Breathe ⭐️ Reddie

23

The superiors sat in their seats, staring at the teenagers intently as they walked into the room. Once the were all standing in a line in front of the superiors, the adults addressed them.

"It's nice to see you're alright, Richie," Zack said with a smile. "We were all worried when some of our most elite young members vanished from the base without a note."

None of the teens made eye contact with the adults, all of them red in the face with embarrassment.

"You should be punishing them worse, Zack. How will they learn if they aren't punished accordingly?" Donald Uris asked, glaring at the teens.

"They've all been pulled out of the field. What more do you want?" Zack said, glaring at Donald.

"We haven't had any issues in the Hive for a long time. They didn't start until you let Eddie lead a mission and let Bill take over the technology."

"Watch your mouth, Uris. Eddie's proven he's capable of leading-" Frank started, only to be stopped by Donald.

"He failed a mission! That's not proving anything! At least my son had the sense to try to get rid of this new kid! He isn't one of us and all he's managed to do is get shot! We wouldn't have this problem if Stan was leading, because then this new kid wouldn't even be here!"

Richie blushed deeply, shaking in embarrassment. Eddie touched his arm gently, trying to reassure him, only for Richie to pull away from his touch.

"That's enough!" Stan yelled, shocking everyone in the room. He was always the one to hold his tongue and keep everything from being a mess.

No one spoke, so Stan continued, "Dad, you don't get to treat one of my friends like that. In the time he's been here, Richie's helped us narrow down the location of those guys outside the club, and we know now that they're after Eddie. Or something like that. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that Richie has helped us and he's smart, and he's one of our friends."

Donald looked shocked for a second, before his face changed to anger. He stood up so quickly that his chair fell over and he stormed out of the room. No one tried to stop him, and Stan looked relieved, as if he had wanted to say that for a long time.

"We are disappointed that you all decided to take off without telling us anything, and we could have been exposed. Their leader escaped, but we don't believe we'll be exposed, because we have reason to believe that they might be part of a different organization. This information is highly confidential, as no one really knows that the seven of you were attacked last night. As far as the rest of everyone knows, you seven took off last night and Richie hurt himself somehow so we went out to help you all get back safely," Sharon said, her gaze shifting between the teenagers.

"Why are you telling us this if it's confidential?" Richie asked, surprising himself and everyone else by speaking up.

"You seven are the biggest risk takers we have here, which is dangerous. However, you're also among the smartest here. You have had contact with the leader of this other group, and you are the best with our technology. Since you're not allowed out of here, we want you staying inside and tracking them down. We want you working in your secluded room so that no one knows what you're working on," Frank said.

"And we want you working to recover every day, Richie. You need to be physically and mentally able in this department. Understood?" Zack told Richie. His face showed no signs of approval, but his eyes told a different story. He was impressed with the teenagers.

"Very well then, you're all dismissed," Leroy said.

All of the teenagers turned to leave, but both Bill and Eddie were stopped by their parents.
Bill's parents asked him and Stan to talk with them in a separate office, whereas Frank asked Eddie and Richie to stay in the main room with him.

Once the room cleared out, Frank sat back in his seat, looking down at Eddie and Richie, who shared confused glances.

"So, I'm going to guess that you two are dating?" Frank asked bluntly, causing Eddie to groan and Richie to blush.

"Seriously dad?" Eddie asked in a low voice.

Frank smiled at his son. "I just wanted to check, Eddie. I don't care either way. Now I understand why you were so panicked when Richie got hurt."

Richie smiled at Eddie who flushed an even darker red than him. "Yes, we're dating. Can we leave now?" Eddie asked.

Frank laughed. "Yeah, you can go. Take care of each other."

Eddie nodded before grabbing Richie's hand and waking toward the door to the room.

"Nice talkin' with ya, Mr. Kaspbrack," Richie called in southern accent, earning a gentle punch in the shoulder from Eddie.

When they got into the hallway they saw Stan and Bill. Kissing.

"Staniel!" Richie shouted. "With Big Bill? Who would've guessed?!"

Stan pulled away, blushing and biting the inside of his cheek, while Bill buried his face in Stan's shoulder.

"Fuck off, you two. It's not like we're making out every five seconds like you guys are!" Stan said, glaring at the two.

"We're not judging, Stan. We just got out of talking to my dad about the two of us dating," Eddie replied.

"Well, you t-two know n-now so con-congrats," Bill said, pulling his face away from Stan's shoulder.

"Yep, definitely what I wanted to see today. Dear ol' Staniel and Billiam sucking face in the hallway. My dream come true," Richie said, walking forward and dramatically hugging Stan and Bill, who tried to push him off without hurting his wound.

Eddie giggled as Richie made his way back to Eddie, watching as Stan and Bill were still red and embarrassed.

"Whatever. You two should go lay down. We're up at eight tomorrow morning for workouts then going to the Analysis Room. Okay?" Stan said, grabbing Bill's arm and walking toward his room.

"Okay, make sure to use protection!" Richie called as they walked down the hall. Once they were out of earshot, he turned to Eddie. "I always thought Bill had a thing for Bev."

"Nah, that's Ben."