Even though they were both hurting in ways that words would never be able to really get to the bottom of, at least there was this. The stupid, overly ridiculous way that they could banter - Richie's inability to stop himself from making a joke about Eddie's mom, and Eddie immediately telling him off for it. And maybe for the first time since everything had gone down, Richie wasn't fixated on I fucked your mom! Instead, he threw his head back and cackled loud and pleased and absolutely fell over, a tumbling mess of gangly limbs until he picked himself back up to a wobbling sort of tall.
"Fuck you," he agreed, and it was almost cheerful instead of sad or hopeful or whatever the fuck it was that might have come out of him at some other point.
And only then, after he'd made a stupid joke, and they were drunk as anything, did he reach out to lean up against Eddie so they could stumble their way back to the place he'd picked out.
He only got a little lost, which was a plus. Probably more of a plus than the fact that he slept alone and uncomfortable on the bathroom floor after realizing just how much whiskey he'd drank and how poorly it wanted to settle in his stomach.