The Tickle Monster is Ticklish
Ship: Hinted Reddie, Hinted Stenbrough
A/N: Thank you to @coolcactidude for this prompt! I hope you enjoy!
The clubhouse had cleared out by three members now, leaving only Richie, Eddie, Stan and Bill together.
Richie sat sat crosslegged with a comic open in his hands, tongue poking between his teeth in concentration. Behind him, sat Eddie, reading over Richie’s shoulder, resting his head in the crook of his neck. It was Stan’s turn in the hammock, so that’s where he resided, holding his bird book above his head as he read through the pages, taking in every intricate detail about the common redpoll.
And bill - to put it simply - was bored. Even with Richie around, the room was unnaturally quiet, and he had nothing to do. No books, no games, not even his Walkman. It was quiet. Too quiet.
Careful not to make a sound, he snuck up behind Eddie, before tasing both of his sides from behind with a grin. This resulted in a shriek from the shorter of the two, before he burst into shrilly and frantic laughter, pushing Bill’s hands away.
The sudden loud noise caused the other two both to jump, and Richie to raise a hand to his ear on the side of which Eddie had been resting his head. “Blimey, old chap! You’ll deafen is all if ya keep that up!” Richie told Eddie in a terrible british accent, which leant more towards Australian than it did british.
Bill stopped after a few moments, not wanting to push the asthmatics boundaries and cause him to have an Asthma attack.
Eddie, completely embarrassed, sat up, rubbing at his sides where the sensation had just been. His cheeks were flushed red and he quickly shuffled back over to Richie, looking down. And Richie couldn’t get enough of how adorable Eddie looked like that.
“Say, I don’t think any of us have ever gotten revenge on old Billy boy for all the times he’s tickled us lot..” Richie smirked, eyes now drawn completely away from his comic book and resting on Bill’s.
“That’s because we all fear what he’ll do to us when we’re done...” Eddie mumbled.
“Not if you get his lower ribs,” Stan stated completely calmly from the hammock, not a waver in his voice.
Richie’s eyes lit up with a mischievous glint. “Is that so~?” His voice was menacing and teasing, holding almost a tone of threat.
Bill’s cheeks were now an even darker shade of red than Eddie’s. “S-s-s-stan! You swore you’d keep that s-secret!” He hissed at the curly haired boy, who seemed completely unfazed by Bill’s whining.
“Aha! So it is true!” Richie grinned, turning his body completely around to face Bill, now backing him into the corner. Eddie followed right at his side, a smirk even more evil than Richie’s, which was definitely something to fear.
“N-n-no!” Bill attempted to protest, though he was already grinning and anticipation giggles were pouring from his lips.
“Y-y-yes!” Richie mocked, before launching forward and in one swift motion, tackled him into a lying position. Eddie moves just as fast as Richie, grabbing Bill’s flailing arms and pinning them down to the floor, above his head.
Bill barely even had a chance to try and talk his way out of it; Richie was already digging his fingers into the stuttering boy’s ribs.
A shriek, even higher and louder than Eddie’s had been just less than five minutes ago, sounded in the air, followed by fits of hysterical giggles.
The losers had heard Bill laugh before, but never like this. His laughter was hoarse, like his voice were about to crack, and it had an almost childlike quality to it.
“Ahhh! So the tickle monster is ticklish, Hmm~?” Richie teased, but was only met with more laughter.
He wriggled and squirmed under Richie’s evil touch, letting out the occasional squeal when Eddie felt brave and strong enough to flutter his fingers under his arms.
The tickling on his ribs soon moved further down to his sides, where Bill’s giggles died down, giving him a chance to catch his breath a little.
“If you’re looking to make him scream, try his knees,” Stan remarked in that same, flat tone.
Bill’s eyes widened. “Fuhuck y-y-yohohou Stan- aaAHAHAHAHA-!”
Stan’s brain was on autopilot. “Not right now, dear-“ he responded, before his eyes went wide and it was his turn for his cheeks to tint pink. A hand slapped over his mouth as if it would help the words that had just left his lips be silenced. Lucky for him, they weren’t silenced by his hands, but drowned out by Bill’s hysterical laughter as Richie squeezed at the flesh just above his knees.
“BAAAAAHAHA! R-R-RUH-R-AAAHAHAHA!” His stutter grew too heavy to speak and his loud laughter interrupted his sentence. He wasn’t even really sure what he was going to say, but all his mind was screaming at him was that this sensation was unbearable.
Bill’s laughter grew silent after a little too long, and Richie took this as his queue to stop. Eddie followed suit, releasing Bill’s pinned arms.
Instantly, Bill curled up on himself, residual giggles pouring from his lips and hair falling in his face.
Heads turned to Bill again, and there was another pause.
Bill had caught the hiccups from laughing too hard.
All three of the other’s cooed at how cute it was, only causing Bill’s cheeks to turn an impossible shade of pink. “Sh-sh-sh-shut up! Hic!”
“You’re just too cute, big Bill,” Richie grinned, messing up his hair before standing and sitting back where he had before, picking up his comic. But before he continued reading, he had to ask a burning question.
“Hey Stan?” Richie asked.
“How did you know all of Bill’s weak spots?” He asked.
“That’s not all of them. His tummy and neck are super sensitive to raspberries,” Stan stated plainly again, not even looking away from his book.
“Noted,” Richie grinned, eyes darting briefly over to the flustered boy still curled up in the corner, catching his breath. Then he looked back to stan. “But, how do you know that?”
There was the slightest pause.
“Private tickle fights,” Stan responded. And for the first time Richie had seen that evening, a flicker of a smile flashed over the Jew’s face. Just for a moment.
