(It's an easy quip, an easy come-back, and he says it with one of the few smiles he only ever showed to Richie. There's a bit of a glint in his eyes, some edge that had always been there when he'd had the nerve to say anything like that to Richie before, and mostly because those moments of brief bravery only came when he wasn't paying too much attention to them.)
You filled out. (Like, really filled out. Eddie puts his hands on Richie's shoulders, trying his very best to make it seem as friendly as humanly possible. Richie had always been bigger than him, but hoo baby. Eddie's trying to remember when he had last seen Richie when they were kids, but a lot of Derry memories were still practically blank. They had only just barely unearthed some of them.
It's true that there was no telling what was going to happen. They had shitty luck when it came to keeping each other in their lives, and it's that idea that makes Eddie move. He starts to walk again, but he rests his hand lightly at Richie's elbow. A small, discrete gesture, something he'd done a million times as a kid. He vaguely remembered holding Richie's hand a whole lot when they were seven, eight, nine...Then at one point it had stopped being cute that they were holding hands all the time and people started to give them ugly looks for it. Eddie remembered one of their teachers even pulling them aside to tell them to start behaving more appropriately in the halls. Eddie hadn't understood really what they had been doing back then, but he grew up and realized, and even now he realized to some extent.
But it's that stubborn streak of braveness that lets him keep his fingers at Richie's elbows, walking probably too close, but Eddie thought he'd rather die again than have to sacrifice whatever moment he could get with Richie. As they walked along, he caught sight of their reflection in the window panes of storefronts, and for a split second, he thought they looked like themselves as kids, but he blinked and it was gone. He looks back at Richie, smiling again.)
So besides all the weird shit about this place, how have you been? Are your digs nice?
cw: homophobiaaaa thnks derry
(It's an easy quip, an easy come-back, and he says it with one of the few smiles he only ever showed to Richie. There's a bit of a glint in his eyes, some edge that had always been there when he'd had the nerve to say anything like that to Richie before, and mostly because those moments of brief bravery only came when he wasn't paying too much attention to them.)
You filled out. (Like, really filled out. Eddie puts his hands on Richie's shoulders, trying his very best to make it seem as friendly as humanly possible. Richie had always been bigger than him, but hoo baby. Eddie's trying to remember when he had last seen Richie when they were kids, but a lot of Derry memories were still practically blank. They had only just barely unearthed some of them.
It's true that there was no telling what was going to happen. They had shitty luck when it came to keeping each other in their lives, and it's that idea that makes Eddie move. He starts to walk again, but he rests his hand lightly at Richie's elbow. A small, discrete gesture, something he'd done a million times as a kid. He vaguely remembered holding Richie's hand a whole lot when they were seven, eight, nine...Then at one point it had stopped being cute that they were holding hands all the time and people started to give them ugly looks for it. Eddie remembered one of their teachers even pulling them aside to tell them to start behaving more appropriately in the halls. Eddie hadn't understood really what they had been doing back then, but he grew up and realized, and even now he realized to some extent.
But it's that stubborn streak of braveness that lets him keep his fingers at Richie's elbows, walking probably too close, but Eddie thought he'd rather die again than have to sacrifice whatever moment he could get with Richie. As they walked along, he caught sight of their reflection in the window panes of storefronts, and for a split second, he thought they looked like themselves as kids, but he blinked and it was gone. He looks back at Richie, smiling again.)
So besides all the weird shit about this place, how have you been? Are your digs nice?