Kudos goes out to Charlz and Cryaesion for helping me with this chapter.

This is the chapter with the kiss scene. It is surprisingly early for a story that is "supposed" to be slow paced, but... they don't just fall in love...

Lockdown by Tertiary Genesis

Chapter 3: Go Fish!

Troy could see some confusion in his friend's face. "Let me rephrase that. What is it that you like about a girl?" He thought that Ryan was having trouble understanding the question or maybe was just having trouble with the wording of the question.

What is a "type" anyway? Did he have a type? Troy considered this while Ryan was thinking again. The re-worded question did not seem to help Ryan make an answer.

Ryan did not see the point of rephrasing the question. It did not help him realize what he liked about a girl. Did he like the curves? No, he did not really care much for that. What about the breasts? No, not really. Come to think of it, he really did not see any appeal in the female form. Does that make him gay? Whoa! Maybe he just doesn't think about sex with girls like other guys his age. That just makes him weird, or mature, but not gay… right?

--XxXxX--

The black room the two boys were forced to share was beginning to get quite stuffy. Black walls had a way of trapping heat and making a space seem much smaller. The awkward conversation the boys were also sharing did not exactly help the matter.

Many people have trouble coping in closed spaces, even if they are not claustrophobic, especially when there is no option of escape. Trapped situations, it has been said, can cause the mind and body to bring out all the reserves and function at full capacity in order to survive. The boys found themselves in a similar situation, though their bodies seemed yet to come to the same conclusion as their own special reserves are yet to kick in.

Ryan needed his brain to kick into overdrive because he suddenly had a lot on his mind. Was he gay?! Well, he did kind of dress somewhat queer; but that is what happens when you have Sharpay as your twin sister. What about the 'not liking girls' thing? Maybe he just doesn't care about that kind of stuff at the moment. Maybe he was just more mature than the average guy; but did he like guys? Well… nah… oh… wait… hmm… he was so confused, and Troy staring at him expectantly was not exactly helping alleviate his confusion; staring at him with those pretty blue eyes. Wow. He had never noticed Troy's eyes were blue before. Wait. He had asked a question… what was it again? Umm… oh yeah… Troy was asking about his type. "Uhh… I dunno. Someone like me… I guess."

"Huh?" Troy had forgotten he had asked a question. He was hungry again. His body was yet to initiate those reserves which overcame hunger and stuff at dire situations. Being locked in a small, dark room with Ryan Evans could be considered a dire situation… or maybe not. Ryan Evans was a pretty alright guy, he thought. The blond seemed to be more confused and contemplative than his usual perky self though, but then again, you can't exactly expect someone to remain their happy-go-lucky self when locked in a small dark room.

Troy noticed how Ryan would tilt his head to the side and furrow his eyebrows when he was thinking really hard on something. He thought it looked kinda cute… in a totally non-homosexual way of course; cute like puppies and babies and stuff. Ryan quirked his eyebrow at Troy, who was suddenly aware that he was staring, quickly glanced away, trying to convince himself that the blackout curtains behind him were incredibly interesting. Damn Ryan and his facial expressions.

Ryan saw Troy turn away and sighed. For a brief moment, he thought Troy was staring at him. It must have just been wishful thinking, or maybe Troy sending signals. What are signals? What do they even look like? Was he sending signals? Oh dear, was he sending signals?! Is that why he turned around?

Even amidst this panicking, Ryan found himself surveying Troy's turned body; from his soft brown hair, down, following his twisted spine down his turned back. He could feel the heat radiating from the Wildcats Captain and suddenly noticed how hot the room was getting; at least that was his excuse for his onset of perspiration.

Troy could feel Ryan's gaze hitting his back, or at least the intense heat Ryan seemed to be giving off, considering he was the only other heat source in the room other than Troy himself. The room seemed to trap heat extremely well since Troy found that he was sweating within seconds. He got up and walked to the curtains he had distracted himself with, and wretched them open to find the windows behind them to also be blacked out.

Ryan had watched Troy get up and walk over to the windows and chuckled to himself when he saw the brunet discover that the windows had also been blacked out. After installing the blackout curtains, the school realized that they did not block the sun sufficiently so the windows were also blocked out. The only way to get some natural light into the room was to open the window.

Troy seemed to want more light… or air… because he then repositioned himself to try and open the window. Ryan couldn't help but let out another chuckle as Troy attempted to open the window. The windows had been closed for so long that they have rusted into place and are essentially stuck closed. "They don't open," he decided to inform Troy.

"Oh… ok" Troy sighed, admitting defeat as he ambled back to his original position opposite Ryan. "What do you wanna do now?" he asked.

"I got a deck of cards. Wanna play?" Ryan offered, dipping his hand into his bag and rummaging around before producing a set of playing cards.

"Yeah, ok," Troy accepted and moved another foam block between them to act as a table while Ryan shuffled the cards in his hands. "What are we going to play?" asked Troy, as Ryan began dealing the cards.

"Go Fish?" Ryan suggested.

"Ok," agreed Troy, as he picked up the cards in front of him. "Have you got a 3?"

"Go fish. Got a 2?" Ryan asked.

Troy checked his cards and could not find one. "Go fish. Have you got a 10?"

Ryan relinquished his 10 to allow Troy to make a pair. "Have you got a 5?"

"Nope, go fish. Got an Ace?"

Ryan did not have an Ace but he had picked up a three and remembered Troy asking for one before. "Go fish. Got a 3?"

Troy passed his 3 to Ryan before asking about a 7.

The game continued for a few more minutes before the heat and stuffiness of the room really got to the boys. Ryan was already unbuttoning the top 3 buttons of his shirt to cool down a little.

"Would you mind if I take my shirt off? It is getting really hot. You can take yours off too if you want," Troy asked, noticing that Ryan was also feeling the heat.

"I guess that's fine," stated Ryan before he started to fully unbutton his shirt now. He saw Troy put down his cards so he could remove his shirt, and quickly saw a 5, noting that as the next card he would request.

Both boys were now shirtless, and feeling significantly cooler, so they continued with the game.

"Have you got a 5?" Ryan asked expectantly.

"Nah, go fish," Troy said, somewhat playfully.

"What? I know you have a 5. I saw it!" exclaimed Ryan, missing the sarcasm and feeling deprived of his expected triumph.

"So you're cheating now?" Troy joked, keeping his playful tone of voice.

"You're the one who's cheating…" Ryan managed before playfully lunging himself over the makeshift table at Troy, spraying the cards across the drama room floor.

The boys engaged in a little light roughhousing, which helped ease a lot of tension that seemed to have been building since they found themselves in the situation of being locked in the room together. Bare flesh touching bare flesh, the boys continued wrestling until they eventually found each other in a position where one was on top of the other, pinning them down to the floor, as was the main goal of these sorts of games.

Troy found himself in this dominating position, with Ryan lying on his back on the floor. He was in a kneeling position, straddling Ryan's stomach, with his knees at Ryan's sides and his hands pressing down on Ryan's shoulders, keeping him on the floor. Both boys were exhausted and panting heavily. Troy allowed his head to swing down, his hair falling to tickle Ryan's face. Ryan laughed at the strange feeling of Troy's hair brushing on his face. Troy lifted his head to get his hair out of his friend's face and looked down to see his semi-naked captive below him.

Troy's head began to lower again, not hinging on his neck but his whole body was coming down too. Time itself seemed to slow down as the distance between the two bodies decreased. Troy's face was so close to Ryan's now, noses barely touching. He halted his descent, taking in Ryan's features at an extremely close distance, those brown eyes, the light brown hair, the full, deep red lips.

Ryan tilted his head up, closing the gap between them and brushed his lips lightly against Troy's. At that second, the Earth stood still, caused by the collision of two worlds, the world of the Wildcat superstar, and that of the drama king. In less than a second, the kiss was over, but it seemed like much longer to the boys.

Troy pulled back and got up very fast as soon as he had felt Ryan's lips on his. He pushed down on Ryan's shoulders so hard in order to get up that he might have left a bruise. Stumbling over a few of the foam boxes lying around, he found his shirt and quickly put it on before almost running to the door. It was still locked. Troy turned to lean his back against the door. He slid his back down the door until he was sitting on the floor, with his back against the door and arms wrapped around his shins. What just happened?!

Ryan's shoulders were in some pain from the force Troy used to push himself up. With a little difficulty, Ryan propped himself onto his elbows so he could see where Troy had gone. What had he done?!

--XxXxX--

TBC...

Thus the kiss, I hope you guys are still reading. It gets better... I think.