Losers Club | IT Imagines

Richie Tozier | The Arcade

English isn't my first language, so please excuse any mistakes.

A/N: not really that important but I should say that I imagine the reader being like one year younger than Connor and that's it.

Warnings: IT 2 spoilers, homophobic slurs.

Characters: Richie/male!Bowers!reader, Henry, Connor.

Word Count: 4473 words.

Derry was such a weird town. That was the only thing (Y/N) Bowers could think of since arriving there a week ago. For some reason - that he couldn't understand until that moment - his mom had sent him and his older brother Connor to spend a small part of the summer at his uncle's house, the infamous Butch Bowers.

Coming from the big city, Derry didn't appeal to him at all, he didn't have much to do and didn't feel like exploring the town on his own. For their first week there, (Y/N) stayed indoors watching cartoons while his older brother went out with Henry, their cousin.

Connor had even invited (Y/N) to go with them but, being totally honest, the youngest Bowers boy was a little afraid of Henry and wasn't his biggest fan. Henry just had something bad and evil about him that (Y/N) didn't like, so he tried to stay as far away as possible from his cousin.

At the beginning of his second week in Derry, Connor begged (Y/N) to leave the house for at least a few hours, even if only to walk to the end of the block and sit on the sidewalk. And (Y/N), not wanting to cause a scene, agreed with his brother's idea. And that's when, after half an hour of walking around the city alone, he found an arcade.

An arcade. (Y/N) couldn't help letting a small smile appear on his face as he saw it, entering it immediately. Connor used to take him to the arcade of their city, so he was very familiar with that kind of place - that didn't mean he was very good at the games though.

The boy's eyes roamed his surroundings as he entered, taking in all the different game machines that were there. He moved a little farther forward, scanning the whole place, until his gaze stopped at a game familiar to him. Street Fighter. Unlike what his city's arcade was like, this place wasn't crowded and there wasn't a line to play that game - just a boy wearing glasses that was already playing it.

(Y/N) looked more closely at this boy - that he also noticed that was wearing a hideous Hawaiian shirt. He seemed to be so focused on the game, his fingers moving swiftly and skillfully across the buttons, quickly defeating his opponent. (Y/N) was so focused on watching him play that he allowed himself to feel excited when he saw that the boy had won that round.

"You want a picture?" the boy wearing glasses asked before turning towards (Y/N), making him freeze in his place. Oh boy, he'd been caught. The stranger was looking at him with raised eyebrows, and only now (Y/N) noticed how those glasses made his eyes look big behind the lens - which made the Bowers boy feel even more intimidated.

"No, I-" he cleared his throat, feeling his cheeks heat from embarrassment. "You are pretty good." (Y/N) gestured to the game the boy was playing.

"Well, I've fallen behind on my training this summer" the boy leaned slightly on the machine, shrugging. "But good to know I didn't lose my fans."

(Y/N) grinned at the boy's words. "I wish I were this good." he sighed, taking a few steps forward. "I can't play shit."

The boy looked at him for a few seconds before stepping back from the machine. "C'mon, lemme see how you do."

(Y/N) widened his eyes, shaking his head quickly. "I don't think that's a good-"

The boy huffed impatiently before nodding toward the game. "Fucking c'mon, show me some skills."