#sweetsacrifice

Richie began to pull into the driveway and huffed, running his hands together along the wheel to chase the chill away. It was already getting cooler, and a small part of him yearned to be back in California where it was warm and things were normal. People didn't get eaten by sewer clowns, late night comedians didn't perform hidden rituals with stuttering authors to mentally battle an ancient evil, and the dead stayed were they had fallen.

'And you're alone, did you forget that part? You think you're some hotshot now, Tozier, but when the stage lights come down and the credits roll and you go home to Beverly Hills you've just got this big empty mansion and not a soul around. No Bill, Beverly, and Ben. No Mike and Stan. No Eddie.'

Richie blinked for a moment as he found himself picturing a life with Eddie in California. The asthmatic man huffing and bitching about 'eight bedrooms in this goddamned house and you can't even contain the mess to just one of them?' He pictured Eddie moving his limousine business out to Hollywood, took a second to imagine Eddie as his limousine driver. He thought of rolled eyes and small smirks, seeing Eddie watching him perform from the back room that his agent usually occupied, flipping him the bird anytime he caught Richie looking. Thought of having a congratulatory drink with him at his home (their home) in Beverly Hills, laying on the couch next to the fireplace and watching Ghostbusters like they used to when they were just kids. He thought of reaching across Eddie to turn the light off, a breathy giggle against his mouth, and waking up the next morning with a hickey on his throat, scratches down his back, and the chance to do it all over again that same day.

And God, Richie felt a surge of joy at that little daydream, he wanted it so badly he was physically aching for it. Surely that wasn't that weird, he just wanted to live with his best friend and spend every waking moment that he could with him, and wanted to see him happy and okay and sometimes make out with him but only if he's okay with it-

And that was when Richie suddenly and abruptly realized he was in love with Eddie Kaspbrak.

"Fuck!" Richie exclaimed, slamming to a halt a bit too abruptly in Mike's driveway, nearly taking out the tree in the front yard.

And he knew in that instant why California didn't ever feel like home to him.

The only time he truly felt like he was home was when Eddie was at his side. Anywhere that wasn't with the shorter man was too far away.

God, and they called Ben Hanscom the sappy one.