Gift for coffeewordangel (Part 3/3)
MOD NOTE: sorry about the part 2 repost! it's fixed now!
Part 2
"You broke up Ryan and his ex in the middle of a blowjob?" Taylor asked incredulously.
"Taylor!" Chad hissed. Then he looked around to make sure-and yeah, he was paranoid. No one could hear her on this end. But still.
"What? Am I wrong?"
"No, just-do you have to say it like that?"
Her voice was dry and amused, like they both knew he was being an idiot and he just needed to catch up: "Does saying it any other way make it better?"
Chad sighed. "Why do I put myself through this?"
"Might I remind you that you called me?"
"I know, I know. But...you're good with this stuff." Chad waved a hand-as if she could see him...but it was Taylor. She could sense these things.
Taylor scoffed. "What? Normal human relationships? Yeah, unlike some people, I make an effort."
"Oh, my gosh, can we not talk about how much I suck right now?" Chad asked, exasperated. Because, yeah, they'd had that talk. Quite a lot during their relationship.
"Sure. You were telling me how Ryan was acting weird and you pulled his ex off of him in the midst of a blowjob. Gosh, I can't imagine why Ryan was acting weird about that."
"He wasn't acting weird about that part," Chad said, now kind of wanting to kill Taylor. Also not uncommon during their brief relationship.
"I'm listening."
"It's like-look, you know how cool it was that he ended up being my TA and RA and everything."
"You mentioned it a few times," she said, dry as could be.
Chad ignored it and moved along. "Right. So we got to be friends and hung out all the time and I, like, made friends with all his friends and we're all cool."
"Okay..." Like she wasn't seeing the problem.
"But for the last week or so he's been totally bailing on me. He's too busy to do anything, he doesn't have time for our Thursday dinners-which he texted me, didn't even call-and he's just been totally not cool about it all. The blowjob thing was the nicest he's been to me in a week and I was interrupting sex and stuff. What's up with that?"
Taylor was quiet for a couple long moments. Then Chad heard a suspicious sound. A suspicious sound that turned into the very familiar sound of Taylor snickering at him.
"Oh, great. I get laughed at. Thank you so much," Chad muttered, now beyond exasperated and moving quickly toward pissed.
She must have heard it because she quieted. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean it like that. But do you realize how you sound? 'He canceled on me with a text message! Didn't even call!' You're acting like a girl whose crush has spurned her advances."
"Laughing at me and questioning my manhood. Aren't you supposed to stop digging once you're in a hole?"
But Taylor went quiet again, this time that thoughtful silence that reminded him of lazy summer days shooting hoops with Troy-no pressure, just the two of them, asphalt, and the summer breeze. Perfection. He closed his eyes and let it wash over him, that feeling she still inspired in him even after the break-up.
"When did you say Ryan started acting weird?" Taylor suddenly asked.
Chad opened his eyes and frowned at the ceiling. "Uhh, about a week ago. We were all getting together at some tables. But Walker just got back from Argentina and he came and all of the sudden he and Will and Katie were, like, going at it."
"In public?" Taylor sounded vaguely scandalized.
"They started making out in front of us. These people have no sense of private activities, Tay, I'm telling you. Then Katie pulled them away so they could all go have totally hot sex together."
"And the part with Ryan is..."
"He said something weird. It was something about how I could go join them if I wanted. No, wait, how they'd love for me to join them."
Taylor made a noncommittal hmming noise.
"But-even before that there's been stuff that's just weird. Like one day I was late to his class because I was at tea with Katie and it ran long and he got really stuffy and pissy after that. And he got annoyed with Katie when she told Sharpay that he and I slept together."
"You slept with Ryan?" Taylor gasped.
Chad sighed. "No! I crashed at his place and Katie totally went to the bad place with it because that's what she does and then she told Sharpay and she and Ryan, like, share a brain so-"
Taylor interrupted: "Have you noticed, Chad, how a lot of this revolves around Katie?"
"Not...really." Silence from Taylor. "She's one of our friends."
"Yeah, but Ryan starts acting weird when you're out with her, gets annoyed with her for spreading rumors, and he made that comment about you joining them when Katie was making out with the other guys, right?"
"I guess."
A careful pause. "Do you, you know, like her?"
"Katie? No! I mean-" Where to go with this? He didn't really tell Taylor that stuff-talk about awkward-but it's not like there was much to talk about anyway. Hook-ups at his community college with random girls he never saw again didn't count anyway. "I mean she's totally hot and all, but she's also the most insane person ever. And she's slept with all the others and, I dunno, that just seems like it'd be weird."
"Wait, wait. Katie slept with Ryan?"
"Umm, I probably shouldn't have told you that, so you can't tell anyone," Chad said in a rush.
"On my honor," she said immediately. "I thought Ryan was gay."
Chad nodded. "He is."
"So, then..."
"Will and Walker are pretty gay, too, but she seems to be the exception. Which isn't the point because Ryan slept with her a long time ago-like back in high school, you know, the first time."
"Ryan lost his virginity to a girl?" Wow, he'd actually managed to shock Taylor, the girl who knew everything. That was kind of awesome.
Except she only got it half-right. "Well, Will was there, too, so..."
Taylor sucked in a breath.
"Yeah, do you see what I'm dealing with? And can we-stop talking about who Ryan lost it to, please? Which you know nothing about, by the way."
"I can't imagine what you're talking about," she agreed.
"Thank you," he let out with a breath.
"You know, if I thought it was about you and Katie, maybe Ryan does, too," Taylor offered in her throwing-out-ideas voice.
Okay, what? "No idea what you're talking about."
"Go with me on this one. You were late because you were out with Katie, Katie would love you to join their little bacchanalia, Katie talking about your sex life. Has Ryan been distant with Katie, too?"
"She didn't say anything about it. But I mentioned how she's crazy, right? She might not have noticed."
"And now Ryan's distancing himself from you," Taylor mused. Chad just let her work her magic. "Giving you space to be with Katie? No, he got annoyed with her. Giving himself space from you? And then he falls into the ex's arms..."
Chad made an annoyed sound. "More like his mouth."
Taylor hadn't even heard him. "Distance from you, consoling himself with someone else...Chad? Is there any possibility that Ryan likes you?"
"Huh?"
"Think about it. You get close to Katie and he doesn't like it. You have no idea so you wander around with her as you always do and it simply reinforces his belief that you like her. He pulls away from you to protect himself. His ex catches him at a bad time, when he's feeling sorry for himself because you like someone else. Like an affirmation. If you don't like him, well, that's proof that at least someone does."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Chad said bluntly.
He could hear her immediately bristle: "I'm simply extrapolating from what you told-"
"No, no. Not you, Taylor. I mean, if you're right and that's what Ryan's doing then that's just stupid."
"He probably doesn't think so; he thinks he's protecting himself, keeping himself from getting hurt. Classic self-preservation."
"But he doesn't need to protect himself from me," Chad insisted.
Taylor sighed like he wasn't getting something. But he was. "You remember the part where it means Ryan likes you, right? That's why he'd need to protect himself. Instead of Will and Walker making out he wants it to be the two of you." She said it bluntly, like she was about to shock him or something.
"Yeah, thanks, I got that part, Tay. I'm not an idiot."
"I know; I'm just saying that you-hang on. You didn't freak out." A comment, not a question, but she stayed quiet afterwards.
"Why would I?"
"Because you're a small-minded jock who thinks it's icky if another guy wants in your pants."
"Do I really?" Chad asked, his tone light, teasing.
"You...don't?" He knew she wasn't trying to insult him or anything and that knowledge was what kept him from getting pissed off about the whole thing.
"What's up with people underestimating me? You, Ryan, Ryan again now that I think about it." With his question about that picture of Tim. Like he was gonna run screaming down the hall when he learned Ryan once had a boyfriend.
"I...guess we should stop doing that," Taylor said eventually.
"Totally. Give a guy a little credit."
Taylor's wheels were turning, he could hear it.
"What are you thinking?" Chad asked her.
"That if you wanted Ryan back, then you wouldn't think it was icky at all," she said, like fitting together the last pieces of the puzzle and finally seeing the whole picture. She kind of chuckled. "Which would make too much sense."
Wanted Ryan back. The idea wasn't as foreign to him as he would have thought. There was...possibility there.
"I-wouldn't turn him down," he said slowly.
Taylor chuckled again. "You wouldn't kick him out of bed, you mean?"
"Tay!"
"Oh, shush. That's why I'm your best girl."
"You are my best girl," he agreed with a grin.
"Maybe if you weren't in complete gayboy love with Ryan we could have had a chance."
"Taylor!"
"I get to be in the wedding," she continued.
"I will hang up this phone," he said sternly. Because he would.
"Okay, okay. Just be careful, okay? He's already trying to keep himself from getting hurt. Don't go hurting him more."
"Yeah," Chad said, gruff.
"Good." Her voice turned to her tutor lecturing tone. "Now. Onto the important things. I hear you're failing out of a class."
Chad made an appalled sound. "Troy is gonna die. You should run over to MIT and tell Gabi to say her goodbyes 'cause I'm gonna kill him."
"It's not that close to Harvard. And it's cold out there. But there is this wonderful thing called e-mail-"
"Yeah, whatever. E-mail her to say her goodbyes. Freakin' nitpick. You guys live in the same city and you can't meet face-to-face."
"You're a couple train rides away and you haven't come up to visit us, face-to-face," she pointed out.
"Yeah, yeah," he said, mildly guilty because well, she was kinda right on with that one.
"But no avoiding the subject. An ex of mine failing? What would the neighbors think?" she asked, all full of feigned shock.
"Oh, my God, I can't even talk to you."
***
He'd gone ahead and done it. It was the only thing he could think of. Now he'd just have to accept the consequences of making a deal with the devil.
One of those consequences appeared to be getting lost in New York. He might want to pay a bit more attention when Ryan rattled off addresses from now on, but he thought he was headed toward the right street. Maybe.
Thankfully, New Yorkers seemed to have a thing about coming up and directing people who held a map and looked vaguely lost. It was a little weird when those random strangers started arguing with each other about the best way to get anywhere, like they had all the time in the world and this was of utmost importance. But, well, it got him where he was going, so he shrugged and remained grateful.
Getting in was easier than he thought it'd be, but he did hesitate before knocking, just slightly. Still, he sucked it up and rapped his knuckles against the hard wood and he didn't even feel like he was heading toward his execution anymore, so there was that.
"What is such a crisis that you have to bother me?" Sharpay snapped as soon as she opened the apartment door, totally hot in a little minidress thing that showed off way too much leg.
Right. This was worse than heading to your own execution, he just knew it.
Chad blinked and reminded himself to play nice. Ryan's sister, best friend, and confidant. She wasn't going anywhere.
"Ryan wants me," he said.
Sharpay sucked in a sharp breath. Then she sighed and her posture totally relaxed. She even kind of leaned against the open door. "I do know that. He has terrible taste in men." Her eyes flicked over him, including him in that judgment.
But. She had confirmed that Ryan liked him. A surprising rush of feeling swept through him at that, something bright, something that thrilled at the thought.
Sharpay rambled on in her the-world-revolves-around-me kinda way. "I told him that he was being stupid, even if you don't look ridiculous anymore, but Ryan never listens to me when it comes to guys. Which he should," she reiterated.
Chad shook his head at her and forged ahead: "I want him back."
That made her pause. She tilted her head and regarded him again. But he could still see the spark of warmth in her eyes, even if she tried to cover with a coolly raised eyebrow. "And I should care, why?"
"Because he's your brother and you want to see him happy."
She held the door open wider. "I suppose I should let you in." As if she wasn't already doing it, but Chad decided not to point that out. He skirted around her and into the hall.
She shut the door, then turned to look at him. "We need vodka," she decided.
"That is such a good plan," he breathed, somehow relieved.
A touch of a smile appeared and flitted away. She led him to the kitchen where she grabbed two shot glasses and some Grey Goose. She poured each of them one, clinked glasses with him, and downed the first in one go. He followed suit and before the burning had even subsided she was pouring them another.
"He's been so impossible for the last week or so," she said, unprompted.
"I know. He keeps bailing on me."
Sharpay sighed, like this was all too tiresome to be believed. "I suppose you should declare your intentions, since you're here and everything."
"Um, huh?"
Her glass made a sharp sound on the wood when she set it down too hard. "Yes, about that. If you're going to spend time with my brother-and therefore me-please erase those two words from your vocabulary."
Chad smirked. "Sure, I'll get right on that. Right after I cut my hair and take a vow of celibacy."
Her lips curled again and she didn't move to refill their glasses. "Intentions?" she asked again.
"Are you speaking English?" Chad shot back.
"The proper kind. It may be new to you." But she was still smiling. "What was your crisis, anyway?"
Chad twirled his empty glass on the counter. "Ryan won't talk to me. I need him to stop being so stubborn and just sit and listen. You know him best. I thought you'd have an idea."
"I can get him here...but not if you just want to jump him," she said hotly.
Chad rolled his eyes. "If I wanted to do that I could walk down the hall in my dorm," he said obviously.
"Oh, fine. I give you permission to court my brother," she said, airily waving a hand like a royal speaking her will.
"I...never asked for your permission?" Seriously, why were all women crazy?
Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Honestly."
Which meant...what?
She walked a half-circle around him in some kind of perusal, heels clicking precisely on the wooden floor. Then she stopped and planted a hand on her hip. "Were you planning on wearing that?" she asked his shoes.
Chad sighed.
***
True to her word, Sharpay texted something and then vacated the apartment. Chad poked through their bookshelf and he was really a bit tempted to dust off the classic Nintendo console to see a) if it actually worked and b) if the graphics were as crappy as they were rumored to be.
But before he could put deed to thought the apartment door banged open and the sound of shoes pounding on hardwood reached him, coupled with Ryan's voice
"Shar? What's the emergency? I got your-" Rounding the corner, Ryan spotted Chad and quickly pulled up to a stop. "Chad?"
"Hey, Ryan. Sorry about the desperate measures but, uhh, well. I was kinda desperate." Should he be admitting that? Damn, he might want to have, like, planned out the way this conversation should go.
Oh, well. He'd just have to wing it. Not like he was a stranger to that, after all.
"But Shar texted me that-"
"Yeah. I asked her to."
"But-okay, I'm confused."
Chad frowned. "I needed to see you and she said she could make it happen," he explained.
"No, not about that. I'm confused that you and Shar were in the same room, alone, and I didn't come home to a dead body." Ryan glanced off to Sharpay's room. "I'm not gonna find her corpse in the bathtub, right?"
Chad threw the closest thing at hand, which happened to be one of those classic Nintendo games, so he hoped they weren't hideously expensive or anything. Ryan easily sidestepped it and Chad raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Not bad, Evans."
"I told you I got some game." Ryan preened...and then completely ruined it by readjusting his hat.
"Shocking I never noticed before."
Ryan smiled, self-deprecating, then opened his arms and gestured around. "What's going on, Chad? You and Shar plotting is like the sign of the Apocalypse."
Chad sighed wandered over to flop onto the couch. Ryan was polite enough to take that as his cue and he flopped down at the other end.
"Look, I know you've been avoiding me-no don't talk," Chad said as soon as he saw Ryan open his mouth to offer a defense. "Just listen. I know you've been avoiding me and I think I know why-"
"I doubt that," Ryan muttered.
Oh, and that was just-
"I don't want to date or sleep with Katie," Chad said straight up. Ryan blinked, like he had never in his lifetime expected to hear that. Chad was forced to amend the statement, though: "Well, I kind of want to sleep with Katie, but she's hot so that's normal. But I wouldn't ever because she's crazy and I don't do that."
Ryan blinked a couple more times. The silence stretched. "Okay," Ryan said after a beat.
And now the hard part...
"I know that you want me," Chad said, making very sure to maintain eye contact.
Ryan's jaw clenched, like he had to force himself to keep whatever he wanted to say buttoned up.
"And I'm kind of pissed that you've been avoiding me and acting like an ass all because you like me," Chad said, letting a bit of heat creep into that.
Ryan jumped in then, just as fiery. "Oh, what should I have said? 'Hey, Chad, nice acting journals, here's your grade, oh, by the way, wanna fuck?'" Ryan asked.
Chad took a breath and let it out slowly. "I was gonna say, 'but I know that that would have been horribly awkward and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, so I get it. Even if it sucked that you were being an ass.'"
"...oh." Ryan kind of deflated-looking down and slumping back against the couch.
"But if you'd, you know, even floated the idea, I wouldn't have turned you down."
Ryan looked back up in shock. He opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.
Chad rushed to finish before he could interrupt: "But I don't want it to be like Katie with the guys." He waved a hand, hoping that got across how he didn't want to just...be fuck buddies or whatever.
"Me neither," Ryan said.
Chad blinked at him. Did Ryan just agree?
"I can talk now, right?" Ryan asked. Chad nodded. "Good. I don't want that-I mean, like with Katie-either."
"Okay," he said.
"Okay," Ryan said and nodded. And kept nodding.
Right. So. Now what?
But Ryan knew these things, thank God, because before Chad could ask-or even do anything-Ryan's hand shot out, grabbed Chad's shirt, and hauled him close.
And then Ryan was right there and Chad's breathing had gone all to hell, but that was okay because Ryan's had, too, and God, he smelled good. Chad's mind went back to jerking off in Ryan's shower to that exact smell-
"Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to rip this shirt off you?" Ryan asked.
Chad opened his mouth, but Ryan must not have wanted an answer because he covered Chad's mouth with his so instead of talking, there was Ryan's tongue sliding against his, making him groan.
And then it was all heat and Ryan pulling Chad further on top of him while trying to undo the buttons on his shirt and Chad really couldn't think anymore. The buttons weren't cooperating, so Ryan broke away to look at what he was doing.
Only that didn't work for Chad so he flicked off Ryan's hat, grinned at the affronted noise that got, and twined a hand in Ryan's hair so he could pull that mouth back to his.
Hands on his skin made Chad jump, breathing high and thready.
Ryan chuckled and bit at his chin, still working on buttons. "Ever since I held that tape measure up to you, I wanted to peel you right out of the clothes I was putting on you."
Chad shuddered when Ryan plucked at a nipple. He grabbed Ryan's thigh and shifted them some more, trying to get closer. Ryan slid down on the couch and Chad was over him and then something just clicked because he was cradled between Ryan's thighs and with the smallest shift over-
"Oh, God, yes," Ryan hissed. He bucked up against Chad and Chad swore that light sparked behind his eyes.
Chad groaned and moved again, getting the same ecstatic reaction from both of them. He scrabbled at Ryan's shirt, trying to push it up, pull it off, something, anything to get at that skin. He only succeeded in baring his stomach, but that was fine, that was grand, because it was skin he could mouth and lick and nibble and Ryan was already making these sounds and-
And pushing him off the couch.
Chad landed half on the coffee table, lips bruised, hard, with his shirt hanging on by one button. "What?" he gasped.
Ryan pulled off his sweater and hauled Chad up into a heated kiss. "I'm not coming in my pants like some high school kid at Prom," he said into Chad's mouth-hot, desperate, and Chad was well on his way there, too. Only, the coming thing sounded pretty good to him, but Ryan was pushing him back and his mouth was on Chad's and Chad might have lost the will to protest...or do anything except mewl into Ryan's mouth.
They kissed a sloppy trail to Ryan's room, shucking shirts and shoes. Ryan kicked his door shut behind them and scrambled onto the bed after Chad.
"Wait, wait," Chad gasped. "Did you lock the door?" he asked when Ryan didn't wait at all, when he was halfway into Chad's pants.
"Screw it."
The zipper on his pants gave way and Chad groaned, helpless, at the feeling of Ryan's hand slipping into his boxers, gripping around him. But he couldn't-
"Door," he gasped into Ryan's mouth, the haze of lust making thought a little foggy.
Ryan sat up and swung a leg over Chad so he sat straddling his thighs. "We left a trail of clothes from the couch to the door," he said as he leaned over and found Chad's mouth again. "She'll figure it out," he finished against Chad's lips.
But Chad had no idea what he was going on about because that maddening hand was still stroking him, the grip just perfect, perfect like no girl ever understood, and Chad's brain had all liquefied and shot straight to his dick. Sorry, rational thought was good and gone.
Chad gasped when Ryan twisted on the next upstroke. He made a half-desperate sound and reached up to find something to grab onto. Pillows were useless, but the headboard didn't even budge when he gripped and tensed as Ryan sped up.
"So gorgeous," Ryan murmured. "You should see yourself."
"I see you." Eyes half-lidded, forearm working, lips shiny and red. Chad gripped the headboard tighter. Ryan looked like everything fantasy he never knew he wanted to have, playing out right in front of him.
"All stretched out for me," Ryan said, like he could hardly believe it. He leaned over and latched onto Chad's nipple and the heat shot straight through him.
Chad whined, then again when he felt Ryan's other hand playing with his balls.
"Too much," he rasped. Especially if Ryan didn't want this to end like a kid getting off at Prom.
"Tell me what you want," Ryan murmured, licking a path to Chad's other nipple. He bit that one and Chad shivered and bucked and would do pretty much anything to get more more more.
Was he seriously expecting Chad to be, like, coherent? Chad made a negative, pleading noise and hoped that got across how much coherence wasn't gonna happen.
"Ever had a guy suck you off?" Ryan tried. He leaned up and met Chad's eyes, hand gone slower on Chad's dick, the other one playing with his nipple.
And Chad could breathe, just barely, enough to comprehend the question and shake his head.
"Jerk you off?" Ryan asked, illustrating his point with a quick jerk up.
Again, Chad shook his head.
"Anything with a guy at all?"
"No," Chad gasped out. "Just you. Just-God-you." He thrust up, trying to get more, but Ryan's hand pressed his chest down and he made a noise like chiding.
Chad groaned, but subsided, letting the headboard take the brunt of his frustration as Ryan stroked him just hard enough to be mind-numbing, but not hard enough to get him off.
"Then I think we should make it something good," Ryan breathed out. Then he leaned over and they were kissing again. Ryan's tongue dipped lightning fast in and out of Chad's mouth, never really settling. Maddening.
Ryan finally slid his hands away from him and Chad could have sobbed at this exquisite torture, but Ryan had already started tugging at Chad's pants. "Off," he mumbled.
Chad winced as he pried his fingers from the headboard, then shook them out. He tried to be helpful, but feeling and coordination were both shot and his hands just ended up tangled with Ryan's.
Ryan growled, sat back, and started peeling Chad's clothes off on his own. Which was, like, brain-meltingly hot. Especially when Ryan was half-naked, his pants tented with obvious arousal.
Chad shifted and helped as much as he could and then Ryan was gone and Chad was left naked and panting on his bed. Which was so not what he had in mind.
"What-"
But then Ryan was back and it was skin on skin-everywhere, Ryan naked now, too-and it was too good, too much. Chad moaned and tried to thrust up and he'd kill for Ryan's hand again. Hell, anything.
"Patience," Ryan hissed into Chad's mouth.
Chad bit him. Hard.
"Is that what I can do with my patience?" Ryan rasped, only half-paying attention. Chad suddenly got interested in what Ryan was doing that would make him sound like that, his hand out of sight behind him and-
A hand again wrapped around his dick and Chad moaned as his eyes fluttered shut, none of it in his control. His body was molten-sex had never been like this-and trembling at anything Ryan did. He was at Ryan's mercy and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Then Ryan took his hand away again and Chad found the voice to protest. "Ryan-" he gasped, pleaded, something.
"Hang on, hang on," Ryan muttered, not sounding like he was in great shape, either.
Then Ryan was slipping a condom on Chad, following with something slick, and Chad's mind blanked out at the implication, at the sight of Ryan shifting forward, levering himself up, at the feeling as he pushed himself back down, onto Chad's dick, hotter and tighter than anything he'd ever known.
Chad's hands settled on Ryan's hips instinctively and he could feel Ryan's muscles flex, the tiny movements of his body. Ryan circled his hips a couple times and Chad's brain promptly imploded.
He moaned and Ryan panted and paused, acclimating himself, then sank down a little more. It took forever and no time at all and then Ryan stilled because there was no further to go.
"Oh, my God," Chad said, clear on that thought at least. Which was something, what with Ryan like a vise around him, with the fire racing down his spine when Ryan wasn't even moving.
Ryan chuckled, a bit strained. "Ready for more?" he asked.
Chad's hands squeezed on his hips. "Gonna kill me."
"Mmm, but what a way to go," Ryan rasped. With that he pushed himself upwards and then sank back down, shocking a gasp out of Chad. Then he did it again and again, faster, harder, his own hand working over his dick in time to his thrusts.
Chad moaned and held on and tried not to come as Ryan rode him, whispering the dirtiest, filthiest things-all the things he wanted to do to Chad-interspersed with moans and grunts and pleads for more.
Chad's fingers flexed and on Ryan's next press down, he pushed up and Ryan sobbed out a broken "please."
Ryan's hand jerked himself off faster, his hips tilted, mouth letting out a steady stream of "yes" and "more" and Chad obliged, thrusting up into him and pulling Ryan's hips down and Ryan's cries got more frantic and Chad felt like a god.
Chad was gonna come any millisecond, but it was fine because Ryan was gone, practically abusing his dick and not even forming whole words anymore. And like that Ryan arched, threw his head back, and made a loud, helpless sound that had Chad coming before he even felt Ryan's body clamp around him.
Chad's whole body shook as the world went white and hot, pleasure searing into him like nothing else ever, beyond his comprehension or control, and all Chad could do was ride with it and hope he never had to come down.
And then he did, breathing harsh and loud to match Ryan's, both of them fucked-out and boneless.
"Oh, my God," Chad said again because it kinda needed to be reiterated.
Ryan grunted an agreement, sweaty and exhausted and Chad was still inside him, residual spasms around his dick just over the line of too much. He made a soft noise and Ryan seemed to understand because he slowly pushed himself up, Chad's dick sliding out by inches, until they were completely separated-bizarre, that-and Ryan could slump to Chad's side.
Tiredly Chad took care of the condom and Ryan disappeared for what felt like a mere instant, but then he was back and pushing down covers. Chad crawled in after him, curled himself around Ryan's body, and was promptly out.
***
Sometime later, Chad roused himself from the world's greatest catnap ever, breathed in, and wow, did it ever smell like sex in here. He and Ryan and tons and tons of sex.
That was kind of awesome.
"You have the most ridiculous grin on your face," Ryan murmured, close and warm and comfortable. His chest rubbed against Chad's arm every time he breathed in.
"Yeah?"
"Mmm-hmm. I believe the technical term is 'shit-eating,'" Ryan said.
"Damn right." He propped himself up on one arm, then leaned over and brushed a kiss across Ryan's mouth.
Ryan's eyes stayed closed for a while after Chad pulled back. When he opened them they were sparkling and tired and satisfied; Chad had never known he wanted to see that look there and now that he had it filled some warm place inside.
"You look pretty pleased, yourself," Chad said.
Ryan smiled and turned to face him. The sheet slid down a bit more and faint purplish coloring caught Chad's attention. He peered closer...and then realized what they were.
Chad brushed his fingers ever so lightly across the bruises already shadowing Ryan's hips. "Sorry," he murmured.
"Mmm, don't be." Chad wasn't convinced, but Ryan didn't seem concerned. He stretched like some kind of sleek cat, cracked his toes, and snuggled up to Chad some more. "This was basically my fantasy come to life, you know."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yup. You showing up at my place looking all lickable and then jumping me. Stuff fantasies are made of."
"Hey, hey. I think we need to be clear on just who jumped who here," Chad reminded.
"Yeah, that might've been me." Ryan didn't sound at all remorseful.
"That's what I thought. Thankfully Sharpay gave me permission...'cause I don't know what I would have done without that," Chad said.
Ryan stilled and raised his head. "You asked my sister for permission to jump me?"
"Not at all. But she thought I was-actually, she used the word 'courting'-and she, like, wanted me to declare my intentions or something."
"Did you?" he asked and propped his head up with his hand.
"Not that I know of? Your sister, man..."
"I know, I know: bride of Lucifer," Ryan said dutifully.
"No, that's what I'm saying. She's not evil; she's just completely nuts. I got the two mixed up...which is totally understandable and not my fault, of course."
Ryan was grinning again. "Of course."
"What?" Chad asked, suspicious of the grinning.
"You and Shar bonded," Ryan happily informed him.
"No, we didn't."
Ryan nodded at him. "That's bonding to Shar."
"Maybe in her psycho alternate universe where people wear pink fairy wings and have sex on tables."
Ryan rolled closer and started nibbling on his shoulder. "Mmm, you shouldn't count the table out. Could be fun," he breathed against Chad's skin.
Chad tilted his head and gave Ryan access to his neck. "Okay, maybe you have a point there." Ryan bit his ear, Chad yelped, and then promptly rolled them over. He'd think on that later; right now he had more pressing matters.
***
It took a couple days to figure out how to, like, leave Ryan's apartment, but Katie's text messages had gotten practically lucid with her pissed-offness, so Chad pulled himself together enough to meet her for breakfast at Nougatine. The fact that she had threatened to geld him if he bailed didn't have anything to do with the decision, though.
Her hair had streaks of red and orange now, that was his first thought when he spotted her sitting at a little table by the window. The morning light made everything look clean and fresh. Or maybe it was the bright, white walls. Something. He instantly liked the place.
Katie caught his eye, took a beat...and smirked. "Now can I say you had sex with Ryan?" she asked as he approached, then stood and pecked him on the cheek in greeting.
Chad chuckled and took his seat. "Not to Sharpay. Believe me; she knows."
Katie shook her head and motioned for their waiter to bring coffee. "It's about time. Silly boys."
"Wait. You knew that Ryan wanted me?"
"Duh."
"And you didn't tell me?" Chad asked, askance.
"I tried to. Some silly boy kept saying he didn't know what I was talking about."
"Because I didn't!"
"That's what happens when I try to tell you," she said simply. Okay this conversation was going in circles. And the waiter had arrived with coffee-thank God-so Chad paused and nodded to him in thanks.
Katie intently studied the menu, so Chad looked at his, too. Ooh, they had Eggs Benedict.
"Besides, I told Ryan to jump on you from the start, but did he listen to me? Noooo," she said. Then she tossed her menu aside like it had outlasted its usefulness to her.
"From the start?" Chad parroted.
"He just had to go through the whole drama of switching classes-"
"Wait, classes?"
"And Professor Holloway frowned at me! I had to act like I was spacey and flighty and I couldn't even use an artistic reason to switch. He should have just jumped on you," she said, exasperated.
And then it all kind of clicked.
"You were supposed to be my TA," he breathed.
Katie grinned, kinda maniacal, and tugged on an orange-streaked twirl of hair. "Wouldn't that have been fabulous?" She sighed. "The things I do for my boys."
Chad had kind of dropped the menu as the thoughts were rapidly processing in his brain and then their waiter appeared.
"I want waffles," Katie informed him. And then with grave seriousness-which Chad hadn't ever seen on her before-"And, very important, whipped cream. Lots and lots and lots. Umm, you should write it like that, too. The chef will understand."
The waiter scribbled dutifully and turned to Chad.
Chad was still kind of boggling.
"He wants Eggs Benedict. And muffins! We need muffins," she decided.
The waiter kind of ran away then, not that Chad blamed him or anything. Katie hummed and fixed herself a way-too-sweet cup of coffee. Then she threw a sugar packet at him to get his attention.
"I did want Eggs Benedict," Chad said idly, all he had for her.
Katie grinned and bounced a little in her seat. "I know! You know what? You really want to let me take pretty, pretty pictures of you," she declared. Then she launched into some kind of crack-addled description of her picture-taking project and Chad just kinda sat there dumbly.
Because dude.
***
Katie had something vague and faintly-illegal-sounding to do, so they parted outside of Trump Tower-International and Hotel as opposed to the World Tower...or any of the other fifty buildings he'd slapped his name on.
Something had been nagging Chad, so he pulled out his cell and found Will's number.
"What," grumbled a voice, groggy, and definitely not Will.
"Walker, lemme talk to Will."
"'s fuckin' early, man," Walker complained.
"It's eleven o'clock. Just roll over and hand him the phone," Chad said, annoyed.
"Your funeral," he muttered. Then there were shuffling sounds and low talking and something he probably didn't want to contemplate...
Thankfully, Will came on then. "Someone better be dead," he growled, all sex-drenched and raspy.
"Wakey, wakey," Chad said, channeling his internal Troy.
Will made a whiney, incoherent noise.
"Look, I need you to focus," Chad said more seriously.
"Stop trying to suck my dick. Chad needs me to focus," Will said loudly...and Chad assumed that was not to him.
Walker replied something not very complimentary and Will snorted, but Chad wasn't focusing on that right now.
"When we first met that night in the residence hall-" Chad continued.
"Yeah, Ryan called you merchandise. What about it?"
"You said something about Ryan making himself my RA. What'd you mean by that?"
Will chuckled. "You finally catch on and it only took a couple months," Will said, clearly amused.
"Dude," Chad threatened.
"Yeah, yeah. I know; you're a badass jock who can beat me up. I meant it as a joke. You know, about how Ryan figured out which hall you were in and pestered that RA to switch with him."
Chad made a frustrated noise. "Why doesn't anyone tell me this crap?"
"Not my fault you weren't paying attention," Will shot back, finally awake. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have...things to attend to."
"Yeah, yeah, I hope he chokes on it."
"Aww. I'm gonna tell him you said that, you big meanie."
"Be my guest. In fact-" But Will had already hung up on him. And he needed to go see Ryan now anyway.
***
Chad walked into the kitchen area, put his hands on his hips, and said: "You got yourself assigned to be my RA and TA."
Sharpay snorted into her coffee. "Told you so," she said to Ryan.
Ryan rolled his eyes. "Very helpful, Shar, thanks."
"The lesson we should learn from this? Sharpay is always right." She seemed pleased at that thought and smiled a little.
"Hello? Still standing here," Chad reminded.
"And that's my cue," Sharpay said. She stood, with her coffee and paper, and breezed over to her room. "Play nice, boys." Then her door shut and Chad waited for Ryan to acknowledge him.
And waited some more.
"Dude," Chad said.
"How was breakfast?" Ryan asked instead.
"Awesome. Why didn't you say anything?"
"I should take you to Jean-Georges sometime. It's even more amazing."
"Ryan," Chad said, serious, not letting himself get distracted by food-and, by the way, it was sneaky and wrong of Ryan to tease like that.
Ryan kind of half-shrugged. "I may have come across some information about your residence hall and classes and it's possible I suggested that I take over for those."
"And that day Zeke and I bumped into you at NYU?" Chad asked.
"Total coincidence." He grinned. "But a good one. Look, it wasn't something weird. I just wanted to see if maybe we could hang out. New York is huge; it's easy to get lost." He drummed his fingers on the kitchen table. Worried, probably.
Chad nodded. And nodded some more. "You could have just jumped me," he said finally.
Ryan laughed. "Oh, believe me, Shar suggested it. She said you'd never believe it was all pure happenstance. My way was more subtle, though."
"Too subtle, dude. I had to have Taylor figure it out." He inched closer to where Ryan sat, wanting to get hands on skin.
Ryan laughed, lilting and light. "I'll have to send her flowers." He took a breath and his smile dimmed just a shade. Something vulnerable glinted in his eyes. "You're okay with it, right? I mean, that I maneuvered myself into being your RA and TA and all that."
Chad smirked. "That's how hot I am: I turn normal people into obsessed stalkers."
"Hey! I was not-"
"Dude, you so were." Chad grinned some more and Ryan grinned slowly back and really, it was kind of awesome that Ryan wanted him that much, enough to rearrange his life. It made something warm in the pit of his stomach.
"Okay, maybe I got a little...focused," Ryan relented. He almost looked relieved.
Chad closed the distance between them and leaned into Ryan. He tilted his face up and their lips met, clung. Chad pulled back, just a breath, and smirked again. "And just so we're clear, I'm okay with any way you want to maneuver yourself," he murmured. He kissed Ryan again, even as Ryan smiled.
"Race you to the bedroom," Ryan muttered when they broke away.
Chad bounced on his toes. "Oh, it's on now. I expect you to bring it, drama boy."
Ryan hmmed and stood for a kiss, licking into Chad's mouth again. One arm went around Chad's shoulders, the other between them, Ryan's hand cupping him through his pants. "One thing you should know," Ryan panted into his mouth. Then he squeezed and Chad groaned and now he was a little breathless himself. "I cheat."
And Ryan was off, leaving Chad stunned still until it clicked in his head and he started after him. Yeah, he could handle that.
***
Fin.
Comments, concrit, favorite lines...all are welcome and appreciated.
Part 2
"You broke up Ryan and his ex in the middle of a blowjob?" Taylor asked incredulously.
"Taylor!" Chad hissed. Then he looked around to make sure-and yeah, he was paranoid. No one could hear her on this end. But still.
"What? Am I wrong?"
"No, just-do you have to say it like that?"
Her voice was dry and amused, like they both knew he was being an idiot and he just needed to catch up: "Does saying it any other way make it better?"
Chad sighed. "Why do I put myself through this?"
"Might I remind you that you called me?"
"I know, I know. But...you're good with this stuff." Chad waved a hand-as if she could see him...but it was Taylor. She could sense these things.
Taylor scoffed. "What? Normal human relationships? Yeah, unlike some people, I make an effort."
"Oh, my gosh, can we not talk about how much I suck right now?" Chad asked, exasperated. Because, yeah, they'd had that talk. Quite a lot during their relationship.
"Sure. You were telling me how Ryan was acting weird and you pulled his ex off of him in the midst of a blowjob. Gosh, I can't imagine why Ryan was acting weird about that."
"He wasn't acting weird about that part," Chad said, now kind of wanting to kill Taylor. Also not uncommon during their brief relationship.
"I'm listening."
"It's like-look, you know how cool it was that he ended up being my TA and RA and everything."
"You mentioned it a few times," she said, dry as could be.
Chad ignored it and moved along. "Right. So we got to be friends and hung out all the time and I, like, made friends with all his friends and we're all cool."
"Okay..." Like she wasn't seeing the problem.
"But for the last week or so he's been totally bailing on me. He's too busy to do anything, he doesn't have time for our Thursday dinners-which he texted me, didn't even call-and he's just been totally not cool about it all. The blowjob thing was the nicest he's been to me in a week and I was interrupting sex and stuff. What's up with that?"
Taylor was quiet for a couple long moments. Then Chad heard a suspicious sound. A suspicious sound that turned into the very familiar sound of Taylor snickering at him.
"Oh, great. I get laughed at. Thank you so much," Chad muttered, now beyond exasperated and moving quickly toward pissed.
She must have heard it because she quieted. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean it like that. But do you realize how you sound? 'He canceled on me with a text message! Didn't even call!' You're acting like a girl whose crush has spurned her advances."
"Laughing at me and questioning my manhood. Aren't you supposed to stop digging once you're in a hole?"
But Taylor went quiet again, this time that thoughtful silence that reminded him of lazy summer days shooting hoops with Troy-no pressure, just the two of them, asphalt, and the summer breeze. Perfection. He closed his eyes and let it wash over him, that feeling she still inspired in him even after the break-up.
"When did you say Ryan started acting weird?" Taylor suddenly asked.
Chad opened his eyes and frowned at the ceiling. "Uhh, about a week ago. We were all getting together at some tables. But Walker just got back from Argentina and he came and all of the sudden he and Will and Katie were, like, going at it."
"In public?" Taylor sounded vaguely scandalized.
"They started making out in front of us. These people have no sense of private activities, Tay, I'm telling you. Then Katie pulled them away so they could all go have totally hot sex together."
"And the part with Ryan is..."
"He said something weird. It was something about how I could go join them if I wanted. No, wait, how they'd love for me to join them."
Taylor made a noncommittal hmming noise.
"But-even before that there's been stuff that's just weird. Like one day I was late to his class because I was at tea with Katie and it ran long and he got really stuffy and pissy after that. And he got annoyed with Katie when she told Sharpay that he and I slept together."
"You slept with Ryan?" Taylor gasped.
Chad sighed. "No! I crashed at his place and Katie totally went to the bad place with it because that's what she does and then she told Sharpay and she and Ryan, like, share a brain so-"
Taylor interrupted: "Have you noticed, Chad, how a lot of this revolves around Katie?"
"Not...really." Silence from Taylor. "She's one of our friends."
"Yeah, but Ryan starts acting weird when you're out with her, gets annoyed with her for spreading rumors, and he made that comment about you joining them when Katie was making out with the other guys, right?"
"I guess."
A careful pause. "Do you, you know, like her?"
"Katie? No! I mean-" Where to go with this? He didn't really tell Taylor that stuff-talk about awkward-but it's not like there was much to talk about anyway. Hook-ups at his community college with random girls he never saw again didn't count anyway. "I mean she's totally hot and all, but she's also the most insane person ever. And she's slept with all the others and, I dunno, that just seems like it'd be weird."
"Wait, wait. Katie slept with Ryan?"
"Umm, I probably shouldn't have told you that, so you can't tell anyone," Chad said in a rush.
"On my honor," she said immediately. "I thought Ryan was gay."
Chad nodded. "He is."
"So, then..."
"Will and Walker are pretty gay, too, but she seems to be the exception. Which isn't the point because Ryan slept with her a long time ago-like back in high school, you know, the first time."
"Ryan lost his virginity to a girl?" Wow, he'd actually managed to shock Taylor, the girl who knew everything. That was kind of awesome.
Except she only got it half-right. "Well, Will was there, too, so..."
Taylor sucked in a breath.
"Yeah, do you see what I'm dealing with? And can we-stop talking about who Ryan lost it to, please? Which you know nothing about, by the way."
"I can't imagine what you're talking about," she agreed.
"Thank you," he let out with a breath.
"You know, if I thought it was about you and Katie, maybe Ryan does, too," Taylor offered in her throwing-out-ideas voice.
Okay, what? "No idea what you're talking about."
"Go with me on this one. You were late because you were out with Katie, Katie would love you to join their little bacchanalia, Katie talking about your sex life. Has Ryan been distant with Katie, too?"
"She didn't say anything about it. But I mentioned how she's crazy, right? She might not have noticed."
"And now Ryan's distancing himself from you," Taylor mused. Chad just let her work her magic. "Giving you space to be with Katie? No, he got annoyed with her. Giving himself space from you? And then he falls into the ex's arms..."
Chad made an annoyed sound. "More like his mouth."
Taylor hadn't even heard him. "Distance from you, consoling himself with someone else...Chad? Is there any possibility that Ryan likes you?"
"Huh?"
"Think about it. You get close to Katie and he doesn't like it. You have no idea so you wander around with her as you always do and it simply reinforces his belief that you like her. He pulls away from you to protect himself. His ex catches him at a bad time, when he's feeling sorry for himself because you like someone else. Like an affirmation. If you don't like him, well, that's proof that at least someone does."
"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard," Chad said bluntly.
He could hear her immediately bristle: "I'm simply extrapolating from what you told-"
"No, no. Not you, Taylor. I mean, if you're right and that's what Ryan's doing then that's just stupid."
"He probably doesn't think so; he thinks he's protecting himself, keeping himself from getting hurt. Classic self-preservation."
"But he doesn't need to protect himself from me," Chad insisted.
Taylor sighed like he wasn't getting something. But he was. "You remember the part where it means Ryan likes you, right? That's why he'd need to protect himself. Instead of Will and Walker making out he wants it to be the two of you." She said it bluntly, like she was about to shock him or something.
"Yeah, thanks, I got that part, Tay. I'm not an idiot."
"I know; I'm just saying that you-hang on. You didn't freak out." A comment, not a question, but she stayed quiet afterwards.
"Why would I?"
"Because you're a small-minded jock who thinks it's icky if another guy wants in your pants."
"Do I really?" Chad asked, his tone light, teasing.
"You...don't?" He knew she wasn't trying to insult him or anything and that knowledge was what kept him from getting pissed off about the whole thing.
"What's up with people underestimating me? You, Ryan, Ryan again now that I think about it." With his question about that picture of Tim. Like he was gonna run screaming down the hall when he learned Ryan once had a boyfriend.
"I...guess we should stop doing that," Taylor said eventually.
"Totally. Give a guy a little credit."
Taylor's wheels were turning, he could hear it.
"What are you thinking?" Chad asked her.
"That if you wanted Ryan back, then you wouldn't think it was icky at all," she said, like fitting together the last pieces of the puzzle and finally seeing the whole picture. She kind of chuckled. "Which would make too much sense."
Wanted Ryan back. The idea wasn't as foreign to him as he would have thought. There was...possibility there.
"I-wouldn't turn him down," he said slowly.
Taylor chuckled again. "You wouldn't kick him out of bed, you mean?"
"Tay!"
"Oh, shush. That's why I'm your best girl."
"You are my best girl," he agreed with a grin.
"Maybe if you weren't in complete gayboy love with Ryan we could have had a chance."
"Taylor!"
"I get to be in the wedding," she continued.
"I will hang up this phone," he said sternly. Because he would.
"Okay, okay. Just be careful, okay? He's already trying to keep himself from getting hurt. Don't go hurting him more."
"Yeah," Chad said, gruff.
"Good." Her voice turned to her tutor lecturing tone. "Now. Onto the important things. I hear you're failing out of a class."
Chad made an appalled sound. "Troy is gonna die. You should run over to MIT and tell Gabi to say her goodbyes 'cause I'm gonna kill him."
"It's not that close to Harvard. And it's cold out there. But there is this wonderful thing called e-mail-"
"Yeah, whatever. E-mail her to say her goodbyes. Freakin' nitpick. You guys live in the same city and you can't meet face-to-face."
"You're a couple train rides away and you haven't come up to visit us, face-to-face," she pointed out.
"Yeah, yeah," he said, mildly guilty because well, she was kinda right on with that one.
"But no avoiding the subject. An ex of mine failing? What would the neighbors think?" she asked, all full of feigned shock.
"Oh, my God, I can't even talk to you."
***
He'd gone ahead and done it. It was the only thing he could think of. Now he'd just have to accept the consequences of making a deal with the devil.
One of those consequences appeared to be getting lost in New York. He might want to pay a bit more attention when Ryan rattled off addresses from now on, but he thought he was headed toward the right street. Maybe.
Thankfully, New Yorkers seemed to have a thing about coming up and directing people who held a map and looked vaguely lost. It was a little weird when those random strangers started arguing with each other about the best way to get anywhere, like they had all the time in the world and this was of utmost importance. But, well, it got him where he was going, so he shrugged and remained grateful.
Getting in was easier than he thought it'd be, but he did hesitate before knocking, just slightly. Still, he sucked it up and rapped his knuckles against the hard wood and he didn't even feel like he was heading toward his execution anymore, so there was that.
"What is such a crisis that you have to bother me?" Sharpay snapped as soon as she opened the apartment door, totally hot in a little minidress thing that showed off way too much leg.
Right. This was worse than heading to your own execution, he just knew it.
Chad blinked and reminded himself to play nice. Ryan's sister, best friend, and confidant. She wasn't going anywhere.
"Ryan wants me," he said.
Sharpay sucked in a sharp breath. Then she sighed and her posture totally relaxed. She even kind of leaned against the open door. "I do know that. He has terrible taste in men." Her eyes flicked over him, including him in that judgment.
But. She had confirmed that Ryan liked him. A surprising rush of feeling swept through him at that, something bright, something that thrilled at the thought.
Sharpay rambled on in her the-world-revolves-around-me kinda way. "I told him that he was being stupid, even if you don't look ridiculous anymore, but Ryan never listens to me when it comes to guys. Which he should," she reiterated.
Chad shook his head at her and forged ahead: "I want him back."
That made her pause. She tilted her head and regarded him again. But he could still see the spark of warmth in her eyes, even if she tried to cover with a coolly raised eyebrow. "And I should care, why?"
"Because he's your brother and you want to see him happy."
She held the door open wider. "I suppose I should let you in." As if she wasn't already doing it, but Chad decided not to point that out. He skirted around her and into the hall.
She shut the door, then turned to look at him. "We need vodka," she decided.
"That is such a good plan," he breathed, somehow relieved.
A touch of a smile appeared and flitted away. She led him to the kitchen where she grabbed two shot glasses and some Grey Goose. She poured each of them one, clinked glasses with him, and downed the first in one go. He followed suit and before the burning had even subsided she was pouring them another.
"He's been so impossible for the last week or so," she said, unprompted.
"I know. He keeps bailing on me."
Sharpay sighed, like this was all too tiresome to be believed. "I suppose you should declare your intentions, since you're here and everything."
"Um, huh?"
Her glass made a sharp sound on the wood when she set it down too hard. "Yes, about that. If you're going to spend time with my brother-and therefore me-please erase those two words from your vocabulary."
Chad smirked. "Sure, I'll get right on that. Right after I cut my hair and take a vow of celibacy."
Her lips curled again and she didn't move to refill their glasses. "Intentions?" she asked again.
"Are you speaking English?" Chad shot back.
"The proper kind. It may be new to you." But she was still smiling. "What was your crisis, anyway?"
Chad twirled his empty glass on the counter. "Ryan won't talk to me. I need him to stop being so stubborn and just sit and listen. You know him best. I thought you'd have an idea."
"I can get him here...but not if you just want to jump him," she said hotly.
Chad rolled his eyes. "If I wanted to do that I could walk down the hall in my dorm," he said obviously.
"Oh, fine. I give you permission to court my brother," she said, airily waving a hand like a royal speaking her will.
"I...never asked for your permission?" Seriously, why were all women crazy?
Sharpay rolled her eyes. "Honestly."
Which meant...what?
She walked a half-circle around him in some kind of perusal, heels clicking precisely on the wooden floor. Then she stopped and planted a hand on her hip. "Were you planning on wearing that?" she asked his shoes.
Chad sighed.
***
True to her word, Sharpay texted something and then vacated the apartment. Chad poked through their bookshelf and he was really a bit tempted to dust off the classic Nintendo console to see a) if it actually worked and b) if the graphics were as crappy as they were rumored to be.
But before he could put deed to thought the apartment door banged open and the sound of shoes pounding on hardwood reached him, coupled with Ryan's voice
"Shar? What's the emergency? I got your-" Rounding the corner, Ryan spotted Chad and quickly pulled up to a stop. "Chad?"
"Hey, Ryan. Sorry about the desperate measures but, uhh, well. I was kinda desperate." Should he be admitting that? Damn, he might want to have, like, planned out the way this conversation should go.
Oh, well. He'd just have to wing it. Not like he was a stranger to that, after all.
"But Shar texted me that-"
"Yeah. I asked her to."
"But-okay, I'm confused."
Chad frowned. "I needed to see you and she said she could make it happen," he explained.
"No, not about that. I'm confused that you and Shar were in the same room, alone, and I didn't come home to a dead body." Ryan glanced off to Sharpay's room. "I'm not gonna find her corpse in the bathtub, right?"
Chad threw the closest thing at hand, which happened to be one of those classic Nintendo games, so he hoped they weren't hideously expensive or anything. Ryan easily sidestepped it and Chad raised his eyebrows, impressed. "Not bad, Evans."
"I told you I got some game." Ryan preened...and then completely ruined it by readjusting his hat.
"Shocking I never noticed before."
Ryan smiled, self-deprecating, then opened his arms and gestured around. "What's going on, Chad? You and Shar plotting is like the sign of the Apocalypse."
Chad sighed wandered over to flop onto the couch. Ryan was polite enough to take that as his cue and he flopped down at the other end.
"Look, I know you've been avoiding me-no don't talk," Chad said as soon as he saw Ryan open his mouth to offer a defense. "Just listen. I know you've been avoiding me and I think I know why-"
"I doubt that," Ryan muttered.
Oh, and that was just-
"I don't want to date or sleep with Katie," Chad said straight up. Ryan blinked, like he had never in his lifetime expected to hear that. Chad was forced to amend the statement, though: "Well, I kind of want to sleep with Katie, but she's hot so that's normal. But I wouldn't ever because she's crazy and I don't do that."
Ryan blinked a couple more times. The silence stretched. "Okay," Ryan said after a beat.
And now the hard part...
"I know that you want me," Chad said, making very sure to maintain eye contact.
Ryan's jaw clenched, like he had to force himself to keep whatever he wanted to say buttoned up.
"And I'm kind of pissed that you've been avoiding me and acting like an ass all because you like me," Chad said, letting a bit of heat creep into that.
Ryan jumped in then, just as fiery. "Oh, what should I have said? 'Hey, Chad, nice acting journals, here's your grade, oh, by the way, wanna fuck?'" Ryan asked.
Chad took a breath and let it out slowly. "I was gonna say, 'but I know that that would have been horribly awkward and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy, so I get it. Even if it sucked that you were being an ass.'"
"...oh." Ryan kind of deflated-looking down and slumping back against the couch.
"But if you'd, you know, even floated the idea, I wouldn't have turned you down."
Ryan looked back up in shock. He opened his mouth, but didn't say anything.
Chad rushed to finish before he could interrupt: "But I don't want it to be like Katie with the guys." He waved a hand, hoping that got across how he didn't want to just...be fuck buddies or whatever.
"Me neither," Ryan said.
Chad blinked at him. Did Ryan just agree?
"I can talk now, right?" Ryan asked. Chad nodded. "Good. I don't want that-I mean, like with Katie-either."
"Okay," he said.
"Okay," Ryan said and nodded. And kept nodding.
Right. So. Now what?
But Ryan knew these things, thank God, because before Chad could ask-or even do anything-Ryan's hand shot out, grabbed Chad's shirt, and hauled him close.
And then Ryan was right there and Chad's breathing had gone all to hell, but that was okay because Ryan's had, too, and God, he smelled good. Chad's mind went back to jerking off in Ryan's shower to that exact smell-
"Do you have any idea how long I've wanted to rip this shirt off you?" Ryan asked.
Chad opened his mouth, but Ryan must not have wanted an answer because he covered Chad's mouth with his so instead of talking, there was Ryan's tongue sliding against his, making him groan.
And then it was all heat and Ryan pulling Chad further on top of him while trying to undo the buttons on his shirt and Chad really couldn't think anymore. The buttons weren't cooperating, so Ryan broke away to look at what he was doing.
Only that didn't work for Chad so he flicked off Ryan's hat, grinned at the affronted noise that got, and twined a hand in Ryan's hair so he could pull that mouth back to his.
Hands on his skin made Chad jump, breathing high and thready.
Ryan chuckled and bit at his chin, still working on buttons. "Ever since I held that tape measure up to you, I wanted to peel you right out of the clothes I was putting on you."
Chad shuddered when Ryan plucked at a nipple. He grabbed Ryan's thigh and shifted them some more, trying to get closer. Ryan slid down on the couch and Chad was over him and then something just clicked because he was cradled between Ryan's thighs and with the smallest shift over-
"Oh, God, yes," Ryan hissed. He bucked up against Chad and Chad swore that light sparked behind his eyes.
Chad groaned and moved again, getting the same ecstatic reaction from both of them. He scrabbled at Ryan's shirt, trying to push it up, pull it off, something, anything to get at that skin. He only succeeded in baring his stomach, but that was fine, that was grand, because it was skin he could mouth and lick and nibble and Ryan was already making these sounds and-
And pushing him off the couch.
Chad landed half on the coffee table, lips bruised, hard, with his shirt hanging on by one button. "What?" he gasped.
Ryan pulled off his sweater and hauled Chad up into a heated kiss. "I'm not coming in my pants like some high school kid at Prom," he said into Chad's mouth-hot, desperate, and Chad was well on his way there, too. Only, the coming thing sounded pretty good to him, but Ryan was pushing him back and his mouth was on Chad's and Chad might have lost the will to protest...or do anything except mewl into Ryan's mouth.
They kissed a sloppy trail to Ryan's room, shucking shirts and shoes. Ryan kicked his door shut behind them and scrambled onto the bed after Chad.
"Wait, wait," Chad gasped. "Did you lock the door?" he asked when Ryan didn't wait at all, when he was halfway into Chad's pants.
"Screw it."
The zipper on his pants gave way and Chad groaned, helpless, at the feeling of Ryan's hand slipping into his boxers, gripping around him. But he couldn't-
"Door," he gasped into Ryan's mouth, the haze of lust making thought a little foggy.
Ryan sat up and swung a leg over Chad so he sat straddling his thighs. "We left a trail of clothes from the couch to the door," he said as he leaned over and found Chad's mouth again. "She'll figure it out," he finished against Chad's lips.
But Chad had no idea what he was going on about because that maddening hand was still stroking him, the grip just perfect, perfect like no girl ever understood, and Chad's brain had all liquefied and shot straight to his dick. Sorry, rational thought was good and gone.
Chad gasped when Ryan twisted on the next upstroke. He made a half-desperate sound and reached up to find something to grab onto. Pillows were useless, but the headboard didn't even budge when he gripped and tensed as Ryan sped up.
"So gorgeous," Ryan murmured. "You should see yourself."
"I see you." Eyes half-lidded, forearm working, lips shiny and red. Chad gripped the headboard tighter. Ryan looked like everything fantasy he never knew he wanted to have, playing out right in front of him.
"All stretched out for me," Ryan said, like he could hardly believe it. He leaned over and latched onto Chad's nipple and the heat shot straight through him.
Chad whined, then again when he felt Ryan's other hand playing with his balls.
"Too much," he rasped. Especially if Ryan didn't want this to end like a kid getting off at Prom.
"Tell me what you want," Ryan murmured, licking a path to Chad's other nipple. He bit that one and Chad shivered and bucked and would do pretty much anything to get more more more.
Was he seriously expecting Chad to be, like, coherent? Chad made a negative, pleading noise and hoped that got across how much coherence wasn't gonna happen.
"Ever had a guy suck you off?" Ryan tried. He leaned up and met Chad's eyes, hand gone slower on Chad's dick, the other one playing with his nipple.
And Chad could breathe, just barely, enough to comprehend the question and shake his head.
"Jerk you off?" Ryan asked, illustrating his point with a quick jerk up.
Again, Chad shook his head.
"Anything with a guy at all?"
"No," Chad gasped out. "Just you. Just-God-you." He thrust up, trying to get more, but Ryan's hand pressed his chest down and he made a noise like chiding.
Chad groaned, but subsided, letting the headboard take the brunt of his frustration as Ryan stroked him just hard enough to be mind-numbing, but not hard enough to get him off.
"Then I think we should make it something good," Ryan breathed out. Then he leaned over and they were kissing again. Ryan's tongue dipped lightning fast in and out of Chad's mouth, never really settling. Maddening.
Ryan finally slid his hands away from him and Chad could have sobbed at this exquisite torture, but Ryan had already started tugging at Chad's pants. "Off," he mumbled.
Chad winced as he pried his fingers from the headboard, then shook them out. He tried to be helpful, but feeling and coordination were both shot and his hands just ended up tangled with Ryan's.
Ryan growled, sat back, and started peeling Chad's clothes off on his own. Which was, like, brain-meltingly hot. Especially when Ryan was half-naked, his pants tented with obvious arousal.
Chad shifted and helped as much as he could and then Ryan was gone and Chad was left naked and panting on his bed. Which was so not what he had in mind.
"What-"
But then Ryan was back and it was skin on skin-everywhere, Ryan naked now, too-and it was too good, too much. Chad moaned and tried to thrust up and he'd kill for Ryan's hand again. Hell, anything.
"Patience," Ryan hissed into Chad's mouth.
Chad bit him. Hard.
"Is that what I can do with my patience?" Ryan rasped, only half-paying attention. Chad suddenly got interested in what Ryan was doing that would make him sound like that, his hand out of sight behind him and-
A hand again wrapped around his dick and Chad moaned as his eyes fluttered shut, none of it in his control. His body was molten-sex had never been like this-and trembling at anything Ryan did. He was at Ryan's mercy and wouldn't want to be anywhere else.
Then Ryan took his hand away again and Chad found the voice to protest. "Ryan-" he gasped, pleaded, something.
"Hang on, hang on," Ryan muttered, not sounding like he was in great shape, either.
Then Ryan was slipping a condom on Chad, following with something slick, and Chad's mind blanked out at the implication, at the sight of Ryan shifting forward, levering himself up, at the feeling as he pushed himself back down, onto Chad's dick, hotter and tighter than anything he'd ever known.
Chad's hands settled on Ryan's hips instinctively and he could feel Ryan's muscles flex, the tiny movements of his body. Ryan circled his hips a couple times and Chad's brain promptly imploded.
He moaned and Ryan panted and paused, acclimating himself, then sank down a little more. It took forever and no time at all and then Ryan stilled because there was no further to go.
"Oh, my God," Chad said, clear on that thought at least. Which was something, what with Ryan like a vise around him, with the fire racing down his spine when Ryan wasn't even moving.
Ryan chuckled, a bit strained. "Ready for more?" he asked.
Chad's hands squeezed on his hips. "Gonna kill me."
"Mmm, but what a way to go," Ryan rasped. With that he pushed himself upwards and then sank back down, shocking a gasp out of Chad. Then he did it again and again, faster, harder, his own hand working over his dick in time to his thrusts.
Chad moaned and held on and tried not to come as Ryan rode him, whispering the dirtiest, filthiest things-all the things he wanted to do to Chad-interspersed with moans and grunts and pleads for more.
Chad's fingers flexed and on Ryan's next press down, he pushed up and Ryan sobbed out a broken "please."
Ryan's hand jerked himself off faster, his hips tilted, mouth letting out a steady stream of "yes" and "more" and Chad obliged, thrusting up into him and pulling Ryan's hips down and Ryan's cries got more frantic and Chad felt like a god.
Chad was gonna come any millisecond, but it was fine because Ryan was gone, practically abusing his dick and not even forming whole words anymore. And like that Ryan arched, threw his head back, and made a loud, helpless sound that had Chad coming before he even felt Ryan's body clamp around him.
Chad's whole body shook as the world went white and hot, pleasure searing into him like nothing else ever, beyond his comprehension or control, and all Chad could do was ride with it and hope he never had to come down.
And then he did, breathing harsh and loud to match Ryan's, both of them fucked-out and boneless.
"Oh, my God," Chad said again because it kinda needed to be reiterated.
Ryan grunted an agreement, sweaty and exhausted and Chad was still inside him, residual spasms around his dick just over the line of too much. He made a soft noise and Ryan seemed to understand because he slowly pushed himself up, Chad's dick sliding out by inches, until they were completely separated-bizarre, that-and Ryan could slump to Chad's side.
Tiredly Chad took care of the condom and Ryan disappeared for what felt like a mere instant, but then he was back and pushing down covers. Chad crawled in after him, curled himself around Ryan's body, and was promptly out.
***
Sometime later, Chad roused himself from the world's greatest catnap ever, breathed in, and wow, did it ever smell like sex in here. He and Ryan and tons and tons of sex.
That was kind of awesome.
"You have the most ridiculous grin on your face," Ryan murmured, close and warm and comfortable. His chest rubbed against Chad's arm every time he breathed in.
"Yeah?"
"Mmm-hmm. I believe the technical term is 'shit-eating,'" Ryan said.
"Damn right." He propped himself up on one arm, then leaned over and brushed a kiss across Ryan's mouth.
Ryan's eyes stayed closed for a while after Chad pulled back. When he opened them they were sparkling and tired and satisfied; Chad had never known he wanted to see that look there and now that he had it filled some warm place inside.
"You look pretty pleased, yourself," Chad said.
Ryan smiled and turned to face him. The sheet slid down a bit more and faint purplish coloring caught Chad's attention. He peered closer...and then realized what they were.
Chad brushed his fingers ever so lightly across the bruises already shadowing Ryan's hips. "Sorry," he murmured.
"Mmm, don't be." Chad wasn't convinced, but Ryan didn't seem concerned. He stretched like some kind of sleek cat, cracked his toes, and snuggled up to Chad some more. "This was basically my fantasy come to life, you know."
"Oh, yeah?"
"Yup. You showing up at my place looking all lickable and then jumping me. Stuff fantasies are made of."
"Hey, hey. I think we need to be clear on just who jumped who here," Chad reminded.
"Yeah, that might've been me." Ryan didn't sound at all remorseful.
"That's what I thought. Thankfully Sharpay gave me permission...'cause I don't know what I would have done without that," Chad said.
Ryan stilled and raised his head. "You asked my sister for permission to jump me?"
"Not at all. But she thought I was-actually, she used the word 'courting'-and she, like, wanted me to declare my intentions or something."
"Did you?" he asked and propped his head up with his hand.
"Not that I know of? Your sister, man..."
"I know, I know: bride of Lucifer," Ryan said dutifully.
"No, that's what I'm saying. She's not evil; she's just completely nuts. I got the two mixed up...which is totally understandable and not my fault, of course."
Ryan was grinning again. "Of course."
"What?" Chad asked, suspicious of the grinning.
"You and Shar bonded," Ryan happily informed him.
"No, we didn't."
Ryan nodded at him. "That's bonding to Shar."
"Maybe in her psycho alternate universe where people wear pink fairy wings and have sex on tables."
Ryan rolled closer and started nibbling on his shoulder. "Mmm, you shouldn't count the table out. Could be fun," he breathed against Chad's skin.
Chad tilted his head and gave Ryan access to his neck. "Okay, maybe you have a point there." Ryan bit his ear, Chad yelped, and then promptly rolled them over. He'd think on that later; right now he had more pressing matters.
***
It took a couple days to figure out how to, like, leave Ryan's apartment, but Katie's text messages had gotten practically lucid with her pissed-offness, so Chad pulled himself together enough to meet her for breakfast at Nougatine. The fact that she had threatened to geld him if he bailed didn't have anything to do with the decision, though.
Her hair had streaks of red and orange now, that was his first thought when he spotted her sitting at a little table by the window. The morning light made everything look clean and fresh. Or maybe it was the bright, white walls. Something. He instantly liked the place.
Katie caught his eye, took a beat...and smirked. "Now can I say you had sex with Ryan?" she asked as he approached, then stood and pecked him on the cheek in greeting.
Chad chuckled and took his seat. "Not to Sharpay. Believe me; she knows."
Katie shook her head and motioned for their waiter to bring coffee. "It's about time. Silly boys."
"Wait. You knew that Ryan wanted me?"
"Duh."
"And you didn't tell me?" Chad asked, askance.
"I tried to. Some silly boy kept saying he didn't know what I was talking about."
"Because I didn't!"
"That's what happens when I try to tell you," she said simply. Okay this conversation was going in circles. And the waiter had arrived with coffee-thank God-so Chad paused and nodded to him in thanks.
Katie intently studied the menu, so Chad looked at his, too. Ooh, they had Eggs Benedict.
"Besides, I told Ryan to jump on you from the start, but did he listen to me? Noooo," she said. Then she tossed her menu aside like it had outlasted its usefulness to her.
"From the start?" Chad parroted.
"He just had to go through the whole drama of switching classes-"
"Wait, classes?"
"And Professor Holloway frowned at me! I had to act like I was spacey and flighty and I couldn't even use an artistic reason to switch. He should have just jumped on you," she said, exasperated.
And then it all kind of clicked.
"You were supposed to be my TA," he breathed.
Katie grinned, kinda maniacal, and tugged on an orange-streaked twirl of hair. "Wouldn't that have been fabulous?" She sighed. "The things I do for my boys."
Chad had kind of dropped the menu as the thoughts were rapidly processing in his brain and then their waiter appeared.
"I want waffles," Katie informed him. And then with grave seriousness-which Chad hadn't ever seen on her before-"And, very important, whipped cream. Lots and lots and lots. Umm, you should write it like that, too. The chef will understand."
The waiter scribbled dutifully and turned to Chad.
Chad was still kind of boggling.
"He wants Eggs Benedict. And muffins! We need muffins," she decided.
The waiter kind of ran away then, not that Chad blamed him or anything. Katie hummed and fixed herself a way-too-sweet cup of coffee. Then she threw a sugar packet at him to get his attention.
"I did want Eggs Benedict," Chad said idly, all he had for her.
Katie grinned and bounced a little in her seat. "I know! You know what? You really want to let me take pretty, pretty pictures of you," she declared. Then she launched into some kind of crack-addled description of her picture-taking project and Chad just kinda sat there dumbly.
Because dude.
***
Katie had something vague and faintly-illegal-sounding to do, so they parted outside of Trump Tower-International and Hotel as opposed to the World Tower...or any of the other fifty buildings he'd slapped his name on.
Something had been nagging Chad, so he pulled out his cell and found Will's number.
"What," grumbled a voice, groggy, and definitely not Will.
"Walker, lemme talk to Will."
"'s fuckin' early, man," Walker complained.
"It's eleven o'clock. Just roll over and hand him the phone," Chad said, annoyed.
"Your funeral," he muttered. Then there were shuffling sounds and low talking and something he probably didn't want to contemplate...
Thankfully, Will came on then. "Someone better be dead," he growled, all sex-drenched and raspy.
"Wakey, wakey," Chad said, channeling his internal Troy.
Will made a whiney, incoherent noise.
"Look, I need you to focus," Chad said more seriously.
"Stop trying to suck my dick. Chad needs me to focus," Will said loudly...and Chad assumed that was not to him.
Walker replied something not very complimentary and Will snorted, but Chad wasn't focusing on that right now.
"When we first met that night in the residence hall-" Chad continued.
"Yeah, Ryan called you merchandise. What about it?"
"You said something about Ryan making himself my RA. What'd you mean by that?"
Will chuckled. "You finally catch on and it only took a couple months," Will said, clearly amused.
"Dude," Chad threatened.
"Yeah, yeah. I know; you're a badass jock who can beat me up. I meant it as a joke. You know, about how Ryan figured out which hall you were in and pestered that RA to switch with him."
Chad made a frustrated noise. "Why doesn't anyone tell me this crap?"
"Not my fault you weren't paying attention," Will shot back, finally awake. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have...things to attend to."
"Yeah, yeah, I hope he chokes on it."
"Aww. I'm gonna tell him you said that, you big meanie."
"Be my guest. In fact-" But Will had already hung up on him. And he needed to go see Ryan now anyway.
***
Chad walked into the kitchen area, put his hands on his hips, and said: "You got yourself assigned to be my RA and TA."
Sharpay snorted into her coffee. "Told you so," she said to Ryan.
Ryan rolled his eyes. "Very helpful, Shar, thanks."
"The lesson we should learn from this? Sharpay is always right." She seemed pleased at that thought and smiled a little.
"Hello? Still standing here," Chad reminded.
"And that's my cue," Sharpay said. She stood, with her coffee and paper, and breezed over to her room. "Play nice, boys." Then her door shut and Chad waited for Ryan to acknowledge him.
And waited some more.
"Dude," Chad said.
"How was breakfast?" Ryan asked instead.
"Awesome. Why didn't you say anything?"
"I should take you to Jean-Georges sometime. It's even more amazing."
"Ryan," Chad said, serious, not letting himself get distracted by food-and, by the way, it was sneaky and wrong of Ryan to tease like that.
Ryan kind of half-shrugged. "I may have come across some information about your residence hall and classes and it's possible I suggested that I take over for those."
"And that day Zeke and I bumped into you at NYU?" Chad asked.
"Total coincidence." He grinned. "But a good one. Look, it wasn't something weird. I just wanted to see if maybe we could hang out. New York is huge; it's easy to get lost." He drummed his fingers on the kitchen table. Worried, probably.
Chad nodded. And nodded some more. "You could have just jumped me," he said finally.
Ryan laughed. "Oh, believe me, Shar suggested it. She said you'd never believe it was all pure happenstance. My way was more subtle, though."
"Too subtle, dude. I had to have Taylor figure it out." He inched closer to where Ryan sat, wanting to get hands on skin.
Ryan laughed, lilting and light. "I'll have to send her flowers." He took a breath and his smile dimmed just a shade. Something vulnerable glinted in his eyes. "You're okay with it, right? I mean, that I maneuvered myself into being your RA and TA and all that."
Chad smirked. "That's how hot I am: I turn normal people into obsessed stalkers."
"Hey! I was not-"
"Dude, you so were." Chad grinned some more and Ryan grinned slowly back and really, it was kind of awesome that Ryan wanted him that much, enough to rearrange his life. It made something warm in the pit of his stomach.
"Okay, maybe I got a little...focused," Ryan relented. He almost looked relieved.
Chad closed the distance between them and leaned into Ryan. He tilted his face up and their lips met, clung. Chad pulled back, just a breath, and smirked again. "And just so we're clear, I'm okay with any way you want to maneuver yourself," he murmured. He kissed Ryan again, even as Ryan smiled.
"Race you to the bedroom," Ryan muttered when they broke away.
Chad bounced on his toes. "Oh, it's on now. I expect you to bring it, drama boy."
Ryan hmmed and stood for a kiss, licking into Chad's mouth again. One arm went around Chad's shoulders, the other between them, Ryan's hand cupping him through his pants. "One thing you should know," Ryan panted into his mouth. Then he squeezed and Chad groaned and now he was a little breathless himself. "I cheat."
And Ryan was off, leaving Chad stunned still until it clicked in his head and he started after him. Yeah, he could handle that.
***
Fin.
Comments, concrit, favorite lines...all are welcome and appreciated.