Ryden Oneshots

Conflicted

"I'm conflicted."

Brendon flopped next to Spencer and sighed deeply. Spencer lowered his newspaper and sighed.

"Brendon, do you mind? I'm trying to do a crossword."

"I don't mind at all, it won't bother me. Don't worry. I can talk around it." Spencer rolled his eyes as Brendon toed out of his shoes and cuddled into Spencer's side. "Anyway, I thought you were doing a sudoku?"

"I finished it 300 miles ago," Spencer said.

"Oh. Okay. Well, anyway. So, I'm conflicted."

"And what are you conflicted about?" Spencer asked, clearly unconcerned.

"I don't want to talk about it," Brendon said, clearly wanting to talk about it.

"Do you know a seven letter word for irritating? Second letter is R?"

"I hate you," Brendon said.

"I thought 'irritant' but that's 8."

"Oh, you mean seriously?" Brendon craned his neck to look. "Huh."

"Oh, I tried Brendon already," Spencer reassured.

"You know. I'm sick of being in this bus."

"It's only been like four hours. And this is the first day of the new tour. You had better get used to it. Get your sea legs back or whatever."

Ryan wandered up to the front of the bus and headed for the fridge.

"Ryan, just the man I wanted to see," Spencer said. Brendon shook his head.

"What?" Ryan asked.

"Well, first. I need a seven letter word for irritating. Second letter is R." Ryan's eyes shifted unsubtly to Brendon.

"Hey!" Brendon snapped, punching Spencer.

"I had nothing to do with that, I'll have you know," Spencer said, punching Brendon back. "Okay, second thing. Brendon is conflicted and clearly wants to talk about it."

Ryan had his head in the fridge and when he stood up, he was unscrewing a bottle of water.

"No, it's fine," Brendon said. "It's nothing."

"Irksome," Ryan said. He walked off and Brendon punched Spencer again.

"You can't tell him!" Brendon hissed.

"Oh, is this still about your big lesbian crush on Ryan?"

"It's not a lesbian crush," Brendon argued.

"Whatever you say." Spencer leaned around Brendon. "Thanks, Ryan! It fits!"

With that accomplishment behind him, Spencer set to work finding a hotel they could stop at for the night. Their driving schedule wasn't strict yet, and he didn't want Brendon getting all out of sorts so early in the tour. Especially not when his crush on Ryan was so blatant and made him so angsty.

The day wore on and the driver announced they were in Dubuque, city of many wonders, and home to the hotel Spencer had found for them for the night.

Brendon had his shoes on and was ready to bolt out the door when they reached the hotel, until he made a horrifying discovery.

"Guys. Either this city has fourteen Denny's restaurants, or we're driving in circles," Brendon said.

Ryan's mouth dropped into a shocked 'O' and he headed to check out the window. Sure enough, a few minutes later they were lapping the same familiar area and Ryan flopped back on the couch.