stan frowned at himself in the mirror, tugging his crop top down a little bit and rubbing away some stray eye-shadow. he'd never gone out in public dressed like this, and it was fucking terrifying.

fake catwalks with richie weren't the same. of course richie would tell him he looked good. richie was his boyfriend, after all, and was most certainly in the habit of flattering him.

he frowned, moving to remove the flower from behind his ear when a large hand gripped his wrist, preventing him from doing so.

"let go, richie," he hissed, but the boy refused to budge, instead coming up behind stan and letting his free hand drift to the shorter boy's waist.

richie buried his face in stan's shoulder, only sparing a moment to look up at the mirror when stan let out a frustrated groan.

"baby, you look beautiful," richie insisted, but stan just shook his head.

"you have to say that."

richie frowned, pulling stan's hand away from his hair and lacing their fingers together, gripping his hip tighter still with his other hand. his dark nails were a nice contrast against stan's tanned skin, he noticed.

"stan, baby, i mean it. you look gorgeous. the flower clip looks great in your hair and it matches your outfit and baby you look perfect, okay? stop worrying."

stan let himself lean back against richie, holding their laced hands against his chest. "i look awful. my stomach—"

"looks amazing, especially in that top," richie finished, cutting stan off. "and your hair is perfect. just look at those curls, baby! we've got matching hair. and your makeup, too. i wish i could pull off pink eye-shadow as well as you do, did you know that?"

stan flushed a bright red, craning his neck upwards so as to have a full view of richie's face. "i love you," he murmured, his voice soft and cautious.

they'd never said they loved each other before that moment. not that they didn't love each other, of course, but neither of them had ever been brave enough to say it.

something in richie broke in that moment.

not something bad, hell no. but something richie had been holding together for the longest time despite knowing he should just let it go.

in that moment, richie felt his final wall come tumbling down, revealing himself wholly to his partner, in a way that he'd never revealed himself, not to anyone. it was so intimate, that moment, the utterance of those three words. they were only words, and yet somehow, in the moment, they were more connected than they had ever been.

"i love you too," richie whispered in response, pressing his chapped lips gently to stan's soft ones, careful not to smudge the lipstick his boyfriend had spent hours perfecting.

after they pulled apart, they simply stood there, lost in each other's eyes. stan brushed a loose curl gently away from richie's face, tucking it behind his ear, not once daring to speak for fear of ruining the utter serenity and content they had achieved for those few, short minutes.

it was richie who finally dared to break the silence, his forehead still pressed against stan's, his neck craned downwards while stan was on his toes in order to preserve the contact between them. "stan, there's not a thing that i would change about you. you're perfect exactly the way you are. the way you smile, the way you laugh, the way you dance when you're cooking and think i'm in the other room. all of it. there's not a single thing that i would change, and stan, baby, that's a promise. i love you so much. you're going to kill it out there today, and from the moment you step out of this apartment, all eyes will be on you for all the right reasons. anyone who dares say otherwise is only jealous and will probably earn themselves a sock in the face, you hear me? princess, i love you so much, and nothing could take that from me. not a thing. okay, baby?"

stan nodded softly, a wide smile on his face. this man, this was the man he loved. this was the man he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and this was exactly why. richie could go from making terrible dirty jokes and pelting stan with marshmallows the moment he walked through the door to cuddling stan when he had bad dreams, whispering sweet nothings in his ear while he tried to sleep. stan loved that about richie. while his boyfriend could certainly get on his nerves from time to time, there wasn't a single thing he'd change about him, either. stan thought richie was perfect, in every way.

"okay, richie," he responded, resting his head against the pale boy's chest. "thank you for always having my back. thank you for making me feel pretty and smart and loved even when i don't deserve it. thank you, just, for everything. i don't think i could live without you."

richie smiled, grasping stan's waist and leading him into a slow dance in time with the music he had playing. completely inappropriate music for a slow dance, of course, but neither of them seemed to care. nothing could ruin that moment.

"and you won't have to, princess. you won't ever have to."