wl_fanfiction | A Strange Escape 4/14 (Reply)

charminglygawky.livejournal.com posting in

Title – A Strange Escape.
Chapter – 4/14
Author – Charminglygawky
Pairing - Ryan/Colin
Rating – for the most part about a 15 for swearing. That may change. - er probably will... later.
Disclaimer – I own nothing but a very disturbed mind.
Feedback – Adored

Part 4 of my insane fic - key point is Colin is English - did I mention that I have a deranged imagination? And my first attempt at writing games... there's some better ones in the next part!
As ever thanks to jerluvsdean for her help and encouragement. XD

A/N – Colin is dissatisfied with life, does Greg hold the key?

Apparently Greg’s scanty description of improv was not enough to cut the mustard with these improv professionals. They had, it seemed, spent several hours ritually humiliating me with their quick flashes of wit followed by my bumbling attempts to copy them.

Ryan had suggested a game called ‘If you know what I mean.’ It had been an unmitigated disaster. It had the others in stitches but I was thoroughly miserable as I sat in the room I was sharing with Greg and waited for my turn in the bathroom.

Greg emerged eventually in a cloud of steam and sighed when he saw me. “You were pretty good you know.” He started.

I shook my head “No, I was awful, I made a fool of myself.”

“That’s it in one. That’s what we do; we go out in front of a paying audience and we make fools of ourselves to make them laugh. Cool or what?” He seemed genuinely excited by the prospect.

“Yeah, but you guys were creating laughs, you were laughing at me because I was so bad.”

“Were we?” He quirked a quizzical eyebrow at me, “anyway you got the biggest laughs.”

But I refused to be comforted and stamped off into the bathroom for a shower, Greg chuckled in an exasperated sort of way and let me go. The shower was refreshing, if a bit cool, again damn Greg but my mood did not improve. Greg worked out my mood pretty quickly and escaped into the relative safety of sleep. Leaving me to brood.

I tried to copy him, but just like with the improv I couldn’t, I just lay very still in a poor imitation. Sighing in tired frustration I left the room, resisting the temptation to hit things and slam the door I headed for the small park that we had driven past on the way to the motel. It was late so the park was deserted when I got there; I sat on the only bench and looked out over the duck pond whose only occupants appeared to be a half submerged plastic bag and an assortment of cans.

I kicked at the ground and glared at the bag; I thought Canada was meant to be beautiful.

“Hey.” Came a soft voice from behind me, I nearly fell off the bench in shock, a firm hand grabbed me as a voice from behind my left ear laughed “Oops, sorry.”

I turned to glare at Ryan, breathing hard and trying to get my heart rate back under control “Jesus, warn me before you do that!”

He laughed again settling himself down next to me on the bench “And how am I meant to do that?”

I opened my mouth to reply before realising that there was no response. I hadn’t known he was there so any way in which he had announced himself I would still have jumped. But I wasn’t going to admit defeat that easily. “Make a sound like a duck.”

His face crinkled slightly and I could heat laughter in his voice as he questioned me “Duck?”

“Yeah duck, you expect to hear ducks in parks, you wouldn’t have been so damn surprising.” I explained patiently.

He gave up on control and laughed openly his whole body creasing up as he slapped his thigh, I watched bemused but happy.

Eventually he pulled himself together enough to gasp out “And you said you’d never heard of improv, you’re a natural!”

Instantly I felt the jovial mood he’d created flow away from me and the depressed emotions returned in their stead. “No need to rub it in.” I muttered.

Ryan seemed to sense my change in mood and sobered instantly.

“Col?” I almost smiled at the shortening of my name but failed. “What’s up?”

“I know I was awful alright. You don’t need to rub it in.” I was again regarding the bag in the glorified mud puddle.

“Ohhh.” I heard from my companion as a gentle sigh of understanding. “You think you sucked.”

“I know I did.” I confirmed miserably.

“You really didn’t you know. I think you’re a bit of a natural actually.”

He sounded sincere but I wasn’t falling for it that easily. “If you say so.”

“I do.”

“You guys were so much better than me.”

Even in the dark of the park I could see him roll his eyes. “Colin we are professionals, you had never even heard of improv before and you did fine. What do you think that shows?”

I looked at him in dawning belief “But I mean I really ‘sucked’ as you put it. It’ll take me years to get as good as you.”

He ran his hand through his hair, “I did not say you sucked, I’ve been trying to persuade you that you didn’t. Yeah, you could do with some practice but I think that you could be really very good in much less time than you think.”

“But...” I was still morose.

“But what?”

“I wanted to do something whilst with you guys, I wanted to be part of something and not just the guy who carries the bags.”

I felt a hand on my shoulder, it forced me to look up and meet his gaze in the gloom.

“Come on then.”

I looked at him in complete bemusement “Where?”

“No, I mean let’s practice. See just how quick you learn.”

The grin that split my face was huge, and his answering grin was wonderful. “You want to help me?” I queried.

“Course, you’d do the same for me.”

“So where do we start?”

“Normally with the basics, but with you I’m not so sure.”

“Why not?”

“We threw you in to sink or swim earlier and you swam. So I think we’ll start with a game, see how you go.”

I thought back to ‘If you know what I mean’ and shuddered “Ok then.” I bravely squared my shoulders, briefly.

He chuckled, let’s try 90 second alphabet, you can do that with just two people, though we won’t worry about the timing. The aim of the game is to perform a scene using each letter of the alphabet. In the shows we let the audience choose the scene and the start letter. So if they chose the letter ‘R’ then my first sentence would begin with the letter ‘R’ then you’d start the next sentence with the letter ‘S’, then I’d have ‘T’ and so on till we got back to ‘R’. Get it?”

I nodded.

“Right, well to keep it simple we’ll start from ‘A’, it’s remarkable how much of a difference that makes. And for the scene, we’ll keep that simple too; we’ll do me asking you why you came over here with Greg.”

“Oh really?” I quirked an eyebrow at him, and he had the grace to blush.

“Yes, that way you don’t need a character and I can ‘probe’ – ready?”

I nodded my assent and he started;

“Are you in love with Greg?”

“B...b baby...” I panicked slightly then threw caution to the winds “There are other reasons to travel you know!”

“Can’t you just answer the question?”

“Do I love him?” I pretended to muse and was gratified to see that Ryan seemed almost nervous of my answer. “No, not like that.”

He almost sighed in relief, I think, but if he did he hid it well continuing with the game. “Evidently not then.” He paused to wink at me. “So why did you come?”

“F... f... fun way to see the world.”

“Good save.” He acknowledged the trouble I’d had.

“How did he collect you?”

“It was years ago now, we were working for the same theatre.”

“Just joking around?”

“Kinda, we’ve been friends ever since.”

“Lucky you.”

“Maybe, maybe not. How did you meet him?”

“Not like that, we met at a party.”

“Oh? Whose party?”

“Peter’s, or was it Alice’s? Alice’s I think.”

“Quite a complicated question then?”

“Remember I’m new to this.”

“So you are. You’re doing well though.”

“Thank you, I must have a good teacher.”

“Universally acknowledged I’ll have you know!”

“Very good teacher then.”

“Well that’s better.”

I looked at him in terror and he shrugged back in sympathy as I searched for something beginning with X, other that xylophone and X-ray, which really didn’t fit. “Xavier recommended you to me.”

“You know, I thought that was Greg!”

“Zeds, that’s what Greg is catching right now!”

Ryan laughed out loud “There you go, see I told you that you were a natural, a couple of little fumbles and other than that you were great, you even got ‘X’ and ‘Z’ and they are the hardest!”

I felt thrilled, like I’d actually been quite good. It was a wonderful feeling. Ryan must have noticed my huge grin because he nudged me with his shoulder and leant over to talk.

“Just you wait till you do well on stage, the feeling is like nothing else.”

I smiled up at this man who was so wonderfully in tune with what I was thinking. “One more game?” I asked hopefully.

He checked his watch and sighed. “Ok, but then we’d better get back. We’ve got our first show tomorrow.”

I nodded, abashed, “Sorry, you must be tired you don’t have...”

“I know I don’t.” He interrupted. “But I am anyway, I think we’ll do questions only.”

I shot him a grateful look but didn’t comment. “Is that what it sounds like?”

He grinned. “Did you just start without me?”

“You’re playing too aren’t you?”

“You want to come on stage with us tomorrow?”

“You don’t think that that is a good idea do you?

“Don’t you want to?”

“Do you really think I’d manage?”

“Don’t you?”

“Aren’t I still a beginner?”

“What about as a volunteer?”

“What, from the audience?”

“Don’t you think it’d be fun?”

“Isn’t it cheating to pick someone you know?”

He held his hand up “Ok, time out. Do you want to?”

“Do you realise that you still asked a question?”

“Colin.”

“Sorry.” I thought for a moment, and Ryan kept quiet and let me think “I don’t think I should, I just don’t know what I’m doing.”

“Are you happy to just watch for the first few gigs?”

I nodded “Yeah, watch and learn.”

“Alrighty, I’m not going to push you.”

“Wait, you think I’d do ok?”

“Yeah, I think throwing you in at the deep end would work better than me teaching you.”

“Thank you.” He seemed surprised by the intensity of emotion behind those two words, so I continued “I think that you and Greg are the only people I have ever known who assume that I can take care of myself.”

“No wonder you followed Greg.”

“You are very perceptive you know.”

He got up stretched out his back and held his hand out to me “Thanks, now come on I’m tired.”

“How did you find me anyway?” I asked accepting his hand to help me up.

“I was outside having a smoke when you left the motel, you looked depressed so I thought I’d see if you were ok.”

“Oh. Thanks... So what are those basics that you said we could skip?”

He started to tell me and together we walked back to the motel, arms not quite brushing. We parted awkwardly outside my room, I felt like a girl being walked home after a date. And just like the end of a first date neither of us really knew what level of intimacy we’d reached. A kiss was definitely out, but what about maybe a hug?

In the end Ryan just clapped me around the shoulders and told me he’d see me at breakfast, a good manly parting. I wish he’d hugged me.

I let myself into my room as quietly as I could and got myself ready for bed on tiptoe, creeping around the room in fear of waking my sleeping roommate. I had just clambered under the duvet when a remarkably awake voice sounded out of the darkness.

“Had a good night?”

“Jesus Greg.” I was again trying to slow my heart after a shock. “What is it with you guys? Sorry did I wake you?”

“No I was awake when you came in.”

“So why didn’t you say anything?”

“Cos you creeping about like a spy or something is hilarious.”

“Thanks, you know I won’t bother again now?”

“Yeah you will.”

He was probably right. “Night Greg.”

He snorted, “So... where’d you go?”

“To a park.”

“On your own?”

“No.”