10 songs challenge
For the Ten Song Drabble Challenge by hanneberry.
Brendon/Ryan
No order or context.
I’ve actually been really lousy at making a story based on the lyrics - I really just wrote the first thing that popped into my head.
Nothing amazing came out of this, but at least I had fun.
1. All I Want For Christmas Is You - My Chemical Romance
(I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know)
Running around in the snow, Brendon laughs, loud and clear and just happy.
Ryan's watching from the stair leading into the house, amused expression on his face.
"Come on, Ryan," Brendon shouts as he flails his arms and legs in the pile of snow he's lying in. The older boy shakes his head. "Can't. I'm sick." To emphasise his point, he coughs weakly and huffs.
"Aww, c'mere," Brendon says, gets up, runs to him and wraps his arms around him. "I'm fine with just sitting here. With you."
Ryan snuggles closer, exhaling against the younger boy's neck. “Good. I’m fine with this, too.”
2. White Shadows - Coldplay
(All this noise)
Everyone - everything - is pumping with energy. The stage is lit, and they're illuminated in white under the spotlights.
Ryan laughs into Brendon's hand as it runs over his face; touching his cheek, his neck, his right ear. Leaning in slightly, Brendon glares at him daringly. "What would you do if I kissed you right now, Ross? Right now, right here, in front of everyone.”
The guitarist just smiles wider when the crowd screams as Brendon leans even closer.
"I would probably kiss you back," he admits, whispering the words against the younger boy's mouth.
The roar coming from the crowd when Brendon's lips brush Ryan's for a second is deafening.
"But wait, this is not that dream," Brendon says into the microphone in his hand, a grin stretching from one side of his face to the other as he walks back to the centre of the stage.
3. Your Fault - Plain White T's
(You better know that this is all your fault, I hope you know that this is all your fault)
"Shut the fuck up!" Brendon screams from the other side of the living room, clutching his hand around the tableside.
"Brendon," Ryan starts, pleads, but Brendon cuts him off. "No, don't even, just. Shut up. Okay? Just for a second, lemme think, just. Please."
Ryan nods and stays silent.
"I just," Brendon tries, looking at his feet. "I thought we were happy, you know? I really thought we were."
"We are," Ryan assures. "We are, Brendon, just please. I didn't mean it, I didn't, okay? I love you."
"Okay," Brendon whispers silently, not believing Ryan's words in his head, but trusting each one with his heart. “Okay.”
4. Love Abuse - Lukas Kasha
(Why should I come with you when you treat me this way? What should I do?)
He knows they shouldn't. Brendon knows it's a bad idea, knows he’ll regret it in the morning, but he can't make himself tear away from the boy.
"I..." he gasps against Ryan's neck as he bites on his earlobe. "I don't think-"
"Shh," Ryan coos into his ear, creeping his hand under his t-shirt, lifting it slightly, placing a hand on Brendon's stomach. "Just go with it, okay? For once, don't think."
Brendon nods and kisses Ryan, once, twice, trice. He knows he shouldn't let himself get carried away with this again. Knows that Ryan will go back to her the following morning, that he’ll go back to holding her hand and whispering in her ear, knows how much his heart will ache and long and wish for it to be him, not her.
But he takes Ryan's advice and doesn't think it over, just lets himself fall into the older boy's embrace and soft touches, convincing himself that, This is enough.
5. Wherever I May Roam - Metallica
(The road becomes my bride / the earth becomes my throne)
They're on their way out of the desert. Brendon's in the driver’s seat, singing along to songs on the radio, thrumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Besides him sits Ryan, face pressed to the window, watching his home disappear before his eyes, watches it grow smaller and smaller in the distance.
"Where are we going, anyway?" he asks as he turns around to look at Brendon instead.
"Does it matter?" Brendon questions, and Ryan just shakes his head, amused.
"I guess not."
"I mean," Brendon grins and stops by the flashing of the red light, "I'm kidnapping you for the day, you're with me, it seriously doesn’t get any better than that."
Ryan laughs, then coughs/chokes as one of their songs starts playing on the radio, and he's so, so, so not used to this.
"We got pretty damn lucky," Brendon says then, nodding his head along to the beat he’s heard - played - so many times before.
"Yeah," Ryan concurs. "Going on tour in two weeks will be weird."
"Yeah."
As the light turns back to green and they start moving with the traffic again, Ryan says, "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For this."
6. For A Dreamer, Night's The Only Time Of Day - Forgive Durden
(Knock me right onto my back / Your glow, blinding, breaches my pupils. I taste your skin. I see our kids. I manage to siphon some breath out from my gut, tell you to take my hand and run)
"I miss you."
He's surprised at how easy it is to say, how easy it is when it should be so hard.
"Brendon," Ryan sighs, starts picking at his nails and the skin around it, watching his fingers intently. Brendon sighs too.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry," he says, although all he's sorry about is how Ryan's a fucking douchebag.
"Keltie, she's inside, she-"
"I know." Brendon breathes between gritted teeth, rubbing a finger over his eyelids, stamping his feet at the ground impatiently. "I just wanted to say it. Just wanted to make you realise how fucking-"
"Don't," Ryan says demandingly, and Brendon turns without a word, walking away with a bad taste in his mouth, knuckle-white fists and a fluttering heart.
I miss you, asshole, he thinks.
7. The Seething Rain Weeps For You - Mew
(It rains. We have no umbrellas brought / A curly smile meant just for me)
It's raining again. It's the third day this week and this is Vegas.
Brendon has done nothing but smile all week, and Ryan's watched him closely, tucked all of Brendon's happy smiles into the pocket of his heart.
"Come on," he says, tugging at Brendon's sleeve carefully, dragging him to the door.
"Come on," he repeats when the younger boy does little to move, pulls at his sleeve more forcefully.
"It's raining, dude. No," Brendon objects, but smiles nonetheless and trails after Ryan like a trained puppy.
Once outside, under the open sky and the angry rain, Ryan says, "Kiss me."
Brendon blinks. "What?"
"Kiss me," Ryan repeats, a shy smile threatening to break free at the corner of his lips.
"Kiss you?"
"For all the cliché on-screen kisses in the rain," Ryan says, pulling them into the middle of the street, splashes of water pouring down on them as he does, "that I know you love, for all the times I've fell in love with you, for all the ways you make my heart flutter, kiss me."
The smile on Brendon's face reach his eyes, and he says, "You're such a dork, Ryan Ross."
"Kiss me," Ryan says again, staring into chocolate eyes demandingly.
Brendon does.
8. Killer Queen - Panic at the Disco
(Drop of a hat she’s as willing as, playful as a pussycat / She’s out to get you / Wanna try? You wanna try)
Okay, so sometimes Ryan can be a total bitch about everything. Absolutely everything. Most of the times it's about the music, how the others are not playing it his way - "Spencer, the beat is not supposed to be that fast, okay? Calm down." "Jon, there's not supposed to be a bass in this part of the song, so quit playing." "Brendon, you're not supposed to sing it that way, please sing it like this." "Brendon, those are not the right words." "Brendon, stop acting like a five-year old and just sing for crying out loud" - and Brendon is man enough to admit that it fucking pisses him off, and more than often he makes a run for the exit.
(The part he's not man enough to admit though, is that he usually huffs and throws a tantrum like a fucking girl, before storming out of the room in a very "drama queen" like fashion.)
Ryan usually runs after him when he leaves, talking in a soft voice and tracing fingers all over his face and they always - always - ends up in someone's bed. Ryan's a total bitch and a demanding queen there too, but when he says, "Brendon, you can suck me off now," Brendon doesn't mind it as much when he hears Ryan moan his name and Brendon's the one in charge - for once.
9. Bad Habit - Gregory And The Hawk
(The heart wants us to fall in love)
Ryan has a habit of scratching his head when he's nervous, unsure or under pressure.
Brendon has a habit of being obnoxious and loud and maybe, possibly, singing too much. Which doesn't even makes sense because it's his job to sing, but people (Spencer Smith, Jon Walker, Zack Hall and pretty much every member of their crew) tends to groan every time he opens his mouth.
"Could you just, like, go play, sing, whatever, outside for a while, please?" Spencer says in an annoyed tone, lying sprawled out on the tiny bus couch, watching The OC with Jon, who he’d forced to sit on the floor. ("Gee, thank you for letting me sit on the floor, I really appreciate it, Spencer Smith.")
"I like it when he sings," Ryan says suddenly, emerging from the bunk area, scratching his head and looking at his other hand.
"Thanks," Brendon says, flashing a smile at the older boy.
For the rest of the day he follows Ryan around, singing a song whenever he sees something reminding him of one he knows.
Ryan never asks him to stop, just smiles shyly and scratches his head.
10. Thanks A Lot - Third Eye Blind
(We laughed in the night and I felt alright)
Lying outside on the grass in black slacks and suit jackets, hidden in the dark, watching the stars, Ryan says, "I almost killed him, once."
Brendon's breath hitches slightly and he doesn't dare look at him when he asks, "Who?" although he knows the answer already.
"George," Ryan replies cooly, and bingo, Brendon thinks. He wants to ask how, but doesn't have to when Ryan willingly opens his mouth to speak.
"He was drunk, again - well, I guess he never stopped being drunk - and I don't even know how, but suddenly I had a knife in my hand and I was hovering over his bed, ready to just jab once and that would have been the end of that. "
Brendon nods slightly to himself, listening to the faint sound of cars on the highway somewhere in the background.
He asks, "What made you change your mind?"
Ryan pauses, wraps his arms around himself, moving (Brendon thinks, doesn't know if he imagines it, but he thinks Ryan scoots a bit closer to him, and his heart skips a beat), but doesn't reply immediately.
After a few minutes of just the sound of their breaths and murmurs of cars, Ryan says, "He opened his eyes, looked at me and said, 'I'm sorry, Ryan,' and I just couldn’t do it. I don't even know if he meant it, can't ask him now anyway."
Brendon hums. "He probably did."
"Yeah?"
"Mhmm."
Then Ryan really scoots closer. Brendon bites his lip and wraps his arms around him and when Ryan curls up against him, Brendon releases the breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Thanks," the older boy whispers into Brendon's shoulder.
They lie there until the stars and the dark sky goes to hide somewhere else, until the sun creeps up over the mountain tops and the sky has been painted in a light, blue colour.
They forget everything about funerals and jobs and chores and grass stained expensive suits and responsibilities, and just breathes and is in each other’s arms.
Brendon/Ryan
No order or context.
I’ve actually been really lousy at making a story based on the lyrics - I really just wrote the first thing that popped into my head.
Nothing amazing came out of this, but at least I had fun.
1. All I Want For Christmas Is You - My Chemical Romance
(I just want you for my own, more than you could ever know)
Running around in the snow, Brendon laughs, loud and clear and just happy.
Ryan's watching from the stair leading into the house, amused expression on his face.
"Come on, Ryan," Brendon shouts as he flails his arms and legs in the pile of snow he's lying in. The older boy shakes his head. "Can't. I'm sick." To emphasise his point, he coughs weakly and huffs.
"Aww, c'mere," Brendon says, gets up, runs to him and wraps his arms around him. "I'm fine with just sitting here. With you."
Ryan snuggles closer, exhaling against the younger boy's neck. “Good. I’m fine with this, too.”
2. White Shadows - Coldplay
(All this noise)
Everyone - everything - is pumping with energy. The stage is lit, and they're illuminated in white under the spotlights.
Ryan laughs into Brendon's hand as it runs over his face; touching his cheek, his neck, his right ear. Leaning in slightly, Brendon glares at him daringly. "What would you do if I kissed you right now, Ross? Right now, right here, in front of everyone.”
The guitarist just smiles wider when the crowd screams as Brendon leans even closer.
"I would probably kiss you back," he admits, whispering the words against the younger boy's mouth.
The roar coming from the crowd when Brendon's lips brush Ryan's for a second is deafening.
"But wait, this is not that dream," Brendon says into the microphone in his hand, a grin stretching from one side of his face to the other as he walks back to the centre of the stage.
3. Your Fault - Plain White T's
(You better know that this is all your fault, I hope you know that this is all your fault)
"Shut the fuck up!" Brendon screams from the other side of the living room, clutching his hand around the tableside.
"Brendon," Ryan starts, pleads, but Brendon cuts him off. "No, don't even, just. Shut up. Okay? Just for a second, lemme think, just. Please."
Ryan nods and stays silent.
"I just," Brendon tries, looking at his feet. "I thought we were happy, you know? I really thought we were."
"We are," Ryan assures. "We are, Brendon, just please. I didn't mean it, I didn't, okay? I love you."
"Okay," Brendon whispers silently, not believing Ryan's words in his head, but trusting each one with his heart. “Okay.”
4. Love Abuse - Lukas Kasha
(Why should I come with you when you treat me this way? What should I do?)
He knows they shouldn't. Brendon knows it's a bad idea, knows he’ll regret it in the morning, but he can't make himself tear away from the boy.
"I..." he gasps against Ryan's neck as he bites on his earlobe. "I don't think-"
"Shh," Ryan coos into his ear, creeping his hand under his t-shirt, lifting it slightly, placing a hand on Brendon's stomach. "Just go with it, okay? For once, don't think."
Brendon nods and kisses Ryan, once, twice, trice. He knows he shouldn't let himself get carried away with this again. Knows that Ryan will go back to her the following morning, that he’ll go back to holding her hand and whispering in her ear, knows how much his heart will ache and long and wish for it to be him, not her.
But he takes Ryan's advice and doesn't think it over, just lets himself fall into the older boy's embrace and soft touches, convincing himself that, This is enough.
5. Wherever I May Roam - Metallica
(The road becomes my bride / the earth becomes my throne)
They're on their way out of the desert. Brendon's in the driver’s seat, singing along to songs on the radio, thrumming his fingers on the steering wheel. Besides him sits Ryan, face pressed to the window, watching his home disappear before his eyes, watches it grow smaller and smaller in the distance.
"Where are we going, anyway?" he asks as he turns around to look at Brendon instead.
"Does it matter?" Brendon questions, and Ryan just shakes his head, amused.
"I guess not."
"I mean," Brendon grins and stops by the flashing of the red light, "I'm kidnapping you for the day, you're with me, it seriously doesn’t get any better than that."
Ryan laughs, then coughs/chokes as one of their songs starts playing on the radio, and he's so, so, so not used to this.
"We got pretty damn lucky," Brendon says then, nodding his head along to the beat he’s heard - played - so many times before.
"Yeah," Ryan concurs. "Going on tour in two weeks will be weird."
"Yeah."
As the light turns back to green and they start moving with the traffic again, Ryan says, "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For this."
6. For A Dreamer, Night's The Only Time Of Day - Forgive Durden
(Knock me right onto my back / Your glow, blinding, breaches my pupils. I taste your skin. I see our kids. I manage to siphon some breath out from my gut, tell you to take my hand and run)
"I miss you."
He's surprised at how easy it is to say, how easy it is when it should be so hard.
"Brendon," Ryan sighs, starts picking at his nails and the skin around it, watching his fingers intently. Brendon sighs too.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry," he says, although all he's sorry about is how Ryan's a fucking douchebag.
"Keltie, she's inside, she-"
"I know." Brendon breathes between gritted teeth, rubbing a finger over his eyelids, stamping his feet at the ground impatiently. "I just wanted to say it. Just wanted to make you realise how fucking-"
"Don't," Ryan says demandingly, and Brendon turns without a word, walking away with a bad taste in his mouth, knuckle-white fists and a fluttering heart.
I miss you, asshole, he thinks.
7. The Seething Rain Weeps For You - Mew
(It rains. We have no umbrellas brought / A curly smile meant just for me)
It's raining again. It's the third day this week and this is Vegas.
Brendon has done nothing but smile all week, and Ryan's watched him closely, tucked all of Brendon's happy smiles into the pocket of his heart.
"Come on," he says, tugging at Brendon's sleeve carefully, dragging him to the door.
"Come on," he repeats when the younger boy does little to move, pulls at his sleeve more forcefully.
"It's raining, dude. No," Brendon objects, but smiles nonetheless and trails after Ryan like a trained puppy.
Once outside, under the open sky and the angry rain, Ryan says, "Kiss me."
Brendon blinks. "What?"
"Kiss me," Ryan repeats, a shy smile threatening to break free at the corner of his lips.
"Kiss you?"
"For all the cliché on-screen kisses in the rain," Ryan says, pulling them into the middle of the street, splashes of water pouring down on them as he does, "that I know you love, for all the times I've fell in love with you, for all the ways you make my heart flutter, kiss me."
The smile on Brendon's face reach his eyes, and he says, "You're such a dork, Ryan Ross."
"Kiss me," Ryan says again, staring into chocolate eyes demandingly.
Brendon does.
8. Killer Queen - Panic at the Disco
(Drop of a hat she’s as willing as, playful as a pussycat / She’s out to get you / Wanna try? You wanna try)
Okay, so sometimes Ryan can be a total bitch about everything. Absolutely everything. Most of the times it's about the music, how the others are not playing it his way - "Spencer, the beat is not supposed to be that fast, okay? Calm down." "Jon, there's not supposed to be a bass in this part of the song, so quit playing." "Brendon, you're not supposed to sing it that way, please sing it like this." "Brendon, those are not the right words." "Brendon, stop acting like a five-year old and just sing for crying out loud" - and Brendon is man enough to admit that it fucking pisses him off, and more than often he makes a run for the exit.
(The part he's not man enough to admit though, is that he usually huffs and throws a tantrum like a fucking girl, before storming out of the room in a very "drama queen" like fashion.)
Ryan usually runs after him when he leaves, talking in a soft voice and tracing fingers all over his face and they always - always - ends up in someone's bed. Ryan's a total bitch and a demanding queen there too, but when he says, "Brendon, you can suck me off now," Brendon doesn't mind it as much when he hears Ryan moan his name and Brendon's the one in charge - for once.
9. Bad Habit - Gregory And The Hawk
(The heart wants us to fall in love)
Ryan has a habit of scratching his head when he's nervous, unsure or under pressure.
Brendon has a habit of being obnoxious and loud and maybe, possibly, singing too much. Which doesn't even makes sense because it's his job to sing, but people (Spencer Smith, Jon Walker, Zack Hall and pretty much every member of their crew) tends to groan every time he opens his mouth.
"Could you just, like, go play, sing, whatever, outside for a while, please?" Spencer says in an annoyed tone, lying sprawled out on the tiny bus couch, watching The OC with Jon, who he’d forced to sit on the floor. ("Gee, thank you for letting me sit on the floor, I really appreciate it, Spencer Smith.")
"I like it when he sings," Ryan says suddenly, emerging from the bunk area, scratching his head and looking at his other hand.
"Thanks," Brendon says, flashing a smile at the older boy.
For the rest of the day he follows Ryan around, singing a song whenever he sees something reminding him of one he knows.
Ryan never asks him to stop, just smiles shyly and scratches his head.
10. Thanks A Lot - Third Eye Blind
(We laughed in the night and I felt alright)
Lying outside on the grass in black slacks and suit jackets, hidden in the dark, watching the stars, Ryan says, "I almost killed him, once."
Brendon's breath hitches slightly and he doesn't dare look at him when he asks, "Who?" although he knows the answer already.
"George," Ryan replies cooly, and bingo, Brendon thinks. He wants to ask how, but doesn't have to when Ryan willingly opens his mouth to speak.
"He was drunk, again - well, I guess he never stopped being drunk - and I don't even know how, but suddenly I had a knife in my hand and I was hovering over his bed, ready to just jab once and that would have been the end of that. "
Brendon nods slightly to himself, listening to the faint sound of cars on the highway somewhere in the background.
He asks, "What made you change your mind?"
Ryan pauses, wraps his arms around himself, moving (Brendon thinks, doesn't know if he imagines it, but he thinks Ryan scoots a bit closer to him, and his heart skips a beat), but doesn't reply immediately.
After a few minutes of just the sound of their breaths and murmurs of cars, Ryan says, "He opened his eyes, looked at me and said, 'I'm sorry, Ryan,' and I just couldn’t do it. I don't even know if he meant it, can't ask him now anyway."
Brendon hums. "He probably did."
"Yeah?"
"Mhmm."
Then Ryan really scoots closer. Brendon bites his lip and wraps his arms around him and when Ryan curls up against him, Brendon releases the breath he didn't know he was holding.
"Thanks," the older boy whispers into Brendon's shoulder.
They lie there until the stars and the dark sky goes to hide somewhere else, until the sun creeps up over the mountain tops and the sky has been painted in a light, blue colour.
They forget everything about funerals and jobs and chores and grass stained expensive suits and responsibilities, and just breathes and is in each other’s arms.