fic: the world through a camera lens
the world through a camera lens.
ryan/brendon, pg. 1075 words.
for colorofsmoke. some of the early scenes looked over by self_sustaining, thank you, t.
'Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influences of each.'
- Henry David Thoreau
somewhere along the way, ryan gets an old film camera that jon tells him is a japanese kodak offshoot. he actually found it lying on their bus one day, and thinks it may have belonged to alex greenwald at some point. but anyways, ryan adopts it as his own and walks around backstage with it hanging under his arm. the roll of film currently in the camera already has eight shots used up, that he'll have to wait til it's developed to see what they are. he's not really sure where he'll find the proper film for it when the time comes, so he weighs each shutter click carefully.
(he's still upset about the time he was framing a shot of jon sitting under a big cherry tree and brendon bumped into him with his skateboard just as ryan was pressing the shutter and now the shot is going to come out nothing more than a patch of grass. "it's nice grass, ryan!" but the cherry tree was nicer, damnit.)
ryan gets up in the early afternoon, and there's a mug of coffee sitting next to his camera on the kitchen counter. he picks up the camera and squints through it at brendon's fingers curled loosely around his own mug resting on the table. the lens flicks shut with an audible click, and then ryan puts the camera aside in favor of his coffee, satisfied.
brendon rubs his eyes and yawns, unfazed.
they have a bunch of press stuff to do all day, so ryan leaves his camera tucked next to his pillow in his bunk. his fingers itch all through each interview, though, and the weight of his phone feels small and inadequate in his hands. he feels especially regretful when brendon tips his head back and laughs, really laughs, eyes shining in the sunlight. spencer catches the look of blatant longing on ryan's face, and huffs under his breath, grinning small at him behind brendon's back.
"ross," spencer says softly, to ground him, and ryan snaps himself out of the daze, shoving his hands into his pockets.
ryan is just on the brink of sleep long after the show that night, curled up tightly in his blankets against the northeastern chill, when he hears the telltale click and the film rolling noisily. he blinks his eyes open slowly and looks up just as brendon lowers the camera from his face and stares at him, wide eyed. ryan watches him, waiting, until brendon shoves the camera into his bunk above ryan's and slides into the space next to ryan.
brendon lies there, shivering lightly, until ryan shifts to spread the blanket over both of them and lets himself finally fall asleep, warm now.
the next couple days are gray and gloomy outside, so ryan sticks to taking pictures indoors, the bands and crew hanging around backstage. alex greenwald playing his new mandolin, and ryan's careful not to let alex see him taking that one. just in case, though if he was going to say something to ryan about the camera he probably would have by now, anyways.
by the time they get to michigan, ryan's down to 11 shots left on the film. 10, when brendon snatches it again and takes a picture of his own bare toes digging into the sand at the edge of lake erie before running back up the beach.
that night they end up having a bonfire on the beach, somehow, sitting on rocks around it late into the early morning. brendon keeps tossing pieces of driftwood into the fire to make it crackle, and ryan takes a picture of the flames licking the black sky, and one of the dancing light throwing odd shadows onto brendon and greta's faces where their heads are bent together, murmuring in low voices.
the embers finally start to die out just before the sun can crest the horizon, and brendon returns to ryan's side to trek back to the buses and leave michigan behind. they collapse on the front couch and fall asleep there, with legs tangled.
on the second to last day of tour, ryan finally finds somewhere to develop the roll of film. he stops off at the convenience store before soundcheck, and the woman he leaves it with promises it'll be done before the bus leaves that night.
he gets back to the bus, and packs the empty camera away in the bottom of his suitcase, not knowing when he'll find the right film again.
.....
the first eight pictures of the roll, the ones that ryan didn't take, are of phantom planet around different cities, different venues, one of alex and greta with their heads tipped up to the blue sky, and the very last one that alex took, ryan squints at it for a bit, trying to place it. it's taken from a distance, overexposed from a bright sunny day, but he eventually recognizes brendon and himself sitting close together on a park bench.
the first one from the point ryan acquired the camera, is his band on the roof of the bus, shot upwards from where he was standing on the paved parking lot. spencer is the only one looking at the camera, waving with a blurry grin.
there are a couple of them all, zack and dan and eric and shane and brendon and jon and spencer and ryan himself, sitting around a table at some seafood shack in maine, that jon takes and declares "family portraits" before tacking their smiling faces up on the fridge.
ryan tucks the ones from when he went through what brendon called his "landscape phase" -- sunsets and sunrises in different places across the country -- away into his notebook.
the last one in the stack -- someone else must have taken it, ryan sure didn't take it and it startles him, but he holds it tightly, studying the details. eventually, he pads back into the bunk area and tucks the picture (early morning, cause the sun is slanting through the blinds sharply, him and brendon sleeping on the couch with their heads tipped close together) under brendon's pillow, careful not to wake him.
at the restaurant where they have a huge end of tour celebration dinner, all the bands and crew members are spread out around a huge table, laughing and chattering noisily. brendon turns while no one's looking at them and kisses ryan sweetly, and ryan smiles into it and closes his eyes.
[end]
ryan/brendon, pg. 1075 words.
for colorofsmoke. some of the early scenes looked over by self_sustaining, thank you, t.
'Live each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit and resign yourself to the influences of each.'
- Henry David Thoreau
somewhere along the way, ryan gets an old film camera that jon tells him is a japanese kodak offshoot. he actually found it lying on their bus one day, and thinks it may have belonged to alex greenwald at some point. but anyways, ryan adopts it as his own and walks around backstage with it hanging under his arm. the roll of film currently in the camera already has eight shots used up, that he'll have to wait til it's developed to see what they are. he's not really sure where he'll find the proper film for it when the time comes, so he weighs each shutter click carefully.
(he's still upset about the time he was framing a shot of jon sitting under a big cherry tree and brendon bumped into him with his skateboard just as ryan was pressing the shutter and now the shot is going to come out nothing more than a patch of grass. "it's nice grass, ryan!" but the cherry tree was nicer, damnit.)
ryan gets up in the early afternoon, and there's a mug of coffee sitting next to his camera on the kitchen counter. he picks up the camera and squints through it at brendon's fingers curled loosely around his own mug resting on the table. the lens flicks shut with an audible click, and then ryan puts the camera aside in favor of his coffee, satisfied.
brendon rubs his eyes and yawns, unfazed.
they have a bunch of press stuff to do all day, so ryan leaves his camera tucked next to his pillow in his bunk. his fingers itch all through each interview, though, and the weight of his phone feels small and inadequate in his hands. he feels especially regretful when brendon tips his head back and laughs, really laughs, eyes shining in the sunlight. spencer catches the look of blatant longing on ryan's face, and huffs under his breath, grinning small at him behind brendon's back.
"ross," spencer says softly, to ground him, and ryan snaps himself out of the daze, shoving his hands into his pockets.
ryan is just on the brink of sleep long after the show that night, curled up tightly in his blankets against the northeastern chill, when he hears the telltale click and the film rolling noisily. he blinks his eyes open slowly and looks up just as brendon lowers the camera from his face and stares at him, wide eyed. ryan watches him, waiting, until brendon shoves the camera into his bunk above ryan's and slides into the space next to ryan.
brendon lies there, shivering lightly, until ryan shifts to spread the blanket over both of them and lets himself finally fall asleep, warm now.
the next couple days are gray and gloomy outside, so ryan sticks to taking pictures indoors, the bands and crew hanging around backstage. alex greenwald playing his new mandolin, and ryan's careful not to let alex see him taking that one. just in case, though if he was going to say something to ryan about the camera he probably would have by now, anyways.
by the time they get to michigan, ryan's down to 11 shots left on the film. 10, when brendon snatches it again and takes a picture of his own bare toes digging into the sand at the edge of lake erie before running back up the beach.
that night they end up having a bonfire on the beach, somehow, sitting on rocks around it late into the early morning. brendon keeps tossing pieces of driftwood into the fire to make it crackle, and ryan takes a picture of the flames licking the black sky, and one of the dancing light throwing odd shadows onto brendon and greta's faces where their heads are bent together, murmuring in low voices.
the embers finally start to die out just before the sun can crest the horizon, and brendon returns to ryan's side to trek back to the buses and leave michigan behind. they collapse on the front couch and fall asleep there, with legs tangled.
on the second to last day of tour, ryan finally finds somewhere to develop the roll of film. he stops off at the convenience store before soundcheck, and the woman he leaves it with promises it'll be done before the bus leaves that night.
he gets back to the bus, and packs the empty camera away in the bottom of his suitcase, not knowing when he'll find the right film again.
.....
the first eight pictures of the roll, the ones that ryan didn't take, are of phantom planet around different cities, different venues, one of alex and greta with their heads tipped up to the blue sky, and the very last one that alex took, ryan squints at it for a bit, trying to place it. it's taken from a distance, overexposed from a bright sunny day, but he eventually recognizes brendon and himself sitting close together on a park bench.
the first one from the point ryan acquired the camera, is his band on the roof of the bus, shot upwards from where he was standing on the paved parking lot. spencer is the only one looking at the camera, waving with a blurry grin.
there are a couple of them all, zack and dan and eric and shane and brendon and jon and spencer and ryan himself, sitting around a table at some seafood shack in maine, that jon takes and declares "family portraits" before tacking their smiling faces up on the fridge.
ryan tucks the ones from when he went through what brendon called his "landscape phase" -- sunsets and sunrises in different places across the country -- away into his notebook.
the last one in the stack -- someone else must have taken it, ryan sure didn't take it and it startles him, but he holds it tightly, studying the details. eventually, he pads back into the bunk area and tucks the picture (early morning, cause the sun is slanting through the blinds sharply, him and brendon sleeping on the couch with their heads tipped close together) under brendon's pillow, careful not to wake him.
at the restaurant where they have a huge end of tour celebration dinner, all the bands and crew members are spread out around a huge table, laughing and chattering noisily. brendon turns while no one's looking at them and kisses ryan sweetly, and ryan smiles into it and closes his eyes.
[end]