Title: The Game, Part Four
Author: Kate Monster
Rating: PG to be safe
Summary: Set between "The Secret" and "The Best Chrismukkah Ever". The fall soccer season is over, and it's time to... celebrate? Or at least shake things up a little.
Disclaimer: Characters by the great and powerful Josh Schwartz. Pay no attention to the chick behind the curtain.

At long last!  Thanks to Shelbecat for, uh, reminding me about this one.  Hopefully everybody else hasn't completely forgotten about it, too.  Well, it's done now.  Ta-da!

PART FIVE

"That was – that was great, we were, yeah..."

The general idea was coming out, but not the words.  Ryan wanted to ridicule Seth for his incoherence, but he knew that he probably wasn't much better himself.  His alcohol tolerance was not what it used to be.  Which was probably a good thing, in the long run, though it didn't feel like it now.

"You," he said, pulling the door open to the pool house, "did okay."  He shouldn't have been surprised by it, but he was.

"I did," Seth said proudly.  "You, on the other hand – you sure you played that game before?"

Ryan rolled his eyes at him.  "Scroghead."

Seth blinked.  "Smeg.  Smeghead.  Dude."  He clapped a hand to his forehead, feigning horror.  "Dude!"

"Yeah, you know what I meant."  Ryan tried to force a scowl, but it was hard when he wanted to laugh instead.

"Okay, that does it.  We need to have that marathon, and soon.  We cannot put this off any longer.  You're being deprived of valuable cultural knowledge."

"Marathon?"  Luke asked hopefully.  Ryan turned around.  He had almost forgotten Luke was following them, a step behind.  He'd fallen silent as they'd approached their street.  Of course he had.  He'd grown up coming over to this street, and now he hardly ever had a reason to come by.  It had to be strange.  "Of what?"  Luke pulled the door shut behind him.

Seth studied him critically.  "Yeah, no.  You'd hate it."

"You don't know that."

"Oh yeah.  Yeah, I do."

"Hey, man," Luke protested, his arms spread wide. 

Seth leaned up against the bar, steadying himself on a barstool, and dug in his pocket.  "So do we order pizza now?  Or later?"

"Yeah, with what money?" Ryan asked.  He felt defeated.  Dejected.  On the losing team.  But it wasn't a new feeling by now.  More of an accepted resignation.

"The money from the pool game."

"The pool game."  Ryan blinked.  "You mean the one we lost?"

Seth shrugged.  "Yeah.  That one."  He produced a stack of money.  Ryan immediately snatched it from him and started counting.

"Eighty, a hundred, a hundred and – Seth?"  He looked up, perplexed, holding the money off to the side.

Seth shrugged.  "Ask him."  He pointed to Luke.

Ryan turned around, astonished.  "What?"

"When you were distractin' em."  He shrugged innocently.  "They kinda forgot about the money."

"Whoa.  Wait.  You stole it?"

"Yeah, Chino, you're not the only one around here who can steal things."

"I-"  Ryan was speechless. 

"What?  Dude, everybody in that room was so wasted, nobody even noticed I took the money."

Seth snatched the wad of cash back.  "Thomas can go suck cock, cause I got his money, and Saunders can go suck cock, cause I got Summer Roberts.  Oh.  Um."  Seth glanced at Luke, suddenly concerned again about the possible slur.  "I meant – well, he can suck his own cock."

"Who, Saunders?  He's not that talented," Luke replied immediately, and Ryan fell back on to the bed laughing, holding his chest to try and control the convulsions.  They'd lost the game, but they had the money, and Saunders and Thomas and Andy didn't matter so much anymore.  It was the story of his life in a nutshell somehow, and at the moment, he didn't see much of a problem with that.

"He'll kick our asses on Monday," Ryan pointed out, trying to keep his laughter under control as he rolled on the bed.

"Let him," Luke said.  "If he remembers.  Cohen's right, he was tee-rashed.  Besides, that asshole couldn't put a scratch on me if he tried."  He shook his shoulders out.

"You know, maybe we should try for the table at school sometime," Seth suggested.  "Practice a little."

"Oh, hell no," Ryan said right away, pointing a warning finger at him.  "You are never playing for money again."

Seth wrinkled his nose at Ryan before sitting down on the floor in front of one of the chairs, looking somewhat unsteady in the process.  Ryan watched him, a twinge of brotherly concern in the back of his head.  Seth didn't look well.

"So, pizza?" Luke asked, clapping his hands together.

Ryan paused.  "Can we get it without mushrooms?"

"For sure, man.  I hate mushrooms."

"Yeah.  Me, too.  Seth?"  Ryan turned to look in Seth's direction only to notice that Seth's eyes had fallen closed, and his head was already slipping to the side.

Luke watched with concern.  "Should we wake him up?"

"Naw," Ryan sighed.  He watched for a moment.  "He's gonna hurt if he sleeps all night there, though."

Luke nodded knowingly and they moved to Seth's side together.

"Oof."

Ryan struggled with Seth's legs as Luke helped him by heaving the top of Seth's body in to the chair.  They both released him, and his lanky limbs draped over the edge of the chair.  His head rolled back, and Ryan grabbed for a pillow to prop it up just a little.

"Some party, huh?"  Luke asked.

Ryan took a deep breath.  "You're not kidding."

"Think he'll be okay?"

He cast a glance at Seth.  "Yeah," Ryan said.  "Yeah, he'll be fine."  He stopped.  There it was again, that twinge of concern, that Kirsten would wake up and find Seth not in the house and freak out and want to get rid of him.  But that was in the past.  Now?  Now she'd just be relieved that he was with Ryan.  How times changed.

"What?"

Ryan looked back up at Luke.  "What what?"

"You just looked worried for a second."

"Oh," Ryan said dismissively.  "That."  He lumbered around the bed, reaching over to take his wrist cuff off.  "It's just Seth's mom, she used to freak out when we came home late.  Now she's kind of used to it."

Luke glanced at Seth, who was now softly snoring in his drunken state.  "It really is awesome, you know.  I meant that earlier.  You guys are real lucky."

"Lucky," Ryan scoffed, then paused.  Maybe sometimes.  "I guess."

"Yeah.  I mean, look at my friends.  Or the guys I thought were my friends."  He licked his lips and smiled wearily.  "Turns out I didn't know them at all."

"Yeah," Ryan said thoughtfully, although he wasn't sure what to think.

Luke shook his head.  "Man, I wish I had a time machine.  You know?  I wish I knew who my real friends were.  Sooner."

"No you don't," Ryan said, looking up.  "You just wish you were still popular."

Luke stared at him.

Ryan shrugged and looked away.  "Never mind, forget it."

Luke cast his hand at Seth's sleeping form.  "Anyway, you guys are lucky.  That's all I'm sayin'."

Ryan watched as Seth's chest slowly rose and fell.  Every once in a blue moon, maybe Luke was right.  Ryan and Seth were an unbeatable twosome.  Two.  Not three.  Never three.  There never was a chance for them to be three, not even if Luke had a time machine.  It just didn't work like that.  It went beyond that.  It had taken Ryan sixteen years to find a best friend that fit him the way Seth did.  Luke just didn't fit the same way.

How odd, that it should suddenly be Luke who didn't fit.  But life was odd sometimes, Ryan had definitely learned that lesson lately.  There it was.  Luke could tag along.  Luke could follow.  But Luke could never fit.  Not perfectly.  Not with them.

Then again, Ryan had never been a perfectionist.

"So, the guest room," he started, but Luke was already shaking his head.

"I'm just gonna go."

"Are you sure you're okay to drive?" Ryan asked.  "Cause we've got room..."  He trailed off.  Of course they did.  Everyone in Newport had room, what was he thinking?

"I'm good," Luke assured him.  He glanced at Seth again.  "Is he-?"

"He'll be fine," Ryan promised.  "I'll look out for him."

"Good," Luke said, relieved.  Relieved.  He was relieved.

Ryan smiled at him wryly.  "G'night, Luke."

"Yeah.  Later.  I'll see you Monday?  In history."

Ryan nodded and followed him to the door, waving as he pulled it closed.

He sighed aloud as he unfastened his watch, moving across the room to set it beside the wrist cuff.

He turned off the light and eased himself onto the bed.  He stared at Seth, whose head had turned slightly to the side in the moonlight, his mouth hanging open just a little.  So open.  So trusting.  He had to smile to himself.  It didn't matter if he was on a soccer team full of creeps, it didn't matter so much anymore that he could never be part of the "in" crowd.  In fact, it never really had.  Not when he had somebody to keep him occupied.  Somebody whose back he could have.  Somebody who liked him the way he was.  Somebody who just... fit.

Newport wouldn't have much of anything for Ryan if it wasn't for Seth, anchoring him here.  As it was, Newport had everything for Ryan.

He settled back on the bed, knowing as he did that things would be okay in the morning.  Even if the Cohens were upset, Seth would have his back, and he'd have Seth's. 

And really, with the two of them together, everything would be okay in the end.