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wl_fanfictionHi, everyone...wow I'm just joining WL communities like crazy lately, lol...Well, Whose Line cracks me up. I love it and I love Ryan/Colin fic. I read it and write it. Watching them on the show...well, it's just the best! I hadn't written anything in a long time in this fandom, but I'm WAY back into it again, and have written the first six parts of a new story. I thought I might start posting it here and hope it's not too terrible! I think the chapters get better as they go along. For the first couple I was kind of writing off the top of my head.
Title: A Place Where We Belong. Part One of ?, I'll Be Around
Pairing: Ryan/Colin
Rating: PG
Summary: Um, I guess it's mostly introductory. Colin has a surprise guest.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with WL, I don't own or know Ry/Col, this is purely fiction, I make no profits.
Note: The "umbrella" title, A Place Where We Belong, is from an Air Supply song of the same name (don't own them, either). Listening to them reminds me of R/C. Don't ask. :)
They’d known each other for over twenty-five years, and Colin
knew how Ryan could be. Ryan had a temperament that could be more than a
little unstable. Colin knew Ryan was hysterically funny, kind and
charming, but Colin also knew that Ryan had an extraordinarily quick
temper, accompanied by an acid tongue and a tendency to turn his back on
the other person’s side of the argument and stalk off like a petulant
teenager. Ryan was lovable, sweet and loyal, but stubborn and moody with
a penchant for shutting people out. They’d known each other for over
twenty-five years, and sometimes Colin still had no idea what Ryan was
thinking. Especially now, when he’d been trying to get in touch with the
younger man for weeks with no success.
It had been quite a while since the two men had seen each other. Months,
which was long enough as far as Colin was concerned. Ryan was, after
all, one of his best friends. They had done a Night of Improv together
earlier in the year, but since then had lost contact. Being on opposite
coasts hadn’t helped the situation, but Colin never expected them to go
this long without at least talking on the phone. Now, on a break from
his tour with Brad, Colin had toyed with the idea of getting on a plane
and showing up at Ryan’s door. After thinking it through, he decided
that was probably a bad idea, considering Ryan’s wife and children. So
Colin waited, calling and leaving messages for Ryan every couple of
days.
Things had been particularly hard for Colin over the last few months. He
found himself living as a bachelor again, after his absenteeism due to
touring had brought some underlying marital issues to a head and he and
Deb had decided separate. The house was very quiet, with Deb and Luke
staying at Deb’s parents’. Colin missed Luke saying, “That was only
funny the first time, dad.” Colin hadn’t been in a very joking mood
lately. The irony of the current situation wasn’t funny to Colin,
either. That irony was that now that he was alone in the house, his
impending divorce looming closer, he had finally decided to take a break
from the tour with Brad. He just didn’t feel like he could be funny, at
the moment. He was frustrated with Ryan for not being there when he
needed him, and stalked through the house angry every time he had to
leave another answering machine message. Throughout his life, Colin had
never met anyone who could make him as angry as Ryan could. While
Colin’s own wife and son, or parents, could make him boiling mad, only
Ryan could arouse the kind of ire in him that he felt after hanging up
the phone yet again on Ryan’s answering machine.
On this particular day, he had just called Ryan and opted not to leave a
message, instead hanging up on Ryan’s machinated voice. Colin folded his
arms across his chest and stalked to the couch, plopping down and
flipping on the television, mumbling angrily. Colin was such a nurturer,
such a giver; it was just in his nature. He was a strange paradox of
shyness and gregariousness, humor and awkward silence. But in his heart
he was a giving, caring individual. Not necessarily open or revealing
about himself, but willing to do for others within reason, and willing to
go above and beyond for his close friends. He was slow to anger, but
tended to let his resentments fester. He knew he did this, and was
slowly trying to break the bad habit. But Colin’s own personality traits
made it even harder for him to understand Ryan. Not that Ryan wasn’t
also a giving, caring person, but the only ongoing theme in Colin and
Ryan’s fights over the years was Ryan’s recurrent selfishness. Colin had
told Ryan on more than one occasion that he thought the younger man could
care less about his feelings. Ryan always snorted in anger at that
suggestion, but then resorted to his infamous back-turning, walking away
routine. To which Colin would yell that Ryan had just proved him right.
They always made up, of course. Both of them knew where they really
stood with the other. They had been friends for too long, and it was a
friendship that never would have lasted if they each hadn’t known how to
ignore what annoyed them about the other.
But now Colin was mad all over again; sitting on the couch and stewing
over how selfish he thought Ryan was and wondering how he managed to put
up with Ryan all these years. He tried to tell himself that he’d felt
this way before, and that each time, he and Ryan had reconciled their
differences. He told himself that he knew what kind of friend Ryan
really was, and that if Ryan hadn’t contacted him yet, there must be a
good reason. But what he said out loud, to the empty house, to the
television set, was this: “If he doesn’t call me by tomorrow, I’m not
talking to him again.” Colin knew he wasn’t in his normal frame of
mind. Colin in his normal frame of mind wouldn’t drop a friend unless it
was under very extraordinary circumstances, especially a friend of over
two decades. But Colin also knew that he couldn’t sit around and go
through another slow separation like the one he was going through with
Deb. He didn’t have a problem equating his friendship with Ryan to his
marriage to Deb. They were the two people he loved most in the world,
with the exception of his son.
Colin grunted, lying back onto the couch, the television still
flickering, remote on his chest. He closed his eyes.
Colin was dreaming that he was on tour again, only he was touring with
Ryan in his dream, instead of Brad. They were onstage, doing a game of
Props. Colin kept trying to make the audience laugh with his prop, but
for some reason Ryan had these castanets and kept clinking them together
every time Colin tried to speak. In his dream, Colin was getting angry,
and the constant tapping of the castanets would not stop. Colin was
glaring at Ryan, feeling the agitation build from his stomach to his jaw
as he got ready to yell. Suddenly, his eyes popped open, but the noise
didn’t stop. Someone was at the door.
Colin groaned, shutting the television as he rose from the couch and went
to open the door and end this intruding racket. He thought maybe it was
Deb. He hoped that if it was her, it would be Luke, as well.
Colin opened the door expecting to make eye contact. He didn’t expect to
have to look up to do it. He looked up into the grinning, sparkling-eyed
face of Ryan, which was the last face he expected to see. Colin almost
gasped. He did gasp when Ryan grabbed his shoulders firmly and leaned in
to leave a playful smack of a kiss on Colin’s cheek.
“Ryan! What the hell are you doing here?” Colin hoped he didn’t sound too
ungrateful, but he thought he might die of shock. Ryan didn’t fly if he
could possibly help it. “You don’t fly. How the hell did you get here?”
“Geez, Col! What? Is this a bad time or something? No hi how ya doing; no
come on in? I travel across the country, entrusting my life to an
extremely heavy piece of metal that has no business being that high up in
the air without a safety net, to be greeted with this?”
Colin stared. “No, I mean, come on in,” he amended, stepping to the side
to allow Ryan, and Ryan’s suitcase, through the door. “But, really. I
mean, I’ve been calling you forever.”
“Yeah, I know. Obviously I didn’t get the last few ‘cause I was
traveling. And to answer your question, of what the hell I’m doing here…
I’m here to see you. I would have been here sooner, but I didn’t do the
flight in one shot. I took kind of a mini-vacation along the way,
staying at hotels and stuff. Sightseeing. Trying to unwind from the
flights. By drinking. A lot.” Ryan laughed, his eyes sparkling even
more. Colin didn’t say anything, so Ryan continued, amused by the
dumbfounded look on his old friend’s face. “Listen, I really wanted to
see you. I got your message about you and Deb and I thought it was worth
getting on the plane to come out here. I mean, I’m really sorry to hear
about Deb, Colin.”
“Thanks,” was all Colin could offer, cotton-mouthed at thinking of his
situation.
“Also, I didn’t want to get the Ryan-is-selfish speech again,” Ryan
deadpanned.
“Aah,” Colin finally cracked a smile. “The underlying ulterior motive. I
knew it would eventually come out.”
“Hey, you’ve known me too long. So, can I come any further into your
house or….” Ryan shrugged questioningly.
Colin finally seemed to come alive for the first time since Ryan got
there. “Sure! Oh, definitely, come in!” Colin grabbed Ryan’s jacket and
suitcase and put them on the landing. “We can bring these up to the spare
bedroom later. Come in and sit. You thirsty?”
Ryan sat on a tall chair at the bar that ran down the center of the
kitchen. He smiled as Colin went behind the counter to open the fridge.
“Beer?” Ryan offered.
“Sure.” Colin cracked a bottle open for his friend and poured some wine
for himself before seating himself next to Ryan. The two were quiet for
a short while, able to sit and enjoy silent companionship. But Ryan was
having a hard time not staring at Colin, and the younger man leaned in
slightly, trying to study Colin’s face. Colin finally turned his head to
look at Ryan.
“What are you doing? Because it’s freaking me out.”
“Nothing. Nothing. Just, I wanted to see if you were, you know, OK.”
“Well,” Colin began, again looking straight ahead, pushing his glass
away. “Things pretty much suck, if you want to know the truth. It’s
mostly my fault, too, being away as much as I’ve been. If I’d been
around to work things out, maybe we could have worked things out.”
“You’re around now,” Ryan said gently.
Colin shrugged. “I think it’s irreconcilable, at this point.”
“Oh. Why, Col?”
Colin shrugged again, silent. Then he said, “Can we talk about this
later?”
“Sure,” Ryan replied. They got quiet again, sipping their drinks. Ryan
put his hand on Colin’s shoulder briefly, and Colin half-smiled at him.
“So, how long you gonna be around for?” Colin asked.
Ryan grinned. “How long is it gonna take for you to tell me the rest of
the story?”
Colin couldn’t help but return the smile. This was the close friendship
with Ryan that he’d known for so long. It was a kind of friendship that
was rare between two men, and he’d never had another friendship like it.
The anger of before was forgotten. “So it’ll be a while?”
“Well, I guess so,” Ryan replied.
“OK. Well, I’m going to go get the room ready. You can come up or stay
here. Hey, I don’t have to tell you. You know this is your home, too.”
Colin smiled again, sliding off the seat and heading towards the stairs.
“Great,” Ryan replied. “I’ll be up to fart under your covers in a
minute.” Ryan giggled as Colin rolled his eyes and went upstairs.
TBC
Title: A Place Where We Belong. Part One of ?, I'll Be Around
Pairing: Ryan/Colin
Rating: PG
Summary: Um, I guess it's mostly introductory. Colin has a surprise guest.
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with WL, I don't own or know Ry/Col, this is purely fiction, I make no profits.
Note: The "umbrella" title, A Place Where We Belong, is from an Air Supply song of the same name (don't own them, either). Listening to them reminds me of R/C. Don't ask. :)
They’d known each other for over twenty-five years, and Colin
knew how Ryan could be. Ryan had a temperament that could be more than a
little unstable. Colin knew Ryan was hysterically funny, kind and
charming, but Colin also knew that Ryan had an extraordinarily quick
temper, accompanied by an acid tongue and a tendency to turn his back on
the other person’s side of the argument and stalk off like a petulant
teenager. Ryan was lovable, sweet and loyal, but stubborn and moody with
a penchant for shutting people out. They’d known each other for over
twenty-five years, and sometimes Colin still had no idea what Ryan was
thinking. Especially now, when he’d been trying to get in touch with the
younger man for weeks with no success.
It had been quite a while since the two men had seen each other. Months,
which was long enough as far as Colin was concerned. Ryan was, after
all, one of his best friends. They had done a Night of Improv together
earlier in the year, but since then had lost contact. Being on opposite
coasts hadn’t helped the situation, but Colin never expected them to go
this long without at least talking on the phone. Now, on a break from
his tour with Brad, Colin had toyed with the idea of getting on a plane
and showing up at Ryan’s door. After thinking it through, he decided
that was probably a bad idea, considering Ryan’s wife and children. So
Colin waited, calling and leaving messages for Ryan every couple of
days.
Things had been particularly hard for Colin over the last few months. He
found himself living as a bachelor again, after his absenteeism due to
touring had brought some underlying marital issues to a head and he and
Deb had decided separate. The house was very quiet, with Deb and Luke
staying at Deb’s parents’. Colin missed Luke saying, “That was only
funny the first time, dad.” Colin hadn’t been in a very joking mood
lately. The irony of the current situation wasn’t funny to Colin,
either. That irony was that now that he was alone in the house, his
impending divorce looming closer, he had finally decided to take a break
from the tour with Brad. He just didn’t feel like he could be funny, at
the moment. He was frustrated with Ryan for not being there when he
needed him, and stalked through the house angry every time he had to
leave another answering machine message. Throughout his life, Colin had
never met anyone who could make him as angry as Ryan could. While
Colin’s own wife and son, or parents, could make him boiling mad, only
Ryan could arouse the kind of ire in him that he felt after hanging up
the phone yet again on Ryan’s answering machine.
On this particular day, he had just called Ryan and opted not to leave a
message, instead hanging up on Ryan’s machinated voice. Colin folded his
arms across his chest and stalked to the couch, plopping down and
flipping on the television, mumbling angrily. Colin was such a nurturer,
such a giver; it was just in his nature. He was a strange paradox of
shyness and gregariousness, humor and awkward silence. But in his heart
he was a giving, caring individual. Not necessarily open or revealing
about himself, but willing to do for others within reason, and willing to
go above and beyond for his close friends. He was slow to anger, but
tended to let his resentments fester. He knew he did this, and was
slowly trying to break the bad habit. But Colin’s own personality traits
made it even harder for him to understand Ryan. Not that Ryan wasn’t
also a giving, caring person, but the only ongoing theme in Colin and
Ryan’s fights over the years was Ryan’s recurrent selfishness. Colin had
told Ryan on more than one occasion that he thought the younger man could
care less about his feelings. Ryan always snorted in anger at that
suggestion, but then resorted to his infamous back-turning, walking away
routine. To which Colin would yell that Ryan had just proved him right.
They always made up, of course. Both of them knew where they really
stood with the other. They had been friends for too long, and it was a
friendship that never would have lasted if they each hadn’t known how to
ignore what annoyed them about the other.
But now Colin was mad all over again; sitting on the couch and stewing
over how selfish he thought Ryan was and wondering how he managed to put
up with Ryan all these years. He tried to tell himself that he’d felt
this way before, and that each time, he and Ryan had reconciled their
differences. He told himself that he knew what kind of friend Ryan
really was, and that if Ryan hadn’t contacted him yet, there must be a
good reason. But what he said out loud, to the empty house, to the
television set, was this: “If he doesn’t call me by tomorrow, I’m not
talking to him again.” Colin knew he wasn’t in his normal frame of
mind. Colin in his normal frame of mind wouldn’t drop a friend unless it
was under very extraordinary circumstances, especially a friend of over
two decades. But Colin also knew that he couldn’t sit around and go
through another slow separation like the one he was going through with
Deb. He didn’t have a problem equating his friendship with Ryan to his
marriage to Deb. They were the two people he loved most in the world,
with the exception of his son.
Colin grunted, lying back onto the couch, the television still
flickering, remote on his chest. He closed his eyes.
Colin was dreaming that he was on tour again, only he was touring with
Ryan in his dream, instead of Brad. They were onstage, doing a game of
Props. Colin kept trying to make the audience laugh with his prop, but
for some reason Ryan had these castanets and kept clinking them together
every time Colin tried to speak. In his dream, Colin was getting angry,
and the constant tapping of the castanets would not stop. Colin was
glaring at Ryan, feeling the agitation build from his stomach to his jaw
as he got ready to yell. Suddenly, his eyes popped open, but the noise
didn’t stop. Someone was at the door.
Colin groaned, shutting the television as he rose from the couch and went
to open the door and end this intruding racket. He thought maybe it was
Deb. He hoped that if it was her, it would be Luke, as well.
Colin opened the door expecting to make eye contact. He didn’t expect to
have to look up to do it. He looked up into the grinning, sparkling-eyed
face of Ryan, which was the last face he expected to see. Colin almost
gasped. He did gasp when Ryan grabbed his shoulders firmly and leaned in
to leave a playful smack of a kiss on Colin’s cheek.
“Ryan! What the hell are you doing here?” Colin hoped he didn’t sound too
ungrateful, but he thought he might die of shock. Ryan didn’t fly if he
could possibly help it. “You don’t fly. How the hell did you get here?”
“Geez, Col! What? Is this a bad time or something? No hi how ya doing; no
come on in? I travel across the country, entrusting my life to an
extremely heavy piece of metal that has no business being that high up in
the air without a safety net, to be greeted with this?”
Colin stared. “No, I mean, come on in,” he amended, stepping to the side
to allow Ryan, and Ryan’s suitcase, through the door. “But, really. I
mean, I’ve been calling you forever.”
“Yeah, I know. Obviously I didn’t get the last few ‘cause I was
traveling. And to answer your question, of what the hell I’m doing here…
I’m here to see you. I would have been here sooner, but I didn’t do the
flight in one shot. I took kind of a mini-vacation along the way,
staying at hotels and stuff. Sightseeing. Trying to unwind from the
flights. By drinking. A lot.” Ryan laughed, his eyes sparkling even
more. Colin didn’t say anything, so Ryan continued, amused by the
dumbfounded look on his old friend’s face. “Listen, I really wanted to
see you. I got your message about you and Deb and I thought it was worth
getting on the plane to come out here. I mean, I’m really sorry to hear
about Deb, Colin.”
“Thanks,” was all Colin could offer, cotton-mouthed at thinking of his
situation.
“Also, I didn’t want to get the Ryan-is-selfish speech again,” Ryan
deadpanned.
“Aah,” Colin finally cracked a smile. “The underlying ulterior motive. I
knew it would eventually come out.”
“Hey, you’ve known me too long. So, can I come any further into your
house or….” Ryan shrugged questioningly.
Colin finally seemed to come alive for the first time since Ryan got
there. “Sure! Oh, definitely, come in!” Colin grabbed Ryan’s jacket and
suitcase and put them on the landing. “We can bring these up to the spare
bedroom later. Come in and sit. You thirsty?”
Ryan sat on a tall chair at the bar that ran down the center of the
kitchen. He smiled as Colin went behind the counter to open the fridge.
“Beer?” Ryan offered.
“Sure.” Colin cracked a bottle open for his friend and poured some wine
for himself before seating himself next to Ryan. The two were quiet for
a short while, able to sit and enjoy silent companionship. But Ryan was
having a hard time not staring at Colin, and the younger man leaned in
slightly, trying to study Colin’s face. Colin finally turned his head to
look at Ryan.
“What are you doing? Because it’s freaking me out.”
“Nothing. Nothing. Just, I wanted to see if you were, you know, OK.”
“Well,” Colin began, again looking straight ahead, pushing his glass
away. “Things pretty much suck, if you want to know the truth. It’s
mostly my fault, too, being away as much as I’ve been. If I’d been
around to work things out, maybe we could have worked things out.”
“You’re around now,” Ryan said gently.
Colin shrugged. “I think it’s irreconcilable, at this point.”
“Oh. Why, Col?”
Colin shrugged again, silent. Then he said, “Can we talk about this
later?”
“Sure,” Ryan replied. They got quiet again, sipping their drinks. Ryan
put his hand on Colin’s shoulder briefly, and Colin half-smiled at him.
“So, how long you gonna be around for?” Colin asked.
Ryan grinned. “How long is it gonna take for you to tell me the rest of
the story?”
Colin couldn’t help but return the smile. This was the close friendship
with Ryan that he’d known for so long. It was a kind of friendship that
was rare between two men, and he’d never had another friendship like it.
The anger of before was forgotten. “So it’ll be a while?”
“Well, I guess so,” Ryan replied.
“OK. Well, I’m going to go get the room ready. You can come up or stay
here. Hey, I don’t have to tell you. You know this is your home, too.”
Colin smiled again, sliding off the seat and heading towards the stairs.
“Great,” Ryan replied. “I’ll be up to fart under your covers in a
minute.” Ryan giggled as Colin rolled his eyes and went upstairs.
TBC
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