Take Me | Rydon

xiii.

Ryan takes this time to look around Brendon's room and he comes across another picture frame, a smaller one. It's lying face down on the top of Brendon's dresser.

When he picks it up, his heart breaks a little more.

It's a photo of the two of them, maybe a month before Brendon left.

Ryan smiles sadly as he remembers that day perfectly and he remembers Brendon making him take the photo.

Ryan was sitting on the couch one night, his usual spot with a beer in his hand a he was watching some show on TV that Brendon just couldn't get into. Brendon came up and took the beer out of Ryan's hand, setting it on the coffee table and he took a seat on Ryan's lap, repeatedly kissing his cheek. Ryan kept smiling, trying to turn his head so he could catch Brendon's lips, and Brendon took longer to kiss Ryan's cheek and then there was a flash. Ryan hadn't even noticed that Brendon was holding up his phone to take a picture.

Later that day, Brendon made Ryan run up to a pharmacy where he'd sent the picture to be printed. Ryan felt kind of stupid, walking in there for only one photo, but it made Brendon happy so he did it anyway.

Ryan's smiling in the photo, his eyes closed, and Brendon's lips are pressing to his cheek and he can see the amused grin on the boys face even though it's pressed against his cheek.

He sets the frame back down, only he sets it up right and facing the room so everyone can see. Not that Brendon should have anyone else in his bedroom, that'd just be absurd and Ryan would go bat shit crazy if he found someone else in Brendon's room.

Ryan continues looking around the bedroom, like he's trying to look for something important, and then he gives up and goes to stand by the window, looking out of the glass at the not so nice looking neighborhood.

He keeps asking himself how Brendon can live here like this, in a shitty apartment that's falling apart, in the middle of a shitty neighborhood that's falling apart also.

And then he remembers what Brendon went through, for the millionth time since Brendon told him about it, and he figures that this has to be a hell of a lot better than a park bench. 

Ryan turns slightly, looking back at Brendon when he hears the bed move.

Brendon stirs and his eyes peel open, and Ryan sees the sadness on his face instantly and he walks away from the window and climbs back in bed with Brendon, letting the water bottle sit on the floor.

"Hey." Ryan says softly, and he sees that the tension in Brendon's body lets up and Brendon relaxes.

"You didn't sleep?" Brendon asks, resting back into Ryan's side.

"Couldn't. So I just looked around your apartment."

"Find anything interesting?"

"Nope." Ryan says, popping his lips. "Except the pictures of you and your friend out in the living room. And the one of us you've been hiding on top of your dresser."

Brendon tenses again because honestly, he'd forgotten about it.

"You saw that." It wasn't a question. It was more like a confirmation that Ryan now knew that Brendon had a picture of the both of them together in his room, face down because he couldn't bear to look at it.

"I did." Ryan nods.

"Sorry, I just couldn't stop crying when -"

"Don't be sorry." Ryan interrupts, folding an arm around Brendon's waist. "I know."

Brendon almost scoffs because, yeah. Right.

He doubted that Ryan felt anything like he felt during their time apart.