Work Text:
Ryan had set the hour-ish before the reunion bash aside to figure out Tick-Tock or whatever it was that their loose confederation of tri-state area fusion instructors had begun murmuring into the group chat about. He had a reputation to maintain with his students, after all. But as the party crept closer he found an irrepressible energy creeping with it, guiding him from his parents’ indoor hammock and into the city a tidy half hour before he was due there.
Sharpay had done all the planning for tonight’s New Year’s Eve 2017/Class Of ‘09 Reunion. (It was a mouthful, he told her that when the banner came in). No one had expected her to pick up the tab on it, but Ryan thought most of their former classmates would probably find her a different woman than the one they’d known—though not so different that they weren’t going to be in for the show of their lives tonight. She pestered him relentlessly about getting up there with her, which was why Ryan wanted to avoid her for the time being. That was the thought that led him to a completely different, hipster bar on the other side of town, definitely not Sharpay’s vibe. It was what led him to him .
Chad actually whistled when he saw him. He was behind the bar, to Ryan’s surprise, grin glinting from a mile away as he worked the two patrons. He glanced up when the door swung open, the smile hanging on.
Chad, apron-clad, hair-netted—looking every bit as punchable and kissable as he had at eighteen.
“Man, oh man, as I live and breathe…”
With a wordless, sardonic smile, Ryan bowed. He had to.
Chad practically leapt over the bar for a one-armed hug. He’d had a few, Ryan could tell.
“Evans! What the hell? How long has it been?!” Who could blame him, there was no one here—and a party soon.
“Not long enough,” Ryan said, slipping into the familiar groove.
-
“So, uh… Juilliard?” Chad ventured eventually, busying himself with the tap.
Ryan shrugged easily. “A breeze. But Broadway, you know... wasn’t for me.”
Chad rolled his eyes as he slid a beer across to him, deadpan. “You weren’t on Broadway, dude.”
“Would you know it if I was?” Ryan countered instantly.
The eyeroll got wider, as did Ryan’s grin. These were gears he missed grinding. He took a large gulp, but in his well-masked giddiness, he overshot, some of the beer sloshing down his shirt.
The black shirt would be fine once it dried. It didn’t stop Chad taking a paper towel to his chest, before Ryan knew it was happening.
“I was saying,” he continued highly, clearing his throat, “I’m behind the scenes now. I choreograph a little, I instruct, I coach.” All lofty words, to help him recover his composure.
Chad only smiled, softer now that Ryan had shown his ass. Ryan missed that , too, rare as it had been. He curled his hand around the glass. “But,” he popped his lips, “still in New York, so...”
“Count on you to count that as a plus.” Chad took the dish towel tucked in his apron and brandished it like a whip before he set to work on the patch of wet marble between them.
Ryan scoffed. “Says the guy still in Albuquerque. Don’t tell me you never left this place.” It might have been a low blow with anyone else he hadn’t seen for a decade, but Chad could take it.
“I did, hotshot,” Chad retorted duly, “I just moved back here to my parents’ after some stuff fell through. Breakup.”
“Breakup?”
That would probably pique most people’s curiosity, and most people could get away with being a little nosy on the holidays.
“Yeah,” Chad said vaguely, evasive. “College boyfriend. Whatever, it’s old news.”
It definitely wasn't that to Ryan. He pursed his mouth before it did anything unseemly. College boyfriend, huh?
So Chad had come out. And Ryan, in all likelihood, hadn’t been imagining it all… The currents of strange teenage tension, brief as summer, growing smaller in his memory all this time but never less electric.
“College boyfriends,” Ryan commiserated, clucking his tongue knowingly. He in fact had no idea what he meant by that, but it felt like a germane thing to say. There was no way Chad was anything but eons deep in the closet when he knew him, but if he had emerged out of the maze now…
“Hey.” Ryan sat forward on a whim, nails tapping on the counter. “You’re probably coming to my sister’s party, right?”
“When I get off,” Chad said. His laugh crackled the air, electric. “Why, you wanna be my date, Evans?”
Well, he beat him to that one, but Ryan would let him have it.