Chapter Text
A few months later…
Riley couldn’t help but smile at the picture he was looking at. He had basically holed himself up in a corner booth now that he was finally on break, because he had gotten the letter that morning but hadn’t had the time to look at it until that moment. The picture was of Ian, an easy-going but flirty smile on his lips and his arm slung over the shoulders of another young man who looked a lot less enthused than his older companion. But Riley could just barely see a smile playing on his lips, and he knew that despite his serious appearance, he was happy to be there.
“What’re you looking at Riley?” Shelby slid into the booth across from him, picking up the letter that Riley had left on the table.
“It’s from Ian. He’s in Argentina right now doing research but he brought his boyfriend along with him this time.”
“That’s sweet!” Shelby smiled, taking the picture from Riley. “So it all ended with no hard feelings then?”
“Mm, yeah. We both thought we were better off as friends, and he definitely had his eyes on the other guy.” Riley laughed. “Though he admitted he may have a problem, because as it turns out he also has a thing for green and raptors.”
Shelby giggled along with him. “Seems just like Ian. He has a type, it’s oddly specific, but it’s there alright.”
Riley glanced over at the back of the Dino Bite as Shelby spoke, not being able to help looking at the black ranger who for once, was managing the grill with fairly good concentration. To the point where it was almost strange, given that for the quite awhile Chase seemed to be more absent minded than ever, all his time being focused on texting his girlfriend or flirting with her whenever she stopped by the museum to visit (which was very often.) Riley was just happy that during that time he was distracted himself by the unexpected inclusion of Ian coming to visit for awhile. He hadn’t expected to like the other man very much, but he was much more of a smooth talker and seemed to be interested in what Riley had to say.
Though he had to admit, sometimes he still got the occasional pangs of jealousy and sadness whenever he saw Chase and Kaylee cuddled up near each other during Chase’s breaks. Maybe it was something that Ian had noticed (and maybe he even felt the same way, because of his own growing interest in someone else) and they had broken up. Though for that matter Riley wasn’t exactly sure if they had been really ‘together’ in the first place. There was some kissing here and there, they went out on casual dates, and lord knows Ian had gotten him enough roses to fill an entire bedroom. But it never felt like they were really into it. So there had been no hard feelings when they stayed friends. They still texted and called often, and Shelby had often expressed joking jealousy saying ‘you took my dino buddy away from me!’ whenever Riley mentioned Ian in conversation.
But these days...Riley was sure he hadn’t seen Kaylee in weeks. He had seen Chase distracted on his phone a few times, but half of those times were because he was playing a game and not texting anyone. And now even today, he wasn’t sure he’d even seen Chase pull out his phone that day. Riley wasn’t sure he could even ask though, it seemed too intrusive for him to ask what was going on between Chase and his girlfriend.
But just his luck, it seemed someone else was going to do it for him. Because while he was in the back washing some dishes, Tyler had decided to be the one to bring up the question that was currently burning in Riley’s mind.
“Hey, what happened with Kaylee? I haven’t seen her around in awhile.” Tyler asked casually, waiting for Chase to finish the orders.
“Oh yeah...She moved away.”
Tyler’s eyebrows rose. “Oh really? Where to?”
“Japan. There’s some specialized school there about space and they have tests to be put into an Astronaut training program. She said she always wanted to be an astronaut so when she got the chance, she went.”
“Wow, that’s awesome! I’m sure she’ll do great.” Tyler thought for a moment. “So...are you two…?”
Chase shook his head. “Nah. We sort of decided that long distance wasn’t the right thing for us so we broke up. But no hard feelings, we were both okay with it.”
Riley had stopped washing dishes. So they had really broken up...He felt a bit bad for feeling so happy about it, because even then all that it would bring him was a renewed need to pine over someone he wasn’t even sure he could have. He sighed and quickly finished the dishes, and while he was drying his hands he turned around to see Chase looking at him intently.
“...Something wrong?” Riley asked.
Chase snapped out of it before shaking his head. “Oh, no. I’m alright.”
Riley nodded slowly, before digging into his pocket to retrieve his notepad so he could start taking orders again. But Chase suddenly reached out to stop him as he passed by. “Chase?”
“You get off in like an hour, right? Can you meet me in the base for something?”
“Okay…”
Needless to say, Riley felt like a nervous wreck after that. He wrote down order wrongs at least 3 times and had to profusely apologize to the patrons for messing up and getting their order corrected. His palms were so sweaty as he made his way towards the base where Chase was already waiting for him, leaning against one of the many crates that littered the base. Chase looked up at him and nearly grinned, before stopping himself and trying to put on a slightly more serious expression.
“What did you want to talk about Chase?” Riley asked.
“I...umm...how do I put this…” Chase removed his hat to run his fingers through his dark brown hair. “You’re...into guys? Yeah?”
Riley looked at him in confused. “...Yes? Yeah. I mean, I am. Gay.”
Chase nodded. “Alright...yep.” He put his hat back on, turning it backwards like he always did.
Then silence.
“...Is that all?” Riley asked, waving his hand in front of Chase’s face.
“N-no! No, that wasn’t all I just...Aren’t you still with Ian?”
Riley shook his head. “We broke up like a month ago.”
“Oh.” Chase looked away from Riley.
Well, this was awkward. He wasn’t even sure what Chase was trying to get from him, and it didn’t help that Chase was basically looking over Riley’s shoulder instead of actually looking at him directly. He was this close to walking out, berating himself for even getting his hopes even a sliver up because it just seemed like Chase wanted to confirm Riley’s sexuality and that’s it.
“...Do you want to go eat somewhere? With me? Like...in a restaurant. A Denny’s. Or something.”
Riley stared at him. “...What?”
Chase shook his head. “Is this weird? Is it too weird?”
“Are you asking me out?” Riley’s eyes widened in surprise. “You’re...serious?”
Chase nodded. “I’m sorry. But I just sort of figured...I dunno. Things got weird after I saw you and Shelby in the base a couple of months ago. First it was just seeing you two really close together and then just...Hearing about this Ian guy. I felt weird. Really weird. And then seeing him around you when he was here made me feel weirder.”
“Chase Randall, you are really bad about feelings aren’t you?” Riley asked, but with a smile playing across his face.
“...Am I really?” Chase asked in embarrassment. His cheeks were bright red at this point.
“So much for being a smooth talker, though I should have guessed you weren’t with all your failed dates before.”
“So...is that a…?” Chase trailed off, looking at Riley with hope in his eyes.
“Yes.” And once again Riley did something without thinking, but this time far nicer than all the other times he had done it. He leaned forward and kissed Chase lightly on the cheek. “I’d love to go out to eat with you.”
Chase was practically beaming at him, and Riley had never felt happier than he had in that moment.
This time, Chase had chosen him.