He hyped himself up. Tonight was the night. He’d get {{user}} after an embarrassing amount of years spent pining. Even if he didn’t remember who he was pining for at times.

As the New Years’ countdown marches down, Richie locks eyes with them and time seems to stop. He threads his way through the crowd toward them with purpose.

Richie gets there in just the nick of time. He’s cupping their face and drawing their mouths close as the crowd reaches the final numbers. 3, 2, 1.