wl_fanfiction | Business and Pleasure: Chapter 32 (Reply)

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Title: Business and Pleasure
Rating: WARNING! R for a abuse reference! WARNING!
Pairing: Brad/Ryan
Summary for the chapter: How do you spend what could be your last day with loved ones?

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: Exams are OVER! VACATION BABY! And this marks the beginning of the final arc of the story! Please leave a comment!

There was an aura of silence and seriousness in the house on the last day. The conversations were no longer loud and cheerful but quiet and calm. Colin and his father had begun preparations for the next day which included collecting supplies, weapons and finalizing the plan of action. Wayne had been relatively quiet but everyone noticed that he had been spending an increasing amount of time on the phone talking to Jeff who was minding his bar back home. Andrea was fluttering from one person to the other, asking them if they needed anything and if one tried to listen, they would be able to hear her praying that everyone would come back safely.

Ryan had fallen completely silent and spent most of his time looking out of the window in his and Brad’s shared room. Brad normally sat beside him, but didn’t know what to say. Everytime he would open his mouth, he would forget what he was about to say and would just sigh and the silence would remain unbroken. Finally, at about four in the afternoon, he finally decided to speak up.

“You think we’re ready?” his voice sounded quite odd in the noiseless room.

Ryan blinked and finally looked at him directly for the first time in the entire day. Brad cautiously moved his hand to lightly twine fingers with his and Ryan squeezed them lightly.

“We’re as ready as we can be,” Ryan responded softly, looking down at their hands, “that’s all I can say.”

“I can’t believe tomorrow’s the big day. You’re going to be free, Ry.”

“Hmph,” Ryan snorted, “that’s assuming I make it.”

“Will you stop saying that?” Brad scowled, forceful yet still quiet, “you’re not going to die.”

“You don’t know that-”

“Yes I do.”

“How?”

“How what?”

“Can you honestly tell me that you can guarantee that I’ll be walking out of that place alive?” Ryan asked, gesturing outside with his head, “can you tell me that there’s absolutely no chance that anything will happen to me?”

“Yes, I can.”

“How?”

“Because I’m going to be with you every step of the way,” Brad lifted his hand to kiss the back of it, “And I’ll protect you with every breath in my body.”

Ryan smiled slightly at the sentiment but forced himself to say what had to be said, “I know you’ll try Brad, I never doubted that. But this isn’t a game. If anything happens to me, it’s not like I’ll get transported to the last checkpoint with all my health. I die, game over.”

He let out a gasp of surprise as Brad grabbed the back of his head and pulled him close enough that he couldn’t see anything but his eyes, brown and fiery. He had never seen the other man look so angry or so determined and it scared him a little, but he knew that he would never hurt him.

“You. Will. Not. Die.” Each word was punctuated with a kiss to his cheek, his nose, his forehead and last to his lips. Brad was trying his hardest to stop Ryan was thinking the opposite, but Ryan was equally determined not to get his hopes up and pulled back quickly, fighting against the press on the back of his head.

“You don’t know that-”

“Yes I do,” Brad cut him off, wrapping an arm around his back and pulling his body closer, “You’ve trained long and hard, Ry. You’ve beaten Colin six times in a row in the past week alone. You’re faster, stronger and much deadlier than you were when I first met you and I know for a fact that no one can hit you unless you allow them to. The only person who thinks you can’t do this is you.”

“But what if I freeze?” Ryan asked, his voice small and scared, “What if he gets me?”

“Then I’ll warm you up and I’ll get him,” Brad kissed him again, “But I will never let you fall into his hands again. I promise.”

“I’m scared.”

“I am too, but we’ll make it through this. Now, stop worrying about this and relax. We’ve got a hard job tomorrow and we need to be at our hundred percent.”

With Brad’s optimism, it was impossible to for him to feel like they would fail. He opened his mouth to respond but Wayne darted in the room and cut him off.

“Come on to the living room guys! We’re playing Twister!” he ran out just as quickly as he came.

Ryan and Brad looked at each with twin looks of confusion, “Twister?”

“I swear to God, you’re rigging this,” Ryan growled while he tried to keep his balance with his left hand planted on the green circle on the far end of the mat behind his back, his feet planted on the end of the mat away from his hand. Colin was not in a better position, having literally been twisted into a human pretzel and from what Brad could tell, he was having trouble and would probably not last beyond another spin.

“Right hand, green,” Wayne called out, with a positively evil smirk as Ryan cursed. The only way he would manage that would be for him to lean back completely and that’s what he did, stretching out into an upward bow yoga position. Colin grunted as he was forced to twist even more.

“Wow, he’s flexible,” Wayne muttered to Brad, “you may want to make use of that.”

“I plan to,” Brad smirked, having already made a list of the positions he was interested in. He had about twenty three so far.

“Hurry up,” Ryan’s voice came out strained this time as the blood rushed to his head.

“Right leg blue!” Wayne called out and grinned as Colin thumped to the ground defeated. Ryan followed suit, wincing at the blood rush as he tried to stop the room from spinning.

“That was horrible,” Ryan groaned, rubbing his eyes, “whose damn idea was this?”

“Mine and I’m paying for it,” Colin groaned, “I thought it’d be a way to warm up for tomorrow, but now I feel like I could sleep for a week.”

“Next time, remember that no good comes from Twister,” Ryan grumbled, accepting Brad’s hand to pull himself to his feet.

“I wouldn’t say that, I found it....informative,” Brad whispered in his ear in a low voice. Ryan blushed and punched his shoulder playfully.

“Well, I’m going out back to work out some of these kinks,” Colin winced, putting a hand to his back, “Any of you would like to join me?”

“I will, I need it,” Ryan turned to Brad, “Want to come too?”

“Depends on how you guys ‘work out kinks’.”

“Nothing strenuous, it’s just relaxation.”

“Then I’m in.”

“Me too.” Wayne piped up. The four of them went out back to Colin’s makeshift gym in the backyard and Colin told them to stand apart from each other and to follow his movements.

“It’s Taichi, which you may have heard of, so all you need to do is relax and follow these movements, okay?”

“Gotcha,” Brad and Wayne responded, standing to either side of him.

Colin started out with a simple movement of making a wave motion with his arms and Brad thought for a moment that this wouldn’t be that hard. He was proved wrong with Colin’s movements became increasingly more complicated until Ryan and Wayne were the only ones matching him and he was forced to quit.

“There’s no way I can get do that,” he sighed, watching the three of them kick up slowly, Wayne a little clumsier but he was going pretty well for a first try.

“Well, it takes a lot of practice,” Ryan responded, not pausing, “Wayne dances a lot, so he’s got a lot of control over his body, making him a natural. You and I aren’t, so we’d have to practice more.”

“True,” Brad threw a small glare at Wayne, “Hey, Colin?”

“Yes?”

“How long did it take you to learn all this?”

“I’m still learning it.”

“That’s.....not what I wanted to hear.”

“Sorry.”

“Brad, you can’t expect to learn everything in days,” Ryan chuckled, dropping out of the line and sitting down next to him, “Colin trained me four hours a day, six days a week for over three years and I’ve still got a lot to learn.”

“Yeah, but you knew some of it as a kid too, so it couldn’t have been that hard.”

“That’s what you think,” Colin snorted, “tell him about when we started.”

Ryan shook his head, “Yeah, I remember that time with a lot of pain.....”

Flashback

Ryan cried out as he was knocked down once again, his arms and ribs burning with pain as Colin scowled, barely winded though they had been practicing for the last three hours. In that amount of time, Ryan had spent more than half hitting the ground either from a good punch or a hard kick. Colin was not showing him any mercy and, though he wanted to get up, he just didn’t have the energy anymore.

“That’s enough for today,” Colin’s voice was harsh, “you’re obviously not going to get any better today. Clean yourself up and I’ll see you at the same time tomorrow.”

Ryan nodded imperceptibly and pushed himself up on shaky arms, but they gave out almost immediately, sending him crashing onto the ground. He heard Colin’s exasperated sigh right before his arm was grabbed harshly and he was pulled to his feet, but even they wouldn’t support him and if it weren’t for Colin’s increasingly harsher grip, he probably wouldn’t have stayed up.

“Look at you, you’re pathetic,” Colin spat, “Just three hours and you can’t even move! I don’t see what’s the point of teaching you anything, you’ll never get any better!”

Ryan didn’t say anything in response, but his trembling was getting increasingly worse, but Colin didn’t notice, too intent on letting off some his steam.

“I continue to train you, but you never improve, you never get any stronger. Just forget about all this, Ryan, you’re not cut out for this kind of work-”

“Not cut out for it?!” Ryan spat, turning and startling Colin with the look of abject fury on his face, made even more frightening by the harsh scars that still hadn’t healed up properly, “How can I possibly improve when all you do is hit me and never tell me what I’m doing wrong?!”

“I’ve told you several times-”

“You’ve told me nothing! I come here everyday, after getting my ass handed to me by those bastards, and the only thing you do is make me spar with you! I’ve told you, I don’t know how to do hand to hand combat, but you keep saying ‘you’ll learn’! How am I going to learn if you won’t teach me?!”

Ryan pulled his arm away from a stunned Colin and turned to walk away, “If you’re not going to teach me how to defend myself, then just forget this! I didn’t agree so that I could become your personal punching bag. You want that, catch me in the mornings before noon. I’m afraid there won’t be much of a challenge after.”

“Ryan-” Colin moved to put his hand on his shoulder, but Ryan turned and, after having been conditioned to loathe the touch of someone from behind, knocked his hand off shoulder and slammed his palm against Colin’s chest in the same move. Colin gasped as he tried to suck back the air he had lost from the blinding pain in his chest, the force being something he had never felt before. Ryan looked a little frightened and ran before Colin could stop him, afraid that he had angered him even more and not wanting another beating after the ones he had already suffered today.

As he sat there, rubbing his chest, Colin suddenly felt a wave of guilt as he realized just what he had been doing. It hadn’t been Ryan’s fault, it had been his. He wasn’t improving because he was teaching him the wrong things. Ryan’s built was right for the moves he himself used, but rather for something that required movement and leverage, his main weakness. That sort of force in one blow meant that Ryan wasn’t weak, but he needed a sort of wind up before he could retaliate. Pushing himself to his feet, he walked over to his garden slash training room and began to make a list.

The next night, he climbed up the ladder from his shed into Ryan’s room and waited for the other man to exit the bathroom. Ryan nearly screamed when he saw Colin sitting on his bed, but he was used to the other man entering his room that way, plus his throat was too sore to yell at all. Colin shushed him and gestured for him to come closer, nearly wincing at the bruising that graced the other man’s neck and jaw.

“What are you doing here?” Ryan asked, wincing at the pain it caused his throat.

“Don’t talk,” Colin responded automatically, “I’m here to apologize. I’m sorry about the way I’ve been treating you and,” he held up his hand to stop the other man from saying anything, “I’ve been a positively dreadful teacher. I should have realized the reason why you were having trouble with the training right from the beginning.”

“How is it your fault if I suck?” Ryan raised an eyebrow.

“You don’t suck, I was teaching you the wrong things. I was teaching you techniques for people who are heavy built and, well, muscle oriented like me. People with your build have very different techniques.”

“Like?”

“The move you used on me yesterday. I felt like I had been hit by a boxer’s right hook straight in the chest and I’ve never had the wind knocked out of me like that. You’re strong, all we need to do is teach how to use that strength.”

“And how are you going to do that?”

“By asking you to trust me again,” Colin looked him with true regret, “I’m sorry I was such an ass last time. I should have taken your condition into account as well, but I think I was taking my daily frustration out on you and I’m truly sorry about that. I’m asking for another chance, do you think you can give it to me?”

Ryan pursed his lips for a second in thought but then nodded. He didn’t have much to lose anyway. “You’ll have to wait though, I don’t think I can take another round today.”

“We’re not going to spar.”

“We’re not?”

“No. This time, I’m going to teach you.”

The first night, Colin taught Ryan how to pace himself to get the most amount of momentum and space he needed to launch an attack. The next day, he taught him exercises to improve his strength and flexibility and also how to defend himself and by the end of the week, Ryan could block some of Colin’s attacks.

By the end of the month, he could nearly keep up with Colin if he held back while sparring with him.

By the end of the year, Colin could go all out against him and he could almost hold his own.

By the end of two years, he could hold his own with ease, use some more complicated moves and almost beat back Colin.

By the end of three years, he could beat back Colin with ease and not let a single blow land on him and had learnt to perform even the most complicated of techniques with ease. That first night that Ryan beat him without even letting a single punch come close to him, Colin had hugged him and declared that he couldn’t be prouder of him. That was Ryan had felt the most accomplished.

Present Time

“Wow, you really didn’t have it easy,” Brad gave him a sympathetic look, sliding an arm around his shoulders.

“No pain, no gain,” Ryan shrugged, “You don’t think it’s worth it at first, but if I could change that choice, I wouldn’t.”

“If I could change that choice, I would’ve never been such an ass,” Colin sighed.

“You can still change, Col, there is time.”

“Did you just call me an ass?!”

“You said it, I just didn’t disagree with you.”

“Why you-”

“HELP!”

Brad and Wayne burst into giggles as Colin chased Ryan around the yard, threatening to kick his ass, to which Ryan replied with a hearty “Gotta catch me first, Captain Hair!” That was the wrong thing to say, because Colin poured on the speed and pretty soon, Ryan was trying to clamber over all he could to put distance between them, a strategy that was working because of his extreme height.

“I think we’ll be just fine tomorrow,” Wayne spoke up, watching Ryan vault over a bench.

“Yeah, I think we will be.”

“You got everything?”

“Yup.”

“Everything?”

“Yup.”

“......Everything?”

“For God’s sake, yes!” Ryan threw his hands up in exasperation, “I made the stupid list and I checked it twice, now leave me alone, hassling isn’t nice!”

“Wow, you sound like Santa with way too much business,” Brad raised an eyebrow as he hoisted the supply backpack onto his back.

“Ryan, calm down. You need to keep a clear head today, okay?” Colin ordered as checked all his weaponry, “Is your blade okay?”

Ryan flicked his wrist as the blade zipped in and out of sight, “Checked it yesterday. Sharpened it too.”

“Brad, Wayne, you two got your weapons?”

“It feels so weird to have one of these out of gun club but yes,” Brad held up his gun as Wayne did the same.

“Okay, you already know the plan, but we’ll go over it once again once we arrive. I’m meeting Greg there, so he won’t find it weird for me to be there early. But we need to leave now if we hope to have anytime to do some scoping.”

“Gotcha,” Ryan slipped on the dark hooded long sleeve shirt over his sweater, along with his normal gloves, but this time he covered both his hands. Couldn’t let anyone see him, afterall.

“Remember-”

“Stick to the shadows.”

“Good.”

The four of them checked their equipment once more and then stepped out of the house. Ryan and Colin both accepted hugs from their parents and they surprised Brad and Wayne by hugging them too.

“You’re all family,” Andrea whispered, “Come back safe.” To Brad, she added, “keep an eye on him.”

Brad smiled back reassuringly, “I’ll keep both of them.”

“I know you will,” she smiled back.

Colin took a deep breath of the what he lovingly referred to as ‘home-air’ and looked up at the afternoon sun, smiling, “I have a good feeling about today, gentlemen.”

“There ain’t anything gentle about us, bro,” Ryan drawled, flicking his wrist again to release the blade before smirking over at him, “so let’s go kick us some ass.”