𝗥𝗢𝗠𝗘, reddie

028. piacenza

RICHIE woke up the next morning around seven o'clock to the sound of Eddie brushing his teeth. He stretched his arms over his head, letting out some noise that was between a whine and a yawn as his back cracked with the movement.

He felt content and calm for a moment before his lips spread out into a smile at the fact that he was here, in a fancy hotel room with Eddie. He felt like he was still dreaming, even though his dreams last night were rather peculiar.

Richie always had nightmares or wildly bizarre dreams. He'd say that there was no in-between, but there was an in between, like that dream where he ran through a dark forest while a Dr. Seuss character chased him with a pickle.

As he pushed the thin sheets off of himself, he felt the cool air of the air-conditioned room hit his legs, prickling them with goosebumps. He slipped on his glasses, which sat folded on the stand next to his bed, and walked to the sink to join Eddie.

"Mornin' Kaspbrak," He said, accidentally startling Eddie — the shorter boy looked incredibly cute still tucked in his pajamas, a slightly too-big gray shirt that gave him cute little sweater paws and some red shorts.

Eddie spit out some of the foamy toothpaste into the sink and looked up at Richie; the water and a bit of bright blue paste was still around his mouth, making him look absolutely adorable.

"Good morning, Chee," He'd responded shyly as he grabbed one of the hotel-supplied paper cups and used it to rinse out his mouth. He wiped his mouth on the hand towel that he'd left on the counter, and Richie smiled fondly.

Unbeknownst to Richie, Eddie saw this in the reflection of the mirror and ducked his head, blushing a little bit. Eddie had a problem with reacting to such unabashed positive attention, and more often than not he ignored it and acted like he wasn't receiving it.

"Do you remember where we're going today?" Eddie asked, moving out of Richie's way so that the taller boy could brush his own teeth.

Richie bit his lip in thought, trying to remember if they were doing WonderWorks today or not, and Eddie tracked the movement with his eyes without meaning to.

He had to force himself to look away from Richie as an entirety — he was a beautiful being, almost godlike, and even his flaws didn't really feel like they were bad. They just felt like little differences; that's all.

"I think we were doing Downtown Disney today," Richie comments finally, smirking as he squeezes some of the Sensodyne on his toothbrush.

Eddie refuses to use other toothpaste, because whitening toothpaste wears the enamel and that makes his teeth too sensitive to drink cold things without a straw.

"Hey, they have that princess boutique thing, you wanna get all dressed up as a princess?" Richie teases before he puts the toothbrush in his mouth and runs the bristles between his not-so-white teeth.

The discoloration isn't his fault, this dentist had told him once, genetics just passed down bad bacteria in his mouth. Whatever that meant.

Eddie glared at Richie for the suggestion, but then his face morphed into a grin. "I will if you will," He said casually, arms crossed as he leaned his back against the wall. Richie turned to him, raising an eyebrow.

After he spit into the sink, he turned to Eddie. "Okay. Deal." They shook hands on it (after Richie finished brushing his teeth) and it was settled.

Two hours passed and they were in Downtown Disney, eating as some dinosaur themed restaurant where Bev choked on her Coca Cola when Richie ordered dinosaur chicken nuggets from the kids menu, claiming the adult portions were too large for him.

Eddie was talking to Mike about going to Universal Studios with his plate of pasta in front of him, a trip they planned to conquer in a few days, and Mike was excitedly describing what he remembered of Diagon Alley when he'd went nearly five years ago.

As Eddie told Mike about the parts of the trip he was most excited for and, to his right, Richie and Beverly listened to Stan talk about birds, Richie slowly moved his foot over to nudge against Eddie's shyly under the table.

Mike had started to talk about the Dr. Seuss part of the park, where he was too scared of Cat in the Hat to ride the attraction based on that book when he was thirteen, and Eddie gently pressed his foot into Richie's, who twisted his foot around Eddie's ankle.

Bored from Stan's intense description of the behaviors of cockatiels in the wild, Richie turns to Eddie, who was talking about roller coasters he wanted to ride, hands moving enthusiastically as he spoke.

Eddie looks pretty in the dim lighting in the restaurant; there aren't many windows near where they're all sitting, but there's lots of faux plants lining the walls and, once every handful of minutes, the ceiling will light up with a fake meteor shower while the sound of dinosaurs shrieking projects from the speakers.

It's kind of dark to replay a theory of what killed off an entire species for a Disney attraction if Richie really thinks about it, so he tries not to.

It doesn't take a lot to take his mind off of it when Eddie Kaspbrak is next to him, looking as beautiful as he always seems to.

In the dark Eddie's features look fuzzy, but the dim lights make him look somewhat magical. He can't see the color of his eyes or the many freckles that decorate his cheeks, but he can see the cute curve of his nose and his messy hair.

In the dark, he glows like an angel, making Richie's chest tighten and flutter with butterflies.

"I think the Hulk seems so fun, holy shit," Eddie said excitedly to Mike, and Richie knows that's another feature of Eddie that he admires; his voice, just slightly higher and softer than one might expect from pictures.

Richie furrowed his eyebrows at the comment. "The Hulk goes upside down though," He comments more like a question than a statement, and Eddie turns to him casually, as if their ankles weren't crossed over each other underneath the table as a desperate attempt for nonchalant physical contact.

"Some of us aren't cowards," Eddie responded teasingly, leaning closer to Richie to nudge him with his elbow. Richie bit his tongue and let out a sarcastic ha-ha, rolling his eyes.

Mike smirks a little and leans forward. "You're one to talk about cowards, Eddie," He teases, letting out a laugh when Eddie kicks at his shin under the table. Richie wrinkles his nose in confusion, but doesn't ask what Mike means by that.

When Richie is done eating and sipping on his cold brew coffee, in a tall glass mug with ice, the contents inside a honey brown, he stands up and excuses himself to go to the attached gift shop.

He has to walk past a fish tank where he sees something called a Bluespine Unicornfish that made him laugh so hard he bumped into a girl who looked to be twelve or thirteen, who then recognized him and asked for a picture — for a moment he forgot he was kinda a celebrity, but then he happily posed with her.

( Eddie watched from the table, intently admiring how kind Richie was to the young girl. )

"Hey, wait, Richie," The girl said; she had blonde hair and lots of freckles and wore wirey glasses that made her eyes look really big, "Me and some of my friends were wondering if you're dating that one artist? Eddie Kaspbrak?"

Richie blushed a little, lucky for the dim lighting in the restaurant as he looked past her to Eddie where he sat at the table. When Eddie noticed Richie looking at him, he perked up a little and pretended he wasn't looking.

Smiling fondly, Richie remembered the girl's presence — "No, no, we're not," Richie told her, sending Eddie a little wave before shifting his sight down to the little blonde preteen.

The girl squinted up at him, furrowing her eyebrows in a suspicious manner as she looked over her shoulder to where she saw that Eddie was located. When she turned back to Richie, she asked, "But do you like him?"

Richie looked a little shocked by the question, shaking his head and forcing himself to smile and laugh. "That's a personal question, sorry," He responded before bidding her farewell and walking into the dinosaur-themed gift shop.