Ficlet - The O.C. - Guilty Conscience - Chapter 5 (Trey/Seth)
Title: Guilty Conscience
Author: Jewel21
Rating: Hard R for sexual situations
Show: The O.C.
Genre: Angst/Slash
Pairing: Seth/Trey
Type: WIP
Summary: An unforeseeable event sends Trey and Seth back to Orange County.
A/N: This story contains slash. If you are offended by such pairings, please don't read. This story also follows after my series ‘Guilty Pleasures.’ I would suggest reading that first to better understand this story. That fic is as follows: Guilty Pleasures, Seth Knows, Stolen Moments, Risky Games, Confrontations and The Commencement
Special thanks goes out to my betas, scarlet and black_london.
Oh, and reviews are very much appreciated. Seriously, they are like crack to me. Please don’t deny me my fix ;)
________________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: I don't own The OC. It belongs to a bunch of people I don't know and Fox.
Chapter 5
The Cohen kitchen was empty when Trey headed downstairs the next morning. It was early, only quarter to eight, but after waking up to use the bathroom he hadn’t been able to fall back to sleep.
Heading to the fridge, he pulled out eggs, bacon and toast. Setting them down on the counter, he reached for a skillet.
He was cracking eggs into a large bowl when he heard Ryan knock on the door. His brother looked better, more rested than he had in days, and Trey let him in before going back to the stove.
They worked in comfortable silence, Ryan frying up the bacon as he fried the eggs. Their mother had never been much of a cook growing up, but their father loved to cook and some of that had certainly rubbed off on him and Ryan. Not that he was going to win a chef of the year award any time soon, but he could definitely put together a meal with relative ease, unlike Seth who burned everything he touched.
“Hey,” Sandy said, surprise coloring his voice as entered the kitchen. He was dressed in swim trunks and a t-shirt, his surf board under his arm. “You boys didn’t have to cook breakfast,” Sandy said before swiping a piece of toast.
“We figured it was the least we could do after everything you’ve done for us,” Ryan said as he removed the bacon from the skillet and placed them on a paper towel covered plate.
“Yeah, thanks for everything. You didn’t have to help but you did and it means a lot,” Trey said, feeling uncomfortable.
“You and Ryan are family to us, and family helps each other out,” Sandy said, giving his shoulder a firm squeeze before reaching for a stack of plates.
He was saved from further awkwardness by the arrival of Kirsten and Seth as they filtered into the kitchen.
“Dude, I knew I smelled bacon,” Seth said as he swiped a piece from the plate Ryan was holding.
“You boys didn’t have to do this. Thank you, though,” Kirsten said, smiling as she reached for the placemats and Trey found his own lips quirking up in a ghost of a smile as he and Ryan carried the plates over to the table.
***
After breakfast, Kirsten and Sandy had left for the office, a reluctant Seth following Sandy out to the car.
They were leaving tomorrow to go back home, but he and Ryan had one more thing they needed to do before they left.
After showering and getting dressed, they packed into Ryan’s car and set out to their mother’s small basement apartment.
The air was stale and humid when the landlord let them in and they left the door open along with some windows to help air it out.
There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, but there were a lot of knickknacks littering the apartment.
They emptied out the fridge first, leaving just some sodas and juice in case they got thirsty. Trey felt bad throwing away perfectly good food but he and Ryan were leaving the next day and they couldn’t take everything that was in it back with them.
After the fridge was emptied, they packed up their mother’s clothing into boxes to be donated to the salvation army.
The pictures and photo albums were harder to pack up. Their mother had kept lots of pictures, mostly of when he and Ryan were kids. There were pictures of Ryan in his soccer uniform, pictures of Trey in his little league uniform, as well as whole albums devoted to each of them when they were just born, and he and Ryan divided the framed pictures up as well as the albums.
At one point, he found his mother’s wedding album and he hesitated before opening it. Ryan had grown still beside him, watching in silence as Trey flipped through the pages. Their parents both looked so young, his father standing tall, dressed a black suit, his mother in a white dress holding a bouquet of orchids beside him. They both looked full of promise and it made a lump form in Trey’s throat as he thought of all that lost potential.
“You should keep it,” Ryan said jolting Trey from his thoughts.
“Nah, you take it,” he said, snapping it shut and holding it out to Ryan.
“Mom shared it with you. She would want you to have it,” Ryan insisted and Trey fixed his eyes on his brother’s face. Ryan’s face was serious and Trey hesitated.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Ryan nodded before speaking. “Yeah, but maybe you can scan the pictures and send them to me?” he asked and Trey nodded in agreement.
They continued to work in silence, dividing up stuff they wanted to take back with them, and stuff they were either going to donate to charity or place into a storage unit until they could decided what to do with it all.
In addition to pictures, they found some baby clothes packed up from when they were just kids, baptism candles, even some toys that they had thought for sure had been thrown out. They split those up as well and Trey placed his with the pile of stuff that would be going into the storage unit.
Hours later, exhausted and sweaty, they took a short break, cracking open two beer bottles that they had left in the fridge. The beer was cold and soothing and Trey wiped his brow before sitting down on the couch.
Ryan, who had joined him on the couch, was picking at his beer label, his forehead creased again in worry with each passing minute and Trey watched him out of the corner of his eye.
“What?” he finally asked, and this time, rather than avoiding the question, Ryan glanced up before speaking.
“Look, this probably isn’t any of my business, but I’ve noticed how distant you’ve been around Seth and I can tell he’s worried about you. It’s just, don’t shut him out, I guess is what I’m trying to say,” Ryan said after a brief pause, his expression one of discomfort.
He wasn’t, not anymore really, not since last night anyway. But Ryan didn’t know about what had happened, and while he knew Ryan was concerned, he still felt annoyed and incredulous that Ryan would even bring Seth up to him. Because as far as he was concerned, Ryan didn’t have a right to ask about his relationship with Seth. Not after he had made it perfectly clear in the past that he didn’t want Trey anywhere near Seth.
Annoyed, he took a long pull from his beer bottle before setting it down on the coffee table.
“Weren’t you the one who told me to get out of town and leave Seth alone?” he asked, his voice hard. “So you can understand why I would find it a little ironic that you would be telling me this now.”
Ryan sighed before speaking. “I said that because I was worried for you, and I didn’t want you or Seth to get hurt,” Ryan said and Trey scoffed.
“Seth was underage and you were…you were just out of jail and messed up. And I was concerned. But you know what, I was wrong,” Ryan admitted. “You changed, Trey. Maybe it’s because of Seth, or maybe it was being away from him for awhile, but you’re not the same person who came out of jail after lifting that car. And I can see that now. I still don’t… I still think it’s weird you being with Seth, mostly because I’d always seen you with girls growing up, but I’m trying to understand it.”
Trey was about to respond when Seth’s voice rang out from across the room causing both their heads to swivel at the sound.
“You were the reason Trey left?” Seth asked from the open doorway, his face a mixture of hurt and shock.
“Seth,” Ryan said, jumping up from his seat, but Seth turned around and stormed out of the house.
“Let me talk to him,” Trey said before pushing past Ryan as he headed for the front door.
Seth was sitting inside the Range Rover when he came outside, and Trey wondered how the hell had he missed the sound of him pulling up. The window was open and he reached across Seth to turn the car off. Seth’s body was rigid, his hands gripping the steering wheel, and Trey sighed softly before opening the car door. He ran his hand through Seth’s hair, before cupping the back of his neck, and he could feel the tension there as he gently squeezed.
“Shift over,” he said. “Please?” he asked when Seth failed to move. Feeling weary, he waited and finally after several long minutes Seth moved over to the passenger seat. Grateful, Trey opened the driver side door and slid in next to Seth.
Seth was still staring straight ahead, his jaw clenched, and Trey waited him out.
“You lied to me,” Seth said finally as he turned and fixed hurt eyes on him. “I asked you why you were leaving town and you told me you needed to leave, that you needed to find yourself and you couldn’t do that here with all of Newport judging you,” Seth said accusingly.
Trey sighed before speaking. “Ryan may have been the one to jump start my leaving, but all those things I said to you were true, Seth,” Trey said but Seth’s eyes were still filled with disbelief and he paused before continuing. “At first I was pissed at Ryan, but when I saw you that last day at my apartment, I realized he was right. I did need to leave Newport. I needed to get away and decide what I was going to do with my life. And as mad as I was with Ryan, still am sometimes, if it weren’t for him I don’t know if that would have happened.”
Seth was still silent next to him, but Trey could see the anger and tension start to ebb from his body.
“Leaving made me grow up, made me question what I was doing with my life. It gave me perspective,” Trey continued. “I’m not the same person I was when I had first come to stay with you and your family,” Trey said, watching as Seth nodded. “And you changed too, Seth. Yeah, you’re still kinda spastic and shit, but you’re more grounded now than you were when I first met you. There’s a quiet confidence to you that you didn’t have back then. And I know that was because of me leaving,” Trey said before finally coming to a halt.
“And you say you’re not good with words,” Seth said, filling the silence, and Trey’s lips quirked into a smile.
“Are we good?” he asked, relieved when Seth nodded.
“Dude, this is why you were so dead set against me telling Ryan that we were living together,” Seth said as realization dawned on him. “God, I never understood why you would freak out every time I would mention it.”
“Didn’t stop you from telling him, though,” Trey pointed out but there was no malice in his voice.
“Yeah, well I thought you were being ridiculous,” Seth said and Trey shook his head. “So is this why you and Ryan don’t talk much?” Seth asked and Trey leaned back into the leather seat before responding.
“Yeah, that’s part of it I guess. But there’s other stuff too. Ryan and I weren’t that close growing up. We were when we were kids but when I got older I started hanging around with a bad crowd and I wasn’t around much. There were times I didn’t see Ryan for days at a time because I was never home,” Trey said. “And there’s a lot of resentment between us. Ryan was always the good brother, I was always the black sheep of the family. And there’s resentment on Ryan’s side too. I’m pretty sure he’s still pissed at me for lifting that car that night and getting us arrested. Pissed at me for other stuff, too. I was a pretty crappy brother. Still am, actually,” Trey said before trailing off.
“He’s not mad about the car thing anymore,” Seth said and Trey figured Seth must have noticed the look of disbelief on his face because he continued. “Seriously, he was mad about it for a long time, but we’ve been talking about stuff the last few days and he told me how in a way you stealing that car was the best thing that could have happened to him. If you hadn’t stolen that car, he never would have come here to Newport, never would have met my parents and he probably wouldn’t have finished high school let alone gone to college. It’s weird, dude, but I guess, in a way, grand theft auto was like the best decision you ever made.”
Trey snickered before fixing his eyes to the apartment complex where he noticed Ryan standing uncertainly in the doorway.
“I should probably go talk to him,” Seth said, following Trey’s gaze, and Trey nodded in agreement.
“While you do that I’m going to go rent us a U-Haul truck so we can transport all of this stuff to the storage unit.”
“Sounds good. My dad’s waiting on my mom to get back and then he said they would come to help you and Ryan clear everything out,” Seth said.
“They don’t have to do that,” Trey said and Seth shook his head.
“Dude, they want to do it. They consider you and Ryan family. And in the Cohen household family looks out for one another,” Seth said.
“You’re really lucky to have such great parents. I guess I am too now in a way,” Trey said slowly and Seth smiled in response. Leaning in Seth kissed him quickly on the lips before opening the passenger door and making his way to Ryan.
Staring out the car, Trey watched as Seth approached Ryan, only taking off once they were both inside.
***
By the time he had returned with the truck Sandy and Kirsten were already there and they all managed to quickly make work of loading up the truck. It took several trips but after a few hours the apartment was empty and everyone was exhausted.
He and Ryan drove the truck back to the U-Haul lot before returning to the Cohen mansion. When they got back there was food waiting for them. Famished, they grabbed plates before joining everyone in the kitchen.
Even though Trey was exhausted it felt nice to sit around the table with everyone. They all stayed up later than they should have, given the fact that he and Seth had an early flight the next morning and Ryan had a long drive ahead of him back to Berkeley.
When they couldn’t keep their eyes open any longer, Sandy and Kirsten retired to bed, leaving him, Ryan and Seth alone to talk. Neither of them said much, more out of fatigue than anything else, but it had been pleasant enough and it was after 1:00 AM when they finally went to bed.
The morning arrived quickly. Ryan was the first to leave and Trey watched as Kirsten, Sandy and Seth took turns hugging his brother goodbye. There were promises to call and check in and Trey had promised to do the same when he hugged Ryan goodbye. They would be seeing each other again in a little over a month when school let out for spring break. Their mother’s ashes would be delivered to his and Seth’s apartment in the meantime, and then during spring break he, Seth and Ryan were planning on flying out to Hawaii. His mother had always wanted to go there, but sadly never got the chance. They had figured it would be the perfect place to scatter her remains. It would mean more shifts at the garage to cover the expenses for the flight and hotel but Trey honestly didn’t mind.
After Ryan had left for Berkeley, Kirsten and Sandy drove him and Seth to the airport. There were more tearful goodbyes, on Kirsten and Sandy’s part, as well as promises to call and visit. Even Trey had hugged them goodbye before they left, making sure to thank them once again for all they had done, and this time it hadn’t felt as awkward as it had when he’d first arrived.
The flight back home was uneventful, and the cab ride from the airport back to the apartment was quick.
Stepping into the apartment, Trey couldn’t help thinking how weird it felt to be back. The apartment felt so much smaller than he remembered after staying with the Cohens for the past several days.
It felt comforting too, like home, and Trey could feel some of the remaining tension leave his body as he toed off his shoes, and dumped his suitcases by the bedroom door.
The apartment was stuffy and he opened a few windows before heading into the bedroom. Seth was already there, his suitcase opened and Trey watched as he unpacked Captain Oats and put him back on the nightstand.
Crossing the room, he stood beside Seth. “Leave it for now,” he said before wrapping his hand around Seth’s arm and pulling him to the bed.
Lying back on the covers, he dragged Seth over so that he was tucked up against his side.
Staring at the ceiling, he tucked one hand behind his head as he buried the other in Seth’s hair, rhythmically running his fingers from the top of Seth’s head down to the curls adorning the nape of his neck.
Just lying back, letting his thoughts drift, it took him awhile to realize that something was different. For the first time since finding out his mother had died, his head didn’t hurt and he sighed in relief.
“Are you okay?” Seth asked quietly.
“Yeah,” Trey said surprised to find it was the truth. “I mean, I’m still processing shit, and I’m still sad and the anger kinda comes and goes, but right now, this very moment, I’m good,” he said, his eyes never leaving the ceiling.
“Good,” Seth said, before lifting his head and kissing him. Deepening the kiss, Trey pulled Seth down on top of him before rolling them over.
“I love you,” Seth said. Trey smiled before kissing him back, his tongue sweeping along the inside of Seth’s mouth. Running his hands up under Seth’s shirt, before sliding them back down to palm Seth’s erection through the denim of his jeans, Trey chose to show Seth through actions rather than words that he felt the exact same way.
Fin.
A/N: I’d like to thank everyone who has read and commented (whether at GBM, live journal or ff.net) and who has encouraged me to continue to explore this universe that I created years ago. I’ve written quite a bit of fanfic over the years, for a variety of fandoms, but this one has always been my favorite. It is certainly the only fandom I keep going back to over and over again. And while this particular chapter between Trey and Seth may be over, I can still see myself writing random one-shots for this universe. Because I really adore Trey and Seth together and I’m not quite ready to let them go just yet.
Thanks again,
Jewel
Author: Jewel21
Rating: Hard R for sexual situations
Show: The O.C.
Genre: Angst/Slash
Pairing: Seth/Trey
Type: WIP
Summary: An unforeseeable event sends Trey and Seth back to Orange County.
A/N: This story contains slash. If you are offended by such pairings, please don't read. This story also follows after my series ‘Guilty Pleasures.’ I would suggest reading that first to better understand this story. That fic is as follows: Guilty Pleasures, Seth Knows, Stolen Moments, Risky Games, Confrontations and The Commencement
Special thanks goes out to my betas, scarlet and black_london.
Oh, and reviews are very much appreciated. Seriously, they are like crack to me. Please don’t deny me my fix ;)
________________________________________________________________________
Disclaimer: I don't own The OC. It belongs to a bunch of people I don't know and Fox.
Chapter 5
The Cohen kitchen was empty when Trey headed downstairs the next morning. It was early, only quarter to eight, but after waking up to use the bathroom he hadn’t been able to fall back to sleep.
Heading to the fridge, he pulled out eggs, bacon and toast. Setting them down on the counter, he reached for a skillet.
He was cracking eggs into a large bowl when he heard Ryan knock on the door. His brother looked better, more rested than he had in days, and Trey let him in before going back to the stove.
They worked in comfortable silence, Ryan frying up the bacon as he fried the eggs. Their mother had never been much of a cook growing up, but their father loved to cook and some of that had certainly rubbed off on him and Ryan. Not that he was going to win a chef of the year award any time soon, but he could definitely put together a meal with relative ease, unlike Seth who burned everything he touched.
“Hey,” Sandy said, surprise coloring his voice as entered the kitchen. He was dressed in swim trunks and a t-shirt, his surf board under his arm. “You boys didn’t have to cook breakfast,” Sandy said before swiping a piece of toast.
“We figured it was the least we could do after everything you’ve done for us,” Ryan said as he removed the bacon from the skillet and placed them on a paper towel covered plate.
“Yeah, thanks for everything. You didn’t have to help but you did and it means a lot,” Trey said, feeling uncomfortable.
“You and Ryan are family to us, and family helps each other out,” Sandy said, giving his shoulder a firm squeeze before reaching for a stack of plates.
He was saved from further awkwardness by the arrival of Kirsten and Seth as they filtered into the kitchen.
“Dude, I knew I smelled bacon,” Seth said as he swiped a piece from the plate Ryan was holding.
“You boys didn’t have to do this. Thank you, though,” Kirsten said, smiling as she reached for the placemats and Trey found his own lips quirking up in a ghost of a smile as he and Ryan carried the plates over to the table.
***
After breakfast, Kirsten and Sandy had left for the office, a reluctant Seth following Sandy out to the car.
They were leaving tomorrow to go back home, but he and Ryan had one more thing they needed to do before they left.
After showering and getting dressed, they packed into Ryan’s car and set out to their mother’s small basement apartment.
The air was stale and humid when the landlord let them in and they left the door open along with some windows to help air it out.
There wasn’t much in the way of furniture, but there were a lot of knickknacks littering the apartment.
They emptied out the fridge first, leaving just some sodas and juice in case they got thirsty. Trey felt bad throwing away perfectly good food but he and Ryan were leaving the next day and they couldn’t take everything that was in it back with them.
After the fridge was emptied, they packed up their mother’s clothing into boxes to be donated to the salvation army.
The pictures and photo albums were harder to pack up. Their mother had kept lots of pictures, mostly of when he and Ryan were kids. There were pictures of Ryan in his soccer uniform, pictures of Trey in his little league uniform, as well as whole albums devoted to each of them when they were just born, and he and Ryan divided the framed pictures up as well as the albums.
At one point, he found his mother’s wedding album and he hesitated before opening it. Ryan had grown still beside him, watching in silence as Trey flipped through the pages. Their parents both looked so young, his father standing tall, dressed a black suit, his mother in a white dress holding a bouquet of orchids beside him. They both looked full of promise and it made a lump form in Trey’s throat as he thought of all that lost potential.
“You should keep it,” Ryan said jolting Trey from his thoughts.
“Nah, you take it,” he said, snapping it shut and holding it out to Ryan.
“Mom shared it with you. She would want you to have it,” Ryan insisted and Trey fixed his eyes on his brother’s face. Ryan’s face was serious and Trey hesitated.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
Ryan nodded before speaking. “Yeah, but maybe you can scan the pictures and send them to me?” he asked and Trey nodded in agreement.
They continued to work in silence, dividing up stuff they wanted to take back with them, and stuff they were either going to donate to charity or place into a storage unit until they could decided what to do with it all.
In addition to pictures, they found some baby clothes packed up from when they were just kids, baptism candles, even some toys that they had thought for sure had been thrown out. They split those up as well and Trey placed his with the pile of stuff that would be going into the storage unit.
Hours later, exhausted and sweaty, they took a short break, cracking open two beer bottles that they had left in the fridge. The beer was cold and soothing and Trey wiped his brow before sitting down on the couch.
Ryan, who had joined him on the couch, was picking at his beer label, his forehead creased again in worry with each passing minute and Trey watched him out of the corner of his eye.
“What?” he finally asked, and this time, rather than avoiding the question, Ryan glanced up before speaking.
“Look, this probably isn’t any of my business, but I’ve noticed how distant you’ve been around Seth and I can tell he’s worried about you. It’s just, don’t shut him out, I guess is what I’m trying to say,” Ryan said after a brief pause, his expression one of discomfort.
He wasn’t, not anymore really, not since last night anyway. But Ryan didn’t know about what had happened, and while he knew Ryan was concerned, he still felt annoyed and incredulous that Ryan would even bring Seth up to him. Because as far as he was concerned, Ryan didn’t have a right to ask about his relationship with Seth. Not after he had made it perfectly clear in the past that he didn’t want Trey anywhere near Seth.
Annoyed, he took a long pull from his beer bottle before setting it down on the coffee table.
“Weren’t you the one who told me to get out of town and leave Seth alone?” he asked, his voice hard. “So you can understand why I would find it a little ironic that you would be telling me this now.”
Ryan sighed before speaking. “I said that because I was worried for you, and I didn’t want you or Seth to get hurt,” Ryan said and Trey scoffed.
“Seth was underage and you were…you were just out of jail and messed up. And I was concerned. But you know what, I was wrong,” Ryan admitted. “You changed, Trey. Maybe it’s because of Seth, or maybe it was being away from him for awhile, but you’re not the same person who came out of jail after lifting that car. And I can see that now. I still don’t… I still think it’s weird you being with Seth, mostly because I’d always seen you with girls growing up, but I’m trying to understand it.”
Trey was about to respond when Seth’s voice rang out from across the room causing both their heads to swivel at the sound.
“You were the reason Trey left?” Seth asked from the open doorway, his face a mixture of hurt and shock.
“Seth,” Ryan said, jumping up from his seat, but Seth turned around and stormed out of the house.
“Let me talk to him,” Trey said before pushing past Ryan as he headed for the front door.
Seth was sitting inside the Range Rover when he came outside, and Trey wondered how the hell had he missed the sound of him pulling up. The window was open and he reached across Seth to turn the car off. Seth’s body was rigid, his hands gripping the steering wheel, and Trey sighed softly before opening the car door. He ran his hand through Seth’s hair, before cupping the back of his neck, and he could feel the tension there as he gently squeezed.
“Shift over,” he said. “Please?” he asked when Seth failed to move. Feeling weary, he waited and finally after several long minutes Seth moved over to the passenger seat. Grateful, Trey opened the driver side door and slid in next to Seth.
Seth was still staring straight ahead, his jaw clenched, and Trey waited him out.
“You lied to me,” Seth said finally as he turned and fixed hurt eyes on him. “I asked you why you were leaving town and you told me you needed to leave, that you needed to find yourself and you couldn’t do that here with all of Newport judging you,” Seth said accusingly.
Trey sighed before speaking. “Ryan may have been the one to jump start my leaving, but all those things I said to you were true, Seth,” Trey said but Seth’s eyes were still filled with disbelief and he paused before continuing. “At first I was pissed at Ryan, but when I saw you that last day at my apartment, I realized he was right. I did need to leave Newport. I needed to get away and decide what I was going to do with my life. And as mad as I was with Ryan, still am sometimes, if it weren’t for him I don’t know if that would have happened.”
Seth was still silent next to him, but Trey could see the anger and tension start to ebb from his body.
“Leaving made me grow up, made me question what I was doing with my life. It gave me perspective,” Trey continued. “I’m not the same person I was when I had first come to stay with you and your family,” Trey said, watching as Seth nodded. “And you changed too, Seth. Yeah, you’re still kinda spastic and shit, but you’re more grounded now than you were when I first met you. There’s a quiet confidence to you that you didn’t have back then. And I know that was because of me leaving,” Trey said before finally coming to a halt.
“And you say you’re not good with words,” Seth said, filling the silence, and Trey’s lips quirked into a smile.
“Are we good?” he asked, relieved when Seth nodded.
“Dude, this is why you were so dead set against me telling Ryan that we were living together,” Seth said as realization dawned on him. “God, I never understood why you would freak out every time I would mention it.”
“Didn’t stop you from telling him, though,” Trey pointed out but there was no malice in his voice.
“Yeah, well I thought you were being ridiculous,” Seth said and Trey shook his head. “So is this why you and Ryan don’t talk much?” Seth asked and Trey leaned back into the leather seat before responding.
“Yeah, that’s part of it I guess. But there’s other stuff too. Ryan and I weren’t that close growing up. We were when we were kids but when I got older I started hanging around with a bad crowd and I wasn’t around much. There were times I didn’t see Ryan for days at a time because I was never home,” Trey said. “And there’s a lot of resentment between us. Ryan was always the good brother, I was always the black sheep of the family. And there’s resentment on Ryan’s side too. I’m pretty sure he’s still pissed at me for lifting that car that night and getting us arrested. Pissed at me for other stuff, too. I was a pretty crappy brother. Still am, actually,” Trey said before trailing off.
“He’s not mad about the car thing anymore,” Seth said and Trey figured Seth must have noticed the look of disbelief on his face because he continued. “Seriously, he was mad about it for a long time, but we’ve been talking about stuff the last few days and he told me how in a way you stealing that car was the best thing that could have happened to him. If you hadn’t stolen that car, he never would have come here to Newport, never would have met my parents and he probably wouldn’t have finished high school let alone gone to college. It’s weird, dude, but I guess, in a way, grand theft auto was like the best decision you ever made.”
Trey snickered before fixing his eyes to the apartment complex where he noticed Ryan standing uncertainly in the doorway.
“I should probably go talk to him,” Seth said, following Trey’s gaze, and Trey nodded in agreement.
“While you do that I’m going to go rent us a U-Haul truck so we can transport all of this stuff to the storage unit.”
“Sounds good. My dad’s waiting on my mom to get back and then he said they would come to help you and Ryan clear everything out,” Seth said.
“They don’t have to do that,” Trey said and Seth shook his head.
“Dude, they want to do it. They consider you and Ryan family. And in the Cohen household family looks out for one another,” Seth said.
“You’re really lucky to have such great parents. I guess I am too now in a way,” Trey said slowly and Seth smiled in response. Leaning in Seth kissed him quickly on the lips before opening the passenger door and making his way to Ryan.
Staring out the car, Trey watched as Seth approached Ryan, only taking off once they were both inside.
***
By the time he had returned with the truck Sandy and Kirsten were already there and they all managed to quickly make work of loading up the truck. It took several trips but after a few hours the apartment was empty and everyone was exhausted.
He and Ryan drove the truck back to the U-Haul lot before returning to the Cohen mansion. When they got back there was food waiting for them. Famished, they grabbed plates before joining everyone in the kitchen.
Even though Trey was exhausted it felt nice to sit around the table with everyone. They all stayed up later than they should have, given the fact that he and Seth had an early flight the next morning and Ryan had a long drive ahead of him back to Berkeley.
When they couldn’t keep their eyes open any longer, Sandy and Kirsten retired to bed, leaving him, Ryan and Seth alone to talk. Neither of them said much, more out of fatigue than anything else, but it had been pleasant enough and it was after 1:00 AM when they finally went to bed.
The morning arrived quickly. Ryan was the first to leave and Trey watched as Kirsten, Sandy and Seth took turns hugging his brother goodbye. There were promises to call and check in and Trey had promised to do the same when he hugged Ryan goodbye. They would be seeing each other again in a little over a month when school let out for spring break. Their mother’s ashes would be delivered to his and Seth’s apartment in the meantime, and then during spring break he, Seth and Ryan were planning on flying out to Hawaii. His mother had always wanted to go there, but sadly never got the chance. They had figured it would be the perfect place to scatter her remains. It would mean more shifts at the garage to cover the expenses for the flight and hotel but Trey honestly didn’t mind.
After Ryan had left for Berkeley, Kirsten and Sandy drove him and Seth to the airport. There were more tearful goodbyes, on Kirsten and Sandy’s part, as well as promises to call and visit. Even Trey had hugged them goodbye before they left, making sure to thank them once again for all they had done, and this time it hadn’t felt as awkward as it had when he’d first arrived.
The flight back home was uneventful, and the cab ride from the airport back to the apartment was quick.
Stepping into the apartment, Trey couldn’t help thinking how weird it felt to be back. The apartment felt so much smaller than he remembered after staying with the Cohens for the past several days.
It felt comforting too, like home, and Trey could feel some of the remaining tension leave his body as he toed off his shoes, and dumped his suitcases by the bedroom door.
The apartment was stuffy and he opened a few windows before heading into the bedroom. Seth was already there, his suitcase opened and Trey watched as he unpacked Captain Oats and put him back on the nightstand.
Crossing the room, he stood beside Seth. “Leave it for now,” he said before wrapping his hand around Seth’s arm and pulling him to the bed.
Lying back on the covers, he dragged Seth over so that he was tucked up against his side.
Staring at the ceiling, he tucked one hand behind his head as he buried the other in Seth’s hair, rhythmically running his fingers from the top of Seth’s head down to the curls adorning the nape of his neck.
Just lying back, letting his thoughts drift, it took him awhile to realize that something was different. For the first time since finding out his mother had died, his head didn’t hurt and he sighed in relief.
“Are you okay?” Seth asked quietly.
“Yeah,” Trey said surprised to find it was the truth. “I mean, I’m still processing shit, and I’m still sad and the anger kinda comes and goes, but right now, this very moment, I’m good,” he said, his eyes never leaving the ceiling.
“Good,” Seth said, before lifting his head and kissing him. Deepening the kiss, Trey pulled Seth down on top of him before rolling them over.
“I love you,” Seth said. Trey smiled before kissing him back, his tongue sweeping along the inside of Seth’s mouth. Running his hands up under Seth’s shirt, before sliding them back down to palm Seth’s erection through the denim of his jeans, Trey chose to show Seth through actions rather than words that he felt the exact same way.
Fin.
A/N: I’d like to thank everyone who has read and commented (whether at GBM, live journal or ff.net) and who has encouraged me to continue to explore this universe that I created years ago. I’ve written quite a bit of fanfic over the years, for a variety of fandoms, but this one has always been my favorite. It is certainly the only fandom I keep going back to over and over again. And while this particular chapter between Trey and Seth may be over, I can still see myself writing random one-shots for this universe. Because I really adore Trey and Seth together and I’m not quite ready to let them go just yet.
Thanks again,
Jewel