5/5 Hide-and-Seek
Ryan passed the ball to Seth.
Seth caught it, and passed it to Ryan.
Ryan caught it, and passed it to Seth.
Seth caught it, and passed it to Ryan.
Who didn't catch it, let it bounce away, and announced, "I'm bored." "You wanna play Playstation?" he asked after a minute of thought.
"No, mommy said no video games."
"You wanna go out and play in the pool?"
"No, mommy said stay inside."
"You wanna go watch a movie?"
"No, mommy said no television."
"Seth!" Ryan whined. He took a pillow from the couch and threw it at him.
"What?" Seth protested, catching it. "It isn't my fault you decided to stick a banana down the tub drain!"
"But I'm bored!" Ryan said like it explained everything. He started picking on the loose threads in the couch. "There isn't anything to do."
"That's not true." But as far as Seth knew, it was true. Kirsten had caught Ryan stuffing a peeled banana down the upstairs drain, Seth behind him, and ordered them to stay in the living room while she looked through the phone book trying to find a plumber.
"Really? Then what is there to do?" Ryan asked, changing position and looking up at the high ceiling.
"Um…" Seth bit his lip and looked out the window for inspiration. "We could play hide and seek."
Ryan turned to face Seth, thinking. "Yeah…" he said slowly. "Okay… but whose it?" he asked, his hand instantly shooting to his nose. Seth did the same, but a second too late.
"You're it!" Ryan shouted, laughing, jumping off the couch.
"That wasn't fair!" Seth protested. "You knew when you were going to say it!"
"Doesn't matter! Start counting!"
Seth grumbled to himself, but nonetheless crouched against the couch, hiding his eyes.
Ryan giggled as Seth began to start counting, running upstairs, careful to avoid the kitchen, where Kirsten's voice was coming from.
Ryan ran around the floor, looking for somewhere to hide. He opened the door to the bathroom, and jumped into the tub, closing the curtains. His eyes drifted to the mashed up banana still stuck in the drain and hoped back out. 'Maybe not there…'
He closed the door to the bathroom quietly, leaving it a little open, hoping that Seth would still think that he'd hidden there. He ran to the room him and his family shared, but there was nothing there other then a folded out bed and a small table. He ran to the closet, and looked inside. There were all his clothes, mostly his moms and dads, but the closet was shallow, so there was nowhere to hid.
Next he tried a guest bedroom that was painted purple. There was nothing there but a couple of flowers and a hid-away bed that had been folded to a couch. Seth's voice floated up from the living room, "Thirty- Thirty-one- Thirty-two…"
The game went to fifty, and Ryan didn't have much time left to find somewhere. He ran back down the stairs as quietly as he could, and checked in the living room to see if Seth was peeking. Which he wasn't.
He ran into his grandparent's room, and stood there for a moment. If his grandfather caught him in here, he would probably get in trouble… but Seth was close to reaching fifty, and he needed to find a place to hid. He ran and slid under the bed, which didn't work, because it was solid.
Slightly panicking, he opened the door to the closet, his second option being the patio doors that led to the balcony. No one ever said anything about insides only. 'Cept, he wasn't supposed to go outside, cause mommy was mad at him for shoving the banana down the drain…
It was a good thing that the closet was spacious. There was a bag fixed on a hanger that he was sure would hold his weight, and the zipper was all the way at the bottom. He placed a foot into it, testing how much weight it would hold.
A small rip sounded out, but other then that it seemed safe. He stepped fully into it and curled up, zipping the zipper as high as he could reach. It was dark, but it wasn't that high off the ground. There were all types of dresses in it, so he assumed that it was his grandmothers. He heard another rip, and started getting a little scared.
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"Forty-nine, Fifty! Ready or not, here I come!" Seth screamed.
"Seth, I'm on the phone sweetie, could you try and be a little more quite?" Kirsten called from the kitchen.
"Yup!" Seth yelled back, and jumped onto the couch. "Found you!" he yelled triumphantly, poking his head over the top of the couch.
"Seth! Please?" Kirsten called from the kitchen.
"Sorry," he muttered, scrunching his eyebrows. "Ryan…" he called out softly. "Where are you?"
He opened the door to the linen closet, shutting it when he determined that there was no Ryan.
He reached the stairs, avoiding the kitchen like Ryan had, and ran up them excitedly. Of course Ryan was upstairs!
He started at the end of the hall, opening the doors. The first one was just a spare room, with nothing in it but a bunch of boxes. He ran inside and opened the only open one up, looking inside. There was nothing inside but a couple of Christmas decorations. He looked behind the boxes, but couldn't find anything more.
He skipped the next couple of doors, knowing that they weren't allowed to play inside them, and pushed open the ajar door to the bathroom. The curtain was closed, and Seth grinning.
"I found you," he taunted in a singy-song voice. He ripped open the curtain, but there was nothing but tiled wall greeting him. "Shucks…" he muttered, glancing quickly at the mutilated banana.
He left the bathroom, and opened the door to their room, finding nothing interesting there. He checked under the covers just incase, but the pillows where in fact, only pillows.
A little discouraged, he wandering into the room beside it. This room he thought was the coolest room in the house. It was painting a type of pale purple, and there was a great big tree right outside the window, which technically belonged to the people that lived beside them. It reminded him of his and Ryan's room back in the Bronx, though it was a lot higher up from the ground then that one had been.
He jumped up and leaned against the windowsill for a moment, smiling at the view. If he turned just a little, he could see the bright blue ocean and the shimmering sand. There was only one car in the driveway below, and he knew that it was his moms.
He let his dangling feet fall to the ground, but snagged the wrist of his Spiderman hoodie in the process. He ripped it away from the window, but tore off a little red piece of fabric in the process. He looked at it with watering eyes and a quivering lip.
He was about to start crying when he heard Kirsten call, "Seth, Ryan, where are you?"
Completely forgetting about the rip on his hoodie, or the view from the room, Seth went bounding down the stairs. "Shh!" he whispered at his mum.
Kirsten was surprised, but played along. "Where's Ryan? I told you two to stay in the living room," she whispered.
"Shh!" Seth warned, giggling. "Ryan's hiding, but we don't know where he is yet!"
Kirsten's thoughts immediately turned to all the things that could go wrong with this situation. She crouched down so that she and Seth were at the same level. "What do you mean, he's hiding!"
"Mum! Shh!" Seth scolded, placing a finger on his lips.
It took every ounce of strength Kirsten had not to roll her eyes in adornment at the five-year old who was telling her off. "So then, lets go find him. I need to speak with him."
"But mommy," Seth protested, "You're not allowed to help me find him! Those are the rules!"
"Fine," Kirsten answered gently, a tad confused about how distressed Seth was getting. She knew it was better for him to just have his fun with Ryan, then try and interrupt their game in the middle. "When you find him, can you please bring him to the kitchen for me?"
"Okay!" Seth said brightly. "Go! I need to find him by myself!"
"I'm going, I'm going!" Kirsten replied, doing a light jog into the kitchen just to please Seth. She opened the fridge and got herself an Ice Tea, and took out some carrots and peas for the boys when they got into the kitchen.
Seth in the meanwhile searched the foyer, behind the coat rack and in the closet. But Ryan wasn't in there. His eyes drifted around the big room, looking for a spot where Ryan could be hiding. He went up the single step, and held a huge column with one hand. "Ryan?" he asked.
He'd almost run out of places to look… almost.
His eyes wandered to the hallway that led to his grandparents' room. "Ryan?" he called out timidly. He wouldn't have got into there, would he have?
He hesitantly took small steps toward it, looking around each nook to see if Ryan was there. "Ryan?" he called out again, letting the 'n' keep going.
He put his hand on the doorknob, ready to turn it.
-------------------
Ryan was stuck. His back was making the big hanger bag sag at the bottom, and the repetitive ripping sound was making him nervous.
He heard Kirsten start questioning Seth in the kitchen, but couldn't make out the words, only distant sounds. He tried to wiggle around, but Seth was coming closer, and he didn't want to be found. He stayed still, looking up the length of the bag.
He heard his name called out, only hearing the '-ann' part of it. A big rip sounded out and he fearfully looked up at the hanger bag.
"Seth!" he shouted out, his voice unnaturally high.
Seth opened the door, and the next thing he knew, Ryan was screaming, accompanied by a ripping sound and a loud thump. "Ryan?" he called out, and ran to the place where the sound had come from.
He opened the door to his grandparents' deep closet. "Ryan?" he questioned, looking inside.
His grandma was a clean lady. She liked things nice, tidy, and organized. It didn't seem natural for a big black lumpy bag to be sprawled out on the ground, especially not when that big black lumpy bag moved.
Seth could hear muffled crying coming from the bag so he dropped down to his knees and tried to find the opening. "Ryan?"
A blonde head popped out of the zippers, stained with tears.
"Found you?" Seth announced uncertainly.
"Seth," Ryan sniffled, "Get mom…"
Kirsten was already making a beeline for the room, having heard the sound all the way from the kitchen. "What happened in here?" she screeched when she saw Ryan lying on the floor tangled up in what looked like… her mothers Dust-Away?
"Mommy!" Seth exclaimed thankfully.
"Seth, what happened?" she demanded, and Seth looked fearfully up to her.
"I don't know. I came in here and hear a loud noise, and now Ryan's hurt…"
Kirsten ran to Ryan, and dropped down beside him, untangling him from the dresses and bag.
"Ryan, honey," she said, trying to sooth him. He crawled into her lap and curled up like a baby, holding onto her shirt. "What happened?" she asked softly, and Seth grabbed onto her shoulder, looking over.
"It- it broke," Ryan stuttered out, and Kirsten looked at the mangled mess. She could see that much.
"Why were you in it in the first place?" Kirsten asked. She knew hide-and-seek sounded like a bad idea.
"We- we were playing, and- you told me not to go- go outside," he sniffled, "So- I hid there…"
"Good hiding place," Seth muttered over Kirsten's shoulder. "I don't think I would've ever found you."
"Seth," Kirsten started kindly. "Could you go and get the snacks I put out on the table and watch some TV? I think Power Ranchers is on."
"Pow-Power Rangers," Ryan corrected from her arms, and Seth nodded, leaving the room.
"Ryan, are you okay?"
Ryan whimpered and nodded, and Kirsten could tell that he was more upset and scared then anything.
"Is grandma going to get mad at me?" he asked.
"No, grandma's not going to get mad at you. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't say you're sorry when she gets home."
"I will."
"Do you want some chocolate milk?" Kirsten asked, and Ryan nodded, but didn't get up. She sighed silently, and lifted him up. He wrapped his arms around her neck, and started picking at a loose thread on the back of her sweater.
"I'm sorry I broke the bag thing," Ryan whispered into her ear.
Kirsten smiled at his serenity. She placed him on the counter corner, and looked him in the eye. "I know you are, Ryan. But from now on, no more playing in Grandma and Grandpa's room. Understood?"
Ryan nodded, and she went to go get a glass from the cupboard.
"While we're somewhat on the subject," Kirsten placed the cup down beside Ryan and began searching for the chocolate. "You can't just go around jamming random fruit anyplace you want to. This isn't your home, and that's why you have to respect it even more then if it was ours."
She turned back to Ryan, and he had his head down, playing dejectedly with his cup.
"I called the plumber," Kirsten continued, "But next time something like this happens, you're not going to get off this easy."
"Are you mad at me?" Ryan asked biting his lip. His voice was small, and he was trying not to cry.
"No, I'm not mad at you honey, you didn't know any better," Kirsten smiled, hugging him tightly.
"And you won't tell daddy about this?" he asked, wrapping his arms around her neck again.
Kirsten laughed to herself at how he was trying to get more from her. "No, I won't tell daddy, but only if it never happens again," she reassured. She lifted him up on her hip, and poured the milk in the cup. She added some chocolate, and let Ryan stir it with his own spoon. She gave the cup to him, and he held onto it tightly while she placed the spoon in the sink.
"I'm sorry," he repeated, as she placed him next to Seth on the couch.
"It's aright," she said again smiling.
He turned his attention to the Power Ranger episode Seth was watching, and Seth absentmindedly covered him with the blanket.
Seth offered him one of the carrots, and Ryan took it, eating it and chugging his chocolate milk down. He set the cup down on the table, and curled up beside Seth, sticking his feet behind him so that they'd stay warm.
Pretty soon, his eyes started drooping, and when Kirsten looked back at them from the kitchen, attracted by one of Seth's laughs, Ryan was asleep.
Kirsten smiled as she watched Ryan and Seth together. She loved them both so much, even though they were a handful at the best of times. But they didn't really mean any harm; they just wanted to have fun.
Cohen101-The Troublesome Twosome-
A/N: Please don't kill me. Please review. Please don't hate me. I know that it's been like, a year and a little since I updated, so who knows when the next one will be up.
Strike what I said before. This story's not going to have any plotline. Just a bunch of Seth/Ryan fluff.