Gabe comes back from his 'adventure' to traveling back to the edges of the forest with a grin on his face, William trailing behind with a smile on his face. But Ryan's eyes are on the case he has in hand and Ryan's eyes widen, before zeroing on the black solid case. Because holy fuck, Ryan didn't notice before how much he missed his guitar.
William rolls his eyes at Ryan's expression and practically shoves the case in his hands. Ryan takes it gradually and he doesn't dare open in right now. He'd praise his sweet Lilo (yes, she has a name because she'd family. Even though she'd made of wood and not meat and bone) at night when he'd have a quiet moment with her. At the moment Gabe's prying eyes would be difficult to escape.
"Can I see it?" He asks innocently, and Ryan wouldn't be surprised if he batted his eyelashes too.
"Her," Ryan corrects, "She's not just any thing lying around." He pushes the case behind the cabinet wardrobe and hopes that she'd be safe from danger. Sure, they told him it's just a replica but we're talking about Ryan's little daughter (as Spencer would call her before shutting up to stare at Ryan's scowl solemnly).
Ryan's been waiting on the door of the cabin for quite a long time and he had not even felt sleepy, even though he was sure it was pretty much 4 in the morning. William didn't seem to mind having to go alone to retrieve Ryan's precious possession. Gabe had woken up and tagged along.
Now, being about 7 o'clock in the morning (God knows how William and Gabe got distracted on the way back and took an hour more but Ryan noticed a light purple spot on William's neck, barely hidden by his hair) they finally returned and Gabe seems enthusiastic to introduce him to everyone. Ryan feels more and more unimpressed by the minute as Gabe describes each and every one of them.
By the time William is dragging Gabe out of the cabin by digging his nails into his arm there's more daylight seeping through the tall trees. Ryan squints his eyes and he suddenly feels something slam into his side and make his topple over, barely saved from landing on his ass on the top of the dirty floor by Gerard. Ryan looks down to see what the fuck that was and is met with a pair of dark brown eyes.
Centimeters away.
Their noses are barely touching and Ryan is extremely claustrophobic. Pardon me if I forgot to mention it before.
So Ryan's first instinct is to shove the creature away, or, well, person. He seems to stumble away but his grin never wavers, as if he gets the same reaction very often. Being a couple of inches taller, Ryan has the advantage of towering over the boy, who seems to be not much younger than Ryan himself.
"What the fuck!" He yells. And the boy's grin fades and his bottom lip swells into a pout.
"I'm sorry!" says the boy, "I didn't mean to scare you! I just got excited."
Ryan glares at him with as much hate as he can muster. "Fucking asshole! What do you expect if you fucking jump on me like that!"
And then, just as the boy's eyes widen even more and his lips trembles (And Ryan till thinks 'Serves him right') , Ryan feels a hand lie on his shoulder and he turns to meet Gerard's stony eyes.
"Ryan," He says gravely, "This is Brendon. He's the one that's staying at my cabin."
And the first thing that comes to Ryan's mind is 'shitshitshitshitshit' because he remembers. This isn't the Las Vegas streets anymore, where he can just flip the boy -Brendon- off and never see him in his life again. No. Ryan's in this little world in his mind and there's no escaping now. Ryan ignores the pang of shame that hits him and just shrugs.
"Okay."
Ryan meets Vicky T (who's a complete bitch and has Gabe wrapped around her little finger -with William's permission-), Greta (a sweet little girl who smiles brightly), Ray (the dude with the mega curls who reminds Ryan of Trohman -a dude back at the Institute-), Bob (who likes glaring at strangers… a lot), Patrick (he smiles shyly and talks in a quite voice while hiding his face behind his Trilby hat and blonde hair), Andy (sort of just nods at Ryan and keeps walking away), Hayley (with awesome orange hair and a vivid personality) and Audrey (with pink hair and looks like a complete conceited whore who fucks everyone she sees).
Brendon sort of just stays behind and stares at Ryan the whole time with a hopeful gaze.
~.~.~.~
"Do you like candy?" Brendon asks, his face once again too close to Ryan's. Ryan grimaces and slowly turns him away with his index finger on Brendon's cheek.
"No."
Brendon turns back to him (retreating a couple of inches back) and his big eyes enlarge impossibly wider. "Why?!"
"Because it makes me sick and my stomach starts churning horribly. Usually I throw up."
Brendon huffs because, honestly, what type of person is Ryan to not even like gummy bears?! That should be against the law. Thinking better of it, it would not be a bad idea. If he even had access to the real world. But no. Brendon's stuck here in this little 'Comaland' like he calls it. He's had three years stuck in this hellhole and he's starting to get sick of this place. But not of it's people, god no. Ryan's cute and funny (especially when it's cold and his nose is a light pink) and Gerard hugs him sometimes and talks to him about his life 'back home'.
"That doesn't make sense." Brendon voices out. Ryan rolls his eyes and shifts from sitting in high air on the tied blanket.
"Brendon, I hate to be the one to break it to you but we're currently in a small little world made up by our minds while our bodies are still in a hospital. This hardly has any significance either way."
"But we're here and that's all that matters." Brendon replies, his wide eyes fixed on Ryan with such innocence it fucking hurts.
"There's nothing that matters anymore." Ryan snaps because he's drowsy from lack of a night's sleep. He snapped at Brendon because he can and he will. And Gabe's moaning last night was too loud to ignore.
Brendon hops onto William's bed below and then uses his arms to crawl on Ryan's, much as he's seen Ryan do it himself. Ryan frowns as Brendon squishes himself beside him, their legs hanging to the ground with their knees brushing every one in a while with Brendon childishly swinging his legs back and forth. Ryan finally shoves the book he's been trying to read for half an hour down and glares at him.
"Do you want something?" He jeers. Brendon's smiles softly and seems suddenly timid, staring at his hands and playing with them.
"No." He murmurs.
"Then leave." Ryan snaps. Brendon winces and Ryan fights his guilt back, refusing for his eyes to soften.
"Can I watch you read?"
"Will you be quiet and not make me shut you up the whole time?" Ryan asks back. Brendon grins and nods rapidly.
"Sure!"
"Then," Ryan responds calmly, "You can stay."
Brendon beams and, in spite of promising Ryan silence, he begins to hum. Ryan's hand tightens on his borrowed book and doesn't say a word. Brendon thinks 'shutting up' requires not talking.
Ryan finds himself staring at the same paragraph in the thick book the whole next two hours while listening to Brendon's tune and after a long period of time Ryan finally notices that Brendon had stopped humming. Ryan turns to see the source for the pause of the quiet music and sighs as he sees the sight of Brendon curled up in a tight ball on the blanket.
It's nighttime and too late for Ryan to go to Brendon's cabin and ask Gerard for the younger boy's bed. And Ryan can't sleep in William's and Gabe's own bed (quite repulsive, the thought). Ryan grumbles a bit and throws the book on William's bed.
He squishes himself beside Brendon.
Wakes up the next morning to see his arm tightly gripping Brendon's waist and Brendon's face buried in Ryan's chest, his hand on Ryan's own hand and smile on his face.
~.~.~.~
Before. I used to. Back home. When I was still awake.
Ryan notices how Brendon winces each time he hears these terms. Only Gerard seems to know how much he hates it when someone brings back the past. Brendon can't stand it and it always makes him sad. Even though Ryan -most of the time- can't stand Brendon, he hates seeing him sad. A sad Brendon is no Brendon at all.
Brendon is sweet, rash, foolish and ridiculously adorable. He grins widely when someone compliments his new songs (since he brought along his whole fucking piano -and Ryan wonders how they dragged the whole thing back to the cabin when he first got here before remembering everyone's been here for maximum a year while Brendon got here when he was fourteen-) and kisses Ryan sloppily on the cheek when he feels like it. Ryan usually scowls and wipes his cheek, rubbing endlessly at it before seeing Brendon skip away to find Gerard. It's when he's out of sight when Ryan finally lets his little smile escape.
Greta giggled once she caught him and Ryan glared at her. She quickly became quiet but she was still holding back laughs.
A couple of weeks after Brendon would go to Ryan's cabin every night to sleep with him, Brendon finally got frustrated on having to be careful not to fall (because Ryan wouldn't hold him while awake) and made Gerard -with a roll of his eyes- undo the strapped bed from the walls and take it to Brendon's cabin.
There, Gerard strapped it close next to Brendon's and formed a huge king sized berth. Ryan had snapped on Brendon for doing this same thing and Brendon had just smiled and planted a kiss right smacked on his lips. Ryan blinked and there was suddenly no room for an argument.
~.~.Two Days Later.~.~
It's one of those rare days where it rains over the forest.
Brendon shivers and whimpers at the loud lightning bolts that fall next to the cabin and holds back tears as he sniffs and feels Ryan's arm wrap around his waist securely. Brendon turns around in the heavy bed covers and Ryan kisses his forehead.
"Shh, Bren," He murmurs sleepily, careful not to wake up a snoring above, "I'm right here. And I'm not going anywhere." He brushes a fringe of Brendon's dark hair.
Brendon nods with glistening brown eyes while peering up at him and buries his face in Ryan's neck.
"Hold me."
Ryan does just that.
~.~.One Month Later.~.~
"You know," Gabe says out of the blue while staring into space, "You have a luck. For awaking in the edges of the forest. For being the only person after the first of history. Just maybe, you have a chance."
Ryan whips around and his eyebrows furrow at his words. "Chance at what?" He asks.
Gabe grins and finally looks at him in the eyes, looking over his shoulder after at Vicky T who had finally arrived from visiting the 'others'. The ones in the village who come from other parts of the world.
"Just- a chance."
Ryan's Bored. Not just bored. But Bored. With a capital beginning letter and all. Because it's important.
He had decided to visit Patrick's cabin to discuss the music of when Patrick was still awake and the one from Ryan's posters. Apparently, when Ryan had played a song on guitar from that one boy band that comes out everywhere -please, don't ask how he knows it. It was a threat, swear to god. Damn Peter Wentz-, he had learned that the now music is shitty. From what he says. Well, Patrick isn't too far off.
But then Patrick is doing his own shit with his CD's (without a fucking CD player) and Ryan feels alone. Not that Patrick's bad (it's scary how he's all Pete had described his dream-perfect-boy to be like. Blonde, tall, with dorky -and at the same time- cool glasses, timid, with a nice smile with perfect white teeth, etc, etc, etc.), he's pretty cool actually. But right now Patrick's in his own little world and Ryan respects that.
He walks back to the cabin where Brendon awaits him with a huge shit-eating grin. When he's about the enter the already open door he's interrupted by some heated discussion going on and Ryan -being himself- decides to wait for his cue to enter.
"Gee," Brendon sounds as if he's wailing and Ryan flinches, "It's not fair!"
There's a sigh.
"I know, Brendon," Gerard whispers, "But there's nothing we can do about it."
"There has to be! I don't want to stay here any longer! I'd rather die than stay here for another four years!"
"You know your parents refuse to unplug you."
"Kara might do it."
Gerard sighs once again.
"Brendon, I don't know your family personally but we're both aware over the fact that your sister is the least person likely to do it. You were her cuddle bear and only baby brother."
"But I can't stand the thought of never leaving!" Brendon cries out, "Of no way out, ever until I die of old age!"
Ryan sucks in a deep breath and hold back the water behind his eyelids at the words 'no way out, ever' and 'until I die of old age'.
And because he's heard enough, he balls his hands into fists.
And because Brendon lied to him by never telling him the truth he curls back his lip in a sneer.
"You'll learn more about this lifestyle!" Brendon says cheerfully while swinging his hand that is attached to Ryan's back and forth.
"Why does everyone make a big deal about 'learning more about this place' and 'learning to accept it with no exceptions' so fucking important?" Ryan asks, frowning. Brendon grins and presses his lips to Ryan's neck in a rapid kiss.
"You'll learn." He responds simply.
And because Brendon had made Ryan fall in love with him Ryan runs away and slams his already clenched fist into the first tree trunk he has neared.
The birds' wings flapping and their shrieks are the only thing heard in the distance after his silent sobs.
