The Space Between Us
Chapter 16 – R+E

Now that he had seen it, now that he knew the truth, Richie didn't want to let his and Eddie's wedding picture out of his sight. It was like he might forget that they were married again if he did. Like he was only holding onto that knowledge by the thinnest of strings that might snap underneath his grasp if he didn't keep his grip on it. Richie had brought the picture into the kitchen with them and had set it down on the island counter in front of him while they ate breakfast.

"Kim called while you were in the shower," Eddie said, taking a sip of coffee to wash down his bite of bagel. "You know, the lady from the animal shelter. She said that some more dogs have been placed for adoption over the last few days. She thought we'd want to come back and look again – see if we can find one."

Richie hummed in agreement, choosing not to voice the concerns he had talked to Bill about. Because maybe Bill had been right, after all. Perhaps the perfect dog for Richie was still out there, and Richie just hadn't found him yet. And that dog could be there now, waiting in a tiny little kennel for Richie to find him and bring him to his forever home.

Richie only hoped that was true.

Once they had finished eating and Eddie was cleaning up the dishes at the sink, Richie found his eyes going back and forth between the portrait in front of him and the blank space on the wall where it used to hang. Maybe, he decided, returning it to its proper place on the wall would help. As much as he wanted to keep it with him, perhaps seeing it there would help to jog something in his mind. Like it was slotting something back into place. That was where it belonged after all; not being carried around the house with him, but on the wall in the hallway for everyone to see when they entered his and Eddie's home.

"Can…can I put this back up?" Richie asked, running his finger along the frame when Eddie glanced over his shoulder at him.

The very corner of Eddie's lips twitched up into a smile as he shut off the water and grabbed a towel to dry his hands on. "Yeah," Eddie said. "I didn't know if you'd want to."

"Yeah, I want to," Richie replied, tingles of excitement coursing through him. All he wanted was for things to start to go back to normal for him, for them, and he figured that returning the picture to its rightful location just might be a step in the right direction.

When Richie got up from the barstool, Eddie immediately came around the island counter and followed him into the hallway.

"When we put it up the first time," Eddie told him from behind, "we did it together."

"Did we?" Richie asked as he approached the proper place on the wall. When Eddie nodded solemnly in response, Richie asked, "Can we do it together again?"

Eddie didn't reply, but just reached out for a bottom corner of the picture. Together, he and Richie raised the picture up on the wall, letting the small metal bracket on the back of the portrait come to rest on the nail that still remained in the wall. They carefully straightened it and it gave Richie chills to see it hanging there again. He didn't feel anything jogging in his memory at the sight, but a weird sense of déjà vu overcame him. Just like Eddie had said, they had done this before.

When Richie glanced over at Eddie, he swallowed hard. Eddie was so very close to him, Richie wanted to reach out for him, but he didn't. Not just yet. Instead, Richie cleared his throat and asked, "Do…do you have any more pictures we can look at?"

Eddie nodded. "I have our wedding album. I hid it down here with the wedding picture," he said, gesturing to the cabinet just below where their wedding portrait now hung. He stooped down to open the doors to the cabinet before pulling out the album. When he straightened back up, he was holding the front of the album against his chest, just as he had done to their wedding picture last night.

Rubbing his hands along the white lacy edges of the album, Eddie said, "It was the first thing Bill suggested I show you when you woke up in the hospital." Eddie paused for a moment, biting at his bottom lip. "And I told him no. That I wasn't going to put that kind of pressure on you." Hanging his head, Eddie admitted, "That seems like such a stupid idea now. Things would be so different now if I had just been honest with you in the first place. Maybe you'd even remember more now than you do. And maybe things between us wouldn't be so fucked up." Raising his eyes to Richie once again, Eddie locked him with a pleading stare. "I'm so sorry."

Reaching up to rest the fingertips of one hand against Eddie's, Richie said, "Like I told you this morning, your intentions weren't vindictive or selfish. That makes a big difference."

"Do you think you'll ever be able to forgive me for it?" Eddie lifted his index finger from their wedding album, looping it around one of Richie's fingers. "I know you said you want to try and work things out, but…I hate knowing that I might have forever fucked up the foundation of our marriage. What if you can't ever see your way to forgiving me?"

"I promise I'm working on it," Richie replied solemnly, squeezing his own finger around Eddie's. He hated seeing Eddie so distraught, and he really wasn't sure what he could do to comfort him. He figured he would probably normally hug or kiss Eddie, but Richie still wasn't sure if their relationship was quite ready for that yet.

In the end, Richie decided that when they were ready for the more physical aspect of their relationship to return, things would feel right. Until that time, things like hooking their fingers around each other's and just being a little touch-feely would suffice for now.

"Can you be patient with me while I work through it?" Richie asked. "Like a lot of this other shit I'm dealing with right now, it's going to take some time. And more than anything, I need your support through it."

"You've got that," Eddie replied firmly. "I told you, I want you to take as much time as you need and I'll be here for you every step of the way. I promise I'm not going anywhere."

"Then I think we can get through this," Richie replied. "Remember I told you in the hospital that I can do this if I have you? I think that's true for all of this. I mean…we're married." Richie let out a soft breath, because he didn't know if those words would ever stop taking his breath away. "And I'm still getting used to that thought."

Eddie smiled and not for the first time, Richie thought about how very much he wanted to kiss Eddie on the lips. How badly he wanted to press his nose against those beautiful dimples on his cheeks. About how much he wanted to feel that faint scar on Eddie's cheek against his lips.

"We're married," Eddie echoed back, as if trying to get the words to sink into Richie's mind. "And I know how hard that probably is for you to believe right now. It took me ages to wrap my head around the fact that we got together at all."

Richie frowned, trying to force himself to remember when that had happened, but he couldn't quite do it. Couldn't quite push his mind back to that moment in time, and it was almost infuriating. Instead, he asked the question that he'd wanted to bring up since last night. "That happened at the quarry, didn't it?"

Eddie's eyes were wide again, staring up at him. "You remember that?"

"Not exactly." Richie fidgeted around for a moment and pressed a hand to his forehead. "I was sitting in our room last night, staring at our picture at Clear Lake, and that was what I remembered."

"You remember that trip?"

"A tiny part of it," Richie admitted, squinting his eyes in thought. "I think it must have been our first day there when you were explaining to me why I couldn't swim in a fucking lake." He rolled his eyes.

Eddie tightened his arms around their wedding album, that frown line appearing between his eyebrows. "Because it has dangerous levels of mercury deposits and cyanobacteria. I told you that ahead of time."

"Yeah, that," Richie replied, waving his hand dismissively. "But you told me that the first time you kissed me was at the quarry in Derry. But I don't remember it. And I want to. I want to so badly."

Eddie smiled in response, the emotion present on his face just managing to creep up to his eyes this time. "It was after we fought Pennywise the last time." He paused for a moment, staring down at his shoes. "I promised myself when we were down in the sewer that if we both made it out alive, I would just come out and tell you…or kiss you…or something. Because life was too damn short and we had both almost died too many times to waste another second without telling you how I felt."

"So you kissed me."

"I kissed you."

"Was that…so we were together then?"

"Sort of," Eddie said, pressing the toe of his shoe into the hardwood floor beneath them. "I mean, I was still married to Myra, and as much as I didn't love her, I felt I owed it to her to divorce her before we did anything beyond kissing. But yeah, technically we were together."

Almost against his better judgment, Richie found himself sticking out his bottom lip. "So you made me wait for sex?"

"You're damn right I did. For almost six months until my divorce was finalized. Thank god Myra didn't contest it in the long run, or it would have taken longer." Eddie was staring up at him through his eyelashes, a slightly mischievous expression on his face. "And now do you see what I meant by you talking about sex all the time?"

Richie scoffed, his mouth falling open. "It's hardly all the time. But you know…I just found out that I'm married to the man of my dreams. You'll have to excuse me if I'm a little bit excited about the prospect of us having sex."

That lovely shade of red suddenly flared to life in Eddie's cheeks and he diverted his gaze to the album in his arms. He was biting at his bottom lip like he was the one who didn't remember their sexy times, and goddamn it, Richie wanted to kiss him.

Deciding to cut Eddie some slack, Richie cleared his throat and said, "It's so weird the way things are coming back to me. They're hitting me in bits and pieces and they're all over the place. There really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. Kind of like putting a jigsaw puzzle together. I keep thinking that seeing the right thing will help." He heaved a sigh before he added, "I just wish I knew what that was. I thought it might have been our wedding picture at first, but…" He broke off, shaking his head. "That apparently wasn't the case."

"Let's look at some more then," Eddie said, latching onto the distraction. He raised the album slightly in his arms before he added, "Maybe something in here will help."

Eddie led the way into the living room while Richie trailed along after him. Eddie took a seat on the couch, waiting for Richie to join him before he finally lowered the wedding album down onto his lap.

The front cover was white with a lacey border around the edges. There was a single picture on it – a close-up of the wedding bands on their joined hands. Just above this, embroidered with orange thread into the fabric, it read:

R+E
October 1, 2017

At first, Richie reached out for the cover, intending to run his fingers over the lace, and then over the embroidery, and finally the picture itself. But then he changed his mind, his hand instead going to Eddie's own. He pressed his fingers into the wedding bands that Eddie still wore, feeling the way that the diamonds in them were satisfyingly textured and smooth against his skin.

"Was it stupid of me to not notice these?" Richie asked, his eyes going up to Eddie's face now. "They seem so…obvious now."

Eddie shook his head, his fingers shaking slightly underneath Richie's. He swallowed before he said, "I'm kind of glad you didn't. I was worried you might, but…I have no idea what the fuck I would have even said. If I would have come clean then or not…I don't know. But…I couldn't bring myself to take them off. I couldn't. They took yours off in the hospital and…I put it on as soon I came to see you that night. And I promised you I would wear yours until I could put it back on you."

He raised his eyes to Richie, and Richie could feel his breath warm against his chin. It was everything Richie could do to keep from leaning forward and kissing Eddie.

"I wouldn't have wanted you to take them off," Richie said. "They're…they're a symbol of our commitment, you know? It was like…you weren't giving up on us."

Shaking his head, Eddie said, "Never." His eyes were large, searching Richie's own like he was trying to gauge exactly what was going on in Richie's mind. "You're my husband. We promised to love each other for better or for worse, in sickness and in health. This doesn't…this doesn't change that."

"Not even the fact that I can't remember it?" Richie asked, because a part of him still wondered if that was entirely true. Wondered if Eddie didn't harbor some negative feelings towards him for forgetting him. "That I can't remember making those vows to you? When you weren't even sure if I still loved you?"

Eddie shook his head again. "No. I took those vows seriously. This is what they meant – sticking with you even when shit got hard. Not giving up as soon as we met our first hurdle as a couple. There's no stipulation in those vows that says all bets are off if one of us gets amnesia. I told you, we're going to get through this."

Richie stared long at hard at those rings on Eddie's fingers, rubbing his thumb furiously over his own. He wasn't even sure if Eddie would be willing to give it back just yet considering where their relationship was at the moment, but Richie had to ask. "Can I wear it again?"

"You…you want to?" Eddie's bottom lip was quivering. "Even though you can't remember…taking our vows?"

"I do," Richie replied firmly. "As long as you're not holding it against me that I can't remember."

"Oh god, no, never," Eddie said hurriedly. "I told you, none of this is your fault. I could never blame you for what you do or don't remember."

"Then I want to wear it," Richie said. "For a lot of reasons. Like you said, this doesn't change the fact that we're married and we did take those vows. I may not remember it, but…I want it. It's been my dream ever since I was thirteen years old to be married to you, and holy shit…I have it. I have you. You are my dream."

Richie laughed breathlessly, because he was still wrapping his head around the fact that he got the guy. Him. Stupid Richie Tozier who was too afraid to even admit his sexuality for forty years had gotten the man of his dreams after all. It was mind-blowing.

"And I still love you," Richie added. "I'll always love you for as long as I'm alive, so I'm not the least bit ready to give up on this. To give up on us."

Eddie's voice was shaking when he said, "Neither am I. And I love you. So fucking much."

"Even though I'm not the same husband you married?" Richie hadn't even really meant to voice his question out loud, but somehow, he found it out of his mouth before he could scarcely even process it. "I mean, we talked about this," Richie said when Eddie frowned at him. "You said the other night that you missed the old me. You missed your best friend, so…you miss your husband too, don't you?"

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Eddie said, "Yeah. I miss what we had, but like I said, we had a fucking a great marriage. We were so happy, but…just like you, I'm not about to give up on getting that back. It may not be exactly what we had before, but…I still want you, Richie. I still want us."

"And I'm still Richie."

"You are. You're still my husband."

Richie smiled, his eyes going back down to that ring on Eddie's index finger. His vision blurred a moment later, burning with tears. "So can I have it back?"

It was Eddie's turn to smile as he pulled his hand out of Richie's. He used his other hand to pull Richie's ring off his index finger, and it was a bit of struggle. It wasn't made for him after all, and he hadn't really noticed that it was a little snug around his finger. When he finally managed to remove it, it occurred to him that Richie probably didn't recall what was inscribed on the inside of the band either.

Eddie held it up for him, allowing the morning sunshine to reflect off the platinum and diamonds. "Look at the engraving," Eddie told him.

Richie placed his hand over Eddie's again, steadying it so that he could read those tiny little letters. "'R+E'," Richie whispered, his voice shaking as his eyes went back to those same letters embroidered on the front of their wedding album.

"Yeah. Do you remember why?"

Richie pressed his lips together, trying to suppress the quivering that he felt rippling through them. At the same time, however, he felt his eyes burning even more, so he knew at that point that trying to contain any emotions he was feeling was a lost cause. "Of course I fucking remember," Richie said, his voice breaking on the last word. "I carved our initials into the Kissing Bridge when I was thirteen, because I felt like I didn't have anywhere else to express my love for you." He met and held Eddie's gaze, his lips finally betraying his emotion, and this time, he didn't nothing to stop it. "I just wasn't aware that I told you…that I showed it to you."

"You showed me. It was the very last thing we did before we left Derry once and for all."

"What are we doing here?" Eddie asked. His fingers entwined tightly with Richie's as Richie led him across the crunching gravel path of the Kissing Bridge. Eddie had to admit, when Richie said they had one last thing to do before leaving Derry, this was the very last place Eddie thought they would end up.

Richie turned around, still guiding Eddie by the hand over toward the railing on one side of the bridge. He was grinning as he said, "I told you, I want to show you something. Something that I've been hiding from you for twenty-seven goddamned years."

"The Kissing Bridge?" Eddie asked, the smile evident in his voice. "Did you…?" he started, but then he stopped when Richie's words sunk in.

"Since I was thirteen," Richie said as they drew ever closer to the railing. When he finally slowed his steps, he turned around to face Eddie once more. He reached out his other hand, gripping both of Eddie's in his. Rubbing his thumbs over the backs of Eddie's hands, he said, "But it actually might have been longer, because…feelings like this don't just happen. But thirteen was when I first realized it. That I was in love with you."

A grin overtook Eddie's features before he asked, "When? When exactly did you know?"

Richie seemed to consider this for a moment. He glanced down at the gravel underfoot before scuffing at the stones with his shoe. "Um…when we weren't talking that summer, remember? After you broke your arm, and your mom wouldn't let us see you…and then the rest of us sort of fell apart for a while. Holy shit, I missed you so much. I missed all of you."

"I missed you guys too. Longest fucking summer of my life."

"I was at the arcade a lot, because aside from fucking your mom-"

"Shut the fuck up."

"-There wasn't much else to do," Richie finished with a grin. "I ended up playing Street Fighter with Connor Bowers a lot – you know, Henry's cousin. And um…he saw me and Connor together one day, and I guess Connor didn't want Henry to know that we were getting to be friends. He yelled at me about wanting to be his boyfriend, and Henry got entirely the wrong idea. Started calling me…those names for wanting to bone his little cousin."

"The…F-words?"

Richie nodded. "Among other things. It was the first time anyone suspected…even though I think Henry was just trying to embarrass me, and he thought that was the best way to do it. Regardless, it was the first time I got called those things and…I didn't quite know how to deal with it."

There was the faint glisten of tears in Richie's eyes, causing Eddie to frown deeply. "Rich…" Eddie said, reaching up a hand to cup Richie's cheek. "Why didn't you ever tell me about that?"

Richie sniffled slightly before he said, "Well, we weren't even talking then, and…it was complicated. Remember I wasn't out then, and I felt like I couldn't talk about it without outing myself. Because that was when I knew."

Eddie comfortably placed his hands on the front of Richie's sweatshirt, glancing up at him through his eyelashes. "Knew what?"

"That was when I knew beyond a doubt that I was in love with you." Richie wrapped one arm around Eddie's waist and brought the other one up to cup his cheek.

"Out of something like that?"

"Yeah," Richie said. "Because it had been so easy to ignore before, but when Henry was calling me those names, all I could think was that…it was true. I couldn't even begin to try and deny it. Except it wasn't Connor that I wanted, and I knew that then. All I wanted to do was tell them that it was you. That it had always been you. But I obviously couldn't do that. All I could do then was…run away and stew about how I'd never have the one I really wanted. About how I could never even be honest about my feelings, because everyone would hate me for it."

Eddie found his bottom lip quivering, so he momentarily buried his head into the front of Richie sweatshirt until the sensation passed. "Oh, Rich," he said when he glanced back up. "No one's going to hate you, least of all me, because I've always wanted you too."

Richie pressed his fingers to the underside of Eddie's chin and said, "It was a couple days later that I came here, because you were all I could think about – how much I missed you and…how I had fallen in love with you at some point along the way. So I came here and…" Richie trailed off, tugging on one of Eddie's hands, pulling him even closer yet to the fence.

Still holding Eddie's hand in his, he raised it towards the old and weathered wood. He pressed Eddie's fingertips into letters that looked like they had been carved quite a long time ago. Without saying a word, Richie traced Eddie's fingers along the scrawl marks that spelled out R+E.

"Rich…" Eddie began, feeling a bit breathless. He took a moment to try and catch his breath again, because his heart was thumping a little hard in his chest. In the end, he simply asked, "When you were thirteen?"

"When I was thirteen," Richie repeated back, grinning. "And when I did, I didn't think there was any possible way that you could love me back." He paused for a moment, huffing out a soft breath of air. "Or that I'd ever bring you here to show you. Or that we'd ever do so as a couple. I thought…I was resigned to pine over you for the rest of my life."

"And here we are," Eddie said, gripping Richie's hand so tightly in his that his knuckles were turning white. But Richie didn't seem to mind. His eyes trailed up from the carving to Richie, staring up at him intently. "Can we…recarve them?"

Richie was still grinning as he said, "Fuck yeah, we can. I was hoping you'd say that."

Richie took a moment to withdraw his pocket knife from his jeans and open it. He held it out, allowing Eddie to place his hand over top of his. Together, they traced the blade along the letters, deepening and strengthening the impressions in the wood that the years and weather had begun to wear away.

When Richie closed the knife and replaced it in his pocket, Eddie replaced his hands on the front of Richie's sweatshirt. A moment later, he pushed himself up on his tiptoes, kissing Richie just as he had done that very first time back at the quarry. But now, it was so very different. It wasn't new and tentative like it had been, but it was growing to be welcoming and comfortable, just like going home.

Richie was now staring down at the engraving inside his wedding ring, his bottom lip quivering and his eyes welling up with tears just like that day at the Kissing Bridge with Eddie. It was only now hitting Richie just how much they shared together as a couple and how much he had truly had forgotten. Richie had always known they had a history, but this…this was so much more than he had ever dared to dream about.

"Are you okay?" Eddie asked, placing his hand on Richie's shoulder.

Nodding his head, Richie snaked his fingers up underneath his glasses to swipe away the tears that had collected there. "It's overwhelming, you know? To find out that we have all these memories together that…I can't remember."

Eddie sighed softly, wrapped his arm tightly around Richie's shoulders. He leaned his head into Richie's shoulder, placing his other hand over the ring that Richie held in his fingers. "I can't imagine what it must feel like," Eddie replied. "And I'm so sorry for thinking that lying to you about it would be the best idea. I owed it to you to be honest with you from the start. You were right – husbands shouldn't be lying to each other like that."

"But this has been hard on you too. I can't imagine what it's like to realize your husband doesn't remember being married to you," Richie said, resting his cheek on top of Eddie's head. "We've both been through a lot of shit because of this, but…that never stopped you from being here for me. You've…been the strong one for me, and…I know it's fucking hard to be in that position – to feel like you have to be a rock and like you can't show any weakness."

"Bill's been a good listener," Eddie told him. "He came to be with me at the hospital as soon as I called him when this first happened, and…he's been a really good friend."

"Yeah, he has," Richie agreed, grateful that Bill had advised him to just be honest with Eddie, because that was definitely the best course of action. Richie couldn't even imagine going back to how things had been just the day before, hiding his feelings for Eddie and pretending that he wasn't dying inside because of it. Dancing around their feelings for each other instead of…just coming clean like they were doing now. Because fuck, this was freeing and exhilarating. On the other hand, however, Richie felt like he had a bone to pick with Bill.

"That fucking asshole though!" Richie cried. "He listened to me go on and on about my feelings for you last night and he pretended to play dumb. Like you weren't already well aware of how I felt about you and that you returned my feelings."

"That's my fault," Eddie said. "I asked him not to say anything to you. Please don't be mad at him."

"I'm not really mad. Just…that fucking asshole!"

Eddie giggled quietly, squeezing Richie's shoulders and pressing his head into the crook of Richie's neck.

"I was nearly having a nervous breakdown," Richie complained, "stressing out about how I thought my feelings were going to ruin everything between us. And he fucking knew."

"Everybody knew," Eddie said around a sigh, "and again, that's my fault. I asked them all to keep quiet about the nature of our relationship." Eddie lifted his head from Richie's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for lying to you and for making everyone else lie for me."

"Hey," Richie said, holding Eddie's gaze firmly, "you don't need to keep apologizing. I know you're sorry and that you regret it. And I'm working on forgiving you, okay?"

Swallowing audibly, Eddie nodded. "I promise I'm going to make it up to you though. I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to do that yet, but I will."

"I know," Richie said around a smile. A moment later, he pulled his hand away from Eddie's, the one still holding his wedding band. He let it fall into his palm and held it out for Eddie. "Can…can you put it on?"

Blinking up at Richie, Eddie asked, "You want me to?"

Richie nodded, because he was almost craving the feeling of that band on his finger again. Of feeling connected and tethered to Eddie in a way that he hadn't felt since he had woken up in the hospital. "Yeah, I do. Because we're going to get through this shit together and…I want that reminder. I want to be able to look down at my hand and know that we're in this together. I told you that I can do this with your love and support and…that's what this symbolizes."

Eddie took a deep and shuddering breath as he reached out for Richie's ring. He secured it in his shaking fingers before taking Richie's hand in his free one. He hesitated for the briefest moment before he carefully and gently slid the ring onto Richie's finger just like he might have that day in October that now seemed so very long ago.

Richie had almost been hoping that the simple sensation of feeling it on his finger, of having Eddie place it there might shake something loose in his mind. What it did do, however, was to give Richie back that tiny bit of weight on his finger that he had been craving, even if he hadn't entirely realized it. He had known since he had woken up in the hospital that something had been missing there, and at least he had that back now. Even if it didn't entirely reawaken those memories that were still locked away inside his head.

Richie pressed his palm over the back of Eddie's hand, letting their wedding rings scrape up against each other with a soft metallic sound. Threading his fingers through Richie's, Eddie gripped them tightly before wrapping his arm around the back of Richie's neck. Eddie rubbed his face into Richie's shoulder, and Richie simply snaked his own arm around Eddie's waist.

Neither of them said anything for a while, and Richie didn't feel like they needed to. That it was okay to simply let their closeness speak for itself. Richie still wanted to kiss Eddie, to fully take him in his arms and start making out with him like he knew they probably had done so many times before. Because they obviously couldn't keep their hands off each other when they were together. But still, Richie held back, wanting to take things at a pace that would allow them to relearn being with each other. Richie felt like rushing into more physical closeness would only complicate matters at this point. The very last thing he wanted was to end up in bed with Eddie while things were still so very "new" and unsure between the two of them.

When they finally released each other, Eddie started flipping through their wedding album. He'd occasionally point out certain pictures, explaining what exactly was happening in them, but for the most part, they looked through the pictures silently. Richie was still waiting for something to click, for something to fall into place inside his mind, but nothing did. But still, it was nice – just simply sitting there with Eddie and doing something as normal as looking through pictures.

Richie tentatively leaned his head against Eddie's shoulder before asking, "Is this okay?"

"Mm," Eddie murmured, pausing in turning the pages of the album. He paused for a while before he lifted his arm up, getting it out from underneath Richie. Eddie wrapped his arm around Richie's shoulders once again, pulling Richie up against him. Richie went, letting Eddie's warmth envelope him. A moment later, Eddie buried his nose in Richie's hair.

It felt nice, Richie decided. He loved leaning up against Eddie's chest, hearing his heart beating there. He liked feeling Eddie's warm breath against his scalp and Richie thought he recalled that sensation. It was like a strange muscle memory, like he knew it was something he had experienced time and time again. Like Eddie had some strange fascination with his hair. Even though he thought he remembered Eddie making fun of his out-of-control locks on more than one occasion.

This thought caused Richie to snort, because leave it to his husband to tease Richie about everything he secretly enjoyed. Like Richie's 'dumb' comedy and his obsession with 'ugly' Hawaiian shirts.

"What?" Eddie asked quietly.

"For someone that hates my hair," Richie said, "you sure enjoy touching it every chance you get."

Eddie stiffened underneath him for the briefest moment. "I never said I hated it," Eddie argued. "I just said you could cut it and fix it a little neater."

Richie's next words were out of his mouth before he scarcely even had time to process them. They were there, spilling out of some deeply buried memory that he couldn't quite recall entirely. "If I cut it, what would you have to grab onto while we have sex?"

"I told you!" Eddie snapped, playfully pressing against Richie. "All you do is think about sex. You have a fucking one-track mind."

"Mmm," Richie murmured, settling more comfortably against Eddie's side. "A one-track mind when it comes to you."

Eddie didn't reply, but he felt Eddie turning his head to rest his cheek against Richie's hair. Eddie quietly went back to flipping through their wedding album before he pointed out another picture in particular.

"This was from our first dance," Eddie said, tapping his finger against the plastic sleeve of the album.

The picture in question showed them on the deck on the beach where Richie now knew their reception had been. Eddie had his arms wrapped around Richie's waist while he had buried his head in Richie's chest. Richie, meanwhile, was kissing the top of Eddie's head. The beach and the setting sun were behind them, the orange glow seeming to set them on fire. Due to the contrast in the light, the expression on Richie's face wasn't entirely clear, but Richie could just make out enough.

There was a very small smile on Richie's lips and his eyes were shut tightly – like he couldn't believe this was happening to him. And he probably couldn't. Richie still couldn't quite believe that he and Eddie were together, let alone married. Richie couldn't even begin to imagine what he had been feeling in that moment while he was holding Eddie, his husband as they danced-

And again, the words were tumbling out of Richie like a tidal wave, unbridled now that they had made themselves known. "'Heart beats fast. Colors and promises.' That was our wedding song, wasn't it?"

Eddie drew in a sharp breath at Richie's words, his arm tightening around Richie's shoulders. "Yeah. Another thing I lied to you about."

Richie reached his arm around Eddie's stomach in response, cuddling even closer to let him know that Richie wasn't quite as upset it about it like he had been. A moment later, Richie realized that he hadn't been misremembering things. It hadn't been his imagination, or wishful thinking, or a fantasy that he had dreamed up. It had actually fucking happened.

"Oh my god," Richie said breathlessly.

"What?"

"I sang that to you, didn't I?" Richie asked. He pulled away from Eddie, sitting up straighter and staring into his husband's eyes. "I sang that to you off-key, because even after I had you, I still never stopped trying to get your attention."

There was a strange expression on Eddie's face – one caught somewhere between happiness and perhaps a little bit of sadness. "Are you kidding?" Eddie asked. "You sang this to me about fifty thousand times. After Bev introduced it to us and you eventually changed your mind about it, you sang it to me constantly. Because I was still hellbent against it being our wedding song, and for some reason, you thought being annoying about it would be the best way to change my mind." Eddie rolled his eyes.

Richie could only grin, because holy shit, all of those flashes in his mind about singing off-key to Eddie had been real. "And I eventually won you over."

"Yeah, well," Eddie muttered, "you were being so fucking insufferable that I knew the only way to get you to shut up was to just give in already."

"It's a nice song though," Richie said, leaning into Eddie again and pressing his head up against Eddie's chest.

After a few moments of comfortable silence, Eddie admitted, "Yeah, it is."

"Any regrets about it being our wedding song now?"

"No. Because it suits us. Perfectly."

"See?" Richie asked, burrowing impossibly closer to Eddie. "It always pays to listen to me."

"Shut the fuck up." Eddie pressed his nose into Richie's hair again before he asked, "Richie?"

"Hm?"

Richie could feel, could hear Eddie swallowing before he spoke again. "Can I…kiss you here? On your head?"

His heart thumping in his chest, Richie whispered, "Yeah." God, he wanted nothing more than for Eddie to kiss him, even though he really wished that Eddie would kiss him somewhere else entirely. Richie, however, would take what he could get.

Eddie's lips finally connected with Richie's scalp, gently resting there. Eddie released Richie's shoulder, bringing his hand up and letting his fingers thread through Richie's hair instead. Eddie held him there and it felt nice. A part of Richie never wanted Eddie to let him go, because right then, Richie thought he could almost forget everything that had happened to him over the past few weeks. With Eddie holding him so tenderly, with the way they had just exchanged a little bit of banter, Richie could almost allow himself to believe that it was just another lazy and cuddly day in their marriage.

Almost.

Richie had no idea that that perfect little bubble he felt forming around the two of them was about to burst again.

"We ask that anyone with information pertaining to this case please contact the Los Angeles County police department or call 911."

"Why the fuck is it my picture that's plastered all over the television and in the newspapers?!" the man with the big nose asked, pacing around his small and shitty-looking living room. "You're the one that tried to kill him!"

"At least it's a good likeness," the man lounging on the couch said. Lounging, like they weren't talking about the fact that they had almost killed a guy. "They even got your nose. Have you ever seen some of these police drawings? A lot of them are so shitty and look nothing like anyone even related to the crime."

"Are you listening to yourself? At least they got my nose? Seriously? That's what you're thinking about right now?" He gripped his hair at the root, almost feeling desperate enough to pull it out. "They're going to fucking catch me and I'm not even the attempted murderer here. You are! No one was even supposed to get hurt! You said no one would get hurt!"

The other man leaped up off the couch, quickly crossing the room and shoving his finger in Big Nose's face. "I did that for you! You said so yourself that fucking Tozier had gotten a good look at your face. I did what I did to shut him up!"

"And you couldn't even do that right!" Big Nose cried, waving his arms around frantically. "He didn't die, and I don't know if he has amnesia or what, but he sure as fuck remembers me! Me! You're the one that tried to kill him, but there's fuck all about you."

"I guess you have one of those faces," the other man said, returning to his spot on the couch. He propped his feet up on the coffee table, again acting like they weren't wanted by the fucking police. "I told you, it's your nose, man. You should have gotten a nose job ages ago."

Big Nose stalked over to the couch, standing in between his friend and the television set. "In case you're forgetting, this was all your idea in the first place. I did this to help you, because you had to have that fucking notebook. You said no one would even be home!"

"So I didn't realize he had his car in the shop," the man on the couch said. "My bad." He leaned forward, retrieving the small red notebook from the coffee table next to his feet. He leaned back against the couch, casually flipping through the pages. "Tozier does have good ideas in here though. Dumbass really shouldn't boast about his 'little red book' all the damn time, because he was just asking for this shit. I'll just have to lay low for a while until I can use any of these jokes. If I came out with any of them right away, it would be a bit obvious."

"Jesus Christ," Big Nose muttered, returning to pacing around the small room. "My picture is plastered all over, and you're still worried about your career. There are bigger things to worry about right now!"

Pausing and looking up from the notebook, the other man said, "For you maybe." He smirked before returning his attention to the notebook.

Big Nose stopped and whirled around. A moment later, he was leaning down over his friend, both of his hands on the back of the couch on either side of the man's neck. "Make no mistake – if I go down, I'm taking you with me. I'm telling them exactly whose idea this was. That you were so fucking jealous about another man's success, you thought it would be easy to just waltz into his home and steal his 'little red book' of ideas."

"Get the fuck away from me," the man on the couch said, placing his hand in the middle of Big Nose's chest and shoving him back. He feigned interest in the notebook a little while longer before he casually said, "You know, the best way to deal with this is to shut him up entirely. Then I won't have a comedic rival anymore – no one to recognize his jokes once I use them – and you won't have anyone giving information about you to the police."

Scoffing, Big Nose pressed his hands over his eyes, like it would allow him to wake up from this nightmare his life had become. "You're out of your fucking mind. This seriously started out as a 'little crime'. Just steal his notebook that he would never miss. All of a sudden, my face is all over the news, and you're talking about going back to 'shut him up'. This has snowballed beyond our control."

Letting the little red notebook fall into his lap, the man on the couch said, "So do you want to take back control of it or not?"

To be continued…

Author's note: Stay tuned for the next chapter, where Richie and Eddie visit the animal shelter! I'm about 99% sure what kind of dog they're going to get, but I was going back and forth between a couple different ones at first. What kind of dog do you think it's going to be? One hint: it's not a Pomeranian. :P