Watching you, Watching me-Part 1
Pairing: Richie/Ryan
Fandom: All My Children
Rating:M. This contains slash m/m so please don't read if this offends you!
Summary: Ryan finds himself drawn to Annie's brother Richie, whom he's been watching to see if he is going to cause trouble. This is AU in the sense that they've already discovered Richie was innocent of the crimes Annie thought he'd committed. They still worry he will try and get revenge on Annie for having him falsely imprisoned.
Disclaimer: I don't own All My Children or the characters. The story is the only thing that's mine.
Ryan woke up with a start. For a moment he was disoriented, forgetting where he was or what he was doing.
Then he remembered that he was with Annie on the couch, just waking up from an unexpected and pleasant morning interlude of relaxed, unhurried love making.
He smiled as he looked at his wife sleeping in his arms. He thought about going back to sleep, but then that familiar uneasy feeling he had been getting lately returned.
He wasn't sure why he felt this way. They'd investigated Richie and discovered he was neither the murderer of that little boy at camp, or the one who'd pushed his and Annie's father out the window.
Yet he found he couldn't stop thinking about what Richie was doing. He just couldn't believe that Annie had been totally wrong about him. And even if she had been, Richie had practically told him that when (not if) he went after Ryan and Annie they'd never see him coming.
Of course, that was before they'd found out he was innocent. But still, he was angry at Annie for having him put away for seven years for a crime he didn't commit. Ryan had to admit to himself that he would be planning revenge if that was done to him.
So he kept the camera he had set up in Richie's office and continued watching him.
The problem was that it had become somewhat of an obsession with him.
Like now, why should he be watching Richie instead of just lying with his wife and enjoying the moment? After all, he had everything on tape and could look at it at any time. He doubted Richie was doing any plotting out loud right now, anyway.
Yet here he was, pressing the remote and staring at the man who was becoming too much of a part of his life and his thoughts.
He saw Richie looking at some photos on his desk. Photos of Annie and Emma, photos of Annie with Richie. There was even a photo of Ryan and Annie, which Ryan found to be very disconcerting. Which was probably why Richie put it there in the first place.
In spite of himself he had to admire Richie's play. Every time he thought he had Richie caught he found he was one step ahead.
Right now Richie was staring at the picture of Annie with Ryan. He let his fingers run lightly over the picture and sighed softly. It puzzled Ryan to see that. It was almost a longing look, and a tender gesture.
Maybe Richie wasn't going to try and get revenge after all?
He watched as Richie put the picture back and stood up and walked around the desk. Walking toward the coat rack he removed his jacket and started taking off his shirt and his undershirt. Changing for the night, Ryan supposed. Richie had his back to the camera and what he saw shocked him.
Richie had scars on his back that went all the way down. Like someone cut him, more than once. And beat him with a belt. Or a whip.
Ryan zoomed in with the camera to look at it more closely. Yes, those were definitely scars from multiple times of being tortured. "My God" Ryan thought. That had to be from his time in prison.
For the first time since he'd met him, Ryan felt sorry for Richie.
And he could see where his anger toward Annie was coming from. Ryan would never say that to Annie and he felt disloyal for even thinking it. Yet he had to admit that he would be furious, too
Next, Richie took his pants off, and again Ryan saw what looked like marks of some kind on the backs of his thighs. He didn't even want to think about what was done to Richie when those marks were made. But he did. He had this sudden image of Richie laying on a cot, arms and feet tied. Being cut with someone's knife as-what? Part of some insane mating ritual? Some BDSM prison style, torture for fun and power?
Ryan shook his head to rid himself of the image and found it was replaced with something similar. Richie laying on the bed tied up willingly, someone's hands roughly running over his body, stroking him and making him hard. A look of pain replaced by one of pleasure. Richie opening up his legs and letting the person lay between them. Responding and reacting to the touch of this man. Ryan sat up abruptly and went to get himself some of the champagne he and Annie were drinking earlier. He felt flushed and hot, and to his astonishment,aroused. "What the fuck is going on with me"? He thought aloud this time, but didn't have any answers. He wanted to go back and turn off the camera. He couldn't do it, though. He was being drawn in and he couldn't seem to stop. He sat back down. Richie was walking to his gym bag and taking out some pants. When he sat down to put them on Ryan found himself staring at him.
"Shit"! Ryan exclaimed as he once again found himself aroused. He had no idea why this was happening, and it scared the hell out of him.
Maybe this exercise in spying on Richie was just an excuse to –
Look at him?
That didn't make sense. He'd never been attracted to men, why would he be attracted to Richie?
Maybe it was just the complexity of the man that was pulling him in. "Sucking in is more likely" an irritating voice said. It was his own voice, but it was still irritating.
He watched Richie run his hands over his thighs again and again. He was mulling something over, apparently. He did that a lot, Ryan noticed. Rub his hands up and down his arm or his thighs when he was thinking of something.
"And I don't know why I noticed that" He thought.
Richie dressed ,grabbed his jacket and walked out. Ryan turned off the remote, and a second later heard Annie say in a teasing tone "Is that for me"?
Ryan looked at himself and was embarrassed to find that he was still hard. He smiled at Annie and touched her hair.
"No, it's not for you" He thought, and felt his breath knocked out of his body as the realization fully hit him.
Silently he added:
"It's for your brother"
TBC