Business and Pleasure: Chapter 16

[saiya-tina.livejournal.com]

Title: Business and Pleasure
Pairing: Brad/Ryan
Rating: PG!
Summary for the chapter: Absence makes the heart grow fonder. 

Overall Summary: Brad's running his own large business and has everything but what he wants the most: someone to be there for him. After 'purchasing' Ryan from the Utopia group to serve the purpose, he slowly realizes that he's breaking their most important rule: he's falling in love with him. After two years together, two years of love, the time has come for Ryan to be taken away. The rules will change, the game will too and the three friends are going to go through the ultimate test.

A/N: Yup, new chapter....and I'll admit, it's more of filler than anything. I'm not too happy with it, but it's not all that bad. Anyway, the story is progressing now and it's gonna turn out different fo sho. So enjoy! And most likely, a new character is going to come in who'll play a vital part! Any guesses on who it'll be? :D Leave a comment!

Brad sighed as he watched the sights pass by the windows of his associate’s car. The chance of a big business deal had led to him being forced to travel to a place that held too many painful memories for him to seal the deal. If he had had the choice, he would have refused to go, but he knew that the deal was too important to be blown off. It was that reason that he was currently traveling through the streets of Paris, each building and shop acting like a dagger to his heart.

 

Two years. It had been two years since the love of his life had been cruelly snatched away from him. Two years since he had last talked to him. Two years since he had woken up with a warm, loved body at his side. Two years since he had seen the smile that made him love life all over again.

 

But the worst thing was that it had been two years since he had heard anything about Ryan. He knew that asking Drew was dangerous, especially if he caught scent of their relationship and there was no one else that he could possibly ask. No one but him and Wayne really knew who Ryan was and aside from Drew, no one knew where he was. That unknown fact was what troubled him the most. He didn’t know how Ryan was, was he being treated well or badly or if he was even alive. Sometimes, at night, his mind always conjured up scenarios of Ryan being killed by an especially cruel, faceless client. He saw Ryan, slowly bleeding to a painful death, calling out for him, asking him to save him but he couldn’t because he didn’t know where he was. Whenever he told Wayne about those dreams, Wayne often told him that the chances of that happening were bleak and Ryan was capable of taking care of himself, as he had proven over the past.

 

“He’s not defenseless,” Wayne would argue, “You’ve seen him hold his own, he’ll be fine.”

 

But Brad just wasn’t sure about that. He also knew Drew would make routine inspections on Ryan but he also knew that the signs of something being wrong were always none existent until they manifested in the worse way. He didn’t know what was worse: never seeing Ryan again or finding a Ryan who just wasn’t his Ryan.

 

His heart leapt into his throat as he passed a small ice cream stall and he remembered the first time he had been there, just two days after the incident of his birthday.

 

 

Two years earlier:

 

“Vanilla.”

 

“What?”

 

“There were over 36 other flavors, and you chose vanilla,” Ryan said slowly, as if being unable to fathom such a preposterous idea.

 

“What’s wrong with vanilla?” Brad asked with a frown, spooning out another small bit from his cup.

 

“It’s so....bland!” Ryan stared at his cup as if that would turn it into a completely new flavor.

 

“I happen to like the ‘bland’ flavor as you put it,” Brad said dryly, eyeing Ryan’s chocolate ice cream, “You took boring old chocolate.”

 

“Hey, it’s chocolate,” Ryan shrugged, eating a bit of his, “Everything’s good as long as it’s chocolate.”

 

“Chocolate is chocolate,” Brad pointed out, “All chocolate tastes the same.”

 

“Says the man with vanilla.”

 

“At least mine has no delusions of grandeur.”

 

“Yours is a cheap slut and mine is a courtesan.”

 

Brad choked on his ice cream and Ryan slapped him on the back to help, “So you’re saying I prefer cheap sluts?”

 

“Yup!” Ryan looked rather smug. Brad simply looked at him for a few seconds and grinned at the dawning indignant look on Ryan’s face.

 

“I didn’t mean myself!” he pouted.

 

“Didn’t say a word,” Brad pointed out cheerfully, which he hadn’t.

 

“Mean,” Ryan pouted even more, “You’re lucky I love you.”

 

Brad smiled this time, his hand reaching and grabbing to the back of Ryan’s head, pulling him into a kiss. He smiled as their kiss was flooded with the taste of the ice cream they had been eating and pulled back to look into Ryan’s eyes.

 

“I know it,” he said sincerely. Ryan smiled and blushed, his head ducking down before he licked his lips.

 

“Hm, maybe vanilla isn’t so bad after all,” he said thoughtfully, looking at Brad.

 

“All I know is that chocolate and vanilla are going to be my favorite flavors from now on,” Brad chuckled before looking down at his near empty cup, “How about we get a pint of both and head back to the hotel? I think I know of a nice way to cool down.”

 

“Deal.”

 

 

Present Day:

 

He let out a sigh as he remembered the taste of Ryan’s lips right after he’d had the chocolate ice cream and knew that he would give up everything he had just to experience that delicacy once more. All he wanted was to know whether he was happy, if he was safe. The lack of knowledge was more painful than the actual separation. Two years later and he still could not stop thinking about Ryan wherever he looked. He was everywhere, all around him, so close and yet just out of reach. Sometimes he would just be looking outside of his window at the garden in the back and sometimes he was sure that he would see Ryan out there, waving at him to come outside and join him. However, every time he would do so, he was met simply with a cold silent garden. And he would feel his heart break just a bit more.

 

“Mr. Sherwood?”

 

Brad blinked and saw his chauffeur for the night hold his door open with a polite smile. Brad smiled back and thanked him, stepping out and into his hotel, hoping to catch some sleep before tomorrow’s work. His first stop in his room was his bathroom to take care of a nagging problem. He changed into his night clothes before slipping into bed for at least a few hours sleep. But, like he had expected, alone in a bed in Paris while he could get a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower wasn’t about to let him sleep anytime soon. He resigned himself to his fate and decided, for once, to loosen the tight grip he kept on his memories of Ryan, allowing them to wash over him.

 

For the first time in six months, he allowed himself to remember and feel. He remembered Ryan’s eyes, the way they lit up whenever he got excited, which was quite often and how they’d get dark with passion whenever they were in bed together. He remembered his smile, how it would brighten up his day and the warmth he would feel in his chest every time he saw it. He remembered Ryan’s laugh, how he would hide his face whenever he started laughing too hard, wiping tears from his eyes, making them appear all the more brighter.

 

He remembered the feel of Ryan’s lips on his own, the feel of that warm body pressed against his, the small breathy moans that Ryan let out along his neck and shoulders, how he would always profess his love whenever they were together and how each time sounded more sincere than the other.

 

He remembered coming home one night to find Ryan asleep on the couch, having waited up for him. He remembered, covering him in a blanket, kissing his forehead and cheek and how Ryan had automatically caught his wrist and pulled him back, though he didn’t awaken. He remembered holding him close as the rare lightning storms raged outside, murmuring words of love and comfort as Ryan sniffled into his neck.

 

Most of all, he remembered that horrible ripping sensation he felt when Ryan had been forced to leave. Even though, he had so many happier memories, it always led back to that one accursed memory. He had been feeling that ripping sensation a lot over the past two years. It was like he was losing his one hold on Ryan and he didn’t like it, not one bit. As time went on, he felt as if there was nothing but a thread connecting them and that thread was getting frayed even more each day.

 

His birthday was coming up in the next month but he hadn’t celebrated it since Ryan left. The memories were too raw and painful. Every time that day rolled around, he hoped to spend it with his loved one, but he knew that could not happen. Still, it didn’t stop him from eagerly awaiting going home, to see if Ryan had come by, even if just to say hello, but that was just a fool’s hope.

 

He closed his eyes and imagined tugging on the thread that he always felt connected them, almost as if hoping that Ryan would respond to that tug, like a cheesy romance novel where the man and woman were kept apart but connected through their hearts or some other such thing. Brad always considered that nonsense, but decided he didn’t have much to lose if he didn’t try. As he had expected, he didn’t feel a thing, not a sudden vision of what Ryan was doing, not a sudden burst of warmth, not even the slightest heightening of his heartbeat. He just felt....like himself. He chuckled bitterly at the thought and decided to just depress himself to sleep like he did every night.

 

It was towards the middle of the night that he felt it. A sudden jolt through his body, like a muscle spasm and he jerked awake and upright, one hand on his now painfully beating heart. He still felt the small shockwaves from that spasm but most importantly, he felt something more potent and painful than he could ever imagine.

 

He felt the snapping of that final thread.