The How
Author: ipywp
Title: The How
Pairings: Colin/Ryan
Rating: R
Disclaimer: Don't own, et cetera.
Summary: Sometimes you just have to let things happen the way they will and hope everything works out.
The first time I saw him, I didn’t take much notice. By that, I mean as little as can be given to someone so obscenely tall.
It’s easy to just pass a person in the street, you know? I barely looked at him; I try not to look at anybody, but I couldn’t help noticing that he was taller even than I was. He was looking at me – I could tell – but I’ve never been good at receiving attention.
And I didn’t know what he might want, so I kept walking. I kept walking and I didn’t even look back.
***
After that, I started seeing him around. Not by choice, obviously; by accident. I saw him once while I was out doing my grocery shopping. I saw him once while I was driving; he came past in the opposite direction, driving a white pickup truck. I saw him in various other places at various other times.
Some of the times, I don’t think he saw me. So I would presume that there were also times when he saw me but not vice versa. That is, assuming he noticed me like I started noticing him.
How that happened, I don’t know.
***
His height first drew me to him, but as I noticed him more, other details started to stand out. Not only was he tall, but thin too. His fingers were long and tapered. His feet were huge and he wore awful shoes.
Still, despite paying enough attention to notice these things, it scared the life out of me when a white pickup truck pulled up beside me as I was on my way home. He leaned out of the window and asked me, "Want a ride?"
The weird thing about it is that I didn’t even consider refusing. "Sure. Thanks."
***
"Where are you going?"
He had just offered me, a complete stranger, a lift home, and he still managed to sound like he didn’t care one way or the other where I needed to go. "It’s not far," I said. "Five minutes, maybe."
He might have shrugged, but I wasn’t looking at him. I was trying desperately to do anything but.
However, I did look at him when he drove straight past my road, utterly confused and a bit unnerved; he just shrugged again. "Why don’t you come back to mine for a beer? I get bored on my own."
***
It’s strange, but demanding he let me out of his truck was the last thing that came to mind. I found the idea of spending some time with this man appealing, and I didn’t want to turn it down.
Although I tried to relax in my seat, I couldn’t do it.
"I see you sometimes."
I licked my lips nervously. "I know. I see you sometimes too."
Perhaps I should have been afraid that he was going to murder me or worse, but the thought honestly never occurred to me.
"Is that why you trust me?"
I shrugged that time.
***
When he’d led me up to his apartment, given me a can of beer and dropped himself beside me on his couch, he turned and looked straight at me with unmasked curiosity.
"What’s your name?"
I took a drink. "Colin." And another. "What’s yours?"
"Ryan," he said, before letting out a short laugh. "I figured you’d know that already."
I found that I loved the sound of his voice, and I needed to keep talking so that I could keep hearing it. "I’m not a stalker."
Then he smiled at me, and I had to smile back. I was… charmed.
***
Many more cans of beer later, the two of us were lounged across his couch, tangled together and laughing at nothing. I’d never felt so at ease with someone I’d never met before.
"Hey, Ryan?" I prodded him, loving the sound of his name on my tongue. "You have beautiful eyes."
It was true. Over the course of the evening, I’d noticed several things about him. His beautiful, expressive eyes were one of them. I’d also noticed that his smile was contagious. And that he was very comfortable with physical contact.
He blinked, then laughed and said, "So do you."
***
I laughed with him and opened another can, because I didn’t know what I could say to that. It wasn’t the reaction I’d been expecting – although, I wasn’t sure what exactly I’d been expecting.
Not that, at any rate.
Then he was looking at me, and something peculiar passed through his eyes. His beautiful, expressive eyes. I couldn’t pinpoint what it was but I know it filled me with anticipation, and I stared right back at him.
We were so close. I couldn’t remember when that happened either. Still, perplexed as I was, I stopped caring when he kissed me.
***
Before that moment, I’d never known a simple kiss to be mind-blowing.
At least, it started off as a simple kiss, but Ryan wasn’t a believer in taking things slowly. When I felt his tongue push past my lips I couldn’t help but let out a groan, and before I could get used to it his hands wanted in on the action too. They never seemed to linger in the same place twice.
We never made it away from the couch.
As it turned out, I somehow stayed the night. And, somehow, I wanted it as much as he did.
***
I was confused at first, waking up in an untidy apartment, lying in a very uncomfortable position with another man’s arms wrapped around my middle.
Fortunately, I didn’t completely freak out before I remembered. My tense moments of recollection, however, had managed to disturb Ryan out of his rest.
He stared down at me for a long, sleepy moment and I was almost afraid he would throw me out. Then he grinned, and settled back down beside me, and I relaxed again.
It was an admittedly far from perfect night, but one that, without a doubt, I would happily relive.