A/N: It's been awhile so I've just been in the mood to update my stories just trying to get around to all of them. Thanks for the reviews. Please R/R
A dreary night in Chino
Three nights later it was raining heavily in Chino as Ryan pulled up to their house. Getting out of his truck and making a run for it to the front door. When he got in he put his brief case down and took of his coat and hung it up on the hook.
"Hey where is everyone" Ryan called out. To which he got a rushing Danny running out of from the living room. "Dad your home" he said rather excited at the idea. "Where's your grandma?" Ryan said ruffling his hair.
"Grandma's not here she went home" He explained. "What why would she go home?" Ryan wondered it wasn't like Maria to leave Danny by himself.
"Hey buddy" Seth said appearing before them as he walked towards them coming from the kitchen. "Seth what are you doing here? I thought the next time we'd be seeing you was Friday night when I dropped Danny off" Ryan said looking at him.
"Yeah I thought about that and then I got to thinking about how nasty the weather has been in the past few days. I mean seriously Ryan it's raining in New Port. And it's quite frankly boring, and I had nothing going on today, so I called Maria came on down to Chino, and decided to spend some time with my nephew over here" He said.
Danny smiled. Ryan nodded. "And does Summer know where you are?" Ryan asked. "Yeah she's off spending some time with Marissa they haven't seen each other much lately.
So while they have a girls night I figured we could have a guys night in" Seth insisted. Danny looked at Ryan for a reaction. "I guess I'll call for pizza" he said.
"Already done my friend and seriously tell Antonio that no matter how tough he is he shouldn't get snippy with his customers. I mean you Chino people sure get snobby" Seth said joking.
Ryan laughed. "Well what can I say it's not exactly New Port" Ryan added. "Sadly I even get snubbed there my friend. Okay buddy lets get back to our game. Your dad could take Winner" Seth said following Danny into the living room.
Ryan stood thinking about how a great friend Seth had truly been to him over the years especially stepping up even more where Danny was concerned ever since Theresa had passed.
"Dad" he heard come from the living room. "Yeah I'm coming" Ryan said smiling thinking to himself that this was his life as he walked to the living room and joined them.
Later on Seth had offered to take Danny up to bed giving him a choice of comics to read before.
Of course being his nephew he chose the latest edition of Atomic County. Seth had been up there for awhile so Ryan went to check up on them sometimes Danny could be restless and had trouble going to sleep.
He heard Seth's voice in Story mode and he couldn't help but to listen from behind the cracked open door.
"So Kid Chino after spending another adventurous day dropped off Little Miss Vixen and Cosmo Girl home before returning to his own place with his side kick The Ironist. Soon enough there would be more adventures to face together because united the four were unstoppable He said ending the story.
Ryan laughed quietly. "Okay buddy you be good now" Seth said tucking Danny in as sleep soon found him. "Good night Uncle Seth" he replied before falling fast asleep.
Ryan walked off going downstairs waiting for Seth to make it down. A few minutes later Seth came down the stairs. "So that whole story before bed time really works" Seth said fascinated.
"Yeah but it probably was more about the teller your much better at that then I am. I can't even make up a story for my life" Ryan said. "Well we can't all be me" Seth said. Ryan glared at him.
"So I think I'm going to head out" Seth explained. Ryan looked at him like he was crazy. "No you're not because you're off tomorrow like you said before. It's raining, it's like a storm out there, and the roads are slippery so you get to stay in the guest room" Ryan said.
"Summer won't like that I didn't come home" he said. "So call her then" Ryan said. "But Ryan seriously its not that bad out I could get back to New Port in like an hour" he explained.
"I'm sure Summer won't be mad anymore when she finds out that your safe and sound here rather then stuck on the road in a down pour" Ryan declared.
And then it hit Seth this was about Theresa and the fact that on just a similar night in San Francisco she had met a similar fate and Ryan didn't want to lose another person.
But instead of approaching the topic knowing things were still too touchy he simply said "Okay I'll call Summer let her know I'll be back in the morning" Seth said giving in.
"Phones in the kitchen" Ryan said. "Thanks man" Seth said walking off to go call Summer.
Seth dialed waited to hear several rings before he heard "Hello". "Sum it's me" he said.
"Hey Cohen I was wondering where you were? I was just about to call you. You see it's really nasty outside so I just thought since I'm already hanging out at Marissa's that I should just crash here and come home in the morning" She replied.
"Okay because actually I'm still in Chino and Ryan well being Atwood he won't let me leave. He said the roads are too dangerous" he said.
"Well he's right Cohen I will personally beat your ass back to next year if you even try to drive home in this. I love you too much to let anything happen to you" Summer said knowing that a subject like this hit close to home with Ryan.
Seth smiled and replied "I love you too Summer. So I'll see you tomorrow. Have fun with Coop" he said. "Cohen no matter how much I love you, you can not call Marissa Coop it's just too weird sweetie" She said.
"Hey I let you call Ryan Atwood its only fair" he explained. "Yeah but you never call him Atwood because you see that was my nick name for Ryan which by the way god help you if you ever call him that either" she said.
Summer maybe be small but she was a force to be reckoned with. She had proven that to Seth Cohen over the years of knowing her.
"Okay I promise to never call him Atwood Seth said giving in knowing they were never going to get anywhere if he hadn't. "And not Chino either" Summer said.
"Sum I promise I wont call him Chino either" Ryan heard upon coming into the kitchen grabbing a water from the fridge with a confused look on his face. "Okay night Cohen" She said.
"Say hi to Marissa for me" Seth said looking at Ryan to see if there was a reaction just from speaking her name. Ryan looked up. "Seth says hi" he heard her say to Marissa.
"Hey Seth" Marissa yelled in the background. "Tell Chino I said thanks for keeping your ass safe" Summer said. "Will do Summer" he said hanging up and then turned to look at Ryan.
"So why were you promising never to call me Chino?" He asked confused.
"Because Summer doesn't like that I tried to call Marissa Coop which led her to complain about me never calling you Chino or Atwood. She basically said I should just stick to what I know best and call people by their first names" Seth said.
Ryan looked at him and laughed not phased at all having witnessed the bizarre connection of Seth and Summer for years something like this seemed actually normal for them.
"She also told me to tell you that she thanks you for keeping my ass Safe except of course she referred to you as Chino and not Ryan" he said.
"Not a problem. Well I think I'm going to head up. You know where everything is see you in the morning Cohen" Ryan said sarcastically.
Seth looked at him. "Sorry just testing Summer's theory and she's right it is kind of weird" he replied. Seth laughed. "Night Ryan" he said soon going up to bed himself.
In short this was like Seth's second home when he wasn't in his own or bothering his parents at their house.
Seth always found a reason to come back here because he ultimately knew that as much as Ryan would never say it that he needed Seth.
And after awhile of doing this back and forth thing Seth kind of realized that he had actually missed not having Ryan around as much.
Ever since Ryan had flown home and got the house in Chino Seth always came back to spend some good old fashioned Ryan/Seth time with of course Danny thrown into the mix he thought about this as he went off to the guest room finding sleep soon afterwards.