Richie was smart. He'd always been near the top of the class back in middle and high school, had effortlessly gotten A's in about every subject, even when he'd raced through his homework in order to run out of his house in order to meet up with his friends all that much faster. He hadn't faired so well in college, too fidgety, and his brain always buzzing too much to be able to concentrate on long assignments, especially with no one to tell him to settle the fuck down. He'd ended up dropping out, no academic goals in sight, anyway. There was no risk assessment in his future because, yeah. It would have made him miserable. Eddie was a different kind of focused and patient than he was, and always had been, even if he'd been a little shit with too much energy sometimes too. But that was the pent up kind - from being forced to sit still and pretend to be fragile in his home. Richie just... didn't have any excuse at all. "You're only saying that because you like the idea of me in a tie every day," he said softly. He was paying more attention to the way Eddie was shivering, trembling slightly under his touch. It was intoxicating.
"I want everything." And he did. He really, really did. Richie wanted to much that he was pretty sure it was the only thing he was good at, some days. He wanted to be good at getting, at giving, but that was something that took practice and courage and he was fucking trying okay. That had nothing to do with math at all.
Eddie's suggestion was both kind and reasonable and Richie felt weirdly grateful for it in a way he couldn't really explain. Maybe he was just going on some kind of emotional rollercoaster after having laid in bed feeling sorry, depressed and anxious for a few days. But he'd be fucking damned if he burst out into tears the first time he had open access and permission to just see what happened between them. So he nodded a little aggressively, and tugged Eddie down a little for more kissing before he got his hands on Eddie's ass, smoothing the red fabric and tracing it down to where it ended. So fucking short. These shorts were going to kill him.