This Charming Man

One

"I can't wait 'til he's gone," Ryan muttered angrily as he scrubbed the last in his pile of soiled bed sheets on his washboard. "Rude bastard..."

"He'll be gone by tomorrow morning, Ryan. And don't let Mr Wentz hear you talking about him like that," I warned him as I folded the clean sheets and placed them in colour coordinated piles. It was damn difficult since they were all slightly different pasty shades of white.

I heard Ryan sigh and put his washboard down.

"I think that's everything, right?" he asked, glancing round the small room. I grunted in response and put the towels in their correct shelves in the cupboards. He lay down on his back and breathed out heavily.

"I'm gettin' too old for this," Ryan said, and I kicked him playfully in his side and scoffed as he flinched and curled up into a ball.

"Shut up, you're sixteen!"

He laughed and grabbed for my ankle. "I feel sixty!"

"Ryan, get off!" I laughed, trying to shake my ankle free and the door suddenly opening behind us startled me and I stumbled back against the cupboards.

"What the hell are you two doing?" Mr Wentz growled in the doorway. Ryan sat up immediately and tried to help me up.

"N-nothing, sir," he mumbled, tugging at my arm.

Mr Wentz grunted. "Whatever. You have a customer, Urie."

I quickly shook Ryan's lingering hands off and frowned at Mr Wentz. "But we're finished, sir. We've done all our chores for today."

Mr Wentz shot me a glowering look. "I said you have a customer, Urie. You have five minutes to make yourself presentable and be by my front desk. You hear me? Five minutes," he said, before turning and slamming the door behind him. I heard Ryan gulp behind me and I spun around and grabbed his shirt collar.

"Ryan, you have to help me!"

He frowned and pushed my hands away. "I already have three on the go at the moment. I'm not helping you, Brendon."

"Please, Ryan, please!?" I begged him, falling to my knees in front of him with my hands clasped together.

He poked my forehead. "I can't! I've got too many duties at the moment and Mr Wentz probably wouldn't let me either. Speaking of Wentz, you should probably get going before he skins you."

"But I haven't got anything smart to wear," I said, getting up and dusting my knees.

Ryan sighed in exasperation and bent down to pick up his tub and washboard, "You can borrow something from me," and headed to the door. I followed him back to our dorm room where he searched his closet whilst I got undressed down to my underwear. He pulled out his neatly hung evening uniform and held it up to me.

"Won't it be a bit long?" he asked after I took it from him and started changing.

"You're not that much taller than me, Ryan," I muttered, pulling on the pants. "Besides, it's only for this evening. I'll get mine back by tomorrow." My evening uniform had been taken away to be cleaned properly after an incident involving soup and shoulder barging in the restaurant a few nights before. I told Ryan this and he rolled his eyes and sat down on his bed to undo his shoe laces.

"I don't expect any less from you to be honest."

I stuck my tongue out at him and fixed my collar before heading to the door. I paused in the doorway to slip on my indoor shoes and noticed a folded piece of paper in the front pocket. I frowned and opened it up. Written on the inside was what I recognised to be a list of monuments, restaurants and parks in Valnesse City. I frowned.

"Hey, Ryan, what's this?"

He looked up and his eyes went wide. "Give me that!" he said, getting up quickly and rushing towards me. I lifted it above my head. It was a foolish move as he was taller than me and could grab it anyway and he did and shoved it into his back pocket. He stood frowning at the floor guiltily.

I folded my arms and eyed him warily. "Why do you have a list of places in Valnesse, Ryan?"

He turned his face away sharply and started walking towards the balcony, ignoring my question. It took me a moment to realise and my eyes widened slightly with hope.

"Ryan, did you get train tickets?"

He paused in the middle of the room and let out a heavy sigh. "I thought I was going to," he said quietly, turning to look at me.

"Oh," I looked down, "Why didn't you?"

There was a brief moment of silence before he spoke. "Jon said he could try and get some. One for me a-and one for you," he said, and I could tell by his tone he was embarrassed. I smiled slightly.

"So you made a list of things you wanted us to do?"

Ryan nodded and put his hands in his pockets. "You're always talking about how much you want to go s-so I thought we could... Y'know..."

I grinned and shook my head in disbelief. "Never mind, Ryan. Maybe another time."

He sighed and turned to the balcony again. "Whatever."

I watched him for a moment before chuckling softly and turning to leave.