DECENT (richie tozier + reader)

026

➶ baby, i'm yours – barbara lewis ➶

"hey, doll." richie waves his hand at her, jumping and grinning, as she carefully skates towards the losers, avoiding to run over some kids on the street. "watch me!" he held up the brass instrument from a band member of the parade, in which he "borrowed" to show her that he can play.

y/n started laughing when richie blow his lips on the mouth piece of the instrument, creating a not–so–pleasant noise as he presses his fingers randomly on the valve. she stands beside eddie with two cones of ice cream on both of his hands, clearly annoyed and amused of what was richie doing. they couldn't contain their giggles when the guy's trying to take the trumpet back.

"what the fuck dude?" richie held up his hand as he let go of it.

"you're being an idiot, richie." y/n shakes her head as he walks towards the two.

"remember when i told you i thought angels only fly but then i saw one running on the street then show up the other day lookin' like baby houseman and now, she could pull off a grunge chick outfit." he rambles, squeezing the girl's cheeks. y/n wasn't sure if she understood what he meant. "could you be any more hotter?"

"well, i came straight out of hell." y/n pull his hands off her face, massaging her cheeks as it felt hot from being squeezed. "what are you guys talking about?" she asks to the losers as she shoves richie's hands, teasing her to pinch it again before taking the other cone from eddie's hand.

"what they always talk about." richie answered, licking the ice cream.

"i actually think it'll end," ben paused. "for a little while at least."

"what do you mean?" y/n questions again, feeling the weight of richie's arms over her shoulder. this is something that the two was used to do when they were together with the losers, it's always the richie's arm over y/n's shoulders and her head leaning against him as they listen. "no, eww. you've got some cooties from the mouth piece of the trumpet." she whispers when he offered her his ice cream.

"so, i was going over to my derry research, and i charted out all the big events." he said, "the ironworks explosion in nineteen o' eight. the bradley gang in thirty-five. and the black spot in sixty-two. and now kids being— " ben paused, looking at bill, contemplating in his mind whether to say it or not. "i realized this stuff happen every— "

"—twenty-seven years." both bill and ben said at the same time.

richie looks at y/n, who was stiffening under his touch, her lips pressed in a thin line as she listens to the conversation. "it's okay, doll. it's not going to hurt you, i'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe, alright? it won't lay a single fucking hand on you. he has to chop half of my twelve inch dick before it can touch you."

the words coming from a short, lanky boy, who cannot see a thing without his glasses, made y/n reassure herself a little that she'll be protected. she looks up at him stifling a laugh and a smile .

➶➶➶

sitting on the skateboards deck beside richie's bike, y/n propped her elbow on her knee and her chin resting on her palms as she listens to every word that the losers say, her eyes locked to paul bunyan statue as she pays attention.

"okay, so let me get this straight. it comes out for wherever to eat kids for a year, and then what? it goes for hibernation?" eddie asks.

"maybe it's like what he called it." stanley says. "cicadas. you know, the bugs that come out once every seventeen years."

"isn't this so boring?" richie leaned down to y/n's level, whispering.

"it's interesting, dipshit." y/n glared when she missed some words from whatever mike said.

". . . town is cursed." mike said. "he says that all the bad things that happen in this town are because of one thing. an evil thing that feeds off to people of derry."

"but it can't be one thing." stanley countered, respectfully. "they all saw something different."

"maybe." mike half–agrees. "well, maybe it knows what scares us most and that's what we see."

"i–i–i saw a leper." eddie stutters. "you kn—he was like a walking infection."

"but you didn't. because it isn't real." stanley said. "none of this is. not of this leper. or bill seeing georgie. o–or the woman from the painting i keep seeing."

"is she like y/n?"

it made all the losers snap their heads at richie, looking either confused or pissed off.

"do i look haunting to you, richie?" y/n asks, eyebrow raising as she glares at him.

"what i mean is, is she hot?"

"no, richie! she's not hot." stanley said, sharply. "her face is all messed up! none of this makes any sense. they're all like bad dreams—"

"i don't think so. i–i know the difference between bad dreams and real life, okay?"

this made y/n think about her first encounter with it. she wondered why was she has only see it in her dreams but not again after that. she thought she's living with the thing that scares her the most.

"what do you see, mike?" y/n asks curiously.

"you saw something too?"

"yes," mike replied. "you guys know that burnt house in harris avenue? i was inside when it burnt down, before i was rescued my mom and dad were trapped in the next room over from me. they were pushing and pounding on the door, trying to get to me. but it was too hot. and the firemen finally found me."

the losers shared pitiful glances at each other as they listen to mike's story, richie couldn't help but to sit down on the board next to y/n, tracing his fingers on the grass and tugging it. y/n did the mannerism she does when she felt uneasy, scratching her thumb's skin beside the nail with her pointing finger until it starts to turn red and the skin started to pull off.

"the skin on their hands had melted down to the bone." mike added. "we're all afraid of something."

"you got that right." eddie said. "what about you, richie? what are you afraid of?"

y/n felt richie turn his back around, looking at something from a distance, he pushes his glasses to keep it from falling off before answering, "clowns."

~

a day before everything gets messy