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It started out as pure curiosity. It’s not like Ryan is genuinely invested or anything, he just wonders, is all. The ways Shane psyche works are so intricate sometimes, and he’s dedicated a lot of time into learning them, and if that means sometimes he asks uncomfortable, purely hypothetical questions to explore them a little deeper. That’s what good friends do!
“Would you date a demon?” asks Ryan on the first day they met, for no particular reason, just curiosity, really. Shane is very tall and has sleepy, soft eyes and he’s just been sitting next to Ryan for a couple hours, but he’s already made him laugh seven times, not that he’s keeping count, so Ryan just wonders, is all.
Shane blinks at him.
“A demon?” he asks, baffled.
“Yeah, you know? BIg evil entity, feeds off negative emotions, straight from the pits of hell, horns, and all that. I mean, they have something going for them, right?”
“Well, they’re not real, for starters,” Shane says emphatically, like he thinks Ryan is a little bit insane for even entertaining what was purely hypothetical. “So… no.”
“How do you know they’re not real?” Ryan tries his hardest not to glare, but Shane just snorts like he’s making a really good joke. Only when he looks at Ryan again, does he realize Ryan is not laughing along with him.
“You’re… serious?” he asks carefully. “You believe in that stuff?”
“Okay, say I could prove to you they’re real – would you date one then?”
“They’re not.”
“They are!”
“They’re not, Ryan.”
“Okay, assume they were–”
Shane shrugs, looking almost bored at the concept.
“I guess I just don’t know, because it’s not something I can feasibly consider. It’s just– it’s like asking me if I would date a vampire. How would I know? I can’t ever picture myself in that situation.”
And it’s not like Ryan has anything to prove, but he never got the answer he wanted, is all. And it’s not like Ryan lies awake at night, unable to sleep because he really wants to know if Shane would date a demon. It’s not like it’s a little bit of an overreaction to come up with a whole show concept that happens to involve proving the existence of ghosts and demons to the world, because it’s not a reaction to what Shane said at all, it’s really just a neat idea, right? A skeptic and a believer go out and try to find evidence of the supernatural.
Sells well. Buzzfeed is on board. Within only a few episodes, the whole show takes off, Ryan finds himself in need of a new skeptic to bring on board and in the uncomfortable position of having to sleep in a demon-infested house, and he really just picks Shane on a whim, nothing else. No particular reason.
It’s not like he has any personal stakes in helping Shane find out whether or not he would date a demon.
Just because Ryan happens to be a demon, that doesn’t mean he cares or anything.
… Shane’s really tall though, is the thing.
Father Thomas is really funny. Ryan has to hold himself back from laughing the entire time they speak to him. The man’s good at what he does – he sells it really well, the dramatic speeches, the little ask if the camera’s still on, he was born to generate mystique, and he knows it.
Ryan lets him have his little moment, plays into it a little, for the viewers at home, but really, he’s just glad the guy is clearly a shill, because it’s not always this easy for him to enter a church. He was a bit nervous about this part.
But, everything works out fine, and they have some really neat footage out of it too. Shane is still giggling about it hours later, which is a plus. Ryan likes him when he’s giggly, likes having private little inside jokes with him. They travel a lot for those three little adventures, the crew exchanging looks whenever Shane and Ryan start again, laughter filling every tight space they squeeze into together, and Ryan thinks it’s maybe entirely worth it. All of it. Even if Shane never believes him, this– this is fun.
The reason Ryan is hiding out on Earth, is because demons are mean little bitches and he never really fit in with them. He doesn’t get a whole lot of enjoyment out of torturing humans to suck up their negative emotions or all that other crap demons like to pull.
Sure, he enjoys a good meal as much as the next person, but usually, if you hang around humans for long enough, they get there all by themselves – misery is never far away in this world, fear and anxiety rampant, sadness and anger everywhere. Working at Buzzfeed, unsurprisingly, helps.
So he’s not even really over-playing things when he says he’s fucking terrified of meeting a demon. They’re always a little mean. And they all look down on him for living among humans, and whatnot.
So sure – he’s not terrified of Sallie and he doesn’t really believe she’s communicating with him through flickering flashlights. But she is sitting on the counter as they set them up, making rather rude gestures at him and eyeing Shane in a way Ryan does not love, and when she gets a little too close, a little too interested, Ryan snaps, running out of the house, knowing Shane would follow him.
He wins, in the end, because Sallie has bound herself to the house, and Shane is outside, with him, trying to comfort and encourage him. He’s standing close in Ryan’s space, a warm, large (so large) hand on his shoulder, squeezing softly, while Sallie is inside with a “medium”, rolling her eyes at his cheap little flashlights.
Not that Ryan was super interested in having Shane’s undivided attention and comfort or anything. He doesn’t care about humans like that, not even if they have sleepy eyes that crinkle adorable when they laugh at his jokes.
“Come on, you have a show to film,” Shane says, appealing to the passion for Ryan’s work that he already knows is in there. Ryan doesn’t care, of course, but it’s still somewhat nice that Shane already knows him so well, sees him so clearly that he knows that Ryan puts a whole lot into his projects. “You’re gonna prove to everyone that–”
Demons are real. Right. He needs the evidence to find out whether or not Shane would– well no, to– just to prove it to Shane, really.
“- this show will be worth spending a budget on.”
Right.
Ryan lets out a tired breath, caught between a laugh and resignation. This gorgeous, sweet man is a tough nut to crack, he has to say.
Okay, well. He’ll find a way to keep Sallie away from Shane. He wants to find proof, something like a little mess-up, Sallie accidentally showing herself on camera, communicating through the neat little radio they brought, that sort of stuff, but that doesn’t mean he wants Sallie’s grubby little hands all over Shane.
Not that Shane is his or something–
Ryan gets momentarily distracted at the thought, almost stumbling over his own feet.
Yeah so, that’s not– It’s just that he wants him safe. He can find proof that doesn’t involve Shane getting groped by a demon, he thinks, as he rushes him from room to room whenever Sallies comes to close, puts himself strategically between them and shifts closer to him in the night, their cheap little sleeping bags touching, so close does he lie to Shane, who doesn’t even flinch, doesn’t even care, just lets Ryan soak in his warmth for a couple of hours.
(He decides to leave when he watches Sallie literally inch closer and closer to Shane in the dark, noping out and dragging him out of the house while yelling a string of insults at her – So the world will think he’s a bit of a coward. Whatever. She’s not touching Shane.)
Several years later, Ryan has found plenty of proof. He knows it’s proof, because he can literally see the demons and ghosts. He gives it to the internet, he gives it to Shane, serves it to him on a silver platter and–
“Ryan, that’s just the house settling.”
“You can very clearly hear that it’s a rhythm! These are steps, Shane!”
“It can be a million things before it’s steps by some invisible entity.”
It literally cannot, because Ryan watched that demon wander circles around them, his beady eyes never leaving Shane. They’re all so interested in him, Ryan has to constantly puff up like an angry peacock to keep them at bay. Not that he can blame them – Shane is just interesting. Fearless. Ryan would make fun of him, tease him about playing it up for the cameras, playing tough in the face of some of the creepiest buildings in the world, but the truth is, he can sense fear, and Shane just has none.
It’s frustrating, really, because Ryan is really fucking hungry for it. Never in his life has he craved someone’s fear more than Shane’s, but each time they go, he has to make do with their crew’s believers. He’s always glad to bring Devon along and all, just–
He wonders how Shane tastes, is all.
That man is such a mystery sometimes. Ryan has never met a human like him.
He lets Shane steal a bridge, because it’s funny.
If Ryan is honest, he’s never liked the Goatman.
“Tell him to stop!” he whines, and there’s basically steam coming out of his ears, but Ryan, after some hesitation, just joins in with the bit.
“This is not fair!” the Goatman yells. “It’s my bridge!”
They don’t find a whole lot of evidence in this episode – The damn Goatman spends the entirety of their stay sitting by the railing with his arms crossed, sulking and not doing anything.
Ryan supposes it’s fine – there’s always next time. He’ll find an opportunity to prove it to Shane eventually.
There’s a bit developing in their fanbase, and it’s quite ironic, really, but Ryan happily hides behind it, finds that he doesn’t mind. Everyone jokes about Shane being a demon, and Ryan lets them, fuels them, references them, and delights in the way Shane has fun with it.
He doesn’t seem offended, so why should Ryan be?
He brings holy water to a hunt, just for the bit of spraying Shane with it. What he hasn’t expected was Shane spraying him back, and he flinches a little – okay maybe he shouldn’t have brought real holy water, but whatever. It’s not like it scorches him, it just stings a little sometimes, like a human when it turns the heat up too much.
“Oh, you okay?” Shane asks, looking mildly surprised. “Did I hit your eye or something?”
“No, I just was worried about the equipment, it’s all good,” Ryan is quick to grin. “Come on, we’ve got a demon to catch.”
Shane makes a big show of sighing, but he follows Ryan around anyway. Has been following him around, really.
Ryan is almost a little flattered.
Shane never really answers his – purely hypothetical – question of whether he would date a demon or not, but he would definitely start a company with one, and that’s really all Ryan needs. Nothing more is needed. They leave Buzzfeed, and he finds it’s really much less about finding someone to feed off on, and a whole lot more about having the creative freedom to create whatever he wants.
Sure, Steven in particular is stressed, and worried, and a nervous wreck, and all their meetings turn out delicious, but Shane is a rock. While Ryan can taste the tiniest hint of underlying anxiety, Shane has the rather endearing quality that in the face of other people freaking out around him, he becomes rock-solid, stoic, grounded, and grounds them in turn.
And it’s funny. Because it doesn’t really matter to Ryan that much, whether they’ll succeed or not. It’s not super vital for his continued existence on Earth, at the very least. But he does find himself a little nervous about it. Finds himself a little invested. This is his baby, his legacy, something he pours his passion into, something he can be proud of. Proof that humanity doesn’t reject him, if you will, and cares about his origins, in a way.
So he finds himself relying on Shane a little. Leaning on him. And Shane seems so happy to do it. Never before has anyone been so giddy to just get to be there for Ryan, so invested in his well-being. Shane sends him funny memes and videos over the day, as if he senses that Ryan could do with some distraction. He meets him for movie dates (not that they’re actually dates, in fact Ryan still doesn’t know whether– not that it matters), he sits close to him during meetings, nudging his leg under the table with his own whenever Ryan gets a little rambly, a little worried.
Humans are like children. Humans are food. Humans are fun to toy with, because they know so little, but think they know so much. But Shane – he’s none of that, he’s funny, and smart, even if he is wrong a lot, and handsome, and so, so sweet, and Ryan isn’t sure when it happened, but Shane really changed how Ryan looks at humanity as a whole, and he would really like to know, in turn, one of these days, if the occasion ever presented itself, what Shane thinks about demons.
Sometimes, when they’re on a hunt and Shane pisses him off, which isn’t exactly rare, he tries to mess with him.
He flickers lights in his vicinity, makes his flashlight give out, makes his camera turn itself off.
Shane usually blames weak batteries or technical failure.
Today, Ryan could kick himself, he really could.
There’s a ghost. There’s a ghost, in a rare state of corporal form that even Shane could see – and Shane is busy looking at something Carter is showing him in the back, and Ryan is shouting now – shouting – tugging at his sleeves, pointing at the ghost, but by the time Shane turns his head back to the front, it’s gone.
“It’s okay,” Ryan tells him, voice high and hysterical. “It’s okay, you were filming, your camera was pointed right at it!”
Yeah.
Guess who made Shane’s camera give out just minutes before, in a cheap attempt to scare him. Well fuck.
“Aw, don’t look so down,” Shane says, petting his head with an entirely too gleeful grin on his face. “You’ll get ‘em next time, your mysterious shadow men.”
He could kill him, he really could.
Ryan doesn’t like being the one with the headphones on. More often than not, he’ll blink his eyes open, just momentarily, just to have an eye on whatever entity is around, so it doesn’t mess with Shane while he’s doing the Estes method, and he hopes the cameras don’t pick up on it.
They never do, thankfully, but no – Ryan doesn’t like it one bit.
And maybe he’s a little paranoid, but he always does end up setting the Estes up in a room where he knows no one is in, when it’s his turn to wear the headphones. It’s not great for proving anything to Shane, but he feels a little better about it.
If he focuses, he can even hear what Shane is saying over the headphones. Demon hearing, and all that.
So sometimes, like today, he messes with Shane a little.
“Too tall!” he calls out.
“Well, maybe you’re just too small. This is a normal human length, I’ll have you know – Ryan is just not a good example of it, don’t mind him.”
Bitch. Lying to innocent demons now, are we?
“Liar!”
“Oh, what would you know, you’re just a tiny demon,” Shane jokes back and Ryan reacts on instinct, not even sure he’s acting anymore.
“Fight me.”
“I’m not scared of you!” Shane is joking around, Ryan can hear his fake-ass fighting voice, the tone of it so familiar from a million bits they shared together. He loves him, he loves him, he loves him.
It slips from him by accident.
“I love you,” he tells him the spirit box said (it didn’t – he’s pretty sure there’s a Madonna song in there somewhere, though).
“Well, that’s lovely, never been confessed to by a demon,” Shane grins.
Not entirely true. Ryan told him he’s loved him before. Not like that, of course, that would be– Well, either way. This got a bit too real too soon.
“Daddy,” he says, as a joke, trying to steer them back to safer waters and this was just, for some reason, the first thing that came to mind, and Ryan is immediately rewarded by the sound of Shane’s laughter. He laughs along, but something in the space where a human heart usually sits does a painful little twist.
“Haven’t heard him call me that in a long time, cheers for that spirit box.”
Ryan thinks he can probably bring it back sometime.
As a bit.
Of course.
Happiness tastes sour – it’s a bit like biting into a lemon, just also not like that at all. Hard to explain in human terms, but generally, it’s like a repellent to demons, keeps them away.
Shane’s happiness is… hm, an acquired taste, maybe. It doesn’t repel Ryan, but then again, Ryan’s gotten used to the whole range of human emotion a while ago, prides himself with being able to tune it out and just let it hang there as he goes about his day.
But being on the road with Shane has kind of brought the taste a little closer to him. It was almost always around when Ryan was, pungent and bright, and over time, Ryan kind of found himself missing it when it wasn’t, caught himself soaking it up several times, before he just accepted that it’s something he likes.
And it’s so hard not to, whenever Shane looks at him like this, his eyes crinkling, gleaming warmly, the smile on his lips so easy, so soft.
Right now, this happiness is everywhere, seeping out of their hotel room through the slits, and Ryan thinks he might have to keep the masses away because surely, surely they’ll all want a taste of it, but there’s no one else, there’s just Shane, lying on the bed, laughing tears, because somehow, they accidentally booked a room in a swinger hotel.
“I swear, something tugged at my shirt!” Ryan says for the third time.
He knows someone tugged at his shirt, because he watched it happen. That damn brat of a demon has been teasing him all day, following him around, trying to tug at his curls, trying to mess with his camera, turning it this way and that. Ryan’s been busy evading her all day, but he has enough.
“You moved, and the crease of your shirt unfolded, it’s very normal to sometimes feel like–”
“No, someone grabbed it and tugged, I could feel literal hands–”
“Okay, hey, ghostie, demon, whatever is here! Tug at my clothes, come on!” Shane stands in the room, arms spread out, and waits patiently, a smug grin on his face, because he does not believe anything will happen.
Ryan holds a camera at him and waits.
The demon sits behind Shane on the dusty window sill, swinging her legs.
Ryan glares at her with a flat expression, and she sticks out her tongue at him.
God, he fucking hates his job sometimes.
“Told you,” Shane smiles, but he also uses his most condescending tone. “No demons here, Ry-guy.”
Behind him, the little demon girl giggles.
“Ry-guy,” she hums, and continues to hum as she follows them around, tugging at Ryan’s shirt again and again. “No demons here, Ry-guy!”
Ryan grits his teeth together and wishes for hell to literally freeze.
Ryan cries.
It’s not– he does that sometimes, but never over something so trivial.
Before coming to Earth, he didn’t even know he was capable of that, but his time here has opened him up like rose petals, and inside he’s found a rather deep well of something, something that can ache, something that can hurt and get injured. And it’s vulnerable yet surprisingly resilient, takes jab after jab after jab, and each hurts as much as the next, doesn’t grow numb to it, doesn’t close off again, and now here Ryan sits, crying, because his full body apparition, one of the most compelling pieces of evidence he’s ever been able to present to Shane was just a damn crew member. A human. Just some guy.
And it shouldn’t hurt him so much, it shouldn’t. What does he care, whether Shane believes that demons are real? If anything, it’s good that he doesn’t, helps him stay undercover, undiscovered.
He just wonders sometimes, is all.
And maybe some treacherous, naive part that humanity implanted into him had been excited by the prospect of finally finding out.
Shane would make a good demon, sometimes, with how attuned he is to Ryan’s emotions. It’s like he just knows, somehow. He sits close to him as soon as the cameras are off, waves for the others to leave discreetly, and wraps an arm around Ryan’s shoulders, pulling him close.
“Sorry,” he says genuinely. “Didn’t think you’d get that upset.”
“That’s okay, that’s part of the– of the–”
But the words don’t come quite as convincingly, and Ryan flinches at hearing the tone in his voice.
“Wouldn’t have done it on livestream at least, if I had known–”
Ryan rests his head on Shane’s shoulder, like he’d done a lot in the last years. When they first built Watcher together, and the nights became too long, the anxiety too heavy to carry on its own. When they had their biggest crisis yet, the internet tearing them apart, and Ryan’s entire work life had turned into an all you can eat buffet full of food he didn’t want, because he preferred Shane’s sour notes now, and his entire insides were twisting, and dying, like some rotten root, sick to the core.
Shane had been there. Shane is always there.
“I’m okay.”
“You don’t seem okay,” Shane says hesitatingly.
“I’m okay as long as I’ve got you.”
“You always have me.”
He says it with so much sincerity, it’s sweet. Always is such a long time for a demon, and such a short, short frame for humans. Of course, if Shane means it, there are… certain things Ryan could do. If Shane really wants him, him, the way he is, accepts that as part of the deal… there would be an always for both of them, then.
But for that–
For that–
Urgh.
“Would you date a demon?” Ryan asks, tired. “Hypothetically.”
Shane blinks at him, surprised.
“Where’s that coming from?” he finally laughs, the sound startled out of him.
Ryan shrugs.
"Curiosity."
“You asked me that before,” Shane says softly.
He remembers, then. So does Ryan. If he allows himself to be honest about it, then really, he’s been remembering. The question has never quite left his mind.
“You never answered,” Ryan shrugs. “I just wonder.”
“Why?”
Ryan smiles into the distance.
“Just do.”
Shane sighs. Apparently, he’s mellowed over the years, or maybe he’s grown more used to “yes, and-”ing all of Ryan’s bits, because he entertains him this time.
“I don’t know what that would entail. Are they evil, are they dead, are they fallen angels from the pits of hell, are they translucent, do they have horns…”
“Okay, imagine I was a demon,” Ryan says and then frowns. Hold up, that’s–
Shane stares at him.
“... are you trying to ask me out?” he finally says, the words coming slowly, like he’s debating changing his mind mid-syllable. “Because if so, this is possibly the most convoluted way you could’ve done that.”
Ryan is not sure why he said that. That was stupid. He’s being stupid.
But Shane’s eyes are crinkling at the edges again. Ryan isn’t even looking at his lips, too trapped by those eyes, and he still knows that he’s smiling at him, knows the exact shape of that smile, can see it in his eyes, knows it by heart.
The air around them smells like some kind of air freshener, lemon-y but sweet.
Oh, thinks Ryan. Oh.
How did he miss this all this time?!
“I guess I am asking you out,” he says, his own lips twitching to a smile. He looks at Shane and sees sweet, sweet hope plastered all over that face he’s come to know so well.
But–
“Though, for the sake of full disclosure…–”
Ryan reveals his demon form – just a little bit. Horns grow out of his many curls, his eyes turn black, a subtle change that no one but Shane would probably even catch up on, Shane who’s looked into his eyes so many times, Shane, who’s always so attentive.
Shane, who leans back a little, squinting at Ryan and saying, “huh”.
“Huh?” Ryan repeats. He’s expected – well, some kind of reaction. A bit of anxiety, maybe, some fear, surprise, shock.
And Shane looks a little surprised, but that’s– what, he’s not even scared? Ryan just shook his entire belief system for fuck’s sake!
This is like taking Shane to a haunted house just to watch him cheerfully sit completely unmoved through all of the jumpscares all over again.
“Just– I mean– if you had done that to begin with, that would’ve probably done the trick,” Shane shrugs.
He’s such an ass.
“Dating a demon,” he says through gritted teeth, making Shane chuckle instead of flinch back in fear. “Yes or no?”
“Well, no,” Shane says matter of factly and Ryan’s entire world crumbles. He feels his tail droop, his shoulders sink along with his heart, but then he catches the damn, telling crinkle of Shane’s eyes. “Unless it’s you, I suppose.”
Ryan will kill him. He’ll bind their souls together for all of eternity first, make sure that nothing, ever, ever, ever will take Shane from him, he’ll weave himself into his very being and make sure that every single day for the rest of his eternal existence will be accompanied by the sweet-sour notes of happiness, and then he’ll murder him.
For now though, he settles for kissing Shane. And if he nibbles at his lips for a little, sucks them in just to litter them in soft bites until Shane breathes a little heavier, pulls him in instinctively, rocks his hips against him with heady moans, well–
At least Ryan finally found a way to shake the unshakeable.
“Are you ever scared of anything?” Ryan asks him that night, wrapped around Shane – quite literally so, because he has his tail around his ankle, keeping him close, just because he can, and Shane hasn’t as much as blinked at it, just lies there and, if possible, snuggles a little closer to Ryan.
“Well, avocado pits–” Shane starts and Ryan pushes him away playfully – not too far though, and he immediately closes the distance again, pressing soft kisses to Shane’s bare shoulder, hungry and reconciling, as if he’s missed him for years (he has).
“I revealed myself as a demon in front of you, you didn’t even flinch.”
Shane laughs at that, loud and boisterous, and the entire room fills with the scent of his happiness. Ryan suppresses the urge to purr.
“I’m not scared of you. I don’t care what you are, I would never be scared of you.”
Ryan loves. Ryan loves and loves and loves. Once upon a time, he hadn’t known that’s a thing he can do, and now he can’t ever seem to stop, has stumbled upon a sheer endless spring that always leads to Shane.
“I could literally kill you,” Ryan says darkly, and he’s not sure why he’s trying to ruin this for himself, but all it does is make Shane’s eyes crinkle again in a way that makes Ryan want to kiss him. “It would only take the snap of a finger.”
“I have a feeling if you wanted to kill me, you’d have done it a long time ago,” Shane yawns, stretched out under Ryan now, eyes fluttering shut, looking entirely relaxed. Ryan loves and loves and loves. “About the fiftieth time in when I made fun of you for bringing holy water to a shoot, probably.”
He blinks an eye open.
“Which by the way – what the fuck?”
Ryan shrugs.
“‘s not deadly or anything, more a bit uncomfortable. Like candle wax dripping on you or something.”
Shane opens his second eye, grinning.
“Ohhh, I get it. You’re into wax play.”
“I’ll turn you into wax if you don’t shut the fuck up.” But there’s no sting and Shane just grins and kisses him instead, because they can do that now, because that’s what they are now.
“You’re an ass,” he sulks. “I don’t ever get to taste your fear. I’ve got no clue what it tastes like.”
Shane kisses his temple, pulls him a little closer and laughs softly.
“Boy, do you suck at your job.”
“Fuck you!”
“You did that for me, actually.”
“Well, I’m never doing it again!”
“Is that supposed to scare me? Because it seems like a very empty threat.”
“You’re a pain in my ass.”
Shane snickers.
“If you say ‘literally’, I will kill you,” Ryan warns.
“No, you won’t.”
“No, I won’t,” sighs Ryan. “But can you imagine how peaceful my life would be if I did?”
And how boring. And devoid of happiness. His, Shane’s, intermingling.
He supposes he doesn’t really care what Shane’s fear tastes like. If he’s being a little honest, he’s sort of glad that he doesn’t. If he could give him a lifetime of never being afraid, he would.
“You’re a demonic internet celebrity and made it your career to prove your own existence. I don’t think you want a peaceful life, Ryan. Are there demon therapists? Because I really think they’d have a field day with you.”
Ryan grimaces.
“Being in touch with our emotions is sort of frowned upon,” he says and Shane laughs and laughs at that.
“You really suck at your job,” he finally says. “You’re all feelings. I’ve never met anyone who feels as much as you do.”
Ryan could say something. He wonders if it’s too much too soon. Then again, they’ve known each other for so long…
“I didn’t used to,” he says softly. “Before I met you.”
He swears there’s something in their air, enticingly sweet, like the aroma of chocolate.
Ryan sits up in the bed abruptly.
“Did you just get scared?” he asks, in disbelief. “What, at the first fucking note of genuine emotion?”
Shane bursts out into laughter. “Uh, guilty?”
Fucking repressed midwestern idiot. Ryan loves him so much, it hurts.
“Guess, this was all you had to do the entire time, who knew, huh?”
Oh, Ryan will eat him for breakfast. Ryan will shower him in love until he’s drenched in it. Ryan will not let that man have a day of peace. It’s only fair, after all. He gets to terrorize Shane a little after all he’s done to him over the years!
(… And there’s absolutely no other reason for that plan whatsoever.)