#avemvigilate

they’ve slept side by side for years, now. yet, stan waking up in the middle of the night is something that still catches him off guard. is something that still has him waking up too, a sense of discomfort in the room, and ben can only make a noise, concern all too obvious. holds a hand out so that it grazes over stan’s as the other sits up, dragging a hand down his face. he’s lived with stan for longer than they’ve been like this to each other; dating, sexual, loving, affectionate. side-by-side, ben with his face buried in stan’s neck more often than not.     “’s okay,”     he murmurs, voice still thick with sleep. he doesn’t know why exactly stan’s awake, but clearly something’s playing on his mind, and ben’s twisting, turning, until he’s laying on his other side. looking at the other man’s bare back. the mess of his hair from sleeping.     “you okay?”     he knows he isn’t. he wants stan to be the one to say it, though.     “another dream?”     he doesn’t take offence when stan grunts his reply, as he’s clearly torn between laying back down and getting out of bed. in the end, stan does the former. something close to guarded in his eyes as he lays back down and looks over towards him. ben doesn’t touch him. not yet. not until stan tells him that he can.     “just breathe--  you’re okay.  it’s okay, babe.”

                                                                                                             richie tozier

    it’s a little bit of a relief that they don’t have the same homeroom as richie, cuz he’d probably do some obnoxious voice like STAN THE MAN FINALLY DECIDED TO JOIN US AT THE BIG KID’S TABLE JUST IN TIME FOR SENIOR YEAR! or something stupid like that. eddie settles for a grin, because it’s easier, because he wants to. “glad that we’re at least gonna graduate together but it sucks that you had to spend your last summer in high school doing homework the whole ass time.”

“Stan the man !” Richie looked up at him, his tone loud with excitement as he clambered out of the hammock he shabbily hung between two trees in his front lawn. “I wanted to show you it, isn’t it fuckin’ sick ? The doctor says I get more ‘ vitamin D  ‘ or whatever but I told that shmuck I’m not gay and I won’t have any of that bullshit.” He snorted as he wiggled his finger in front of him, the other hand on his hip with a straightened posture for emphasis.

    “hey.” he slows his bike down, waddle-walking with it so he can keep pace with stan on the sidewalk. they’re not really friends, not like stan and eddie are, but stan’s one of the best outfielders under fifteen that plays out behind tracker bros, so ted doesn’t feel like talking to him is a waste of time. he’s never sure if stan feels the same way or not -- the feelings that radiate off him are complicated, muddled, hard to understand. not for the first time, ted understands why people think stan is so much older than he really is. “me and a few boys are playing today after lunch. you got anything better to do?”

     catching up with stan felt almost long overdue at this point, and there was a pang of guilt in his chest that he hadn’t reached out sooner ;  but stanley had his own life, with a wife and job and what not.  or at least, that’s what he’d told himself.  maybe he was just a bad brother.  that was probably it.  his thumb clicked stan’s name in his phone, holding it to his ear and waiting.  why was his heart racing?  

That’s Stan’s talent.