SOULMATES
Eddie Kaspbrak is eight years old when he meets his soulmate.

A boy that Eddie had never met came running across the playground, shrieking happily (and LOUD), his glasses askew and his hair a complete and utter mess in the breeze he stirred up by his movement. Eddie could see the collision course the boy was on, and he tried to duck out of the way, but at the last second the boy tripped and fell right into him. They landed in a heap and Eddie felt like he couldn't breathe. His entire body was hot and cold and tingly, like he'd snapped his spine (he probably had. It would be just his luck to fall on the playground and get hurt so badly), and he blinked up at the boy, who was staring down at him with a look of wonder.

"You knocked me down," he said, frowning just a little. "I think you hurt me."

"I'm Richie," the boy said, "I don't think you're hurt. Sorry I ran into you. I just, uh, was running from my friends and the next thing I knew, boom, we were on the ground!"

"I feel funny," Eddie said, starting to sniffle a little. "I really think you hurt me."

"Nu uh. I feel it, too. It's not from bein' hurt." He got up carefully and held his hand out to Eddie. "Come on, I'll take you to the nurse and she can check you out to make sure, but that's not..." Richie paused. "You know about soulmarks, right?"

"Of course I do," Eddie said, standing up surprisingly easy for someone who'd just been nearly paralyzed. He took Richie's hand without meaning to, and the feeling came back, hot and cold and buzzy and... well, not bad. He blinked again, his tears almost forgotten, though one did drop from his eye and roll down his cheek just a little way. "I don't think this is... that's not how Mommy says it feels."

"Did your mom ever find hers?" Richie asked, tilting his head.

Eddie shook his head, then leaned gently against Richie, who gently patted his hair.

"Then how would she know?"

"Oh," Eddie said softly, amazed that this boy had just changed everything he thought about the world in a few words. "I'm Eddie, by the way."

"Well, Eds, come on and I'll take you to the nurse. I bet I'm right, though." Richie smiled, then waved his friends off with a flip of his hand.

"Don't call me that, I don't like it," Eddie said, frowning just a little.

"Spaghetti, then," Richie nodded, laughing again when Eddie glared daggers at him.

-----
The thing about finding your soulmate so young was that it made people nervous. Eddie's mother, Sonia, had always been nervous anyway, and it became twice as bad when he came home from school with a note from the nurse about the situation. Richie had been right, of course, and by the end of the day, the two boys were enrolled in class together, sitting in the same unit of desks so that they could reach out and touch each other every once in a while. It was important, the note explained, that the boys be allowed to see each other as often as possible for their bond to grow strong. They would need to sleep near each other if possible. Sonia, however, refused. She wasn't going to let her Eddie bear sleep somewhere else, and she couldn't imagine letting Richie stay over. Absolutely not.

"But Mommy, it says," Eddie said, and he knew he was whining a little bit, but it ached to be away from Richie. Something deep in his body told him it was NOT okay, and he needed to fight back a little bit. "It says we have to, if we can. And we can! He can sleep on my bed and I can sleep on the cot with lots of blankets and pillows!"

"Absolutely not," Sonia said, shaking her head. "I don't care if he is your soulmate, I'm your mother, and I get the final say."

Eddie stomped up the stairs to his room, flinging himself on the bed and falling to tears almost immediately. It didn't take long before he was asleep, his misery only making it easier to avoid doing anything else.

He woke up to a light tapping on the window at around ten pm, and when he sat up and looked, terrified it was going to be a vampire or a monster or something, he saw Richie's big glasses and smiling mouth instead. He opened the window and leaned out. "Mommy says no," he said, already feeling the tears welling up again.

"I know. My parents talked to her. But she isn't my mom, I don't have to listen to her," he said, "back up, I'm coming in."

"You're what?" But he did back up, and then Richie was through the window, closing it behind him. "If she finds you here, she's going to be so mad," Eddie explained, his voice almost a whisper.

"She won't find me," Richie said, tugging Eddie toward the bed. "Come on, let's go to sleep. We've got school in the morning." He got into the bed and pressed up against the wall, holding his arms out for Eddie, who climbed in and curled up with his back against Richie's front.

The world made sense again, and Eddie closed his eyes, falling into the most peaceful sleep he may have ever had.

-----

Richie Tozier is fourteen years old when he loses his soulmate.

Bill came over and thudded down a whole stack of books on the table beside where Richie had his head down. He looked up from his notes and raised an eyebrow at his best friend. "Problems Billy? Or did you need to set down fifty-seven books so you can pick up twenty more?"

"Funny," Bill said, shaking his head. "W-where is Eddie? I was supposed to meet him this morning to give him that book by W-winchester."

Richie rolled his eyes. "Oh, Sonia was on one this morning. She came in while we were laying in bed together, literally doing nothing untoward at all, and she made me leave and told me not to wait for Eds because she was going to bring him to school late. They had--" and here he raised up his hands, doing a double quote action, his voice going high and annoying and shockingly like Sonia Kaspbrak's voice, "'A TALK'," and he dropped back into his own voice, "to have. So god knows when she'll let him come to school." He looked back down at his notes, mildly relieved that he and Eddie were at the point that they didn't have to be together constantly to not get itchy and unnerved. Which was probably why today was annoying him so much, because he did feel that way, and it had been at least three years since that had happened.

Stan peeked in the door of the library and looked relieved, then not-so-relieved, as he ran toward Bill and Richie. The librarian quietly told him to slow down, and he said "it's an emergency" as he kept going. By the time he got to the table, Richie was standing up. "She took him away. She packed him in the car and she took him," Stan said.

"W-who?" Bill asked, his eyes widening.

"Eddie," Richie said, already heading toward the door. "That bitch took Eddie, and I'm going to fucking kill her."

-----
Richie ran to Eddie's house. The front door was locked, of course, but he not only had a key, but he could easily climb into Eddie's room, since he'd been doing it since they were eight. He wasn't sure he could deal with Eddie's room at the moment, though. He used his key and opened the door, his entire body tensing as he noted the things that were missing. Sonia's chair, the kitchen table and chairs, the food, the TV, everything that was sentimental or glued to Sonia's ass was gone. He went up the stairs two at a time, and stood in front of Eddie's door with a heavy heart. He opened the door slowly, and then fell to his knees there.

The room was stripped bare. The only things left were things he'd left behind there, a few books, and some trash. Sonia Kaspbrak had effectively ripped Eddie out of the world, and he had no idea where to even start looking. He was going to throw up. In fact, he stood up and quickly ran to the bathroom, heaving into the toilet, tears choking him as he retched again and again.

-----

Eddie Kaspbrak is fourteen-and-a-half years old when he forgets his soulmate.

He was in the hospital for the sixth time in as many months. He'd been depressed, his mother said, sluggish, unfocused. He needed help. He didn't need help, he needed Richie. His entire body ached like he'd broken every bone and let them heal wrong. His mind chanted Richie's name constantly. His soul cried out for its match. He felt dead inside, and he hated his mother more than anything in the world for it. It was all her fault.

There were meetings between his mother and doctors, whispered conversations so he couldn't hear what they were saying, slightly raised voices that got covered up by his mother's higher pitched tone explaining herself, more meetings, a social worker that came in and talked to him, and finally, he had a team of people standing in front of him.

"What?" he asked, looking up from his listless food with his listless face, speaking with his listless voice.

"We've come to a decision on your case," one of the doctors said, looking down at the chart in his hand. "There's a proceedure that we have been..." He paused, something on his face making Eddie almost laugh, "advised to do."

"Who advised it?" he asked, looking directly at his mother.

"Oh. Well, uh. Several lawyers, and a judge actually, made the decision. That it would be in your best interest." One of the nurses was making a face like she'd love to rip apart the people that had decided it. Eddie appreciated it immensely.

"What procedure?" he asked.

"It's a very small surgery, It only takes about twenty minutes, and you'll be up and moving again in no time." A second doctor answered that question, and Eddie looked toward her.

"What. Is. The. Procedure?" he asked her, point blank.

"The surgery will be to block off a small portion of your brain that affects memory. Specifically, the memory of your... soulmate."

Eddie's eyes went wide. "What? No, absolutely not. NO! You're not taking him away from me. My memory is all I have left of him! She's keeping me away from him, and I can't... I can't lose him like this, too. Please. Don't do this. Mommy, don't do this," he said, choking on the fact that he called her Mommy. Desperate times.

"You're not functioning," she said, huffing a little. "You refuse to do anything. You're not even studying, Eddie bear."

"If you do this, I will never speak to you again," he said, staring hard at her.

"You won't remember to be angry," she answered.

-----
He was put under, fighting. He woke up, docile and still. He couldn't think why he had been in the hospital at all, but he was ready for Mommy to take him home.