˗ˏˋ angst ; soft ; happy ending ; in which richie returns back to derry after years away
word count ; 2106
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RICHIE SIGHED to himself, parking the tattered car outside of the home he barely recognised. stanley uris had given him the address. the address to eddie kaspbrak's house.
this was his first time back in derry after five years — he left when he was seventeen. his mother forced him to, she believed that derry was influencing him in the wrong way. more specifically, a certain loser was influencing him in the wrong way. and that loser was eddie kaspbrak.
sweet delicate eddie kaspbrak, his childhood sweetheart, his teenage lover.
richie's mother had found the collection of love letters exchanged in lessons, hidden in his underwear drawer. sometimes the memory of that day woke him up in the dead of the night, it haunted him.
"what are these, richard?! what the fuck are these?!" she screamed, holding the wedge of letters and notes out towards him. his heart fell from his chest and landed in the pit of his stomach. fuck. his mouth fell open and he couldn't help but gawp at his crying mother "i asked you a question!"
his heart tore in bits – the same way that she ripped the paper into tons and tons of tiny pieces, throwing them to the floor with shaky hands. the beautiful notes and poetry handcrafted by his pretty boy eds over the years. all gone just like that.
"they're nothing, ma! it's just... jokes! it's a prank, those stupid pranks and jokes you hate so much." richie stuttered, words falling from his mouth in a rush as he rambled, searching for safety, searching for forgiveness. he couldn't find any.
he shuddered, remembering the way her icy hand dragged across his pale skin, leaving a prominent mark on his face and knocking the heavy glasses off of the bridge of his nose in the process.
and then he remembered where he was and the house that he had parked in front of just a few minutes before. but most importantly : he had remembered who he was.
richie tozier. an openly gay man who had survived the worst. he had survived being torn away from his boyfriend, he had survived his homophobic mother, and he had survived the horrors of conversion therapy. he could do this.
with a shaky breath, he opened the car door– the cold wind hitting him at once. he shuddered, goosebumps forming over his pale skin as he stepped out into the open air and looked up at the house.
he shut the car door behind him, and took a few gradual steps towards the front of the house. his mind began to wonder : would eddie be happy to see him? had he changed much? had he moved on?
richie needed to know.
hesitantly, he brought his hand to the knocker and knocked quietly. the three taps on the wooden door sounding much louder than he had intended.
the door opened after thirty seconds – yes richie was counting. of course he was. it swung open to reveal eddie. he was still short and petite, making richie tower over him.
"hi, hey are you ok–" eddie cut himself off, pulling on the sleeves of his shirt as he glanced up at richie's tall and broad frame. he wasn't exactly the boy he remembered. he wasn't as lanky and certainly not as thin as before, his shoulders were broader. he had grown into himself, that's for sure. "richie." he breathed out, biting his lip anxiously.
