(Yes I'm back)

Harley POV:

"I'm gonna ask one'a for your wallet, jewelry, anything valuable. And you're gonna give it to me. If you don't, I kill the other one, and then you." The man explains, and I watch as his eyes flick back and forth between the two of us. "You." He points the knife at me. "You're first." He grins, clearly thrilled at this idea he just came up with. This guy seems high outta his mind. Or just like, way over intoxicated.

"So, what's it gonna be huh? This kid's life or everything ya got?" He slurred, and I go between the options in my head. I obviously can't let a short person die, but I also have like, literally nothing on me except 20 bucks.

While I'm debating my options, Mr. Brown-Hair next to me opens up his fanny pack and starts going through it.

"Hey!" Mr. Knife Guy shouts, and moves his knife from me to fanny pack boy. "Stop diggin'!" He says, which only makes the kid dig faster. Finally he produces an L-shaped object, and sticks it in his mouth. An inhaler... But Mr. Knife Guy doesn't like this apparently, and starts making his way over to him. Well- it's now or never.

As soon as he approaches the smaller boy, I leap into action, kicking at the back of the guy's legs. Right at the joint, making his legs give in and he falls forwards. But then I pin him down, taking his knife and folding his arms on top of his back.

Then I point with my head back at the street, while looking at the other boy. "Go, I'll call the cops." I say, and he fumbles with his inhaler for a second before nodding.

-timeskip-

Once I called 9-1-1, and they came and apprehended the knife guy, I continued my walk to Delmars. But I only make it about half way there before, again, I'm pulled into another ally. This time, I'm not taking any chances.

I turn around, ready to punch this guy in the face, when I see it's the dude from the last ally. The short kid. "AHHHHH- HEY!" I end up shouting, seeming to scare him.

"AHHH! I'm sorry I just wanted to thank you for saving my life!" He shouts back, and then we're both staring at each other, unsure of what to do next.

"U-Uhm," The boy clears his throat. "I-I'm Eddie." He holds out his hand for me to shake.

"Harley," I say, shaking his hand. "And, it was no problem. You're welcome." I smile, and pull my hand back. He returns the smile, but falters a little bit. Then I notice that his hands are slightly shaking. My smile falls.

"Hey, uh, I was headed down the street to this sandwich shop before- um, y'know before that. And, well, do you maybe wanna come... with me?" I ask, and then immediately regret it. Of course he won't, that was a stupid idea. No one in their right mind would willingly just go someplace with a stranger! Stupid, stupid, stupid...

"Um," Eddie looks around like he's being watched. "S-Sure?" He shrugs. "Why not, I guess?"

"Cool!" I say, and start to make my way out of the alleyway and towards Delmar's. Eddie follows quickly behind me. "I promise, this will be a better quality bonding experience than the shit show that went down earlier." I retort, making him chuckle.

-timeskip also Richie POV:-

I end up walking back to Peter's house with him and his siblings, who by the way, are great. Lucy and Jake argue a lot, but put that aside, and they're really cool. Lucy is, like, basically a mini-genius. And Jake, I can predict, will grow up and become the next Picaso. Like seriously, have you seen him draw? It's insane! He sketched a picture of me and Amy when we were on the subway, just on a post-it. A post-it! And it looks incredible. I'd asked him if I could keep it, and he said yes- Oh! Right, Amy!

She's just the sweetest. And for a 7 year old, she sure has a big mouth. I hope, one day, she'll take after in my footsteps. Though now of course, I shan't teach such habits to a mere youngling. (Nor would I get away with it.)

When we get to their house, Peter tells me to wait outside and that he'll get Eddie if he's home. But, he wasn't. And apparently their mom doesn't let them have people over much, because he said I couldn't come inside with them. But... it's okay. There'll be other chances to meet the oh-so-mysterious Eddie, and to hang out with all of them again.

"Nah, it's fine." I say, after Peter's apologized for like the 5th time. "I gotta get home anyways." I tell him, and he just nods his head.

"Right, right, yeah." He says, and then smiles at me. "Well, it was nice to meet you." He says, and I return the smile.

"Likewise, but meeting your mother last night was even better." I smirk, but Peter just rolls his eyes.

"Are you always like this?" He asks me, and I shrug and tilt my head.

"Depends; is your mom always like that in bed?" I counter, and this time Peter just physically gives up; his expression goes blank and just stares at me with emotionless eyes. I hold up my hands in defense.

"Okay, okay!" I say. "I'm going!" I exclaim, and Peter cracks a smile again.

"See you at school Richie," He waves, and I give a mock salute.

"Ta ta," I reply, no accent this time, before walking down the street from Peter's house. Lucky for me, he didn't live that far from my parents' apartment, but it wasn't close either. The closest subway stop was about 10 blocks in the wrong direction, but I don't know the stops yet, so that's off the list. I could always try and get a cab, but I only have like 10 bucks on me, and I have no idea how much they're gonna charge me. So, I guess I'm walking. But it's not like even if I told them I was gonna be late earlier they'd care. They're never home.

-timeskip-

When I reach my apartment building, I try to block out the people on the stairs as I go up. Most of them are either drunk, high, or both. Or, they're homeless. And as it is, I'm surprised we're not. Homeless I mean. But it's not like this is the best part of town either. It was just one of the only places with a low-rent apartment on the market, and close enough to a free public school that my parents didn't have to drive me in. Not that they would, or that I would necessarily want them to...

"Mom, Dad?" I ask after unlocking our door on the 3rd floor. I wait a few seconds for a reply, but there isn't one. So I sling my bag on the floor and head straight to my room.

My parents. Wonders, really. My mom's never here; always out "working". Whereas my dad goes places and gets high all day. Or, at least that's what I figure. He's never really said what he does, but that's my best guess. They argue a lot. My mom always complaining that she's the only one in this family who makes money, and my dad always yelling back some shit excuse. They usually end there, though sometimes it escalates. Things get thrown, sometimes punches. Usually I just stay in my room. It's a lot easier to drown out their shouting when I have my headphones on.

Which is how I spend most of my nights, like tonight. Falling asleep listening to music, waking up to my phone dead, meaning my alarm never went off, so I missed the bus. Then getting yelled at by my parents that I'm a "dumb piece of shit", and that I should be lucky to get to "live under this roof at all". Oh, and with no time to make a "lunch", and it's not like they'd put money on my account anyways. Come to think of it, why hasn't the CPS taken me away by now?

Things were a lot better when my brother was here. He's 25 now, living who knows where. And as shitty as he was, I still loved him. He was there for me when my parents weren't. But... the older we got, the more... distant he became. And it got to the point that when he left home, he didn't call once. Still hasn't. But now, I'm not so sure if I really want him to. There were, well a few times that he...

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to erase the thoughts from my head. Just put on your headphones. I think, and so I do. Then I go and lie down on my bed, and close my eyes. I stay like that until I fall asleep. I can't wait until the fucking morning.

Eddie POV:

After having what I guess would be a "late lunch" with Harley, we exchanged phone numbers, and went on our separate ways. Aka, I walked back to my house.

I look down at my phone to check the time when I'm about a block or so away, and immediately start to panic. It's four fucking thirty pm. Oh god, what am I gonna tell my mom.

-timeskip-

"Oh Eddiebear! Where have you been!" I hear, and brace myself for an onslaughter of hugs and kisses. But they're not so much hugs as they are death grips. Once she pulls away, - several minutes later, - she grabs me by my shoulders a little too tight, and looks me dead in the eyes. Oh no...

"Dont, you ever, do that to me again." She says through gritted teeth, and I try my best not to flinch, to not make my hands shake, to just stay perfectly still. "Do you understand?" She asks me, and I nod my head.

"Y-Yes ma'am." I say, and after a second more, she finally lets go of my shoulders, looking me dead in the eyes. "Do you understand?" She asks again, in a tone I know no mother should ever speak to her son in.

I gulp. "Yes ma'am." I repeat, and then the harder Ed expression on her face softens.

"Good," she says smiling. Fucking smiling. "Now, go to your room." I turn around and walk upstairs and into me and Peter's room, and as soon as I close the door, I hear Lucy's voice through the walls.

"Eddie's back! Eddie's back!" Followed by the sound of the room next to me opening, and Lucy's footsteps running into my shared room.

"Eddie!" She runs up to me, wrapping her arms around my waist. "You're back! Everyone was so worried! But I told them you'd be back! Peter was really worried... but I told him! I told him you would come back!" She says while hugging me tightly. But... I was only gone for about an hour? What did they all think happened? Why would Peter- oh. Oh shit.

"Eddie?!" I look up just as the rest of my siblings walk into the room. It was Peter who had said my name, and his eyes looked red and puffy.

"Peter I-" But that was all I could get out before he surges forwards and hugs me. I start crying, probably from all the build up of emotion and stress from that day. But also because it hurt to think that Peter had thought that I- Shut the hell up.

I hug Peter back. And soon enough, all of us, - Amy, Peter, Jake, and Lucy, and I- are all in one big group hug.

"I'm sorry," I manage in a shaky voice. Peter pulls out of the hug and looks at me.

"I'm just glad you're safe." He says, and then we both smile cheesy grins.

"Me too," I laugh, with tears in my eyes, remembering my near-death experience earlier. Then Lucy, Amy, and Jake all walk back to their rooms, and it's just me and Peter.

"Um, I-" Peter starts to say to me before his voice cracks, and he stops. He looks away, and it's then that I notice that he's fidgeting with the corner of his shirt. "I thought- when I came home a-and you weren't here... I-I thought you-"

Immediately I pull him back into a hug. "I'm here and I'm safe." I whisper in his ear, and he hugs me back. After a second or two, we pull apart. "Well, I mean, I wasn't a few hours ago." I say, and Peter looked at me worried.

"Excuse me?" He asks, and I can tell he's thinking about... that.

"Nononono! Sorry-" I laugh. "I meant, like, this dude in an alley almost killed me, but I'm fine now. Plus I got a really cute guy's number out of it who saved my life. Well, I mean like I think you'll think he's hot, he's not quite my type."

"UhmI'm gonna need that number, like right now. But don't think you're off the hook about the whole 'almost dying part'." He laughs, and for the next hour or so, we just gossip about everything I missed when I left school, me almost dying, Harley, and apparently this Richie person? Peter says he's a bad influence, but... I dunno. He sounds kinda cool.