his door, completely out of breath.

"You're an idiot Y/N... You can't even speak now..."

You waited a couple of minutes to catch up your breath and gather the courage to knock at the door.

*KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK*

You waited a few seconds for a response, but nothing came. You tried again.

Still nothing.

"Tae? Are you there? Are you asleep?" You tried to speak through the door, cautious not to be too loud as this was the middle of the night.

Still nothing.

You took your phone in your hand, debating on what to do next. Contact Taehyung? Contact Jimin? You really weren't sure.

"Excuse me miss?"

A voice startled you and you jumped in surprise. It seemed to be the night guard, checking up on you.

"Can I ask you what you are doing here?"

"Erm... I was here to visit my friend? Mr Kim Taehyung?"

The man looked at you suspiciously, but then eventually decided he could just give you the information you needed.

"I am afraid he has checked out of the hotel some time ago miss."

"Oh."

You felt your stomach drop, and your heart probably. You were so incredibly disappointed, tears started to swell up in your eyes. You managed to contain them in front of the man and thanked him for his help. As you headed outside, you reviewed your options.

You were not sure what time his plane was, you were not sure where Taehyung was. You could always text him, or Jimin. But after everything you just did tonight to see him once again, and after all of it didn't work out, you started thinking maybe it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe you were just forcing things to happen, and it was time to give up now. You really were not one to believe in destiny, but after these failures, it was just the world telling you to stop trying. You stepped outside the building, your head low. You were biting the inside of your cheeks to stop the tears from coming out. But as soon as it started pouring down with rain, you realised it would make no difference to cry, the tears would mix with the rain drops, and nobody would notice.

Not that there was anybody outside at this time of the night.

Until the rain stopped because an umbrella appeared on top of your head and a voice you were craving to hear desperately resonated behind you.

"You were difficult to find."

You turned around instantly, and forgot to breathe when you realised Taehyung was here. Holding an umbrella above your head. Glowing with the brightest smile on his face. You slapped yourself mentally to get some words out of you.

"You can talk." You laughed. "I went to two places to find you. I think I worked a lot more here to find you."

"I went to your house." He said. "I rang the doorbell and your mum opened the door."

"Oh." was all you were able to say.

"She doesn't speak English." He added.

"No. She does not." You agreed, starting to feel really sorry for the man.

You both took a pause. The rain was getting heavier and heavier. You were blushing at the intense stare Taehyung was giving you. His eyes were absolutely glued to you, it even seemed like he was not blinking, simply too busy contemplating you. You forgot to breathe again.

"Ok... Maybe you did work harder to find me."

Taehyung took a step forward under the umbrella, you were now touching. He was so close to you, you could feel his breathing on your face.

"And also, I am the one who actually find you."

He raised his hand to your face and moved a hair strand, stuck on your forehead because of the rain, behind your hear. He didn't pull his hand away after, letting his long fingers grazing softly against your cheek. Your heart was beating like crazy, it felt like it was coming out of your chest. Or maybe it was Taehyung's you couldn't tell anymore, you were so close, your bodies were pressed against each other's. You could see every details of his face, his adorable mole under his nose, you could probably count every single one of his eyelashes...

And you could tell how soft his lips must be.

And warm.

Because he was now kissing you.

And you were kissing him back.

While one of his hand was on your cheek, you reached out for his other hand and entwined your fingers, before pulling him closer to you, as if it was possible.

This was the dreamiest kiss you ever had in your life, so soft and yet so passionate. There was no pause, you could not get enough of each other. It felt like you were not the only one who restrained yourself during the week. Taehyung ended up confirming it for you when you finally separated. Your lips disconnected but your eyes didn't. You could imagine your eyes were glowing as much as his. It was a beautiful sight, Taehyung looked so blissfully happy, all you wanted was to kiss him again. Instead, you linked your arms across his chest, hugging him like you've been wanting to do for what seems like forever.

"You don't know how long I've been wanting to do this." Taehyung said, putting his arms around you in return, laying his head on top of yours.

"As long as I've been wanting to?" You asked him, not giving him a specific time.

He smiled at you, pecked another quick kiss on your lips.

"Most definitely."

You gave him a quick kiss too, struggling to resist as much as him. But as you were about to separate again, he whined like a child, started pouting and you cooed at the sight.

"You are the most adorable person in the world Tae." You rubbed your nose against his, and he did the same.

"And I love you. Can I stay here one more week with you?"

#bts scenario #taehyung #bts #jimin #bts fanfic #bts fluff #bts x reader #taehyung fluff #taehyung angst #taehyung x reader #bts imagine #yuna is baaaaack #just one week

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youcancallmecirce · 4 years

Text

Haste & Leisure Chapter 2.5: Machinations

P&P AU deleted scene: Adrien plots to see Bridgette again, drawing his sisters and Felix into his scheme.

I found this on my external hard drive this morning, and couldn't remember why I didn't include it in the main story. Something about pacing, I think. I think it's a cute scene, though, and figured I'd share it. It takes place between chapters 2 and 3, and gives rise to the "curious invitation" the girls receive at the beginning of chapter 3. Enjoy!!

I still don’t know why you don’t just call her yourself,” Felix said reasonably without lifting his eyes from the page of his book. He wasn’t getting much reading done; Adrien’s pacing was too much of a distraction but he wasn’t ready to admit defeat. “She would not have given you her number if she didn’t intend for you to use it.”

Adrien ignored him, just as he had the first time Felix had made that observation, and continued trying to reason with his sister. “Look. I want a chance to get to know her, and I want to do it without worrying about ninja paparazzi leaping out at us. And I don’t want to just invite her over here to hang out with a couple of guys she barely knows. What if she thinks I’m a creep?”

He paused to listen, scoffed, and switched to wheedling. “Please, Chlo?” he asked, then frowned quietly as he listened to her answer. He scoffed again. “Because I’m your brother and you love me. And because I really, really like this girl, and I want you to like her, too.”

Adrien went quiet again as he listened to her response, but Felix could tell it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He ran an anxious hand through his hair. “Well, I know you aren’t—” he stopped abruptly to listen, and then, “Okay, then come stay here.”

Felix’s head snapped up, all pretense of reading abandoned. “Wait, what?”

“Of course Felix doesn’t mind,” Adrien reassured her. “He has this whole huge house and it’s just the two of us in it. Why would he mind?”

“What?” Felix asked again, aghast. Surely Adrien hadn’t meant what he thought he’d meant—

Adrien pulled the phone from his ear with a wince, and Felix could hear Chloe squealing (screeching?) from his place on his bed, halfway across the room. Then he caught sight of Felix’s horrified expression as he turned in his pacing and paled. “But, but only for the weekend,” he said, back-pedaling. “This is not an open-ended invitation. And don’t forget, you have to invite the girls over for—”

A pause.

“Yes, both of them. Bridgette won’t come if you don’t invite Marinette, as well.”

Another pause.

He frowned. “Then I see no reason for you and Sabrina to spend the weekend at the Agreste Manor, do you?”

A very short pause, and his frown slid into a smirk. “I knew I could count on you, Chlo.”

Adrien ended the call and fell backwards onto the bed next to Felix, tossing his phone aside and letting his arms fall out to the sides. He sighed happily.

Felix glared. “Did you really just bribe your sister with a weekend spent at my house, just to get around calling that girl yourself?”

His friend had the grace to look sheepish. “Yes,” he said apologetically. “I’m so sorry, Fe. I just…panicked.”

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t bar your sisters from the property,” Felix asked flatly.

“Because I’m your best friend and you love me?” Adrien replied hopefully, making his answer sound like a question.

Felix sighed in resignation, pinching the bridge of his nose between thumb and forefinger. Adrien was right, the spoiled brat. They were more brothers than friends. “They may arrive no earlier than 4pm on Friday, and they must be gone by 4pm on Sunday.”

“Felix, thank you—!”

“I’m serious, Adrien. If they’re not gone by four o’clock on Sunday, I will have security escort them out.”

“I understand completely—”

“And if Chloe tries to crawl into bed with me again, I will have them thrown out right then and there, no matter what time it is.” Felix stopped for a moment, thinking, then added, “Sabrina too, for that matter.”

Adrien winced at the reminder, and cleared his throat awkwardly. “Right. I’ll uh, I’ll make sure they get the memo.”

#callmecirce writes #miraculous ladybug #pride & prejudice #AU #deleted scene #why didn't I use this

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luna-orlha · 7 years

Text

Title: Total Eclipse of the Heart Fandom: Naruto Genre: Romance Ship: Kakashi/Sakura Characters: Haruno Sakura, Hatake Kakashi Word count: 1,049 Triggers(s): -- Rating: T Additional Tags: Soulmates AU, Fluff Summary: Sasuke smells like dusty books and winter, things that Sakura loves and Sasuke is the only one that Sakura could smell - if she disregarded sweat and blood, every shinobi in Konoha smelt of those two frequently.That is, up to the point where Sakura meets her new sensei. Nothing, not even her auntie’s tales on when she met her uncle, could have prepared for his scent.

Ao3

In academy, Ino and Sakura had bickered frequently over Sasuke’s scent. Only soul mates produced a smell strong enough for them to smell and since both of them could smell Sasuke, it made sense that one of them was his soul mate.

Sasuke smells like dusty books and winter, things that Sakura loves and Sasuke is the only one that Sakura could smell - if she disregarded sweat and blood, every shinobi in Konoha smelt of those two frequently.

That is, up to the point where Sakura meets her new sensei. Nothing, not even her auntie’s tales on when she met her uncle, could have prepared for his scent. His smell is like dust motes on a sunbeam, lazy Sundays at home and safety. His smell is like her auntie cooking curry while Sasuke is more of a faded scent.

She stares at him wide-eyed and he stared back, clearly not expecting that either. “I… er… training ground three, 0800 hours tomorrow,” is all he says and disappears in a poof of smoke. No dramatic words or actions like her parent’s. Just a poof of smoke.

And Sakura walks home with a bitter taste in her throat. Perhaps she imagined it somehow, she tries to convince herself. Sasuke is her soul mate, right?

-/-/-/-

Kakashi used to think his father was lying. Only soul mates were supposed to be able to smell each other but Kakashi can smell everyone.

“Don’t worry pup,” his father would tell him with a ruffle of hair. “When you meet your soul mate, you won’t miss it.” His father taps the side of his nose and though his eyes are sad, his lips curve into a longing. “I can smell as well as you and I didn’t.”

Kakashi waits for months, then years. Kakashi sees Obito meet his soul mate - Rin, sees Minato marry Kushina. Kakashi sees Asuma finding Kurenai and still he hasn’t found his soul mate.

He missed it, Kakashi supposes. His father said that his sense of smell was good, but Kakashi knows now that his sense has outstripped his father’s. Somewhere in the myriad of smells, he had missed his soul mate. Kakashi isn’t sure if he’s sad or happy.

At least he won’t lose his soul mate, he thinks. Not like Obito, or Rin, or Minato.

He gives up looking. Then he finds her in a classroom and Kakashi is not prepared for her scent. There are no words for her scent - freshly cut grass, the wind after a heavy rain, comfort and if there was a smell for eternal love, this would be it.

Kakashi drags his attention back to the three genin-wannabes, trying desperately to block her smell out.

“I…” He starts and furiously backs away. He can’t do this now. Not when he just want to scoop her up and run away. She’s twelve for kage’s sake! “Er… training ground three, 0800 hours tomorrow,” Kakashi manages to say and shunshins away, breaking Genma’s door down in his haste to get in.

“What the loving f-” Genma says. The three jounins spinning their heads to see the shattered door and Kakashi clutching the doorway. “Kakashi? What’s wrong?”

“I met her. I met her.”

“Who?” Raidou asks. He pushes Kakashi into the couch as Yamato makes a new door.

“I met my soul mate.” Kakashi palms his face. “I met my soul mate and she’s my student. I can’t- She’s twelve! She��s my student!” He laughs, slightly hysterical.

“It’s okay Kakashi. I’m sure the Hokage can come up with something.”

-/-/-/-

The jounin that meets them on the training ground isn’t the same silver-haired one. Her soul mate doesn’t want her, Sakura guesses sourly. She tries to push the disappointment away.

No one ever wants her, Inner Sakura prompts. Not in playing Ninja, not in hide and seek, not even her own parents.

Her jounin sensei is Yamato-sensei and has scary eyes. As sensei’s go, Yamato-sensei is a very patient and detailed teacher. Sakura’s not sure how Naruto had graduated from academy not knowing what chakra is, but Yamato-sensei walks them through anyway.

She doesn’t see the silver-haired jounin again, but his scent hovers, especially during the chuunin exam invasion.

-/-/-/-

Sakura is eighteen and stuck deep in the fourth shinobi war when she’s tackled out of the way from a flying rock. She remembers this smell. It hovers about her constantly.

Why would he hover out of sight? It still baffles her to this day. Yet every attempt to find him had ended up in a dead end.

Hatake Kakashi.Sakura had figured his name out after stealing Yamato-sensei’s bingo book. Her soul mate is a terrifying shinobi to cross and Sakura is nowhere close to him. Perhaps this is why he didn’t want her or did he? Yamato-sensei was very vague about Kakashi.

“Don’t take any offense, Sakura-chan. Kage knows what goes on his mind,” Yamato-sensei would say every time she brings up Kakashi.

“You,” she says accusingly to Kakashi.

“Ahh… me...” He replies weakly. Kakashi takes down another Zetsu with precise efficiency.

“You abandoned me!” Sakura punches a Zetsu out, pulling out her chakra tanto.

“You were twelve!” he exclaims as he chidoris several Zetsus.

Sakura kicks the knees out of another Zetsu, taking its head off with her blade. “I thought you hated me!”

“I do not!”

“But you abandoned me…” She stops, shoulders shaking from exhaustion.

“I was waiting for you.” Kakashi steps towards her and cups her her cheek.

“Is this really the time to talk about this…?” Yamato-sensei quips.

“Shut up!” “Be quiet Yamato!” They snipe back.

Kakashi wrenches his mask down, his arm wrapping around her waist and slants his mouth over hers. His lips are surprisingly soft and she weaves her hands into his hair.

Like dust motes on a sunbeam, lazy Sundays at home and safety. Like happiness and comfort.

Her heart beats fiercely as his scent envelopes her. Relief swamping her as she processes what Kakashi is feeling through his smell.

“See. If I stuck around, I didn’t think I could stop myself from doing that,” he murmurs when they pull apart. His thumb rubs circles on her cheek.

Meanwhile, Yamato coughs and wishes desperately that they would stop kissing in the middle of the battlefield.

#drabbles #hatake kakashi #haruno sakura #kakasaku #soulmates

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princecupcakee · 4 years

Text

Park Bench | Reddie

Read on AO3

Rating: E

Pairing: Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak

Word Count: 3,320

Chapter: 3/8

Past Chapters: Chapter 1 (AO3), Chapter 2 (AO3)

Next Chapters: Chapter 4 (AO3)

Chapter 3: Richie Tozier At The Movies, Eddie Kaspbrak With His Thoughts & Richie Tozier With His Guitar

Tag-list: @richietoaster , @s-s-georgie , @mikeuris , @gazebobullshit , @that-weird-girls-blog , @tozierking , @thoughtfullyyoungduck , @s-onora , @bellarosewrites , @lermanslogan , @ambitiousskychild , @ghostnebula , @vanillaredvelvet ,

(Ask if you wanna be on the tag-list!!)

Chapter 3

Richie Tozier At The Movies

After bringing Eddie home that morning he set out for his next vinyl-date (the name was a work in progress) before going to his sister’s house. He tried to have his head in it, he did, but all throughout the car ride, he couldn’t think straight. He wondered how Eddie was, what he was doing on his day off. He couldn't think of anything even when he had already gotten there. He needed to focus, he wanted to, but he couldn’t stop his head from floating into the clouds.

So when he walked into the movie theatre, he knew he should’ve just stayed home. Alex looked amazing and Richie knew that, but that didn’t really help. They’d picked a new action movie that was heard to have a song from the record in its soundtrack. By that time, he had dropped over 30 records on the local subway, have gotten multiple emails from music lovers like himself, and gone on quite a few dates already. A few memorable ones were Will, a man from Hawkins getting over a lost love, had talked a little too much about said lost love. The two decided to stay as friends. After that was a date with Theo, a New Yorker in search of a painting and person. Similar to Will, in search of his lost love, they’ve decided to stay friends as well. Now, Alex, a writer from New York City who moved to LA two years ago in search of new love, had messaged him after he dropped, ‘Appetite For Destruction.’

“Hi! Richie, yeah?” Alex smiled at him, holding a bowl of popcorn and two drinks. Richie nodded as politely as he could as he thought, ‘why doesn’t Eddie have the same accent?’ “Cool,” Alex hummed, “lets go?” “Sure.”

Richie was glad they went to the movies. It was dark and loud, and your excuse to not pay attention to your date is staring intensely at the screen to look like your focused on it. So, for ninety long minutes, he plotted about the easiest ways to get out of this date. ‘I have a dentist’s appointment’ sounded a bit too rude and overdone to him, ‘I have to take care of my niece and nephew’ was true, but sounded pretty useless. From the 90 minutes, he was able to think up nothing.

“That was a nice movie,” Alex began, smiling at Richie. “Yeah, it really was,” Richie smiled, “but, uh, see, I gotta run." “sure,” Alex waved, slightly annoyed. Richie turned around didn’t look back.

Richie sat in the backseat of his car, staring at its ceiling. He started this to find love, to move on from what happened with Connor, and breathe. But now its seems like a waste of time to him. He can’t even focus on a date without just leaving to sit around in his car. And for what reason? He didn’t even know. He’s getting all of the chances that he didn't get but he’s just throwing them away. He’s just leaving and wasting. Maybe he just doesn’t get that chance. Maybe he just shouldn’t.

He checks his phone for the time and squishes to the front of the car. He didn’t need the stereo, he needs something going for him, no matter how deafening. Drumming a steady beat on to the steering wheel, “Robert’s got a quick hand.” Finishing the first verse, he turns his keys and drives out of the space. “All the other kids with the pumped up kicks,” he swayed his head side to side slightly driving over to Annie’s house.

Eddie Kaspbrak With His Thoughts

Eddie laid down on his bed checking the large, fancy clock hanging above his head, 2:30 PM. After the magnificent sunrise he witnessed with one, handsome, charming, funny, surprisingly smart Richie Tozier, he went home. Richie winked and said ‘wait’ after he brought Eddie back, and of course, that sent the shorter of the two in a bit of a craze.

He’d never felt this. Honestly, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to. It was strong and wouldn’t let him breathe and made his heart explode. When he laughed, when he sang, when he smiled, Eddie couldn’t keep his mind off Richie. It wasn’t like this with Myra. How could it have been? She was there, to keep him alive, not let him live. ~ “Eddie-bear, have you taken your pills yet? You know, you’re mother called me last week, reminding me that you have a seafood allergy, why did you never tell me about that? I’m your wife, Eddie. I’m supposed to know these things about you! What if you ate something that made you sick? I wouldn’t be able to live with myself, Eddie! Do you want that? Do you want me to be in pain?” ~ But with Richie everything seemed, brighter. He never said anything Myra did, he never forced Eddie to do something he never wanted to do, he never put words into Eddie’s mouth. ‘It’s clearly too early though, I mean four days? Can you fall in love in four days?’ Eddie dropped his urge to Google that, not wanting to get up (or be disappointed if no, you couldn’t fall in love in four days.) He was never strong. Physically, emotionally, he had always lost. He was never brave. He was the one that sat on the sidelines, afraid to see what’ll happen. Afraid to listen to what he wants. Was that because of his mother, or Myra, or him? He never really wanted to find out.

Sonia was controlling, she watched Eddie’s every move, didn’t let him do anything. Sonia introduced the two, and Eddie thought he had to fall in love. When Eddie married Myra, he thought that maybe he would be slightly freer. He was very visibly wrong. She wasn’t any different from his mother. After 15 years of being married, he realized hoe abusive his mother was, how he didn’t want that marriage anymore, and how more appealing men are to women. He told Myra the night he filed their divorce, all she did was leave the room. She left the room to call his mother. ~ “Don’t you just love her, Eddie? She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s responsible, and she knows how to take care of you! You were such a mischievous child back then, when you played with that stuttering friend of yours, he was such a bad influence on you. Isn’t he… queer? I can’t even say the word. Disgusting. You shouldn’t have been friends with him, Eddie. Are you still friends with him? You must get him out of your life immediately, Eddie! I don’t want my Eddie-bear being like him.” ~ But what if he was in love? What if he was in love with a man? A man he’d only known for four days? Eddie sighed, fighting back tears. He didn’t need this. He shouldn’t be doing this.

He walked out of his room, feeling as if he can’t breathe there. But this is Los Angeles. This isn’t home. He walked down the long hallways heading down the stairs back to the library. Why had he come here? He didn’t know either or, he did, just didn’t want to say it. Eddie took a vinyl from the bottom of the shelf, ‘Never Trust A Happy Song’ in a small font above ‘Grouplove.’ He didn’t know any songs on it, but he figured anything would be better than being trapped in silence with his own memories.

He tried to mimic Richie’s moves from before, failing quite a few times. He winced at the loud sound of what seemed to be the end of a song. ‘Take me to your best friend's house, roll around this roundabout, oh yeah,’ played in the- Eddie really needed to Google what that thing was, ‘can you fall in love in four days?’ Rang in his head once again, forcing him to put his phone down and take a seat in the large chair before him.

He wondered what Richie was doing, why’d he had asked him to ‘wait’ and then leave. He wondered if maybe Richie had fallen in love before. If maybe Richie felt how he did. He wasn’t supposed to, that was sure, but he wanted to. He wanted to know the feeling of loving and being loved, maybe he had, maybe Myra was the feeling of loving and being loved. Or maybe it was Richie. Eddie wouldn’t know. He had hoped it would be Richie though. That made him smile, nothing like what he had gone through with Myra.

But it was also his fault. It may have done him good but it was still wrong. He may have needed it but that still wasn’t acceptable. He did do it. He wasn’t being responsible, he wasn’t being right. He did owe Myra something for what he did. He could’ve done it simpler, and not ruin his marriage in the most unnecessary way there was. He had to go to that bar, that night. ‘Somethings are too good to pass’ he tried to make a good excuse, but he knew it wouldn’t have worked. He was right.

But he didn’t owe Myra his life or his heart, he owed her an apology, a divorce, and something that would have been better for both of them. And what was better for both of them was leaving. It wasn’t exactly leaving New York, it was just leaving, no longer in each other’s lives and forget. Forgetting has always been much easier than actually facing your problems. Forgetting left things there, not having to see them anymore and not thinking. Forgetting meant, even for a little while, nothing can be any worse.

‘Don’t take me tongue tied, don’t wave no goodbye,’ He’d never heard this song before, but something about it made him feel like he did. Maybe, if he tried hard enough, something about it would make him feel like he knew himself, too.

Richie Tozier With His Guitar

He rang the doorbell, running to the side of the porch to not be seen. He crouched below the window and as if on cue, a little girl pushed the curtains away and looked out the window. “I know thats, you Richie!” A little girl said, opening her front door. “Aw, how’d you know that Maddie?” He said, ruffling her hair. “Mommy said you were coming,” she said putting her hands on her hips. “Just you and Walter today?” “Yup!” “Alright, go get your brother, I’ll be in the living room. Your mom’s gonna be calling any second now,” he said as he watched Maddison walk up the stairs and call her brother.

Richie walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch, moving the guitar from his back to the floor. Just as he predicted, his sister rang the phone, “I’m already here Annie. They’re getting their guitars, we’re playing stuff today.” “Thanks, Rich. I owe you,” she sighed gratefully over the phone. “No problem. I missed these goblins anyway.” “Okay, thank you so much, I have to go. Mom’s gonna be there soon. Oh and tell Walter to help Maddie with her painting, she gets really unhappy when he doesn’t and-“ “I know this already, go.” “Thank you, Richie.” “Your my sister, its my job,” Richie laughed and put the phone down.

“We’re here!” Maddison smiled, brother in tow. “Hi uncle Richie,” Walter said softly, sitting by Richie’s feet with knees against his chest.

He was two years older than Maddison, the same age gap him and Annica had. Maddie was five while Walter was seven. The two were fairly opposite, Walter preferring to keep to himself while Maddie was outgoing and social. Outside of her sister, he raised them. Annie was a good mother, but being a single one, she didn’t have it any easy either. Her husband died less than three years ago from an accident. Thats why he came over more and took care of her kids more. It didn’t help that the whole problem with Connor rose in the time of this and him having a responsibility to not fuck up kids left him out of it for a while. Until he was just angry, he never took it out on anyone, that he made sure of, but he was just angry at love. Maddie and Walter were a help though, it made him forget. Forgetting is much easier than confronting, its like painting over graffiti like it was never there.

“What are we playing today?” Maddie asked, leaning her head to the side exaggeratedly. “What’s a song you guys want?” Richie asked looking back and forth between the two. Walter stood up, walking to the small shelf that sat by the TV. He walked back with a cassette tape in hand. A paper was stuck on to the tape, and in small letters and font, ‘Tongue Tied - Grouplove’ written on it. Richie smiled kindly at him, “How do you know this song?” He simply shrugged and urged him to take the tape. “Lets play it then,” Richie nodded while picking up his guitar. Walter held breath to say something, Richie having to give him permission before he did. “I already know the beginning. C-could you teach me the middle?” “Which part?” “After the second chorus.” “Sure. Anyone wanna sing?” “Can I sing with you? Like, you're gonna sing and I’m gonna sing too, both of us sing!” Maddie said excitedly with big hand gestures (Richie wondered if part of that was his doing. He assumed that it probably was.) Richie nodded, “one two three four,” G. “Don’t take me tongue tied,” G. Then, C. “let’s stay up all night,” He sang with Maddie. “I'll get real high.” Richie sang as Maddie shook her head. Despite Richie’s smile, a dark room, broken glass, smoke, tears, screaming, flood his head. ‘Fuck! Can’t I do anything right?’ He cried that night. “Slumber party, pillow fight,” The two sung in harmony again, “My eyes and your eyes, Like Peter Pan up in the sky,” Maddie sang bringing her hand up above her head to mimic Peter Pan flying. Walter and Richie laughed. “My best friend's house tonight,” Richie sang. ‘Stan? You there? Look, I-I need a place to stay. I’ll tell you about it when I’m there. Yeah… yeah, Th-thanks.’ “Let's bump the beats till beddy-bye,” Richie smiled, despite fighting back tears. ‘Connor. Connor. Connor.’ He thought. “Don’t take me tongue tied,” Richie sang. ‘Eddie. Eddie. Eddie.’ He thought, the tears behind his eyes, drying away, “Don't wave no goodbye.”

By the time they had sung three songs, Maggie and Wentworth were already at the door. He said his goodbyes and walked back to his car. Hearing the first song back again in his head, his breathing sped. He threw his head back and whispered to himself, “Breathe, Richie. breathe.” He thought about how uncomfortable and disgusted Connor looked when he got down on one knee. He remembered how Connor screamed at him, how Connor mocked him for thinking that he actually loved Richie the way Richie did for him. ‘Please.’ ~ “What? What the fuck?” Richie thought he was just surprised. “Dude, gross. I wouldn’t marry a man. That’s fucking gross. Look, man. I have a girlfriend, we aren’t fucking together. Thats so fucking weird.” “but I- I thought-“ “Thought what? That we were together? Fucking gross. Get out.” ~ Richie turned on his stereo. Anything is better than this. He didn’t need to cry, he didn’t need to listen to whatever the fuck was going on in his head. He doesn’t need to stay, he can leave.’ Please, don't let me down,’ the radio played loudly. Richie thought it was weird, songs like these weren’t on the radio, but he sang along anyway. “Please, don't let me down, You better come around,” he softly sang against the loud radio. He never liked his voice much. He used it for comedy, for words he didn’t want to say. He didn’t know how to describe it, but he felt as if he just shouldn’t sing, he sounded better doing impressions anyway. Although some people like it, like Walter and Maddie, he wondered if Eddie liked it too. “You save yourself, I'll save myself each time around,” he sang louder, trying to catch what his voice sounded like. ~ “Stan? You there? Look, I-I need a place to stay. I’ll tell you about it when I’m there.” “You can always stay here Richie. Don’t worry,” Stan sounded like he already knew. Richie guessed everybody saw it coming. “Yeah… yeah, Th-thanks.’ Richie tried not to break into tears. ~ He was going to go drive to Eddie. He was horrified, but he was gonna go to Eddie. As much as he would hate to admit it, he needed him. Needing Eddie to love him, thats debatable but needing for Eddie to be around him, he knew he really did need it. He hoped maybe Eddie needed him too. “You save yourself, I'll save you too next time around,” he sang. When Eddie smiled up at him he didn’t know if he could breathe. It was never like this with Connor. With Connor he always wondered who the woman that left their apartment was, with Connor, he always got shouted at and argued with. With Eddie, he smiled, his heart raced, his stomach churned and it was never like it was with Connor. “I'm not around, I haven't been here for a while,” he sang, the electric feeling coursing through his veins.

“You know I'll never be back now,” He shouldn’t break his own heart. Connor’s gone. He’s not coming back, and Richie’s thankful for that. With Connor gone, maybe someone else will stay. Maybe Eddie will. Richie smiled at the thought of it.

He ignored the nagging feeling of possibly not being loved back— again.

#reddie #reddie fic #it #it chap one #it chap two #remembering sunday + the book ninja au

22 notes · View notes

princecupcakee · 4 years

Text

Park Bench | Reddie

Read on AO3

Rating: E

Pairing: Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak

Word Count: 3,320

Chapter: 2/8

Past Chapters: Chapter 1 (AO3)

Next Chapters: Chapter 3 (AO3), Chapter 4 (AO3)

Chapter 2: What If Eddie Kaspbrak Was?, What If Richie Tozier Wasn’t? & Richie Tozier And Eddie Kaspbrak Have Breakfast

(Ask if you wanna be on the tag-list!!)

Chapter 2

What If Eddie Kaspbrak Was?

He loves Beverly, he really does, but right now, in this gigantic crowd of people, he hates her. Really, really hates her. He thinks that everything and everyone (mildly excluding Ben, Beverly, Bill, Mike, and Mr. cute-Hawaiian-shirt guy-with-huge glasses-who’s-name-is-apparently-Richie) is out to kill him. Two groups of teenagers tried to sell him drugs, or something —he wouldn’t know. He ran away before they could say anything.

It was loud, and hot, and made Eddie, really, really uncomfortable. As much as he tried to avoid the touches of every person jumping around to whatever incomprehensible song was being shouted —yes, he meant shouted — it was too cramped. “You okay there?” Eddie heard a voice behind him ask, loudly. As he looked in that direction, Eddie decided that speaking would be useless, so he simply shook his head. He let Mr. cute-Hawaiian-shirt guy-with-huge glasses-who’s-name-is-apparently-Richie or, simply, Richie, take his hand and lead him out. “You looked really uncomfortable,” Richie smiled, laughing a bit.

“Uh, yeah, don’t do that well with big crowds and everything,” Eddie shrugged, attempting to look ‘cool.’

Richie laughed, “Lets go.”

“But, the concert?”

“I’ve seen ‘em before,” Richie shook his head, “I’ll take you back home, its pretty late anyway.”

“Thanks,” Eddie smiled as he took Richie’s outstretched hand.

“Where is your place?” Richie asked him, crossing the pedestrian.

“I uh, live with Ben and Bev.”

“That mansion? Well, I guess when the husband is an architect and the wife is a designer you get the Buckingham fucking Palace.” Eddie laughed at that (as much as he tried to hide it.)

“But, yeah, I’m staying at Ben and Bev’s while I’m here.”

“While you’re here?” Richie nods

“I don’t live in LA, I’m from New York,” Eddie replied.

“I didn’t think you were from here,” Richie smiled, walking backward to face Eddie.

“That’s dangerous.”

“And thats,” Richie points at Eddie “no fun.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, moving away from the topic, “Its like you guys have your own planet here,” he says, scanning the scenery.

“Says the New Yorker,” Richie said sarcastically.

Eddie gave him a questioning look, trying to hide a smile. “You know, all the big pretty buildings and broadway, and all the big movies,” Richie jokes in a horrible Brooklyn accent.

“Don’t-don’t do that,” Eddie shakes his head.

“Thats my career.” Richie grinned walking into the subway.

Eddie ignored that, “I thought LA was all cars?” He asked.

“It is. I’m doing a kind of project thing though,” Richie smiles talking Eddie’s hand. That slightly throwing Eddie off. “See?” Richie points to a vinyl (yes, Eddie learned the word) with their intertwined fingers.

“I don’t think I understand,” Eddie says looking at Richie.

“I don’t think you need to,” Richie winks, seating Eddie further from the vinyl.

“For a comedian, you’re not funny.”

“Come to one of my shows then. Got one tomorrow night.” Richie winks.

“Sure.”

Richie stops himself before he says ‘its a date.’

“Where did you go?” Beverly asked Eddie as he walked into the kitchen where the rest of the group was standing.

“I went back here,” Eddie says, avoiding eye contact with anyone in the room as he holds back a ‘and kind of got a date. Kind of. Well, no it isn’t a date. I’m just gonna watch his show-’

“Richie ‘went back here,’ too?”

“Oh- no, he just… it was really late and he-he walked and rode the train with me back here.” Eddie replied. Ben, Beverly, Bill, and Mike all exchanged looks while he wasn’t looking. “I uh- speaking of Richie though, what does he even do?” He asked, trying to be subtle. Keyword: trying.

Ben tried to hide a laugh, “Besides working at the shop he does some comedy, I thought we told you already?”

“Yeah, yeah, uh anyway, does he even have shows?”

Deciding that he didn’t want this conversation to last too long since Eddie would never bring up what he really wants to say, “He’s got a show tomorrow n-night, I think,” Bill says looking at Ben and Beverly, “Think we can watch it?”

“Totally, its at a bar not too far from here,” Ben smiles.

“Yeah, sure, why not,” Eddie says quickly, thankful that his friends ‘didn’t’ notice how much he wanted to go.

~~~

Eddie was alone on Sunday morning, tired after the concert the night before, —despite not being there for half of it—and he woke up at around 10. His four other momentary housemates were out for the day on whatever they were planning on doing on a Sunday morning in Los Angeles —he wondered what there is to do. Which made Eddie feel painfully single, but also made him feel a little better. An abnormal creek came from downstairs he shut the door to his bedroom, ‘I must’ve just imagined it, I need coffee.’

A loud crash sound rang inside the house and followed Eddie to the first floor. He ran into the kitchen, grabbed the first thing he could find, and rushed toward the direction of the sound, prepared to hit. “Holy fuck, please no!” Richie shouted, hands above his head, dropping the coat rack he was trying to put straight back up. Eddie dropped the pan in his hands and sighed, relieved. “What the fuck is this? Tangled?” Richie laughed, breathlessly.

“Asshole. I thought there was some, I don’t know, a psychopathic- killer- clown that broke into the house out to kill me.”

“I- I’m not even gonna fucking ask.”

Eddie sighs and rolls his eyes, ”why are you here anyway?”

“Just picking up something, what are you doing here?” Richie asked, ‘well shit. Now I look like an idiot.’

“Told you. I’m staying here.” Eddie answered returning the pan to the kitchen.

“Uh, right,” Richie awkwardly said, wanting to fill the silence. As much as he wanted to ask, ‘are you coming to my show tonight?’ He didn’t and instead, “so, how’s your mom doing? She okay after last night?”

“Ew. That’s disgusting,” Eddie said his face scrunching up, “I, uh, I’m going.”

As if he read Richie’s mind he clarified, “I’m going to your show.”

“Neat.” Richie smiled widely, “uh no. Not neat. No! Not that is it’s ‘not neat’ for you to come to my show, I mean not neat. Like, not the word ‘neat’. Jeez. Uh—“

“Yeah, neat.” Eddie laughed, “weren’t you going to get something?” He knew he was winning this.

“Oh right, uh,” The man in glasses began to walk towards the library —it wasn’t actually a library just an extra room Ben and Beverly filled with books and music things (Eddie honestly didn't know what they were). Again, their house is fucking like a mansion— and Richie came out with vinyl in his hands, “they borrowed it,” He said shaking it.

“Have you heard it before?”

“I don’t think so,” Eddie says walking closer.

“Lets go then,” Richie smirks going back into the room, putting in the vinyl. ‘Sittin' in the kitchen, a house in Macon’ rang the player, ‘Loretta's singing on the radio’

"Smell of coffee, eggs, and bacon” Richie sung.

“What is that?” Eddie asked.

“‘Car Wheels On A Gravel Road’, Lucinda Williams,” Richie replied just as the same line played.

“What kind of song even is that? Its all guitar but not-”

“First, its country and rock. Alt-Country. Second, not all songs with guitars have to sound like ‘The Carpal Tunnel Of Love’ or something,”

“I don’t even wanna what that is,” Eddie rolled his eyes, looking at the player —he didn’t actually know what it was called.

“You live under a rock. Not even a single rock— you-you live in a fucking cave.”

“Half the people I know don’t know what that is.” But Richie was already picking up a new vinyl — ‘is that a fucking sheep?’ Eddie wondered once he saw the cover.

Richie set the —‘what the fuck is that’ Eddie thought— on a place over the vinyl. “We take sour sips from life's lush lips” Richie sung, smiling at Eddie.

“Its so loud. What the fuck is that?” Richie just kept on singing.

“Whoa-oh, we're so miserable and stunning,” Richie sang. As, much as Eddie didn’t want to admit it, he sounded amazing.

“This is so loud. I’m not doing this,” Eddie said walking out of the room. The song being loud was the reason, he promised. It wasn’t because he knew he would lose it if he kept going, it was just loud.

“Hey, what? Eddie, wait!” Richie said stopping the music and tripping over himself to get to the door. “Have you been walking through life with earplugs on? Jeez,” Richie checked his watch, “shit, I’m gonna head back to the store. I’ll see you tonight?”

Eddie thought his heart stopped for a moment, and then he remembered he was going to Richie’s show. Nothing more. Because it shouldn’t be anything more. “Yeah,” Eddie said, watching as Richie walked out the door.

~~~

Eddie was alone in his room Sunday night, (or Monday morning? He couldn’t tell) tired of laughing, tired of being so far away from Richie. His set was amazing (not that Eddie would tell him that.) So maybe he was feeling something. Maybe he was feeling a lot. That doesn’t mean he must fall into Richie's arms. Or should fall into his arms —he thinks that Richie definitely can his hands and shoulders and just his arms are so big. He knows he shouldn’t fall in love again. The last time didn’t do well for him, and he had known her for years before they even started dating. And much longer before they got married. He shouldn’t be feeling this. But what if he was?

What If Richie Tozier Wasn’t?

As he walked out of the door from the Marsh’s house, he headed for the trains once again. Something in his head was pulling him away, not wanting him to continue the project, but what if its what’s good for him? What if Eddie didn’t like him the same way? This might continue to be like Connor. I mean, they saw each other in the store and started talking after ditching a concert? Is that how love was supposed to go? How is love supposed to go? On the other hand, Ben and Bev seem to like him. He trusts Ben and Bev. He trusts Eddie. But what if Eddie shouldn’t be trusted? This was something all too fragile.

Richie walked into the train, looking down on the vinyl he played Eddie. He took out the Sharpie from his pocket prepared to write on ‘Car Wheels On A Gravel Road’ but then his phone let out a ‘ping’ He opened his phone to a group chat with Stan, Patty, Ben, and Bev called: ‘The Four Hets Who Help With The Vinyl Project Thing’ —Richie was also surprised that it fits there.

Patty: Good luck on your date today!!! Stan: Yeah, have fun, rich. Ben: Tell us everything once its done :) Ben: By the way, Stan and Patty, we’re almost there. Stan: See you guys. Bev: Thats great and I absolutely love that for you. But I thought you were with [redacted] [Bev Deleted a Message.]

Richie didn’t catch what Beverly had written, but if it was deleted it probably wasn’t important. Richie opened the mail app on his phone to see the email that got him this date again. He had gotten it the day after he left Hot Fuss on the train, and he, Patty, and Stan had eaten out that night.

Subject: I found your vinyl From: Adam Wilson <@AdAmWIlsOn> To: Richie Toz <@Remembering_Records>

‘Hey, Richie. My name’s Adam. I found the Hot Fuss album you left on the train a few weeks ago. I used to love listening to The Killers but work took so much of my time that I didn’t get to listen to them much anymore, but when I listened to your album, I felt like I finally relaxed, you know? I absolutely love Mr. Brightside but Somebody Told Me is still running through my head (Smile Like You Mean it doesn’t even need to be said. Its perfect. Oh man but then there’s also All These Things That I’ve Done. The Killers are just perfect.)

I should probably tell you somethings about me. I’m a doctor. I moved here from Manchester, UK, around a week ago to start a new job. I also volunteer at animal shelters in my spare time.

If I don’t sound like a serial killer and you’re interested, I really would love a date.

P.S. Mr. Brightside or Miss Atomic Bomb?

Richie had replied to him simply and fairly quickly (he chose Mr. Brightside.) He was heading there now, over to a restaurant downtown. He looked back down at the vinyl in his hands, just as he remembered Eddie smile and laugh awkwardly when he didn’t know what was going on. There was something about Eddie. Richie had no clue what it was, or what it made him feel, but there was definitely something there. He’s never felt this way before. Not with his friends, not with his hookups, not with Connor. It isn’t that he didn’t like it. He just had to be careful with it.

On second thought, maybe he shouldn’t leave them in the subway. He has time to bring them home first, right?

~~~

Richie walked into the restaurant, almost an hour late. By the time he had gotten home, he and Adam were already supposed to be meeting up, since the train he was previously on was going in the opposite direction. He then decided that riding his car would be faster than taking the trains, but the traffic was unbearable. He had taken a few wrong turns heading to the restaurant, too. Not that he didn’t know the place, there was a concert a few streets away that blocked some of the streets. So, exactly 53 minutes and 20 seconds late for his date, he stood there. As expected, Adam wasn’t there anymore.

Richie walked into the backseat of his car, kicking the chair in front of him. Of course, he messed up his first date in years. Fucking years. The one guy was interested in him, now gone, because he- what was he even doing? If he just dropped the two pieces of vinyl, he could’ve gotten this date and would’ve had two or more possible other ones. He wouldn’t blame Eddie for this failed date. He couldn’t. That was all on him.

At least he picked a restaurant close to the bar he was doing his show at. Richie wiped at his tears and climbed into the front of the car. Driving down a few streets, he walked up to the ‘Golden Rookie’ sign at the front of his favourite bar. Taking a deep breath, and willing himself not to puke, he jogged backstage to see Riley rolling her eyes at him.

“Failed date,” Richie smiled jogging on to the stage.

“Hello and goodnight, everybody!” he began, earning applause from a few of the regulars. "So, I checked Twitter this morning and..." he began slightly walking around the stage. He scanned the room, and there, far at the back was Eddie Kaspbrak, slightly smiling at the stage. Eddie was still in his work clothes, a suit and tie. His grin somehow both left and widened the moment they caught eyes.

When Richie got home that night, he thought that his set was the best one he’s done in a while. He wondered why.

Richie Tozier And Eddie Kaspbrak Have Breakfast Eddie wondered what that sound was. It was loud, he didn’t think it was loud for anyone else. It sounded- it sounded like if a pebble hit glass without breaking it. Weird. Eddie looked around the room, the continuous clattering waking him up. “What the fuck is that?” He muttered, walking over to the window. Richie Tozier was standing outside his window, waving at him like a maniac. “What the fuck are you doing here? Its the middle of the night, Richie!” Eddie whispered loudly (he wondered how that worked) once he opened his window.

“Its actually Tuesday morning,” Richie smiled, “C’ mere!”

Eddie rolled his eyes, “go to the front fucking door.”

He changed clothes quickly, trying not to look like he fixed up before seeing Richie. What was he doing? Its the middle of the- its Monday morning, and he's going to go with a stranger to who knows where. He's probably going insane. This was probably a dream, why would this happen if he were awake? Though, a part of him wished it wasn't a dream.

Down the stairs and out the door on to the porch, “What the fuck Richie? Its,” he looked at his phone, “its five in the morning.” He saw a guitar around Richie’s shoulders, (huge shoulders) deciding not to ask.

Richie hummed in agreement. “Yeah, we’re getting breakfast,” Richie said as he locks fingers with Eddie.

“Its five in the morning,” Eddie repeated.

“We’re getting breakfast.”

“At… five in the fucking morning?”

“Yup. There’s a nice diner somewhere here, we can walk.”

“I hope you know I think you’re crazy. The sun isn’t even up.” Richie just nodded.

The two walked to the diner together in silence. Eddie wasn’t uncomfortable, just, surprised. There was a ‘comfortable’ silence between the two, Eddie never really had that before. He was always used to the controlling words, and reminders and the arguing with Myra. He didn’t see his friends much because of work, so when they would meet up, there was never silence. And now there’s Richie, who he barely knows anything about, holding his hand at a time too early, as they walk towards a diner in a city Eddie doesn’t even live in. ‘Its nice’ he thinks, as they walk into the diner. It surprises Eddie, how much it looks like the diners in movies. But everything (and everyone- some more than others) in Los Angeles surprise him. ‘Most things surprise me’, he guesses, ‘I don’t go out much.’ But he knew better than that.

The two took their orders hands still intertwined under the table. “Why are we here?” Eddie asked, now sitting across from Richie.

“Ask that again in,” Richie looked down at his watch, “In 32 minutes, and 19 seconds.”

“Thats weird, but you aren’t going to tell me anything about that until then.”

“Right. So, lets talk about something else. How’d you like my show?”

“You like your praise. Its not that bad.”

“Just ‘not that bad’?”

“Yup, just ‘not that bad.’”

“I had a clear view of you from the stage. I didn’t know you could smile, Eds.”

“Don’t call me ‘Eds.’ Not my name.”

“Whatever you say, Spaghetti,” Richie said as Eddie rolled his eyes, “Do you have work today?”

“Actually, no. Bill and Mike are doing all I need today since I covered them a few days ago. Why?”

“Mind if I borrowed you for the rest of the day?” Richie smirked. (Eddie wanted to hate that smirk, he really did, he just couldn’t.)

“Yes. I do mind. I need a break.”

“Exactly, I’m giving you the world’s best break.”

Eddie sighed, “Please don’t. I’m scared.”

“Come on, I know you missed me.”

“I didn’t. I really didn’t.” He did. “You know what, whatever. Just- why am I here?”

“Look out the window,” Richie nodded.

“Look out the- what?” Eddie said, confused. He turned his head and, "Woah."

Eddie saw, through the trees and the buildings on the horizon, a soft sunrise. Whoever painted the sky in the early mornings, Eddie praised them. “Its pretty, right?”

“Yeah,” Eddie stuttered, looking over at Richie, who was grinning widely.

“You should see the sunset after it rains. Its beautiful,” Richie held back, ‘kinda like you’.

#reddie #reddie fic #it #it chap one #it chap two #remembering Sunday + The book ninja au

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princecupcakee · 4 years

Text

Park Bench | Reddie

Read on AO3

Rating: E

Pairing: Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak

Word Count: 3,320

Chapter: 7/8

Past Chapters: Chapter 1 (AO3), Chapter 2 (AO3), Chapter 3 (AO3), Chapter 4 (AO3), Chapter 5 (AO3), Chapter 6 (AO3)

Next Chapters:

Chapter 7: Richie Tozier Waits, Richie Tozier Looks For Eddie Kaspbrak & Eddie Kaspbrak Gives A Vinyl

Tag-list: @richietoaster , @s-s-georgie , @mikeuris , @gazebobullshit , @that-weird-girls-blog , @tozierking , @thoughtfullyyoungduck , @s-onora , @bellarosewrites , @lermanslogan , @ambitiousskychild , @ghostnebula , @vanillaredvelvet ,

(Ask if you wanna be on the tag-list!!)

Chapter 7

Richie Tozier Waits

Eddie was released from the hospital four days after his injury. It happened that morning, Richie couldn’t be there though. He almost fired his manager for not being able to move the meeting to later that day when he knew that Eddie was at home and healthy. (At home, Richie was really happy with the thought. Eddie at home.) It was Saturday now, and his plan was fitting into place. He held all the records in his hands, grinning. On the back of every vinyl was, ‘Eddie. I love you. Meet me at the park bench at three. -Richie.’

He grinned. He was able to learn the route Eddie takes on his way to work from Bev. Eddie wasn’t going to work that day of course, but the pharmacy he goes to was very close to his office, so he, Mike, and Bill were going to buy some pills from the doctor’s prescription. Richie was supposed to take the same train on his way to the meeting anyway, so he had just dropped the records on his way there. He tried his best to pay attention to the meeting; it didn’t work that well. How could you pay attention to a meeting when you’re about to propose to the love of your life? (Richie liked to use that; ‘love of my life’ it made his heartache in the best way possible.)

He got the rundown from Jackie when they had lunch that noon, right before he was heading back. Something about a show next week in some big, popular stage. She said she’d handle it so Richie just left it to her. He got on a train to the park after that, grabbing ice cream on his way there. He was far more than excited, but still a fair amount of fear. That was normal though, right?

It scared him a bit if he was feeling the right way. This felt so much calmer than what he had felt with Connor. Everything felt calm and sweet and right. He felt like he could finally stop holding his breath and smile without something in the back of his head telling him this is a lie. That this was a lie that you created in your head because you're so desperate. This was something that he could trust. Just being able to admit that meant more to him than anything he and Connor ever had. Eddie never lied to him, no suspicions because he’s always there. Always want to be there.

He was seated on the bench now. The ring in a box in his back pocket, turning his phone off the moment he unlocks it. It was only 2:15, he overestimated the time a bit. It would be fine though, Eddie’s early most of the time. He could keep himself busy.

The first fifteen minutes were boring. He just sat and stared and thought. He was productive, but that didn’t mean it was interesting. He plotted out a speech. He wouldn’t stand on the bench (though, he thought of it) it was going to be simple. Holding Eddie’s hands, he would thank him. All the thoughts he changed, all the things learned, the things that made him smile. Stating all of them would take them to the next day, of course, so just a few that their relationship was built on.

The next fifteen minutes were spent with a little girl who asked him what he was doing there. His answer was that he was going to propose to someone.

“Who?”

“My boyfriend.”

“Why?”

“Because I love him.”

“I love this girl. She lives across the street from me. She doesn’t like girls. I’m just waiting.”

“Waiting for what?”

“For a girl who likes girls, or if she would like girls. Or me,” the child cocked her head to the side. They kept on with that until another girl came up behind her and gave her some flowers from the flower patch a few ways down the path. She had bid him goodbye and asked him if he could tell his husband she said hello.

The next fifteen minutes were spent talking to an old woman who’s husband was overseas. They hadn’t seen each other in a while but they had been talking over the phone. He had dialed the wrong number 53 years ago and they fell in love. The next few topics revolved around his love story (he never knew it was so fun to tell.) “I’m proposing to him today.”

“Thats wonderful. Be sure to take care of him and treasure him.”

“I really do.”

“Then your love is sure to live on for years. Just look at mine!” Unbeknownst to her, her husband was standing a few steps away from the park bench they were seated. The lady had bid Richie goodbye and went off with her husband.

The next fifteen minutes were spent with a middle-aged lawyer who feels as if his marriage is losing what it had before. He and his partner had been together for years as he says, it just feels as if they were drifting apart. They had gone back and forth with why he could be feeling that way, but nothing seemed to work out for him.

It was truly sad to see, you could see just how much the man loved them. Richie didn’t really think of this applying to himself, one because he wanted to help and, two, he didn’t really want to. It wouldn’t, anyway. They had talked about what could have made this happen, the man, close to tears, just shook his head. “You can always try. Be with them more, show them you love them,” Richie tried.

“How? We’ve been married for years, I don’t even know how.”

“Do something for them; what’s something they love?”

“Uh, flowers?”

“Give them a garden.”

The man thought about it intensely for a while, silently kicking a pebble. His stiffness lessened and he smiled, “I can try.”

“The effort would be enough to show it,” Richie smiles.

“Thank you,” the man smiled, off to the flower shop.

“Today is a good day for love,” Richie said to himself, watching as tiny droplets make little ripples in the water of the lake in front of him.

Richie Tozier Looks For Eddie Kaspbrak

He had waited for Eddie for three hours. The sun had set, the people were gone, the rain was so heavy to a point where it would hurt when it hit him. He stayed there though, waiting. By the time it was 6 o’clock, all of his phone calls without reply, all of his texts seen but unanswered, he was worried. He had run to his car, drenched in rain and eyes puffy from crying and heart beating faster than it ever has before from worry.

The thoughts chased him as he drove at a speed that seemed unimaginable. It probably wasn’t unimaginable, it was probably just the fact that his eyesight was horrible and the hard and heavy rain hitting his windshield didn’t make anything better. He was dizzy, he was cold, what happened?

He should’ve left hours ago. He should’ve guessed that Eddie wouldn’t be there after only being released from the hospital. What was he thinking? Almost crashing into a tree when he turned left to the Marsh Mansion, the closest house to the park, and all the lights seemed to be spilling. He thought he might pass out. If he didn’t get someone, anyone, with him, he was probably going to die. He ran onto the brightly lit porch by the time it was 6:15, covered in what might as well just been his tears.

“Richie? What happened to you? I-“ Beverly cut her own words short. ‘he was proposing today,’ she thought, her heart aching at how pained Richie looked.

“I-I’m worried, Bev. Do you know where he is?”

“I’m- I’m so sorry Rich. I don’t know where he is. Wait here, I’ll call Ben, explain in the car okay?”

“I don’t know where he is Beverly,” he choked out loosely wrapping his arms around himself and resting his head on the door frame.

Instead of asking questions, she holds the side of his arms and goes back in to call Ben. Richie sunk down leaning almost fully onto the door frame. He can barely talk, too tired to let out an effort. It surprised him, mildly. When talking it was always so easy to let the words out, it barely hurts your throat, but when your scared, worried, anxious, tired, it takes up almost all your energy, even to just say ‘hi.’

All three of them in the car, Ben driving, Beverly in the passengers and Richie seated in the back, his hands and legs moving around almost uncontrollably. He didn’t know if he was gonna panic, he didn’t know if he could see. Everything seemed to be spinning at such a fast pace, but he could see everything so clearly it was almost not moving. He didn’t understand and, frankly, he didn’t care to.

Maybe Eddie just didn’t leave the house. Maybe he was just asleep in his bed, his medication is there because Bill and Mike got it for him without Eddie needing to be there, and everything was fine. It was very likely that he was only making things worse in his head, and he dragged Ben and Bev, who knew nothing of what happened, into a slight panic for no reason at all. But he felt like he was going to choke, going to vomit his guts and lay limp on the ground. He felt like something was wrong, something isn’t the way its supposed to be. It was still probably just an overreaction, but fear is such a strong emotion.

By the time they had reached Richie’s apartment, his fear had subsided a fair amount. But when he opened his apartment door and all that was there was a vinyl and a letter on the table, his fear came back in a rush.

Eddie Kaspbrak Gives A Vinyl

He sat in Richie’s bed (he felt uncomfortable calling it his own) trying to compose himself. It would be fine. The tear stains on the pillows would dry. The turtle will be fine. Anything he might’ve left would be thrown away. Everything would be as fine as it was in the beginning. But was it fine in the beginning? He was sure he wasn’t but Richie seemed to be doing good, he had his vinyl thing, he had his friends, his job, his new job, his house, his turtle. Richie would be fine without him.

But Eddie was wrapped in his selfishness, as he described it, and was scared of that exactly. That Richie would be fine without him, and that he wouldn’t be. That whatever he thought was pulling them together, was just something he made up in his head. He thought to himself that is was probably likely, he’s done it before: with his mother and his wife.

He took a deep breath, trying to push everything back inside, trying to stop the tears from falling again. This time, it worked. He picked himself back up and walked over to the living room. He just stood there for a while, feeling too guilty to even just walk around the apartment. Yet, he did. He walked over to the phonograph, something he’d wish he’d forget (or just never learned) and played whatever was on it. ‘He woke up from dreaming and put on his shoes’ sung the player.

Eddie wondered what song it was, slow, deep, and the lyrics tugged at his heart. Maybe it was just his mood but something about this song felt wrong. Something about this song brought the best and the worst upon… something. That whats probably stupid, though.

The song carried him around as he listened, “Forgive me I’m trying to find, my calling, I’m calling at night. I don’t mean to be a bother but have you seen this girl?” Eddie sat down on the sofa, pulling his legs close together and his hands on his lap, feeling too foreign, too unwelcome to take up more space than he has. The lyrics took him strongly, his heart tight and loose at the same time, feeling each beat. He drums his fingers on the sofa, following the beats, “She’s been running through my dreams. And its driving me crazy it seems. I’m going to ask her to marry me.”

He laughed. If only his story had the same plot. If Richie asked him to marry him, he would’ve definitely said yes. He would be horrified, his past would be screaming at him no but he would’ve said yes. ‘But Richie wouldn’t do that,’ he thinks. The song went on, and it seemed as if every lyric narrated something so familiar. It was a story in the form of a song, of course, it had narrated something. But that didn’t explain why it felt like the lyrics sung something he knew. He dismissed it, thinking it was probably just a fairytale from his childhood.

As the song continued to the end, he wondered if maybe it wasn’t a fairytale. Maybe his story did have the same plot. He picked up the record, put it back in its box, and picked up a pen.

~~~

Eddie took the subway. It was faster than having to go through the L.A. traffic and missing his flight, plus, he didn’t want to spend any more time in this city than he needs to. Any more time in this state, actually. Bill and Mike were staying in L.A. (maybe for good) while Eddie would be back where he belongs: in New York City. They had told him, multiple times, that he could go back. That he didn’t have to do this, but Eddie only insisted. It didn’t take long for them to drop the argument.

Eddie regrets not using the car the moment he walked over the platform gap. There, right in front of him, was Hot Fuss, once again. He breathed in, trying to push the tears back in and looked away swiftly. Bill must’ve caught the action, as he put his hand on Eddie’s shoulder, who quickly shrugged it off. They took a seat far from the vinyl, not anywhere close to their field of vision.

Despite that, he still tried to watch it closely. It bothered him how much he needed it, to even see it would let him feel calmer. He picked up his bag, smiled at Mike and Bill saying that he had dropped something earlier, and walked over to where they were in the beginning. Bill and Mike knew what he was doing, it wasn’t that hard to spot, but they had let him be. If this was the last time, then, they supposed he might as well have it while its there.

Eddie sat beside the vinyl looking at it intensely. It was an argument that no one would win, he was arguing with himself. Not knowing if he should just leave it, take it with him or simply just take it in his hands. It lasted while he thought he probably looked weird just staring at a record on the seat beside him. He took it in his hands though, carefully tracing the letters on the front of it. He wished he didn’t take it at all. Because there, written almost illegibly in thick black sharpie was: ‘Eddie. I love you. Meet me at the park bench at three. -Richie.’

Unsurprisingly, though, as much as Eddie didn’t want to, he checked the watch on his phone. It was 2:30. He could still be there. He could still meet Richie and the park bench where they kissed. He could still take back all that he was letting go and- but he shook his head lightly, put the vinyl down, and walked back over to Bill and Mike, ignoring the vinyl for the rest of the ride.

~~~

The plane hadn’t started moving yet. He was looking out the window now, breathing in, breathing out. It was hard to not break into tears when you’re on a plane leaving the place you fell in love with someone for the first time. There was nothing in his headphones this time, no Hot Fuss, no All Time Low or Lucinda Williams, just white noise. Sometimes, when there was no sound, he would hear a ringing in his ears, something that sounded like a flatline, he hated it. It sounded like death. Silence sounded like death. He was listening to silence, so maybe it meant the plane would crash, maybe it meant something had died. Who knew what did, though?

He hit the play button on his earphones and waited, ‘Remember all the things we wanted,’ he heard. What is this song? He picked up his phone to change it, but something about this made him think. He laughed joylessly, this is exactly it. He pulled out his phone. Create a playlist, name playlist: richie. He smiled down at his phone, adding all the songs that reminded him of Richie, of their short-lived romance.

He was presented with a box, ‘Add a description’ written inside of it. He took a deep breath, how would he want to remember this? Then, with a painful thought, he typed what he wrote to Richie.

‘Richie,

I should be on a plane to New York City by the time you come home. My clothes would be gone, Maturin would be been fed, and you would be back with a schedule for your next great performance.

I love you. I don’t know what else to say besides that. I don’t think I’ve ever really been in love before you. My marriage didn’t feel the way this does, my flings never even coming close. You bring the chaos thats mandatory in love. The unsteady heartbeats, the unexplainable smiling, the uncontrollable need to be together. Thats how people describe love, right? This is how I feel about you Richie, never thin I left because I don’t want you because I would do anything to be able to. But I can’t stay. But, you’ll find someone new, you’ll be famous, you’ll have the life you were supposed to have. Its just that, that life doesn’t have me in it.

I’m sorry. I didn’t want to be there when you came home. I didn’t want you to see me and I didn’t wanna make the mistake of staying. I wish I could’ve had you, Richie. I wish I didn’t do the things I did so that there was nothing to risk so that I could be there with you. I’ve done so many things to hurt people, I don’t wanna hurt you. You’re too important to me. I don’t know if they really were hurt, or if they just wanted to manipulate me, but I couldn’t take any chances, especially on you.

Thank you. I guess love isn’t as bad as I thought it was, it wasn’t as guilty and as scary and as plain. I would stay if I could. Anyone who would leave you and hurt you doesn’t deserve what you give. I don’t deserve it, Richie. I’m glad I had it for a little while, but you need someone who can love you the way you're supposed to be loved. I don’t even trust myself, why should you trust me? I can’t fall in love again. Its only you. Thanks for changing my life and making it better. Sorry, I couldn’t do anything for you, but I hope you can find someone who can do what you did to me.

Fear is horrible, Richie. Don’t let it get in the way of you as it did to me.

I love you.

-Eddie’

#reddie #reddie fic #it #it chap one #it chap two #remembering Sunday + the book ninja au #look man im sorry #but im really not #the last chapter might be late I have so much to doo im sorry

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princecupcakee · 4 years

Text

Park Bench | Reddie

Read on AO3

Rating: E

Pairing: Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak

Word Count: 3,112

Chapter: 6/8

Past Chapters: Chapter 1 (AO3), Chapter 2 (AO3), Chapter 3 (AO3), Chapter 4 (AO3), Chapter 5 (AO3)

Next Chapter:

Chapter 6: Eddie Kaspbrak Gets Hurt, Richie Tozier, Stan And Patty Uris, And Ben and Beverly Marsh Buy A Ring & Eddie Kaspbrak, Bill Denbrough and Mike Hanlon Plan A Leave

(Ask if you wanna be on the tag-list!!)

Chapter 6

Eddie Kaspbrak Gets Hurt

Richie was out getting… something (he didn’t tell Eddie), he said it would take a while. Which left Eddie in an uncomfortable state. He didn’t want it to happen again, he didn’t want to lose something as important as this.

“How could you do this? You cheated on me, Eddie! With a man! I thought you cared for me, you didn’t want to hurt me!”

“Myra, I’m sorry. It was a mistake-“

“How was that a mistake? You’ve been dating for three months, Eddie. And you just pass that off as a mistake?”

“None of that was supposed to happen, Myra! I didn’t know what I was doing!”

“The texts seem to say otherwise.”

“Fine! Lets get a divorce!”

“What?”

“I’m done! I can’t do anything here. You’re always saying that I’m hurting you, then I’ll stop! This marriage was headed for doom the moment it happened.”

“Are you hearing yourself, Eddie? This is crazy! This is what that man has done to you!”

“None of that was him, it was me! I don’t want this marriage, I don’t want this life! I’m sorry, I know what I did was wrong and I should’ve just told you before this got out of hand, but I didn’t. So, I’m sorry. This is how we fix this.”

Eddie, feeling incapable of love, takes a safe seat on the couch. ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ He thinks to himself, bringing his face into his hands. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, but he’s been thinking about this the whole time. He’s been thinking of leaving, this whole time. He’s been so happy with Richie. Of course, he was. But his past is taunting him, following his every move and making him afraid.

He doesn’t want to hurt Richie. The best thing to do is to leave. Just as he did with Myra. That is how you fix it, right?

Fuck. He needed a drive. Now. Richie took his car out though, and talking to yourself at the train station isn’t a thing he would really want to do. Run. That’s it. Thats what he’ll do. He’s always been good at track; this should be fine. His mother wasn’t here to stop him this time.

So he put on his shoes and stepped out the door. It was never that cold in Los Angeles, people casually went out on runs. But when he bolts away from Richie’s place, ran straight onto the road with his eyes closed from pushing back tears then getting hit by a car, he thinks maybe running was a bad idea.

He woke up in a shaking ambulance. His eyes shut, he should’ve expected this. Its not like he hasn’t woken up in an ambulance before. ‘I thought the point was to help people, I feel like I’m gonna throw up’ he thinks bitterly. He closes his eyes again, he didn’t need to be asked questions, or checked on, just needed time to think. ‘You wanted a drive now you got one’ his mind laughs at him. He was tired, but he did need to think. He could make a run for it, leave without a word. But that wouldn’t be fair to Richie, would it? He’d do anything to keep Richie. Keep him happy, keep him in his life, whichever he meant, it still fits his description. He could pick a fight. He was good at that. He cheated on his wife, he would know how to cause problems.

If Richie were to see him at the hospital, which was likely, he could pick a fight. A quick, simple, small fight that he would enlarge, ruining every smile he received since the divorce. He wants to deserve Richie. He needs it. But he can’t just be that person. Plus, Richie would find out sooner or later, that he’s truly incapable of not fucking up love. The love in his marriage wasn’t real. He tried to remember if he ever thought it was. Hell, if he fucked up a love he only created in his head, how could he be capable of real fucking thing? He knew it sounded stupid, but his heart felt like it was being thrown into an incinerator, maybe that meant it wasn’t.

Its too much for him to handle, thats easy to admit, but to admit to himself that he’s so in love would be a little harder. He knew where this was headed before it even started, he was too much of a mess. He shut his eyes tighter. Richie has the perfect job for him now, he’s got his friends, he’s got a place, he should be fine without Eddie. Eddie was just scared, and incapable, and destructive, and defensive, and nothing that Richie would need.

He promised himself that night, seeing Myra cry and beg for him to stay, that love was too much. That he couldn’t handle hurting someone like that. He hurt his mother so much as a child, she would always say so after Eddie would leave the house for longer than she’d said to. Was she really hurt? Eddie couldn’t tell anymore, he just knew that she didn’t like it. Myra was mostly the same, was hurt when ever Eddie would do something that he wanted to without telling her first. Seemed as if most of what he wanted wasn’t allowed.

He knew that it was trauma. That it was built into his head that he’s always hurting people. But he’s still scared. Its one thing to know what happened, its another to know how to deal with it. Eddie didn’t know the latter. He’s been trying, really, but in the early hours of the morning, when Richie would be sound asleep beside him, he’d wonder if he hurt Richie. He probably would. So, the best plan would be to leave, where Richie could forget about him, and go on as if he never existed, maybe then he couldn’t hurt Richie.

So, when Richie sees him in the hospital, worried and almost in tears, his heart twists.

“Eddie, what happened? Are you okay?” Richie rushes, Beverly, Ben, Stan, and Patty following behind. Eddie doesn’t bother to ask why.

“I'm fine,” he says stubbornly.

“What happened to you?”

“I went out for a run, got hit by a car, I’m fine though.”

“You aren’t fine, you got hit by a car,” Richie says loudly. Eddie wonders if this hurt him.

“So? I’m still breathing, Richie.”

“You’re still- you’re still breathing? So? Your fucking hurt I thought you were a risk analyst!”

“What? So you’re gonna get mad at me for getting hurt? It was an accident, I can do everything just fine. We can go back now, I’m not in any pain,” Eddie waves off. He really was in pain though, a throbbing headache, his sides feeling like they’ve been stabbed.

“We’re not going back, you have to stay here and heal, from… that!” Richie gestures to Eddie in the hospital bed.

“You can’t just tell me to stay here, I’m fine, this is my body anyway.”

“You’re being a dick, man.”

“Do I look like I care?”

“I’m trying to help you!”

“You’re not doing shit!”

Silence followed after that, Richie with tears in his eyes and Eddie trying to hold his back. ‘This is how to fix it’ he reminds himself, turning his head to face away from Richie.

“Well… how can I do something?” Richie asks softly.

Another minute of silence, “You can’t,” Eddie chokes out, “can you please just leave?”

“Okay.”

~~~

Richie, seated on a hard cold chair in the hospital, tries to breathe. Calling him a dick was probably unnecessary, he was hurt after all. That was probably his fault. Yeah, he was trying to help Eddie but he wasn’t doing it right. He did feel as if he was a bit controlling. Thats always what Connor would say. Every time he asked him where he was going, who that girl he was with was, why he wouldn’t come home at night. He was controlling.

He should apologize, he really is in love with Eddie. Mike and Bill are in Eddie’s hospital room right now, he should just go in there. A normal apology might not do it. He grinned. Everything fits into place. He just hopes Eddie says ‘yes.’

Richie Tozier, Stan And Patty Uris, And Ben and Beverly Marsh Buy A Ring

“I’m horrified,” Richie mumbles walking into the store. They were buying a ring now. Richie’s plans all fitting into place. He had told Eddie that he went out to buy something, though, he doubts Eddie was really listening. Patty, Stan, Ben, and Beverly were here with him, they were the only ones who knew about the proposal.

He had the perfect plan. He’d replay the day they first kissed. Well, without the date of course. And seeing Walter and Maddison. (He still wonders how to fill that gap.) Pulling Eddie out of bed to take him to a different restaurant with a similar view to the one before. He didn’t want Eddie to exactly notice his plan so a normal too-early-watch-the-sunrise breakfast would do. He would take Eddie out around town, anywhere the wind took them, by sundown, they would be back, seated on the bench a ring in Richie’s hand and one knee on the ground. He had checked the weather for that day, it was most likely to rain that night, which fit perfectly to his plans. And, if not, it would work either way.

Maybe he’d play a game again, ask Eddie to marry him as they talked. He was still debating that part since Eddie talked about his divorce to Richie that day. Well, he mentioned it. Eddie wouldn’t really tell him things. It wasn’t something he really liked to do. He told Richie nothing about his divorce, his family, it's almost like it didn’t happen. But it affected Eddie, Richie could tell that. It slightly worried Richie. Eddie wouldn’t really let him in. Anything about his past seems to be missing, something long gone and thrown away. If Eddie didn’t want to talk about it, that was fine, sometimes Richie just hoped he would tell him sometimes. Richie just hoped that he could help.

“Don’t worry about it, Richie,” Patty says, smiling.

A quick thank you to Patty, “remind me again how you know Eddie’s ring size?” He asks Beverly.

“I helped him look for rings when he got married.”

“Oh God that makes it worse. What if he doesn’t wanna get married anymore? Did his divorce suck? He didn’t tell me much about it-“

“Richie,” Stan says, walking over to a jeweler. Richie walks over to a different one with Bev.

“You should ask him yourself, Rich. About his divorce. All I really know is that he loves you,” Beverly smiles after asking to see three different rings (which Richie thought was a bit extra.)

“I guess thats… yeah, thats a better idea.”

“I know you’re doing this again but, I mean, I’m really believing in this one, I’ve known Eddie a long time.”

Richie appreciated the comment in silence. He believed in this too. “You’re marriage has been perfect, how?”

Beverly was surprised by the question, “I guess, love? It isn’t that easy to explain, and everything I’m going to say would be cheesy as fuck, but yeah, I guess love would be it.”

“You and Ben are such sappy assholes,” Richie laughs, earning a playful punch to the shoulder from Beverly.

“When are you proposing anyway?”

“Saturday,” he smiles confidently.

The jeweller brought up the box of rings set inside the glass box. Beverly had chosen three. Two golden bands with matching circular diamonds embedded into it, a pair of golden rings with three blue diamonds, and the third, a silver ring with a large square diamond in its centre. Richie hated the last one for sure. He debated it for a few minutes, the first pair or the second.

“I’d say the gold one with the blue ones,” Stan says, coming up behind them.

“Yeah,” Richie smiled, “could you carve something on the inside of that?”

“Of course,” the jeweler replied, “just write down what you want,” he pulled out a piece of paper that Richie was sure wasn’t there and wrote ‘R + E’ The jeweler then explained the prices and the ring in words Richie would only dream to understand.

He was buying a ring for Eddie. He was going to try proposing, he was going to ask Eddie to marry him. The thought alone made Richie’s heart race, but he smiled. This love is worth a shot. This would work. Eddie wouldn’t do want Connor did to him. Eddie is kind, and brave and caring, and everything Richie could ask for. Richie wondered if the cheesier something sounds, the more true it is. It seemed to fit the definition.

“Hey, Rich?” Stan says beside him. Bev was off somewhere with Ben now, Patty was looking at a few necklaces, leaving Richie and Stan together.

“Yeah?”

“I’m really proud of you man,” he pats Richie’s shoulder.

“Thanks,” he smiled fondly.

“I was worried about you, man. After… Connor, I didn’t think you’d want to keep with it.”

“Eddie’s really amazing.”

“I can tell,” he smiles.

“Don’t take him from me. If you got that hot shit, Mike, you could probably get Eddie too.”

“Who- who told you that?” Stan asked punching Richie’s arm.

“What is it with people punching me?” He rubs his arm exaggeratedly.

Stan laughed, “‘cause you’re a dick.”

His phone rang, echoing around the store, gaining looks. ‘Eds Spaghetti’ flashed on his screen. “hey!”

“Sir, I have Mr. Edward Kaspbrak’s phone with me and you were on the emergency dial. He is in the hospital,” the woman on the other line gave an address, and Richie shut his phone to head to the hospital.

Eddie Kaspbrak, Bill Denbrough and Mike Hanlon Plan A Leave

“Eddie, are you sure about this? This is the one time its working out for you, we both think so,” Mike says sympathetically gesturing to him and Bill.

“I’ve made enough fucking mistakes I don’t wanna keep fucking shit up.”

“B-but you aren’t!” Bill argues, he opens his mouth to say more but Eddie cuts him off.

“I will, Bill. You know me just as well as I do, I can’t do this,” it hurts when he says that. He’s about to burst into tears, he knows it, so he breathes slowly.

“I haven’t seen you this happy, Eddie. This is… new. This is something thats good for you,” Mike has always been rational. The one to make decisions and the one to ask for help. But Eddie doesn’t need help. He doesn’t want to change what he thinks, he doesn’t want to be persuaded away, leading to what he knows will happen.

Bill and Mike are talking again, but he doesn’t want to hear anything else. He tries not to blink, the tears will probably fall the second he does. ‘This isn’t a mistake’, he thinks. He wants to think. There’s nothing for him here, nothing that can fix him. He’s going back to New York City, he’ll find an apartment, he’ll go to work, thats all. At this point, he doubts he’ll fall in love again. Richie might. Richie will, he likes to think. Someone better than he is. Someone who can give Richie what he deserves.

Richie told him about Connor. All the things he did, all the horrible words he said. Eddie hated it. He only wishes he could be with Richie for that long, Connor just wasted it. Sometimes he would wonder if Connor regrets it (or if he could make Connor regret it) and wondered if that would happen to him. When he leaves, would he regret it? If he was being selfish, probably. But he was doing this for Richie. This would be good for him. This is how you fix things.

“I’m going to do it,” he whispers, “I don’t care if you don’t think this is a good idea, sometimes I don’t think it is. But thats just me wanting to make things worse. I’m going.”

The tears were bursting out now, but Mike and Bill didn’t move (as much as it hurt them to do so.) “You c-can change y-your mind, Eddie. Y-you can change. I th-think you already have,” Bill says softly.

Eddie just sits there, his breathing is still mostly still steady. People always said that, that you could change. And most people can. He knows he can. But the risk of hurting someone while still just trying to change. That in-between point where your still figuring out what and how to change from the way you were before to the way you want to be. There is always a risk. Nothing is ever easy. He learned that.

Richie is someone he didn’t want to hurt. He’s gone through being hurt before, and its effects were pretty clear. Eddie could do that, Eddie probably will. This was inescapable. If he couldn’t hold himself back then, how would he do it now? With the ‘power of love’? Love exists he’s sure of that, but what would it be able to do? What would it be able to fix?

When Eddie’s in tears, all his anger goes away. All of the fire inside of him leaves. All there is the pain it has left. “I wish I thought the same as you, Bill,” he weakly laughed.

Bill and Mike didn’t protest anymore, knowing it would be useless. Eddie’s going to leave Los Angeles on Saturday, and there’s no stopping him. They wonder if there ever was a way to. But they doubt it.

#reddie #reddie fic #it #it chap one #it chap two #remembering sunday + the book ninja au #*evil laughter*

10 notes · View notes

princecupcakee · 4 years

Text

Park Bench | Reddie

Read on AO3

Rating: E

Pairing: Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak

Word Count: 3,331

Chapter: 4/8

Past Chapters: Chapter 1 (AO3), Chapter 2 (AO3), Chapter 3 (AO3)

Next Chapters:

Chapter 4: Richie Tozier And Eddie Kaspbrak In The Rain, Eddie Kaspbrak Meets Maddie And Walter Tozier, Richie Tozier And Eddie Kaspbrak Move In Together

Tag-list: @richietoaster , @s-s-georgie , @mikeuris , @gazebobullshit , @that-weird-girls-blog , @tozierking , @thoughtfullyyoungduck , @s-onora , @bellarosewrites , @lermanslogan , @ambitiousskychild , @ghostnebula , @vanillaredvelvet ,

(Ask if you wanna be on the tag-list!!)

Chapter 4

Richie Tozier And Eddie Kaspbrak With The Rain

Richie rang the doorbell, leaning at the side of the door. ‘Be cool, Tozier. This is how you get the guy.’ Eddie opened the door, pressing down a laugh, “dude you look like a douche,” he mumbled, walking past him, laughing. ‘Maybe not.’ Richie nodded to himself, following Eddie.

Eddie didn’t actually know where he was going, expecting Richie to have planned. He stood by the staircase at the edge of the porch. “So, why did I wait for you?” “We’re going out,” Richie smiled. Eddie blushed, “what?” “Oh! Uh- no, no, no, I mean, we’re going out, like you and I are going somewhere outside, together,” Richie tried to save himself, “well- well I mean, if you want, we can go out,” he mumbled. Eddie’s eyes were still wide and he was still standing as still as a statue, “sure,” he mumbled back. “‘Sure’ to what?” “Where are we going?” Eddie changed the subject, trying not to embarrass himself any more than he thought he has. Richie opened his mouth to say something but thought else of it and said, reaching his hand out, “do you trust me?” “I- I guess?” “Did- did you not get that?” “No? What was I supposed to get?” “You’ve never watched Aladdin?” “What?" “You don’t know?” “How was I supposed to know that?” Eddie rolled his eyes. “Everybody does,” Richie replied jokingly, Eddie just rolled his eyes again. “Just- don’t ask questions. I have a plan and it is going to go great," he told Eddie, though, it felt more as if he were telling himself “First, I don’t believe you planned, second, you sound like you're trying to kill me...” Eddie kept rambling, the ways he could die, the similarities between Richie and a serial killer. Richie liked how Eddie rambled, he would but in sometimes, catching the perfect set up for a joke. Richie liked how Eddie used smaller hand gestures than he did when he spoke, yet they felt bigger. Richie liked how Eddie’s expression would change every few sentences. Richie liked how Eddie would mention small things about him, how his hair sometimes curled around his glasses, how sometimes his glasses would tip sideways and he wouldn’t fix them, and he would say how he felt about it. Richie liked how Eddie said what he felt about things. He also hoped that Eddie would tell him how he felt about him. As oblivious as he believes he isn’t, Eddie notices the little glances Richie takes at him. He doesn’t find it weird or creepy, he liked it. Was that selfish of him? He wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure of many things— with him being trapped away from almost everything throughout his life—but he was sure of this. At least, he hoped he did. Richie was different. That was the only way he could describe him. And, for now, he assumed that was enough.

“I feel like I’m being driven to my doom,” Eddie said after a moment of silence.

“You aren’t. Couldn’t kill something as cute as you, Eds,” Richie smiled, eyes on the road.

“Don’t call me Eds. Its really annoying,” Eddie shook his head despite laughing.

“Anything you say, Eddie Spaghetti.”

“Thats fucking worse,” Eddie shook his head. Richie smiled at him. Eddie smiled back.

~~~

“Look what I got you,” Richie grinned as Eddie opened the car window. Richie had stopped and left Eddie in the car —something that Eddie kept in mind the next time he was going to talk about how similar Richie and murderers are— and came back with… ice cream cones. Richie shoved both of them into Eddie’s hands as he went back to the driver's seat and drove off.

“What- what the fuck?” Eddie asked.

Richie didn’t reply, instead of driving into a slot of an abandoned car park nearby —another thing Eddie listed— and opening his door. He reached out for one cone and Eddie’s hand and led them outside. Richie climbed up to the hood of the car, patting the space beside him. “No, that’s so dirty.”

Richie rolled his eyes and took off his jacket, balancing the ice cream cone between his hands, and placing the jacket on the spot beside him. “Seriously? Thats still really-“

“I can clean the jacket, sit with me.”

Eddie climbed up beside Richie, needing assistance to do so. Eddie wanted to ask why the two were there, but thought better of it, choosing to silently enjoy this instead. “What flavour did you get me?” Eddie asked looking at the cone in his hand.

“Vanilla. With rainbow sprinkles,” Richie smiled, tracing little circles above Eddie ice cream. Eddie lightly laughed. “How uh, how long are you even staying here?”

“I’m not so sure yet, actually,” Eddie replied, looking at a pebble on the ground. He left out the part about Sonia and Myra and about not wanting to go back to New York and face the city where he fucked everything up.

“Does that mean I can spend more time with you?” Richie smirks.

“If you play your cards right, maybe,” licking at his ice cream. He glanced at Richie’s and he was already halfway done. The two sat in silence while they ate, Richie holding Eddie’s hand little by little.

“There’s a park a few ways over there,” Richie said after a few minutes of stroking his thumb over Eddie’s hand, "we should go.”

Eddie tiredly nodded. Richie let go of his hand and pulled out his guitar from the inside. “You think someone is gonna break into your car and steal it?” Eddie snickered.

“Yup. Thats also the reason I’m bringing you along,” Richie winked (which confirmed to Eddie whether or not the comment was an insult about him being short.) Richie walked over to Eddie taking both his hands and helping him down, causing Eddie to fall onto Richie’s chest. Richie took his hand again after they’d pulled away and walked over to the park.

Eddie was wordlessly enchanted by the trees and the lights and the pathway twisting around the park. It was around 7 (Eddie wondered how time moved that quickly) and it was pretty empty. “Tell me about you,” Richie nudged him.

“Uh well, I work for-“

“I don’t want your résumé,” Richie laughs, “lets play a game.”

“We’re not doing 20 questions.”

“Lets play another game. Uh, one of us says a random word and the other says the first thing they think of. I’ll go first, music."

‘You. Seeing you sing around in Ben and Bev’s house with a smile on your face. You with a smile on your face because you looked so cute and handsome and I really, really like you.’ “feelings. Uh, morning.” Eddie replies.

‘Having that breakfast with you and watching the sunrise. With you. And how you lazily laughed at my jokes because it was too early.’ “Breakfast. Okay, uh, New York,” Richie said.

‘Crying. Pain. Mother. Divorce. Myra. Sonia. Gay. Mistake. Divorce.’ “Divorce,” Eddie mumbled, not thinking he said anything.

“Oh, I- were you? I’m so sorry,” Richie fumbled with the words., letting go of Eddie’s hand in the process.

“No, no! Its fine. I’m fine. But, I- uh. Yeah. I did.”

“Oh shit. I’m really sorry.”

“Its fine. She and I never really worked out,” Eddie said shaking his head.

“Oh thats, uh, sorry,” Richie mumbled, embarrassed at all the hand-holding and the early morning breakfast, and this.

“No, its fine. I’m gay, it wasn’t gonna happen anyway,” Eddie said, his speaking speeding up. Richie lightly sighed.

“You… wanna take a seat?” Richie asked, pointing to the bench facing a small lake.

“sure,” Eddie nods. Breathing a little steadier (he actually hadn’t even known when it had quickened.) “Why is it so empty here?” Eddie asked looking up the dimly lit sky.

“Probably the weather.”

“The what?” As if on cue, rain fell from the sky softly. “Fuck!” Eddie shouted putting hands over his head as if it would do something. He stood up heading back from where they came, but a hand tugged at his arm.

“Wait,” Richie said, trying to make Eddie stay. The rain was a bit heavier, but it wasn’t unbearable. At least, it wasn’t for Richie apparently.

“Are you fucking crazy? You know how sick we could get if we stayed out here in the rain?”

“Just a little while,” Richie said, not letting go of Eddie’s arm. Eddie huffed but sat back down beside him, wincing at the now wet spot he was sitting in earlier. Richie pulled out his jacket again and put it over Eddie’s shoulders, putting the hood up as well. “There,” Richie said, pointing forward. Eddie wondered how he hadn’t seen it earlier. The sky was all shades of red and orange and yellow and all the colours in between. The lake reflected all that was in the sky and that made the sight more astounding. The raindrops hitting the lake made little sounds and it shook the water a little, making the already watery-looking sky seem more like a reflection than real life.

“I was really sad one day and wanted to be alone so I went out while it was raining. I went to this park ‘cause,” Richie gestured to the emptiness of the park, “there’s no one here. Sat down, saw the sky in the lake. I thought I should show you.”

Before Eddie could even think of anything, he pulled on Richie’s shirt and brought their faces close. He didn’t kiss him, he just looked into his close eyes as asking permission. Richie pushed their lips together lightly. “You know, I may live with my best friend but I actually do have a place,” Richie joked, still very close to Eddie.

“Why don’t you live there?” Eddie asked. Richie’s heart rate sped, but when Eddie kissed him again it melted away. He already forgot Connor, he doesn’t need to remember, he can stay here, with Eddie.

“Its nothing, baby,” Richie said looking straight at Eddie, “Get in the car.”

Eddie Kaspbrak Meet Maddie And Walter Tozier

“Mads! Walt! C’mere!” Richie called, opening the door. He looked back apologetically to Eddie, “If you regret this, don’t blame it on me, its on you,” he slightly laughed.

Eddie shook his head fondly. It was Saturday, Eddie had indefinitely moved into Richie’s apartment, and was promised a date today. After staying over at Richie’s house the Tuesday, small kisses, take-out, and falling asleep (oddly enough, fully clothed) the two had agreed to a date. Eddie wondered though, why Richie was so worried about asking, why he needed to repeat the question so much. But he let it be. Richie didn’t plan Eddie meeting Maddison and Walter, Richie didn’t even want to talk about it, but Eddie insisted to drive over to their house after being mentioned while on their way.

“Hi, uncle- who are you?” Maddie brightly said opening the door.

“This is Eddie,” Richie replied, leaning on the doorway.

“Okay! Hi, Eddie! I’m Maddie, and my brother, Walter, is upstairs,” she leans more into the house and shouts, “and won’t help me with my painting!”

“I said I’d help you when I was done with mine! Mom just got me new watercolours and I need to try them out first!” Walter said walking down the stairs. He stood a few steps from the ground and stared at Eddie for a while.

“Thats Eddie! Uncle Richie’s boyfriend!” Maddie said a little to loudly and made Walter flinch. Richie nervously looked over at Eddie, who was just smiling at the brother and sister.

Richie smiled with confidence, “Go get you’re shit, we’re going to the arcade.” Eddie raised an eyebrow at him while Richie winked back.

“Don’t swear,” Maddie shook her head as Eddie snickered. She walked up the stairs with her brother running up with her. “Walter and Maddie?” Eddie said as if in question.

“He’s seven, she’s six, and they’re basically polar opposites.”

“Ah,” Eddie nodded, “They’re adorable. Where are their parents anyway?”

“My sister is a single mom,” Richie lightly shrugged to seem lighter.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Nah, its all good. These two are alone a lot though, I take care of them when my parents aren’t.”

“Don’t kiss! Mommy says not to close eyes in the stairs!” Maddie shouts (again) from the top of the stairs running down. Dressed in a bright pink dress, she jumps onto Richie’s leg, Richie picking her up as she giggles. “You good, Walt?”

Walter nods and Richie walks over to the car. “Seatbelts!”

“Check!” Maddie grins widely, tracing a big checkmark on the air.

“There’s no checklist but check!” Richie laughs, pulling out of the driveway. Eddie watched as he drove and talked with both kids (mostly Maddie) and smiled fondly. Richie was loud, and a bit annoying, and an absolute foul-mouth. But, with these two, despite still swearing at a handful, he’s different. Its clear that all he wants to do is make them smile. Its pretty effective, not just on them, on Eddie too.

They walked into the arcade and Maddie challenges her brother to a racing game, leaving Richie and Eddie alone. “You basically asked for these kids to crash our date,” Richie jokes, taking Eddie’s hand and leading him to a line of games.

“Its fine. They’re good kids,” Eddie smiles looking behind him as if they were there, “shouldn’t we keep an eye on them?”

“Walter is more mature than I am, he can do everything. They’ll be fine, plus, they’ll know where we are,” Richie grins cheerily, raising his hands to present, ‘Street Fighter.’

“Really?” Eddie sighs.

Richie nods and places both of Eddie’s hands on the buttons. “You’ll never beat me,” Richie smirks.

“We’ll see,” Eddie nods preparing his hands properly on the buttons.

“That was the best!” Maddie exclaims jumping up and down once Richie puts her down. She’d shot a ball into the hoop (with Richie’s help) in the basketball game. They’d challenged one another, Eddie against Richie and Walter against Maddison, the children going first. Maddison wasn’t cheering about making a shot in her game though, Richie had asked for her help. Eddie, competitive as he is, asks Walter if he could help him out. Eddie and Walter won.

“We won, we won!” Maddie cheers and Walter just puts a hand on her shoulder and shakes his head. “What?”

“They won, kiddo,” Richie says ruffling her hair, as she swats his hand away, “its alright because I’m buying ice cream!” Maddie cheers and raises her hands up for Richie to carry her again. Walter walks with them as Eddie stands in the back for a little.

Richie was so good. Eddie didn’t know what he meant by that but he assumed he just was. Maybe it was because his mother would never let him play in the arcade because, as she would always tell him, ‘there are so many diseases there, so much dirty children, you could get sick, Eddie-bear.’ At first, he really thought it was that, but after seeing Richie stop Madison from crying after dropping her ice cream, listing to every soft word Walter would say, all the effort he puts into just making them (and him) smile, he thought that he was most probably in love.

Richie Tozier And Eddie Kaspbrak Move In Together

“Thats the last of the boxes, Eds!” Richie calls out, dropping a large box by the side of the door.

Eddie walks out of a room and smiles, “Thank you, Richie.”

“Can’t believe you chose my shitty apartment that was abandoned for fucking years over the Marsh Mansion,” Richie joked kissing Eddie.

“Marsh Mansion?” Eddie laughed, “of course I chose you, I swear it was haunted in there. Plus, too many couples.”

“You're dating me.”

“Yeah, but I’m not living with you,” Eddie says playing with Richie’s hair while his arms rest on Richie’s shoulders. (Yeah he was struggling since Richie was so much taller, but it was cute.)

“Can’t believe you wanna live with me.”

Eddie rolled his eyes, not wanting to debate, “well you better start fucking believing.”

“Thats not too hard,” Richie joked, kissing Eddie again. And again.

“We should get these boxes,” Eddie says dropping from his tip-toes and walking over to the pile of boxes left by the front of the door. “These are such a mess.”

“We’re gonna unpack them anyway!”

“Yeah, but its gonna be so hard to get everything!”

“Exactly, because we’re emptying the boxes.”

“You’re taking all of these to each room,” Eddie puts his hands up taking one of the smaller boxes and bringing them into the bedroom. Richie quickly slaps Eddie’s ass as he walks which earned him blush and glare from Eddie. That was a win in his book.

There wasn’t much in the bedroom yet. There was a queen-sized bed (Richie asked for a twin-sized mattress and told Eddie it was a joke; Eddie didn’t get it) an almost full closet (most of it being Eddie’s clothes, surprisingly), another table (though, neither wanted to call it that; Richie would call it table number three and that just rubbed off on Eddie) and two small tables on either side of the bed, Richie’s with a lamp and his book of Jokes, Reminders, Notes and Sex Positions (he called it his JRNSP. And, yes, Eddie constantly wondered if the sex positions part was a joke or if it was real. Whenever he would ask Richie would reply with, ‘really wanna find out?’ suggestively) and Eddie’s side having just a lamp.

Eddie set down a clock on his table. It was Stan's, originally, then given to Richie. Eddie still hasn’t met Stan, but from what he heard Stan is a really good person. He and Richie have known each other for years, as he Richie describes, they can be fairly different. But, he realizes, who really is like Richie? Which just made Eddie smile more, because he had him.

“Spagheds! Do you wanna paint this wall or not?” Richie called from the living room.

“Coming!” He called, setting the box down on the bed. The two had agreed to paint a wall that was horribly stained by… whatever that is. They think it was maybe a leak that stained the wall, but who really knows? “I’ll change first!”

“Can I watch?” Richie asks jokingly. Eddie ignored it. He slipped into an old shirt and a pair of shorts that he no longer wears, walking towards Richie. Richie, who was putting in yet another vinyl into his new phonograph (yes, Eddie finally learned what it was called) jokingly swaying his hips.

“What the fuck?” Eddie said, monotone.

“Eddie My Love.”

“Its- are you talking about me or is that the title?”

“Both,” Richie smiled slithering his hands around Eddie’s waist until his hands held themselves behind Eddie's back.

“We’re supposed to be painting a wall,” Eddie says despite his arms wrapping around Richie’s neck as he rests his head on Richie’s chest. (These are the times that Eddie is grateful that Richie doesn’t work out. He’s really soft.)

“We will. Later,” Richie says softly, kissing the top of Eddie’s hair, craning his neck down to touch his own chest to do so.

“Eddie my love, I love you so,” Richie softly sings along. His heart twists, what if Eddie didn’t want this? He didn’t want to rush anything again. He couldn’t. He doesn’t want to lose this.

“You okay Richie?” Eddie asks looking up at him, “you stopped moving for s bit.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” Richie smiled weakly, “Do you- do you want this? Is-is this weird to you?” he worriedly asks, loosening his grip on Eddie’s waist.

“This is. I like it,” Eddie fondly smiles, “why?”

“Nothing, we can keep dancing, if you want.”

“Yeah, that works for me,” Eddie says getting at the tips of his toes to kiss Richie’s lips.

#reddie #reddie fic #it #it chap one #it chap two #remembering sunday + the book ninja au #enjoy the last few chapters of your fluff yall #*evil laughter*

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princecupcakee · 4 years

Text

Park Bench | Reddie

Read on AO3

Rating: E

Pairing: Richie Tozier/Eddie Kaspbrak

Word Count: 2,969

Chapter: 5/8

Past Chapters: Chapter 1 (AO3), Chapter 2 (AO3), Chapter 3 (AO3), Chapter 4 (AO3)

Next Chapter:

Chapter 5: Richie Tozier And Eddie Kaspbrak Get A Turtle, Richie Tozier Plans A Proposal, Richie Tozier Goes Viral

(Ask if you wanna be on the tag-list!!)

Chapter 5

Richie Tozier And Eddie Kaspbrak Get A Turtle

“Look, if you don’t get me the papers before the end of this week, we will lose this client… yes, I know. I have a meeting with them at the end of this week…yes, I need them tomorrow, Karen… yes. Yes, thank you.” Eddie sighed and threw his head back on the couch. His last few days have been absolutely hectic, with one of their biggest clients yet, he’s barely been able to get a break.

“Eds!” Richie called, opening the door, “I’m back! Where are you?” He had gone out to see Walter and Maddison for a few hours while his parents were busy with his sister. He didn’t ask for more details.

“Yeah! I’m here!” Eddie tiredly calls.

Richie smiled weakened when he saw Eddie tiredly sprawled across the couch, “I got a gift for you.”

“What is it?” Eddie smiles, pulling his head back up.

Richie takes his hands away from behind his back and holds… a turtle. Richie’s eyes wide and bright, “look! I went to this restaurant across the street —don’t ask why— and found this little guy in a cage! It was ridiculous! I told them if I could have it and they just let me.”

“Why… why would you get me a turtle?” Eddie irritatedly asked.

“I thought-“

“Are you stupid? Richie, what are we supposed to do with a turtle? How are we supposed to take care of it?”

“We can go to the pet shop and-“

“Neither of us know how to take care of a turtle. Are you sure its even safe? W-we could get, like, Salmonella or something!”

“Eds.” Richie strictly said, his face showing no sign of anger, “it’ll be fun though. We can take care of it together, we can go to the pet store and get stuff- I’ll wash my hands after touching it every time.”

Eddie looked at the turtle skeptically, “fine,” he finally said. Richie’s smile came back and sat down beside Eddie who slightly moved away after. Ignoring the movement, Richie asks him, “what do we name it? We can name it, like, Pennywise.”

“What? No! That sounds horrible! That sounds like a- a fucking horror movie character or something!”

“That the name of the killer clown that you thought broke into Ben and Bev’s house and tried to kill you?” Richie snickered.

“Fuck you,” Eddie hisses with no real anger.

“Well, what names do you have?”

“Uh, I don’t know… Maturin.”

Richie gave him a look, “Okay, thats no better than mine!”

“Yes, it is!”

“No, no, no, you know what? Hold on,” Richie rambles, taking his phone from his pocket. Quickly typing something, Eddie gets a notification from his phone. Thinking its Karen (finally) giving him the papers early, he sighs and opens his phone. Karen is still definitely late with giving him the paperwork, but now Richie has created a group chat. Eddie was already fearful of what would come.

The Family - Ben Marsh, Beverly Marsh, Mike Hanlon, Bill Denbrough, Stan Uris, Richie Tozier, Eddie Kaspbrak

Stan: What the fuck is it this time, Richie.

Bev: Stan be nice

Richie: Yeah stan be nice

Richie could hear Eddie snicker beside him.

Richie: but anyway, me and Eddie are dads and we need a name for our child

Bev: how did this motherfucker get a kid

Bev: I thought it would be stan and patty first

Eddie: How did you get Mike and Bill’s numbers?

Richie: Nothing.

Stan: He’s lying, he never uses punctuation.

“Shit,” Richie murmured.

“How are you this bad at hiding things?”

Mike: He asked us what your favourite food was so he would know where to take you out on a date, Eddie.

Richie: nO

Richie waited for Eddie’s reaction, he assumed that Eddie wasn’t uncomfortable, seeing as there was a blush on his face.

Stan: Wait a minute. Mike Hanlon? Like, ‘first-ever-school-day-was-college’ Mike Hanlon?

Mike: Thats how you remember me?

“They know each other?” Richie says from beside Eddie.

“I think they were exes.”

“Really?”

“Thats what I remember” Eddie shrugged looking back down on his phone. He knew it was pretty stupid to be texting in a group chat while they sat together, but they did need that name. (Thats what Eddie tried to tell himself, if the true reason isn't obvious enough.)

Stan: Holy shit. Dude hey how’ve you been?

Mike: Pretty good actually.

Richie: GUYS WE’RE NAMING MY CHILD

Richie: HELLO!! PAY ATTENTION

Mike: I’m staying in LA for a while since they needed more people in this branch.

Mike: Thats also why Eddie and my boyfriend are here too.

Stan: Good for you, man. I’m assuming your boyfriend is Bill Denbrough because thats the only name I’m not familiar with.

Ben: You’re familiar with Eddie’s?

Richie: GUYS

Stan: Richie doesn’t know how to shut up.

Richie: DO YOU NOT CARE THAT I HAVE A CHILD NOW

“Richie, how are you still this annoying over text?”

“You love it.”

“I really don’t,” he laughs and shakes his head. He does.

Bev: Richie, if you did have a child I would know immediately.

Mike: Yeah it is :)

Richie: DAMN HETS LISTEN TO ME

Mike: not hetero

Bill: I’m not straight either

Richie: DAMN PEOPLE LISTEN TO ME

Stan: I’ve generally had enough.

Bev: Alright, Losers (not you Ben and Mike) we’re all getting lunch. Bring your ‘child’, Richie. We’ll name him there.

Richie Tozier changed the chat name to ‘The Losers’ Club’

With Bev sending the address of the restaurant “Our friends confuse me,” Eddie says shutting his phone.

~~~

“Meet my child!” Richie says loudly, earning a few looks from the others in the restaurant. He takes a seat in between Stan and Eddie grinning widely and presenting the currently unnamed turtle.

“Its-its a fucking turtle,” Stan says critically.

“His name is Penny-“

“No its not,” Eddie smiles as he cuts him off.

“What names do you guys have?” Ben asks politely, trying to bring back the lightness of the table before the two had walked in.

“Pennywise.”

“Maturin.”

The table spun with an agreement to Eddie’s name over Richie’s choice as Richie pouts in his seat. A waitress came to check for their orders, a confused look on her face once seeing the turtle perfectly still in Richie’s hands.

“Richie that name sounds like a child’s nightmare,” Bev jokes once the waitress has gone. Richie sticks his tongue out to her childishly.

“Maturin it is then?” Eddie laughs triumphantly.

“Where did you even get that name?” Richie asks bitterly. The rest of the group just laughs.

Eddie loved this. He really did. Everyone talking and enjoying and Eddie finally feeling like he hasn’t done anything wrong. They felt like family. The few people who he could talk to without causing any pain or problem. The few people who would let him be himself without having to feel like he was in a cage. He didn’t want to lose any of this. And from the smile on Richie’s face, he doesn’t think he will.

Richie Tozier Plans A Proposal

Some people would think he was crazy. He thought he was crazy. They were dating for just slightly more than three months and he was already planning, the date, the time, the place of when he would ask Eddie to marry him. ‘Old habits die hard’ Richie guesses as he sits alone in his bed, writing down the perfect ideas for asking Eddie.

Yeah, he rushed it with Connor, but even he knew that it wouldn’t last. That doesn’t really add up to his actions after the break up. But this was Eddie. Eddie loves him, right? He’s said so; that alone shows he isn’t anything like Connor. He couldn’t be wrong anymore, he didn’t want to have to latch on to Stan as he did before. He was nuisance while living at the Uris’, he admits that he knows he doesn’t have all the reason for it. He basically asked for it when he said, after what was supposed to be a one-night-stand, that he was dating Connor. That was on him.

But Eddie walked out of a concert with him, a stranger at the time, and let him walk him home after remembering that Connor left him at the same concert ground with the same band playing to have another one night stand with a girl. He went to one of his shows after knowing close to nothing about him other than his name when he was late to the first date he would’ve had since his horrible break up. He went to have breakfast with him at 5 in the morning when he cried about never being loved again the night before. He sat with him in the pouring rain after realising that he was in love. That he was in love, not that he was in love again.

He turns from his back to his stomach, reaching out for his phone. He debates on whether or not to call Bev or Stan, ‘both those bitches are married,’ he thinks. And calls both of them.

“What the fuck do you want I’m trying to make dinner,” Stan says tiredly, his voice sounding distant and the sound of crackling filling the empty parts on his end.

“Whats up, Rich?” Bev says nicely, shuffling.

“I, uh,” he didn’t think it would be that hard to say.

“Spit it out, Tozier, I might fuck up my pesto.”

“Oh shit, you got pesto? Uris Pesto is the best! Can I come over?” Richie says enthusiastically.

“No. Talk, Richie,” Stan says quickly. Beverly laughs in the background.

“I wanna ask Eddie to marry me,” Richie says softly, after a beat of silence.

“Thats it? You interrupted my cooking for this shit?”

“Its serious, man!”

Beverly sighs, “Richie, Eddie loves you. This is all on you though. If you think both of you are ready, then go for it. If you’re just… scared, then, I don’t think you should.”

“I-I’m not scared,” he says to himself more than them.

“You just love him?”

“Yeah.”

“He really isn’t like anyone else, huh?” Bev laughs.

“He really isn’t,” Richie smiles to himself.

“Then do it,” Stan says simply, “if you love him enough to marry him, to ask him to marry you, then that must be something, right?”

“Thanks,” Richie says, fondly, “help me buy the ring soon?"

“Of course, Richie. Now, when, where, and how?” Beverly giggles.

~~~

His notebook opens on the coffee table, leftovers, and a cup of coffee, he attempted to plan. A restaurant didn’t seem interesting to him, a casual proposal in their house wasn’t really fun, their house maybe? The bench. He grinned and jotted down the plan.

Richie Tozier Goes Viral

“Eds, where’s my charger?” Richie asked walking out their room.

“We’ve been dating for, what, four months? How do you still not know where I put our chargers?”

“You clean things too often, I specifically remember leaving it on the floor of my side of the bed.”

“Your blind ass would’ve stepped on it when you woke up. Your charger is in the drawer,” Eddie said and continued to eat his cereal. Richie kissed his hair and walked back to their room.

Eddie sighed. He loves Richie, he really does, but- “Eds, look at this,” Richie said excitedly almost tripping on his legs as he walked over to Eddie. Richie instinctively wrapped his arm around Eddie and showed his phone screen.

It took Eddie a moment to register what Richie was showing him, but when his thoughts hit him again he grinned, “holy shit, Rich! This is amazing!” Richie’s screen presented a video, Richie’s latest stand-up, posted online; millions of views.

“I know! And that’s not all of it,” Richie said taking his phone back to him and began to tap around, “Look!” Eddie carefully read the text on the screen, asking him to do a professional show, his grin somehow widening.

“Richie!”

“I know! And so many people are asking to be my agent and shit, and- oh fuck, baby, you gotta help me out with all this shit,” he rambles excitedly, hand gestures to try to emphasise whatever point he was trying to get across.

“Of course!” Eddie laughed to slightly lessen his energy as he stood up and kissed Richie. Richie gladly kissed back, lifting Eddie off the ground for a few seconds.

“I love you,” Richie said, forehead against Eddie’s. Richie’s phone rang loudly from his hand and they both looked at the screen and saw ‘Mrs. Molly Ringwald’

“Really?” Eddie asks sarcastically as he pulls the phone from Richie’s hands. He kisses him on the cheek and answers the call on speaker. “Hey, Bev.”

“Oh my god, did you hear about Richie! Is he asleep? I swear the little shit will be late to your own wedding-“

“I’m right here, Bev!” Richie says loudly into the phone.

“Oh. Sorry. But anyway, you heard the news! I’m so proud of you, Rich!”

“Thank you!”

“We heard the news from Bill! He has all these Hollywood connections from his books —honestly don’t know why he won’t just do that instead, no offence Eddie— and he said that you might be getting a… professional show, is it?”

“Yeah! Bill’s a writer?”

“He has some books and actually gets some good money out of it," Eddie muttered the next part,” he might get more if he wrote better endings.”

“Okay anyway, so proud of you, Rich!” Beverly congratulates again after laughing.

~~~

So as they sit in Richie’s small apartment sofa, with his hands on Eddie’s waist and Eddie’s fingers curled around in Richie’s tangled hair, he lets himself enjoy it. Richie’s arms roam under Eddie’s shirt; one hand pressed on his back and the other rubbing circles around his nipple. Eddie lets out little moans, that surge of energy through him that he didn’t even think was possible. “Are you okay?” Richie asks.

Eddie was confused at first, still needing Richie to touch him. He noticed the pounding in his chest after a few seconds mumbling a breathy ‘I’m fine,’ and goes back to kissing Richie. Of course, a few seconds later he realises why. ‘Push them away, Kaspbrak.’

Richie lightly tugs at the bottom of Eddie shirt, Eddie quickly getting the message and raising his arms up. Richie instantly pushes Eddie’s back onto the sofa after taking his shirt off; his hands tracing every part of Eddie’s bare chest.

Eddie remembers the feeling, of being touched like this, not with Myra. Being touched in a house that wasn’t his and a bed that he wasn’t supposed to be on. But Eddie loved every second of it. Sure there was the guilt, the guilt of having a wife back home thinking he’s out late for work or out with a friend, but the feeling of it was just so good. Eddie thinks he should stop using the word ‘good’ so much but it seemed to be the only way he could describe this odd sensation in words.

Richie was pulling off his pants little by little, struggling to get them off and still keep his mouth around Eddie’s chest. The moment Richie got them off he instantly moved down to Eddie’s legs. Spreading and licking and biting at the inner side of Eddie’s thighs until they left deep marks on Eddie’s skin while his dick would twitch. “Richie take your clothes off,” he mumbled pulling at Richie’s hair in between moans.

“I’m not as pretty as you, baby, but okay,” he laughed, pulling his shirt off and kissing Eddie roughly. Eddie wanted tot protest about Richie’s statement but Eddie pulled Richie by his hair instead. Richie wanted to make a joke about it but was quickly distracted by Eddie grinding against his leg that was in between Eddie’s thighs. Richie bit down on Eddie’s neck, “don’t move, I got it,” he whispered in his ear.

Richie licked at the front of Eddie’s underwear; Eddie bucking his hips up. “I told you, don’t move,” Richie said again, pulling down Eddie’s underwear. Eddie felt cold, but Richie spreading his legs further, and his tongue teased at Eddie’s hole as he whines. Richie giggles slightly pushing his tongue in and gripping at Eddie’s thighs. His thumbs softly rub at the inner side of his thighs, feeling little bumps on the places he had sunk his teeth into only minutes earlier, he pushed his tongue in and out of Eddie’s hole. Richie pushed one finger in first, slowly adding more digits as his tongue kept moving. His tongue and fingers alternated like that for a while, at the same time he was getting hard from the noises Eddie makes.

“Richie!” Eddie shouted. Smirking, Richie aimed for his prostate over and over as Eddie’s moans grew louder and louder. Eddie’s hands had moved down to his dick, moving has a hand at a quick pace. One last strong push from Richie’s tongue or fingers (Eddie was too busy to tell) Eddie shrieked and let out more than he has in a while. Most of it had gotten on Richie’s hair some trailing down his face. “Fuck,” Eddie throws his head back against the sofa as Richie moves up to his chest again. Head resting on Eddie’s chest and kissing his nipple, his hands quickly move down to his own dick and moved. Eddie smiled, holding Richie’s face in his hands and kissing his lips. Richie pulled away and moaned as he came. “Holy shit,” Richie mumbled forehead resting against Eddie’s as he laughed, “Wow. Been a long fucking time.”

“I know,” Eddie agreed. Despite the anxious feeling bubbling up inside him. Richie didn’t ask.

#reddie #reddie fic #it #it chap one #it chap two #remembering sunday + the book ninja au #listen this is just a filler #I didnt like this that much honestly #the next chapter is where it starts

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