The next morning, Richie woke up first. He woke up on the opposite side of the bed as Eddie, and his first thought was that it was all a dream, since he couldn't feel him; but then he looked over at Eddie, who was sleeping peacefully on the other side of the bed, soft snores coming out of him.

Richie smiled, wanting so badly to just hug him as tight as possible and nearly squeeze him to death, as he felt overwhelmed with happiness that Eddie was a person that actually existed even though he was a perfect angel - which he thought was impossible - who was the love of his life, and Richie hoped that Eddie also thought of Richie as the love of his life.

Richie snuck out of bed, wanting to make their first official day reunited, special. Over time, as his parents began to distance themselves more often and not be home, he's learned how to somewhat cook. He needed to keep himself alive somehow. He's learned pancakes, eggs, and some more breakfast foods that were actually pretty easy. He felt pretty insecure though, he thought his food was good but what if Eddie doesn't like it and just lies and says he does?

Richie decided to push those thoughts aside and try to think of what to make Eddie.

He remembered Eddie saying, before they got separated, that he loved blueberry pancakes. But it's been years, so Eddie's favorite food changed, right?

Richie decided to try to shut himself up and just make the food, he's overthinking things too much.

"Shit, you scared me!" Eddie said, causing richie to jump back and look to see who made the noise. He looked at Eddie and couldn't help himself from smiling.

"You scared me!" Richie said, turning off the stove as the food was done anyway. "I made you breakfast." He said, putting two pancakes on a plate and grabbing the syrup from his fridge.

"Thank you 'Chee, you didn't have to. Though, I am starving." He said, wrapping his arms around Richie and resting his head on his shoulder for a few seconds. Richie kissed the top of his head before pulling away and grabbing the plate and syrup.

"It's our first official day reunited so I wanted it to be special somehow." Richie said, grabbing his own pancakes and walking to the old kitchen table that was never used, since Richie always ate in his room.

He sat across from Eddie and grabbed the syrup, putting some on his pancakes and taking a bite.

"Damn Rich, where'd you learn how to cook?" Eddie asked, devouring his pancakes and practically moaning because of how good they were.

"Self taught." Richie replied, taking a bite. Eddie just nodded, almost finished with his food already.

"So, it's nearly noon.. what time do you want to meet my friends? And what about the losers? They don't know I'm back yet, do they?" Eddie asked, curious about how the day would fold out.

"Well, to be honest, over time, the losers kind of drifted.. like we're all still friends and we hang out sometimes but just not as much as we used to." Richie said with sadness in his voice. "And yeah, maybe we can go down to the hotel where your friends are. I can drive us."

"Oh.. that's sad. I miss them a lot, I hope I'm able to see them all again." Eddie said sadly, about to continue with "before I leave" but not wanting to talk about it yet.

-

"Here, this is the hotel." Eddie said, pointing ahead of them to the left. They both got dressed and changed out of their pajamas after eating, Eddie was wearing some of richies clothes, since all of his were at the hotel. Richie wore dark blue jeans and a pastel yellow T-shirt. Richie just nodded and turned into the parking lot, getting out of the car.

"I'm kind of nervous right now Eds, my hands are sweating and I feel sick." Richie said, reaching over to hold Eddie's hand, who almost pulled away, because they were in fact very sweaty, but he realized that it would help calm him down, so he held his hand anyway.

"What are you so worried about?" Eddie asked, turning to him and standing in front of their car, leaning against the hood of it.

"What if they're all pretty and attractive and shit and I look homeless and gross?" Richie asked, running his fingers through his curly hair trying to fix it somehow. He looked down at his outfit and sighed, thinking to himself: why didn't I put more effort into this?

"You look fine Richie, they won't judge you. I think you look great." Eddie said, grabbing his other hand. "Calm down." He said, looking up at him and swinging their arms back and forth to try to cheer him up. Richie sighed and let go of his hands so they could walk inside.

Eddie led him up to their hotel room, opening up the door and walking inside, Richie stayed behind Eddie in an attempt to stay hidden. There was just a tiny doorway, to the left was the bathroom- and then it would open up to the two rooms with beds. Two queen size beds in one room and then a doorway leading to another room, but the door was open.

"Hey guys." Eddie said, Richie peaked from behind him - even though he wasn't hidden at all since he was much taller than him - at who was in the room. As far as he could see from the hallway still, not seeing the full room, there were two girls. One had long red hair and the other had short curly brown hair.

"Jeez Eddie! It's noon; I was worried about you." a boy said, then he came into view to give Eddie a quick hug, before making eye contact with Richie and pulling away.

"Holy shit!" The boy said. "Damn, so you're my long lost cousin huh?"

"Yeah, that's Richie. He wanted to come meet everyone." Eddie said, grabbing Richies hand gently and giving him a look as to say, "you're okay." before gently pulling him forward so he was in everyone's view.

"Yep, that's me." Richie said, awkwardly laughing and looking at everyone in the room. Richie didn't care all that much about meeting Mike, or atleast he wasn't as eager as he was last night, as he figured he would just be another family member that didn't really care about him. Mike, on the other hand, was fascinated with this person who literally could be mistaken for his twin. They just looked like opposites in a way, one had curly hair, one had straight. One was neat, one was messy.

"Oh hey Richie! We've heard a lot about you." Will said, walking up to him. He didn't hug him, because that's too personal and weird and Richie seemed more of a "don't-touch-me-please-unless-I-want-you-to" kinda guy; and he didn't shake his hand, because that's too awkward. Instead, he just leaned against the wall next to Mike and across from Richie and Eddie.

"Wow, you two really do look alike." Will said, his eyes widening at the similarities. Richie chuckled, squeezing Eddie's hand and leaning into him slightly. Their hands were behind them, hidden away. "Also, hi, I'm Will." Richie waved and smiled at him.

"Alrighty, anyways," Eddie said, moving forward a little. Max and El had come inside from sitting on the balcony and everyone else was just chilling on the beds watching TV or doing whatever. They waved or smiled at Richie as he looked around the room, taking in all the new people that he's never seen before. None of them were that interested in meeting Richie, as they barely knew anything about him and were mainly here just to take a vacation to somewhere new.

"That's El and Max." Eddie said, pointing to them. El just stayed put and smiled slightly uncomfortably, and Max got up from her spot to come properly introduce herself.

"Hey, I'm Max." She said, waving at him.

"Yeah, I know." Richie said, since Eddie just said so, but then he realized that that could've been rude, so he corrected himself. "I mean, hi, I'm Richie." He said.

"Yeah, I know." She said nicely, winking and smiling at him to let him know she was just joking around.

"And that's Lucas and Dustin." Eddie said, pointing to the bed where they were sitting and watching TV. He just wanted to get this stupid introduction part over with because he knew that Richie felt awkward. Dustin gave him a wide, toothless grin and Lucas just waved.

"We also have Steve, but I'm guessing he went out somewhere." Eddie questioned, looking at Mike for an answer.

"Yeah, he just went out to go on a run or whatever." Mike said, nodding and wrapping his arm around Will who was leaning against him.

"Ah okay, so anyways.. what do you guys want to do? Richie and I were going to try to contact our friends so we could all hang out and meet up." Eddie said. Swinging his and Richie's hand back and forth.

"Well I mean I'm sure you want to see them, why don't you go hang out with them for now and then we can meet them later or tomorrow? instead of us just all popping up at once and it being weird." Mike suggested.

Eddie looked up at Richie for his opinion.

"Yeah we can do that, should we go now, Eds?" Richie asked.

"Yeah sure, we'll see ya guys later." Eddie said, waving at Mike who was pointing at Richie and Eddie's intertwined hands and wiggling his eyebrows, smirking. Richie didn't notice this, as he had turned towards the door already, ready to leave.

"Shut up!" Eddie mouthed, but not being able to take the smile off his face. He sighed and turned around to the door, opening it and leaving.

As they were walking through the hotel hallway, Richie hugged eddie from the side and put his head on top of Eddie's, wrapping his arm around his chest area. Eddie brought his hands up to hold Richies arm and leaned into Richie.

"I love you Richie." Eddie said, smiling widely, overwhelmed with happiness.

"I love you too." Richie replied, kissing his head before letting him go. "So who shall we find first?" Richie asked him.

"Hmm.., what about Stan? I miss him a lot, I was closest to him out of everyone, besides you, of course." Eddie said, smiling at the memories of Stan and how sassy he always was.

"Alrighty, away we go! To Stan's house!" Richie exclaimed, running and jumping up to see if his finger tips would reach the ceiling. They didn't, which made Eddie laugh and speed walk to catch up to him. "Hey, that was close though."

Eddie just rolled his eyes.

-

They went to each and every persons house, each one being happy to see Eddie again. Eddie talked to each person, explaining where he went off to and how he came back, etc. They all pretty much reintroduced themselves to Eddie.

Just like how Richie changed by his hair going from straight to curly, his face becoming more defined and his body becoming taller and skinnier, everyone else had changed aswell.

They decided to go to the quarry and go swimming, just like they did after they fought Pennywise when they were 12.

They were all swimming together and relaxing in the water when the question that Eddie's been dreading was finally asked.

"So, are you staying here, or? When do you go back?" asked Mike, who also become taller, he gained some muscle to him and that was pretty much the only thing that changed about him.

"Oh yeah Eddie, I didn't even think about that." said Beverly with a sad tone to her voice. Her freckles were darker now that it was summer but the biggest difference about her was her hair, that was much shorter than the long ponytail she had at 12 years old. Her hair was short, not even to her shoulders. It was curly, and very pretty, though. Eddie also noticed she was more quiet and reserved now. He also couldn't help but notice that she smelled like cigarettes now, but he knew that things were rough at home. He knew that most likely, nothing changed from how they were when they were twelve, so he didn't mention it.

He noticed that Bill's stutter was pretty much gone. Ben became taller and he lost some weight. And he noticed that Stan seemed quieter than usual and just sad. He wondered if Stan was depressed, or maybe he forgot about Eddie and couldn't really remember who he was, and he felt bad about it.

He looked at Richie, who was staring back at him with slight sadness and a look of realization in his eyes that Eddie would be leaving him, again.

"Well, we're only here for a week.." Eddie said, pausing and swimming closer to Richie. They were all basically just floating in a circle. "But as soon as I turn eighteen and can move out, I want to move back here and be with you guys." Eddie said.

Eddie looked at Richie, who seemed to be almost crying, which broke Eddie's heart. "I didn't know you were leaving." He said, swimming back to land and drying himself off. Eddie swam after him and the other losers stayed put in the water. It wasn't anything really dramatic, more of Richie saying "come on Eds let's go talk about this somewhere more private."

"Richie," He said, reaching him and holding both of his hands. "Can I explain?" Eddie asked, beginning to dry himself off as well.

They both dried their shorts as much as they could and then put dry shirts on. Richie nodded and began walking to the car, avoiding Eddie's eyes as he felt he would start crying if he looked at him.

Eddie got in the passenger seat and faced Richie who was staring forward with no expression on his face.

"I didn't want to say anything yet, I was obviously going to tell you. But I'm leaving at the end of the week. But hey, I'll be coming back as soon as I can.. and I can go to Mike's house whenever I want, I can call you from his phone like every day, probably, since my mom won't let me and she'll find out if I do." Eddie said, reaching over and grabbing his hand that was gripping the steering wheel, even though they weren't driving, Richie closed his eyes and sighed, leaning back against the car seat. His breathing was shaky.

"And we're seventeen now. Just one more shitty year and then we can find a way to be together again. I know that only being able to call eachother is going to suck.. but it's the only option. And atleast its better than not seeing or talking to eachother at all. We can do this." Eddie said, rubbing his thumb across Richie's hand.

"I-I know. I just, I just lost you once already, and I don't want to lose you again, you know? I thought I finally had you back and now you're leaving again." Richie said, trying to steady his breathing and stop himself from crying. 

"Maybe we could call each other and maybe send letters or something. You can only call from Mike's house?" Richie asked, Eddie nodded.

"Yeah, my mom would find out if I tried calling from my house and she'd kill me and the same thing would happen all over again. But mike and I are pretty good friends.. I'll go to his house as much as I can and I'll call you from his phone, I don't think he'll care. And sure, we can send letters." Eddie said, trying to make Richie happy.

"You're not going to replace me with Mike, right?" Richie asked, smiling and slightly laughing since he was joking, but he genuinely wanted to know.

"Bub, he's hella gay for Will. And I could never replace you." Eddie said, laughing and leaning forward to rest his head on Richie's shoulder.

"I knew something was going on between them!" He exclaimed, recalling earlier when he saw them.

"Wanna take a walk or something?" Eddie asked, lifting his head up to look at Richie's face. He looked back and forth between his eyes and his lips, wanting to kiss him but not wanting to risk the others seeing them, even though they probably already knew that there was something going on.

"Sure, let's go." Richie said, getting out of the car and beginning to walk through a path in the woods.

"So does Henry Bowers still roam 'round here?" Eddie asked, scared of what would happen if he ran into him.

"Yeah, but, he's gotten better.. I guess. He doesn't really torment people anymore, then again.. he's almost 20, so, I guess he finally grew up." Richie said.

"I forgot that we're not little preteens anymore and we're almost adults now. That's crazy." Eddie said, kicking a rock and keeping up with Richie who was naturally a fast walker. They were silent for a few minutes before Richie spoke up.

"Would you ever want to move in together or something? What even are we? You left in the middle or us dating and we kissed the first day you came back. Did you date anyone while you were gone? I didn't." Richie asked.

"Richie, I'd love to move in together someday. And no, I never dated anyone else. I thought about you every single day so it was impossible to even try to move on."

"Yeah me too, I put a picture of us together on my night stand." Richie said, remembering the day he set it up.

"Yeah, I saw it. I remember that day." Eddie said, laughing.

Richie stopped him in the middle of the path, reaching out to hold both of his hands again, and kneeling down on one knee. "Edward Kaspbrak, will you officially become my boyfriend?" Richie asked.

"I thought you were actually proposing for a second and I seriously didn't know what to do, but yes, I will be your boyfriend again even though we never really broke up." Eddie said, pecking his lips.

"What would you say if I did propose?"

"Yes, obviously." Eddie said, as if it were obvious and not a big deal. Richie, on the other hand, did think it was a big deal and was actually even slightly shocked.

"Wait, really?" Richie asked, stopping him again in the middle of the path.

"Are you really questioning me right now? Richie, I'm in love with you. I'd definitely marry you one day. I'd marry you right now if you asked me." Eddie said, raising his eyebrows and talking quickly, one thing that hasn't changed about him.

Richie leaned down and connected their lips again, putting both of his hands on either side of his face. The kiss lasted for just a few seconds, it was the only thing Richie could think to do in that moment.

"I'm in love with you, too." Richie said when they pulled away. "I seriously can't even express how happy I am right now, like I can't put it in words and I don't know what to do with myself. I can't believe you, Eddie Kaspbrak, are here and alive and even a real person. And you love me? Out of all people? Even after years of teasing you when we were younger? Even after being away from me for four years, you still didn't find anyone you thought was better than me? I'm actually shocked and amazed." Richie exclaimed as they continued walking.

"Oh, shut up." Eddie responded to Richie basically insulting himself, but laughing.

"I can't wait till we're even older. After we turn 18, after a year of being separated again, we can meet up again and move in together someday. We could even get a dog, I've always wanted one. And one day, in like ten years, we could have a cute little baby. He could have  golden brown eyes, like yours. Not dark brown, like my ugly ones-" Richie said, but getting cut off.

"Your eyes are mesmerizing, 'Chee. Don't say that. Anyways, continue, I love when you talk like this." Eddie giggled.

"And he could have freckles and brown curly hair, just like us. Wow, we're really similar. That's crazy. We have like, the same features, that's weird, but whatever. Anyways, maybe we'll have a little girl, that would be cute. Imagine how much fun Beverly would have with her, she could be like her aunty. I can't wait for this all to happen. I can't wait to have a future with you someday." Richie said, looking down at Eddie who smiled and swung their hands back and forth, continuing to walk.

"Are you as excited as I am?" Richie asked, getting slightly worried that Eddie didn't want this and this was just Richie's dream, not his.

"Hell yeah! I just didn't say anything because I love hearing you talk. It would be cute to have a little girl but like, we don't know how to do girly things, like what do girls do? You're right, Beverly would have to help her. Maybe Max and El will still be around in our future and they could do girly things with her. I could already picture it, them taking her out to get their hair, nails, and makeup done. Our daughter will come home looking like a whole new person. Anyways, it would be cute to have a cute little apartment or like a house out in a brand new area, in a small town or like out in the woods. We could have a cute backyard and have bonfires and make s'mores. I can't wait. Also, can you imagine the amount or dad jokes our daughter would have to deal with? Jesus." Eddie said, causing Richie to laugh.

"I'm excited to spend the rest of my life with you." Eddie concluded, and Richie agreed, continuing to walk with him hand in hand down the random path in the middle of the woods.

The end

i hope you liked it!! this took so much time lmao but i finally finished it. let me know what you thought about it.

also i really loved writing this because i really do think that eddie and richie are completely in love with eachother despite all the teasing and the jokes and the eye rolling 💘💗💓💝💕

next oneshot at 550 reads :))

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