The Greywaren and the Magician [Pynch One-Shots]

Rhyme and Reason

Gansey had died. Blue had killed him. Gansey had lived again. Ronan had revived him. (Cabeswater and Noah, it seemed, had made a sacrifice.)

All of this had happened in one night, and just before, it seemed, things had been much more simple and much more lovely. He had been sitting in his room. Not the one at Monmouth, a mess littered with things born of his subconscious, but his room at the Barns. Still littered with dream things, not all his own. It had been white and delicate, light breaking in through the window, and Adam's fingers had been soft and careful against a toy car that did not run on normal rules, his lips had been even softer against Ronan's.

They had still not talked about it.

That was why he was here. It was his rhyme and his reason, standing outside this door above the church that had been home to his worship every Sunday.

A rhyme: heavy breath, lips shaking, uncertain laugh.

A reason: a knob turning, eyes widening, Adam Parrish.

Both boys stood and stared for a few moments too long. It was not necessarily awkward, because the silence wasn't born of an absence of the things to say, but rather just the opposite.

Ronan let his mouth curve upward just the slightest bit, "Can I come in?"

Adam jerked into action at that, stepping backward, rushing out a sentence that was half apology and half yes, of course, of course.

They both sat down on Adam's bed. It creaked loudly and Adam smoothed his hand over the sheet covering it like he could quiet it down.

"We haven't–" Ronan started, and Adam looked up at him abruptly, caught his gaze and cut his sentence off without a word.

"I know."

Ronan laughed, scrubbed a hand over his shaven head and cast his up to the ceiling, "Well, Jesus fuck, Parrish. I just thought we might do good to work things out."

His jaw tightened the slightest bit and blew out a breath, closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that." Adam's eyes fluttered back open and he moved closer, just enough that their knees were touching and Ronan's eyelids drooped, air escaping heavily from his mouth.

"Then just talk. Anything you need me to hear."

Adam looked at him and thought about that.

He remembered Gansey telling him that Blue made him quiet, he remembered what he'd asked to receive that answer.

Anything you need me to hear.

He didn't know what Ronan wanted to hear, he didn't know what he would tell him.

He did know what he was feeling.

The point where their knees touched was like a beacon, he could not ignore it. He wanted to touch Ronan's hands and he wanted to press into Ronan's space. He wanted to sit across from Ronan at Nino's and kick his ankles under the table and call it a date.

"I want to date you," he said, and it did not feel right despite the fact that Ronan's whole face shaped itself into awe the second the words left his mouth. It was not that they were untrue, but that they were not enough. "I think that I've been just looking at you for too long. I want... I want you. I want to be with you."

Ronan's breath shuddered, "Like..."

"Boyfriends." The word was not a question, Adam's expression was so fierce and sure that Ronan could not quite think clearly. This was mostly due to the fact that Adam Parrish had no doubt in his mind about this. Ronan could not quite fathom that someone so lovely would look at him and not immediately want to run.

He nodded, let himself reach out and knock his knuckles softly against Adam's smooth jaw, "Then we're going on a fucking date."

If Adam kept smiling the way he did right then for the rest of eternity, Ronan was sure that every star in the galaxy would retreat in shame.