Two Weeks In Hawaii

Under the Lights of Sin City [3/3]

Sunday

The first thing Ryan registered when he woke up was pain. A dull, aching kind of pain that rested in every fiber of his being, making Ryan aware of places he didn't even know existed until they were protesting. He groaned low in his throat and tried not to move too much so the pain wouldn't get worse, cracking one eye open to find a source behind it all.

Almost instantly Ryan's eye snapped shut again, unable to handle the light of the room so quickly. It wasn't that bright – it was that early morning blue-ish kind of bright that always burns no matter what you try until you get used to it. After a moment to let the burning subside, Ryan tried again by parting his lids a tiny bit, adjusting, opening them a bit more, and continuing the process until he could see enough for an analysis.

It took a moment, but Ryan quickly noticed was at some point during the night, he and Brendon ended up on the floor. He was half on top of Brendon, and half on the space of floor between his boyfriend and the couch, and yeah; that's definitely where the pain had come from. Because that couch was actually pretty large and comfortable. How and when they made it to the floor, with neither apparently waking to notice, was a mystery – though it must have happened not too long after they both passed out since everything hurt.

By Ryan's guess, it was still pretty early, too. Maybe sometime between five and seven. They didn't go to bed terribly early, but it wasn't as late as Ryan originally intended either due to the whole running-into-Pete-and-Brendon-punching-him thing.

In attempt to get more comfortable, and to lessen the pain, Ryan slowly shifted himself around to be lying as straight as possible, entirely in the space between Brendon and the couch. He laid on his back, biting his lip as a sharp, quick twinge of pain ran down the length of his spine, disappearing a moment later as his body accepted the new position.

Beside him Brendon became more animated, making a soft noise of displeasure in his throat then turning to face Ryan, stretching an arm out to lay over Ryan's body in a possessive way. Ryan gave a tiny grunt when Brendon lightly pulled on his side, using Ryan for stability to scoot over and press his face into Ryan's neck. "S'early," Brendon mumbled, inhaling deeply then exhaling warmth all over Ryan.

Ryan hummed, letting his eyes slip shut, not entirely comfortable but not that inclined to move, either. "Go back t'sleep," Brendon said after, pressing a lazy kiss to Ryan's shoulder. It wasn't like Ryan didn't want to. He would love to just go back to sleep for another hour or two. But he knew that wasn't going to happen.

First off, he couldn't get comfortable enough to allow himself to do so. Especially not with Brendon half on top of him now – he would never tell Brendon to get off, though. Ryan liked the physical way Brendon functioned, for the most part, because it gave Ryan the feeling of being wanted and needed. But the main thing keeping Ryan awake was that he couldn't get his brain to settle.

Over and over again, Pete's voice was running through his head, telling Ryan that he still loved him. It was twisting his stomach and knotting his chest; a vicious loop on repeat that refused to give up. Ryan just wanted it to stop to give him peace of mind and to free him. Hearing Pete say that to Ryan made Ryan feel like Pete still had some hold, come control, over him; though Ryan knew he and Pete were absolutely through. Ryan had been doing just fine for the past year.

Honestly, Ryan wished he and Brendon would have just left when Pete went to the bathroom. He could have lived with running into Pete, it was nice to see Gabe again, but Ryan wished he never had that conversation with Pete in the bathroom.

"Stop thinking." Brendon suddenly spoke against Ryan's neck. "Thinking keeps you awake."

"How do you know I'm thinking?" Ryan asked. "Maybe I'm awake because you woke me up."