pure of heart

‘ how-- how is that even possible, ava? ’ stan blinked, confused as ever, but mildly intrigued. ‘ what, did the bird have a gun or something? ’ he replies, the sarcasm absent from his tone but heavily implied. lovebirds weren’t typically very aggressive birds - so the idea made even less sense the more stan thought about it.

bill   tends   to   get   kind   of   standoffish   with   georgie   whenever   one   of   his   friends   is   over -   too   easily   peeved   by   his   little   brother’s   earnest   attempts   to   tag   along   like   a   little   lost   puppy  .   

ma   sighs   over   the   two   of   them   and   says   georgie   should   just   go   play   with   his   own   friends   instead   of   hanging   around   the   big   boys ,   but -   it’s   kind   of   hard   to   do   that   when   caleb’s   grounded   and   ava’s   been   hauled   off   for   some   yawny   old   day   trip   with   her   family  !

but   it’s   fine ,   really ;   he’s   got   his   own   stuff   to   do   while   he   eagerly   awaits   her   return  …   y’know ,   math   homework   and   spelling   tests -   and   most   importantly ,   a   glossy   new   comic   book   to   attend   to  !   georgie’s   actually   much   too   busy   to   go   sit   with   stan   and   bill ,   even  .   definitely  .

he’s   poring   over   an   especially   dull   sheet   of   simple   division ,   still   rather   befuddled   by   how   he’s   even   supposed   to   go   about   dividing   one   number   by   another ,   when   stan   yells  .   glancing   up   and   blinking   owlishly ,   georgie’s   only   too   happy   to   ditch   the   work   and   investigate  !!   little   boy   paces   out   into   the   hall ,   stopping   short   outside   the   bathroom ,   and   calls   back ,

“   um ,   it’s   georgie  !   you   okay   in   there ,   stan  ??   ”

stan shakes his head no, the motion quick and panicked ( despite the fact that georgie cannot see him through the closed bathroom door ). his gaze remains locked on the spider as he takes another step backwards, sock clad feet meeting with thankfully dry porcelain as he’s forced to step into the bathtub.

‘ i uh-- n- not really, georgie ! ’ he somehow chokes out a reply.

his heart is racing and the rational part of stan that has yet to be squashed out by endless, painfully irrational compulsions is yelling at him - reminding him he’s a giant compared to this unoffending creature. but it doesn’t help, the silent cries quickly smothered by shaky wheezes, thudding heartbeats.

‘ g- georgie? i can’t - i can’t really move-- ’ the maybe you should go get bill is on the tip of his tongue but he can’t seem to spit it out. a flinch interrupts whatever words he was planning on saying next as the spider’s path diverts and does a complete 180, the insect now beelining straight for the shiny white tile of the bathroom floor.

     𝐈𝐓      𝐇𝐀𝐃      𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓      𝐁𝐄𝐄𝐍      𝐀      𝐁𝐀𝐃      𝐃𝐀𝐘.                     there    were      bad      days      and      good      days      in    the    maxwell    household,    and    this    was    a      bad      day.      a    real    bad    day.    she    had    done    the      only      thing      she    had    thought    of    doing           -           running    to    her    friends.    that    was    how    she    had    ended    up    with    stanley,    sitting    in    the    clubhouse    with    no    one    else    around.    a      rare      occurrence      that    there    would    only    be    two    people    in    here,    but    reggie    didn’t    mind    one    bit.

     𝐇𝐄𝐑      𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐃      𝐈𝐒      𝐀      𝐁𝐈𝐓      𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐎𝐂𝐂𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐄𝐃.                     she    tries    her      best      to    be    present,    to      pay      attention      to    stanley    as    he    was    working    so    hard    to    cheer    her    up.    but    the    yelling    just    kept    coming    back    to    her    mind,    and    reggie    can’t    help    but      not      quite      focus    in.    she    tries    to    find    something    to    comment    on           (           there’s    loads    of    material    and      no      richie      to    steal    the    show    !           )           but    nothing    really    comes    to    mind.    instead    of    engaging,    she    simply      turns      her      head      to    look    at    an    opposing    wall,    feeling    like    quite    the      bad      companion.

     𝐈𝐓      𝐈𝐒𝐍'𝐓      𝐔𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐋      𝐇𝐄'𝐒      𝐒𝐈𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆      𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓      𝐓𝐎      𝐇𝐄𝐑,                     and    arm    touches    her    shoulder,    that    reggie    turns    back.    she    finds    herself    moving    with    the    pull,    her    arms    wrapping    around    his    middle    to    hug    him      fiercely.      and    it    made    her    feel    better           -           she    felt      secure      and      warm.      stan      had      that      effect      on      her.      tears    start    to    form    in    her    eyes,    and    reggie    can’t    hold    back    the      small      sob      that    builds    in    her    throat.    she    was    letting    go    of    her    usual    wall,    and    it    was      crashing      in.

     𝐒𝐇𝐄      𝐃𝐎𝐄𝐒𝐍'𝐓      𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐄      𝐅𝐎𝐑      𝐀      𝐁𝐈𝐓.                     she    just    cries    and    leans    into    the    boy    next    to    her.    she’s      not      allowed      to    do    this    around    her    friends           -           she    doesn’t    let    herself.    if    she    did    it    at      home,      it    would    surely    set    her    sister    off    in    some    way,    shape,    or    form.    part    of    her    feels      guilty,      crying    in    front    of stan    like    this,    but    part    of    her    also    feels    like    it    was      okay.      after    a    few    more    minutes,    she    moves    to    wipe    at    her    eyes.    they’re      red      and      puffy,      with    tear    tracks    covering    her    cheeks.    reggie    shifts    slightly,    an    arm    still    around    stan,    and    reaches    for    the      birds      of      north      america      book.    she    sets    it    on    his    lap,    her    head    moving    to    rest    on    his    shoulder.    she    didn’t    trust    her    voice    to    sound    like      her,      so    she    stays    silent    in    hopes    it    would    come    back.

the clubhouse is silent save for reggie’s soft sobs and the gentle chirp of a cricket outside.

stan produces a tissue from seemingly out of nowhere and offers the small piece of cloth to the sniffling redhead on his shoulder, before deciding it would likely be more efficient to offer her up the entire box - instead producing said item and placing it gently in reggie’s lap while the book now takes up space in his own. he waits for her to compose herself somewhat, knowing all too well how vulnerable one made themselves when crying in the presence of another. but stan doesn’t see it that way.

vulnerability didn't necessarily mean weakness.

the hand not currently cradling reggie gently moves to open the book, flipping open the cover slowly as empty gaze scans the pages, familiar once vibrant illustrations now weathered and paled in the sunlight.

a finger lands on blue plumage and stan can’t help the grin that plays at the edges of his lips. ‘ eddie and i spotted one of these last friday--- it was beautiful. ’ his gaze drifts to reggie for unknowing approval, the girl’s eyes not yet meeting his own, ‘ but he sneezed too loud and scared it off. ’ stan rolls his own eyes at the memory, vowing to take reggie as his companion the next time he plans to go birding.

     LUCKILY ENOUGH for the boy, richie keeps some of his comics down in their clubhouse. he’d already decided he could flip through one of those before finally deciding to return to hell with his mother. attention only caught when stan is still standing near the ladder, not even moving to take the steps up. this brings eddie to do his best to sit up in the hammock, even as if moves way too much with each one he makes.

     gaze falls to his friend, shoulders rising and falling in answer. they all know how his mother can be, in fact they’ve all seen it. a smile curls onto his lips as stan takes steps away from the ladder and approaches the hammock. eddie would’ve been okay alone, but his heart beats a little faster with the knowledge that his friends are always willing to be by his side. eddie would do the same. no matter what. 

     he does his best to make room on the hammock, more than used to sharing the damn thing with richie. eddie ad removed his shower cap earlier, when he had planned on leaving the underground club house. now, he regards stan’s that still rests on his head,  “ did you know the average person eats eight spiders in their sleep? ” he shudders at his own fact,  “ i wonder if it’s worse for us, being down here. ”

stan catches eddie’s gaze lingering near the top of his head and glances upward in brief confusion— right, his shower cap. sure, richie had ragged on them earlier for donning the various brightly colored plastic headgear, but they were certainly effective - looks be damned.

gaze flicking across the dusty wooden floor, he soon spots eddie’s own discarded spider protection and retrieves the soft plastic dome before finally joining the other in the hammock.

          ❛     sorry  ,  stanley  .  i  didn’t  see  the  bird  ,  i  only  saw  you  .     ❜     eddie  explains  ,  stepping  out  of  the  brush  &&     crouching  beside  his  best  friend  .  he’s  definitely  not  into  birds  as  much  as  the  other  is  ,  but  he  expresses  interest  anyway  .  anything  for  stanley  .     ❛     fuck     ⸻     was  it  a  big blue  jay  ??      ❜     the  boy  asks  ,  staring  after  where  it  flew  away  with  an  apologetic  look  .

‘ you know what-- ’ stan shakes his head, a hand raking through his hair, displacing them from their prior position matted to the boy’s forehead thanks to the blistering summer heat. ‘ --it’s fine. it’s totally fine. don’t worry about it eddie. ’

the first it’s fine sounds a tad angry, but stan quickly gets the thought out of his head, instead choosing to attempt ( key word attempt ) to share his interest with his friend. ‘ uh-- kinda, but it’s alright, ’ flipping through his field guide, he stops on a page filled with shades of vibrant blue plumage before pointing to one in particular.

‘ you keep saying that but i’m not sure i heard you the last twenty times. hey, maybe twenty-one’s the charm, ’ stan teases, despite the look of utter exhaustion on his face. the trip to derry was only intended to be a short interruption to his regular routine. between work, his wife, reuniting with his old friends, and nearly being killed by a giant evil space entity ripped straight from the nightmares of just about everyone on earth — that didn’t leave much time for stan to take care of himself. so here they are, the entire group occupying the otherwise completely empty bar of a nearby hotel just outside derry richie had managed to last minute book for them, attempting to process, well —- everything.