Rating: PG-13
POV: 3rd
Word count: 7,000-ish
Summary: Brendon and Ryan were inseparable growing up, but one day were forced to say goodbye. As fate would have it, years later they bump into each other in a coffee shop. Without knowing it, they had become each other's second skin.
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Brendon said that love was when mommies and daddies got married. Ryan knew better, and said love was when they got married andhad babies. As Ryan was older Brendon trusted his word because Ryan knew more about the world. Obviously, they both hadn't the slightest idea of what they were talking about. At the ages of six and five, they knew very little about love.
"You be the mommy this time, ok?" Brendon smiled and nodded, putting his arm out for Ryan to take as they pretended to be a newly married couple walking down The Strip of Las Vegas. They had seen The Strip once, but only from the backseat of the car. They remembered the lights and Ryan had said once that The Strip must have been the center of the world because they had never seen so many people.
A couple of years before, Brendon had moved into the neighborhood with his mom. The first thing he had seen was a little boy around his age sitting on the sidewalk in front of a plastic tricycle, hitting it with a plastic screwdriver. Brendon had walked over to see why he was doing this. Turned out the tricycle wouldn't move anymore, and Brendon had looked down and noticed a piece of plastic wound around one of the wheels. He had tugged at the plastic and the day was saved. They had been inseparable since.
"Boys! Lunch time!" Brendon's mother called from the steps of the back porch. Their arms dropped and their hands intertwined as Ryan pulled Brendon inside the house. In the kitchen they let go and went to opposite sides of the table as Mrs. Urie placed a plate before each of them with a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich that Ryan compulsively proceeded to cut into diagonal quarters.
"Hey mom," Brendon started in a singsong voice, "I was thinking maybe, for my birthday, you could take me and Ryan to The Strip!"
His mom laughed a little and replied, "Now Brendon, you know you boys aren't old enough for that yet."
She ruffled his hair before walking out, leaving them to finish their snack. Truthfully, she wasn't much of a fan of The Strip, or the idea of the boys being anywhere near it. It wasn't a place for kids, but, as life had dealt it, they lived near it.
* * *
"I'll race you!" Ryan challenged enthusiastically as they reached the street he and Brendon lived on. Brendon nodded a little out of breath before Ryan shouted a quick "GO!" and pedaled off on his bike and Brendon followed suit.
Ryan looked back to see Brendon trailing behind him, and didn't notice Old Lady Stevens' angry Chihuahua running to the sidewalk to cross his path. He heard the sharp, high-pitched barking just in time to try and steer out of his path and not kill it, but, unfortunately, he went off the sidewalk, losing his balance.
Ryan tumbled onto the pavement before rolling a couple of times with the momentum he had acquired in his race against Brendon. Brendon stopped his bike abruptly and ran off to Ryan, muttering an "Oh my god," under his breath. He crouched when he reached Ryan, who was pushing himself off the ground to a sitting position.
"Are you ok?" Brendon asked with concern.
Ryan looked down at his lightly scraped arms and started giggling despite his soreness and responded, "Why wouldn't I be ok? I won!"
Brendon slapped his arm and Ryan winced a bit. He looked down at his knee and grimaced. Brendon followed his eyes and his vision landed him on the bloodiest knee scrape he had ever seen. He helped Ryan get up and collect his bike. Brendon let Ryan rest against him to limp over to Brendon's house.
