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Richie Tozier was a clumsy kid, that was no secret. The boy amazed even himself at how many times he’d trip over a pebble, or walk into a lamppost on accident. It didn’t help that he was a somewhat rowdy child that enjoyed playing field games with his friends, these tendencies only seemed to increase the number of mild injuries he would get.
When he was six he fell for the first time that wasn’t an accident. Richie received a very much so purposeful push from one of the older kids at his school, Henry Bowers, that made him collapse to his knees on the concrete. The smaller boy winced in pain as Henry walked away-laughing. Standing up, with quite a bit of discomfort, Richie began to hobble over to the nearest bench in order to check out the scabs on his knees.
A boy of the same age as Richie, lurked around a tree, feeling quite guilty that he had not stepped in to help his peer against the bully, began to pace over to Richie. Wanting at the very least to make sure the latter was okay. Sitting down next to the injured child, Stan, the boy by the tree, offered a shy smile.
“Hi! My name’s Stan, I’m sorry that Henry pushed you,” The boy, Stan, announced in a small voice, his smile not breaking.
“I’m Richie,” Richie’s tone was flat and didn’t give much lee-way in the weak conversation, almost shutting down Stan in a sense.
However, Stan didn’t give up his desperate attempt to help, “Shouldn’t you go to the nurse?”
“No, I’m okay.”
“Are you sure, those scabs look nasty,” Stan scrunched his nose as he glanced at Richie’s kneecaps, wondering how much pain he was in.
“I’m fine.”
Realizing that this wasn’t getting anywhere, Stan slouched back into the bench, deciding that if Richie didn’t want to get help, Stan would just keep him company.
Now the pair were in high school, scabs on the knees have been since forgotten and replaced with many, many, memories. Since that day, some may say that Stan and Richie have become inseparable, having created a unique bond throughout the years. Heck, they’ve battled a goddamned clown with the rest of their friends back when they were thirteen. It had been a rollercoaster on a downward spiral since they met, and only now were things beginning to calm down, like troubled waters after a storm has past.
With that said, they may not be risking their lives down in a musky well, but both Stan and Richie were facing newfound emotions- feelings, seemingly alone.
It was a Wednesday in November when everything started to be placed in motion for the pair. The rain that had drenched the chilly grounds the night before could still be seen in the forms of puddles and damp grass, but it was a sunny day nonetheless. Stan had just left his last class of the day and was heading to his locker before seeking Eddie out to discuss their environmental science project. But Stan never made it to his locker, instead a warm hand captured his, the hand of Richie Tozier, and he was quickly led outside to the bleachers.
When they made it to their assumed destination, Richie turned to Stan, hand still clutching the latter’s, and smiled, a timid but genuine smile.
Stan waits, expecting Richie to say something, but as minutes pass the latter’s hand is still gripped with Stan’s, but his mouth is shut. As Stan raises an eyebrow in question, Richie seems to snap out of a daze of some sort.
“I- um, sorry. I just kind of spaced out for a second, um,” Stammering, Richie shuffled to his feet, Stan stayed silent, waiting patiently instead of responding.
“Anyways,” he chuckled nervously, “Well, I guess I didn’t really think this out. I had, have, something to say but it’s just hard to say it now.”
“Could you show me?”
Richie paused, thinking, before he shook his head, “No- no, words are better. I’ve been talking all my life, can’t stop now,” they both shared a small laugh at that, but there was tension sitting in the air from the nervous atmosphere, “I, I have something to tell you,” Richie breathes out.
“I sure hope so, that is why I’ve been waiting here holding your hand for the last few minutes, right?” Stan gives Richie’s, now sweaty and shaky, hand a squeeze and in return the latter’s face turns a light shade of crimson.
“Right.”
A minute passes.
“So-?”
“Right! Sorry, well I-,” Stan had never seen Richie nervous like this before, in a sense his inability to form words is worrying Stan quite a bit, “I guess I’ve dug myself a hole so I might as well finish what I started. Stan, I- I think I like you, like a lot.”
There is more silence, and Richie thinks this is the worst bit of it, the anticipation is just a slow burn and he wants the bandaid to be ripped off so he can walk home alone and get through the rejection. He expects Stan to let go of his hand now and give him a tight smile, stating he doesn’t feel the same and then walk away, leaving Richie alone and vulnerable.
But that rejection never comes, no, instead Stan smiles, not the forced one Richie had expected, but a tender, joyful one.
“I think I really like you too Richie Tozier.”
“Richie, you and I are solid, you know this. We’ve been together for five years! How could we not be?” Stan insisted one night five years later, exasperation lacing his voice.
Richie sighed, running his hands through his own hair, looking down, “But do you even really love me? Stan, you- you’re so good. You have a future, a place where you’re headed. I can’t even decide what I want to do with my life! I’ve changed my major four times and I still don’t feel comfortable where I’m at! You are progressing, but I’ve hit my red light, and it’s not wavering any time soon,” the stressing man turned to sit on the couch, his head falling into the palm of his hands.
“What are you talking about?” Stan bent down in front of Richie, attempting to get his lover to look at him. When he has no success, Stan grasped both sides of Richie’s face in both of his hands, “I’ve known my future is with you since high school. So what if you don’t know what field you want to go in? We’ll figure that out, together, you and me. That’s how we’ve done it since high school- heck that’s how we’ve done it since as long as we’ve known each other. There’s no way that’s stopping now, okay?”
Richie met Stan’s eyes warily, nodding with understanding. For a minute, the former closes his eyes and takes in a breath before opening them back up, with just a little more hope gleaming in his eyes as he agrees, “Okay.”
Stan grinned and pulled Richie into a tight hug before pulling back and planting a soft kiss to the top of his lover’s head.