Jake and Ryder are snuggled under a sheet, sweaty and sated. Ryder's parents are away for the weekend again, and Ryder has invited Jake to stay over.

He isn't sure how long they've been laying here, hands running lazily over each other. About half an hour, he thinks but it's hard to tell. Time moves differently when Jake's around.

Ryder looks up as Jake smooths his hair out of his face. 'We should watch a movie.'

'The Hangover?' Ryder asks. They'd been talking about seeing it.

Jake thinks about it for a moment, fingers tracing the contours of Ryder's cheekbone. 'Nah. Maybe a romance? I'm in the mood for something lovey-dovey.'

'I'll see what I can find.'

He gives Jake a quick peck before rolling out of bed, not even bothering to find underwear. He can feel Jake's gaze on him, and he wiggles his hips a little, trying to ignore any feelings of embarrassment.

When he returns with a DVD from the family collection, Jake is sitting up against the headboard, waiting for him.

'I found one called Ghost,' he explains as he grabs his laptop from the desk. Jake nods his approval, and Ryder crawls up the bed to sit between his legs. They rearrange themselves, Ryder's back pressed solidly against Jake's chest, the laptop sitting on his lap. Jake's arms are wrapped loosely around his waist.

As the movie loads, Ryder can feel Jake twitch feebly against him. Jake leans forward to whisper darkly in his ear. 'If I wasn't so exhausted, I'd be suggesting round two about now.'

Ryder glances back towards him. 'Maybe after the movie, babe.'

Xxx

The New Directions guys are all around at Artie's house, gathered to have a movie night. When they're all settled in the lounge, he calls for their attention.

'So, I was thinking our mash-up should be a tribute to the greatest actor of all time. Tom Cruise.' There's a general outcry at this, everyone disputing his judgement. Eventually he gets their attention back. 'Anyway, I was thinking we could watch Risky Business and Top Gun.'

As they prepare to watch the first movie, Joe realises he's going to have to move to be able to see the screen. He approaches the couch where Ryder and Jake are sitting, pointing to the space between them.

'Can I sit there?'

'NO!' They both chorus. Joe seems shocked, and the others are looking over, curious.

Jake shuffles closer to Ryder, patting the now empty space. 'You can sit here though, dude.'

Ryder is glad for the excuse to sit close to Jake. Their thighs are now pressed firmly together. As the movie progresses, he grips at Jake's forearm. It's the closest he can get to holding his hand, the slight PDA hidden by their bodies.

A while later, Jake pulls himself off of the couch, and Ryder watches as he goes to pour himself a drink. Without thinking about it, he calls out to him. 'Babe, can you pour me one too?'

Everyone turns to stare at him, and he wants to sink into the floor. He doesn't know what to say, how to react. Fortunately, Jake comes to his rescue. 'It's an in-joke,' he explains.

Everyone seems to accept this explanation, at least enough to go back to watching the movie. During dinner, Jake and Ryder do their best to avoid each other, and for the second movie they make sure not to sit together. No use in raising people's suspicions any further.

Xxx

The boys are all in the locker room, getting changed for their mash-up. Ryder is trying to button his shirt, but he's a little distracted. Jake's putting his socks on and he keeps losing his balance, bending right over as his shirt rides up. Ryder's given the perfect view and he can't look away, can't stop staring. Which could be an issue, as his mind is being flooded with ideas, and his underwear isn't about to hide anything.

He hears a sharp cough from beside him, and he turns to see Sam assessing the scene, eyebrow raised. Ryder flushes red, embarrassed at having been caught out.

He goes back to buttoning his shirt, until Jake's voice stops him. 'Dude, you've buttoned it all wrong.' He closes the gap between them, reaching out to gently undo the buttons, before redoing them correctly. Ryder just watches him, and occasionally he glances up, sharing a shy smile before continuing.

Everyone's ready now, but as they all leave the locker room, Ryder feels someone grabbing his arm, holding him back. He turns to see Blaine standing there.

'I hope I'm not intruding, but I've noticed the way you've been acting around Jake lately.'

Ryder tries to play it cool. 'I don't know what you mean.'

'It kinda seems like you have a thing for him.'

Ryder surveys Blaine for a moment, trying to decide whether he can trust him. 'Yea, well, um, I actually wanted to talk to you about that. I'm kind of trying to decide whether I should come out.'

'Yea, that's a tough one,' Blaine sympathises. 'In Ohio, you're gonna get a lot of shit about it. It really sucks, but everyone's so close-minded round here. Not like in glee club. That's the good thing about New Directions, you can just be yourself.'

'Do you – do you think I should tell New Directions then?' Ryder's worrying his lip between his teeth now.

'At the end of the day, it's your choice. But they would all be supportive and accepting. And they would keep it secret for you.' Here Blaine pauses, thinking. 'Well, I think Kitty would keep her mouth shut. Anyway, you feel so much freer when you don't have to hide this big secret from everyone all the time.'

Ryder can definitely agree with that. Even just telling Marley made things so much easier. As they head towards the door, he speaks. 'Thanks man. Your advice means a lot.'

'You're welcome,' Blaine tells him. 'And hey, good luck getting your man.'

Xxx

Ryder's been thinking about what Blaine said, and he and Jake seriously need to have a talk. Actually, this talk has been coming on for a while. He's kinda surprised though when Jake brings it up as they walk home from school.

'Do you think that New Directions knows about us yet?'

'Yea,' Ryder agrees, 'well, kind of. Blaine thinks I'm crushing on you. And the guys must be suspicious by now. Not so sure about the girls though.'

'We have had a few close calls, haven't we?' Ryder can't help but smile at this. 'And it's kinda like, I'm sick of trying to bullshit my way out of it. Y'know? I just don't want to have to pretend anymore.'

Ryder takes a deep, steadying breath before he speaks. 'Do – do you want to tell them?'

'Only if you want it too,' Jake assures him. 'And only the glee club. I'm not ready to tell the whole world yet.'

'Definitely not,' Ryder agrees. 'When I was talking to Blaine about it, well, about me coming out, he said it's gonna be awful when the rest of the school finds out. And I can't deal with that yet.'

'But the glee club won't be like that.'

'No, they won't.' Ryder thinks for a moment, before continuing. 'And we kinda should tell them, before they start creating conspiracy theories.'

Jake stops abruptly, hand pulling firmly at Ryder's shoulder. 'No, this isn't about what we should or shouldn't do. We have to decide what we want. It's a case of whether we want to tell them.'

Ryder just stands there, studying Jake while thinking it through. Eventually he answers Jake. 'Yea, I do want to tell them. I trust them, and I want to be honest with them. I want somewhere where it's safe, where I don't have to pretend anymore.'

'Good,' Jake replies, smiling widely. 'Me too. And I have a great idea for how to tell them.'

Xxx

Ryder is a bundle of nerves. Glee practise is about to start, and they're about to come out. He's starting to freak. As Kitty enters the room, he can't help but sideeye her.

He turns to Jake, tugging desperately at his sleeve. 'How do we know that Kitty won't blab?'

Jake thinks for a moment, before replying. 'I know she's a bitch, but she can actually keep a secret. We can trust her.'

Ryder isn't entirely pacified by that, but he doesn't have time to stress. Mr Schue has arrived, and he can hear Jake calling out from beside him.

'Um, Mr Schue, Ryder and I have a performance we'd like to share.'

They take their places, and this time it's Ryder's turn to speak. 'We have an announcement to make, and we kinda decided the best way was through song.' He hears the opening chords, and listens as Jake begins to sing Unchained Melody. When his cue comes, he joins in, nerves decreasing as the song progresses.

As the song finishes, they are now standing directly in front of each other, holding hands. They lean forward to kiss briefly, before turning back to the rest of the group.

They all seem shocked, except Brittany who is the first to speak. 'So wait, is your announcement that your hot boy kisses are hot?'

Ryder hears Jake giggle. 'No, it's that we're dating.'

'Oh,' Brittany sounds disappointed. 'But I already knew that.' Ryder is confused by this, but he isn't given any time to dwell on it.

'Y'know Jake,' Kitty speaks up, 'I thought it was bad enough when you were dating Sir Pukes-a-Lot. But now you're telling me that could become my brother-in-law?'

'Yes,' Jake responds emphatically. 'And we're asking you to respect that. Because we're trusting you not to tell anyone.'

'Yea, we don't want the jocks giving you grief.'

'If they do though, we'll totally back you up.'

'Yea, you're our bros, and we're here for you.'

It means a lot, Ryder thinks, having all this support. It really does.

So, um, I'm gonna put this story on hiatus until late April. I do have some ideas for the next two chapters, but I want to see a few more episodes before I write them. Just so I can have a better idea of where it's going. So yea, bit of a break, but I will come back to this and will hopefully write for all episodes to the end of the season. Hopefully.

Also, I've had an idea, and hopefully it isn't too presumptuous. I was thinking that to get us all through this break, I could write a few oneshots for prompts you provide me with. I'm not sure how many I'll do, but prob at least two or three. (Maybe more, depending how busy I am). I'll probably focus mostly on Jyder as we really need more of those. So if you're keen, send me some prompts, and let me know if you want them to be in this 'verse.