Even in the middle of an anxiety attack, he registered Richie coming closer. He anticipated something. He wasn't sure what he thought the other man was going to do but some small piece of himself was saying that things were going to be alright. Richie was here and Richie had always, always been his safe place. Maybe he expected a hand on his back or his cheek or just one of those touches that were soothing and just so Richie. So part of their dynamic even as children, especially as children, when he was having one of these attacks.
If it had been anyone but Richie he would've been a little more cautious. He would've watched their faces or read their body language. He would've known to get the fuck out of the way because there was always a fear of being hurt. Richie would never hurt him though. Would never handle him too roughly or demand that he just breathe when he couldn't fucking breathe, Richard. This wasn't right. It set off alarm bells in Eddie's head that joined the other alarm bells going off because he'd worked himself into a panic until there was a whole fucking alarm orchestra section going off in his head. His thoughts were a mess but one thing stood out in the panicked mess of 'No, no, no, no, no! Bad! Wrong!' was the idea that this wasn't Richie. It couldn't be.
Part of him expected to look back up at Richie and no longer see the man but Myra or his mother, looming over him gripping hard enough to bruise. Gripping him hard enough to make him comply. To turn his back on his friends when that wasn't what he wanted. To march down an aisle or tell a woman part of him feared that he loved her when he didn't want to. When he looked up, however, the person in front of him was still Richie Tozier and that... somehow that was worst than anything else It could've turned into.
Richie was a weakness. Eddie had always assumed he was an obvious weakness but It had never tried to use the other to get to him. Maybe it was the whole low hanging fruit thing. It was too easy. Too obvious to actually run with. Now, however, things had changed. Eddie had nearly killed the Leper but... Richie? He'd never hurt Richie. He'd die before he hurt Richie and maybe that's what was about to happen. For the first time since the two of them had met Eddie stared up at Richie in actual fear of the other.