Fake Fan Fiction ❯ Verge of Something Wonderful ❯ Long Dark Ride ( Chapter 8 )

Notes: I apologize for the extremely short chapter, I had a bit of mishap and managed to lose half a chapter. Rather than making everyone wait while I retype it I've decided to go ahead and post what I had and play catch up later.

 

Thank you to everyone who is reading. Again my apologies for the long lag between chapters and the abbreviated nature of this chapter.

_________________________________________________________________ ____________________

 

 

Ryo watched the world swim past in dark blurs and swirling patterns of the blackness of the trees slipping past. He wanted to go home. He wanted to get the hell out of this place and back into his own environment. His mind was in a worse mess than before Chief had sent him on this trip. Sourly he wondered if the Chief would have deemed any of this `progress' or not. Was it progress to find yourself doubting yourself, your beliefs and what you considered to be appropriate behavior while trying to fight down an absolutely traitorous body that had no problem disregarding anything his brain had to say?

 

Dee didn't understand what he was doing to him. Or, hell, maybe Dee did and he was the only one who wasn't able to get with the program. It wasn't fair. Ryo didn't want to be gay but nobody else surrounding him seemed to give a damn about his opinion. He'd love to scream at Dee, to tell him that ever since he made it his mission to pursue him that none of the females in their building flirted with him anymore. That it made him mad, that it infuriated him that because of Dee and Rose he wasn't allowed to define who he was anymore, he was just the caricature of what they wanted him to be and no longer a person in control of his own image.

 

Damn them anyway. Damn them both for making him have to think about these things in the first place. Ryo sighed to himself, focusing on his own dim reflection in the window, his own sad eyes impossibly large and slightly warped in the glass. Just behind him he could see Dee's thigh and his arm, the hand, long and elegant on the steering wheel. It crossed his mind what J.J. would be doing if he were here instead of Ryo. He wouldn't be staring out the window with his body pressed hard to the door trying to get as much distance between himself and Dee as possible. No, he'd be pressed right against that lean, hard thigh, and trying to find a way to get in Dee's lap without causing a wreck.

 

J.J. knew what he wanted, why didn't he? Why couldn't it be easy? Ryo wanted things to be easy. And calm. Or at least he used to think that was what he wanted. Now he didn't know. Just thinking about a life that didn't involve Dee seemed so lackluster he couldn't even begin to imagine it now. He couldn't imagine a wife or a girlfriend in his future anymore. He couldn't think of any point in his experiences where kissing a woman had even come close to what it felt like when Dee kissed him. He had known something was missing when he had been with women but leave it to Dee to burn through and make it abundantly clear just what was missing.

 

And leave it to Rose to make it just as abundantly clear that his body's reactions were something reserved for Dee and Dee alone. Ryo thought to himself that Dee actually owed Rose quite a lot and just didn't know it, not that Rose would appreciate the lessons Ryo was learning from him. Ryo settled back into his seat and went back to watching the trees go by, here and there giving way to houses the closer they got to Rincon. He was hungry, tired, cranky, and a stubborn residual of fear still coated his nerves. He could use a calm night but he very much doubted that Dee intended to let him have one.

 

Across from him Dee drove on through the darkness, appreciating the power of the car he was in and watching the ditches carefully for any sign of deer or other animals that might dart into his path. They were almost to town now and hopefully to food and a place to rest. He didn't think Tank was actually asleep in the back anymore, once or twice he was sure he had caught her eyes open even as her body was still relaxed and gently rocking in the back seat. She was probably the type of person that could catnap and not need an alarm to wake her up. Ryo was certainly still with him but something about the way he held his body kept Dee from talking to him. Ryo was thinking again. Ryo did that far too much and tied himself up in ridiculously tangled emotional knots. So Dee had held his tongue and pretended that he didn't know Ryo had been watching him in the windows reflection.

 

Knots upon knots upon thorny knots. Dee didn't have these knots, he just wasn't that sort of person, the worst knots he had involved him being unsure of Ryo and becoming stupidly tongue tied around his partner when it was something important about their relationship. Ryo was such a beautiful problem. He just couldn't make things easy on himself no matter how many times Dee gave him the opportunity. It was maddening but it was Ryo and Dee wanted Ryo to be who he was. Even if it did drive him crazy from time to time.

 

Pulling into the town proper Tank stirred in the back seat, her voice breaking the silence in the car giving Dee instructions to a Microtel they could stay at for the night. Dee pulled the car into a parking space putting the car in park and let himself out of the vehicle. Time for a cigarette, way past time. Dee nursed the cigarette while Ryo went with Tank to get them a room. The night air was humid, it made him feel like the smoke was sticking to his clothes and skin, coating him rather than dispersing in the air. Dee leaned up against the car and attempted to blow the smoke further away from him.

 

Slow minutes passed while he stood there in the dark thinking about nothing and being uncomfortable in the heat. By the time Ryo and Tank walked back towards him his shirt was clinging damply to his chest and he was pretty sure Ryo was safe from any sort of molestation for the night because his jeans felt like they were now permanently glued to his body.

 

It seemed like forever before he saw them coming back towards him. Tank walked up and stuck her hand out, wiggling her fingers and her palm up. Dee dutifully handed over the keys. Her fingers curled around them and she gave him a smile and a nod in thanks.

 

“Pretty boy tells me that your wanting to have Krystals for dinner tonight. So I'm going to go an obtain said Krystals and come back with the booty in hand.” Tank winked and slid into her car. Dee stood with Ryo and watched her pull back out into the night.

 

“Why does she call me pretty boy?” Ryo wondered out loud. Dee laughed before he could think better of it.

 

“What?” Ryo asked. “You're much prettier than I am.” He said folding his arms over his chest. Dee declined to elaborate instead he grabbed one of Ryo's elbows and pulled him towards the entrance and the air conditioning it promised.

 

“Why indeed my Ryo, why indeed.”