Unauthorized Continuation of Glitterati's Waltz
By: tehSlasher

Note: Okay. I love chayan. And the best I've found thus far is Waltz, available at http://www.glitterati .talkoncorners. net/log/in-progress/hs-musical-waltz/ (you'll have to take out those spaces, the ones before and after '.talkingoncorners.'--ffn is kinda obnoxious about the whole linking thing) The issue is that I wait and I wait, and the updates, they just don't come. So I wrote my own. It's not official, which means that there will still be a real conclusion, presumably. I don't have quite the same voice for Ryan, I fear, and I wrote fairly quickly and self-indulgently, but I had fun, and thought maybe some others would too. Yay for fanfic of fanfic! Enjoy!

Part Two

Ryan managed to resist making any sound so undignified as a startled squawk, and instead drew in a long, slow breath through his nose and then released it in a quiet hum, forcing his neck and shoulders and hands to relax….

"Ryan!" The tone was half amused and half impatient.

He cocked a brow inquisitively at Chad, drawing in another breath and humming it out, shifting a bit to try to find a less uncomfortable position without getting any closer to the intruder.

"Talk to me?" Chad asked, tone exaggeratedly wistful, a child begging for a treat.

Ryan shifted again, then one foot slipped and it was his first experience of the world shifting into slow motion. He couldn't act, but he could (and, indeed, had no choice but to) watch in horror as his leather Gucci shoe drew closer to the rippling surface of chemically treated water—and then there were hands on his waist, big, familiar hands, drawing him forward, off balance still further, and he was falling, but not into the water.

The stall door shuddered beneath their combined weight as Chad stumbled back into it, Ryan held to his chest, and Ryan took a gasping breath, jerking back to carefully examine his shoe for any marks of stray droplets. Finally, he breathed a sigh of relief. "It's okay!" he exclaimed.

"Uh, good," Chad said, sounding a trifle taken aback.

Ryan looked up at him, reassured by having the jock taller than him again. No doubt that strangeness had been largely to blame for his lack of balance and grace, two things which generally came to him naturally. "Thank you," he said.

"No problem."

He felt himself starting to shift again, wondered where this nervous tension was coming from, and made a mental note to join Mother for yoga this evening. His eyes flicked closed automatically as he reached down, into the earth… reaching…

Hands took his, jerking him out of his reverie to look up into big, serious brown eyes. "You're centering yourself."

"Well. Yes."

"Feeling off balance?"

Ryan blinked. "I just almost fell into a toilet," he pointed out.

Chad bit his lip. "Well, yeah. But… Never seen you fall before. Or even almost fall. Maybe you were already a bit off balance?"

Ryan cocked his head slightly to one side. "I'd just been considering that," he agreed. "Looking down at you rather than up was disconcerting, and I believe to blame for the lapse in grace."

"So that's all?"

"I think so, yes."

"It wasn't, say…." His voice trailed off for a moment and he stepped forward.

Ryan automatically tried to back up to maintain distance—they had been practicing dance the last dozen or so times they'd been together, after all—and his calves hit the toilet and he stumbled again.

Again Chad's hands caught him around the waist. "Me?"

"Beg pardon?" he asked uncertainly, steadying his balance and waiting for the hands to leave. They didn't.

"It wasn't me making you nervous? Being in here? With you?"

Ryan swallowed, suddenly even more aware of the big hands practically spanning his waist. "Well," he said slowly. "I'm not precisely used to sharing bathroom stalls. I suppose I'm fortunate you didn't catch me en dishabille."

"In what?"

He sighed. "Undressed."

There was a gleam in Chad's eye that he didn't quite have time to interpret. "Yeah. Fortunate."

"I believe I'm steady now."

"Huh?"

"You can let go," Ryan said, managing with a Herculean effort to neither squirm in an attempt to get away nor melt forward into the grip.

"I don't want to."

'I—What?"

"I don't want to let go."

Ryan bit his lip, looking up into the other boy's face. "Well—Well you have to!"

"No, I don't."

Ryan stared up at Chad, not letting himself be distracted by the fascinating way his lips were twitching as though holding in laughter, laughter that wasn't held in nearly as effectively by the dancing eyes above them.

He drew in a long breath and hummed it softly out, letting his eyes drift closed. The hands tightened slightly on his waist, and he felt himself relaxing a bit, the nervous tension draining from him as he took another breath. He was vaguely aware that Chad was talking, but didn't take the energy to actually listen.

His hum broke off mid-note as it was covered up by a warm, firm pressure, and his eyes snapped open to see Chad's face now far too close, tilted slightly, and with an expression of intense concentration as he kissed him. Too startled to respond, he simply stood, staring, as Chad lingered for a long moment over him, then lightly bit his lower lip, and pulled slightly back, not letting go, but looking inquisitively down at him.

Ryan waited to be sure there wasn't going to be an immediate encore, then said, "Perhaps it would be best if you explained why you followed me."

Chad frowned. "I thought I just did?"

"If it was before you kissed me, I apologize, but I wasn't listening. Could you repeat?"

He seemed to bite back a laugh, then shook his head. "I thought the kiss was the explanation."

"Oh. Well. It was a bad one."

Chad jerked as though struck. "Wow, you don't pull any punches, do you?"

It was Ryan's turn to frown, then he shook his head impatiently. "Not a bad kiss. A bad explanation." He hesitated a moment, then added, "It was quite a good kiss, actually."

Smiling again, Chad nodded. "Okay, good. Cuz I kinda thought so, too. Even though you didn't seem to get into it much. And—"

"But I'd still like an explanation?"

Looking at him like he was an idiot, Chad said, "I want you to go to prom with me."

Ryan blinked. "Beg pardon?"

"Well, I can't dance with anyone else! It's hard enough to dance with you!"

"What about Taylor?"

"No way," he said. "She's too short. And she moves way differently from you. Kinda jerky."

Ryan rolled his eyes. "I meant, I thought you were going to prom with her."

"Well, I'm not."

"Then what have you too been giggling about at your locker for the past couple weeks?"

Chad blushed. It was kinda hard to tell because he was so dark-complexioned, but Ryan was pretty sure that he actually blushed. Deeply.

"What?" he pushed.

"She was tutoring me," Chad finally said.

"Uh huh. In what?"

"She was giving me advice on how to get your attention, okay?" he burst out.

Ryan blinked. Then he blinked again. "She didn't suggest, maybe, saying something to me?"

"Well, yeah, but she's a girl," Chad pointed out. "They're always giving stupid advice like that. I wanted something useful."

"So she suggested… scaling the bathroom wall and throwing yourself at me?"

"I improvised!"

Feeling his lips twitch, Ryan schooled his features into a serious expression and nodded solemnly. "Knowing that improvisation would show you favorably to an actor."

"Uh, right. So… will you?"

"Go with you to prom?"

"Yes."

Ryan hesitated a long minute just to watch Chad's nervousness, then he shrugged delicately. "As long as I have veto rights on your wardrobe."

"Yes! Wait—what's wrong with my clothes?"

"I don't know yet. I'll let you know when you choose an outfit."

Chad looked like he was deciding whether or not to take offense, then gave it up and grinned, arms wrapping a bit more firmly around Ryan. "Deal," he murmured, before leaning in for another kiss.

Ryan returned it for a moment, then his leg brushed against something cold and damp, and he shuddered and jerked away.

"What?" Chad demanded.

"I just touched the toilet," he announced. "This is—this is—unsanitary!"

Chocolate eyes stared at him blankly for a long moment, then brimmed with laughter. "Sanitize this," Chad said with a grin, and Ryan barely had time to open his mouth to answer before he was grabbed around the waist and hoisted up against the wall, Chad pinning him to it with his body and then trying to snag Ryan's lips with his own.

Ryan was having none of it. "Eeew," he squeaked, barely managing to contain it to that rather than a shriek. "Have you looked at these walls?" He put his hands on Chad's shoulders to push him away. "I'm going to have to burn this shirt, and I love this shirt! Back, fiend!"

"Fiend?" Chad asked, still laughing, not budging despite the pressure on his shoulders. "I thought I was your boyfriend?"

"Not if you don't let me off this—this disgusting surface," Ryan promised direly, lifting his legs to shove against the wall in another attempt to dislodge Chad.

Chad's eyes sort of widened and unfocused and he made a sound that was almost like a whimper, and he stumbled back, letting Ryan drop. He fell forward into the taller boy, sending them both careening into the opposite wall, pinned together just as close—but without the revolting wall touching Ryan or his clothing.

"Oh," he murmured, distracted from examining the extent of the damage to his wardrobe by the warm, hard press of the other body against his. "I think—"

"Too much," Chad interrupted, voice thick and hoarse. "Way, way too much. Stop thinking," he ordered, tilting forward to press another kiss to Ryan's lips.

This time he had no unpleasant distractions and simply lost himself on the play of lips on lips, on the thick curly hair under his hands as he reached up to pull the head closer to his own, in the hand at the base of his skull and the other one at his lower back. Lost himself in the wetness and heat as somehow both their mouths opened and their tongues met, first hesitantly, then eagerly. Lost himself in the pressure as Chad's thigh somehow made its way between his, drawing a moan from him that was immediately swallowed by the taller boy. Lost in everything—until a shrill ring made him jerk, and Chad swore and clapped one hand to the lip Ryan had just bitten by mistake, and they both hazily tried to remember what the world was when it wasn't a kiss.

"We're late for class!" Ryan finally gasped.

"I so don't care," Chad muttered, touching his wounded lip experimentally with the tip of his tongue.

Ryan's eyes were caught by the move, and he licked his own lips in reaction, swallowing, then shook his head. "Well I do—I've gotta get to history! I'll get a detention if I'm late, and Sharpay gets pissy if I get detention without her and she has to wait to give me a ride home!"

"Hey," Chad said softly, catching Ryan's face in his hands. "Tell her to go. I'll give you a ride home."

The words felt way sweeter than they had any right to—sort of boring words that anyone could say without a moment's thought put into choice. Ryan couldn't help the happy smile that suffused his face at them. "Okay. But I still have to go now."

Chad nodded, and reluctantly let go of him. "Okay. Hold on," he added, and then with exquisite care repositioned Ryan's hat on his head and brushed a couple wrinkles out of his shirt. "Good as new," he offered with a grin, unlocking the door and waving Ryan out it.

He started out, then paused, turned, and reached up to give Chad one more quick peck on the lips. "See you after detention," he said softly, then turned and fled.