A Strange Escape 5/14

[charminglygawky.livejournal.com]

Title – A Strange Escape.
Chapter – 5/14
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 5 of my insane fic - key point is Colin is English - did I mention that I have a deranged imagination? Three cheers for male bonding! And Chip actually gets a couple of sentences *cough*.     ^__^ 
As ever thanks to jerluvsdean for her help and encouragement.  XD 

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

The next day went quickly, we all met up for breakfast, Greg and I joining slightly later because Greg had been fussing over his hair. And no, I am not joking. Brad, Chip and Drew were being much friendlier and so I wondered if Ryan had had a word with them on my behalf.

It wouldn’t have surprised me; Ryan had greeted me with a huge and beautiful smile that I just had to return. Until, that is I got a snide elbow in the ribs from Greg. Even as I turned to scowl at my friend I saw Ryan doing the same. That alone took much of the ferocity out if my glare, I was finding it hard not to grin happily at him instead.

“Oh, get a room you two!”

I glanced across at Drew, that had been a friendly joke, I was pretty sure anyway. Were the guys going to be so easy to win over? I certainly hoped so.

“So what’s going on today?” I asked sliding into a vacant chair, not the one next to Ryan, I didn’t want to be too obvious.

“Ooo, look Ry, you’ve been snubbed!” Brad called out gleefully.

I flushed and glanced at Ryan who was blushing profusely and focusing intently on his coffee with his head bowed, feeling instantly guilty. “Oh dear, would your playground sensibilities feel better if I sat here?” I asked Brad whilst sliding along a seat to sit next to Ryan, purposefully knocking our knees together as I did so. Brad responded with a fish impression as the rest of the table roared, Ryan however merely raised his eyes and shot me a shy smile.

“Well you’ve certainly found your feet!” Laughed Greg, sitting down next to me and pouring me a coffee.

“He’s found something.” Muttered Brad.

“Oh quiet you.” Snapped Greg, “You’re only jealous.”

I judiciously decided to ignore that little conversation and concentrated on the coffee that Greg had just handed me, it was hot and full of caffeine, I was happy. I tried to tell myself that it was because I was midway through my first coffee in two days and not because of the very tall man sitting next to me, also sipping on his coffee.

“So,” I was trying again. “What’s the plan of campaign for today then?”

It was Ryan who answered, “We have a show tonight so today we’re just gonna be chilling and running through some games. And getting ready to leave tomorrow I guess.”

“Where are we going?”

“South, heading for the border, then we’ll be back in the US.”

“Thank God.” Interjected Greg. “I’ve been away too long, it’ll be nice to get back to sanity.”

Drew, Brad and Chip nodded in fervent agreement, I noted that Ryan merely snorted sarcastically. But I decided to take up the cudgels on behalf of my country.

“Hey! And what’s so wrong with England?” I managed to inject just the right amount of indignation into my tone.

“Ha, you can talk.” Replied Greg. “What was that thing with Alice?”

I winced inwardly but did not let it seem to bother me “So? That’s just my family being eccentric, what has that got to do with England and it’s sanity.”

“Everything, you’re just a case in point.”

“Do you even have an argument here?”

He smirked at me “Why. Do I need one?”

I kept my face neutral; Greg didn’t know that Ryan had taught me this game. “Isn’t it normally a good idea?”

“Do I ever follow the crowd?”

“Do you know where the crowd even is?”

“Do you think I care?”

“Have you ever?”

The rest of the table was silent watching us, Greg grinned at me catching on to the fact that I knew exactly what we were doing. “Do you know what you are doing?” He still had to check though.

“Do I ever?”

“Why don’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?”

“Do you know what you are doing?”

“Haven’t you ever heard of improv?” I saw Ryan crack up at that one and elbowed him to shut him up, I couldn’t have him making me laugh.

“How did you find out about this game?”

“How do you think?”

“Did Ryan tell you?”

“Does John Hurt?”

At that Ryan collapsed into giggles followed by the rest of the table. I sat back and smirked at Greg as he tried to stutter out a response.

Drew banged his hand on the table and made a sound like a buzzer from a television game show. “Too long Greg. Colin wins this one!”

Greg laughed and clapped me on the back. “Well done, you win; I didn’t know that you knew that one.”

“There are a lot of things you don’t know.” I said loftily. “I trust that I have sufficiently defended my country.”

Ryan choked on his coffee at my plumy English accent. I leant over and patted him on the back whilst looking to Greg for a response. Ryan felt warm under my hand, alive.

“Yes your highness.” Greg mocked. “Over a game of questions only you have indeed reinforced the honour of your country.”

“Good, that’s ok then. So where is our first stop in the US?”

“Bellingham I think.” answered Chip. “Ryan did the schedule, it was Bellingham wasn’t it Ry?”

“Yeah.” gasped Ryan, still recovering from his inhaled coffee. “Bellingham first. I’ve always rather liked Bellingham” he mused to himself.

“Yeah yeah, we know.” muttered Chip. “You and your dream of a theatre in Bellingham. Well maybe one day Ryan.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I heard the wistful tone of Ryan’s voice and looked at him thoughtfully; it was a nice little insight to the man. He noticed my look and smiled ruefully “I hate all this driving you see.”

“We wouldn’t have to drive if you’d fly.” groused Brad.

“It’s cheaper to drive” argued Drew “if we flew we’d still have to hire cars or get taxis or something to the gigs.”

I was intrigued but decided that it was probably best not to ask. We finished our breakfast chatting about nothing in particular.

After breakfast the guys headed for the bar, I followed in bemusement, it was about half nine, surely it wouldn’t even be open yet.

It wasn’t but that didn’t seem to bother them, they headed for a corner of the deserted bar and pushing some tables and chairs back they made a reasonable space. Then into the space they lined up five chairs.

“Colin, you wanna join in, practice some more?” Ryan asked, I saw Brad’s shoulders stiffen as he moved one of the chairs slightly.

“No, that’s ok. I’ll just watch. I’m sure I’d just hold things up.” I responded honestly “Anyway I want to see how it’s done properly.”

“Well you’ll need to go somewhere else then.” Laughed Drew as he grabbed Ryan and Greg’s arms and dragged them over to a table they hadn’t moved. “Come on, we need to work out a running order.”

I sat back and watched as they bickered over what the running order was going to be and who was going to play what games. Ryan led the discussion and Drew noted down the decisions. It looked quite complicated. It was like choreography, everybody needed to know what game was next, who was in it and who was announcing it.

Then I watched as they practiced. I was in awe of the skill they had, and insanely jealous of the amount of fun they all seemed to be having. I was in charge of the running order and prompted them what games were next and stuff, but they remembered most of it. I copied out the running order four times, then shrugged and did it again. I wanted a copy too.

It was early afternoon before they wrapped the rehearsal up, once they’d all agreed that they were ready for the show that evening Drew terrified me by insisting that I joined in for a game or two. I tried to protest but was gratified when all of the guys encouraged me. Even Brad, though his voice was much quieter than the rest.

“We’ll do.... song titles.” Announced Ryan once they had me standing up with them.

I swallowed, I’d seen them do this one earlier and it looked hard. Really, really hard. “Ok.”

“We need a scene – how about, meeting in a pub.” Instructed Chip as he settled down on one of the surrounding chairs.

“If Ryan fucks up then one of us will swap in, if Col fucks up then he can buy the first round later. “ Greg smirked as he sat next to Chip.

The others joined them leaving me and Ryan centre stage. I swallowed nervously and smiled back when Ryan sent me a reassuring glance.

“Ok?” He asked sotto voice I nodded my assent and he launched into the game, striding over to me with his hand outstretched.

“I am the walrus.”

“Hey” I took his hand but pointed to myself with the other “Jude.”

“Hello” he leant in to take my hand between both of his, then he leant back and mimed unwrapping something that I took to be an arm from around his waist. Then he pushed the imaginary owner of the arm away “Goodbye!”

I grinned but took a step towards the imaginary person and pulled Ryan behind me whilst waving the person away “Get back.”

“Come on, do either of you actually know a song by anyone other than the Beatles?” Moaned Brad from the sidelines. He was answered by twin glares.

“Gimme all your lovin.” Asked Ryan placing his hand on my waist.

“Any way you want it.”

“Life’s been good to me so far.”

“What? Who sings that?” Called Greg.

“Joe Walsh, I think” Answered Ryan.

“All day, and all of the night.” I continued, ignoring the interruption.

“Ooo, The entertainer!” Ryan sounded excited.

I burst out laughing and shook my head at him. “You win, I’m stumped!”

He laughed back and threw an arm around my shoulders. “Well done, that was really good.”

The others were equally enthusiastic in their congratulation. Except Brad, who I saw sneaking out the patio doors. I helped put the bar to rights and left with the guys, waving at the bemused barmen who had opened up whilst we had been practicing.

“Hey Colin, do you drive?”

I looked up in surprise at Drew who had asked the question. “Yeah... why?”

“You got your license with you?” Now it was Ryan speaking.

“Yes, I do actually. Never travel without it.”

“Brilliant. Come on; let’s see if we can get you insured on my car. The others have this motor home thing that they’ve hired, so you won’t be able to drive that. But you can share the driving with me.”

“Ok” I grinned at Ryan, the thought had occurred to me that if I was to be driving Ryan’s car then I’d probably be travelling in it most the time. That was fine by me. “My licence is in my room.”

A few phone calls later and I had insurance; leaving us free to spend the afternoon in the bar with the others. I was surprised to see that everyone was drinking as they had a show coming up. But it was up to them so I happily joined in, really looking forward to the show.

The show was incredible. I watched the first half from backstage of the small crummy theatre, but as the show was far from sold out I joined the audience for the second half, lending my voice to the shouted out suggestions. And I flatter myself that my suggestions were often used and seemed to improve the pace of the show. But maybe that was just my enthusiasm.

I knew the running order off by heart so I knew when the final game was coming up, it was meant to be something called sound effects. And I was really curious about it because it was one that hadn’t been practiced earlier. The penultimate game, which was something called all in one voice came to an end and Drew stepped forward to introduce the next game.

“For our last game I need a volunteer from the audience to help Ryan.” He pretended to scan the auditorium. “Well when I say volunteer... how about you there? Yes you, the balding slightly posh looking pale guy.”

Crap.