your touch is my weakness
Summary: Eddie is a witch with a big fat crush on his friend. What could possibly go wrong?
Written by @reddieforlove
Gift for @heknewwellenough
Pairing: Richie Tozier x Eddie Kaspbrak
Word count: 1427
Rating: T for language
Eddie would always remember the first time that he met Richie Tozier. When they shook hands, the lights above them flickered. That’s when he knew that something was off. It would have been comedic if it wasn’t so damn frustrating. A powerful witch with a fucking crush. What the hell? The worst part was that he had no idea how to deal with it.
Nothing like this had ever happened to him. Things might have been intense with other people but they were never this explosive. And that wasn’t even an exaggeration. It was thoughts like these that had Eddie glowering into a half empty glass of water as Stan meticulously wiped down the bar in front of him.
“Incoming,” his best friend warned.
Eddie tensed up, inhaling deeply as he heard footsteps approaching.
“What’s going on, fuckers?” Richie asked, slipping into the seat next to him.
Ignoring his boisterous, explicit greeting, Eddie sulked further into his stool.
“Nothing,” Eddie muttered, resisting the temptation to look his way.
It was bad enough that he had to curl his hands into fists to rein in the power that simmered beneath his skin. Seeing how good he looked wouldn’t really help him.
“He okay?” Richie asked, sounding less cheerful and more worried.
“Moody,” Stan answered without hesitation.
“I’m right here,” Eddie reminded them both.
Stan gave him an almost smirk before turning around to refill napkin containers.
“Hey,” Richie said softly, nudging Eddie’s shoulder with his.
It was a familiar gesture, one that had become a habit over the past few months. He was a physical person just like Eddie which, unfortunately, did not help this situation. Sure enough, he saw the picture on the TV fade in and out several times before turning off completely.
“What?” he said, dragging his eyes away from the TV to mistakenly look straight into his deep blue gaze.
Richie looked concerned, a slight frown creasing his forehead and turning his lips downward.
“What’s wrong?”
If his physical attributes weren’t enough, the fact that he cared enough to ask certainly did it for him. Richie wasn’t like that in the beginning, teasing Eddie and arguing with him about everything under the sun. To be fair, Eddie didn’t exactly refuse to take part in the verbal sparring sessions. But now that they were past their mutual antagonism, it felt natural to share most things.
“Just feeling off today,” he told him.
Richie reached out before Eddie could stop him, putting a hand over his.
“Son of a bitch!” another patron yelled from the other end of the bar as one of the hanging light fixtures over the bar shattered.
Eddie yanked his hand away, glancing at Stan with wide eyes as his friend shook his head, looking entirely unimpressed at this point. Richie, on the other hand, was suspicious. This was far from the first time that something like this had happened. It was different things all the time but by now he had to have at least one or two theories. Eddie was just afraid of him figuring out the truth.
“I’ll go help,” he said, giving Eddie a calculating look before going over to assist in cleaning up glass.
Letting out a miserable groan, Eddie let his head thump against the bar.
“You’re fucked,” Stan informed him.
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he said dryly, lifting his head to glare at the other man.
*
Halloween came and went. Eddie laughed good-naturedly at Beverly’s witch costume, complete with pointed hat. An incident hadn’t happened in weeks and Eddie dared to hope that it was forgotten. It wasn’t until Richie came to him with a heavy book and a look of determination that he knew that he was in trouble.
“I know what’s going on.”
Eddie basically inhaled the water he was drinking, coughing and sputtering as Ben thumped his back.
“What?” Eddie managed to choke out.
“You’re haunted,” he said, dropping the book on the bar.
An immense wave of relief swept over him. If he was looking on that end of the supernatural spectrum, he wasn’t anywhere close to figuring out what was really going on.
“That’s ridiculous,” Stan snorted.
Eddie gave him a dirty look, resisting the temptation to throw something heavy his way.
“It’s not. It explains everything. Weird things happen around you,” Richie said, sitting up straighter as he flipped the book open.
“Not that weird,” Eddie said, averting his eyes.
“Remember that time we were watching those scary movies at my place?”
How could Eddie forget? Richie brushed his hair out of his face and all hell broke loose.
“Barely,” he shrugged.
Richie gaped at him with disbelief.
“Every door in the place blew open. Even the locked front door,” he reminded him.
Eddie pretended not to recall it all that clearly, even though he could still remember the surge of power in his body when Richie’s fingertips brushed his cheek. It had been a particularly humiliating evening, especially when he had to recount it to Stan, his only confidant.
“I’m going to prove it to you,” Richie said stubbornly.
Eddie searched his mind for a way to convince him to leave it be. Nothing he came up with led back to anything but telling him the truth.
“Let’s hope it’s a friendly ghost,” he said, forcing a smile on his face as he ignored Stan’s eye roll.
*
It was hard, watching Richie comb through dusty old books and dozens of websites to find the answer to a problem he didn’t have. Part of him thought that it was sweet of him to go through so much effort. The other part wondered if he was only doing it to find some sort of satisfaction once he figured it out. Eddie wasn’t sure exactly which of those reasons caused him to speak up as Richie came upon yet another dead end one night in the apartment that Eddie shared with Stan.
“I’m not haunted, Richie.”
“I just haven’t found a way to test it Eddie. But I’ll figure it out,” Richie assured him, thinking he was just giving up on the idea.
“I was never haunted,” Eddie pushed, stepping forward. “It’s something else entirely.”
Richie looked up at him with confusion creasing his brow.
“What do you mean?” he asked slowly.
Taking a deep breath, he prepared himself for his reaction.
“I’m a witch.”
Before he could burst out laughing, which he knew was coming soon, Eddie flicked his hand over one of his books and sent it flying across the room. When it thudded against the wall, Richie almost fell off his chair in his haste to stand up.
“What the fuck?”
“I told you,” he said quietly, weaving his fingers together. “I didn’t tell you before because…well I don’t really tell anyone.”
Richie stared at him, looking torn between slow realization and lingering disbelief.
“A witch?”
Eddie nodded, sinking his teeth into his lower lip as he waited for Richie to process it.
“So you can use a potion to turn me into a newt or something?”
“I don’t need the potion, but yeah,” he replied.
Richie glanced between him and the fallen book.
“So all the exploding lights and slamming doors…” he trailed off, looking at him questioningly.
Eddie’s shoulders slumped and he sighed heavily, knowing that he just had to get this over with.
“Yes, that was me. I get nervous around you and I lose control a little bit. I’m working on it,” he promised.
“You get nervous around me?” Richie said, suddenly more interested in that statement than the whole witch thing as a grin pulled at his lips. “As in…”
“Yes,” Eddie said, already knowing that he had it right. “I’ve got a big stupid crush on you, Richie Tozier. And because of that, I turn into a... a flustered mess who can’t rein in the abilities that he’s had since childhood. I know it’s embarrassing, believe me. My dad just says that I need to build up a sort of immunity to…”
He was cut off by lips on his, letting out a squeak of surprise before relaxing into the kiss. As Richie’s fingers tangled in his hair and his other hand pressed over his hip, Eddie felt a burst of warmth in his chest and winced at the sound of shattering glass. They were suddenly plunged into darkness, pulling away at once.
“I’m working on it,” Eddie repeated with a serious tone in his voice
Richie’s laugh was the only reply he got before they were kissing once more.