Dark Blue (s/a)
Title: Dark Blue
Author: longerthanwedo
Beta: melody_so_sweet ♥
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Ryan/Brendon
Summary: When people used to fantasize about the end of the world, they pictured a world that was parched, dry and red, not a drop of water in sight. They thought that the heat would finally conquer the earth. But that’s not how it happened. Not at all.
Disclaimer: Fiction. If this was true I obviously wouldn’t be sitting here writing it.
Author’s Notes: This is an apocalypse AU based off the song “Dark Blue” by Jack’s Mannequin. Just kind of a spur-of-the-moment thing, really.
When people used to fantasize about the end of the world, they pictured a world that was parched, dry and red, not a drop of water in sight. They imagined fires spreading far and wide, eating up everything in sight. They saw thirsty survivors wandering the barren land in search of the slightest bit of moisture. They thought that the heat would finally conquer the earth.
But that’s not how it happened. Not at all.
***
Brendon Urie sat on his knees, elbows on the back of the couch, as he stared out the window at the slowly setting sun. Even in the fading light, he could see the edge of blue that started creeping over the horizon, and into his line of sight.
The beach he used to go to had been hours away from his house. He’d driven there many times before, bringing friends, family, and pets out for a taste of the ocean that they never had a chance to see. The water had long since lost its appeal.
What exactly was happening, Brendon wasn’t so sure. He’d heard that the sea had swallowed up the East Coast; just risen up over the houses and the people whose lives depended on the land. He’d seen people coming into his town claiming that they outran the flood, made it to safety.
This town was safety to them. To Brendon, it was doomed.
He could see the blue, even if it was only a sliver on the horizon, he could see it. And he imagined that before long it would be much bigger, closer. Eventually, he knew, it would be seeping under his doorway and taking away his safety.
But he couldn’t be sure.
***
To Ryan Ross, his TV was his safety. He took comfort in knowledge, in facts. He didn’t trust the words that floated mouth to mouth out on the streets. He sat glued to the sofa, eyes fixed on one of the remaining news channels.
The story was always the same. The same reporters trying to look calm about the entire situation while their microphones shook in their hands. They tried to be professional while describing the impending fate of the world and gesturing to blurred photos and shaky videos of the destruction that was slowly spreading across the country.
Months ago, the TV had broadcast nothing but news; all the frivolous shows cancelled in weight of what was happening. But slowly, one by one, the channels had started disappearing, breaking into fuzz and incomprehensible images, and then finally going black - water having washed away the news stations.
There were only a few channels left: those located on the West Coast. Ryan watched every day, waiting in terror for the moment when the nearest location was flooded and the screen went black for good.
That would be the moment when all Ryan had would be word from those who’d managed to flee from the moving sea.
That was the moment Ryan dreaded the most.
***
Blue used to be Brendon’s favorite color.
He’d thought it was calm, relaxing, something anyone could relate to. Blue had been soft, the color of the calm waves that used to roll over the surface of the ocean. Everyone had liked blue.
Now, blue had turned into the color of fear. People shivered when they saw the color; it was too dark, cold, and sinister. Blue was now the color of half the country, the color of death. The sea was no longer calm. It was rolling and rocking and advancing faster than people could leave.
Brendon wore less and less blue as time went on, and water came nearer.
***
Ryan always kept at least one light on in his house.
The light was like a warning signal; when it flickered out it meant that the water had taken out the power lines. When that light went dark it meant that Ryan had only little time left before the water swallowed his home.
So, when the last channel on the TV disappeared, Ryan kept himself together.
He restrained the fear that threatened to take him over, because the water wasn’t quite upon him. Not yet.
Not if that one light was still glowing.
***
The day that the first drops of water touched the side of Brendon’s house was the day that he left out the back door. He took one bag, a few snacks, no water. He trudged out across his still-dry backyard, and wandered down the lone highway. There were no cars in sight.
Brendon walked until he came to the top of a hill. At the top of that hill was a small house, still dry, still warm.
Brendon thought this house could be his safety, at least for as long as it could be.
He knocked on the door.
***
Ryan walked to the door with a mixture of hope and dread in his heart.
Hope that it could be his family - long since moved to the east - returning.
Dread that it would be someone coming to tell him to get out fast or the approaching waves would consume him.
He opened the door, and it was neither.
Outside stood a man with slumped shoulders, black hair, and a worn-out smile. Ryan had never seen him before, and he had never seen Ryan. Ryan was relieved and confused, but he didn’t question too much. He lived in facts, and right then the only fact Ryan knew was that this man was here in front of him. And so Ryan didn’t question.
He asked Ryan if he would share some of his safety. Ryan didn’t know what he meant exactly, but he didn’t ask. He just stepped back and let him in.
And, all of a sudden, Ryan had something to take his mind off death and navy blue fear.
Brendon.
***
Each time the sun sank down at night, the water seemed to rise just a little more.
Soon there was a ring of menacing waves lapping at the base of the hill Ryan’s house sat atop, the house that now was residence to not only Ryan and Brendon.
Days, maybe weeks had passed, and people had trickled up the hill, tired and defeated, their houses submerged, just looking for a little more time. They crowded the small building, not talking too much, just living. Just staring out the window as the end came near, relishing this tiny bit of dry land.
Ryan let them in without question each time.
***
Brendon sat on Ryan’s couch, looking out the window at the sun sinking slowly below the surface of the water that now stopped just below the sill. He could see the planets in a row, sparkling in the dark sky, and he thought of what earth must look like from far away.
He imagined it would almost blend into the dark blue of the sky, covered as it was with water. He wondered if there were living things somewhere up there that looked back at earth with pity, maybe. Maybe they looked at us and rolled their eyes at the people who couldn’t keep their planet in control.
He stared out at the sky and envied Mars’s burning soil.
Ryan waded across the living room to where Brendon sat still and quiet.
Brendon felt Ryan behind him but he didn’t look around, he didn’t say anything.
They sat, pressed together inside a bubble of silence in the crowded room, and watched the stars, both wishing that one would fall and dry the water with its fire.
***
The waves had eventually blocked out the sky.
The view outside the window consisted of nothing but water and the occasional piece of something floating past the glass. The view inside the house was not much different.
The pressure of the sea had cracked the walls, leaving only a frame and bits of debris scattered among the struggling people.
Brendon clung to a piece of the house, keeping afloat, keeping his head above water, and rising with the flood. Ryan hung onto the opposite end of Brendon’s raft and refused to look around him. He didn’t want to see the people fighting, hanging on like they were, and he wanted to see those who had given up even less. He kept his eyes on Brendon and hoped that a miracle would come even though he knew it wouldn’t.
They floated until their limbs had become numb from the cold and the board was waterlogged and slippery. They hung on until their arms tired and their skin began to change color to match the water. They fought for the sake of fighting and not for the end result, because they both knew their efforts were futile.
Brendon’s eyes locked with Ryan’s and they both knew it was time.
They let their tired hands relax and held onto each other instead of their lives as the ocean continued to rise and the world ended in a way no one thought it would.
There was no fire, no heat.
There was nothing but dark blue.