A/N: Special thanks to all of my reviewers! Thank you all for giving me and my little fic the time of day. Now, onward!
Chapter 11: Epiphany
"Mm, don't you love Fridays?" Troy stretched out his arms, careful to avoid the delicate blond's face as the boy sat in the passenger seat of his truck, mere inches away. "I'm looking forward to a nap. What about you?"
"A nap sounds lovely to me," Ryan admitted, his eyelashes fluttering against his fair cheeks in a way the brunette deemed incredibly attractive. "I'm pretty exhausted."
"I see," Troy acknowledged. Once again, this was obvious. He had spotted the performer dozing off in class several times. But, this was also rather remarkable. This is he first time he's been so honest with me about it. Little by little, he's opening up to me. He's letting me in. An immense joy swelled in his chest with this news, and it gave him a burst of energy to evade his lethargy a moment longer. Sitting up, he shifted the gear into drive. "Buckle up."
"Hm?" Ryan blinked.
Troy chuckled at the other boy's confusion. Emotions had never before seemed so appealing to him until he had seen them on the pale face of the boy he loved after being repressed for so long. Sure emotions can be a burden sometimes, but without all of them, good and bad, life isn't worth living. "Well, we can't exactly take a nap here in the parking lot, can we?"
After considering it for a moment, the blond let out a giggle. "No, I guess we can't."
Troy smiled. "So we're heading back to your place…" He paused, then added slowly, so that he would not come off as presumptuous, "If that's okay with you."
Ryan turned and stared directly into the golden boy's vibrant blue eyes that had a magnetic pull on his heart. "Of course it is," he said quietly, a warm smile on his luscious lips.
Awaking from a wondrous slumber, Ryan discovered that he was still lying in the position he had found himself falling blissfully way in. His cheek was pressed against Troy's sculpted chest and warmth pooled out from the supple arm the other boy had draped across his back. The scent of Axe filled his nostrils. "Oh Troy…" he breathed. It was positively intoxicating. He needed to get away, just for a moment. He needed space to think, to reason. In one graceful movement, he slid upward and kissed the boy's cheek softly, then moved out of the embrace and left the brunette in the sea of blue spread upon the bed.
He stepped out onto the terrace down the hall and held onto the railing that bordered the structure enclosing it. Staring into the sky of black velvet that held thousands of pinpricks of white light, he felt so small and insignificant… yet, he was also dazzled and enchanted.
For the first time, he would not accept what he had come to know as his fate. I want to feel happiness. I want to be loved. I want to know that someone is going to be there for me. Maybe it's selfish, but I want Troy. I love him. I need him… I…
A rustling behind him indicated a second presence had joined him on the terrace. He did not need the aid of sight to identify who stood behind him.
His rich tenor baritone floating on the night air, Troy sang softly, his words only for the blond that stood before him.
My dearest friend
If you don't mind
I'd like to join you
By your side
Where we can gaze
Into the stars
A true musical aficionado, Ryan recognized the bit Troy was singing to him as the part sung by Jack Skellington in his duet with his love interest, Sally the hand-stitched doll in "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Warmth blossomed in his heart, a rose in bloom. In a re-enactment of the scene in the film, he stood there, allowing Troy to cross to him.
Sally's part came so naturally out of his mouth and once again he was singing with the other boy, their pitches intertwining in unrivaled perfection.
And sit together
Now and forever
On "forever", Troy reached him and took his slender hands. Their blue eyes locked. They were in the eye of the storm and neither one of them had ever been happier. Troy Bolton and Ryan Evans. This is what I want, Ryan told himself. This what I need. All his life he had been waiting for this moment. That was when the realization hit him. Now and forever. It was an attraction that defied all standards of normalcy, of conformity, of morality… and neither one of them could give a damn.
For it is plain
As anyone can see
We're simply meant to be
Ryan drew forward and closed the distance between himself and the taller adolescent. Timidly, at first, he kissed at Troy's pink lips. As his desire became fonder, his confidence grew and his tongue slipped through those pink lips, exploring the moist cavern inside. He felt warm, large hands slithering south, squeezing his round buttocks. He moaned into Troy's mouth, and this encouraged the brunette athlete to do so once more. Pulling out of the union of mouths, he continued on from the jaw of the one he loved to his strong neck, relishing the vibrations of the moans within his throat. Heat dispersed throughout his form, especially so from his manhood, which was pressing against the front of his jeans, desiring freedom.
Flushing, he could feel heat coming from the bulge Troy's jeans as the also very flushed athlete stated in a strained voice, "Let's take this inside…"
Were they moving too fast? Was intimacy so early on a sign of good or bad things to come? In that instant Ryan let all thoughts contradicting actions of such a nature escape him. He needed this. He needed Troy oh so badly. And no force on earth, in Heaven or in Hell would deny him this.
Staring into pools of blue that said everything all of the words on earth were incapable of justifying, a single message was transmitted. "It's time." And with this message came an epiphany of unignorable significance:
"I love you, Troy Bolton." After so long, his heart's desire had finally found a voice.
"I love you too, Ryan Evans." Troy's blue eyes glowed with affection that time would not soon efface.
In return, Ryan's orbs the color of the sky blazed with a brilliance of long repressed passion that none could weather. They embraced, impervious to the chill of the night in the world that consisted of only them. Strong arms safely enveloped Ryan Evans and Troy Bolton had the boy he wanted with every fiber of his being to protect at long last in his embrace where he could rid him of the thoughts that ailed him. And, he added silently, give him release. Well, him and me. It's fucked up, having to please yourself with your right hand all of the damn time. I wouldn't wish it on anyone. He swept the blond up and carried him bridal style back into the estate.
A/N: Next chapter: Troy and Ryan express their love for one another.