Coming back home, Richie Tozier immediately took a shower for bringing to a lower level his temperature. His face still red was burning his palms at their contact. He took off his glasses and put them down to the edge of the bathroom sink.

After cleaning his whole body and his black curls, Richie rubbed his hair with a towel and put on his pyjamas.

He put back on his big glasses which the glass has became steamy because of the water vapor on his nose and left the bathroom.

Maggie Tozier, Richie's mother, was in the kitchen making dinner. His father, Wentworth Tozier, wasn't already back from his dentist's office, but Richie won't be the one to complain about it.

Indeed, Richie's father was used to insults his son of fool and stupid. His foolish imitations wasn't making him laugh at all, and for show it to him clearly, Wentworth ordered his son to makes a thousand of chores.

So we can say Richie wasn't that excited to see his father coming back from work.

Richie descended the stairs to the living room. He smelt a fish smell coming from the kitchen.

Ugh, he hated fish.

He already has told his mom about it, but Maggie was used to not taking care of what her son could say or feel a lot. She was making efforts, can't you see?, but she never succeeded to understand her son.

"If I only had another child, a girl maybe, we would understand each other", she told him one day.

He never forgot.

Richie winced in disgust and tried to ignore this horrible smell.

He took place in his father's sofa, making him at his ease. Richie took a look around him and grabbed the newspaper of yesterday from the low table in front of him.

He opened the papers and frowned his eyebrows, pulling up his big glasses in between his eyebrows, imitating a serious man reading seriously the newspapers.

He went through the pages and stopped at the 'Aladdin Movie Theater' program, the only cinema of Derry and looked through the movies.

"Hum… 'I Was A Teenage Werewolf'… yeah, seems cool. I wonder if Eddie would like to come see it with me."

"Richard, what are you doing? You're reading the papers now?" asked his mother while entering in the room, a hot plate in her kitchen gloves.

"What? Oh, no no."

He put down the papers on the low table and approach his mother.

Maggie had put down the cooked fish in the middle of the dining table, a piece of hot vapour embalmed Richie's nares which made him wince.

"Mom… you know how much I hate fish, right?" he finished by asking, rubbing his nose.

"W-what? You never told me that before, Richard. Uh, me who's always working so hard in this house. What a nerve, Richard." she answered, her hands on her hips, glaring nervously at him.

"I already told you the other time, and the time before… you're not listening to me…" Richie rubbed his eyes under his glasses and sat down at the dining table.

"I- ah here's your father's coming. Wentworth! Wentworth, dinner's ready." Maggie exclaimed running to her husband, leaving alone her boy in the living room.

Richie sighed and sluggished over the table, his head into his forearms.

Wentworth Tozier kissed his wife and dismissed her while undressing him up. He left his jacket on the coat-rack and enter in the living room. He sat down at the dinner table and graciously left up his sleeves.

"Richard, stood up. You look stupid when you're splayed." he said to his son without taking care of looking at him.

"I always look stupid if we listen to you." mumbled Richie standing his back up and sitting correctly down.

"Have you said something?" asked his father, this time looking at his son, the elbows against the table and the hands crossed.

"Uhh, no dad." Richie sighed.

Wentworth glared at him and looked over his wife coming from the kitchen.

"Dinner is served. I pour you, sweetie?" she asked.

"Please, Maggie." Wentworth answered handing her his empty plate.

Maggie fulled it up with a piece of fish and gave it back to him.

"Richard had a fit, earlier. Apparently, he doesn't like my fish, and he refuse to take a bite."

Wentworth introduced a slice of fish into his mouth and swallowed it.

"How long have you been hating fish, Richard? Something new?" asked his father.

"I've always hated it." he answered almost immediately.

"You're going to eat that delicious fish, Richard, and you're going to clean the dishes, it will teach you to say dumb things." Wentworth declared, taking another piece of fish in his mouth.

Richie sighed again, taking as less fish as possible in his plate and stopped talking.

The dinner was now going calmly.

Wentworth was telling his dentist problems and Maggie was listening to her husband's adventures. Richie wasn't saying anything. He was thinking of how he could manage to have so much money for taking Eddie to the theater with him.

A horror movie… if he will be scared, I could take him in my arms…

Richie knew well it was impossible to steal some pennies discreetly. His father would notice it and he would know his dumbass of a son stole him.

The only chance for Trashmouth to grab some money is to ask to the devil himself.

"Dad?"

Richie hadn't touched his fish, he just had cut the flesh of his meal with the tips of his fork.

"Hmh?"

Wentworth drank a sip of wine waiting for his son to speak.

"Could you please give me some money for this weekend? I would like to go to the cinema with my friend." he asked him simply.

Wentworth put down his stemmed glass and took his knife back slicing another piece.

"Do you even deserve it, Richard? You didn't touched your plate." he said, pointing the stinking fish at Richie.

"If I'm eating my fish, would you give me the money?" asked Richie, reluctantly.

"If you're eating all of your fish, then I may can think about it." he answered.

Richie looked at his plate. His stomach rolled over his belly. Without any pleasure, he drew his fork into the animal corpse and introduced it into his mouth with disgust.

He started chewing the flesh but his taste buds rejected this horrible taste he was feeling. He couldn't handle it and threw the fish on his plate.

"Eww! Richard!" exclaimed his mother with disgust.

"Richard Tozier!" Wentworth screamed, his fist against the table.

"I-I really can't. It's disgusting!" Richie explained, rubbing his tongue with his towel.

"Go to your room, you moron!" ordered his father.

Richie stormed out of the living room, reached up the stairs and locked himself in his bedroom.

Once in his room, Richie's belly began to growl.

Luckily, Richie kept a hideout of cakes into the drawer of his desk. Knowing that his parents weren't really taking care of what he could do, he could had put the chocolate bars in front of everybody nose, without taking car of hiding them.

He opened the drawer and ate a chocolate bar on his bed. He looked over the window the sun half falling and thought of Eddie.

He was so disappointed he couldn't take him to the movie. He had lost an occasion of being alone with the only boy who put a blush on his cheeks.

Only thinking about it, the young boy's cheekbones warmed up.

He thrust his fist against the wall in frustration and let himself fall asleep dreaming sweetly about the cripple boy.

Eddie woke up this morning. His ankle casted, he caressed the white texture put on his skin and smiled. He left his bed and went eating in the kitchen.

Sonia Kapsbrack has forbbiden him to return to school. He was too fragile, and god knows we could hurt him again. He would probably come back home with a broken arm or no head left?

Eddie begged her to let him go. That he will be extremely careful and that he will come back quickly at home.

He needed to see Richie. I needed to talk to him, to find any pretexts but just seeing him.

To his big surprise, her mother agreed, reluctantly of course, but she was telling herself she will taking him back home as quickly as possible if any harm would happen to her boy again.

Eddie left the house, pushing hard on his crutches and moving forward at a regular rhythm.

Tic. Tic. Tic. Tic.

He arrived in front of the school and saw Bill near the bikes parking lot, parking Silver.

"Hi, Bill." he said to his friend.

"Oh, h-hi, Eddie. Are you ok-kay?" Bill asked him, seeing his crutches and his cast.

"Yes, I'm fine, thanks. My mom was about to lock me inside the house, but I managed to come to school today." he chuckled, but not really.

"Nice, we can draw some doodles on your cast now." said Stanley from behind.

He reached his friends and smiled awkwardly at the sight of Bill's look.

Eddie noticed it and smirked at Bill.

"H-how are you feeling, Eddie?" asked Stanley, breaking the ice through this cringy situation.

"I'm okay." Eddie smiled, sighing a bit.

"I hope you are. I carried you on my back all the way home, and god, you're a heavy boy."

The three boys looked behind them to see Richie coming after them.

Eddie's heart began to beat.

"You managed to find some other way to walk, I see. You could lend me your crutches so I can play with them?" Richie said, stealing the crutches from Eddie's arms and running away on them.

"Hey! Richie! Come back here, this isn't funny!" Eddie shouted.

Stan and Bill giggled while Eddie, jumping on his healthy foot, was chasing Trashmouth.

Richie was walking as fast as he could with those crutches, he was laughing so hard hearing Eddie's behind him screaming at him.

"You stupid douchebag, come back here!" Eddie yelled.

He was jumping like an idiot behind Richie, looking carefully at his cast not to be hurt.

Richie turned around at Eddie and bursted out laughing.

Eddie was frowning at Richie. He finally joined him and they sat on a bench for Eddie to recover his breath.

Richie giggled a little more and stood up his glasses a bit. He looked at Eddie's sweating face and smiled sweetly.

Eddie took small breaths and said in-between them :

"You drive me crazy, Tozier."

Richie simply smiled and remembered the events of yesterday evening. He sighed angrily thinking about it and put his full back on the back of the bench.

Eddie looked worryingly at the boy with perfect curls and panicked.

Did he said something wrong? What is bothering his little sweetheart?

"R-richie? Is everything okay? Did… did I just said something…?" Eddie asked, worried.

"Uhh, no Eds, it's not you, it's my father." Richie confessed.

Eddie was listening carefully.

"I- uhh… I asked for some money and he said he could agree only if I was eating this fish. But I-"

"You hate fish." Eddie said.

Richie looked surprised at Eddie.

"You always hated fish. As much as I remember." Eddie blushed, taking a inch away.

Richie smirked. He knows me so well.

"Anyway, I tried to eat this shit, but I couldn't handle it so he yelled at me and ugh whatever."

Richie put his arms behind his neck and sighed loudly.

Eddie frowned, he was thinking.

"What do you need the money for?" Eddie asked him.

Richie opened his eyes wildly and felt his cheeks burning.

"Err… nothing, Eddie Spaghetti. I can't afford it anyway so… uhh, just forget it, okay?"

Richie was looking everywhere but at Eddie.

Eddie looked at Richie in the eyes and felt his heart beating fast.

"C'mon, you can tell me. I'm your friend, right? I maybe can help you for the money, it don't bother me at al- it's… it's okay." he blushed.

Richie looked back at him and forced him not to smile.

He is just so cute.

"I… I wanted to invite you to see a movie in the theater. Bravo, now the surprise is ruined, thanks Eds." Richie said, faking a giggle.

Eddie stood frozen. His heart was racing into his chest and his head became as red as the shirt he was wearing. He looked at Richie's eyes and felt even more power going through his heart.

"Y-you wanted to- … me?" he said.

Richie nodded. Eddie finally smiled away from Richie and blushed.

"D-do you wanna still go? To the theater?" Eddie asked, playing with his fingertips.

"Yeah. Yeah, of course." he answered.

"I'll help you finding the money, so we could go to the theater, together." Eddie blushed at Richie.

Richie was hypnotised by Eddie's beauty. He glared at his soft face and stopped his look at Eddie's perfect lips.

Eddie noticed him and remembered yesterday, when Richie had the same look to him and his lips, and the way he put his hand on his cheek.

Somehow, he wanted to feel his caress again.

Eddie looked into Richie's eyes and began slowly to approach him.

Richie looked up at Eddie's eyes and moved forward.

Their faces were inch apart, they could feel the breathe of the other on their visages.

Eddie closed his eyes and Richie leaned forward.

The school's bells rang loudly, announcing the beginning of the classes.

Richie kissed Eddie gently on the nose.

Eddie opened his eyes in surprise, his cheeks burning and the feeling of his touch on his nose sparkled.

"Gracias, senor." Richie said.

He stood up from the bench and stretched Eddie's crutches to him.

"You might need this for walking, though I love when you're chasing me jumping, but I'm just thinking of your reputation over here." Richie joked.

Eddie came out of his thoughts and stood up taking his crutches from Richie's hands. They began to walk away from the bench.

"What reputation are you talking about? We're losers." Eddie said.

"Yeah, a bunch of Losers." Richie conclued, reaching Bill and Stan in the front of the school door, hitting Stanley's shoulder and pinching Bill's nose.