Work Text:
“Ready?” Ryan asked Shane, both sitting in their respective chairs to record another episode of True Crime.
“Ready” Shane replied, taking a quick sip of his coffee, before taking a better look at his friend. “Woah, what is that?”
Ryan froze. “What?”
“Bergara, is that a hickey?” Shane smirked, pointing to a mark on his friend’s neck.
“What? No!” Ryan replied defensively. Big mistake, he knew, but that couldn’t be a hickey. Hickeys don’t just show up on someone's neck when it's been two months since that someone had even made out with another person.
Meanwhile, Shane was sure of what he was seeing, and so he forgot to hide how annoyed he was because of it. He scoffed, “look, I’m not going to judge the type of person you fuck with, but hickeys? Really? What is this, high school?”
“IT IS NOT A HICKEY!” Ryan defended himself. Again. “Fuck, I think I left my phone in my car”.
Shane promptly grabbed his and handed it to his friend. “See it for yourself then…” he said out loud, while in his thoughts he said ‘shit Shane, what did you think? That Ryan didn’t fuck anyone just because you never wanted to think about it? Why does it matter anyways? Like, for real, we’re both adults…”
“It’s dirt! Oh, thank fuck, for a second I really thought someone gave me a hickey while I was asleep for some reason” Ryan said, giggling.
‘So, there is a someone’ Shane concluded. “Dirt?”
“Yes, I stopped to calibrate my tires on my way here and I probably touched my neck for some reason before I washed my hands” Ryan then licked his thumb and tried to clean it, not doing a good job at the task.
“Here, let me clean it” Shane promptly said, licking his own thumb and holding the other side of Ryan’s neck to clean it properly. Not more than 3 seconds later there was no mark left, and Shane slowly let go of Ryan’s neck, which made him shiver.
Like, really shiver. Shane could notice every hair on his arm stand up and his friend tried to hide it under the table.
Realizing the not subtle look over him, Ryan said “I’m ticklish.”
He was, but that was not the case on that particular moment.
Shane let it go – for now – and they finally started recording the episode.
☆
Shane turn off the camera after Ryan said his outro line, as always. “Good job” he added, finally finishing his coffee.
Ryan didn’t look away from his notes, organizing everything back. “You too, bud!”
Shane smirked to himself, finally letting go of the thoughts he was having during the whole episode. “So, how ticklish are you?”
Ryan stopped, visibly not believing what he had just heard.
Shane continued, “like, what if I touch you here?”
He pressed his finger on the side of Ryan’s waist, which made him jump on his chair.
“Shane, don’t-“
“And what about here?” he sneaked to touch his armpit, making Ryan jump even higher and pull his chair away from him.
“Not. Funny.” Ryan tried to sound angry, but failing miserably since he was giggling.
Shane slowly started to stand up from his chair, hands ready to attack. “Who knew you had other weaknesses besides ghosts, Bergara” he purred.
Ryan let out a high-pitched scream when Shane started to tickle him mercilessly, not taking long for him to fall off his chair into the carpet.
“Shit, Shane, stop!” he said between breaths, his laugh filling up the whole room.
“That’s not how you ask, Ryan!” the taller one mocked.
Ryan’s adorable noises of giggles and breathless half-words could be the definition of happiness in Shane’s dictionary, he just found out.
“Shane, p- please!” Ryan was able to say, even knowing his dignity was ruined from now on.
And just like that, he stopped. Both still giggling before realizing the situation they were both in. Shane was on top of Ryan on the floor, both his knees on each side of Ryan’s legs and oh God, when did he decided to hold both of Ryan’s wrists above his head?
Also their faces were close. Like, ‘feeling each other’s breaths’ close.
Upon realizing the situation, both looked in each other’s eyes. Ryan’s cheeks were still flushed from the laughing, his eyes half closed in a smile and his hair was a mess. Not a bad mess, more like ‘I showered and the wind dried my hair’ messy, which made Shane realize maybe for the third time that week. Ryan was beautiful.
And it was only Tuesday.
As he could feel his own cheeks blush, he slowly let go of Ryan’s wrists and placed his hand on the floor, next to Ryan’s shoulder. Yup, now he was on all fours on top of his best friend at work. Nothing to worry about.
“Thank you for asking nicely” Shane broke the silence, trying to sound chill. He didn’t have to know how much he was freaking out over his feelings right now.
But then, when Shane was about to get up, Ryan grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him back down. His lips were parted and, to be honest, he didn’t even know why he’d done that. It was like… a reflex. He needed to look at that stupid mustache and those dark brown eyes again. And it had to be that close, not an inch far… maybe some inches closer.
Obviously, that much was left unsaid - and would remain that way - and not until Shane asked “what?” with the hoarsest voice Ryan ever heard from him that he realized he had to say something.
‘Shit, why did I do that?’ he yelled on his mind. He looked up, meeting his friend’s stare. His hair was longer than normal, making it fall down and almost touch Ryan’s forehead. Again, he forgot about all consequences that could come from that and passed his fingers through Shane’s hair.
Closing his eyes to the touch, Shane allowed himself to touch his forehead on Ryan’s gently, making him close his eyes too.
“Your hair is soft” Ryan whispered.
Shane smiled and on the second he took hesitating before leaning in for a kiss, there was a knock on the door.
Both boys jumped, opening his eyes to look on the sound’s direction.
“Are you guys done there? Quinta wants to talk to us” Steven yelled on the other side.
Both got up as fast as they could, trying to erase any trace of what had happened. Did something happen, after all? Maybe not, technically, but only exchanging looks for fragments of seconds they both knew something happened, in fact.
Ryan yelled, “on our way!”
“Alright” Steven replied and they heard his footsteps as he moved away from the door.
Shane felt like he couldn’t even breathe in the middle of that palpable sexual tension in the room and he could tell Ryan felt the same. ‘Oh well, what now?’ he thought.
Ryan cleared his throat and, as if reading his friend’s mind, said “we better get going. You know Quinta hates when we don’t show up right on time.”
Shane nodded, still avoiding eyes contact, “yeah, we both know she does.”
He opened the door and took a step back so Ryan would leave first.
'Seriously, what now?'