Hold The Pose (Ryden, Joncer) [by zarah5]

In which Brendon cleans the apartment of published author Ryan Ross to finance his college studies, and Spencer opens up an Indian style café and hires Jon to brew his fair trade coffee.

Excerpt:

Brendon sorts through Ryan's bathroom utensils while Nirvana is blasting from the speakers in the living room. Two tubes of toothpaste join a peaceful parade next to lip balm, moisturizing cream, aftershave and eyeliner that appears to have dried up.

It honestly wouldn't have taken Spencer's insinuation to figure out that Ryan's not entirely straight.

To be fair, the lube in the bedroom drawer was a tiny clue, too, and yes, Brendon might have been snooping just a little. Anyone who's in the middle of reading Ryan's book would be curious, and Brendon's especially curious where Ryan hides all the drugs he must have been doing during the writing process, churning out page after page when he was only nineteen. Against the background of Behind the Sea, it's also easier to make sense of the scribbled notes Ryan leaves lying around, the tone and particular way in which Ryan phrases things slightly more familiar. Some of them have Brendon's fingers itching with music. Ryan's writing is even more lyrical when it's torn out of context, isn't bundled up neatly within a chapter.

Brendon refrains. It's really not his place to leave a mark like that on things he's merely supposed to straighten up.

Link to the original story: http://zarah5.livejournal.com/35320.html