But It's Better If You Do | ❣️ RYDEN FANFIC

But It's Better... Part 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the songs/lyrics/people/anything mentioned in this story. All fictional, obviously. The only thing I own is the storyline itself, though it's still fictional as fuuuuuuuuu--

One hot day came around in the well-known city of Las Vegas, Nevada in July of 2005 when 18-year-old Ryan Ross was sitting at his keyboard directly under his window. He was writing a song for his band, Panic! at the Disco, and their new album coming out the following September.

Suddenly he heard a knock at his bedroom door, along with a familiar voice cooing out "Hey, Ry, can I come in?"

It immediately clicked in the young boy's head that one of the band members, particularly the lead singer, was outside his door. Ryan had sort of developed strong feelings for the other boy, a year younger than he was.

Ryan's heart was pounding out of his chest as he responded. "Uh, yeah, j-just a second." He quickly ran his fingers through his silky-straight dark hair in attempts to comb it back a bit. He wasn't expecting company that day, especially not his love interest, whom he could never stay focused around. He took a silent deep breath before calling to him. "Come in."

When the door slowly opened to reveal the love of his life's satisfyingly alluring eyes gleaming down at him, he could hardly breathe.  "Hey, Ryan," said the attractive boy.

"Uh, hey, Brendon," Ryan greeted him back. Don't blow it, Ryan thought, don't be so nervous around him.

Brendon walked across the room slowly, glancing back and fourth from Ryan's face to the floor sheepishly. He smiled nervously before sitting in the chair to the right of Ryan.

"So, what're you working on?" Brendon asked. He leaned forward a little, trying to look at the music sheet, his hands on his knees in front of him.

Ryan turned away shyly, hoping Brendon wouldn't look at him, only because that would make him turn red. "It's a song for the new album. I don't know what to call it. M-maybe you could help me name it," he said, turning back to face Brendon.

Brendon gulped as their eyes met. He felt so helpless, that is because he was already madly in love with Ryan--what was he to do if Ryan tried something? What if Ryan knew that Brendon loved him? What would Brendon do then?

"Oh, uh," Brendon tried to break eye contact, "sure. I'll help you name it."

Ryan nodded, then turned to face the piano in front of them. "Okay, so it starts out with..." Ryan goes on performing the lyrics for his friend, trying to at least get the melody down for him. 

"And isn't this exactly where you'd like me?

I'm exactly where you'd like me, you know.

Praying for love in a lap dance,

and paying in naivety."

Right as soon as Ryan stopped singing, Brendon repeated the verse lyric-by-lyric. In Ryan's eyes, Brendon had an angelic voice from the time he met him. Originally, Brendon wasn't the lead singer until Ryan heard him sing, then when the original lead singer needed to be filled in, Brendon took the spot. Ryan was in love with his voice ever since.

"Praying for love and paying in naivety,

praying for love and paying in naivety, oh..." Brendon finished the song, a few notes off, but nothing that a little practice wouldn't fix.

"Perfect," Ryan said happily, "what did you think?"

Brendon smiled as he noticed how happy Ryan was. That's when Brendon fell hardest for Ryan. "I loved it. It kind of shows how mature we are as a band. Strip clubs, drinking, violence... Cool. It's an awesome song. Especially since it was written by you."

Ryan blushed a bit as he turned away, trying to hide the embarrassment. His dark hair falling over his shadowy-ginger eyes, he tittered to himself.

Brendon tilted his head to the left as he stared at Ryan. He felt as though it would be okay to stare at him then, almost as if Ryan would be just fine with it.

"Ry," Brendon said with a sigh.

"Yeah," Ryan replied, looking up at Brendon once again. Brendon's thoughts were racing with comments right then. 'His eyes are so beautiful, like nothing I've ever seen!' and 'He's so damn hot, I can't stop looking at him.'

"Ry, I need to tell you something and it's," Brendon paused and took a deep breath, "it's something different. Something I feel, but you may not feel the same way about."

Ryan's eyes widen out of surprise and nervousness. His heart was racing to the point that it could have exploded his whole body! "A feeling, Brendon?"

Brendon closed his eyes, "Yeah," he said with another sigh.

"Well, you can tell me," Ryan said, lowering his head timidly.

Brendon sat up straight, grinning nervously at Ryan. "Okay," he said, then turned his body to face him. He cleared his throat and opened his palm, which was sweating from all of the nervousness he had built up inside of him. "Ryan, I-I lo--"

Brendon's confession was interrupted by another knock at the door. He closed his eyes tightly out of frustration as Ryan answered to the knock with a "Come on in."

When the door opened again, this time it was one of the other lead guitarists, Jon. He walked in and over to the piano where Ryan and Brendon were. "Hey guys, what's up?"

Brendon looked up at him in annoyance and replied, "Well, I was going to tell Ryan my thoughts on the song he just wrote, but then you walked in."

Jon snickered, "Whoops, my bad. What song?"

Ryan smiled once again, then opened up his sheet music. "We haven't figured out what we're gonna call it, but I think it deserves something kind of mature."

Jon read the lyrics over and grinned, "Yep, sounds pretty good. What do you think, Bren?"

Brendon froze, then finally turned to look at Jon. "Uh, I think it's pretty," he nodded, "good."

"I meant for the name," Jon said as he rolled his eyes.

Brendon laughed, "Oh the name," he shook his head, "well, we need something mature... How about 'But It's Better If You Do'? It sounds kinda mature-ish. It sounds like something from a strip joint if you ask me."

Ryan nodded, "I like that," he added, "what do you think?" He asked Jon.

Jon nodded in agreement. "It sounds nice. Well, maybe not nice per say, but you get what I mean. Sounds cool."

Ryan smirked at Brendon cutely, "I think Spencer'll like it too."