Ryden Oneshots

Carving Out Our Names

"There are other foods?" Brendon asks, wrinkling his nose, then ducks away, grinning, when Ginger shakes her head at him. They all exchange hugs, and then it's off to Brent's for another family display, and then finally they're on the 15, heading north. Brent gets up front with Matt driving, and Spencer and Ryan share the middle seat, leaving Brendon stuck in the back, stretching his seat belt as far as it'll go so he can rest his head on the back of the seat and talk to Spencer and Ryan. Spencer eventually sets his palm against Brendon's face and pushes him back to his own seat, then folds his arms and leans his head against the window, telling them to wake him in time for lunch.

Brendon gives Ryan a terrifically pathetic look, and Ryan folds like a house of cards when Brendon smiles and nudges his knuckles invitingly against the empty seat next to him. Matt glances in the rearview mirror at the click of the seatbelt, and Ryan scrambles into the backseat with Brendon, tumbling against Brendon when they round a curve. "Easy there," Brendon says, low and warm as he steadies Ryan, and Ryan huffs out a breath and lets Brendon pull him into the middle seat.

"My personal space," Ryan mutters, squirming as Brendon pushes his nose against Ryan's temple and sighs.

"Mm-hmm," Brendon murmurs, in an attempt to placate him that Ryan wouldn't even generously qualify as half-assed. Brendon slouches down and leans his head against Ryan's shoulder, always more apt to be affectionate with people around. It's easier to take it innocently that way, Ryan thinks, meaningless friendly affection that no one would reject because it's just Brendon being Brendon. He's never seen Brendon with a girlfriend, and he wonders how much different it is, if it's the same but with kisses, or if that's something Brendon would want to keep behind closed doors. Brendon can make sex jokes with the best of them but he's not the type to kiss and tell, so far as Ryan's noticed. But then, maybe that's because Brendon doesn't kiss people as often as Ryan does.

Brendon's knuckles brush against the side of Ryan's leg, and Ryan thinks about Brendon putting his hand there, a warm weight on his thigh, comforting. Meaningless. Brendon's a pleasant sleepy presence against his side, and Ryan could push him away, he could.

Instead, he lets Brendon sleep.

*

By the time they pull up at a convenience store, Spencer's awake and there's no avoiding the look he shoots at Ryan in the backseat. Ryan tries to shrug without jostling Brendon, but Brendon must feel the stop in motion, because he mumbles something unintelligible, then snuffles against Ryan's shoulder before blinking slowly awake.

"Have a good cuddle?" Spencer asks him, eyebrow raised.

Brendon shakes the last of his sleepiness off and beams at Spencer. "Yes," he says.

Ryan flees the car.

*

Spencer appears like a phantom at the end of the candy aisle, his arms folded.

"What?" Ryan asks, too quickly.

Spencer narrows his eyes.

"Nothing!" Ryan says, throwing his hands in the air.

"Candy!" says Brendon, appearing behind Ryan.

Ryan smacks the Twix he'd grabbed for Brendon against Brendon's chest, and retreats to the chip aisle.

*

Brent driving means screamo on the stereo and taking curves a little too fast for Ryan's liking. Brendon sits in the back, playing his ancient Gameboy next to Spencer, who's reading Rolling Stone and occasionally looking out the window. Ryan sits in the middle seat alone staring at an empty page in his notebook. Eventually he gives up trying to think of lyrics and just draws swirls and stars in the margins and a vampire that looks sort of like Brendon.