Among the Enemy (Ryden)

Lily

Brendon woke up the next morning to someone poking his side. He swatted the hand away and rolled onto his back.

"Are you up?" Brendon opened his eyes just wide enough to see Ryan kneeing on the bed, hovering over his face. He looked almost as tired as Brendon felt. His hair was sticking out in all directions and his eyes looked like they were on the verge of closing so he could fall asleep again.

Brendon shut his eyes and took a deep breath. Before he could fall back asleep, Ryan jabbed one of his long body fingers into Brendon's side. Brendon jerked his body away and Ryan let out a small giggle.

"Wake up," Ryan whispered. Brendon could almost hear the smile on Ryan's face. A smile spread over his own face until Ryan poked him again.

"I'm up," Brendon groaned. When he didn't move, he got stabbed again. He sat up and tried rubbing away the sleep from his eyes. Ryan sat back on his butt. With a sigh, he looked over at Ryan. "I'm up." Ryan gave an innocent smile.

"Okay good. I've been trying to get you up for five minutes." Brendon mumbled an apology. After the night he had, he was more tired than usual. "We gotta get ready." Brendon frowned.

"For what?" He looked around the room and saw it was just them two. "Where's Dave?"

"Gotta go to work and Dave left like an hour ago with the other guys. I'm surprised you didn't hear him. He tripped over some clothes and nearly knocked over the dresser trying to catch himself. It was very funny." Brendon gave a small chuckle.

"Sucks I missed it. I'm just really tired. I didn't get much sleep last night."

"How come?"

"Just... thinking too much."

"About what?" Brendon's face went red. There was no way he was going to tell Ryan.

"Just things. Nothing bad."

"You sure?" Brendon nodded. Ryan stared at him for a second before nodding. "Alright. Well, we gotta get ready." Ryan climbed off the bed and went to the closet. Brendon watched him until Ryan pulled off his night shirt. Brendon felt himself blush again and quickly left to the bathroom.

It didn't take as long getting ready today because Brendon managed not to have a breakdown. He was able to help Ryan better at the clinic seeing that he knew what he was doing now more or less. Soon enough, the two had nothing to do but sit and wait for something to happen.

Brendon began bouncing his knee unconsciously. He had grabbed a wrap and was wrapping it over his wrist. He was softly humming a song his mom used to sing to him and his siblings when they were younger.

"What are you singing?" Ryan broke the silence. Brendon stopped when he realized his humming turned into gentle singing.

"Just a song my mom used to sing," he replied shyly. He never really liked singing in front of people. It made him self-conscious.

"You have a really nice voice," Ryan said after a moment of silence. Brendon felt his face heating.

"Thanks." A new silence setting over them again.

"Can you sing something else?" Brendon looked down and fidgeted with the wrap.

"I don't think I should."

"Why not?"

"I don't really sing in front of people."

"You should. You have a beautiful voice." Brendon shook his head. "Just pretend I'm a family member."

"I didn't sing in front of my family either. No one's really heard me sing."

"No one?" Ryan sounded shocked.