Reddie oneshots

A gift for a kiss

He turned to look at the other boy, who was smiling sweetly at him.

"Thanks, Rich." He said and went back to eating his gummy worms as if nothing had happened.

Richie was still staring at Eddie, not knowing what to say, when Stan shouted at him, "Hey, Trashmouth, you coming to the water or what?"

Without taking his eyes off of Eddie, adorable Eddie, who was looking into the small bag with a focused expression on his face trying to find a red gummy worm, his favorites, Eddie who couldn't go into the water with his friends because of his overbearing mother, Eddie who had made Richie so flustered just by kissing his cheek in the most innocent way, without taking his eyes off of him, Richie answered Stan's question.

"You know what, Stan the man? I think I'd rather stay out here today."

* * *

The next time it happened, Richie told himself that he hadn't done it on purpose.

He and Eddie had made plans to hang out at Eddie's house after his mom left for church. When Richie arrived, Mrs. Kaspbrak was still home, so he hid behind the bushes until he saw her get in her car and leave.

Her car hadn't even rounded the corner when Richie was already at the front door, ringing the bell of Eddie's house.

"Just a minute!" Richie heard his friend yell. Less than a minute later Eddie was opening the door and looking at Richie with his eyebrows raised.

"That was fast. Were you hiding in the bushes waiting for my mom to leave or something?" Eddie asked, jokingly.

"What? No, of course not. No." Richie replied, scratching the back of his neck anxiously.

Eddie narrowed his eyes at Richie's strange behavior but didn't comment on it. He moved to the side so that Richie could enter the house.

Together they climbed up the stairs to Eddie's room. Once inside, Eddie started gathering up a bunch of comics that had been lying on his bed.

"I was reading some old comics before you showed up but we don't have to do that. We can watch a movie or play cards or something" Eddie said.

"Actually" Richie took off his backpack and started looking for something in it while he spoke, "I was at the comic store the other day, when I saw they had the new issue of 'The Spectacular Spiderman' and I bought it."

Eddie stared in confusion at the comic book Richie was holding in his hand. "But you hate Spiderman" Eddie said.

Richie snorted, "I don't hate Spiderman, I just don't think he is as great as, say Iron Man or Hulk." He could see Eddie get ready to have the same argument they had had a hundredth times already, so he continued, "None of that matters though, I didn't buy the comic for me, I bought it for you, Eds."

Richie handed him the comic book and Eddie grabbed it while staring at him, surprised.

"Why?"

Richie had asked himself that same question when his first thought after seeing the comic book was to buy it for Eddie. He had come up with the answer, but he quickly shoved it to the back of his mind. He still wasn't ready to deal with those feelings yet.

Eddie's question brought those thoughts back to his mind as well as a blush to his face.

Richie shrugged and avoided Eddie's eyes as he said, "What? Can't I just get my best friend something because I think he might like it? Jeez, Eds."

"No, no of course you can. I just- you know what, never mind. Thank you, Richie." Eddie said.

Richie told himself that he wasn't disappointed when Eddie just smiled at him and sat down on his bed to look through the comic book, but there was only so many lies he could tell himself.