FanFiction.Net - unleash your imagination
| FanFiction.Net - unleash your imagination |
|
| Home Just In Communities Forums Beta Readers Dictionary Search | Login Register Extras |
Love Smells Like Peaches
Written by Desinere
Dedicated to HermioneRose, With Love. :)
Part Two:
Watching Ryan sleep in his arms, so willing to allow Chad to see him in such a weak, unguarded state, seemed to worsen Chad’s intensely guilty mood.
Was this fairly new basketball career of his worth the strain of such a long-distance relationship? He loved Ryan, loved the young man with all of his heart and every fiber of his being, and he knew that he would do nearly anything to be with him all of the time.
Though he’d never say such a thing out loud to anyone, except maybe Troy, Chad was surprised that Ryan hadn’t been secretly seeing anyone in his time away from New Mexico. He knew that Ryan had spent his time or his bed with no other; his intense show of emotions just a while before was proof enough (no matter how great of an actor the blonde was, Chad was almost always able to tell the difference between one of Ryan’s acts and his real-deal emotions), and the added backup of Gabriella having been Ryan’s sleepover buddy for many days out of a week (Troy had complained to him about this over the phone one day after his team’s big game) when Chad was absent.
So what was stopping him?
Maybe he feared that if he saw Ryan on such a regular basis that either he or Ryan would get tired of each other, and he didn’t want that to happen. What if the long distance apart from one another was the glue holding their rocky relationship together? What if the thrill of seeing each other’s smiling, relieved faces after weeks apart was the only thing going for them?
But, he argued with himself, if he really truly loved Ryan and Ryan loved him back, would that ever occur?
It wasn’t like money was a big problem in their ‘household’. Ryan’s parents frequently stocked the aspiring actor’s account with enough money to support three families of four, and Ryan had forced Chad into accepting that what was Ryan’s was Chad’s.
He shook his head to physically ward off his confusing one-sided tirade he was hosting inside of his mind. This was one of the many reasons to have friends: he would go to Troy, first thing tomorrow (after spending some… ‘quality time’ with Ryan) and discuss the matter with him. He smiled slightly in victory, and took to memorizing the way the sun hit Ryan’s paler-than-pale skin, and how rose bud-like the smaller man’s lips were.
Chad was relieved that his friends weren’t really the prying type, because if they were, he would have been bombarded by so many questions by now.
He didn’t know why he was sitting at a fun social event (as fun as a picnic could strive to be) with someone he didn’t even really know for that long. Maybe it was because he still felt some anger towards Troy, despite the brunette’s lengthy apologies to him and their other friends. Or maybe he was becoming suffocated by how much affection and flirtation Taylor smothered him with on a daily basis. But when Chad thought about it, sitting with Ryan Evans on a red-and-white-checked picnic blanket on top of a rather large hill overlooking the whole of Lava Springs somehow made sense.
He shrugged minutely to himself, and snatched another peach from the shared basket they had with them. Ryan laughed, and Chad looked up, a raised eyebrow and grin of question on his face.
“What is that, your fifteenth peach?”
“I don’t know, besides, fruits are good for you,” He emphasized the comment with a large munch of the sphere in his hand. Ryan rolled his eyes, but grinned.
“I’m not sure they’re good in the quantities you’ve been ingesting them today. Watch, you’ll be sweating out peach juice when you’re play basketball later on,” He teased, leaning back on the blanket with a smirk.
Chad nudged him with his free arm, grinning back. He smiled and looked down at everyone else who was present at this picnic affair, frowning thoughtfully.
“It’s almost five… think we should pack it up soon?” He asked disinterestedly.
“Eh,” Chad shrugged, taking another, slower bite out of his peach.
They still sat there, long after everyone had left, and they were talking about the most random things, and from past school musical productions to the worst basketball games ever played in their years at East High.
To Chad’s peach-muddled mind, the slowly descending sun looked like the great fruit featured in James and the Giant Peach. He was absently stroking the velvety skin of one of the remaining peaches, face set in a kind of half-frown. Ryan didn’t bother saying anything more about leaving, and instead he leaned back on the heels of his hands, reclining back to look at the moon beginning to show in the twilight sky. His right hand had accidentally slipped, knocking into Chad’s hand. The peach Chad had been fondling slowly rolled away from his fingertips, and Ryan quickly made to pull his hand away. With a blushing face, he muttered the beginnings of an apology, and Chad quickly grasped onto the retreating hand, tightly holding it in his own. Ryan snapped his mouth shut, and they looked at each other with slightly widened eyes, their faces overcome by the shadows of dusk. Chad leaned in closer and closer before his lips collided with Ryan’s own.
No more than a moment later, Chad forced his lips away from Ryan’s own, and looked completely embarrassed at the turn of events.
“…Sorry. I—um… I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now,” Chad mumbled nervously, letting go of Ryan’s stiff hand. He looked off to the side, staring at the tiny ant that was crawling around the edges of the picnic basket.
Ryan pulled Chad’s chin with his fingertip so that they were as eye-to-eye as they could get, and the blonde grinned softly.
“For how long?” He asked suddenly, and Chad had to blink while his brain processed the words.
“I don’t know… maybe ever since that night after the Star Dazzle award thing,”
“Oh, really? I’ve liked you for much longer than that,” He said flippantly, grinning so boisterously that Chad thought his pretty pink lips would crack from the strain.
Chad’s eyes widened and a smile sprouted and grew at those words, and before either one could acknowledge it, Chad’s mouth was attacking Ryan’s once more.
They were both sitting in one of those dingy, salmon-pink pleather booths in a pretty much empty coffee shop at four in the morning. The only server available at such an ungodly hour, looking tired, agitated and bored all at once in her rather comical waitress uniform, dragged past their table, intentionally ignoring their empty coffee cups. Chad didn’t really mind much; the coffee sucked at this hour anyway.
“Completely serious.” Chad countered, fingering an old coffee ring on the fake marble table.
“You would be willing to give up everything that you worked for in high school, just to be with Ryan twenty four-seven?” The brunette asked, blinking his sapphire eyes.
“Yes,” Chad said instantaneously, surprising Troy.
“Wow…” Troy began, leaning back in his booth seat across from Chad.
“You must really love Ryan to even consider doing that.”
“Why do you say that?” Chad asked cautiously, frowning slightly. Troy shook his head in amusement, holding up one hand.
“Don’t get me wrong pal, I don’t think it’s the wrong thing to do. But I mean, just thinking about you before the whole summer at Lava Springs, I would have never thought anything but basketball, and possibly Taylor, was on your mind.”
Chad shrugged, looking out of the window at the still-dark scenery outside. He was wearing a warm zip-up jacket because New Mexico, like any other desert-like area, tended to grow cold at night.
“Back then, nothing else was on my mind, other than basketball and scholarships,” He mused, grinning emotionlessly. His smile took on more warmth as he continued,
“But when I started to get to know him better…” He trailed off. Neither needed to hear him continue.
“So what’re you going to do?” Troy asked after a few silent minutes had passed.
“I don’t know, what do you think I should do?” Chad asked, looking back at his friend. Troy shrugged slowly, and said with a smile,
“I know I’m probably being as helpful as a paperweight, but I think you should do whatever you feel is right.”
Chad was about to say something else, but Troy suddenly got up, leaving enough money to cover both of their beverages and a three-dollar tip.
“Look, Gabi doesn’t know I’m out, and I don’t want her worrying too much if she wakes up and finds me missing,” He winked at his friend.
“And plus, I bet Ryan’ll be a little suspicious if he woke up without you cuddling him like some teddy bear.”
Chad whacked his friend on the shoulder, and they both laughed. Chad waved goodbye to Troy and he quickly loaded himself in his rather new Toyota and revved the engine.
Still slightly dazed, Ryan blinked and frowned up at Chad.
“Where were you?” He grumbled out, letting go of Chad’s hand to rub at his eyes.
“Troy and I went out for a cup of coffee,” He said offhand, sititng on the couch next to Ryan and pushing the boy’s head down into his lap. He began to rub at Ryan’s temples, and Ryan sighed in contentment as he slipped his eyes closed.
“Coffee, at four in the morning? Why am I getting the feeling that you’re leaving a big piece of the puzzle out?”
“Don’t worry about it, I’m home now,” Chad whispered, kissing Ryan’s forehead.
They both wound up drifting off to sleep on the couch, and they didn’t wake up until much later into the day.
“I know what I’m doing, Coach. I’ve seriously considered the consequences of this.”
Ryan was occupying himself with his character’s scripts for an upcoming play he was starring in, so he wasn’t in the kitchen where Chad was on his cell phone, talking to his basketball team’s coach.
After a rather long pause, Chad sighed sadly, and licked his lips.
“Coach, I can’t. I’m going to have to leave the team, and that’s final. It’s tearing my life up too much, having to go across the country for games.”
“I know. Yeah. Thanks; I’ll give you a final word in a few weeks. Bye.” With that, he closed his cell phone, hitting the tabletop with his fist.
“Who was that?” Ryan asked hesitantly, leaning against the doorway’s frame. Chad gave a small jump at the sound of his voice, and pocketed his phone with a small smile.
“I was just talking to my basketball coach.”
“About?” Ryan asked, parting from the wall and slowly walking over to Chad’s side. He ran one hand down Chad’s bare arm, and Chad grasped Ryan’s trailing fingers, and held them in his own as he smiled softly at his boyfriend.
“Well, I’m going to have a vacation for a few weeks, and we can spend time together.” Ryan’s eyes lit up, but he still kept a blank, slightly confused looking expression on his face.
“A vacation? Why?”
“I’ll talk to you later about it, but for right now, how about you pack your bags? We’re going on a trip.”
“A trip?” Ryan asked with enthusiasm, nearly bouncing up and down from his contained happiness and excitement.
Ryan had constantly prodded at Chad for information about his career during said vacation, and eventually, Chad gave in one night, after they’d ingested a modest amount of alcohol. He spilled to Ryan about wanting to quit his job to be closer to the blond, and he told Ryan how worried he was that what they had was only staying together because of the constant distance, and he told (and later on, showed) Ryan just how much Chad loved him.
After that, Ryan had seemed distracted, kept to himself and somewhat sad, and Chad worried that Ryan didn’t want Chad with him all of the time. When Chad voiced his worries, Ryan smiled lovingly at Chad, petted his massive head of hair, and shook his head, whispering countless phrases of love and devotion into the darker boy’s ear.
The night before they’d had to depart from Greece to return to their apartment in New Mexico, they went to a very exclusive, very Renaissance style restaurant, complete with fancy candelabras and hard-to-pronounce wine brands. They sat in a reserved section, their table only accompanied by two other couples in the area. Once they’d finished off their desserts, Chad had presented Ryan with a small, dark green velvet jewelry box, one that usually contained rings, and smiled nervously as Ryan opened it up slowly, confusion engraved on his face.
“It’s never going to be official in the States, but…” Chad trailed off; watching as Ryan carefully opened the box. Inside sat a simple but elegant white gold ring, with two small, identical diamonds set in place surrounding one sapphire that, when held up in front of Ryan, was the exact shade of his eyes. Small swirls were etched into the metal, seeming to hug and wrap themselves around the three precious stones. Ryan, at first, looked completely devoid of thought, then flabbergasted realization swept over his features, followed quickly by a look of tearful disbelief.
“I know that I love you… and I’m pretty sure I want to spend the rest of my life with you, making you happier than the day before. I want to get an actual house with you, buy a dog with you, and maybe even have a kid or two,” Chad mumbled, smiling with embarrassment staining his cheeks and tears shining in his eyes, increased tenfold by the power possessed by the flickering flames of the trio of candles set in front of them.
“Basically…” He started, and, surprising Ryan, he slowly picked up the opened box, the ring facing the still disbelieving Ryan, and got on one knee in front of the other man, holding onto one hand as he looked into those captivating eyes.
“Will you ‘marry’ me?”
Ryan swallowed after trying several times to say something, and had a never-faltering grin on his face.
He tugged on Chad’s arm to bring the other closer to him, and, putting the ring on the table, he whispered,
“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, I will marry you!”
Chad grinned as a tearful Ryan kissed his lips over and over again, and they both went home shortly after to have a proper ‘celebration’.
Once they got home, Chad’s basketball coach was still waiting on Chad’s final answer. He dialed his coach’s number and informed the man that he wouldn’t be playing on the team anymore, and that he wished them all the best in future endeavors. The coach, though crestfallen, wished Chad the same and requested that they still meet up every so often whenever the team was in town.
After a few months went by, it was known by all of their friends and family that Ryan and Chad were engaged. Sharpay, who had grown milder over the next few years, took Chad into a separate room one night after a family dinner, and warned Chad to take good care of Ryan, for the sake of his sanity. Chad agreed hastily, looking uncomfortable, and once he did, Sharpay laughed and tackled him down with a hug. Ryan had walked in at this point and, with his arms folded smugly against his chest, said,
“Trying to steal my boyfriend away from me, Shar? How cruel of you!”
His ring finger had a pale silver ring around it, and it sparkled happily in the light of the room. Sharpay rolled his eyes, called him a Drama Queen, and left the two of them alone in Ryan’s old bedroom, closing the door behind her with a slightly devious smirk.
The two didn’t emerge from the bedroom for a solid forty-five minutes, and they both came out with identical expressions of satisfaction, and not to mention slightly flushed faces.
The Evans family insisted on providing a proper (as proper as it could be) wedding ceremony, and it was hosted on a lovely autumn evening, in the expansive land they owned in New Mexico. Many relatives and family friends came to the event, and once the ceremony was over, the after-party was filled with hours of laughing, memory sharing, cheek-pinching-and-kissing, hugging, eating, drinking, and happy tears.
Once everyone (or nearly everyone, as Gabriella, Troy, Sharpay, and Zeke planned on staying for a week or so at the Evans Mansion) left the party scene, the whole thing was packed up and straightened until it looked like no party of the sort had happened.
After spending a week and three days at the Evans Mansion with their friends, the two boys went on their pre-paid honeymoon trip (courtesy of both of their parents) to the Caribbean for eight nights and nine days.
“Remember to behave and listen to your teacher, okay sweetie?” He told the petite child, patting her head softly and kissing her forehead. Her eyes dancing with mischief and happiness, the girl was quick to nod, and she gave a toothy, well, more like the lack thereof, grin up at Chad, and Chad obediently bent down to give the small toddler a kiss and a large, warm hug. She giggled and once Chad set her back down, her feet safely on the pavement, the girl waved once more at the pair before turning and running off to the bus that was stalled a few feet away.
“Bye papa, bye daddy!” She squealed out exuberantly before her tiny head disappeared into the bus’s interior.
“Bye, Gracie!” Chad called as Ryan timidly smiled and waved back at her.
“I packed her lunch in her book bag, right?” Ryan mumbled to Chad absently, frowning as his nervous, shifty blue eyes watched the large yellow automobile close its doors after the girl had hopped in.
“Yes, you did,” Chad repeated, not voicing the fact that Ryan had asked him this at least fifteen times, and that he had unpacked and repacked that enthusiastically pink Hello Kitty backpack over a dozen times earlier. He grinned down at the fretful man he’d come to love so much and draped one arm across his small shoulders, pulling him close to his side.
“Grace will be perfectly fine on her own, you know,” Chad reminded Ryan, the both of them still watching the back of the bus as it turned around the corner at the end of the street. Ryan, as if snapped out of a dream, looked up at Chad and smiled softly, grasping the hand that was on his shoulder as he replied,
“I know, but it just seems like she’s growing up too fast for me.”
“I know what you mean. I mean, soon she’ll be going to elementary school, and then comes middle school along with her teenage years and boys, and then there’s high school… and don’t forget, college isn’t too far off either.” Chad teased, laughing as Ryan playfully bumped his hips against Chad’s.
“Don’t get me started.” Was all he said.
“So,” Chad began abruptly, smiling as he moved his hand to hold onto Ryan’s.
“What do you say to a quick walk through town?” Ryan grinned, and nodded his approval.
“But let me run in the house for a sec, I need to get my hat.” He winked at that, and Chad laughed at Ryan’s retreating form.
So here’s the final part of Love Smells Like Peaches. I think I kind of crammed in this chapter, but I didn’t feel like making this a three-shot. I hoped you all liked this! And for your information, just in case I didn’t make it obvious, not too long after they got married, they wound up adopting a little girl that they named Grace. I figured that they got her right after she was born, and, to show gratitude to the mother, they let her name the little girl. I wasn’t really sure what to call her, but once I described how she looked, my head just blurted out, ‘Grace’.
I plan on releasing one more one-shot in the very near future, in commemoration for the Halloween holidays, even though they’ve passed. I have some of it written, but I don’t know when I’ll get back to it. My life is currently very hectic, so I can’t rightly say when I’ll be able to get to it. Sorry for the long wait!!
Desinere.