Collision

Brother Bonding...Over Pictures

"Hey, Richie!" Elizabeth called.

"What?" He yelled back.

"Mike is on the phone for you!" Richie's eyes widened as he looked at Eddie and Bill, who pushed him towards the kitchen. He rushed in and took the phone from her.

"Hello?"

"Hey! Richie, are you busy?" Mike asked.

"Hey! No, no, there's not much to do but watch TV so... Yeah, why what's up?"

"Is it alright if El and I stop by? I wanna show you something."

"Yeah, yeah, that's fine. Um, did you talk to your mom?"

"I did this morning, yeah." He replied. Richie heard El in the background say something and then a loud smack. "Ow! Leave me alone, woman!" Richie snorted.

"Um, are we...?" Mike didn't say anything for a couple seconds.

"We are." He said, finally.

"Really?" Richie asked, hopefully.

"Really." Richie could practically hear the smile on his face. "We're brothers, man."

"Awesome."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah! Holy shit... I-I don't know what to say."

"Me neither, honestly. Hey, we're gonna go on and head over. We'll be there in ten, okay?"

"Okay, be careful?" It came out like a question.

"I'm a police officer, I'm gonna be careful." Richie chuckled.

"Right."

"See you in a bit."

"Okay, bye." As soon as Richie hung up, he let out a very loud, "OH. MY. GOD. Eddie!" He exclaimed, running back in the living room and picking him up in a hug, bouncing up and down excitedly. "I have a brother! A twin brother. Holy shit! And two sisters!" Eddie laughed and hugged him back. Everyone else in the house had come in the living room to see what was going on.

"Did someone propose or something?" Mike H asked, making a face. 

"No! I have a brother and two sisters!" Richie explained, letting Eddie go. "Holy shit, I need to sit down." He plopped down on the couch and buried his face in his hands.

"You almost gave me a heart attack, asshole." Stan said, but nudged his leg with his foot. "But congratulations." Richie grinned up at him.

"I think I'm gonna have one, to be honest." He told him and Stan snorted. "He said he had something to show me. Him and El are on the way." He told Bev, who nodded. Eddie sat beside him and put his head on Richie's shoulder. For the next ten minutes, everyone wandered off, Mike H and Ben went to the library again, Stan went outside to look at birds with Elizabeth, who was off work for the day, and Bev and Bill sat in the kitchen talking quietly, and Richie and Eddie sat in the living room, Richie's leg steadily bouncing up and down due to nerves. There was a knock on the door and Richie was up in a heart beat, opening the door to reveal two grinning faces staring back at him. Mike held his arms out, and Richie hugged him tightly.

"Holy shit." He muttered.

"I know." Mike replied, flinching at the flash that came next. El shut the door behind them, grinning at Eddie and holding up her camera. They hugged for a few minutes, and finally parted when Mike said, "Oh! Let's sit down, I'm gonna show you some pictures." He picked up a box that he apparently dropped. They sat on the couch next to each other and El and Eddie went in the kitchen with Bev and Bill. "So, uh, I know yesterday you were looking at pictures and stuff but there weren't any recent ones of my-our sisters or parents. I stopped back at mom's and got this. She's obsessed with pictures." Mike told him, opening the box and pulling out a couple pictures.

"This is Holly on the first day of school this past year." He said, handing him the picture. Holly was smiling widely, her hair curled at the ends, wearing a simple white T-shirt with a rainbow on the shoulder and shorts. "She's the only one with blonde, straight hair. Not sure where she gets it from though." He told him. Richie smiled. He gave him another picture. "That's Nancy a couple months ago." She was smiling, her hair shoulder length and curly, one side pulled out of her face with a clip.

"Damn...I definitely see the resemblance." He said.

"Yeah, a couple years ago, when Steve got his ass beat, he looked at me and thought I was her. I was like..." He made a face and Richie snorted. He handed him another picture. "This is our parents. I don't think dad knows how to smile, honestly. I don't think I've ever seen him smile like, a real smile." Richie made a face.

"I'm sorry but... why does he look like that?" Mike chuckled and shrugged.

"He's older than mom." he said. "The only thing I think we got from him is our height and hair color."

"And love for sleep!" El yelled.

"I do shit to make me tired, he don't do nothing!" He called back and she laughed.

"True!"

"I can tell, we look more like... mom." Richie bit his lip.

"You don't have to call them mom or dad, dude." Mike told him, nudging his arm. "Unless you want to. It's up to you."

"I've never really called anyone that, honestly. Except maybe Bill's parents on accident." Bill snorted from the kitchen. "I usually just called my parents Went and Maggie or Ma for her." He shrugged. Mike bit his lip. "I probably will at some point. I mean, it's up to them too, right?" Mike shrugged this time.

"I'm pretty sure mom wouldn't care if you called her mommy or something. And dad, call him Ted or dad and he'll respond to either." Richie laughed. "Mom asked if you wanted to meet her, or well, all of them, really." 

"She wants to meet me?" He asked, surprised.

"Well yeah, she cried when I asked her about you."

"She did?" He sounded genuinely surprised. Mike nodded, grinning at him.

"Yeah! She's talking to dad and Holly tonight when he gets home. Holly's gonna shit a brick." Richie snorted. "And she'll probably tell Nancy when they get back in this weekend."

"Do you think they'll hate me?" Richie asked.

"No, not a chance." Mike told him. "I mean, it's not your fault, so they shouldn't. They'll love you. Mom loves you, she never stopped." Richie bit his lip.

"I really have no idea what to say." He said quietly. "And I usually always do." Mike snorted.

"I can tell. I mean, I didn't know what to say when she told me. I just blurted it out and asked her if I had a twin brother. You should have seen her face, I'd have laughed if it was under different circumstances. Her eyes just about popped out of her head." Richie snorted. "She didn't tell me why, though. Why they gave you up for adoption." Richie shrugged at that.

"I don't know, I wouldn't blame them after getting to know me."

"You were literally a day old." Mike rolled his eyes. 

"I was probably an annoying baby, seriously." Mike shook his head.

"If you were the annoying baby, then I was the demon because according to mom, and Nancy, I screamed my head off and peed on mom every I needed a diaper change."

"Ew." Richie made a face and Mike snorted, shrugging. He handed him another picture, and they spent the rest of the afternoon looking at pictures and talking about random stuff, while El and Eddie had their own conversation in the kitchen with Bill and Bev. Eddie couldn't keep the smile off his face, seeing how happy Richie looked.