itinere | open

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[ OPEN ]

The newly opened mechanics shop in Itinere might not look like much from the outside looking in. But one should never judge a book by its cover. Adam Parrish has never met a broken thing that he didn't know how to fix. He was a tinkerer, a repair man, a fixer of most things. He was the Magician. Inside, one only needed to glance around to find items of all sorts from motorbikes to radios, from lamps to engines, from heating and cooling units to bicycles. Things came into Parrish's Garage and they always left repaired. Given the recent cold snap and snow, there were space heaters littered about the space since the large garage door was open to allow customers in. Music was playing from a radio that looked like it came from ancient times. The boy inside was busily hunched over one project or another. Anyone was welcome to disturb him.

[ CLOSED to RONAN LYNCH ]

The snow was an unexpected surprise. Adam had noticed the strangeness about it, the fact that it continued and continued to snow and yet it never piled up more than what would be appropriate on the front of a Christmas card or in a Norman Rockwell painting. For days since it had started Ronan had been bugging him to go out and go sledding in it. Adam had adamantly refused because getting Adam to do things outside of his comfort zone always took some coercion. For days Ronan hadn't let it rest either mentioning it vicariously or outright until finally Adam caved. Adam always caved when Ronan really seemed to want to do something.

This was how Adam found himself bundled up and out in the cold. He had on a thick coat, a scarf, a wool cap and some snow boots that Ronan had dreamed for him. It was freezing outside and Adam still looked up at the snowfall with a hint of skepticism. He looked down at the trash can lid in Ronan's hand and shook his head. "Okay, nope. That's not a sled." He proceeds to turn on his heel and start back to the apartment building.

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He'd noticed the snow as well. It was impossible not to and Ronan had spent quite a bit of time in the snow. Mostly he walked and let Chainsaw play in it like she was some sort of dog instead of a bird. He'd walk to Adam's shop, annoy the hell out of him, let Chainsaw scatter bits and pieces across the shop then collect her and roam through the town. He'd end up back at the apartment listening to music far too loud by the time Adam got home. Ronan had briefly entertained the idea of of job, but it would interfere with his daily routine of annoying Adam.

Ronan really was relentless when he wanted to do something. Generally, he didn't care if anyone did something with him or not, but sledding was more fun with someone. When he'd been much younger he'd gone sledding with Matthew every winter at the Barns. That had changed when their father had died for a number of reasons. However, here away from everything Henrietta, Ronan wanted to go sledding again. Part of it had to do with the fact that he was well aware that Adam had never been sledding. It wasn't the sort of thing that Adam got to do. In fact, Ronan wasn't sure it was the sort of thing that existed in Adam's world. Another part of it was that insatiable need for danger, adrenaline and speed that lived in Ronan. Sure, he wouldn't really achieve breakneck speeds racing downhill on a trashcan lid, but it would feel as if they were breakneck speeds.

Ronan was bundled up similarly. His gloves had the fingertips cup out of them and his boots were motorcycle boots instead of snow boots. "Get your pussy ass back here, Parrish. it is too a fucking sled. Matthew and I rode down every damn hill at The Barns on one of these."

Adam stopped short and turned on his heel in the snow to look back at Ronan while keeping his distance. He looked disbelieving that anyone could ride over snow on the top of a trashcan lid. This really didn't have any place in Adam's world, much like how the fair had had no place in his world. But through Ronan, he could experience these things that he had never been able to or even thought to experience. But that was only if he allowed himself to do so. He had allowed himself to do a lot of stupid things with Ronan before that he would have never thought of before.

Seeing Ronan's determination and perhaps even a hint of hopefulness, Adam exhaled a slow sigh. He tilted his head, watching the other in silence for a moment before he spoke again. "And how many times did you come away without a broken bone?" Cause that was just one of the many concerns Adam had.

The look Ronan gave Adam was a challenge. He cocked that one scarred eyebrow up and held his ground, completely silent while Adam contemplated all the reasons he should or shouldn't go sledding down the hill on a trashcan lid.

He shrugged at Adam's questions. "Casts are cool and broken bones heal." Ronan has had enough of those from any variety of things, mostly fights, but also from riding down the hill on a trashcan lid. He wouldn't lie to Adam and tell him he'd never broken anything sledding, but he would tell him it was worth it.

Adam hated it when Ronan have him that look. Challenges from Ronan, sometimes Adam liked that Ronan challenged him. Sometimes he hated it. This was one of those times when he hated it. Because Ronan knew that Adam had a hard time backing down from being challenged. He knew it. And he used it against him.

Finally, he rolled his eyes and stepped closer again. "So how do we do this?"

Ronan had mentioned multiple times that he didn't play fair, right? Because this was one of those times he refused to play fair. Rules were for people who didn't have the balls to make their own decisions (and to live with those consequences).

At Adam's acquiescence, Ronan grinned (as much as he ever did) triumphantly and tossed the trashcan lid down on the snow. "You sit on it near the front, heels on the edge of the lid. I'll sit behind you and steer." He wasn't going to tell Adam that there really was no steering to it.

One of these days Adam would actually understand that Ronan only very rarely played fair. It always threw him for a loop. Even if he knew it was coming. But also to be fair, it shocked him even more when Ronan actually played fair. Honestly, he wouldn't change that about Ronan either. It was something he actually wished that he could do himself, be more decisive and live with the decisions he had made. Adam had only ever really done that once without being pushed or prompted. And now he was the eyes and hands of Cabeswater.

Adam looked at the lid and drew a deep breath. If he didn't just jump in head first he wasn't going to do it. So he nodded and sat down. Without questioning the steering, because surely Ronan knew what he was doing. He pulled his legs up to set his feet on the edge. "Okay. Try not to break our necks."

There were times that playing fair was the only option, the best option. The trial of Adam's father had been one of those times. He'd played fair. He'd dressed up and he'd even avoided swearing on the witness stand. It had been a minor miracle. However, those times were very few in Ronan's opinion. And Adam had become what he was meant to be, at least in Ronan's opinion.

Once Adam was settled on the lid, Ronan sat behind him, his legs on either side of him, heels against the sides of the lid. His hands went to Adam's sides, a little higher than his waist and he put one foot off the side into the snow, digging his heel into the snow and pushing them off and down the hill. "Not promising anything, Parrish." There's a wild, reckless sort of tone to his voice and if Adam were to look behind him, there's a smile full and toothy on Ronan's face. He grips Adam's coat in both hands as they go flying down the hill. The speed and the wind rips a laugh from Ronan's throat.

As he felt Ronan get onto the lid, Adam couldn't help but notice everything about his friend. Logically, he had known they were going to be close. But imagining close and actually being close were too entirely different animals. Ronan's front was pressed to his back, exactly how they had oftentimes woken up in their apartment some mornings. And he felt Ronan's hands at his sides. When Ronan spoke, his breath was warm against his freezing ears. And the tenor of that voice sent a chill down Adam's spine.

Then they were moving and Adam drew in a deep breath and held it while they sped up faster and faster. He had no idea how Ronan could laugh when all he felt like doing was screaming. But the smoother the ride went, the more Adam relaxed. He smirked and watched the landscape speed by them.

"This is crazy!" He yelled at no one in particular. And then to Ronan. "You're crazy!"

Honestly, Ronan wasn't trying to do anything except talk Adam into riding down the snowy hill on a trashcan lid. However, he would have been pleased with the reactions being so close to him were causing in Adam. If this could be called flirting, this was how Ronan flirted. He was never entirely sure whether he was making headway with Adam or not and had decided not to worry too much about it. He had his friend with him her; Ronan tried to make that all that mattered. He tried not to read too much into the way they woke up some mornings, into the fact that Adam hadn't asked him to sleep on the floor or the couch. He tried not to get his hopes up because Ronan didn't deal well with disappointment.

Ronan didn't know how Adam could not laugh. This was fun. This was happiness. "Just now realizing that, Parrish?" Where Adam yelled, Ronan spoke into Adam's ear while they raced down the hill, their combined weight making the 'sled' move faster and faster.

Until the bump in the hill that Ronan hadn't seen, the one that sent them flying several inches into the air and spilled them into a deep drift moments later, sending both boys sprawling in the snow.

It reminded Adam of flying. He began to scream and laugh and smile. He hadn't only just realized that Ronan was crazy. But this was crazy and he was actually having fun. That is, he was having fun until he felt that jerk and then weightlessness and then he was literally flying through the air.

Adam crashed into the snow face first, skidding through the cold wetness. When he finally came to a stop, he bit back an 'I told you so' in lieu of pushing himself up and looking around for Ronan.

"Ronan? You okay?" He called out.

Ronan's hands gripped Adam a little tighter as he tilted his chin up and closed his eyes, an almost full smile on his face. The jerk and the weightlessness was still fun; a bark of laughter erupted from Ronan as he flew through the hair. The laughter was muffled by the snow drift he ended up in.

While Adam was getting out of the snow, Ronan was busy lying on his back in it, breathless laughter trickling out of him. He had a face full of it; he'd lost his beanie somewhere mid flight and he knew it was just a matter of time before he got cold, but right now he was far too high on adrenaline to care. Yeah, he was okay and still breathlessly laughing. It might have sounded like he was choking, or wheezing or having some sort of fit. No. That was just what Ronan Lynch sounded like laughing.

At first Adam wasn't sure what he was hearing. But as he realized that it was Ronan laughing he fell back into the snow. He couldn't decide whether to be pissed off or whether to be laughing too. For a bit he just laid there and looked up at the snow falling from the sky. He'd swallowed a mouthful of it in the fall. And he guessed that, in itself, was funny.

Adam Parrish laughed too.

Not only did he laugh, he got up to his knees, wadded up a baseball size ball of snow and lugged it at Ronan. Somehow, he hit him directly in the face. His laughter stopped. And he immediately felt bad. "Oh uh... I meant to..."

He'd just hit Ronan Lynch in the face with a snowball. This was where anyone with any smarts would turn tail and run. Adam Parrish was very smart. "Crap." He got up to his feet and ran.

The laugh was good. The laugh meant that Adam wasn't hurt, that he had actually enjoyed himself despite the disastrous ending, but let's be real. Ronan had known this was how the sled ride was going to end. This was how all sled rides ended.

There was a moment of stunned silence when Adam hit him in the face with a snowball. No one in Henrietta had the courage to hit Ronan Lynch in the face with anything. After that moment's pause, Ronan grabbed a handful of snow, bolted upright and threw it at Adam, hitting him squarely in the back. He continued lurching to his feet and ran after Adam, culminating in throwing his body at Adam in a tackle that would send them both to the ground if Adam didn't move a little bit quicker.

If Adam knew that Ronan knew that this was how the sled ride would end, Adam would be pissed. But right now he was running for at best: his dignity and at worst: his life. The snow, of course, hindered the speed at which he tried to escape. It was just the right amount of deep that meant a person had to lift their legs up higher to get any movement from step to step. But it was a valiant attempt at fleeing, nonetheless, in spite of the awkward galloping.

First he felt that snow hit him in the back and he yelled back. "I wasn't aiming for your face!" Which, he realized in hindsight did not speak all that highly for his aim. But it was true all the same.

He felt the mass force of Ronan tackling him shortly thereafter. The impact knocked the breath out of him as he fell back into the icy snow face first and skidded forward a bit with Ronan on top of him. There went another handful of snow into his mouth. Adam scrambled, trying to get away. Only now he was starting to smile without really thinking too much about it. No one had the guts to throw a snowball at Ronan Lynch. And Adam had done so. He'd even hit him in the face. He was pretty sure that was enough to keep him happy for a little while at least.

Well Ronan wasn't going to offer that information freely. Honestly, it wasn't going to be all that bad. Ronan was only chasing him because he was running. Adam wasn't anyone that Ronan was ever going to take his anger out on. He'd been someone's punching bag too often in his life.

"We've got to work on your aim then, Parrish," he yelled just before he tackled him.

Ronan wasn't going to let him up. That would ruin all the fun. Instead, he was going to try to flip Adam over on his back. When he does get him on his back, he'll pin him there, a crooked grin on his lips. His face is wet with snow and red with cold. He's lost his beanie and the tips of his fingers in his fingerliess gloves are numb with cold, but this is the happiest Ronan has been in Itinere.

Adam continued to scramble, kicking up snow with his hands, feet and elbows. His mouth was full of the snow that quickly melted to turn into frigid water. It was this that made him allow Ronan to flip him over if just to get his face out of the snow and the snow out of his nostrils mouth and eyes. Of course once he was on his back he had to look up at Ronan, up at that wicked grin on his lips. That grin made Adam's heart skip a beat and his stomach flip-flop inside of him, unsure whether to be enamored by it or terrified by it. Maybe he was a little of both.

He loves seeing Ronan this genuinely happy though. It's like looking down the rabbit hole at some oddity that's so absurd and yet insanely beautiful both in it's uniqueness and in the act itself. It's beautiful. It's difficult to look at. It's hard to look away from it.

Adam is pinned and only just realizes it when he feels a small smile creeping onto his own lips. He's been just lying there in the snow looking up at Ronan for too long, he thinks. He swallows hard and schools his features, pushing that almost smile away and trying to wrench himself free. "You're always trying to kill me, Ronan. I wonder why that is?" He's teasing, mostly.

Most of the snow was clear of Ronan's face by now, but not before he'd swallowed a couple of mouthfuls of it, once in the landing and once when Adam threw the snowball at his face. Enamored and terrified were the best possible options as ar as Ronan was concerned. He was accustomed to people being terrified of him and he figured it was all right if the two went hand in hand.

It's not often that it happens and it likely won't last terribly long simply because it is Ronan and he has difficulties with happiness. However, right now he is happy, and he's aware that most of that is Adam's doing. He's entirely uncertain how he feels about that, but as happiness is such a rarity with Ronan, he's not in the habit of turning away from things that make him happy just because they're unexpected. That is, after all, how the Pig ended up wrecked.

Ronan sees that smile and it adds fuel to his own happiness. He's been around Adam long enough to know that smiles, even small ones, are rare with Adam. He's not generally a happy boy (and that's part of the reason he's attracted to him) but when he is happy, it's a thing that makes Ronan proud, a thing that makes his own heart flutter a little harder in his chest, makes it a little more difficult to breathe. He also sees how Adam pushes that smile away and attributes it to Adam still not entirely comfortable with whatever the hell is going on between them. He smirks at Adam's words. "According one really fucking gay playwright we kill the things we love the most."

Yeah, Ronan had just said he loved Adam. He'd leave it up to Adam to decide how he meant that and he wouldn't ponder too long on it himself. He'd thought about following it up with a reminder that he regularly 'tried' to kill Noah, it just didn't take since Noah was already dead, but he didn't want Adam to feel less special and he's afraid that's exactly what following it up with anything about killing Noah would do.

Edited (because I hit enter too fast 'cause I wanted you to be able to squeal before you went to bed) 2014-12-29 04:08 (UTC)

There are those rare moments in life when time seems to stand still. Adam had experienced it a few times and it had never been for anything good. Time stood still each time he knew his father was about to beat the shit out of him. Time stood still the when Gansey had gone to speak to Blue on his behalf. Time stood still when Adam lay bruised and beaten, couldn't hear out of one ear and had to choose between his parents and saving Ronan from arrest. Time stood still when he had first had a vision of Gansey dead in Cabeswater. Time stood still when he knew that Persephone was dead.

Time stood still now as he tried to digest what Ronan had just said. Why was time standing still when it was such a perfect moment? Maybe Adam just wasn't used to perfect moments, or good moments, or anything good at all. Had Ronan really meant that? In Adam's experience, Ronan didn't say things he didn't mean.

"Oscar Wilde wasn't..." But then he was. Adam knew that. And the more he thought about the quote and the one who penned it, the more Adam thought that Ronan was much more of a genius than he let on to most people. "Oh. Yeah, he was, I guess." Did it really matter? Ronan had just as good as said that he loved him. Adam was terrified. He felt on cloud nine. He didn't know how to react to it.

Adam Parrish was lovable. Adam Parrish was lovable to someone like Ronan Lynch.

He smirked, that grin he had pushed away moments before showing itself again, more mild, more timid, more shy in nature than before. And perhaps more genuine too as Adam was suddenly unguarded in light of his surprise. "Then I guess I don't mind so much." He finally admits. "The trying to kill me, I mean."

For Ronan, the only time he'd ever experienced the feeling of time standing still had been at The Barns, or in a dream. Most of the time when bad things happened, time seemed to spool out too quickly for Ronan. However, his experiences and Adam's were vastly different, particularly their childhoods. He was simply grateful right now that time wasn't spooling out too quickly so that he could enjoy every second of this moment.

No, Ronan didn't say things he didn't mean. He didn't lie and he didn't say things that he didn't mean.

He kept his silence while Adam worked through what he'd said, quantified it and processed it, giving him a chance to figure it out for himself. "Went to prison for it." No, it probably didn't matter. By the same token, Ronan was terrified, even if it didn't show. He'd veiled his emotions in another person's words, but they were still his emotions and he'd exposed them to Adam. He didn't often expose his emotions. It could blow up in his face. He tried to be prepared for that, knowing that Adam was still uncertain about everything. He wouldn't feel good about what he'd said until he'd processed Adam's reaction.

As Ronan would put it, no shit.

The grin was a decent enough reaction. It put Ronan a bit at ease. It wasn't Adam shoving him away, or telling him to get off him. That was definitely a reaction Ronan could deal with. He smirked at Adam's words, still hovering above him in the snow. It took him a moment to respond and when he did it was almost obvious that he had no idea what he was doing either. "Good damn deal 'cause I'm not planning on quitting anytime soon." Trying to kill him or loving him. Maybe both.

There was a long period here where Adam just looked up at Ronan. The silence drew out where it could have been awkward or uncomfortable. Adam didn't feel either of those things though. Instead, he just wanted to say everything to Ronan all of a sudden. Words wanted to gush out of him about how he felt and what he was thinking. At first it was so overwhelming that it was just too many words to process for him to pick and choose what to say.

It took him a long time to settle on one thing. An admission that he would never have said without some assistance. Of course, he has no idea that he's being assisted by the magical snow right now. "I can't believe that you like me. I mean sometimes it's okay and I get it. But other times I know you could have anyone and you like me and I don't get it because I'm... me."

Adam Parrish had spent most of his life being told he was nothing, being called every name in the book and accepting it as truth. And then Aglionby had happened and he kept thinking if he just kept fighting to be better than the people in that trailer park, to be better than his parents, that someday he wouldn't be those awful things he had been called. And then he had friends who liked him and believed in him in ways he had never been liked and believed in before. Adam tried so hard to measure up, to not let them see how awful he was. The fact that Ronan Lynch liked him? It seemed so far out of the realm of possibilities...

"What if you decide you don't like me anymore? What if I do something to make you quit...?" Quit trying to kill him or love him. Maybe both. Adam didn't think he would be able to handle it. The thought was terrifying.

Normally, Ronan would have made it awkward. He would have shot off with some sort of smart ass comment, but today he simply let the moment lie without feeling the need to destroy it. He was feeling the same sort of desire to actually use words and emote about his feelings.

"The fuck's not to like, Adam?" The words came out of Ronan's mouth brutal and brash, as if the truth so unvarnished had been ripped from him. It's something he wouldn't have ever phrased that way without some sort of assistance. "Have you met everyone else at Aglionby? Everyone else in Henrietta? They're Gansey or douchebags." He scowled and pushed himself up to sit in the snow, hands scrubbing over his head. "You're smart and you listen. You pay attention and you're different."

He snorted at Adam's question. "What? Like become a completely different person? You changed when you jumped in the ley line and I just liked you more." Later he'd want to kick his own ass for being so honest, for using so many words and opening himself up to all of this.

When Ronan asked what the fuck was not to like, Adam merely gave him an exasperated look that said 'really?'. To Adam, the answer was obvious. Too obvious. So obvious that he was ashamed of it and wouldn't be listing all of his faults out loud. He only counted them in his mind over and over again where no one could see or hear or judge him for them. No way was he going to shoot himself in the foot with Ronan by listing them all out loud.

Adam pushed himself to sit up when Ronan rolled off of him to sit in the snow. He listened. While Adam prided himself on being less Aglionby than most Aglionby boys, he could also easily be embarrassed by the fact, especially at Aglionby. It was a strange dichotomy of emotions over want and wishes and hopes and the reality of Adam Parrish being Adam Parrish.

He ruffled a hand through his hair to get the snow out of it, leaving it even more messy than normal as he looked around for his hat that he seemed to have lost somewhere along the way. "I started noticing it even before that, before the ley lines, the way you sometimes looked at me when you thought I didn't notice. The way you would just show up when I felt so alone that I might suffocate and die and no one would be there to see it. It was like you knew and you were there. And the way you always touch me. No one's ever touched me as much as you have, romantic or not. At least, not without jerking me around and beating me up. I noticed even if I didn't accept it or see it for what it was until later. And even then... crap, I'm talking a lot. Tell me to shut up."

Ronan rolled his eyes at that exasperated look. He might be more inclined to speak right now than usual, but that didn't mean he was going to be a chatterbox. Besides, Adam's look deserved a look of his own. Like Ronan didn't know Adam's faults? He just didn't see most of them as faults, or he didn't see them as a reason not to like him.

There was less Aglionby according to Adam and less Aglionby according to Ronan. They were two different things. Ronan meant it as a compliment. He couldn't stand most of the boys at Aglionby, forget caring about them.

Ronan watched Adam with that intense stare of his, eyes flickering to Adam's hair and back to his eyes. He was quiet for a moment, entirely absorbed by watching Adam. It might have, for a moment, seemed as if he hadn't heard what Adam had said.

In fact, it was possible to believe that Ronan hadn't heard Adam even when he did respond. He leaned back into Adam, his lips crushing against Adam's. HIs hand went to the back of Adam's neck.

He was just complying with Adam's request.

Adam would have felt a little bit relieved that Ronan hadn't listened to a word he said, because he knew he was saying entirely too many of them. Especially in comparison to Ronan's lack of them. But he couldn't seem to stop them. He wanted to keep talking and tell Ronan how he felt. But he also didn't want to do that at all. He wanted to shut the fuck up and run and hide. So when Ronan stayed quiet and just stared at him, he was so gracious about it, and he also got really pissed off at Ronan for it. A part of him wanted to say thank you. A part of him wanted to yell at Ronan to say something!

Instead, Ronan came closer so that Adam moved backward just a fraction of an inch with the unexpected of it. Then he was being kissed and Adam was okay with that. More than okay with that. He didn't care that he was sitting in the snow, that his hair was a mess, that he'd lost a good ski cap or that Ronan wasn't saying anything. All of that sort of melted into the background as unimportant things when Ronan kissed him like this.

That hand at the back of his neck was both freezing and warm at the same time. Adam grasped either side of Ronan's waist to hold on to something and steady himself. Then his lips parted and he leaned into the kiss. He would never get tired of Ronan Lynch kissing him. He wanted to bottle it up so he could put it in the cereal box that held all of his most precious things that he only took out to look at and examine when no one was watching. Ronan Lynch was one of those precious things. Not only was that a realization to him that he would have to look further into, but he was so glad Ronan was kissing him when it had occurred to him. That way he couldn't let the words spill out of his mouth unchecked.

Oh, Ronan had heard every. single. word. He just hadn't reacted to them; he'd been too focused on Adam, on his face, on the way he smelled and felt, on the way he looked and on the words he said. It was simply possible to believe that he hadn't heard the words because he hadn't responded to them in any vocal way.

Eventually, Ronan would probably realize they were both getting wet and cold, but for the moment he was too wrapped up in kissing Adam, too wrapped up in the way that Adam tasted and felt against him. Everything was unimportant in the wake of this kiss, including it seemed breathing.

When Adam responded and started kissing Ronan back, he went still for a moment, his heart thudding in his chest. When he did respond to Adam kissing him back, it was searing. He couldn't get enough of Adam's lips or his hands, the way he pressed his body against Adam's. He only broke the kiss when his chest burned with the need for air. he leaned his forehead against Adam's cheek, breathing ragged and hot against Adam's skin. His knee was between Adam's legs, not quite pressed up against him, but close. He supported himself with one elbow, half his weight against Adam.

"We should go home. Get into some dry clothes. I wish we had a fucking shower."

The words were as ragged as his breath.

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