"Stop being such a dick, Rich, you'll scare the birds away!" Stan complained, while Richie muffled his own giggles with his hand, failing at the simple task of: not scaring the birds away.

Birds weren't his thing. If anything, he barely believes birds were actual animals. It sounded ridiculous, but a part of him truly believed that those tiny flying things were super advanced robots designed by the government to spy on people.

Richie found it funny how that backfired. What was supposed to be a spying mechanism was being spied by the same people it was supposed to watch over.

"Look what you've done!" Stan sighed, sitting on the ground, "You've scared all of them away with your stupid laughter."

"You should be glad they left before they pooped on your head," he chuckled, sitting next to Stan.

"I watch them all the time, they never pooped on my head," the boy replied offended.

"You know what that means? They recognized you as their king. All hail the bird king!" Richie yelled, before getting punched in the arm by his friend.

"What do you want to talk about?"

"What do you mean?"

"You don't think I believe you wanted to come birdwatching, do you? You wanted to talk to me about something, what is it?"

"I didn't sleep. At all," he whispered defeated, "I just couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about him."

"I don't know how to help you, really," Stan gave him a sympathetic look. Richie hated when people looked at him with pity, but Stan had a different way of looking at people he thought were suffering. Stanley knew exactly how to comfort anyone without even saying a word.

"Tell me about Bill," Rich suggested.

"Bill is great, I think," he mumbled, "I'm not sure, really. We're not talking, just the two of us, you know."

"You should talk to him."

"Probably," he shrugged, "But I don't think I will. He seems happy with Mike. He works better with Mike. I think they're happier with each other, and it should remain that way."

"Dude, you're too mature, it's not even funny. You sound like some seventy years-old guy who has been to war, and seen things," Richie joked.

"Don't stress too much about Eddie, alright?"

"I'm not stressing about it."

"Let's get going. You already scared all the birds, anyway," he giggled, standing up.

"You go. I'll stay here for a little while. I want to think."

"Don't overthink," he smiled softly, "I'll call you later. Bye."

Richie didn't overthink. Truthfully, he barely thought. He simply sat there, feeling the pointy grass beneath his hands. Glancing at the tall trees that made him feel so small.

He didn't know for how long he stood there, but it cleared his mind. He was at ease, even if all his problems were still there.

However, when he saw a tiny Eddie Kaspbrak sitting at the stairs that lead to the porch of his house, with his hands on his knees, and his head on his hands, all that calmness washed away.

"Eds!" He shouted, running towards the boy, who looked up to face him. "What you doing here? How long you've been here?"

"I just got here. I was waiting for you," Eddie answered reluctantly.

"Why?"

"I don't know," he mumbled, "I guess... It's been a while since we haven't hung out, so maybe... I don't know," he shrugged.

"You wanna hang out with me?" He couldn't hold the sparks in his eyes, so he pretended to let his glasses fall for a few seconds, he needed sometime to recompose himself, although, he just couldn't.

"Yeah, what's the fucking surprise, dipshit?" Eddie made a face, crossing his arms. "We're friends, aren't we?"

"Yeah," Richie grinned, "You wanna hang out now?"

"No, I haven't even have breakfast yet."

"What? Why?"

"I left my house to grab new medicine for my mom at the pharmacy, and..."

"But the pharmacy opened like forty minutes ago," Rich narrowed his eyes. He knew Mrs. K well enough to know she would have sent Eddie out to grab it as early as he possibly could.

"I overslept," he quickly shot back.

"Ok," Tozier answered, he didn't believe Eddie was telling him the whole truth, but it wasn't worth it to push him any further, "Wanna eat breakfast here? I mean, I have plenty of stuff."

"My mom would get mad at me."

"Tell her you were with Ben. She likes Ben, doesn't she?" He adjusted his glasses.

"She does," Eds smiled weakly.

"Come on, I'll fix you something."

They sat at the kitchen, as Eds searched the fridge for something that didn't attack his long list of allergies. When he finally found something, he sat in front of Richie at the table.

Truth was, whenever the two were by themselves, Richie had little to no idea of how to act. He could easily play it off when the others were around, because he didn't have to focus on his behavior, however, with Eddie alone, he had to be careful with every move. 

He would rather die than have Eddie ever know who he was deep down, and, even worse, how he felt.

"Why are you up so early?" Eds asked, forcing Richie out of his eternal silence.

"I was out with Stan."

"Isn't it too early?" He narrowed his eyes.

"You are here, and it's pretty fucking early. What's wrong with that?" Richie blinked confused.

"What I mean is, why did you wake up so early? You never wake up early, Rich."

"I woke up to go out with Stan," he insisted, not understanding where the small boy eating cereal in front of him wanted that conversation to go.

"Oh," he seemed surprise, and Richie hated it.

He couldn't fully understand what his friend was trying to implicate, or what type of answer was expected, but it made him tilt his head, and bite his nails as he watched Kaspbrak finish his bowl of cereal.

**************

Eddie's playing dumb. He's that bitch, and that's the only truth I know.
I haven't updated cuz I've actually been in a trip to Colombia, so that's the reason why!
anyways, hope you still like this fanfic.
Hope you enjoyed it, leave a comment (for real, u guys never comment, it upsets me a little), and a vote!!
Love,
Liv💗