AN- Title from Pat Benatar's 'hit me with your best shot'.

XXX

The world had been transformed into a winter wonderland overnight.

The snowfall had begun early the previous evening and by the time Richie had woken up the campus outside of his dorm room window was covered in a thick blanket of snow. He squinted against the glare of the sun off the bright white surface and grabbed his thick glasses off the desk beside his bed, jamming them onto his face so quickly he nearly stabbed his eye with the earpiece.

"Stan!" Richie cried, rolling out of bed in a tangle of blankets before hopping up to stand on the edge of his bed and shake his roommate's shoulder where he slept in the bunk above Richie's. Stan made a noncommittal noise in response and swatted lightly at Richie's hand where he was roughly pulling on Stan's shoulder. "It snowed last night! We've got a white Christmas!"

"I'm Jewish." Stan reminded him, mumbling into his pillow sleepily.

"Then you've got a white Hanukkah!" Richie let go of where he had been clinging to the bed railing with one hand to tap his roommate on the head in time with shaking his shoulder. Stan let out an annoyed groan and Richie heard him muttering swearwords into his pillow.

"Fuck off Richie, I'm awake!" Stan snapped, sitting up so quickly that Richie startled and lost his balance, falling off the edge of his bunk to land in a graceless heap on the floor of their small dorm.

"Oof!" Richie cried in surprise before flopping onto his back on the floor to wink up at Stan who was glaring over the edge of his bed at him. "You know I like it when you get rough with me baby."

Stan stared at him expressionlessly for a moment before suddenly chucking his pillow at Richie's face. Over the sound of his own laughter Richie heard Stan's trademark deadpanned snark. "I'm applying for a room transfer."

Ten minutes and several layers later Richie was knocking a jaunty tune against the door of the dorm across from theirs while Stan watched him with an eyeroll. He was using both fists and considering using his feet as well when the door swung open to reveal a very ruffled looking Bill.

"What the fuck Richie?" he asked around a yawn, his hair sticking up in all directions in one of the best cases of bedhead Richie had ever seen.

"It snowed last night Billy boy!" he cried happily, leaning forward to tug on the end of a chunk of Bill's hair. The other boy was so tired he didn't even try to knock his hand away. "Where's Mike?"

Bill looked over his shoulder for his roommate as if he might have misplaced him in their small quarters and he actually looked surprised to find Mike sitting at his desk hunched over a history book with noise-canceling headphones on, which Richie figured explained why he didn't answer the door.

Richie shoved past Bill to grip Mike's shoulders, impressed when Mike didn't so much as flinch. He carefully closed his book before taking off the headphones and looking over his shoulder at Richie with a smile.

"Why are you wearing those?" Richie couldn't stop himself from asking. "Bill's snoring that bad?"

He was working up to a longer tirade about other kind of noises Bill might make in bed but Mike cut him off before he could get too worked up which was probably for the best. Richie had already annoyed Stan a bit that morning and while the man was able to put up with a lot Richie figured it was best to not make comments on his boyfriend's sex noises before he'd even had a cup of coffee.

"Thin walls." he gestured to the left side of the room and now that he had pointed it out Richie could hear voices coming through the wall. It sounded like their neighbors didn't seem to mind the whole 'no overnight visitors' policy the dorms had.

"At least someone in the building has a sex life. Get dressed! It snowed!" Richie threw a scarf hanging off the back of Mike's chair in Bill's direction who immediately tossed it back to Mike like they were suddenly in a game of hot potato. Richie shoved his way back out the door and down the hall to the last door on the right.

He had only gotten two knocks in before the door swung open and Richie let out a whoop of happiness at the sight of Ben who was already mostly dressed to head outside.

"Knew I could count on you Haystack!" he cried with a grin, lightly punching Ben's arm in affection before he looked over Ben's shoulder into the room, trying and failing to look casual while doing so.

"Eddie's not here." Ben said as he finished zipping up his coat.

Richie shoved his glasses back up from where they had been slipping down his nose and suddenly found it very hard to look at Ben.

"Who said anything about Eddie?" Richie laughed, about to launch into a Voice or a tirade or fuck, a dick joke. Anything to make Ben stop looking at him with that knowing face.

"What about me?" an all too familiar voice suddenly pipped up behind Richie and he nearly jumped through the ceiling at the sound of it.

"Fuck man!" Richie cried, turning around with his hand pressed against his heart. "You trying to kill me? Your mom would not be happy about that Eds!"

The small dark eyed secret object of Richie's affection/love of his sorry life glared at him in return. Richie wasn't sure if it was because of the nickname or the mom comment. Although, Eddie's default look when it came to Richie was glaring or eyerolling so nothing was really new.

"Funny." Eddie rolled his eyes causing something in Richie's chest to tighten at how well he knew the other boy's reactions. He tapped the end of his toothbrush against his leg as he looked between Richie and Ben curiously. "What were you guys talking about?"

Richie found himself at a loss for words for what might have been the first time in his life but thankfully Ben was there to the rescue.

"He was asking if you were going out in the snow with us." Ben explained making Richie point over at him as he nodded furiously in a totally normal reaction.

Eddie looked between them for a moment, his brow furrowed like he didn't quite believe them before he shrugged, as if deciding this wasn't worth the fight or the time to think about it. "Sure. Let me get dressed."

Richie wanted to point out that he already was dressed but then he started to think about Eddie being undressed and his tongue got tangled around itself and instead he found himself thumping Ben on the shoulder again in an excuse to do something with his hands.

"See you out there!" he managed to choke out before hightailing it as fast as he could down the hallway, the door from the stairwell banging loudly against the wall as he fled. The sound seemed to echo in the stairwell and chase him down all three floors.

Richie was used to putting his foot in his mouth, to saying the wrong thing, to talking too much and too fast and too often. What he was not used to was the way Eddie Kaspbrak made his mouth go numb and his brain and mouth act like they had never met each other before. Richie often spoke without thinking but around Eddie it was like he overthought everything and still what came out of his mouth was nothing that he wanted to actually say.

He'd been trying to ask the boy out on a date since the first time they met move-in weekend. He had been in the stairwell on the landing between the second and third floor and the bottom of the box Richie was carrying had given out.

The stairs were emptier than Richie had seen them all day, probably because most people had been using the elevator. For some reason Richie had never been fond of elevators, he'd seen some horror movie as a kid about people getting trapped in one and it just stuck with him. He never took the elevator if he could help it. Which is why he had chosen to carry all of his stuff up the three flights of stairs with him, including his clearly way too heavy box of books.

Richie cursed and knelt to start gathering up the books into a precarious pile in his arms when he heard footsteps on the stairs above him. He didn't bother looking up from his mess until an unfamiliar voice spoke.

"Interesting collection you've got."

Richie snorted and responded on autopilot, "You think this is interesting you should see my dirty magazines."

He'd looked up then to meet the most striking pair of eyes he had ever seen and he physically felt his heart stop beating for a moment as the beautiful boy in front of him rolled his eyes.

"Dirty magazines? You don't just look at your porn online? What are you fifty?"

"Fifty-eight actually." Richie corrected before his mouth blurted out, "Besides your mom was only a model in the magazines. Can't find quality like that online."

"Gross." The boy scrunched his face up in disgust and Richie's heart started beating again in double time. He looked away to keep gathering up the assorted books and comics that had fallen from Richie's ruined box that were still scattered on the floor.

"You're on the third floor too right? I think I saw you up there earlier." the boy said as he finally looked back over at Richie, the books all gathered in their arms. Richie nodded, unable to believe that this boy had actually noticed him. No one noticed him, and if they did it was because he was being loud or annoying. Which in retrospect was probably how this boy had noticed him now that he was thinking about it. Richie didn't care why he had been seen, all that mattered was Richie was seeing him now. "I'm Eddie."

"Richie." God even getting his name out felt like a chore. His heart had now expanded. Richie could swear it was taking up twice as much room as it had when he had woken up that morning. He struggled to his feet, able to make it up without dropping his armful of novels and was that just wishful thinking on his part or did Eddie's eyes just drift to the bi-flag pin on Richie's lapel?

"What room are you in?" Eddie asked as he started up the stairs, Richie's books nearly spilling out of his arms.

"307." Richie was barely able to remember the number of his dorm he was so transfixed by the sight of Eddie's legs under his red track shorts. Richie had never had a thing for shorts before but he realized now that was because Eddie hadn't been the one wearing them.

After depositing Richie's books in his room Eddie had gone back to moving in his own stuff. By the time Richie saw him again that evening (after painfully embarrassing goodbyes with his parents in the parking lot) he'd half convinced himself he'd made him up. He'd wanted to ask him out that very first moment but he told himself not to do anything rash his first night at college. He didn't even know if Eddie was into guys after all. And sure, when a bunch of guys on his floor went out to get pizza that night he made sure he was squeezed into the booth next to Eddie who somehow smelled even better than he looked. And okay, yes, the lanyard that Eddie kept his keys on was rainbow printed but that could just mean he was an ally. Three nights later when Eddie casually mentioned how badly his mom reacted to him coming out Richie told himself he still couldn't ask Eddie on a date because he might not be single. Two weeks after that Richie's new best friend Beverly asked him (maybe because she was sick of hearing Richie wonder about it, maybe not) and Eddie confirmed that he in fact, was.

Richie was out of excuses to not ask him out after that (as Beverly was fond of reminding him) except for one very important fact that she liked to overlook.

Richie was a fucking coward.

Well he wasn't about most things. He could kill spiders and speak in public. He had faced down his fair share of hot-headed idiots and once a growling beast of a dog. Sure, he wasn't a fan of elevators or werewolves but he wasn't really afraid of anything. Except for being rejected by Eddie Kaspbrak. That was a fear so intense he wasn't even willing to let it have even a sliver of a chance of happening.

Instead he did what he had done for the first fifteen years of his life. He took his feelings, all his tender-hearted emotions, and he repressed the hell out of them.

Most of the time it worked wonderfully.

"Bog!" Richie cried in surprise as he bounded out of the stairwell and into the main common area of their dorm hall.

Beverly looked up from her cellphone to wave at him with a smile. Richie felt his phone go off in his coat pocket and knew without checking it was a text from her about the snow. She was all bundled up, the ends of her bright red hair sticking out from underneath her cap.

"Snow on Christmas! What a gift!" she cried happily, pulling him in for a hug like they hadn't spent the majority of the night before gorging themselves on candy canes and yelling rude comments at children's holiday movies.

"I got it specially for you Bog." Richie said solemnly as he pulled away. "Took me forever to find it."

Beverly rolled her eyes and stepped away from him, no longer protesting at his nickname for her. Most of his friends had long since accepted that Richie was more likely to call them a nickname than their actual name (well expect for Eddie who protested every variation of his name that Richie tried, even Edward, which as Richie had reminded him, was his legal name). Richie had been calling Beverly Bog since the first day they met while Richie was fighting with the vending machine and he found out her last name was Marsh. When he gave her the option of Bog or Swamp she wisely went with the first one. Richie was only a little disappointed, swamp was so much more satisfactory to say. He thought it had something to do with the 'p' at the end. You could really pop a 'p', what was he supposed to with a stupid 'g'?

"Should we wait for the others?" Beverly asked, looking at the stairwell door over Richie's shoulder.

Richie smiled that she knew them so well she knew he wouldn't be coming down alone.

"No, my love, let us go stock up on some ammunition." he said in his British guy voice that always made Beverly's eyes light up as she laughed. She threaded her arm through his and led the way out of the warm building into the cold winter morning.

When Richie's parents told him they were going to take a second honeymoon over the holiday he had been a little bit nervous that he would be spending the whole holiday alone. That was before he had realized that all of his friends had about a great of a home life as he did and would be staying at campus over the break as well. He had just been grateful at first that the campus didn't kick students out over the break closures like some schools did. After he had learned that the others were saying as well, he realized he had a lot more to be grateful for than he had originally thought.

And now, on top of having no school for nearly three weeks and all of his friends here with no adult supervision, there was snow!

Richie grinned into the winter air, even if it was so cold he felt his eyelashes sticking together and his boogers felt like they had frozen solid just in the minute he had been out.

"It's so beautiful it almost seems like a shame to mess it up." Beverly whispered, staring out at the sea of perfect untouched snow before them.

Richie grinned over at her and took her hand and they ran out into the snow together.

Well, ran might have been a bit of an overstatement. The snow was up to Richie's mid shin and nearly to Beverly's knees, so really, they slogged out into the snow. Regardless of how they got there by the time the others joined them nearly fifteen minutes later they had a huge stockpile of snowballs formed and ready and they wasted no time in letting them fly despite everyone's protests that they were cheating.

"You should have got out here faster!" Richie cried, ducking as Mike caught one of the snowballs he had thrown at him and chucked it back at Richie with a force that reminded him he was on the college's football team.

For as long as it took Richie and Beverly to make the snowballs they went through them in only a matter of minutes and Richie found himself reaching down for ammo and coming up empty. The others sensed that their stockpile had come to an end because Bill suddenly yelled out, "Charge!" and the group was making their way towards them. In all the chaos Richie had failed to notice Ben and Stan forming a stockpile of ammo of their own.

Richie yelped and split off from Beverly and the group seemed to divide down the middle to chance after the two of them. Richie spared one look over his shoulder in time to see Stan toss a snowball at Bill's back who stopped chasing after Richie to turn and attack his boyfriend in retaliation. Eddie however, was still coming for Richie with several snowballs tucked into the crook of his arm.

Deciding it was better to face what was coming than keep running Richie skidded to a stop and stooped to start packing snow. He felt something whiz by his ear and heard Eddie curse. Richie couldn't stop the loud 'ha!' that escaped him and he looked up to taunt Eddie only to catch a snowball right to the face.

"Ow! Fuck!" Richie cried, blinking snow out of his eyes and rubbing a hand across his face. He felt little icy shards of snow clinging to his eyelashes and cheeks. The force of the snowball had knocked his glasses off and he felt blindly in the snow for them, a sense of panic forming in his chest. He only had one pair of glasses left and his mother would pitch a fit if he called to tell her he had broken or lost yet another pair. In fact, now that he was eighteen and away at college she'd probably make him pay for them and he couldn't afford that off the measly ten hours a week he worked.

"Shit Richie I'm sorry!" Eddie's voice was suddenly a lot nearer and Richie held up a hand to ward him off from stepping any closer which was something he had never thought he would do.

"I can't find my glasses." Oh god he hated the pathetic way his voice sounded, the unmasked fear and panic just out there for anyone (even worse than just anyone, Eddie) to hear.

"Let me help." Eddie whispered and Richie could hear him take a tentative step forward.

"I can't fucking see anything." Richie complained, his gloved fingers shifting through the snow that had been so beautiful until it had eaten the thing that had allowed him to see its freaking beauty. He supposed this was its way of punishing him for fucking up its pristine glory.

Vain motherfucker.

"Eureka!" Eddie cried suddenly and if Richie wasn't so worried over his glasses he would have given him endless shit for using that word.

Richie was about to ask Eddie if he had found his glasses and what kind of shape they were in when he suddenly felt something cold touch his face. It took him a moment to realize it was Eddie's fingers, encased in their gloves. He had only just realized that when his glasses were slipped back onto his nose and Eddie's glorious face swam back into focus.

"Oh, thank fuck." Richie sighed in relief, feeling his whole body sag as sight was returned to him with no new visible scratches or marks.

"You should be thanking me." Eddie said with an eyeroll. Richie couldn't help but notice how very close his face was to his and the fact that his fingers were still resting lightly against Richie's face. Richie suddenly hated the inventor of gloves with a fiery burning passion so hot he was surprised the snow didn't melt underneath him.

"Thanks for finding my glasses that you knocked off in the first place." Richie said, rolling his eyes in return. "The next time you want to hit me in the face I would prefer if you did it with your mouth."

All of a sudden Richie felt like he was a character in a comic strip because he could see the words that had just come out of his traitorous mouth hovering above his head like a word bubble. He wanted to reach up and strangle them, or at the very least himself.

What.

The.

Fuck.

Richie swallowed back about a million jokes and apologies and regrets as he tried to think of a way out of this. He felt regret coursing through his veins like it fully intended to become the new lifeforce that fueled him and his mouth was suddenly dry enough that he could eat all of the snow in the quad and still not be quenched.

He could feel his mouth working as he tried to think of something, anything, literally Trashmouth say fucking anything, to say to get out of this but he kept coming up blank.

Finally, Eddie broke the silence for him.

"Do you really mean that?" he asked softly and Richie nearly cheered at him for giving him an excuse to pull his foot from his mouth. Maybe that was why so much shit came out of his mouth, it had been stretched from having his foot in it so many times.

His lips were just forming the word 'no' when Richie realized there he was, being a fucking coward around Eddie. Again. Couldn't he be brave for once? The word was out before he could think it through.

"Yes."

Eddie did nothing but look at him for a long moment, the twitch of his fingers against Richie's cheek the only sign he had heard the word at all. The moment seemed to stretch on into infinity and Richie had to physically hold his mouth shut and force himself not to move. Ever so slowly Eddie leaned forward, his eyes drifting from Richie's mouth and back up to his eyes again like he was asking for permission.

It was without a doubt the hottest thing Richie had ever seen.

He leaned forward to meet Eddie halfway and his lips were somehow impossibly softer than Richie had ever imagined. The heat of Eddie's mouth against his burned away the cold that Richie had been feeling and he was so warm that suddenly Richie couldn't feel his cold and wet gloves on his face, or the snow digging into his knees. Richie rose his hands to grip Eddie's arms lightly and he had a sudden flash of fear that their mouths would stick together like that kid who got his tongue stuck to a pole in that one Christmas movie. Did they ever show how he got unstuck? Richie couldn't remember. With Eddie still kissing him he also didn't care.

Richie's thoughts were a tumbled babble of frozen tongues and EDDIE KASPBRAK IS KISSING ME and HOLY FUCK and he was suddenly torn from them, and Eddie, as two heavy thumps fell against his back.

Eddie made a noise of protest as they pulled apart, turning to glare over his shoulder at their friends who were slowly circling them, snowballs in hand.

"This is war!" Bill reminded them, tossing a snowball in the air and catching it lightly. "There's no time for kissing during a war."

Richie looked at Eddie from the corner of his eye and gave an imperceptible nod. "In that case Big Bill..." Richie said slowly as he clambered up to his feet, reaching down to help Eddie up with him. Even once they were standing Eddie didn't let go of his hand and Richie wondered if the maniac glee that made him feel was apparent on his face. "You can keep your war!"

Richie spun on his heal suddenly and sprinted the best he could through the snow, pulling Eddie after him, both of them having to high step ridiculously to make their way across the quad. Their friends shouted and several snowballs hit their backs and flew around them but Richie managed to lead them to safety behind a large oak tree where they huddled behind it and tried to catch their breath.

Eddie's eyes were bright and his cheeks flushed and Richie was suddenly overcome by the desire to kiss him. For once he didn't repress the feeling and he leaned down to catch Eddie's mouth with his.

The kiss only lasted a moment before Eddie pulled away and Richie felt a pang of remorse until Eddie grinned, "No time for kissing in a war remember?"

Richie smiled back before kneeling beside Eddie to start rolling snow into balls to throw at their friends.

Four hours, two snowball fights, six snowman and one giant snow penis later they all sat in a cuddled pile on the floor of Ben and Eddie's dorm, which was easily the cleanest one out of all of them. They were all dry and cozy in their pajamas and the feeling had finally returned to all of Richie's fingertips. They were watching one of the Christmas episodes of Friends on Ben's laptop which they had propped up on a chair in front of them. It was a tight squeeze to fit the seven of them on the minimal floorspace of the room but they managed by nearly sitting on top of each other.

Bill was leaning against the edge of Eddie's desk with Stan sitting between his legs and leaning back against his chest. Mike sat beside them and he kept reaching over to steal the popcorn out of the bowl on Stan's lap because according to him Stan's was better than the kind Mike had brought. Ben was leaning against the dresser and Beverly was cuddled up next to him with her head on his shoulder. Richie was pretty sure the boy wasn't moving out of fear that it would make her pull away from him. Richie was beside Beverly, her legs tangled with his long ones where they were stretched across the floor. Eddie was on Richie's other side, tucked close against him with Richie's arm slung over his shoulders and their hands tangled together. Richie had nearly passed out from the contact when Eddie first sat beside him. It was way different feeling his hands when there weren't gloves between them.

Richie looked away from the screen to survey them all with a warm feeling in his chest. He had thought that he would be spending the holiday alone but to his surprise he had ended up spending it with family after all. And with the best type of family too, the one you got to choose.

Feeling a bit too sappy Richie suddenly found himself blurting out, "Did I tell you guys what Eddie said when he found my glasses?"