1886 (2/?)
Title: 1886
Author:
spiffyturkey
Pairing: Brendon//Ryan
Summary: No one knew of their relationship, for it was frowned upon, a criminal offence, highly illegal. They were young, and in love, the law only made their devotion and intimacy all the more exciting.
Rating: PG-13 for this part
POV: Third Person
Notes: As the title says, its 1886, the prime of the Victorian Era. Believe it or not this fic took a lot of research on my part, I’ve got a piece of paper littered from front to back with notes on small things here and there, hopefully I’ve captured a bit of the time period. I do hope you enjoy, the idea rose up from my over active imagination, and the amazing outfits P!ATD wears.
Word Count: 4,117
Disclaimer: Don’t own. Never happened. Blahdy blah.
Part 2
Brendon stood confidently before his tall, cheval mirror. He turned left, then right, his chin lifting slightly as he examined his well thought out, carefully chosen, outfit. From a peg on the left side of the mirror, he pulled a thin, black, sewn cloth into his hand. Flipping the collar on his stark white club collar shirt, he wove the inch-wide strand around his neck and into a neat western style bow tie. Running a hand over his chest, he studied himself, from the cobalt blue Rio vest, down to the black slacks, all the way to the fresh, white spats covering most of his ankle high boots.
A knock at his door took his attention away from himself, as he gazed in the direction of the noise, “Yes?”
The heavy, mahogany door cracked open and an elderly face peered in at him, “Looking lovely my dear boy,” The woman smiled before she continued, “Your father wishes to have a word with you in the library, dear.”
He nodded, thanking her as she excused herself, leaving him to his own company yet again. Brendon gave one final glance at himself before he puffed his chest with a great lung full of air, letting it out slowly. On his way out of his large, tidy room, he took up his favorite black top hat, carrying it in a cradled manner in one arm as he proceeded to his father’s vast library.
When he entered, he spotted his father pacing the upper level, a book in hand, brow furrowed. Brendon had places to be, he wasn’t about to waste minutes he didn’t need to. He cleared his throat, making his presence known to the pacing man.
Success, his father looked up, and down at him, “Ah, Brendon,” He closed the small book, placing it under his arm and removed the golden framed glasses from his face. He took notice in Brendon’s clothing, commenting firstly on that, “Are you going out?”
“Just to town, will you need anything there?” Brendon hoped not, he wasn’t an errand runner, they paid people to do that, but out of respect, he was obligated to ask.
His father shook his head, smoothing his mustache with his thumb and index finger, “I asked you here,” He began, moving towards and descending the stairs to the left, “Because one of our ladies found a pair of suspenders and a tie in a west wing room,” He paused, taking the last step slowly, “The bedding as well, was tussled,” He gazed at his son pointedly, “Where you there last night?”
Brendon nodded, slowly, “Yes.”
His father too, nodded, “It’s not like you, though, to sleep out of the comfort of your room.”
It was true. Brendon hated sleeping in strange places, since he was a boy he had slept in the same room, in the same bed. He smiled, “I don’t know what came over me,” He raised his eye brows, keeping his honest smile, “I suppose I just needed a small change for one evening.”
“And,” His father seemed to hesitate before asking, “You were alone?”
Again, Brendon nodded, “Yes.”
His father cleared his throat, “Very well, just making sure it was you and not a stable hand who’d taken a maid, or something of the sort.”
Brendon snorted softly at the awkward comment, “Then, we’re finished?”
“Yes, yes,” His father turned, placing his specs upon his nose and continued with his book, “Try to be in before sun down.”
“Yes, father,” Brendon excused himself, leaving his father to the quiet of the library.
---
“James,” Brendon nodded to the young stable boy, who was seated on the bottom step of the porch, a lemonade in hand.
He stood quickly, placing his drink on the step, “’Afternoon, sir,” He greeted, as Brendon gazed out to his right at the grazing horses far out in the fields, “Will you be going to town today?”
Brendon lifted his hat, placing it slowly atop his head, fingers lingering on the rim, “Yes,” He looked down at James with relaxed, dark eyes, “Would you be so kind as to ready Lincoln?”
“Yes sir,” James nodded, turning on his heal and heading to the stable.
Minutes massed, Brendon waited at the stable’s gates, taking deep breaths of the fresh air. The day was beautiful, warm from the brightly shining sun, with a slight breeze.
The clopping of hooves brought his attention to within the stable, where his favorite horse, Lincoln, a black and white pinto he had named after the sixteenth president, was being led to him. The horse nosed his shoulder, snorting, happy to see him. Brendon smiled, stroking the beast’s nose.
“Here you are sir,” James said, placing a wooden step of two beside the horse.
Brendon thanked him, climbing the two steps and pulling himself onto Lincoln, taking the reins James held up for him. Nodding, and thanking the boy once again, Brendon spoke to the horse. With a toss of it’s head, the horse took off at a slow trot, gradually building to a smooth run.
---
The town was busy, as always, bustling with men and women as well as work hands, servants, and peddlers. As Brendon and Lincoln wove through the many people, he’d tip his hat and accompany it with a greeting as one was shouted out to him here and there. He halted the horse before a small, brown shop, cramped between two much larger stores; a book store, and the Smith’s shop.
Brendon slid from the saddle, taking the reins over Lincoln’s head and tying them to the metal railing designed in mind for tying up horses or mules. He glanced up at the hanging sign, swinging and squeaking as a gentle gust blew through the town.
“Mr. Brendon Urie.”
He turned at the sound of his name, as a girl with dark curls pulled up in a flat bun and wearing a puffy red, frilled dress approached him. He smiled, removing his hat and slightly bowing his upper body, “Good afternoon, Ms. Miller.”
She shifted the basket she carried to her other arm as she too smiled, “Honestly, Brendon, such formalities aren’t needed. I’ve told you time and time again, just, Rose,” She nodded.
“Such formalities are needed, Ms. Miller. I couldn’t possibly go around being so impolite to the mayor’s youngest daughter,” A look of astonishment crossed his face as he raised his hand to his mouth, “Why, I’d be thrown in jail.”
She laughed sweetly, shaking her head, “Well, would I be able to beg a favor from you this afternoon, kind sir?”
“Begging is not needed, Rose, what is it you need?”
She smiled, her eyes tossing glances to her left, then right as her voice dropped, “May I use you as an excuse to my father this evening? I’d like to go see Garret and you know how father loves the Urie family,” Her eyes lit up at the mention of her love.
Rose was aware that Brendon wasn’t all that interested in the company of women although, she wasn’t aware of the love between Brendon and his closest friend. Her father disapproved of Garret, for he was a servant, sent from London to do farm work, on Jon’s father’s farm no less.
Brendon smiled, tipping his head, “You may.”
She beamed, thanking him profusely, “I’ll make it up to you some how,” She took his hands and squeezed them tightly, “I promise. A good rest of the day to you then,” And with that, she took her leave, a new cheerful air about her as she hurried down the street, saying hello to the people that greeted her.
Brendon’s eye brows lifted, a smile still on his face as he shook his head, turning to make his way into the Ross’s shop. The tiny bell over the door sang as Brendon opened the door wide enough to slip his skinny body inside. Behind the great oak counter the sound of a clunky sewing machine halted, and from behind a great mound of clothing, Ryan’s head popped up. He tossed his head, removing bangs from his eyes.
“May I help you, sir?” He grinned.
“Perhaps,” Brendon said, removing his black cutaway coat and placing it, along with his hat, on the provided stand near the door. He moved over to the counter and leaned his elbows on it, “I’m looking for this boy, maybe you’ve seen him, he’s tall, quiet and thin, and very attractive,” he watched as Ryan’s smile grew, lifting himself from the chair he sat in and moved around to the counter, opposite of Brendon.
“I think your in the wrong place then, sir,” He continued with a mock serious look, “No one here really fits that description.”
Brendon chuckled, lifting himself on his toes, leaning over the counter, to place a quick kiss to the other’s smiling lips. He then made his way around the counter to where Ryan had been hard at work. Ryan’s eyes stole a quick look towards the door and shop’s front windows, paranoia was not uncommon to him, for if they were caught, due to their large gap in social class, he would be given the worse of the punishment. Brendon was eyeing his behind while Ryan was off in the land of worry. He liked the way the ashy brown colored pants held tight around Ryan’s thighs.
Ryan turned, rolling his shoulders slightly to adjust the loose, thin cotton shirt he’d made for himself years ago. It was something that was unfamiliar of the time, plain, sleeves that were too short to really serve a purpose, and a neck that scooped low. He sat back down at his machine, placing his foot on the pedal below.
“Anything interesting happen here today?” Brendon asked as he moved aside a pile of tagged clothing from a wide counter along the wall, replacing the empty spot with his body, swinging his legs.
“Not a thing, until you came that is,” He said, taking a pin between his lips as he fed the black cloth of a shirt sleeve he was mending through the machine, pressing on the pedal, careful as the machine’s needle jumped to life.
Brendon was about to speak when the bell above the shop’s door rang out. Looking to what was believed to be a customer, Brendon smiled at what he saw, “Jon, what brings you here?”
Jon looked at him sadly and sheepishly from under the rim of his gray cap, Ryan stood from behind the clothes to look at him. When Jon moved around the counter, they took notice in the newspaper Jon was holding behind himself.
“Are you alright, Jon?” Ryan questioned with a small, worried, frown.
“Yes, I’m fine…I just,” He made a small face, “Well, I was pulling carrots with my brothers and,” He took in a slow breath, turned, and removed the paper from his behind.
Ryan’s and Brendon’s eyes fell, looking now upon a great tear in Jon’s rust colored pants showing through where his white underwear. The rip started from the small adjustment clasp, to the seat of the pants. Brendon’s lips shrunk into a thin line as he stifled his laughter. Ryan’s features, however, had been taken over by great amusement as he let out a small laugh, moving to get a better look.
“They’re my best pair,” Jon explained with an expression of utter sadness, “Can you fix them, Ryan?”
Another chuckle escaped Ryan as he kneeled behind Jon, taking the two sides of the tear, bringing them together to measure the room he had in the pants. He stood after a moment, smiling, “Come around the counter so no one sees you in your underpants.”
Jon let out a grateful sigh, a smile appearing on his face as he moved behind the counter, “I owe you,” He said, removing his coat and suspenders.
Ryan looked at Brendon, the amusement still clear on his face, Brendon couldn’t help but smile whenever Ryan smiled. Ryan took the pants that were handed to him, turning them inside out, and moved around to his cluttered area of work.
“Pulling carrots, huh?” Brendon grinned, Ryan snorted softly behind the pile of clothes, his wide smile refusing to leave.
“Yup,” Jon’s forehead wrinkled as he looked over to Brendon, “I’ve never had a pair split on me before, always laughed at my old man though whenever his did.”
Brendon shook his head, smiling, “A case of what goes around, comes around, then?”
“I suppose so,” Jon nodded.
The thudding of the needle as Ryan pumped the pedal was the only sound that filled the room for a while, Jon stared out the front windows, a laps of time passing before he spoke up, softly, looking a bit detached as he spoke.
“Do you guys ever feel like you’re going no where?”
Brendon looked over to Jon, Ryan merely glanced up at him, then down again.
“How do you mean?” Brendon asked.
“Well,” Jon looked over at him, his features twisted in thought, “I feel like all I do is work on that farm, I wake up at dawn and that’s what I do,” He looked to the floor boards, “The only breaks I get are the one’s I smooth talk my father into letting me have, and even then I still have a mess of work for me to return home to.”
Silence followed his small speech, a moment later, Ryan spoke quietly, “What do you see yourself doing instead?” He asked, taking two pins and weaving them through the fabric, keeping it firmly in place.
Jon was quiet, Brendon watched him as he sunk into thought, “I’ve never really thought about it I guess,” He admitted.
A vague smile played at Ryan’s lips as he pushed the pants along the needle with steady hands, “I know how you feel, I often think of what I’d rather be doing when I’m here day after day,” Their eyes now watched Ryan, who didn’t look up at them, just kept his focus on the machine as he continued, “I see myself traveling, east, across the country, then the sea, and then to other countries,” they listened to him as his voice became somewhat dreamy, “And, where ever I’d go, I’d write about it. I’d write about what I saw, people I’d meet, the strange foods I’d eat and the things I’d do,” He took in a careful breath, taking a brown spool of thread from his left, and plucking a needle from the pin cushion, “I’d like to write a book, of my travels, and have people read it and think of how well written it is, so well written that they feel like they were there with me, seeing what I saw, feeling what I felt, telling their friends and family of my name, of what an amazing book I had written to share with the world,” He wove the needle many times into a stiff not, clipping the thread.
Brendon and Jon starred, secretly wishing that he’d go on. When he didn’t, Jon blinked, averting his gaze as Brendon spoke up first.
“You’ve really thought hard on that, haven’t you?”
Ryan stood, turning Jon’s pants right side out, and giving them a shake before he moved to hand them to a smiling Jon, “I have, the days are long here.”
Jon went about tugging his pants on, he looked back over his shoulder, patting at his bum, “Good as new, I really do owe you some time Ryan, thank you.”
Ryan smiled, nodding to the pants, “I double stitched it, they shouldn’t split again, no matter how far you bend down.”
Jon laughed fastening his suspenders, despite his slight embarrassment, “My father isn’t aware I left, but they’re my favorite pair, I couldn’t just leave them torn. But I better go, before he comes looking for me,” He made a face.
Ryan nodded his understanding, “Best be off then.”
Pulling his coat on in front of the door, Jon turned and glanced back at his two friends, “I think an adventure would serve us well, this town is too small for the likes of us,” His hand grasped the door knob, twisted, pushed, and he was gone.
When he had gone, Ryan watched the windows a moment before he moved over to where Brendon was perched. Placing his hands on Brendon’s knees he smiled, not meeting Brendon’s stare, “Wouldn’t it be fun to run away?”
Brendon’s hands moved over Ryan’s, “To someplace where,” Ryan hesitated, but looked up into the dark eyes that watched him, “Somewhere, where we didn’t need to find a shadow to kiss under, or the cover of night to hold each other,” Ryan’s romanticism was getting the best of him.
Brendon’s hands trailed slowly up and down Ryan’s forearms, “That would be ideal,” He said softly.
The bell above the door clattered as the door hit it hard, the two boy’s stomachs jumping as Ryan nearly fell to the floor, making himself look as if he were retrieving something below the counter. Brendon’s eyes shot to the door.
“Brendon, my boy!”
“Mr. Ross,” Brendon laughed nervously, his hand at his stomach as he inhaled slowly.
“Where’s my son at, he didn’t leave you to mind the shop now did he,” Ryan’s father’s voice nearly shook the little shop as he laughed, moving to lean on the counter. He had seen nothing.
“No, I-I’m right here,” Ryan said quickly standing to face his father across the counter.
“What in the world were you doing down there? Napping?” He laughed once again before he lifted a sack onto the counter, “Bring this upstairs for me, I’m going across the street,” He said as he turned, “Lock up after me, son.”
Ryan swallowed, looking to Brendon before following his father to the door, watching him cross the street to the bar as he twisted the lock on the door. He sighed, turning to look again at Brendon.
A moment passed as they stared at each other, then, together their faces cracked into wide smiles and their laughter clashed together, “That,” Ryan began, “Was not easy for my stomach to handle.”
Brendon, shaking his head and laughing, agreed, “I thought I was going to be sick.”
---
It was dark when Brendon decided it was time he should return home, Lincoln had been voicing small neighs outside the shop several times in the past few minutes. His father’s words of being home before dark crossed his mind too, but left just as quickly as they had come. The two boys descended the narrow stairs that connected the shop, to the upper level where Ryan and his father lived. Taking up his coat and hat, Brendon followed Ryan out the back door.
The back ally wasn’t too small, but small enough to hide them from public eye. Dim lights above ever back door made it possible to see, as the two stood before each other.
Ryan’s eyes fell to the ground, “I’m concerned for Jon, Brendon.”
Brendon’s face asked ‘why?’, but he remained silent.
“I know exactly how he feels, and I don’t want him doing anything without thinking before hand,” He looked up to Brendon after a moment, “Does…Does he strike you as,” He paused, shifting slightly, “As something, like us?”
Brendon’s brows lifted, “Like us?”
Ryan’s voice dropped to just above a whisper, “I never hear him speak of girls in the way Spencer does, and the way you attempt to,” Brendon did try his very best when he was around Spencer to agree that a certain girl was attractive, or that her bosom was appealingly large.
Brendon thought a moment on this, as Ryan continued, an air of sadness in his voice, “He probably feels alone, as if there’s no one he can speak to about it. We have each other, Spencer has the many girls he’s always with,” He shrugged lightly, “I just feel like, he’s more like us then we, or even he knows.”
Brendon nodded, but then pointed out, “But if we’re wrong, we face humiliating him, hurting him in some ways, and if we aren’t careful, he could feel betrayed, and speak of our relations to the authorities.”
A sigh escaped Ryan, “That’s possible.”
Brendon’s hands rose to cup Ryan’s unflawed cheeks, “I will take you away,” He smiled, Ryan’s eyes lifting to meet his, “We’ll run away some place where no one will find us, where you can write as vividly as you want, and where we can kiss in the light of day,” He paused, laughing slightly, “And if fate should have it, Jon will be at out side as well.”
Ryan felt his nose tingle as his eyes welled, smiling. The boy before him loved him so very much, when he spoke such things that Ryan wanted desperately to hear, it touched something deep within his being, something that tugged at his emotions. He moved close to Brendon, his arms wrapping around him tightly.
“Soon, I hope.” He breathed, taking in a slow breath to ease his emotions.
From the building opposite them, on the second story, a pair of narrow eyes watched intently, spying on the two. Ryan’s face completely visible, while the other’s…Covered by the rim of his hat. The eyes continued to survey the two below, through a margin in their white curtains.
Ryan pulled away slightly, smiling, “My father is going to be home to maintain the shop tomorrow, will I see you?” His tone was hopeful.
“Of course,” Brendon smiled, with a slow nod, “We’ll meet at noon, at the river tracks.”
Ryan gave a nod, leaning in close, sharing a long, deep kiss with the other. The eyes above them widened, and disappeared, a moment later, they returned, but with another pair, and soon after, two more pairs.
Parting, they made their way to where Brendon’s horse awaited, Lincoln, at the sight of them, tossed his head, and stretched his neck. Brendon smiled, placing a hand to the horse’s nose, turning to look at Ryan, “Until tomorrow then,” He said, placing a foot in one of the saddle’s stirrups, pulling and hoisting himself atop Lincoln.
Ryan nodded, folding his arms over his chest as he watched Brendon trot out of sight. His eyes wandered up the other end of the dark, empty street, his hand rubbing at his collar bone. Something in the air that night had the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.
---
Rain poured down over the small town, it was dawn. To the east, the sun was veiled by a thick mass of gray clouds, however the streets slowly grew brighter. The town should have been just coming to life at this hour, instead, shouts sounded, angry shouts, as people crowded the streets.
The sound of breaking glass awoke Ryan from his sound sleep. He sat up slowly, hearing thumping, and pounding a floor under him, the floor, that was the shop. His brow furrowed, and his breathing grew shallow, and rapid. His eyes shot to his bedroom door as it was barged in. Two men pointed to him, as two officers entered his room, charging at him. One reached out, grabbing him by the hair, a small, strained sound escaped him as he was wrenched from his bed.
“What’s going on?!” His father was heard from the hallway, the two men yelled and blocked him from his son’s room.
Ryan reached his hand out, to grasp at something, anything, that would rescue him. The officer held roughly to his hair, shoving his thin body against his wall.
*** And that is where I stop for now *cackles* I hope you enjoyed part two, part three will be in the making very soon ^^ Thanks for reading, commenties are lovied :D ***