Thirty Three Rounds Per Minute || Richard (rchardriders) & Peter (yourprincestarlord)

yourprincestarlord:

rchardriders:

Richard examined his best friend’s shoulder, and realised it was rather badly burnt. He wanted to use his Nova Force to heal Peter but he figured that he might anger Peter, Richard had already gotten away with checking him over for injuries. “You’re not.” He replied matter-of-factly to the lie, knowing Peter well enough to see through it. He would let it go this time, seeing as his friend still seemed to be in a state of shock similar to him.

“It’s me. It’s me.” Richard repeated, whether for himself or for Peter he wasn’t sure. He reached out to help Peter up and they stared at each other for a while. One question ran through his mind, “How?” How? Over and over again. How did Peter know he was here? How did they even survive that ordeal? They both knew it was a one way trip and yet here they were.

The next thing he knew, Peter pulled him into a hug and he returned it as enthusiastically. Richard breathed in deep, inhaling Peter’s scent, and relishing in the feel of Peter, real and solid, against him. Yet, he was just as careful not to injure his friend’s shoulder. “3 years? I don’t think… It’s… it’s been that long? I don’t think — ” Disbelief creeped back into his voice. It… it didn’t feel that long, maybe only slightly more that half year or a year tops. But 3 years seemed like a far stretch.

"It’s not your fault, you didn’t know. It’s not your fault.” He thumbed Peter’s cheek, trying to wipe away his tears, his own eyes brimming with unshed tears himself. He murmured the words over and over, trying to calm Peter down, trying to ground and anchor him.

Slowly Peter’s sobs tapered off as Richie’s touch soothed him, grounding him in the reality that Richie was here holding him and not dead. He wanted to laugh at the absurd situation he found himself in. Crying into his best friend’s shoulder who he thought had been dead surrounded by beaten slavers. Eventually he got a hold of himself and reluctantly pulled away from Richie for some space.

"Sorry, Rich. I… It’s just a shock you know? I came here sort of maybe expecting a new Nova like that kid— he’s the son of a retired Nova, put on his dad’s helmet I heard— and got captured because they didn’t know how to use their power… I thought it’d be similar… I didn’t expect it’d be you.” Peter reached up intending to wipe at his face only for his shoulder to spasm, the movement pulling at the burn. He grunted and dropped his arm. “Three years, Richie.” Peter said softly and shook his head. “How did you escape? I thought you were dead for sure when… When you didn’t show up.”

They held each other for a long time before Peter had extracted himself from his grasp, and Richard couldn’t help but think that it was too soon, like it was a loss. He needed the hug as much as Peter did. He smiled at Peter with tears that started to roll down his cheek and hoped he’d managed to convey that.

New Nova? Richard wanted to ask about the details but that wasn’t important right now. Peter was sorry, and even though Richard didn’t know whether it was for the hug or the three years, it didn’t matter to him because it wasn’t his fault and Peter didn’t need to be sorry for anything. "Here, let me take care of that.” Noticing that Peter was making aborted movements with his arm meant it hurt a lot more than he’d let on. Richard reached out and placed his hand on his best friend’s shoulder, using some of the Nova Force to regenerate the tissue. He left his hand on Peter’s shoulder afterward, still wanting to be in contact with him, still wanting to touch him.

“I… I don’t know how I escaped, how did you escape? What happened all this time?” Richard hated that he had made Peter wait three years, hated that Peter probably lamented himself and the fact that he made it out of the Cancerverse without Richard, hated that he was weak enough to be caught, and in turn making Peter wait and grief unnecessarily.