Title: Sway

Author: Desinere (Lyssa)

Pairing(s): Chyan, Mentioned Troyella

Rating: PG-13

Warning(s): Slash… I think that’s pretty much it. :o Well, I guess angst too.

Part Two:

            Chad Danforth always liked to think of himself as being very independent, and that he didn’t need anyone to survive. Sure, his friends were very close and important to him, but he could live without seeing them for a few days at a time.

            He had been proud to say that not a person owned his heart’s key, and no one ever would. He had been delighted to say that his mind wasn’t discombobulated from the thing people called… love.

            That was until he met up with him, though. Him, who could bend his will, stretch or snap his patience, and keep Chad wanting nothing but to be closer to him forever.

            He never thought that a few make-out sessions and one or two encounters where hands traveled south would lead to something that made him weaker and weaker.

            As he bussed a few tables for his shift, he could never clearly talk to the customers without stumbling, because he always had his mind on Ryan Evans.

            He loved how pale the boy was, and how expressive his electric blue eyes happened to be whenever he saw him. He loved how blonde his hair was, and how small and puckered those lips were whenever they kissed behind shut doors. He loved how flamboyantly the male dressed, and he thought that those pinstriped newsboy caps and those black fedoras were so, so very enticing.

            He hated how he felt, though, because it made him need Ryan. And to need the boy would make him weak, and weak was something he never wanted or expected to be. Who needed this thing called love? It wasn’t necessary in order to live, or so Taylor continuously told him whenever he ran to her for advice. He thought so too, until Ryan had come along, because whenever the blonde was absent from his chaise, Chad felt his heart turn into lead, and slowly sink down into his knotted stomach.

            The more and more he thought about it; the more and more it seemed to make a dreaded kind of sense to Chad. He… loved… or really, really liked… Ryan.

            That was what urged him to find the blonde when he should have been running to get home to play some hoops before his mom came home with the weekly groceries that she needed help lugging in.

            Once he had finished waiting on his last customer for the day, around noontime, he rushed to finish up in the kitchens, even forgetting to go to his locker to change clothes and get his car’s keys. He was incredibly thankful that he didn’t have to work for the full working hours today, because he didn’t think he could wait that long.

            He cursed at himself for not even taking his apron off, which was spotted with grease and other random stains from food. He hoped that he looked halfway decent for the always-gorgeous blonde.

            Asking around the resort for where Ryan was located was a very frustrating task. Almost everyone asked didn’t know where the Evans boy was, and if they did know, they told him the wrong coordinates, because wherever he looked was where Ryan wasn’t.

            Almost ready to give up the chase, Chad leaned against the wall, breathing heavily. When his ear made contact with the wall, he could faintly hear a tune being carried through the material. His curiosity piqued, he listened more closely, and tried to track down where it was the noise was coming from.

            After a little while, he had been led to an opened door, where music was slowly drifting. When he stealthily peeked around the corner, he saw just the person he’d been looking for, dancing with himself, his eyes closed and a frown marring his features. Chad watched him with slight amusement for a few seconds before clearing his throat.

            He loved and hated how cute Ryan looked when he stumbled to the floor looking like a startled, surprised puppy as he blinked up at Chad with his lovely aqua eyes. He adored and despised how attractive the smaller, paler boy looked whenever he blushed.

            “Danforth.” Ryan stuttered out from his place on the floor. Chad grinned and taunted back,

            “Evans.”

            I can hear the sounds of violins…

            Chad made his movements give off an air of feigned confidence, because on the inside, he felt anything but. He went right up to the still-down Evans, and offered his hand to Ryan. He watched as a number of emotions passed across the blonde’s face, and smirked with success when the boy grasped his hand.

            He carefully pulled Ryan to his feet, and, still holding Ryan’s hand with one hand, he used the other to untie and pull off his messy apron, tossing it onto a rather plain brown folding chair.

            Sway me more… Like a flower bending in the breeze--

            “May I have this dance?” Chad asked with teasing politeness.

            Ryan’s eyes narrowed with distrust as the CD player restarted the song that had been playing for a while now, as far as Chad knew, and Chad felt his pride and ego well up when Ryan slowly and faintly nodded his head.

            They danced in a strange, unrecorded pattern, their feet doing this and that, their bodies moving wherever they might, but their eyes never left each other’s.

            “What are you doing here? You should be working.” Ryan asked, an adorable look of confusion painted on his face. Chad smiled, but lied,

            “Lunch break,”

            His eyes grew heavy, and he slowly descended down to meet Ryan’s magnetic lips. When Ryan moved away, he felt himself growl out in protest on the inside. Within the next moment, however, he quelled the beast within him with a forced lazy smile of amusement.

            “What about you?” He ventured, knowing he was probably crossing onto dangerous grounds. That never stopped him before, though.

            “What finds the ever-so-popular Mister Evans in this lonely dance studio?”

            He saw the exact reaction he imagined flit across Ryan’s face in a whirlwind-like speed, and he almost forced the boy into a kiss at how he bit his bottom lip out of frustration.

            “I felt like being alone. Is that such a sin?” Ryan hissed, grimacing. Chad inwardly rolled his eyes at how overdramatic Ryan was being; he had to force the usually energetic dancer to keep up with him.

            “No, what is a sin is how damn sexy you are,” He grumbled, not really meaning for the other to hear. He saw Ryan smirk like a cat that had captured that canary, and nearly quaked with overly done compressed passion when Ryan trailed a tongue across his ever-so-soft-looking lips.

            “Really, am I sexy?” He whispered teasingly, and Chad felt himself grow more and more impatient. He loved how sultry the blonde looked, and how delicious his pinking cheeks looked.

            “Do I make you lose control, weak-in-the-knees, so very breathless?”

            Chad couldn’t have found a better description for his feelings for the rich Drama King.

            Chad was confused, because they had never brought emotion into this… whatever this was. He felt his hopes spike up. He felt his nerves grow taut, his adrenaline level jump. Was there hope?

            Like a flower bending in the breeze…

            “Do I make you feel… naughty?” That, that one last teasing statement made Chad lose it all. There was hope, there had to be. Why else would Ryan be baiting him with words like this?

            He couldn’t and wouldn’t have stopped himself from kissing the blonde then, and his mind was lost in a haze of lips, teeth, and something tasting like an addictive metal, or like wine, if Chad had ever tasted the stuff.

            When he let his hand travel downwards on Ryan’s body he’d trapped against the mirrored wall, he heard and felt the blonde recoil.

            “What is it?” Chad asked with worry, not really wanting to stop his ministrations… He wanted the paler boy so much, and he wanted to tell him…

            Sway with me…

            “I can’t do this anymore.” Ryan said almost silently, moving slowly away from the ever-confused Chad.

            “What?” Chad yelped out, like he was burnt. He felt his heart clench up and slowly grow heavier with dread. The boy sank into the chair, with Chad still hovering uncertainly above him.

            “I can’t have this… relationship with you. It’s too weird.”

            “What? Why? What’s the matter, did something happen to you today?” Chad blathered on, growing more and more disappointed and heartbroken.

            He felt himself break at the sound of how upset the blonde sounded when he uttered,

            “I’m just so tired.”

            He wished he didn’t see how much the boy was struggling with emotions, and he wished he didn’t see his wonderfully blue eyes fill up with tears, tears that he’d caused.

            “Tired of being misled, used, whatever it is that I’m going through whenever I’m with you.”

            Chad felt more and more confined. He wanted to shout out that no, he wasn’t using Ryan, and that he wanted Ryan in more than a physical sense.

            “But…” He tried, trailing off after. What could he say?

            “I don’t like this… whatever this is, Chad. Look, I think it’d be best if we just stopped from now on. I just want you to know that… it was fun while it lasted.” Chad felt his mouth fall open as he watched the blonde leave the room.

            He couldn’t stop the blonde, because, if that’s what the boy wanted—distance—how could Chad ever deny his heart-keeper such a thing that would only hurt himself, not the blonde?

            So he only had the annoying company of the man singing on the stereo.

            Stay with me, He mocked, Sway with me…

            The following days were filled with a distracting sort of bleakness, a sort of haze that had Chad working in a mechanical sense. His mind and body were two separate beings, and had Chad been more down-to-Earth, he would’ve seen the whispered concerns of his friends whenever he returned to the kitchens to pick up an order. At least he did his waiting job perfectly, because he managed to get the orders of the ever-picky customers down.

            The nights and afternoons he spent alone at his house were full of tears and cries and all sorts of saddening things. Eating had become a trivial indulgence, and doing anything but his day job and crying in bed seemed meaningless. He hadn’t looked at his orange basketball in the eye. More like… well, you get it.

            He didn’t really hear the doorbell until the fourth time it rung, and since his mother wasn’t home, no one else could answer the door.

            He sighed with resentment and trudged downstairs to answer the door, and was surprised to see that a whole load of people were outside on his doormat.

            There was Troy, Gabriella, Taylor, and Kelsi, all with almost identical faces of concern once he cracked open the door for them.

            “Yes?” He asked, his voice cracking from not being used for so long.

            “Hey man… um… can we come in?” Troy asked hesitantly, and before Chad could respond, everyone was forcing himself or herself through his front door. He sighed with resign, and walked over to the living room where everyone sat on the couch. He sat in the recliner chair that was across from the sofa, and looked at his friends expectantly.

            “Look… we all know why you’ve been so down lately,” Gabriella started, looking at Taylor with a sort of message passing from their gazes.

            “And we wanted to tell you that you should definitely do something, before it’s too late.” Taylor continued for her friend.

            “What’s there to do?” Chad asked helplessly, not even wondering how or why his friends knew about Ryan and him.

            “I know how much you love him, Chad, no matter how rarely you ever say it to me when we talk,” Taylor chastised, and Kelsi nodded in agreement.

            “And Ryan obviously has feelings for you, too. He hasn’t been singing during rehearsals lately, and even Sharpay is getting kind of concerned,” She said awkwardly, cocking her head to the side.

            “No he doesn’t,” Chad whispered, looking down at the floral print of the ancient chair he was sitting in.

            “He told me he doesn’t want to do it anymore; he doesn’t want me. He just left after that.”

            “Maybe he misunderstood your feelings?” Kelsi ventured helpfully, and Troy nodded.

            “You’re not all that easy to read man, no offense.”

            “But still. I know he couldn’t feel the same way as I do, no matter how much you guys are convinced. What we had… we just were in it for the physical stuff. Or, at least he was,” Chad mumbled.

            “But you don’t understand!” Kelsi said loudly, and everyone in the room looked at her in surprise. She blushed a bit, and grinned embarrassedly.

            “I mean… I know Ryan. We’ve been friends ever since Twinkle Towne, and he tells me almost anything. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard ‘oh, Kels, do you really think it means anything to him?’ or ‘Kelsi, I don’t think I can do this anymore. I’m in love--no I’m not--wait, yes I am—no, I’m not, oh god, I don’t know!’” She dramatized Ryan’s actions as she parroted what he’d said to her these past few days, her voice taking a higher, whinier pitch.

            “He… he’s said all that to you?” Chad asked quietly, feeling his hopes rise.

            “Yes, Chad, he’s said that.” Kelsi said with a kind smile.

            “That’s why we want you to go talk to him.” Gabriella said with an identical smile.

            “Otherwise, I’ll have to deal with his sad face all day whenever he’s lounging poolside,” She muttered worriedly to herself. Troy patted her on the back, and she looked warmly up at him. They seemed to only see each other, and Chad felt himself grow sad at seeing the exchange, for some reason.

            “Okay… I’ll talk to him. But when?” He asked nervously.

            “What’s a better time than right now?” Kelsi asked with a mischievous grin.

            “Ryan, could you go get me those music sheets I have in the rehearsal studio? It’s on the baby grand.” Kelsi asked without as much as a glance towards the moping Ryan.

            He felt like crying. No, it was much worse than that. He felt like crying while watching some sappy romance flick, with a tub of Ben and Jerry’s… all of the pint just for himself.

            “Yeah, sure Kels.” He mumbled, flipping his hat down in front of his face to cover his lost expression.

            Kelsi thanked the fact that Ryan had his eyes shielded and that she wasn’t directly facing him, because she had a large beam plastered on her face that she couldn’t seem to shake off. There was a reason why she was the theater ‘playmaker’, not an actor.

            As he rounded the corner to the rehearsal studio, he minutely noticed that the lights were all shut off, leaving the room in complete and utter darkness. He also observed that there was a soft, familiar tune wafting from the vacant-looking area.

            There weren’t any words to the song, and it seemed to restart once his foot tapped onto the hardwood threshold. He raised an eyebrow, and was about to reach for the light switch, but his middle was suddenly tugged into the room. He would have yelled out, had there not been a rather large, warm, and calloused hand pressed across his mouth.

            He struggled frantically, but the hand on his one hipbone splayed, stroking the skin beneath his shirt as if it had been a move well rehearsed countless times.

            He furrowed his eyebrows, feeling a warm puff of air on the back of his neck, causing the small, invisible hairs located there to stand on end.

            The person who held him oh so tightly to their rather structured and sturdy chest began to sway them both this way and that. The hand that was over his mouth loosened; it began to trace random patterns along his lips, causing him to shudder the tiniest bit.

            When marimba rhythm starts to play,

            Dance with me, make me sway.

            He sighed, and inwardly called himself stupid for not recognizing the mystery person behind him.

            “Chad—“ He began, but the shrouded figure covered his lips again, more gently and intimately this time. He was brought closer to Chad’s body, his back flush against Chad’s front. They seemed to meld together just because they fit each other’s angles and curves so perfectly.

            Again, the hand removed pressure from his mouth, but this time, the hand trailed down to his chin, and tilted his head back. He could see, from the faint light coming from the hall outside, Chad’s sparkling brown eyes before he slipped his eyes shut. He didn’t know why, but he let Chad’s mouth press onto his own, the awkward angle making the kiss that much more intense.

            As their kiss raced on, the movement of their bodies all but stopped. Chad’s hands both moved down to wrap around Ryan’s abdomen, and Ryan put his own arms over Chad’s, caressing the skin of his fingertips. They both continued to rock rhythmically, back and forth to the sultry snap of the background music.

            Neither boy could rightly say which one of them was the one moaning: perhaps it was Ryan, or maybe it was Chad; hell, it was most likely both of them, and we all know it. They were both encompassed in their own bubble of innocent, childlike bliss, their hearts soaring out of their bodies and interlining with each other’s before plopping back into their chests.

            Only when they realized that air was a human necessity, they moved their lips away from each other’s. Ryan instinctively turned around to be face-to-face with Chad… well, more like face-to-chest. Chad gazed down lovingly at Ryan, as Ryan gazed equally lovingly upwards.

            “I love you, Chad.”

            “I love you, Ry.”

            They both whispered simultaneously, and afterwards, they both looked surprised before erupting into quiet, private laughter.

            They left it at that, deciding that their time right now was too precious, the moment too cherishing to ruin with any more conversation.

            So as Chad led Ryan in a slow-paced, simple ballroom dance, Ryan quietly sang along with Michael’s satiny voice, leaning his head against the taller boy’s chest to listen to how Chad’s heart beat in time to the music, wondering if his did, too.