skoosiepants (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skoosiepants) wrote2007-05-25 04:36 pm
skoosiepants) wrote2007-05-25 04:36 pm
Not!Fic: More Ryan of Green Gables
Okay, now I'm just making shit up. Moreso than the other ones, at least. This is not a fic. Remember that.
Previous part here. Enjoy.
Previous part here. Enjoy.
Ryan is Spencer’s very best friend, but Spencer doesn’t always understand him. Spencer pushes at the little rowboat with his foot.
“Doesn’t seem all that sturdy,” he says, because Spencer is rather sensible, and Ryan flips through a slim little book – Ryan has a lot of books. Spencer thinks this is endearing – and shoots Spencer a pointed look.
William has one of his mama’s shawls draped over his arm. “I don’t think it is,” William whispers to Spencer conspiratorially, grinning. William likes trouble. Spencer isn’t sure why they’re friends, except William is occasionally great fun.
Ryan clears his throat and glares at them and William giggles before schooling his face into a properly somber expression.
Ryan reads – “And at the closing of the day She loosed the chain, and down she lay; The broad stream bore her far away, The Lady of Shalott” – overdramatically, with a lovely cast of sorrow curving his mouth, and he climbs into the boat carefully, lying down with his arms folded, and William fusses over the ‘shroud’ and the day lilies until Ryan slaps his hands away in irritation.
And then Spencer and William push off the bank and Ryan and the little boat rock unsteadily out into the river and it’s, well. Spencer concedes it’s all very beautiful and poetic - which Ryan is, more than Spencer, and Spencer honestly does appreciate that quality in him, at least when it doesn’t involve Ryan looking down his nose at Jon, even though Jon never seems to mind very much.
And then William says, “look—oh,” and claps a hand over his mouth, eyes dancing merrily, and Spencer narrows his gaze at the boat as it slides into faster currents.
Ryan squawks, actually squawks, and jerks upright and he’s splashing, because the boat is taking on water at a rapid pace. Not very sturdy at all.
“Oh no,” Spencer mutters. He wishes Jon were there. Spencer doesn’t really want to get wet. He sighs heavily and is thinking about the best way to approach Ryan’s rescue, but then Brendon is there, on the far side of the river, hands on his hips, wide grin on his face - though, to his credit, he isn’t quite laughing. The water is rather dangerous in the middle, after all, and Ryan isn’t the strongest swimmer.
Spencer thinks it’s sort of romantic. Or he thinks Ryan should think it’s romantic – because Spencer isn’t all that fanciful himself - when Brendon slips over the edge of the bridge to grab Ryan as he floats by, hands grasping desperately at a slick pylon. Ryan just seems disgruntled, soaked, pouting, as Brendon pulls him up on dry land.
Spencer’s actually sort of puzzled by Ryan’s entire dislike of Brendon, always has been, but he’d never say a word out loud. It’s best, Spencer has found, to let Ryan do exactly as he wants.
William leans into Spencer’s side – and he’s tall, so he’s sort of folded over him, long arms dangling around his shoulders – and laughs into the back of Spencer’s neck. William thinks Ryan and Brendon are going to marry one day, and he thinks it’s the funniest thing ever when they fight. Ryan once broke a slate over Brendon’s head, and, okay, Spencer thought that was funny, too. Brendon’s stunned face had been hilarious, and Jon had winked at Spencer and that was always good.
Spencer can’t hear what they’re saying, but Ryan is stamping his foot and has his arms crossed and he looks like a drowned puppy and Brendon has a smile on his mouth that even Spencer thinks is infuriating. William just laughs harder.
*
Ryan is excited about the dance for exactly three days, until he realizes he has absolutely nothing to wear. Shiny clasps are all the rage, and Spencer’s even gotten a new jacket – silver clasps and double-breasted, too! – and all Ryan has is his serviceable Sunday wear, with a nice clean cut – as Mikey always tells him, since Mikey’s really very good with fashion – but! Shiny buttons! He can’t be seen without them! Simply everyone is going to be wearing them, and he’ll be mortified beyond measure if he shows up in anything else.
Mikey frowns at his plea. There isn’t enough money to be spending it on frivolous expenses. Ryan doesn’t need another coat. Mikey himself would kill for a shiny clasped outfit, but you don’t see him pouting about it, do you?
Gerard laughs at them – Gerard laughs at a lot, and it’s one of the things Mikey loves best about him – and then shows up the day before the dance with two similar shaped boxes, and Mikey should really make him take them back, but he’s gotten one for him, too, and Gerard is really the best brother in the whole entire world.
So the three of them troop off to the dance, two replete with shiny buttons - Ryan's even has adorable rosettes fastened at the collar - and one, Gerard, in his serviceable Sunday dress – “Who do I need to impress?” he’d asked, bewildered, when Ryan had wondered why he hadn’t gotten one for himself as well – and Mikey is almost as excited about it as Ryan.
Pete is making a fool out of himself on the dance floor, but that’s nothing unusual. Patrick is standing off to the side with a hand over half his face, bright red, but he laughs whenever Pete waves at him.
Spencer is hiding behind William, because Jon looks so handsome and Spencer has never been shy, but he’s suddenly awkward and flushed and William is probably the last person he should have chosen to hide behind – and not just because he’s so thin he’s not much of a barrier, really, but because William just smiles delightedly and says, “Hey, Jon, Spencer’s over here,” hooking a thumb over his shoulder. Honestly, they shouldn’t be friends, Spencer’s sure of it.
Ryan is busy snubbing Brendon. Brendon is very hard to snub, however, and steals Ryan’s dance card and fills every single line with his name, and Ryan is so angry, except he can’t make a scene. Mikey would strangle him, and Gerard thinks Brendon’s such a nice boy, and he can’t see why Ryan hates him so.
Brendon is annoying and pushy and Ryan sometimes gets exhausted just looking at him – he’s got so much energy! - and he’s always standing too close to Ryan and he always looks like he’s either just done something horrible or is on his way to doing something horrible, and Ryan just. Doesn’t like him. He doesn’t have to have a valid reason for that. It’s just how it is and how it will always be, no matter what William’s always giggling about.
Gerard is content to stand alongside the punch like the other proud parents and let the kids have some fun. He smiles as Jon bows over Spencer’s hand and Spencer fidgets with his shiny buttons until William not-so-surreptitiously shoves him in the small of his back. He lets out a low chuckle as Brendon almost resorts to bodily hauling Ryan out onto the dance floor - since Ryan is as stubborn a boy as Gerard has ever come across – before Ryan huffs out a breath and stomps out into the middle of the room, glaring daggers at Brendon until the boy hastily takes up his hands and spins them into a dance before Ryan can change his mind.
“Having fun?”
Gerard glances to his side and breaks out into a grin. “Frank,” he says, and wraps an arm around him, pulling him into a brisk hug. Frank has the daunting task of teaching all the towns-children manners and times tables and proper sentence structure. Gerard doesn’t envy him, but Frank is possibly his very favorite person besides his brother.
Frank tells Gerard about the baffling but amusing feud between Ryan and Brendon, and how William stays after class every other day to profess his undying love for Frank, and Frank keeps threatening to marry him one day, with a playful smile, because William knows and Frank knows and pretty much everyone in town knows the Frank is going to marry Gerard. Gerard is, in fact, the only one who doesn’t know that plan. This is not for lack of trying on Frank’s part. Gerard is just that oblivious.
Frank says, “Okay, so, you’re not spending the whole night hiding out over here, right? Because I kinda think we should dance. At least once.”
Gerard arches an eyebrow at him. “Only once?”
“At least once. With an option for more.” Frank grins at him winningly. It’s more cheeky than anything else, though, and Gerard, in complete disregard of any social mores, presses a kiss to Frank’s temple and says, “Let’s go.”
*
Mikey is not sure at all what to think about Frank and Gerard. He dislikes change. He thinks adopting Ryan was change enough for the century, and Gerard leaving them is not an option.
In just a few short years Ryan will be away at college – he won’t delude himself into thinking Ryan won’t go, because Ryan is smart and needs more than just this poorly-farmed plot of land to live on – and Mikey and Gerard will be alone again, or Mikey will be alone again, and that’s just tragic. Mikey is not a big fan of tragedies. Ryan is, but Ryan’s a little fanciful, and a little touched in the head.
“What are you pouting about,” Gerard says, ruffling Mikey’s hair.
Mikey ducks and scowls at him and says, “Love.”
“Oh. Oh, love’s a terrible thing, I agree.” Gerard is grinning at him, eyes crinkled up at the edges. Gerard is teasing him, Mikey can tell.
Mikey doesn’t say that he loves him, and that he loves Ryan – who can’t love Ryan? – and that he doesn’t know what he’ll do when either or both of them are gone. He just says, “Love,” again, like a swear, lips pursed, and Gerard just hugs him to his chest.
Mikey’s forehead drops down onto his shoulder.
“Ryan,” Gerard says, slowly, thoughtfully, hands gripping the back of Mikey’s shirt, “is good for us,” and he’s said that before, but right then, right that moment, Mikey thinks he finally understands what he means.
They were honestly going to have to get rid of the cow, though.
continues here
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