serendipity {sequel to pop} || reddie

treize

Notes: kinda filler :/

Richie and Eddie board a plane to Derry, and they haven't felt this amount of complicated emotions since meeting up in 1994. Mary is dog-sitting Poseidon, and Eddie is forever grateful to her and her flexibility; they'd been quite vague about the reason and duration of their sudden leave.

Truthfully, they don't know if they'll ever return home.

But they don't think about that. They sit together on the plane and speak nervously about old friends and high school memories, which are slowly returning again. They almost manage to convince themselves and each other that this is just a silly little reunion between their high school friend group, but deep down they know it's tragically not.

It's both strange and wonderful for Richie to enter a small town. Aside from the town being Derry, and all the meaning that holds, it's mildly interesting. Not one person recognizes him, which hasn't happened in years, and he's very happy about that fact.

He's less happy about why he's here, and even less happy than that that Eddie is here with him. He wants Eddie there for strength and love, two things Eddie is absolutely full of, but Eddie being here means that he is in danger, and Richie vowed over a decade ago to prevent that at all costs.

He and Eddie check into the small hotel in Derry, setting their stuff down in their room, staring numbly at the all-too-familiar, suffocating surroundings of Derry, Maine.

"Fuck." Eddie says. It's the first thing spoken between them since they got off the airplane.

"I know. Fucking Derry." Richie scoffs a little, sitting down on the bed. "I honestly never thought I'd be back here."

Eddie nods, clearly anxious, and Richie senses the weight on his chest. He feels the exact same weight.

Eddie checks his watch. "We have about half an hour until we have to go to the Jade."

"Wanna have a quickie, Eds?" Richie jokes, but his voice is a little shaky, and after being with Richie for so long, Eddie can tell how on edge he really is.

"Don't call me Eds." Eddie says, surprising himself. He hasn't said that in years, mostly because he had given up on trying to make the correction. But being in Derry was different. "I can't stand this place." Eddie sits on the bed beside Richie. "It brings back a lot of memories. It... the Losers... my fucking mom..."

Eddie had taken it really rough when his mother had passed. He was all torn up about it. His mom had been toxic, and he'd managed to convince himself that it was best for him to leave. So he'd moved to New York despite his mother's protests and wails about him abandoning her. Eddie had visited her once a few years before she'd passed, and then he'd left her to die alone in that house in Derry. Just like she'd predicted he would.

Ally had helped him through it, but Eddie still felt guilty and uncertain. He didn't want to be sad for her. He hated her. She robbed him of his childhood and his teenage years. But she loved him more than a person could love, and Eddie couldn't help loving her back, and it was a complex mess of emotions that Eddie still hasn't worked through completely.

Richie and Eddie get settled in their room, with Eddie meticulously unpacking every item from (one of) his suitcase(s) and Richie attempting (and failing) to focus on reading a book.

"I wonder what happened with Beverly and Ben." Eddie says. Richie remembers those two... they had dated, right?

"Yeah," Richie mused. "Maybe they're still together."

Eddie hums. "Probably not."

A while later, it's time to head out to the Jade of the Orient restaurant in Derry. Usually when Richie leaves the house, he dresses up a little (that started after he'd gotten into theatre in addition to comedy- as a comedian, he just looked like shit all the time), but he would feel weird doing that in Derry. So he just leaves the clothes that he wore at the airport on- a simple shirt, jacket, and jeans combo. Eddie is wearing essentially the same kind of thing, a t-shirt and a red jacket and some blue jeans.