![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
pdglyph.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
wl_fanfictionDon’t Stand So Close to Me
For: Sungreen70
Rated: PG-13 for some language and mild smoochies
Pairing: Greg/ Col-ish
Summary: Greg gets dinner and Colin spills the beans
Disclaimer: I’m over poo. I’m completely over him. I just don’t own the guys
Chapter 5
Over the next few weeks Colin managed to avoid being alone with Ryan, not wanting to risk it, though Ryan did try. The look of confusion and hurt in Ryan’s eyes as he dodged him yet again cut at him, razor sharp. He wanted so much… but he couldn’t let that happen. Not again. Even the drama class was less than a pleasure lately, and taking the role of spectator, while frequently hilarious, wasn’t the same if he couldn’t play.
Greg plowed through his classroom’s door like a freight train. “Hey Col, what’re you up to tonight?”
“The usual… Grading, sorting, planning…” Colin rolled his eyes, sounding jaded even to himself. “Lather, rinse, repeat.”
“Wrong answer.” A wide grin graced Greg’s face.
“Bar?” Colin said wearily.
“EH!” Greg sounded like a very nasal New York buzzer.
Colin propped his chin on one hand, elbow on a pile of papers on his desk, a small weary smile on his face. “What did you have in mind, oh mighty Proop-Man?”
Greg grinned in delight. “Proop-Man… I like it! I was thinking dinner, my place.”
Colin looked a little queasy. “Uh, thanks all the same but…”
“But what?”
“Well, it took me nearly a week to recuperate the last time I ate your cooking, so if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather-”
“Har de fucking har.” Greg glared at him. “And har. Fine, you can cook and I’ll bring the wine. What should I bring, red or white?”
“But…” Colin blinked, considering. “Well you know, I do have a recipe I’ve been wanting to try out. Bring a red, preferably a good Chianti.” He started preparing a shopping list in his head. “You know, you are a terrible mooch.”
“Actually I’m very good at it,” Greg said, waggling his eyebrows. “It’s a date and I’ll bring a little something for dessert, too.”
----
The hallway was deserted, just right for this little… meeting. Bremner wasn’t worried about being caught anyway. Patterson was on duty in the section right now, and was being paid to be conveniently blind. Not with money, he sneered, glad it wasn’t he himself being used as the currency to buy Patterson’s cooperation. Lighting up a cigarette while he waited, he thought about the plans John was carefully crafting. The three of them, Sessions, Fry and himself – all guaranteed lifers, headed for prison after the Institute - were almost ready. A few more “cargoes” in and marketed, and then when Patterson came through with that extra little shipment… One asshole in particular was gonna get his before they left, though John might want to take care of Ryan himself. Rory licked his lips and grinned in anticipation. He wanted to watch.
A slight, furtive movement down the hall caught his eye. Showtime.
----
Dinner was a huge success other than the storm that rolled through and knocked out the power just as he was taking the pasta off the burner. Colin prepared spaghetti with a spicy marinara sauce, garlic toast with cheese and a tossed green salad. Candles were found and dinner went on. Greg ate two helpings of everything, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, “You’re hired,” between bites. When he couldn’t eat any more he loosened his belt and poured them both another glass of the very nice Chianti he’d managed to find at the local liquor store. He had bought and brought all three bottles in stock, and they were currently on the last of the second one.
“Very nice, very nice indeed Mr. Mochrie,” he said. “Even arranging for the necessity of candlelight at dinner, a master stroke you old romantic you.” Colin laughed and they set the dishes to soak.
“Why thank you so much, Mr. Proops, truly a gracious compliment.”
Opening the drapes Colin settled on the couch as Greg rummaged in the closet for something in his jacket pocket. Joining Colin he produced a joint. “Care to partake?”
“Uh, I don’t think…” He stopped, his head cocked. “You know, I think I will.” The talk rolled from the kids they had taught in the past, and Greg thought it only fair to warn him about the horrors that awaited.
“The staff call it Halloween Hell. Every stinking, nasty thing the bastards can think of to pull on each other, they will.” He took another hit of the joint and passed it to Colin. “And the kids are even worse,” he squeaked.
Colin giggled. “Okay, like what?”
Greg pondered for a moment. “Like the flaming bag of shit that appeared at the door of my classroom last year.”
Colin exhaled softly. “Wonder where they got the dog shit…”
“Who said anything about dog shit?” Colin shot him an alarmed glance. Greg stared blandly out the window.
“Well, that still doesn’t sound too bad. If that’s the worst-”
“It isn’t. There’s usually an attempted murder or two every year, at least one attempted maiming, and three or four people land in the infirmary for awhile.” Colin stared at him, his eyes large, and passed the remnants of the joint back to Greg. He stubbed it out and clambered to his feet, heading for the kitchen and the last bottle. Opening it he sauntered carefully back into the tiny living room and poured himself a glass full, setting the bottle on the coffee table between them. Trading the couch for the floor he stretched out on his side, propping his head in his hand and took a drink, and swirling the rest in his glass, studying the wine. Silence fell as both contemplated the storm outside.
“Col?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I ask you something personal?”
Colin turned a wide eye in his direction. “Since when have you ever asked if you could ask?”
“True,” Greg took another swallow of wine. “But some things need a more… delicate touch.”
Colin was pretty sure he knew what Greg was going to ask, and he returned to his contemplation of his glass, looking for answers or courage. He wasn’t sure which. Downing the rest of his drink he leaned forward for a refill. Sliding off the couch he joined Greg on the floor, legs crossed in front of him. “Okay,” he sighed, “ask.”
“Why are you running from Ryan?”
Colin blinked at him. “Come on man-”
“No, seriously.” Greg held up his hand. “There’s more to this than just teacher/ student relationship…”
Colin sat for the longest time, but for once Greg didn’t jump him for an immediate answer. Colin smiled tightly, and it unnerved Greg… just a little. “Actually that’s exactly what it is. That simple student/ teacher dynamic…
“I was young. So young and everything was so new, bright and shiny. I had everything laid out and unlike most of my fellows, I stuck to it.” Colin smirked, eyes looking horribly old through their smoke induced haze. “This is what I wanted to do. Pass on my knowledge to younger generations, maybe once or twice look at them on television and say ‘they were my students’. You know, for an ego boost… well, at the time I still had a long way to go- like a year and a half of college left to be exact. One of my classes was Psychology and my teacher,” Colin paused, leaning heavily against the edge of the couch, eyes lost in memory, “he was… everything.”
“That dreamy huh?” Greg asked, rolling onto his belly and feeling a little like a schoolgirl at a slumber party.
“Classically handsome like Cary Grant with a voice like Dean Martin, hair thick and black and fell in waves to his shoulders. Tall. Smart. Funny.” Colin sighed.
Greg shifted his position, trying to get comfortable. “Sounds way too good to be true.”
Colin snorted. “We… um… we became involved,” he said quietly.
Greg grinned. “You dog, you!”
He smiled quietly. “Yeah. Me. It was wonderful, and at the time I thought, this is it. This is what I’d been looking for. Before then I’d been missing a piece of myself.”
Greg nodded. Everybody missed a part of themselves. Some filled it, some didn’t.
“He would look at me, past all the pretty girls, all the handsome boys, and we’d smile a secret smile, and all the while, I never knew he was setting me up to take the fall for him.
“We were discovered, eventually and it was dragged into hearings before the board. It was long,” he gritted, “and ugly. So damn ugly. I’d never head such evil things from people’s lips about me or about him. I didn’t believe them at first, because all through those proceedings, I’d look over at him and we’d share that secret smile and I felt invincible. We were in love. We had done nothing wrong.
“He told me, right before the second hearing, that this was doing more damage than good to both of our reputations but since mine had yet to start, I should take the fall, that I’d be fine. If he took the fall, he’d lose his career. He was a fantastic teacher, and I was horrified at the prospect of him losing his teaching certificate. That and what kind of lover would I be if I didn’t help him to my fullest?
“His teaching certificate was pulled anyway. He lost his tenure and was summarily dismissed.”
Greg’s eyes were wide. “The kiss of death.”
“Precisely. I was reprimanded and placed on academic probation. I would see him now and then, when I could to get away from my whispering peers and the disgusted looks from the faculty. He would hardly talk to me. When he did, he was cold, polite, disconnected from me. I tried to cheer him up, but he would get angry with me and make me leave. Then I finally had to realized… I’d let him down. I hadn’t saved his reputation. His life was ruined because he’d fallen in love with a stupid boy like me and now he had to pay the price. Marked for life.” Colin looked down at his shaking hands. “You probably wondered why a guy fresh out of school, top of his class, chose a hell hole like this for a job?” he looked at Greg, who fought to suppress a shiver at those warm brown eyes now devoid of everything.
“Penance?”
“Penance…” Colin echoed softly. “The boys here aren’t the only ones serving time. And I cannot go through all of that pain all over again.” He looked at the floor. “I can’t.”
Greg’s soft scholarly hand rested on his slightly callused one, thumb rubbing an old chemical burn scar lightly. Colin looked up at him, and was taken aback at how tender the usually snappish, sly eyes had become. “Everyone here pays penance of some kind Colin.” He got up and scooted to rest in front of Colin, taking both hands in his. “You did nothing wrong except fall in love, and even then doing that kind of thing is never bad. It’s just the people we fall in love with that makes us wish we hadn’t. He was good, and did a number on you, but you need to remember that that’s the fuckin’ past man! You need to move on, especially when you have a gorgeous guy like Ryan waiting for you in the wings!”
Colin jerked. “What?”
“Ryan. I don’t know if it’s love yet, but it’s definitely lust. He wants you so damn bad I think his pants will spontaneously combust!” They both giggled, riding the high at the image.
When they calmed, Colin dredged up what Greg had said before the spontaneously combusting pants. “Love?”
Greg shrugged, rubbing fingers delicately across Colin’s palms. “Who knows?”
“Greg, I can’t do that again. Even if we really wanted each other-”
“’If’ you wanted each other?” Greg arched an eyebrow, still stroking Colin’s palms in a very distracting way.
“Okay, so we really want in each other’s pants. He’s still a student!”
Greg chuckled.
“Why are you laughing?” Colin said indignantly. “This is serious Greg!”
“I know, but it’s just you’re thinking about him as a student now. Not as a convicted felon.”
Colin subsided as Greg continued to rub those distracting circles in the center of his palms. It was true, he didn’t think of Ryan as a convicted felon anymore. Yeah, that was dangerous, but… it was Ryan.
And he didn’t know anything about the boy except from hearsay and whispers. His thoughts broke as Greg laced fingers through his and used both palms to stroke the jumping muscle of his left hand. He groaned and let his head fall back against the seat of the couch. “Damn. That feels good,” he grunted.
Greg grinned, darting a glance up from his work on the man’s hand to do a double take. His gaze fell on the clean column of pale throat, uninterrupted in a graceful arc to disappear into his slightly unbuttoned shirt where a bare trace of chest hair peeked through. Greg watched as the tempting Adam’s apple bobbed as Colin swallowed and bit the inside of his cheek not to groan.
Colin jumped as Greg’s lips brushed gently along his throat, then froze when their contact became firmer, more insistent. With a soft hiss of cloth, Greg shifted to place open mouth kisses up and down that pale column of throat, drawing soft sighs that drove the bespectacled man mad until he came to that Adam’s apple. With a soft caress of wet warmth, he closed his mouth around it and sucked gently, giving Colin the safe edge of his teeth. Colin stroked hands up Greg’s jean-clad legs and groaned aloud, fingers digging into the fabric slightly, the sound making Greg’s lips buzz softly as they traced up to the corner of Colin’s mouth.
“Greg…” he whispered into the echoing silence.
Colin waited for the kiss, eyes shut, reveling in the sensation of what was being done to him. He felt the faintest trace of heat, a delicate caress of hot breath and opened his eyes to see Greg. He was holding himself braced against the couch so he could lean over Colin, who was still resting his head on the seat.
They stared at each other from that breath’s space apart, the silence weighing heavily around them. Whatever Greg saw in Colin’s eyes, it made him press his lips thinly together and back off the couch, settling back on his heels with a soft curse before rising to leave.
Colin blinked, utterly bewildered. “Greg, what?”
“You don’t know how much I want you right now Col,” he said, shrugging into his coat, carefully not looking at the bereft man because if he did he’d surely run back to him and beg to continue where they left off. He heard Colin rise and stand nearby.
“I don’t understand,” he said softly.
Greg turned painfully to meet him. In the soft candlelight he looked every inch of what Ryan had whispered in the auditorium. Beautiful. Greg eased arms around Colin, feeling just a little despair trying to get through his walls. He wouldn’t allow it. Colin was too special for that. “You want Ryan… not me…” he smiled benignly. He cupped Colin’s face in his hands and brushed a bare echo of what he wanted across Colin’s lips. Even so chaste, it almost burned his lips, and he had to fight to keep from making its heat last.
He left Colin shaking and confused on his welcome mat, striding quickly to the bus stop, not stopping even as his silent tears blurred his already impaired vision.
For: Sungreen70
Rated: PG-13 for some language and mild smoochies
Pairing: Greg/ Col-ish
Summary: Greg gets dinner and Colin spills the beans
Disclaimer: I’m over poo. I’m completely over him. I just don’t own the guys
Chapter 5
Over the next few weeks Colin managed to avoid being alone with Ryan, not wanting to risk it, though Ryan did try. The look of confusion and hurt in Ryan’s eyes as he dodged him yet again cut at him, razor sharp. He wanted so much… but he couldn’t let that happen. Not again. Even the drama class was less than a pleasure lately, and taking the role of spectator, while frequently hilarious, wasn’t the same if he couldn’t play.
Greg plowed through his classroom’s door like a freight train. “Hey Col, what’re you up to tonight?”
“The usual… Grading, sorting, planning…” Colin rolled his eyes, sounding jaded even to himself. “Lather, rinse, repeat.”
“Wrong answer.” A wide grin graced Greg’s face.
“Bar?” Colin said wearily.
“EH!” Greg sounded like a very nasal New York buzzer.
Colin propped his chin on one hand, elbow on a pile of papers on his desk, a small weary smile on his face. “What did you have in mind, oh mighty Proop-Man?”
Greg grinned in delight. “Proop-Man… I like it! I was thinking dinner, my place.”
Colin looked a little queasy. “Uh, thanks all the same but…”
“But what?”
“Well, it took me nearly a week to recuperate the last time I ate your cooking, so if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather-”
“Har de fucking har.” Greg glared at him. “And har. Fine, you can cook and I’ll bring the wine. What should I bring, red or white?”
“But…” Colin blinked, considering. “Well you know, I do have a recipe I’ve been wanting to try out. Bring a red, preferably a good Chianti.” He started preparing a shopping list in his head. “You know, you are a terrible mooch.”
“Actually I’m very good at it,” Greg said, waggling his eyebrows. “It’s a date and I’ll bring a little something for dessert, too.”
----
The hallway was deserted, just right for this little… meeting. Bremner wasn’t worried about being caught anyway. Patterson was on duty in the section right now, and was being paid to be conveniently blind. Not with money, he sneered, glad it wasn’t he himself being used as the currency to buy Patterson’s cooperation. Lighting up a cigarette while he waited, he thought about the plans John was carefully crafting. The three of them, Sessions, Fry and himself – all guaranteed lifers, headed for prison after the Institute - were almost ready. A few more “cargoes” in and marketed, and then when Patterson came through with that extra little shipment… One asshole in particular was gonna get his before they left, though John might want to take care of Ryan himself. Rory licked his lips and grinned in anticipation. He wanted to watch.
A slight, furtive movement down the hall caught his eye. Showtime.
----
Dinner was a huge success other than the storm that rolled through and knocked out the power just as he was taking the pasta off the burner. Colin prepared spaghetti with a spicy marinara sauce, garlic toast with cheese and a tossed green salad. Candles were found and dinner went on. Greg ate two helpings of everything, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like, “You’re hired,” between bites. When he couldn’t eat any more he loosened his belt and poured them both another glass of the very nice Chianti he’d managed to find at the local liquor store. He had bought and brought all three bottles in stock, and they were currently on the last of the second one.
“Very nice, very nice indeed Mr. Mochrie,” he said. “Even arranging for the necessity of candlelight at dinner, a master stroke you old romantic you.” Colin laughed and they set the dishes to soak.
“Why thank you so much, Mr. Proops, truly a gracious compliment.”
Opening the drapes Colin settled on the couch as Greg rummaged in the closet for something in his jacket pocket. Joining Colin he produced a joint. “Care to partake?”
“Uh, I don’t think…” He stopped, his head cocked. “You know, I think I will.” The talk rolled from the kids they had taught in the past, and Greg thought it only fair to warn him about the horrors that awaited.
“The staff call it Halloween Hell. Every stinking, nasty thing the bastards can think of to pull on each other, they will.” He took another hit of the joint and passed it to Colin. “And the kids are even worse,” he squeaked.
Colin giggled. “Okay, like what?”
Greg pondered for a moment. “Like the flaming bag of shit that appeared at the door of my classroom last year.”
Colin exhaled softly. “Wonder where they got the dog shit…”
“Who said anything about dog shit?” Colin shot him an alarmed glance. Greg stared blandly out the window.
“Well, that still doesn’t sound too bad. If that’s the worst-”
“It isn’t. There’s usually an attempted murder or two every year, at least one attempted maiming, and three or four people land in the infirmary for awhile.” Colin stared at him, his eyes large, and passed the remnants of the joint back to Greg. He stubbed it out and clambered to his feet, heading for the kitchen and the last bottle. Opening it he sauntered carefully back into the tiny living room and poured himself a glass full, setting the bottle on the coffee table between them. Trading the couch for the floor he stretched out on his side, propping his head in his hand and took a drink, and swirling the rest in his glass, studying the wine. Silence fell as both contemplated the storm outside.
“Col?”
“Hmm?”
“Can I ask you something personal?”
Colin turned a wide eye in his direction. “Since when have you ever asked if you could ask?”
“True,” Greg took another swallow of wine. “But some things need a more… delicate touch.”
Colin was pretty sure he knew what Greg was going to ask, and he returned to his contemplation of his glass, looking for answers or courage. He wasn’t sure which. Downing the rest of his drink he leaned forward for a refill. Sliding off the couch he joined Greg on the floor, legs crossed in front of him. “Okay,” he sighed, “ask.”
“Why are you running from Ryan?”
Colin blinked at him. “Come on man-”
“No, seriously.” Greg held up his hand. “There’s more to this than just teacher/ student relationship…”
Colin sat for the longest time, but for once Greg didn’t jump him for an immediate answer. Colin smiled tightly, and it unnerved Greg… just a little. “Actually that’s exactly what it is. That simple student/ teacher dynamic…
“I was young. So young and everything was so new, bright and shiny. I had everything laid out and unlike most of my fellows, I stuck to it.” Colin smirked, eyes looking horribly old through their smoke induced haze. “This is what I wanted to do. Pass on my knowledge to younger generations, maybe once or twice look at them on television and say ‘they were my students’. You know, for an ego boost… well, at the time I still had a long way to go- like a year and a half of college left to be exact. One of my classes was Psychology and my teacher,” Colin paused, leaning heavily against the edge of the couch, eyes lost in memory, “he was… everything.”
“That dreamy huh?” Greg asked, rolling onto his belly and feeling a little like a schoolgirl at a slumber party.
“Classically handsome like Cary Grant with a voice like Dean Martin, hair thick and black and fell in waves to his shoulders. Tall. Smart. Funny.” Colin sighed.
Greg shifted his position, trying to get comfortable. “Sounds way too good to be true.”
Colin snorted. “We… um… we became involved,” he said quietly.
Greg grinned. “You dog, you!”
He smiled quietly. “Yeah. Me. It was wonderful, and at the time I thought, this is it. This is what I’d been looking for. Before then I’d been missing a piece of myself.”
Greg nodded. Everybody missed a part of themselves. Some filled it, some didn’t.
“He would look at me, past all the pretty girls, all the handsome boys, and we’d smile a secret smile, and all the while, I never knew he was setting me up to take the fall for him.
“We were discovered, eventually and it was dragged into hearings before the board. It was long,” he gritted, “and ugly. So damn ugly. I’d never head such evil things from people’s lips about me or about him. I didn’t believe them at first, because all through those proceedings, I’d look over at him and we’d share that secret smile and I felt invincible. We were in love. We had done nothing wrong.
“He told me, right before the second hearing, that this was doing more damage than good to both of our reputations but since mine had yet to start, I should take the fall, that I’d be fine. If he took the fall, he’d lose his career. He was a fantastic teacher, and I was horrified at the prospect of him losing his teaching certificate. That and what kind of lover would I be if I didn’t help him to my fullest?
“His teaching certificate was pulled anyway. He lost his tenure and was summarily dismissed.”
Greg’s eyes were wide. “The kiss of death.”
“Precisely. I was reprimanded and placed on academic probation. I would see him now and then, when I could to get away from my whispering peers and the disgusted looks from the faculty. He would hardly talk to me. When he did, he was cold, polite, disconnected from me. I tried to cheer him up, but he would get angry with me and make me leave. Then I finally had to realized… I’d let him down. I hadn’t saved his reputation. His life was ruined because he’d fallen in love with a stupid boy like me and now he had to pay the price. Marked for life.” Colin looked down at his shaking hands. “You probably wondered why a guy fresh out of school, top of his class, chose a hell hole like this for a job?” he looked at Greg, who fought to suppress a shiver at those warm brown eyes now devoid of everything.
“Penance?”
“Penance…” Colin echoed softly. “The boys here aren’t the only ones serving time. And I cannot go through all of that pain all over again.” He looked at the floor. “I can’t.”
Greg’s soft scholarly hand rested on his slightly callused one, thumb rubbing an old chemical burn scar lightly. Colin looked up at him, and was taken aback at how tender the usually snappish, sly eyes had become. “Everyone here pays penance of some kind Colin.” He got up and scooted to rest in front of Colin, taking both hands in his. “You did nothing wrong except fall in love, and even then doing that kind of thing is never bad. It’s just the people we fall in love with that makes us wish we hadn’t. He was good, and did a number on you, but you need to remember that that’s the fuckin’ past man! You need to move on, especially when you have a gorgeous guy like Ryan waiting for you in the wings!”
Colin jerked. “What?”
“Ryan. I don’t know if it’s love yet, but it’s definitely lust. He wants you so damn bad I think his pants will spontaneously combust!” They both giggled, riding the high at the image.
When they calmed, Colin dredged up what Greg had said before the spontaneously combusting pants. “Love?”
Greg shrugged, rubbing fingers delicately across Colin’s palms. “Who knows?”
“Greg, I can’t do that again. Even if we really wanted each other-”
“’If’ you wanted each other?” Greg arched an eyebrow, still stroking Colin’s palms in a very distracting way.
“Okay, so we really want in each other’s pants. He’s still a student!”
Greg chuckled.
“Why are you laughing?” Colin said indignantly. “This is serious Greg!”
“I know, but it’s just you’re thinking about him as a student now. Not as a convicted felon.”
Colin subsided as Greg continued to rub those distracting circles in the center of his palms. It was true, he didn’t think of Ryan as a convicted felon anymore. Yeah, that was dangerous, but… it was Ryan.
And he didn’t know anything about the boy except from hearsay and whispers. His thoughts broke as Greg laced fingers through his and used both palms to stroke the jumping muscle of his left hand. He groaned and let his head fall back against the seat of the couch. “Damn. That feels good,” he grunted.
Greg grinned, darting a glance up from his work on the man’s hand to do a double take. His gaze fell on the clean column of pale throat, uninterrupted in a graceful arc to disappear into his slightly unbuttoned shirt where a bare trace of chest hair peeked through. Greg watched as the tempting Adam’s apple bobbed as Colin swallowed and bit the inside of his cheek not to groan.
Colin jumped as Greg’s lips brushed gently along his throat, then froze when their contact became firmer, more insistent. With a soft hiss of cloth, Greg shifted to place open mouth kisses up and down that pale column of throat, drawing soft sighs that drove the bespectacled man mad until he came to that Adam’s apple. With a soft caress of wet warmth, he closed his mouth around it and sucked gently, giving Colin the safe edge of his teeth. Colin stroked hands up Greg’s jean-clad legs and groaned aloud, fingers digging into the fabric slightly, the sound making Greg’s lips buzz softly as they traced up to the corner of Colin’s mouth.
“Greg…” he whispered into the echoing silence.
Colin waited for the kiss, eyes shut, reveling in the sensation of what was being done to him. He felt the faintest trace of heat, a delicate caress of hot breath and opened his eyes to see Greg. He was holding himself braced against the couch so he could lean over Colin, who was still resting his head on the seat.
They stared at each other from that breath’s space apart, the silence weighing heavily around them. Whatever Greg saw in Colin’s eyes, it made him press his lips thinly together and back off the couch, settling back on his heels with a soft curse before rising to leave.
Colin blinked, utterly bewildered. “Greg, what?”
“You don’t know how much I want you right now Col,” he said, shrugging into his coat, carefully not looking at the bereft man because if he did he’d surely run back to him and beg to continue where they left off. He heard Colin rise and stand nearby.
“I don’t understand,” he said softly.
Greg turned painfully to meet him. In the soft candlelight he looked every inch of what Ryan had whispered in the auditorium. Beautiful. Greg eased arms around Colin, feeling just a little despair trying to get through his walls. He wouldn’t allow it. Colin was too special for that. “You want Ryan… not me…” he smiled benignly. He cupped Colin’s face in his hands and brushed a bare echo of what he wanted across Colin’s lips. Even so chaste, it almost burned his lips, and he had to fight to keep from making its heat last.
He left Colin shaking and confused on his welcome mat, striding quickly to the bus stop, not stopping even as his silent tears blurred his already impaired vision.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}