The Naked Truth [Ryden]

And So Two Years Pass...

Having a God damned prosthetic leg and trying to close the God damned door was a combination he found increasingly difficult. Of course, he wasn't exactly going to close the door with his leg, but due to the fact that he had God damned crutches and still - still - could never get his balance when using one hand, that was what made it difficult.

Or maybe he was just being a drama queen.

His mother rolled her eyes and rolled down the window, peering out. "You okay, honey?"

He looked up at the prison, old and fierce and fading, and then at the familiar figure approaching, and he swallowed heavily, nodding. "I think I'm good."

"All right; call me if you need anything."

He nodded again and she drove off, and he turned to the man approaching him. "Long time, no see, huh?" He smiled.

"Brendon," Ryan smiled in return. "I missed you, y'know?"

"I know." The two hugged, allowing the heartache of the past two years to sit between them and glue them together. It was only in the past month that Brendon had gotten in contact again, and Ryan had been all-too-happy to talk; he was in love, after all. "I missed you too."

They broke apart, Ryan's cheeks flushing, and Brendon grinned. "Shall we?" The elder said, gesturing towards the prison.

"If we must," Brendon replied, and together they approached the cruel building, filled with the bad, the worse, and the just plain disturbed. "I still don't understand why we're here."

"There's someone who might want to see you. Of course, they'll punch me in the face, but whatever." They approached the reception desk, and Ryan smiled, having done this a million times before. "We're here for Spencer Smith?"

He could feel Brendon's demanding eyes on him, and only spoke once they'd signed a few papers and had been searched.

"They got caught," he said, as they were led towards the room where all the inmates sat, awaiting visitors. "Gee, Bob, Bert and Spencer. All charged with Dallon's murder. Oh, and the murder of Spencer's parents. Someone started asking after Spencer's mom, and eventually the cops found the grave in the back garden. I think Bob got less time, simply because he'd just been there, y'know just as a prop, and I think Gee got a couple of years less, but I don't know. 'Cause it was Bert who got the pills in the first place, see, and then -"

They emerged into the room, and sure enough, Spencer was at his usual place at the back, far away from Gee, Bert and Bob, the former's only visitor being Mikey Way, and the latter two having nobody at all. The second Spencer's eyes met Ryan's, he knew that he was pretty much fucked.

"You lied to me." He hissed, as they sat down. "You told me he was dead."

"Jesus Christ, Ryan; can't you stop lying for one minute?" Brendon glared at him, and the ex-model raised his hands in surrender.

"Yeah, let's gang up on the one who's trying to sort things, not the one who's a murderer and definitely not the one who ran away from his problems."

"Why didn't you tell the truth, for God's sake?" Spencer demanded, slamming his fists onto the table and catching the attention of the guards. "Wait -" he looked at Brendon. "- why have you got crutches?"

The ex-pornstar sighed, turned to the left, and then proceeded to take off his prosthetic leg. Spencer paled, watching with wide eyes as Brendon shimmied the leg back up through his jeans and connected it, making sure it was actually on.

"That," he said, raising his eyebrows. "is why I have crutches."

~

They were just passing Brendon's old place when Ryan stopped, feeling as though they needed to talk about some stuff. And they did: Brendon had been out of his life for two years after cruelly leaving, and believe it or not, he was still kind of in love with Brendon.

Not that he'd ever managed to tell him so, of course. Nor would he ever gather the courage now.

"I'm sorry I lied about you," he said, looking the younger in the eye and twiddling his thumbs. "I just...didn't know what else to say. I felt like you deserved to get away without anyone trying to find you...y'know?"

Brendon smiled, stepping closer on his crutches, so that they were less than two feet apart. "When you put it like that, I guess it seems logical."

"I knew you'd come around eventually."

"Yeah..." He exhaled, taking another step, drinking in Ryan's features, none of which had changed much. He was glad. "I didn't want to come back at first, I was happy with being on my own, y'know? But after six months I began to miss people. My mom, my stepdad, Jon...and you."

Ryan felt his face flush, and he smiled widely. "Well you're back for a while now, aren't you?"

Brendon tilted his head slightly. "Yeah...yeah, I am."

The ex-pornstar stepped forward and kissed the ex-model, and in that moment, every wrong had been righted, and everything was okay. After two years, the kiss no longer tasted bitter. It tasted sweeter than ever before.

And though they weren't naked, it didn't matter, because it was most definitely the truth.

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