Warnings: pure FLUFF
Word count: 2 917
A/N: Guess who (almost) forgot it was Ryan's birthday again! Me! And yet I managed to write something in time... puh.
Ryan and you had been dating for a couple of weeks only when your friend Z, who had introduced you to each other, secretly told you it would be his birthday soon. For a while you had been nervous about it, not sure, what you wanted to get him. After all you were dating, but not long enough that you had a proper idea of what he might want for his birthday.
From the beginning on you had known that it could not just be something ordinary, so with the help of Z, you had spent an afternoon raiding every small store and boutique for things to spark your ideas, and in the end you had found an old, second hand, but in fantastic condition edition of his favourite novel, and an enamel pin for the vest he loved to wear.
Now you were standing in front of his door, nervously stepping from one foot to the other. It was Friday morning, and even though the blinds on the ground floor were not closed, those on the second floor, where his bedroom was located, were. So, was he still asleep? Had he forgotten to pull back the blinds when he had gotten up?
With your elbow you pushed back the bag that was slung over your shoulder, and contained the two presents, while you were holding a box with the home made muffins. You had spent way too long on decorating the four little cakes, making each one of them into their own piece of art.
With a sigh you threw a quick glance at your watch. Maybe Ryan really was still asleep, so you definitely would not ring, in order not to wake him. It probably would be best if you would come back around noon. After all you were supposed to go out together with him and his friends for lunch.
You had turned around and walked back towards your car, when suddenly a window opened behind you.
"(y/n)?"
Quickly you turned around, seeing how Ryan was poking his head through the bathroom window on the second floor. He was wearing a white shirt, and his brown locks were a wet, dishevelled mess on his head; he must have been showering.
"Hey," you greeted, suddenly feeling embarrassed that he had caught you sneaking away.
"What're you doing here? I thought we were only meeting for lunch," he asked, reaching for a towel, which he used to rub his hair dry.
"I wanted to surprise you," you admitted, holding up the box with the muffins, "happy birthday."
Ryan's eyes grew wide, and a smile spread over his face.
"How did you know," he asked, leaning against the window still, obviously flattered.
"Z may have told you," you laughed, making him grin.
"Sounds like her," he giggled, "I'm letting you in, wait a sec."
He disappeared from the window, and you quickly walked back to the front door which jumped open only seconds later.
"Hey there," he whispered, wrapping you in a warm hug.
His hair was still moist, and so was his skin. He smelled of the shampoo which you found yourself liking more and more with every time you smelled it on him.
"I got something for you," you told him, once he had pulled you through the door.
Ellwod and Dottie came running down the stairs to welcome you as well, and you quickly patted their heads before you set down the box with the muffins on a side board, and reached for the wrapped book and the pin in your bag, handing both little packages to him.
"Whoa, you didn't have to," Ryan mumbled as you handed him the gifts.
But it seemed like he was not even really interested in the presents, because he immediately hugged you again, kissing you softly.
"Thank you for thinking of me," he mumbled against your lips.
"What do you think I'm doing all day long," you joked, "Come on, open them."
Hesitantly Ryan pulled back, and tore the scot tape off the paper in which the book was wrapped. The look of surprise on his face, when he recognized the book, made you giggle. Amazed he turned it between his hands, running his fingers over the fabric of the spine, and opening it to feel the fragile paper.
"How did you find this, this edition is ancient," he exclaimed happily.
"Old book store," you confessed, making him grin.
"I've been trying to find this edition for ages, and you just go to a store, and buy it like that," he shook his head with a smile, kissing you again.
"This one is just something very small, but I thought you might enjoy it," you told him when he went to unwrap the pin.
Carefully he pulled away the packaging paper you had used, and the smile on his face said more than a thousand words as he weighted the pin, designed like a dog that resembled Dottie very much, in his hands.
"It's perfect," he grinned, and quickly went to put it on the vest that held already more than half a dozen other pins.
Then he skipped back to you, taking hold of your face with both of his hands, and kissed you deeply, until you pulled away in need of air. You giggled and playfully pushed him, which made him grab your hands, and pull you right back into him, where he wrapped his arms around you, and lifted you up, making you squeal. Teasingly he allowed your feet to dangle in the air for a few seconds before he put you back down.
"Did you have breakfast already," you wondered, allowing Ryan to guide you into the kitchen, the dogs following you.
"Nope, just got up," he answered, and sat down on top of the kitchen table.
Dottie and Elwood lay down by the kitchen isle.
"So how about I make some pancakes, or crêpes, whatever you prefer, and you just sit there and relax," you already strode over to the fridge, before Ryan had even answered.
"You can make crêpes," he asked wide eyed, and you nodded, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Sure thing, should I make some?"
Ryan nodded enthusiastically, and watched you closely as you skipped around his kitchen, searching together the utensils you needed. Last week you had made a cake together, so you knew your way around.
As he sat on the table, watching you mixing the batter from eggs, milk and flour, he wondered how he had deserved someone as perfect as you.
Of course Z had not lied when she had told him that you were incredibly pretty, but it had made him suspicious. A pretty face often hid an ugly character, but it was easy to tell that you were very different.
You had been a little shy in the beginning, but did not keep quiet when you disagreed with something, which had impressed him immediately. And once you had warmed up around him, he could not help but keep wondering how he had made it this far in life without you around.
You were impossibly funny, always ready for a joke, you did not judge him, when his own hesitation caused him to be slow with making decisions, you were always listening to everything he said, and you even remembered such small details like exact edition of this novel he had been looking for, even though he was sure he had only mentioned once. And it could not have been Z's doing either, because she had not even known about this.
He smiled slightly. Yeah, he was really lucky to have you.
You even turned up on his doorstep on the morning of his birthday, carrying presents, and then just continued making breakfast. And you had been dating for how long? Not even two months? Admittedly, it had been a little weird that you had not discussed birthdays yet, but then again, you had been taking things slowly. After all the stuff Ryan had gotten himself into with past relationships because he had been rushing, he had decided he wanted to do it right this time.
And that someone, who he was together with, appreciated this, made him really happy. He knew that you had not much experience, and the little you had, had ended badly, so when he had suggested going slowly, you had been thankful for it.
But watching you standing in his kitchen, skilfully beating the batter, while the pan was ready to heat up on the stove... he did not really want to wait for anything anymore. He wanted you to move in with him, wanted you around 24/7. Then again, exactly this was what had always made things so weird in the past. He could not make things weird with you. Not with you. Not when something, someone, finally felt so right in his life. He could not risk that. And he would not.
Of course, he would still hate watching you walk away from him in the evening, but maybe, since it was his birthday, he could convince you to stay over.
Or you could take a vacation, a long weekend. You could drive along the coast, up to a small village, where you could spend the weekend by the seaside, watching the sun set over the ocean. Or you could go to the mountains, you could make crêpes in the morning, and Ryan would cook something delicious for dinner, and you could cuddle on the porch while listening to the trees surrounding the cabin.
Lost in his thoughts, he had not noticed how you were almost finished preparing the crêpes. Only when you called his name, he snapped back into reality.
"You were dreaming," you smiled, running your hand over his bare forearm as you went to place down two plates on the table, one for each of you. "Do you have anything other to put on the crepes than the jam in the fridge?"
"Yeah, sure," Ryan jumped off the table and went to fetch some honey and a jar of Nutella from the shelf, "Sorry I didn't help."
"There wasn't anything you could've helped with anyway," you smiled softly, "And you seemed to be happy with what you were thinking about."
"Was thinking about you," he admitted, and watched delighted as a small blush rose on your cheeks.
Hell, it should be forbidden to be this cute.
"Charmer," you mumbled, trying to sound annoyed, but your smile gave you away.
Together you finished setting the table, and you remembered the muffins you had left in the hallway. So while you went to fetch them, while Ryan made coffee, trying not to fall over the two dogs, which had gotten up and now walked between his feet.
Once everything was prepared, you enjoyed breakfast together, talking quietly. Underneath the table, Ryan tangled his legs with yours, which made you smile fondly, and every other minute you brushed the soft fur of one of the dogs. When you finally revealed the little pieces of art you had turned the muffins into, Ryan was once again speechless.
You had decorated each one of them with a sugary sweet cream, and out of what he assumed was caramel you had poured four different shapes, one for each muffin. And to top it all off, you had sprinkled them with chocolate sprinkles, and added cut strawberries as decoration. This once again left Ryan wondering how you were not only so creative and talented to pull this off, but also lovely enough to go through the effort of making this for his birthday.
After you had cleaned the dishes, and put the kitchen back into a presentable state, Ryan suggested you should sit outside, before the weather got too hot. So you sat on the upholstered bench on the porch, looking out over the small back yard. Elwood and Dottie had immediately walked into the grass and flopped down into the warm sunshine.
Neither of you talked; instead you watched birds and insects drink from the bowls of water that were standing in the middle of the grass. Occasionally you both giggled quietly when one of the birds was bathing in one of the bird baths, splashing around wildly.
"You know, I was thinking," Ryan eventually broke the silence.
Curiously you looked up at him. You had lain down on the bench, your head resting in his lap while his fingers combed through your hair gently, sometimes causing you to hum softly at his touch.
"I mean, it's still a little time until then, like, two months, which is longer than we've been together, but maybe, if you like, we could, of course only if you feel comfortable-"
He stopped when he saw your raised eyebrows.
"Just spit it out, I won't bite your head of, probably," you giggled, reaching up and gently caressed his cheek.
"Halloween is on a Thursday this year. If Z's dragging us to that party as she promised, you could take Friday off of work, and we could go on a long weekend, drive up the coast, spend a couple of days up there, just hanging out, doing nothing. What do you think?"
When he glanced down to you shyly, he found you were smiling widely at him.
"I'd love that," you told him, making him smile just as widely back at you.
Quickly you sat up to kiss him. His lips were soft and tasted like Nutella and coffee from the breakfast. It still took your breath away, when you kissed him, even if it was only a tiny peck. But this was not a peck, and it definitely was not tiny.
Ryan relaxed against your touch for a while, trying to get his heart not to jump out of his chest, before he lifted you into his lap, allowing him to wrap his arms around your waist, while you buried one of your hands in his locks, weaving the chocolate coloured strands around your fingers.
Over the past weeks you had noticed how kissing him had started to feel different. In the beginning every kiss had been nervous, and even once the initial insecurities had subsided, there had always been tension in Ryan, the kind that would eventually manifest in aching shoulders.
You had even felt it when he was simply around you, as if he was always on the lookout for something bad to happen. But during the past two, three weeks, this tension had started to melt away, and kissing him, here on the bench in his garden, felt like he was completely relaxed for the first time. His body was soft and warm underneath you, and more than ever before you had the feeling that this was where you were supposed to be in the universe, at his side. You did not exactly believe in fate, but this... it just fit.
Where the kiss had started out as passionate and demanding, it subsided soon into something calmer, and for what could well have been hours, but felt like minutes, you had just been sitting there, foreheads gently leant against each other, noses brushing, breath fanning over skin, and occasionally a soft kiss got pressed to the other's lips, causing both of you to smile before you went back to just looking at each other, to soaking in and enjoying each other's presence.
The peaceful moment was rudely interrupted by the door bell, which caused both of you to shoot apart.
"Who's that," you wondered, following Ryan who had already gotten up.
When you walked into house, you saw that it was already past noon. You had completely lost track of time.
"Uh, I think it's the other guys, we wanted to go for lunch, remember," he recalled, already walking to open the door before you stopped him.
"Wait," quickly you smoothed out his hair, which you had completely messed up, and adjusted the collar of the shirt he was wearing. That his lips were still pink and slightly swollen from all the kissing was not going to be changed that quickly, so you shrugged it off, and gave him the okay to open up the door.
Except that he quickly leant over to kiss you again, sending your mind, yet again into a haze. Only the aggressive ringing of the doorbell managed to distract you, and Ellwood, followed by Dottie, came running down the hallway, excited to see who was being kept outside for so long.
With a smirk Ryan took your hand, and opened the door, in front of which his friends had waited to pick him up. When they saw he had finally opened up, they all started cheering, and singing happy birthday for him. He laughed and embarrassedly tried to hide his face in the crook of your neck.
Only audible to your ears he whispered: "Okay, we've done the social part, I want to be alone with you again, and cuddle."
You giggled and shook your head, pushing him away from you and towards his friends.
"You'll have to wait 'till after Halloween," you replied just as quietly, just for him to hear.
Sending you a challenging glance and a sigh, Ryan eventually accepted his fate, and grabbed his keys and purse, before he put the dogs on leashes and walked them out of the door, so his friends could drag him out for his birthday lunch. You followed him smiling.