Ryden Oneshots

Twisted Peppermint

"Do you have an idea of what kind of tree you want?" Ryan stopped and turned around. Brendon paused, head tilted up in thought. "A small one would be fine, I don't have a big apartment and I'd rather not have to decorate a tree taller than me." 

Ryan laughed, eyes connecting with Brendon’s shining ones. "Okay, we've got some you'll like over here." 

Brendon nodded cheerily and Ryan smiled again, biting his bottom lip. He started walking again, hunching his shoulders against the sudden gust of cold wind. He heard Brendon inhale in surprise behind him. 

"Freezing out," Brendon stated and Ryan shot him an agreeing smile over his shoulder. 

"It was worse a couple of weeks ago," Ryan said grimly. 

"Yeah?" Brendon was silent for a moment before speaking again. Ryan jumped, not expecting Brendon to all of a sudden be standing right next to him, close enough for their elbows to brush. "How does one come to work in the tree business, anyway?" 

Ryan smiled, glancing at Brendon coyly. "Well, I needed some kind of job, and my friend recommended this place." 

Ryan coughed and stopped next to a cluster of trees almost exactly as tall as he was, the majority of them looking a bit worse for wear, but it wasn’t too noticeable. Brendon’s eyebrows furrowed a little as he squinted at each tree, pacing around the group slowly as if in deep concentration. Ryan smiled a little, blinking rapidly from the wind. 

“Which one would you suggest?” Brendon halted only a few paces from Ryan, close enough to for Ryan to get a bit distracted by his eyes. 

“Uh,” Ryan snapped out of his daze and looked around the group, a giddy feeling bouncing around in his stomach. It had been a while since someone had so much as attracted his eye and it was weird feeling like this. If Spencer were here he would have already staged something elaborate as to get Ryan to get Brendon’s number or something. Ryan felt a little queasy at the thought. 

“Would you like to see some of our bigger trees?” Haley suddenly appeared at Brendon’s shoulder and both boys jumped, not expecting it. Brendon cleared his throat and looked away from Ryan to settle his eyes on a grinning Haley. 

“I’m helping him, thanks,” Ryan said somewhat nastily, offsetting his tone with a smile. 

“Yes, but there are certainly bigger trees you must want to see. No one wants one of these small, scrubby looking ones.” Haley laughed, placing her hand on Brendon’s bicep as if to steer him away. Ryan stiffened and considered throwing some kind of temper tantrum demanding she leave so he can enjoy the only good thing that’s happened to him all season. 

“Actually, I wanted a small tree,” Brendon said coolly, stepping to the side and letting Haley’s hand drop. 

“Oh,” Haley said in confusion. 

“Bye,” Ryan chirped, grinning in spite of himself. Haley left with a feeble hand wave and a bewildered glance in Ryan’s direction. Brendon smiled smally, as if to himself, and Ryan’s heart maybe fluttered a little. What would he lose in asking the guy out? It’s not like they were bound to run into each other again so there would be no awkward meetings if Ryan was turned down. 

“So, which one?” Brendon pressed, stuffing his hands deeper into his pockets. 

“Oh, right, um,” Ryan cursed his stuttering and pointed one out at random. “That one.” 
The tree in question was definitely not the best of the bunch, the top most leaves were on the brown side and it drooped a bit. It wasn’t the worst either, it was kind of right in the middle. Brendon contemplated for a second before smiling broadly.