The Second Time Around [The OC; Ryan/Kirsten]
TITLE: The Second Time Around
CHAPTER 1
FANDOM: The OC
PAIRING: Ryan/Kirsten
SPOILERS: None; this is an AU fic
RATING: PG
SUMMARY:
*****
Kirsten Cohen made her way down the boardwalk, her silver cell phone pressed tight to her ear. "No, I don't want the ceramic shower rings imported from Monaco. I want them imported from Morocco. Do you not understand that this model home has to be ready for display in three weeks?" She shook her head at her decorator, who was also her best friend Julie. "No, don't bother. That's not nearly enough time. Just forget about it. I'll talk to you later."
She slapped her phone shut and huffed aloud, throwing a glance out at the ocean beyond the pier, grumbling, "Unbelievable." It was amazing Julie still had a job at The Newport Group. She figured a large part of that was due to the fact that Julie was sleeping with the big boss himself, Kirsten's father Caleb.
Without removing her purse from her shoulder, she opened it up and tossed her phone inside, digging around for her list of things left to do with the model home before it would be open for show. She startled when she felt a hand clamp down hard on her shoulder, gripping her purse strap. "Hey!" she shouted.
Some young, rough-looking kid was grabbing at her purse, tugging it from her shoulder. She grabbed on to one of the straps and tried to hit him with her other hand. "Get away from me! Oh!" She cried out as she was pushed to the ground. She just barely reached her hands out in time to catch herself. The kid tore off with her purse and, had she not been in so much pain from the fall (and had she not been wearing pumps), she would've ran after him.
"Hey! HEY!"
She heard another pair of feet running close by on the boardwalk, running past her, and she kept her head down. There were two muggers now? Carefully, she looked up when she heard the second set of footsteps get further away. It was a guy, running after the kid that had taken her purse. She was about to call for help when she saw the second guy take down her mugger -- saw him tackle the kid. She gasped at the sight. This second guy, this complete stranger, was busy wrestling her purse away from the kid, and then forcing the kid onto his stomach.
One of the nearby security guards from one of the Balboa Island shops must have been alerted by a bystander, and he ran over to join the second guy, taking hold of the mugger. The second guy stepped away with her purse in-hand and Kirsten felt her stomach somersault for some reason. Pain radiated from her arm and she sat up, noticing the scrapes she'd acquired from her fall. She grimaced and reached out to lightly touch one, wincing.
"Hey."
Kirsten glanced up, the sun in her eyes and a dark figure looming over her. The dark figure crouched down and she was met with a pair of bottomless blue eyes... kind eyes.
"Are you alright?"
It was the second guy -- the one that just about dive-bombed onto her mugger. He held her purse out to her and she took it gingerly, averting her eyes. He was undeniably gorgeous... but young. She admonished herself immediately for the bolt of attraction that hit her. She had Sandy -- what was she doing admiring this young kid? Plus, he probably wasn't much older than her son. "Thank you," she murmured. "I'm okay."
"You look like you hurt your arm." He reached out and grasped her arm; Kirsten again winced in pain, hissing slightly, but allowed the touch. Why was her arm tingling?
"It's... it's just a few bumps and bruises," she stammered, pushing some of her long blonde hair behind her ear. She looked up at him and found herself exhaling a bashful chuckle. What the hell was wrong with her? "I, uh... I didn't expect this kind of stuff happened here. Guess I must be living in a bubble, huh?"
One side of his mouth twitched into a slight smile. "Ah, this kinda stuff just happens everywhere, I think. Nobody's immune to it."
"Thanks for running after him. You've seen this happen before, I take it?"
"Yeah. I'm, uh... I'm from Chino."
"Oh." The judgment seeped through in her tone without her conscious consent -- the influence of her father undoubtedly. She'd been around him too much.
The young man, obviously noting the change in her tone, took his hand off her arm and moved back a bit, as if afraid he'd give her some kind of disease. "Yeah. So, uh... needless to say, I've had experience with this before."
Kirsten couldn't help but wonder if he was the mugger or the hero back in Chino. She admonished herself again -- he was just a nice guy -- and smiled tightly. "Well... thank you again."
"It's no problem. Here." He stood up and offered her his hand.
Kirsten stared at that hand for a moment; the rough skin told her his usual line of work was in manual labor. Tentatively, she took his hand, sucking in her breath as she felt electricity shoot up and down her arm. He pulled her up and she carefully kept her eyes away from his. She'd never felt such a pull around someone before.
"Thank you," she murmured again.
"You're welcome."
His voice was soft... gentle as if he didn't want to scare her. It beckoned her gaze, and she met those bottomless blue eyes again. She heard herself asking, "What's your name?" and damned herself immediately. She reminded herself that her husband's name was Sandy.
The young man smiled, and shook the hand he was still hanging onto. "Ryan. And you?"
"Kirsten."
He nodded slowly, "Kirsten..." repeating the name slowly as if savoring every syllable. And Kirsten's knees went reflexively weak. What the hell was it about this guy?
She smiled, and realized they were still shaking hands. She pulled hers away as if burnt, and putzed with her purse strap.
Ryan just smiled gently in return, waving slightly. "Well... take care, Kirsten."
He walked away before she could properly respond, so she called, "You too!" and added softly, "Ryan."
Kirsten bit her lip softly as she watched him go, and hummed thoughtfully to herself before making her way back down the boardwalk toward her car. Time to head home.
To her husband.
Why did that suddenly sound so weird?
*****
It had been nearly impossible for Kirsten to get that Ryan guy off her mind for the rest of the evening. Especially since, as soon as she arrived home, Sandy was heading out to see a client and Seth was heading up to his room to read his comics. Kirsten had been left with nothing to do and no one to talk to; there had been ample time for thinking.
It had been a miracle she'd gotten much sleep -- never had some random stranger plagued her thoughts like this. She was a zombie all the way in to work the next morning. Even Julie, who was often too far into her own world to notice much else, made mention of it.
"You seem really distracted today, Kirsten, is everything alright?" Julie chose to ask this while they were in a meeting with Kirsten's father about the new architects and the new development.
Kirsten sighed and plastered on a faux smile for her friend. "I'm fine, Julie. Thanks."
"So Kiki," her father broke in, "what do you think?"
"'Bout what, Dad?"
"Were you not listening?"
Julie whacked his arm. "That was why I pointed out that she was distracted, Cal. Haven't you noticed?"
"Kiki, I was telling you about this new architect we're bringing in to help you out with plans for the new development. Now I know what you say about using the younger architects, that they're not very experienced, but... I've been told this guy does some astounding work. That new Balboa shopping center that went up? He designed a lot of it. And he's barely out of school. They say he's some kind of a prodigy or something."
"Yeah?" Kirsten distracted herself by focusing on her wedding ring. It felt tight today and she wasn't sure why. "Who is he?"
"His name's Atwood."
Kirsten raised an eyebrow. "That his first name or his last?"
Caleb shook his head and waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, who knows these days? But supposedly he's one of the best." He checked his watch. "Should be here any minute now."
As if on cue, a voice rang out from the doorway to Caleb's office. "Am I late?"
"No! You are right on time. Come in." Caleb waved him inside.
When Kirsten caught sight of who had entered the room, her eyes widened, and she quickly spun around to face the window. Not him, not him, not him... her brain chanted over and over. She twisted her wedding ring nervously on her finger. She heard her father introducing himself, and then Julie.
"And this..." Caleb touched her shoulder and made her turn around, and she met his eyes, "is my daughter, K--"
"Kirsten?" The shock and surprise was evident on his face, but from the look in his eyes, the surprise was a pleasant one.
He reached for her hand and shook it, and once again that electricity enveloped her. She was almost entranced by his eyes. "Ryan."
She caught Julie's interested look between the two of them while her father stared at Ryan quizzically. "You two know each other?"
Ryan's smile was nervous. "Uh, by coincidence, yes. We, um... we bumped into each other on the pier yesterday -- literally -- and had a brief conversation."
"Ah! Well, so you should have no problem working closely together, then?"
Kirsten still had yet to tear her eyes from Ryan's. "Uh... yeah, that'll be fine." Alarms and buzzers and whistles were going off like crazy inside her head, but... what was she to do? If her father wanted them to work closely together, then that was what they would do. It would be strictly professional.
"Ryan, I've taken the liberty of getting an office ready for you so you can work from here," Caleb's voice broke their stare.
Ryan nodded at him. "Thank you sir, that's very kind of you." He shook his hand again.
"Yes. Well. Kirsten? Would you care to show Mr. Atwood to his office?"
"Oh! Uh... sure, Dad, sure." She headed for the door and looked ever-so-briefly over her shoulder to see Julie smirking at her -- the woman had an uncanny knack for reading body language and detecting tension -- before she nodded to Ryan. "Follow me."
Once they were partway down the hall and out of earshot, Kirsten and Ryan smiled at each other, each exhaling nervous chuckles. "So you're the Atwood genius my father couldn't stop talking about, huh?"
Ryan smiled. "Guess so. They, uh... they consider me to be kind of a prodigy."
They stopped at the empty office -- just a few doors down from Kirsten's -- and she turned to him with a smirk. "And... what do you consider yourself to be?" She realized her tone bordered on flirtation, but she had been powerless to stop it. Something about this guy -- this kid -- took away all her senses.
He chuckled nervously and glanced down at his shoes a moment -- he really was very cute -- before he looked up at her again and replied, "Modest."
Her brows flicked upward. "Modest. Huh." She grinned. "I like that."
He looked so much different than he had looked yesterday. He'd looked so young yesterday, in faded jeans and a gray tee shirt. Today, he looked -- well, still young, but -- mature. He wore a very light lavendar button-down shirt and a pair of pressed, pleated khakis. His color choice came as a surprise to Kirsten, but it looked nice on him. He looked very professional. Kirsten reminded herself of the importance of professionalism, and she cleared her throat. "So, um..." She gestured to the door of the empty office. "This is your office. We're having a computer installed this afternoon, and I think my dad mentioned something about a drafting board being delivered for you?"
"Great. That's great. Thank you." He smiled at her and Kirsten felt weak-kneed again. Damn her.
"You're welcome."
For a moment they just stared at one another, the silence slightly awkward though not entirely uncomfortable. Ryan tilted his head after a moment and commented, "I know I look a little young to be an architect, but... I do have all my credentials. I graduated early."
"I believe you," she smiled.
He chuckled. "I just... didn't want you to think that I'm just some punk kid who was going to swoop in and take over your developments."
"No, no, no. We'll work together. Be a team. Don't worry."
"Good."
Unfortunately, she was a little worried.
TBC
{x-posted to rystenlove}
CHAPTER 1
FANDOM: The OC
PAIRING: Ryan/Kirsten
SPOILERS: None; this is an AU fic
RATING: PG
SUMMARY:
*****
Kirsten Cohen made her way down the boardwalk, her silver cell phone pressed tight to her ear. "No, I don't want the ceramic shower rings imported from Monaco. I want them imported from Morocco. Do you not understand that this model home has to be ready for display in three weeks?" She shook her head at her decorator, who was also her best friend Julie. "No, don't bother. That's not nearly enough time. Just forget about it. I'll talk to you later."
She slapped her phone shut and huffed aloud, throwing a glance out at the ocean beyond the pier, grumbling, "Unbelievable." It was amazing Julie still had a job at The Newport Group. She figured a large part of that was due to the fact that Julie was sleeping with the big boss himself, Kirsten's father Caleb.
Without removing her purse from her shoulder, she opened it up and tossed her phone inside, digging around for her list of things left to do with the model home before it would be open for show. She startled when she felt a hand clamp down hard on her shoulder, gripping her purse strap. "Hey!" she shouted.
Some young, rough-looking kid was grabbing at her purse, tugging it from her shoulder. She grabbed on to one of the straps and tried to hit him with her other hand. "Get away from me! Oh!" She cried out as she was pushed to the ground. She just barely reached her hands out in time to catch herself. The kid tore off with her purse and, had she not been in so much pain from the fall (and had she not been wearing pumps), she would've ran after him.
"Hey! HEY!"
She heard another pair of feet running close by on the boardwalk, running past her, and she kept her head down. There were two muggers now? Carefully, she looked up when she heard the second set of footsteps get further away. It was a guy, running after the kid that had taken her purse. She was about to call for help when she saw the second guy take down her mugger -- saw him tackle the kid. She gasped at the sight. This second guy, this complete stranger, was busy wrestling her purse away from the kid, and then forcing the kid onto his stomach.
One of the nearby security guards from one of the Balboa Island shops must have been alerted by a bystander, and he ran over to join the second guy, taking hold of the mugger. The second guy stepped away with her purse in-hand and Kirsten felt her stomach somersault for some reason. Pain radiated from her arm and she sat up, noticing the scrapes she'd acquired from her fall. She grimaced and reached out to lightly touch one, wincing.
"Hey."
Kirsten glanced up, the sun in her eyes and a dark figure looming over her. The dark figure crouched down and she was met with a pair of bottomless blue eyes... kind eyes.
"Are you alright?"
It was the second guy -- the one that just about dive-bombed onto her mugger. He held her purse out to her and she took it gingerly, averting her eyes. He was undeniably gorgeous... but young. She admonished herself immediately for the bolt of attraction that hit her. She had Sandy -- what was she doing admiring this young kid? Plus, he probably wasn't much older than her son. "Thank you," she murmured. "I'm okay."
"You look like you hurt your arm." He reached out and grasped her arm; Kirsten again winced in pain, hissing slightly, but allowed the touch. Why was her arm tingling?
"It's... it's just a few bumps and bruises," she stammered, pushing some of her long blonde hair behind her ear. She looked up at him and found herself exhaling a bashful chuckle. What the hell was wrong with her? "I, uh... I didn't expect this kind of stuff happened here. Guess I must be living in a bubble, huh?"
One side of his mouth twitched into a slight smile. "Ah, this kinda stuff just happens everywhere, I think. Nobody's immune to it."
"Thanks for running after him. You've seen this happen before, I take it?"
"Yeah. I'm, uh... I'm from Chino."
"Oh." The judgment seeped through in her tone without her conscious consent -- the influence of her father undoubtedly. She'd been around him too much.
The young man, obviously noting the change in her tone, took his hand off her arm and moved back a bit, as if afraid he'd give her some kind of disease. "Yeah. So, uh... needless to say, I've had experience with this before."
Kirsten couldn't help but wonder if he was the mugger or the hero back in Chino. She admonished herself again -- he was just a nice guy -- and smiled tightly. "Well... thank you again."
"It's no problem. Here." He stood up and offered her his hand.
Kirsten stared at that hand for a moment; the rough skin told her his usual line of work was in manual labor. Tentatively, she took his hand, sucking in her breath as she felt electricity shoot up and down her arm. He pulled her up and she carefully kept her eyes away from his. She'd never felt such a pull around someone before.
"Thank you," she murmured again.
"You're welcome."
His voice was soft... gentle as if he didn't want to scare her. It beckoned her gaze, and she met those bottomless blue eyes again. She heard herself asking, "What's your name?" and damned herself immediately. She reminded herself that her husband's name was Sandy.
The young man smiled, and shook the hand he was still hanging onto. "Ryan. And you?"
"Kirsten."
He nodded slowly, "Kirsten..." repeating the name slowly as if savoring every syllable. And Kirsten's knees went reflexively weak. What the hell was it about this guy?
She smiled, and realized they were still shaking hands. She pulled hers away as if burnt, and putzed with her purse strap.
Ryan just smiled gently in return, waving slightly. "Well... take care, Kirsten."
He walked away before she could properly respond, so she called, "You too!" and added softly, "Ryan."
Kirsten bit her lip softly as she watched him go, and hummed thoughtfully to herself before making her way back down the boardwalk toward her car. Time to head home.
To her husband.
Why did that suddenly sound so weird?
*****
It had been nearly impossible for Kirsten to get that Ryan guy off her mind for the rest of the evening. Especially since, as soon as she arrived home, Sandy was heading out to see a client and Seth was heading up to his room to read his comics. Kirsten had been left with nothing to do and no one to talk to; there had been ample time for thinking.
It had been a miracle she'd gotten much sleep -- never had some random stranger plagued her thoughts like this. She was a zombie all the way in to work the next morning. Even Julie, who was often too far into her own world to notice much else, made mention of it.
"You seem really distracted today, Kirsten, is everything alright?" Julie chose to ask this while they were in a meeting with Kirsten's father about the new architects and the new development.
Kirsten sighed and plastered on a faux smile for her friend. "I'm fine, Julie. Thanks."
"So Kiki," her father broke in, "what do you think?"
"'Bout what, Dad?"
"Were you not listening?"
Julie whacked his arm. "That was why I pointed out that she was distracted, Cal. Haven't you noticed?"
"Kiki, I was telling you about this new architect we're bringing in to help you out with plans for the new development. Now I know what you say about using the younger architects, that they're not very experienced, but... I've been told this guy does some astounding work. That new Balboa shopping center that went up? He designed a lot of it. And he's barely out of school. They say he's some kind of a prodigy or something."
"Yeah?" Kirsten distracted herself by focusing on her wedding ring. It felt tight today and she wasn't sure why. "Who is he?"
"His name's Atwood."
Kirsten raised an eyebrow. "That his first name or his last?"
Caleb shook his head and waved his hand dismissively. "Oh, who knows these days? But supposedly he's one of the best." He checked his watch. "Should be here any minute now."
As if on cue, a voice rang out from the doorway to Caleb's office. "Am I late?"
"No! You are right on time. Come in." Caleb waved him inside.
When Kirsten caught sight of who had entered the room, her eyes widened, and she quickly spun around to face the window. Not him, not him, not him... her brain chanted over and over. She twisted her wedding ring nervously on her finger. She heard her father introducing himself, and then Julie.
"And this..." Caleb touched her shoulder and made her turn around, and she met his eyes, "is my daughter, K--"
"Kirsten?" The shock and surprise was evident on his face, but from the look in his eyes, the surprise was a pleasant one.
He reached for her hand and shook it, and once again that electricity enveloped her. She was almost entranced by his eyes. "Ryan."
She caught Julie's interested look between the two of them while her father stared at Ryan quizzically. "You two know each other?"
Ryan's smile was nervous. "Uh, by coincidence, yes. We, um... we bumped into each other on the pier yesterday -- literally -- and had a brief conversation."
"Ah! Well, so you should have no problem working closely together, then?"
Kirsten still had yet to tear her eyes from Ryan's. "Uh... yeah, that'll be fine." Alarms and buzzers and whistles were going off like crazy inside her head, but... what was she to do? If her father wanted them to work closely together, then that was what they would do. It would be strictly professional.
"Ryan, I've taken the liberty of getting an office ready for you so you can work from here," Caleb's voice broke their stare.
Ryan nodded at him. "Thank you sir, that's very kind of you." He shook his hand again.
"Yes. Well. Kirsten? Would you care to show Mr. Atwood to his office?"
"Oh! Uh... sure, Dad, sure." She headed for the door and looked ever-so-briefly over her shoulder to see Julie smirking at her -- the woman had an uncanny knack for reading body language and detecting tension -- before she nodded to Ryan. "Follow me."
Once they were partway down the hall and out of earshot, Kirsten and Ryan smiled at each other, each exhaling nervous chuckles. "So you're the Atwood genius my father couldn't stop talking about, huh?"
Ryan smiled. "Guess so. They, uh... they consider me to be kind of a prodigy."
They stopped at the empty office -- just a few doors down from Kirsten's -- and she turned to him with a smirk. "And... what do you consider yourself to be?" She realized her tone bordered on flirtation, but she had been powerless to stop it. Something about this guy -- this kid -- took away all her senses.
He chuckled nervously and glanced down at his shoes a moment -- he really was very cute -- before he looked up at her again and replied, "Modest."
Her brows flicked upward. "Modest. Huh." She grinned. "I like that."
He looked so much different than he had looked yesterday. He'd looked so young yesterday, in faded jeans and a gray tee shirt. Today, he looked -- well, still young, but -- mature. He wore a very light lavendar button-down shirt and a pair of pressed, pleated khakis. His color choice came as a surprise to Kirsten, but it looked nice on him. He looked very professional. Kirsten reminded herself of the importance of professionalism, and she cleared her throat. "So, um..." She gestured to the door of the empty office. "This is your office. We're having a computer installed this afternoon, and I think my dad mentioned something about a drafting board being delivered for you?"
"Great. That's great. Thank you." He smiled at her and Kirsten felt weak-kneed again. Damn her.
"You're welcome."
For a moment they just stared at one another, the silence slightly awkward though not entirely uncomfortable. Ryan tilted his head after a moment and commented, "I know I look a little young to be an architect, but... I do have all my credentials. I graduated early."
"I believe you," she smiled.
He chuckled. "I just... didn't want you to think that I'm just some punk kid who was going to swoop in and take over your developments."
"No, no, no. We'll work together. Be a team. Don't worry."
"Good."
Unfortunately, she was a little worried.
TBC
{x-posted to rystenlove}