Archive of Our Own ^beta

Eddie knew what he was getting into when he started dating Richie. He’d known the boy since he was a little kid with glasses too big for him and a mouth far too mature for him. He’d been more than proud of his then boyfriend, now fiancé, when his career as a comedian finally took off. There were new perks they now got to enjoy such as an apartment with more than one room, food that didn’t have the word “instant” in the title and you know hot water. But sometimes Eddie missed the old ways, when they lived in a tiny studio apartment together that they could barely even afford. Eddie had been working alongside med school, he’d been doing early morning shifts, late night shifts and any shifts he could do to be perfectly honest, but he wasn’t afraid of hard work. Richie had been working just as hard to keep them afloat, working every hour God could send and then going to perform in bars in the evenings.

It was tiring, yes. But it all became worth it when it turned to a Friday night and they got to curl up on their small double bed and watch reruns of law and order. They had each other. It was all they’d ever need.

Richie’s career took off not long after he graduated, which Eddie was glad for, the idea of Richie performing in these pretty sketchy bars late at night did not fill him with hope, luckily just over a year in he’d been seen performing at a bar where he was a regular when he’d been seen by someone who had connections in the world of comedy and before long Richie had auditions for Saturday Night Live and there were meetings about him getting his own comedy special on Netflix. Eddie couldn’t be happier for him but this new life came with new things.

The first thing was the paparazzi.

It started small. A few photos of them showed up when they were out at lunch one day. No big deal. It was just talking about

COMEDIAN RICHIE “TRASHMOUTH” TOZIER TAKES NEW BOYFRIEND OUT FOR LUNCH.

Eddie didn’t like it but it was just silly photos. Who cares ? It’s not too bad. Then it gets worse. Some of the articles were clearly hyperbolic.

RICHIE TOZIER TAKES HIS BOYTOY OUT FOR DINNER

And some were just outright lies.

COMEDIAN RICHIE TOZIER TAKES SUGAR BABY OUT FOR A SHOPPING TRIP

However with that article Eddie did have to admit from the photos it could be interpreted that way Eddie was shorter than Richie and looked younger than him. They were also shopping but they were shopping for both of them. But Richie was holding all the bags and holding Eddie’s hand with his free hand. But the article was still a complete lie. He sees this particular article while scrolling on his phone in bed. “Those bastards.” Eddie mumbled and Richie let out a muffled hum in response, Eddie could practically hear the question mark at the end of his sentence. Richie came into the bedroom from their en-suite bathroom with a toothbrush still in his mouth and repeated the same muffled hum which is now more clearly a “what?”

Eddie just shook his head, “Nothing just an article.” Richie walked back to the bathroom and spits his toothpaste out before walking back to the bedroom. “I’ve told you not to read those things Ed’s.” He gets into bed next to Eddie.

“They just want a reaction, that’s all.” Richie said, like he’s said before. Like he had said again months later when the articles had really started getting to Eddie. When they’d started attacking him, tearing him apart practically. And it wasn’t just the paparazzi people on the internet, even Richie’s “fans” had started jumping on the bandwagon. They’d talked about his appearance, his job, his personality. These people who didn’t even know him were commenting on him ? Eddie couldn’t believe it. What was worse was the weird comments, the mean ones were rude and horrible of course they were but Eddie had dealt with that in high school he could deal with that again. But when people started making pretty pornographic comments about him, it was bad.

They’d started small with compliments, most of which started innocently, and began straight after he and Richie hard launched their relationship. But the objectifying comments really took a bit to Eddie. He didn’t like people speculating about his sex life and making him out to be some toy that Richie was using. They’d been together since high school for fucks sake. The mix of those comments and the rude ones were what led to a fight between Richie and Eddie.

Eddie had never been a good communicator, he was working on it, he and Richie were both working on their issues. They had issues separately which affected them together, they’d started couples therapy since this incident and it was helping. On the day of the fight, Eddie hadn’t told Richie the real reason for why he was upset. He just made it seem like he was mad at Richie for all of the bustle around his new shows that were upcoming, this caused a fight in which Richie said.

“Well maybe you shouldn’t date a famous guy then!”

To which Eddie said. “Fine maybe I won’t anymore!”

Eddie had cried and told him about what happened, then Richie had cried, and he’d made Eddie promise not to read any articles or social media comments ever again.

And Eddie stuck to that.

He turns his phone off and puts it on the bedside table. “I know.”

The next thing was award shows.

When Richie had started having larger shows and being on SNL it wasn’t long until he was nominated for a few awards and naturally wanted Eddie to come with him. Eddie of course agreed but didn’t think the whole thing through. The first thing was getting into the venue.

The car would pull up outside the entrance, only a few feet away from the doors of whatever place the show was being held but outside the car doors, were a few what felt like millions of men with cameras. Eddie could deal with it when they were safely protected by the partition of the windows from the outside and when they were in the building, guarded by bodyguards literally guarded. But the walk from the car and back to the car were about 15 seconds of hell for Eddie. He would tell himself that he just had to get inside or just had to get to the car, once he finally got back into the car at the end of the night he would almost collapse into Richie’s arms due to exhaustion from being so tense all night.

And then it was the tour.

It wasn’t long before Richie was getting ready for his first big tour, all around America and even a few dates in Europe. Eddie was happy of course he was happy for him, trust him he’d shown Richie how happy he was for him he had the hickeys to prove it, this was an insane opportunity for Richie it was everything he’d had been working for. Yet Richie still asked if Eddie was okay with it, and he wondered if he told Richie he didn’t want him to go would he stay ? Of course he didn't tell him to stay. He told Richie.

“Of course you can go, you don’t need to ask me.”

Richie was going to be gone for almost a month, which seemed like forever. He had a show in New York and Eddie promised, since Richie had a place in LA and New York, he’d go over when Richie was there so they could see each other for at least one night. One night out of a month. Richie promised he’d call as often as he could but with time differences that was much more difficult to predict.

Eddie drops Richie off at the airport and stays with him all the way until security where he has to leave. He lets out a long breath and Richie, because of course he can, can tell Eddie’s two seconds away from breaking down and begging Richie to stay with him, so Richie brings a hand up to Eddie’s cheek.

“It’ll be over before you know it. I promise I’ll call all the time.” Richie promises and Eddie nods and wants to believe him. He kisses Richie one last time before he’s pulling away and telling Richie that he’ll miss his flight if he doesn’t go. He stands watching Richie until he’s entirely out of sight and only then does it really truly sink in. Eddie cries when he gets back to the car.

The drive home is far too long and far too quiet, Eddie can’t bring himself to turn the radio on, it wouldn’t be the same without Richie singing along anyways. He gets home and just wants to collapse into bed, he knows Richie’s flight won’t be landing or even taking off for a good few hours so he indulges. He walks into his and Richie’s shared room and grimaces at the emptiness, he changes into one of Richie’s shirts along with sweatpants before climbing into bed (on Richie’s side). They’d invested in a TV for their bedroom the first few years of living together, it’s one of those smart TV’s that Eddie doesn’t entirely know how to work, but you’re able to get YouTube up on it. So Eddie does, he puts on a compilation of Richie on SNL (yes he knows he’s pathetic thank you) and falls asleep before he can cry again.

He wakes up a few hours later to his phone making a beeping noise that is entirely too loud, he knows he didn’t set an alarm which means it’s gotta be a phone call and that fact makes Eddie roll over a bit faster. He lets a small smile grace his lips when he sees Richie’s name on his phone and quickly presses the green accept button. It takes him about two minutes to actually register he has to speak but luckily Richie’s voice filters through the line first.

“Hey Ed’s.” He says, his voice chipper as usual, it makes a pit form in Eddie’s stomach knowing this is the only way he’ll hear Richie’s voice for the next month.

Eddie squeezes his eyes shut before opening them again. “Hey, how's the airport?” He says, still very much sleep brained. He hears Richie chuckle down the other end of the phone.

“The airport was fine.” Richie says down the phone. “I’m at the hotel.” He says after and Eddie reaches over to the bedside table and fumbles about with his alarm clock, which he still uses because he refuses to use alarms on his phone because he doesn’t trust it to go off, he holds the clock closer to his face to examine the time which reads 5pm so yes Richie has definitely landed and is definitely at the hotel. He hears himself let out a groan.

“You have a little nap Ed’s?” Richie teases and Eddie instinctively rolls his eyes before realizing Richie cannot see him.

“Yeah you know it was a long drive from the airport.” He lies. Eddie does some quick mental arithmetic and comes to the conclusion that it’s 4pm in Chicago where Richie is starting his tour. The next thing he hears is his stomach rumbling and realizes he hasn’t eaten since he left home that morning with Richie at about 10am.

“I did call when I landed but you were asleep obviously.” Richie says.

“I’m sorry Rich.” He says, apologising for missing the call and he can practically hear Richie shake his head down the line of the phone.

“Don’t apologise you clearly needed the sleep, your body tells you when you need rest you know. C’mon Ed’s you did med school.”

Eddie huffs. “Of course I know that asshole.” Falling back into their old habits is easy enough done, except it’s not the same because Richie isn’t with him, Eddie remembers bitterly. Richie’s laughing down the line again.

“Listen I’m gonna take a shower, wash the plane off you know. You should eat some dinner.” Richie suggests and Eddie thinks about how that would’ve made him flinch at the beginning of their relationship. Eddie had issues with being cared for shall we say, being looked after. You couldn’t blame him for that either, thanks to good ol Sonia Kaspbrak Eddie’s ideas of pretty much everything was entirely fucked. He thought that being cared for meant complete control, he thought being looked after was for the other persons benefit. He didn’t understand that not everyone wanted to hurt him. It took him a while to comprehend that, hence why when Richie would try to do things for him Eddie would push it away.

When Richie cooked for him, Eddie didn’t trust it. When he offered to buy Eddie something, Eddie didn’t trust it. When he’d run a bath for Eddie after a long run, Eddie didn’t trust it. The list goes on and on. It took for Richie to say:

“Ed’s baby I like looking after you, I don’t do it for any other reason, just let me take care of you sometimes.”

For Eddie to finally, quite happily, give in.

But now Eddie was different, he was happier too so when Richie’s suggested Eddie go make some food he simply hummed in agreement down the phone. “Call me later?” He asked.

To which Richie responded. “Of course I will.”

The next week passed as normal, well normal if Richie wasn’t there. Eddie had work and school to keep himself busy during the day, but when he’d come home and the house would be empty that’s when it would feel unbearable. When he’d crawl into bed in the evenings, he’d notice how big the bed was without Richie there. It was the first time he’d realised how much he relied on Richie for little things, he couldn’t sleep the first night without Richie there. They’d started calling every night, and it seemed to be the only thing to get Eddie calm enough to sleep.

He lied awake in bed, waiting for a call from Richie. He knew Richie’s show had finished by now and he knew where Richie was peforming so he knew he could expect a call any second now. Richie was in Nevada, Las Vegas to be more precise which didn’t fill Eddie with joy. He knew Richie would be surrounded by people, important people, rich people, and most importantly attractive people. Eddie trusted Richie more than words could say but the thought still made his stomach churn. He softly swiped his thumb over his engagement ring to calm himself down. Seconds later Eddie’s phone began to vibrate.

“Hey baby.” Richie’s voice filters down the line, he sounds tipsy but not hammered.

“Hey.” Eddie says almost shyly. “You havin fun?” He asks.

“I’m not drunk if that’s what you’re asking.” Richie says and Eddie almost feels guilty. “I just went out for a few drinks after the show.” He explains.

“Oh yeah ? You partying hard?” Eddie teases.

“Yeah I’m making up for all the partying I didn’t do in high school.” Richie responds and Eddie laughs softly, which in return causes Richie to laugh. “How was the show?” Eddie asks and hears some movement on the other line, probably Richie changing, when he speaks again he sounds farther away.

“It was good, people laughed.” Richie says and Eddie hums softly.

“That’s always a good sign.” He says.

“Indeed it is Spaghetti man.” Richie says and Eddie can hear his shit-eating grin through the phone. He scoffs in response. Richie speaks again. “How was your day?”

Eddie hesitates. He knows his day must sound so incredibly boring compared to Richie’s so he gives the readers digest version. “It was fine, I just went to work and then went to the store.” He says, fiddling with the duvet he has over himself.

“Bet it wasn’t as fun without me.” Richie says and Eddie almost thinks Richie sounds a little sad.

“Well it was nice to shop without being threatened to be kicked out the store.” Eddie says and Richie murmurs something about Eddie being an asshole which makes him smile. Maybe he’ll survive this. It’s only two weeks.

The two weeks then go on forever and ever and every day is so long. Richie does keep up with his calls on the other hand and Eddie keeps up with watching the clips of Richie’s new shows on YouTube and disliking all the comments that say he isn’t funny. He’d promised Richie he’d come down to New York when Richie had a show there and he sticks to that promise.

On the Friday night after work Eddie packs a bag and heads to New York for the weekend, some may call it an unnecessary expense but Eddie’s practically itching to see Richie. He gets to the apartment before Richie does and feels like a lost puppy. He’d offered to pick Richie up from the airport but he already has 3 points on his license all due to driving in New York so they decided against the idea. Eddie occupies himself by unpacking his small amount of clothes and larger amount of toiletries until he hears a key turn in the door and he practically bolts to the living room like a dog who’s heard his owner come home. Before Richie can even set his bags down Eddie’s on him, clinging to him all arms and legs like a lemur. Richie drops his bags quickly to hold Eddie in his arms. It was one thing Eddie was glad for, the way Richie had grown up, he’d been so lanky as a kid and teenager but now as an adult he’s broad and strong. Eddie relishes in it.

Neither of them speak for a minute, Richie takes a step closer into the apartment and kicks the door shut with his foot before pulling Eddie’s face out from the crook of his neck, holding ones of Eddie’s cheeks in his palm before kissing him and Eddie feels like he could die happily. It’s all he’s been missing for the whole time he’s been alone and he sounds ridiculous but would deny this if anyone asked him about it but sometimes it feels as if he needs Richie the same way he needs to breathe. He lets his arms move from Richie’s shoulders to wrap around his neck as Richie’s hands work their way down to take their rightful place on the small of Eddie’s back. They keep that position, hands only moving to start removing the others clothes, as they stumble like teenagers into the bedroom laughing against eachothers lips.

The next morning Eddie knows Richie doesn’t have to go anywhere until that night so he indulges on sleeping in, missing his morning run. He stays in bed with Richie for as long as possible, even when Richie wakes up they make breakfast before bringing it back to the bedroom to eat it.

When they do leave it’s at the same time, Richie has to get a flight to Philadelphia and Eddie has to get a flight back to LA. They say their goodbyes at the airport again, but at least this time they get to go through security together and get McDonald’s from the restaurant in the waiting area.

The next week passes, slowly but surely. Eddie keeps the memory of Richie in New York as his motivation for the rest of the week.

Richie finally arrives home late on a Sunday evening, it’s 2am when he gets home and Eddie had so wanted to wait up for him but ended up falling asleep. He’s lying in bed covers pulled over him, a book lies flat on his chest, moving to the rhythm of his steady breathing. When Richie walks into the bedroom, as quietly as possible, he feels his stomach do a cartwheel. It was things like this, simple acts of domesticity that Richie used to dream of as a kid. Waking up next to Eddie and going to sleep next to him was all Richie had ever wanted. He dropped his bags softly by the bedroom door before making his way over to Eddie, he removed the book from his chest, bookmarking the page before placing it on the bedside table. He changes out of his clothes and flips the switch off on the bedside table light before clambering into bed next to Eddie, who instantly rolls over to lie against Richie’s chest. Richie places an arm around Eddie, leans down to press a small kiss to the top of his head before shutting his own eyes.

“Welcome home.” He hears Eddie distinctly mumble against his chest, voice still thick with sleep. He loves it when Eddie’s tired like this, before his brain fully kicks in. He loves Eddie when he’s fully awake too but when he’s tired or when he’s just woken up he’s softer. He’s not anxious, or obsessive, his routine driven brain hasn’t fully kicked in yet. Richie loves seeing him like that.

“Thanks Ed’s.” He says quietly, readjusting the covers over them both once more before finally falling asleep.