Richie never really understood Eddie’s germaphobe habits, but he never made a fuss about it, always supportive, jokingly or seriously. He didn’t realize just how supportive he was being until he accidentally picked up a few habits from the germaphobe, and found himself freaking out over getting tetanus after accidentally cutting himself on the rusted edge of an arcade game.
His first thought was how the fuck did the stupid game get exposed to water to the point it rusted over, and his second thought was his immediate peril. He stared at his bleeding hand for a few moments before darting to Bev and Ben, who were currently playing PAC-MAN together.
“Guys. Guys. Guys.”
“What?”
“I cut my hand.” This brought forth Ben’s attention.
“On what man? We’re in an arcade.”
“I know! The game was rusted. I’m gonna get tetanus.”
“Richie, you sound like Eddie.” Richie’s mouth opened and then shut, turning on Bev. Bev didn’t even look at him. “And you’ll be fine man. After what happened with ole clown boy I think our immune systems are invincible.” Richie wasn’t convinced by this information, scanning the arcade and rushing up to Eddie and Stanley, who were sat on a bench and clearly didn’t care for arcade games.
“Spaghetti, I cut my hand,” Richie informed instantly, and Eddie stood fast, hand already on the zipper of his Fanny pack. Richie caught Stan’s eyes roll at Eddie’s quickness, but ignored it.
“On what?” Eddie asked as he unzipped his pack.
“Rusty corner of an arcade game,” Richie admitted, watching Eddie scowl in disgust before taking Richie’s hand in his. Richie flushed red at the contact, but was quickly diverted from this by a searing pain shooting through his hand; Eddie had poured a little hydrogen peroxide on the wound.
“Holy shit, Eds!” Richie blurted.
“You’re fine!” Eddie returned, pulling out a little tube of antibacterial cream, lathering some onto his finger and gently coating Richie’s cut. Richie bit on his lip, the flush returning at how gentle Eddie was now treating him. Eddie wrapped his hand softly, gentle with the brunet.
Eddie then scowled at the feel of the thick cream, and Richie didn’t think before grabbing Eddie’s hand and wiping the finger on his own shorts.
“Ew, Rich, now your shorts are dirty,” Eddie complained, and Richie shrugged, grinning.
“Not as Dirty As they’re gonna be tonight,” Richie joked, and Eddie shoved him in the chest.
“Beep beep, Rich.” Richie giggled a little before glancing over his hand.
“Thanks Eddie.” Eddie gave a smile and nodded.
“Kiss already damn,” Bev complained, elbowing Richie. Richie turned a bright shade of red, turning on Bev.
“Ew, gross, Bev,” Eddie said, and Richie felt like a bus just ran over his internal organs. Multiple eyes flashed to Richie as Eddie looked down to reorganize his items in his Fanny pack.
Richie recovered quickly.
“Chip chip and cheerio, mates, lets get this show on the road,” Richie covered, forcing some British accent and tugging his friends out of the arcade. “We have places to see, adventures to have!”
“Richie, chill,” Ben laughed, but Stanley elbowed him, wanting Richie to cope in the only way he knew how to. Stan didn’t really think it was healthy to pretend to be someone else whenever something went wrong, but it’s how Richie dealt, and Stanley wasn’t going to stop that by any means.
“You’re a dork,” Bev laughed. Richie forced a grin, climbing on his bike.
“We need to wait for M-Mike, he said he’d m-m-meet us at the arcade,” Bill interrupted, sitting on a bench. Richie blinked at Bill as if asking if he was being serious.
“Me mum wants me home,” Richie lied, accent shifting to more Scottish than British. Stanley knew it was a lie, and Eddie knew it was a lie.
“Bullshit, your mom yelled at you to stay out of the house until after the lights came on if you were gonna act that way,” Eddie said, and Richie gave Eddie a look, pursing his lips.
Richie leaned back on his bike seat, not responding. It was uncomfortable.
“Alright then. I say we go to the library after Mike gets here.”
“No one wants to go to the fucking library, Ben,” Eddie said, squinting. Ben raised his hands in defense. Richie picked absently at his bike handle, not at all focused on his surroundings.
“The library is cool, I need to catch up on my summer project for my honors class anyways,” Stan sighed, and Eddie turned on him.
“Staaaan. Seriously?”
“Yep.”
—
Eddie thought he was going to keel over and die. This was horrid. Sitting here and watching Stan and Ben do their little research projects while Mike and Bill were huddled around some book was tragic.
After about half an hour of playing paper football with a makeshift goal he made with pencils, he grew bored again, standing and deciding he was going to search for Richie. The bespectacled teen had disappeared not even five minutes into the library visit.
He was about to call for him before remembering the library, and the fact they were very much not alone.
About two minutes later, he found Richie in the kids section, running his fingers along the spines of books.
“I’m bored,” Eddie said, crossing his arms. Richie spared him a glance before looking back at the books. Eddie squinted a bit. “Did I do something?” Richie turned, shaking his head.
“Nah. Nah. And me too, dude,” Richie covered quickly, but Eddie wasn’t stupid. He let Richie talk in some stupid voice as they walked, recapping the recent events.
Then it clicked. Eddie stopped, and Richie walked for a moment before stopping.
“Eds?”
“Do you want me to kiss you?” Eddie asked and Richie’s eyes blew wide. His face turned all shades of red.
“Uh- wha-what are you talking about?”
“You’re upset because I said it would be gross for us to kiss. Do you want me to?” Richie and Eddie stared at each other. Richie turned his chin into his shoulder.
“Not if you think it’s gross,” Richie mumbled, staring at some random title.
“Rich I didn’t-” Richie shook his head, gnawing on his bottom lip.
“You don’t have to pretend to want to kiss me to make-" Eddie shoved Richie up against a wall of books, shoving his lips against Richie’s. Richie stiffened, eyes wide. Eddie tugged away.
“I’m not fucking pretending,” Eddie snarked, “now, are you going to kiss me back or keep sulking in the kids section of the library?” Richie flushed bright red, but when Eddie pressed his lips on Richie’s, he kissed back this time, tilting his head a little.
“No fucking way you two are doing this in a library,” Bev said, and Eddie didn’t yank away like Richie thought he would. Eddie pulled back, rolling his eyes at Bev.
“Don’t complain you told us to kiss,” Eddie said, wiping wetness off his lips as he released Richie. Richie was flushed bright red as he used the edge of his shirt to dry his mouth.
“Oh whatever, Eds,” Bev laughed and Eddie glanced at Richie, who seemed still starstruck by the previous events. “You broke him, Eddie.”
“Beverly,” Eddie complained, waving her off. Bev snickered and raised her hands in defense before walking off.
Eddie turned to Richie, who’s face now seemed unsure, and anxious.
“Eddie, did- did you just kiss me to shut me up?” Eddie stared. “Or- or like- get me to stop being upset?”
“I said gross because I thought you’d think it was gross,” Eddie said, and Richie shook his head a little. “Kiss me. You Kiss me this time.” Richie stared, seemingly excited to be able to kiss Eddie again.
“Are- Are you sure?” Eddie nodded, watching Richie freak out a little bit. Richie forced himself not to hop in place slightly at the concept before hesitantly sliding his hands to rest on Eddie’s hip, pulling the shorter closer. Eddie closed his eyes and Richie huffed out an anxious breath before latching his lips onto Eddie’s, eyes clenching.
Eddie still led him, hand reaching to frame Richie’s chin, tilting him a certain way. Richie melted into it.
“I think we should stop,” Eddie heaved as he pulled away, thumb rubbing against Richie’s cheek as he stared, clearly not wanting to himself.
“Why,” Richie nearly whined, pushing to kiss him again. Eddie pulled away.
“Because we live in Derry, Maine, Rich.” Richie weighed this in his head as Eddie corrected his appearance. He nearly jumped as Richie placed a kiss on Eddie’s cheek.
“So?”
“So, we live in a very unsafe place for us to be doing this in public,” Eddie said, raising his brows. Richie sighed, hanging his head to the side.
“So?”
“Beep beep Richie.”
“I didn’t even do anything!”
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