Work Text:
It started with a desk. Even though they were officially Achievement Hunters, Ryan and Lindsay were based outside of the AH office. They sat together in their small little cubicle, where they spent the majority of their time together. They rarely talked at first, both too shy and far too immersed in their own work. But they did, eventually. It flowed naturally. Lindsay complained Ryan took up too much room and Ryan denied it. He did start to put his stuff away, though. Ryan scolded Lindsay for leaving her monitor on, wasting electricity. Lindsay started to turn it off. They did little things like that for each other every day.
Lindsay ate her lunch at the desk, but she never saw Ryan eat. She swore he never had a lunch break either. One day she commented on it, but he shrugged her off. So she started to share her lunch with him. She offered him a sandwich, gave Ryan her apple. Small things. They carried on that way for a while, Lindsay giving Ryan little treats from her lunch and leaving them by his keyboard if he was out while she ate. Eventually, Lindsay gave up sharing her lunch with Ryan and started bringing him in his own packed lunch as well. It didn't bother her much, it simply meant she had to pack two lunches instead of two.
Ryan liked to go out for drinks, but often he was alone. Until he noticed Lindsay at his regular bar. It turned out she'd been visiting it for a while, they'd simply never seen each other. So that night they drank together, Ryan calling Lindsay a cab home because she was in no state to drive. After that it became a thing. They wouldn't discuss it beforehand, they didn't even need to message each other a time. They simply knew. They found a table, one their deemed theirs and that was where they would wait for each other. Night after night, week after week.
After the first month of the same routine, Ryan began taking Lindsay back to his house instead of calling her a cab. It turned out to be cheaper and he felt less alone at night. The first time she'd spent the night on the couch, Ryan far too drunk to carry her passed out ass to the guest room. From then onwards she stumbled into the guest room. But one fateful night, blinded by the alcohol, she accidently fell into bed beside Ryan. Too kind to correct her, he'd allowed Lindsay to stay beside him. She stopped sleeping in the guest room after that.
Ryan didn't notice when Lindsay's stuff started to take over his home. It was when there were more of her perfumes sitting on the bedside table than there were his aftershaves, when his shampoo was replaced with the latest floral scent. He thought nothing of it, neither did she. Lindsay didn't think about how she eventually stopped paying rent on her own apartment and simply started to pay towards Ryan's. It just was and if they pretended hard enough, it was as though it had always been that way.
The kisses came naturally. Some were slow, sweet and thoughtful. Others were rushed, heated and those ones often led to something else. Lindsay stopped referring to Ryan as a 'friend' at parties, instead catching his hand and introducing him as her 'boyfriend'. Ryan started to take her on dates, buying her dinner and bringing Lindsay flowers home. Neither thought anything of it, they simply enjoyed each other's company. Ryan would hold Lindsay close and she'd cuddle into him at night.
Even now, as Ryan stands nervously at the altar and Lindsay approaches him in a white gown, it seems as though it was always meant to be. She's beautiful and he's so happy, it's their day and it would always have led to this. They'd thought of this day for years now and here they were, holding hands as they repeated vowels and crying as their friends and family clapped. Ryan took Lindsay's hand, fingers shaking, as he held the very thing that would make their marriage official at the tip of her finger. He couldn't have asked for anyone better than her. It started with a desk, it ended with a ring.