Chapter Text
"Eddie!"
Acting on unknown instinct, Eddie rolled sideways at Beverly's yell, just in time to watch one of the talon-tipped spider legs of It scrape inches away from his face, stabbing straight through the air he'd been crouched in moments before.
"Holy shit," he breathed. "I did not kill it. It is very not dead."
The talon pulled back, readying to strike again, and Eddie acted, grabbing Richie under the armpits and dragging him roughly backward, into the shelter of the tiny rock cavern behind them.
"Eddie!" Ben called. "Is he okay?"
Richie was stirring, slowly, his eyes peeling slowly open. He looked up at Eddie, blinked, and murmured, "Did you fucking sit on me?"
"He's fine!" Eddie called back.
"'Course I'm fine," Richie said, pushing himself properly upright and leaning to get a look out at It. "That thing's a bitch."
" That thing almost turned me into a kebab," Eddie informed him, flatly. "A rock, Richie? What are we, twelve? Bill shot a steel rod into this thing's skull and it practically laughed in our face, and you go in with a fucking rock?"
"Yeah, and it was badass," Richie replied. , but his voice was quiet and haggard, and he was watching over Eddie’s shoulder in visible fear.
Eddie glanced behind himself to check where his eyes had gone, and they both watched one of It’s spider legs scratch its way down the wall mere feet from them, searching for them among the rocks.
“How long until It finds us?” Richie asked, quietly.
“Not long,” Eddie said. “Unless It gives up on us and decides to eat the others first.”
“You definitely hurt It, though,” Richie said. “It’s pissed, no way you didn’t do some damage.”
“When it came at me, before,” Eddie said, thoughtfully, “When It was the leper, I choked It. It was dying. I could feel it. It’s- It has a body, It’s real, even if the stuff It shows us isn’t. If we can get to the part that’s real-...”
“Eddie! Richie!”
Both their heads snapped toward the entrance as Mike came running in, sliding the last few feet as It’s taloned foot stabbed down right where he’d last been standing.
“Mike, It’s hurt,” Eddie called to him. “I think we can kill It, we just have to find the part that’s alive.”
“How the fuck do we do that?” Richie asked. “It’s roughly fifteen fucking feet tall right now, remember? Lot of fucking room for error.”
“So- so we make It small,” Mike said, looking at him as though he’d just had some sort of breakthrough. “If we get It to change form again- all things must abide by the form in which they reside. A small enough body, and it won’t matter which parts are real. We can kill It.”
“So we make it small,” Richie breathed. “Okay. How? Anybody deathly afraid of roaches? Tiny, crush-under-a-boot ones, specifically. I’m not a big fan of the huge ass spider outside.”
"There's a chance…"
Mike and Richie both looked back to Eddie, expectant.
"It didn't kill Bev, or Richie, just showed them the lights," he reminded them. "Because- because they weren't scared when they fought It. If we aren't afraid, It is."
"So we show it we aren't afraid," Mike said, "and it retreats. It shrinks down to get out, and we kill it before it gets away."
"Might work," Richie said. He took a deep breath, seemingly steeling himself - and then stood, going to launch himself out from behind the rocks.
"Richie!" Eddie hissed.
Richie hesitated for a second, looking back. He sucked in another harsh breath.
"I'm gay."
Eddie blinked, hand hovering in the air where he'd started to reach for Richie's jacket. "You...what?"
"That's the thing It keeps fucking with me about," Richie said. "Cause I never told anybody. Like, ever."
"Richie, is this really-.."
"Yeah, that's the thing," Richie said. "That's all It has on me. Those are the big guns it broke out on my ass. Hey, remember that time you realized you have a big dumb fucking gay crush on one of your friends? So, yeah. I'm not scared of It. If It thinks I'm enough of a bitch that I'll let It kill me just to keep you guys from catching on then It is fucking dumb."
"Richie, that's great for you," Eddie said, "But I am still- I am still very much afraid of the fucking supernatural alien clown thing that has nearly killed me multiple times."
"But it can't," Richie reminded him. "You said it! It feeds off our fear. If we aren't scared, It starves."
Eddie glanced warily out from behind the rock- and then, very slowly, lowered his hand.
"Okay," he said, weak but determined. "Let's kill this fucking clown."
It works.
Beverly, Bill, and Ben catch on to the whole "bully It into a corner" routine about three insults in, and the group of six together managed to back him into a figure maybe half a foot tall, from which they straight up ripped a genuine beating heart and crushed that shit.
Later, in the river, washing away blood and grime from It's collapsed lair, Richie finally processes all of this.
"So," he said, looking at his friends, watching Eddie scowl down at the dirty water like he could see the bacteria within it. "I feel fucking jipped."
"Cause that was so easy?" Bev asked, voice understanding.
"No," Richie said. "I mean my fucking bullshit rescue."
Everyone looked to him in confusion.
"I mean," he continued, scrubbing his glasses in the water - mostly to avoid looking anywhere near Eddie as he said, "Bev gets caught in the deadlights back in middle school , and she gets this Prince Charming swooping in and kissing her back to life. And I just get crusty old Spaghetti yelling at me?"
"You were already mostly awake, jackass," Eddie snapped at him. "Next time you nearly get fucking eaten I'll make sure someone's willing to take on for the team and go full Sleeping Beauty."
"Not it," Beverly said immediately. "Sorry, Richie."
"Not a problem," Richie said. "I would've taken my chances with Chunky Ben, but Hot Ben could absolutely kick my ass."
"That reminds me," Mike said, looking to Richie. "What, ah...what you said in the cave?"
Richie faltered.
"I was letting it go," Eddie said. "Cause, you know, it didn't seem like a conversation to have covered in blood. Have some fucking tact, Mike, Christ."
"What'd we miss?" Ben asked.
“Oh, haha, that’s not super uncomfortable at all,” Richie said. “Who wants to change the subject? Hey, Eddie, how fucked are we now that we’ve soaked in the feces river?”
“We-...”
“No, no,” Ben said. “Did something happen? Is everything okay?”
All eyes fixed on Richie.
“What the fuck , Mike,” Richie whined. “You gonna make me do this while I’m treading water?”
“We can g-get out of the river,” Bill suggested.
“Please, can we?” Eddie cut in. “I hope It’s bullshit brain scrambling still works because if I have to remember this shit I’m gonna throw up from PTSD the next time I take a fucking bath.”
“You take baths?”
“Let’s get out of the water,” Beverly said, loudly, over the sound of Eddie’s disgusted, “Do you not take baths?!” and Richie’s return of, “No, I take showers, because I’m a fucking adult.”
They swam their way back to the riverbank, crawling out and lounging out on dry land. Dirt turned to mud where they touched the ground, but the goal hadn’t been really clean so much as free of viscera.
“You don’t have to actually say anything,” Eddie said quickly, once they had all settled. “If you don’t want to.”
“And there goes the chance they forgot about it,” Richie sighed.
“N-not forgetting,” Bill said. “If s-something’s wrong, w-w-we should know about it. W-we’re your friends, Richie.”
“Nothing’s wrong!” Richie insisted. “Everything’s fucking awesome! We just killed that motherfucking monster! We should be thrilled. Not dwelling on stuff Richie only said because he was pretty sure we were all gonna die.”
“You said you weren’t scared!” Eddie exclaimed.
“That was for It!” Richie shrieked back. “Of fucking course I lied! I’m not gonna tell you guys to act brave and straight up admit I’m shitting my pants in the process! For fuck’s sake, Eds.”
“Someone made a deathbed confession?” Beverly asked. “And I missed it?”
“Fuck, okay! Whatever!” Richie said, throwing his hands in the air. “Fuck all of you, very much. I’m gay. I’m fucking gay. That’s what that bitch ass clown was on about, ‘truth or dare, Richie’ ‘cause I can’t pick truth because I’m forty years old and haven’t said a fucking word and you guys nearly died beside me twice and I still didn’t want to fucking tell you. Everybody fucking happy now?”
There was a moment of heavy silence.
“...Called it,” Beverly said, leaning over to nudge Mike with her shoulder. “We definitely bet on that at some point. Who betted against? I’m collecting.”
“Oh, that’s nice, Beverly,” Richie said. “That’s the second time I’ve said that in my life, just so you know, so it means a lot-...”
“Shut the fuck up, Richie,” Beverly said. “We love you, okay? I don’t give a shit. It just means that once you find someone to put up with you full time, we welcome another dude into the mix. Make him cool, please.”
Richie gave a very forced laugh.
Beverly frowned, eyebrows pinching together in concern. “I-...I’m not trying to be a bitch, Richie. I’m sorry. This seriously bothers you.”
“Uh, yeah,” Richie said. “I didn’t tell you guys for a fucking reason.”
There was a beat of silence.
“Which one?” Eddie asked.
“Oh, come on,” Richie said. “You cannot be fucking serious.”
Eddie straightened a little more. “Which one of us, Richie?”
“Which what?” Ben asked. “Wait, were you scared of telling one of us, specifically?”
“You liked somebody,” Eddie said. “You didn’t say anything because you didn’t want us to figure that out.”
Richie got to his feet.
“Whoa, hold on,” Ben said. “You don’t have to tell us shit. Guys, lay off. I’m sorry, Richie. We fuck with you about everything. Old habits, I guess. Sit down, stay, we’ll talk about something else.”
Richie hesitated a moment, before slowly lowering himself back to the ground.
“Okay,” he said. “But, for the record, I take back what I said about my rescue. Next time, just slap me awake. All of you have lost Snow White privileges.”
It relaxed something deep in all of them to hear laughter echoing through the quarry again.