Northern Downpour|Ryden

It's chasin' off the days

"Get on the fucking ground" the man in black clothing, holding a gun ordered and Brendon more than obliged. He flung himself on the ground, covering his head.
"Get the TV" he heard the man say. "Check the bedroom" he said. Brendon was shocked, he was seriously being robbed right now. The tall man stood in front of Brendon with his gun pointed at him. "The phone too."
"Dude, this guy is gay" another voice came into the living room. Brendon shrunk as they both laughed. Not only was he being robbed but now he was being belittled because of his sexuality. Everywhere he looked he was being made fun of for it. Brendon felt a kick to the face by the heavy boot.
"Faggot" the man laughed. "Is that it?" he asked. Brendon couldn't move his face, his lip was numb from the kick to the face. "Get the ropes" he ordered. The tall man sat Brendon up against the couch. He slammed his fist into Brendon's face three times making Brendon drop his head from the pain. Ropes were tied around his wrists and feet and then he was being dragged into his bedroom and into the closest.
"I think this is a great place to put a gay" one of them joked and the other laughed. Brendon looked up at the two. A kick to the face made Brendon black out.
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Ryan finally decided to come home, he had been calling Brendon the whole ride home but there was no answer. He pulled up to his parking space next to Brendon's, his car was there so he figured Brendon was just being petty.
When he got up to the apartment he saw that the door was wide open which confused him a little bit. He walked in and saw the apartment was destroyed, the TV was missing, the drawers were all out and rummaged through, the cushions were off the couch, things were smashed.
"Brendon?" he called out, still no answer. "Babe!" He got a sinking feeling as he walked into the bedroom to see the bed was a mess, the drawers were also cleaned out and their stuff was on the floor. The closest door was cracked and Ryan slowly opened it. His eyes darted to his boyfriend who was passed out, tied up and with duct tape on his face. He began to cry as he dropped to his knees. He noticed the blood on his face, his eye was swollen and so was his lip. He finally put two and two together and realized they were robbed.
"Brendon, oh my god." he cried as he untied him and took the duct tape off his face. He slowly pulled Brendon from the closest and began begging for him to wake up as he pulled his phone from his pocket to dial 911.

Brendon woke up by the time the police arrived. He sat on the bed with Ryan holding his hand protectively as he spoke to the police.
"I don't remember everything...they just barged in and forced me on the floor. And then kicked me around and threw me in the closest. I heard them say to take my phone and the TV but I'm not sure if they took anything else"
"And do you remember what they looked like?" the police officer asked as he wrote down something.
"All I know is that one was tall, I didn't see the other one. But the one had on all black and a ski mask." Brendon explained.
"Anything else?" The cop questioned.
"No...sorry" Brendon shook his head. Ryan shot a look to Brendon. Ryan didn't believe Brendon should apologize for not knowing anything about the people who robbed them. So he voiced that.
"Don't apologize Brendon, you are the victim" Ryan assured him. The officer looked from Ryan to Brendon and let out a sigh.
"Is there anyone you know that would want to rob you?" he asked.
"No" Brendon shook his head biting his lip. Ryan knew there was someone, Dallon. He knew it might be a little crazy but Dallon knew where they lived, and wanted Brendon back. It was the only person he could think of. He quickly dismissed his thoughts when he realized that Dallon wouldn't hurt Brendon...at least not to Ryan's knowledge.
"Well we'll take the information in and try to get a lead. We'll call you if anything comes in." the officer said and then left with a nod.
"I'm never leaving this apartment again" Ryan stated.
"No it's okay Ryan-" Brendon tried to stop him but Ryan was on a rampage and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
"No Brendon, I can't believe we got robbed. This is bullshit. My TV is fucking gone, your phone is gone. And you're hurt, this is some bullshit. When I find the fuckers who did this I'm going to kill them." Ryan groaned. Brendon just sat quietly, he didn't have anything to say and even if he did it wouldn't matter. So Brendon sat quietly with an ice pack to his head, listening to his boyfriend rant and rave. "I just can't believe someone would do this?! This isn't fair...it's one thing to rob my home but to hurt the person I love-ugh." Ryan pulled at his hair. "This makes me hate myself for leaving, I'm never fighting with you again, I don't care...I don't even remember what it was about and I don't want to remember." Ryan sat down on the couch.
"Let's move on from this. I don't want to think about it." Brendon shook his head. "Don't hate yourself for leaving Ryan. I'm glad you weren't here, it's better that it was just me. Who knows what would have happened if it was both of us"
"Yeah but I left because I was mad at you...I always leave, well no more. This has shown me that leaving when angry is bad. I love you and I don't want to even think about how much worse that could have gone" Ryan ranted.
"Okay Ry, just calm down. It's okay, I'm okay." Brendon put his hand up in defensive mode.
"Fine. I'm calm. I am calm" Ryan breathed.
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Ryan and Brendon went about the rest of the day normally, even though they had just been robbed. Brendon didn't want to think about it so the two didn't.
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Brendon woke up for work, he got ready, gave a sleeping Ryan a kiss on the forehead and then headed out.
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"Hey Brendon, it's good to have you back" Kacy welcomed him as he came in. He gave her a slight nod as he got ready to begin. Kacy grabbed a pile of papers from the back and brought them up to Brendon as he was tuning his guitar. Brendon noticed her standing in front of him after a second or two.
"These are songs you have to know by the end of the month. You can slowly work then into your set but they want you to learn them quickly" she informed as he took them from her hand without a word. Kacy got annoyed that he wasn't talking so she sat down on the chair next to him.
"I know what they did to you was awful. Everyone here hates him for firing you. But you shouldn't mope around here like they murdered your family. You're back, be proud and happy that you get to do what you love and you won, they love you and hate him" she explained with a shrug.
"Who's they" Brendon questioned.
"The people who came here almost everyday to protest what he did. They were the main reason you got your job back...most of them will be here for your comeback. Now smile for them" she stood and ruffled his hair before going to the back.
Brendon wasn't upset about the fact that he got fired, it was the robbery-more of what they said. It kept playing in Brendon's mind, when they put him in the closest and said "Seems like a great place for a fag"
He couldn't help but to think that maybe they were right, maybe he shouldn't have come out, it would be better that way for everyone. Hiding seemed better than being called a sinner and a fag everyday. The sinner part wasn't that bad because he didn't believe in god but in their world Brendon was the bad guy and that stung a little. All the people that were on his side didn't way out all the people that weren't.
"Brendon" Kacy interrupted his thoughts. He looked up from the floor. "Are you ready?" She asked again and he nodded.
Brendon stood up, put the guitar on and stood at the microphone. He already had his song prepared so he began it even though their was no one in the store yet. He strummed the first couple cords and started to sing.
"Don't wanna be an American idiot, don't want a nation under the new media" He sang. Kacy looked up from what she was doing, she hadn't actually been at the store when he was singing and she never imagined he was that good.
"And can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mind-fuck America, welcome to a new kind of tension, all across the alienation. Where everything isn't meant to be okay. The television dreams of tomorrow. We're not the ones who're meant to follow, for that's enough to argue" Brendon's voice made something in Kacy's stomach flutter. She smiled at him and he smiled back whilst singing. Kacy bit her lip, brushed a piece of hair behind her and continued on with her work.
------

"Babe, I'm home" Brendon called from the front door as he came in. He shut the door and walked past the living room grimacing as he walked past the TV stand without the TV. He refused to be in the living room until they had a new TV. The emptiness from it just reminded him of what happened.
He found Ryan where he usually was, sat in front of his easel painting something that he saw or conjured up in his imagination.
"Hey gorgeous" Brendon said, kissing the top of Ryan's head and Ryan let out a content hum. "What're you painting now?" Brendon moved so he could see what Ryan had on the canvas. He couldn't tell, it looked like the beginning of whatever Ryan was painting. Brendon knew that if he couldn't tell what it was, he was going to have to wait until Ryan told him.
"It's a surprise" Ryan chuckled and Brendon just nodded, knowing that was the response he was going to get...or something like that. Brendon began to take off his work clothes to put on some clothes that were loose.
Ryan turned around and saw Brendon's naked back and stood up. He walked up to him and kissed his back as Brendon was turned around. Brendon jumped a little, not knowing Ryan was going to do that. He turned around and smiled at Ryan.
"What're you doing?" Ryan asked with a small laugh.
"Getting dressed" Brendon copied his laugh. Ryan went to kiss Brendon but he was stopped when he saw the bruises on Brendon's stomach. Brendon followed his gaze and just paused.
"It's okay Ryan" Brendon assured him, placing a hand on his arm. Ryan just nodded and walked back to his painting.
"Ryan..." Brendon sighed as he put on a t-shirt. He walked up to Ryan and kissed his head. "I'm fine, I promise"
"I know...I just hate that-that I wasn't here with you." Ryan shrugged. "I always walk out and if this time, if I just hadn't.." Ryan sighed shaking his head.
"Ryan, I've told you...it's better that you weren't there. It's over now, the police are working on finding them. And once they do, everything will be okay"
"I just feel like it's my fault...that you got hurt" Ryan turned him.
"It isn't Ryan, don't stay hung up about it. It's over" Brendon looked in his eyes.
"Brendon I can see that you aren't okay, I see it in your eyes. I don't want you to be sitting here like this while I just watch. I want you to be okay, not just say you're okay, actually be okay." Ryan bit his lip.
"I am though." Brendon sat down on the bed. "Can we please just move past it and carry on with our lives?" Brendon pleaded.
"If it'll make you happy" Ryan nodded.
"It will" Brendon sat up and kissed Ryan's lips softly.
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"I'm going to kill you and your fucking boyfriend, get on the fucking ground. Now!" The tall man tells me. I do as he says and drop to the ground. I place my hands over my head.
Ryan comes in and I freeze, staring at him.
"Brendon!" Ryan calls to me, he runs to me but gets tackled by the tall man.
"Ryan!" I cry out. Ryan looks at me as the tall man pushes him to the ground. He mouths I'm sorry and then then tall man shoots him in the head. I begin to cry as I see his dead body drop to the ground.
"Shut the fuck up or you're next" he kicks my rib and I groan. He flips me over on my back and stares at me before pointing the gun towards my head and-
Brendon wakes up screaming, his body shaking and sweaty. He jolts up, wiping his eyes.
"Brendon?" Ryan sat up next to him. Ryan grabbed Brendon's arm. "You're so hot, Brendon. What's wrong?" He asked. Brendon just pushed himself into Ryan's side. Ryan instantly pulled him, holding him tight against his chest. Ryan had a feeling he knew what Brendon was dreaming about. He sighed and pulled Brendon back so they could lay down.