Work Text:
There are three spare keys to Shane's apartment.
The events that unfold following his distribution of keys are beyond his expectations and range of responsibility. Partially.
One key is with the landlord, the second Shane gave to his neighbor Ryan, and the third and last one is for his parents back home.
The third key won't be of use often halfway across the world with Sherry and Mark Madej. Giving it to them had more symbolic than practical value. It isn't a given that Shane would score a steady job in the entertainment industry that pays for his decent LA apartment.
Working at Buzzfeed is not the most glamorous job and his parents won't be too impressed by the steep rent price for the beige-toned one-bedroom Shane scored about a year ago, but in this economy, in this city, Shane is proud to show it off.
His mother is flying in from Chicago this evening. Shane spends the whole morning before work cleaning.
It is too late to buy a house plant and poster to fill up dust-collecting nooks and crannies. There is also no time to return Ryan's baby bottles and plastic teething toys. Best Shane can do is some dusting, wash up dishes, and gather the strewn about baby knick-knacks in a plastic bag he hangs out of view in his closet.
By the time he is done, Shane has to spend another ten minutes fixing his hair and changing into a fresh shirt. He finishes just in time to meet his Uber driver outside to make it to work in time. Phew.
Last time he saw his mother was Christmas in Schaumburg. Tonight when he comes home from work they are ordering takeout, catch up on Stranger Things, and share updates on their lives.
Giddy with excitement, Shane flies through the slur of meetings and gnarly video edit notes at work. All that is on his mind is knowing his mom will be there when he gets home. Showing off his apartment, catch up on her work gossip, talk about their dad, his brother. A mid-year Christmas if you will. He can barely sit still behind his desk. Surely annoying the shit out of his less amused to be working late, desk neighbors.
Overtime is a sacrifice Shane is willing to make for a whole weekend off to show his mother around. An Uber is taking Sherry straight from the airport to his place.
She has a key, after all.
06:52 P.M.
Just as Shane goes to hit send on the email to his team containing the final edits for the video, his phone starts vibrating in his trousers.
He casts another look at the digital clock in the corner computer screen. Almost seven, his mom should be at his place by now. Shane reaches into his pocket and presses green without leaving his desk station, most of his colleagues have gone home, and others are wearing headphones.
"Hey ma," He answers, "did you get there alright?"
"I'm standing outside your building."
His mother's voice comes out clipped.
Shane's guttural reaction says something is wrong and leans forward in his seat in case he has to slide to his feet. "Uh. Why?"
"There is a man in your apartment."
"A man?!"
Shane's deskmate Sara takes her headset off when Shane rises. "Are you okay? Did you call the police?"
"It was a man with a baby."
Everything stops. Shane stops. The world that had just been pivoting comes to a grinding halt. He is so relieved that he could burst into tears. Luckily he has a better impulse control than Ryan's six-month-old and ends up standing up, frozen from the hot rush of adrenaline. Short-circuited like an overheated iPhone.
Three keys. One with the landlord, one with his mother, and the other...
His mother has not caught on yet. "What is a baby doing at your place?" She asks. Then her tone lowers an active, to share something even the FBI agent tapping their phone has to lean in to pick up, "Honey, you know you can tell me anything, right?"
Shane lets out a hysteric burst of laughter. "It's not- it's so not like that." Running his fingers through his hair which he had spent considerable time shaping into decency this morning. "That's not my baby. Or our baby."
His co-workers turn their heads.
Face 50 shades of red, Shane inches out from between his desk and chair to slink back into the privacy of the break room.
The door shuts with a click. Alone, Shane elaborates. "It's just my neighbor Ryan. We help each other out sometimes. I'm not hiding something from you. Because it's never anything more than that."
"You help each other out, huh." His mother says flatly.
"Yeah, he's a friend." Shane hears how lame it sounds even to his own ears. "I swear I'm not messing with you."
"My God Shane..." She sucks in a breath. "You could have warned me he'd be there."
"I didn't know he'd be there." There is a headache forming behind Shane's eyes. "What did he say?"
"I didn't stay long enough to say hi. I sort of left when I saw him standing there with a baby... You should probably give him a ring before I go back upstairs."
"Yeah. Yeah, I'll do that. Sit tight. I'll text you when it's done."
After a mumbled okay, Shane hangs up on her and thumps his head back against the door. Groaning.
Shane swipes on his touch screen to his recent call list and presses the second on the list. Shane gets to the count of seven before Ryan answers the phone. It's around the time of day Ryan has been trying to train Dan to go to sleep. And indeed when Ryan picks up he whispers, "hey dude."
Shane tries to keep any sign of wariness out of his voice. It doesn't work. "Hey. Uh, so, apparently you scared the shit out of my mom."
"That was your mom?" The sound of the door clicks, as if Ryan's gone into another room. Then he uses his normal speaking voice. "I thought I heard the door earlier but I had convinced myself I was going imagining shit. So that's your mom! I forgot that was this weekend."
"Yeah... pretty easy to recognize. We sort of share a face. But, um, what exactly were you doing at my place?" Shane cringes as soon as the words have left his mouth.
"Oh. I texted you. The power shut down on my floor, and I needed to warm up Dan's bottle."
Shane says, "I didn't get any texts."
"Oh." There is some fumbling and the tapping of fingers followed by a swear word murmured under Ryan's breath. "Had my data's switched off and the Wi-Fi wasn't working, y'know with the power. That's my bad. I probably should have waited until you texted back anyway." Ryan sounds as if he is punching the words out of himself with every effort not to trip over the syllables. More carefully he adds, "Do you want me to go? I-I should probably go."
"No. No." Shane presses his thumb and forefinger into the corners of his eyes, but he cannot suppress the feeling like a total asshole, "it's all good, Ry. Are you and the little guy okay?"
"Yeah, I got him to sleep on your couch. Hey, I'm sorry man, I completely forgot your mom was gonna be in town. I'd have packed a back and gone to sleep at my parents for a day so I wouldn't bother you with this shit. I hope she didn't get too much of a fright?"
"She's alright. She-" No, Shane won't mention his mother's line of thought when she saw Ryan there with a baby. That is a whole can of worms he is not willing to open not here not now. "She wasn't expecting anyone to be there. Can I text her to come back up so you'll show her the apartment?"
"I was gonna take Dan back upstairs once he's in a deeper sleep. I can keep your mom company in the meantime, or at least until you're home?"
"If you could?"
Sounding much more like his usual self, Ryan says. "The least I could do, dude. I'm sorry again for the hassle."
"It's alright." Shane releases the tight grip he's had on his phone without even realizing it. A nervous chuckle bubbles up his torso. "I should be home in about an hour or less. You'll be alright together until then?"
"Of course we will. I'll get every embarrassing childhood story about you out of her."
"Nuh-uh, my mother is loyal."
"We'll see about that, big boy."
Shane can hear Ryan's smile through the phone. Shane is aware he looks like a lunatic grinning into his palm in a dark room. Shane clasps his hand on his knee telling himself it is not to wipe off the sweat and pushes himself away from the door. "Alright. I'll see you at home then."
"See you there."
They both linger for a second before the line is disconnected. Shane is not sure which one of them ends up relenting first. And that is that.
He shoots his mother a text.
Shane: Hey spoke to Ryan, he knows you're coming up.
His power shut off in his apartment
landlord always takes ages to fix stuff so
anyway he knows you're on your way
Shane waits until he receives the expected thumbs up in return. Shane stuffs his phone into his pocket and leans forward on his knees to catch his breath.
"Everything alright?" Asks Sara once he has made it back to his desk. Shane avoids eye contact for as long as it takes to gather his things, but her attention has not diverted when he has sent the mail, is packed and ready to go.
"Yeah, yeah, my mom flew in from Chicago. She's waiting for me at my apartment."
"Oh," still waiting for the rest of the explanation, Sara brings her hands into her lap where her phone lays on her thigh. "Discuss over lunch on Monday?" And God bless her for that since everyone left at the office has an ear out for their conversation.
Nodding as Shane puts his jacket on over his shoulders, "yes, please. I'll text you."
She salutes him and off he goes. In no time an Uber arrives to take him straight home. From the second he hung up on Ryan to the moment Shane is hauling his way up the stairs two steps at a time in his long-legged stride, 48 minutes have passed. LA traffic is mostly to blame for that.
Voices can be heard through the door while he fishes for his keys, but he cannot make out anything other than muffled conversation.
The second that the door swings open he is hit by a wall of a delicious smell. He barely sets a foot through the door and his mouth is watering.
The living room is empty safe from a couple of his mother's suitcases parked by the bedroom door and Ryan's son passed out in his carrier.
As quiet as he can Shane slips out of his shoes and abandons his work bag on the floor.
He rounds the corner into the kitchen where he finds Sherry and Ryan, hip-to-hip bent over the counter preparing dinner.
"Inflation is really making me regret switching to formula," Ryan complains, oblivious to Shane standing in the door opening. "I'm not sorry I stopped nursing, because nobody warns you about how tough all that stuff is," the two laugh amongst themselves, elbows touching and faces scrunched up as if it's an old inside joke, "I'm sorry, is that TMI?"
“There is no TMI in parenthood, honey."
Ryan's cheeks dimple when he smiles. Shane can't help but notice Ryan's entire body corresponds with his smile, his torso expands and his shoulders relax, the onion he is chopping comes out uneven in the process. "My mum keeps pestering me about getting him on solids soon, but that feels like such a big step."
"They grow up too fast," agrees Sherry, she slices the potatoes so thin they are near-transparent. "Don't listen too much to us parent vets. You gotta do things when you feel ready."
"That might be never."
"Well," she stops moving her knife to make sure Ryan sees her smile, "then maybe you should listen to your mother."
It takes that long for his mother to look up and notice Shane leaning against the doorpost.
The sound that she makes at the sight of him is of pure joy. He braces himself for the impact when she wraps him in her arms.
His name is like a sigh on her lips. "Shane."
"Hey ma," Shane hugs her tight, and over her shoulder, Ryan is leaning on the kitchen counter smiling over their family reunion. One day he'll need to think about what to do about the way his heart jumps whenever their eyes meet. Today, he just focuses on his mother. "How are you? How was your journey?"
"Everything is good, Ryan and I, we're making babka. Apparently, you've been telling him that using greek yoghurt is a proper substitute for the thick yoghurt? And potato starch is not the same as-"
"Whoa, whoa," Shane draws an arm around her shoulder so they can both face Ryan. "You've been telling on me?"
"I wasn't aware you weren't using the proper Madej recipe." Ryan's shoulders rise in defence. Shane's eyes are immediately drawn to his muscular arms. It should be illegal for Ryan to wear basketball jerseys. Certainly, six months postpartum is too soon to look this hot again. "I thought I was doing you a favor, cooking dinner for when you get home from work," Ryan continues because Shane's inappropriate thoughts hadn't broken past the parameters of his stupid brain. "And your mom was nice enough to show me how to better my technique so I don't end up like you."
Sherry and Shane slink to the counter as one unit, her arm as tightly wound around him as his is around her. Together they help Ryan finish dinner.
Their babka looks better than when either Shane or Ryan made it in the last half-year.
Straight from the oven, the potato has risen evenly across the entire dish and flavoured liquid is bubbling at the sides from the heat, indicating its inner moistness and outer crisp.
For some reason, Ryan does not need to be told that they are having dinner at the kitchen table. Shane hands him a fistful of cutlery and he sets the table even though they only ever have dinner in front of the television. Sherry doesn't need to know that. Shane is relieved that Ryan doesn't need to be told that.
They are halfway through quiet dinner when a whimper comes from the living room.
"I got him." Sherry pushes to her feet before Ryan has the opportunity to swallow his bite or lower his fork to get Dan. For good measure, she puts a hand on his shoulder to keep him in his seat. "I'll bring him here."
Sitting across from each other, Shane and Ryan are suddenly alone. Ryan has a knee drawn up to his chest, barely comfortable in the hard plastic chair. "I'll let you and your mom have your alone time in a bit. Felt weird to just leave after we made food. I hope it's okay I stayed?"
It had not even occurred to Shane that Ryan should leave. "No, no, yeah I mean, yes, it's good you stayed. If you weren't there I'd just end up talking about you the whole time. So." Why the fuck did he just say that? Shane buries his face in his plate takes a big mouthful of sizzling hot potato babka. It doesn't work since their gazes lock again immediately. Change the topic. "You got any idea when you're gonna have power again?"
"Landlord's sending someone out tomorrow morning. Apparently, not many electricians like to work weekends. I have put some food I didn't want to go bad in your fridge, I hope you don't mind. It's all in a bag."
"Of course, yeah."
If Shane had the room he would have offered Ryan to stay, but with Shane having already offered his bedroom to his mom and him camping out on the too-small-sofa-bed, there is no space left for him to offer. There is a special kind of smile Ryan preserves for when Shane does something particularly thoughtful for him. Like when Shane comes over with dinner or takes some of Ryan's laundry down when Shane cannot fill a full load by himself, when he brings a pack of diapers from the grocery store, or simply lets Ryan put on basketball while they hang out.
"Wish that there was more I could do," Shane shares from his thoughts.
"Dude," Ryan chuckles, "you've done so much. What else could you possibly do?"
Their conversation cuts off when Sherry returns with Dan cradled in her arms. Dan reaches out to his dad with nothing but a murmured babble. Sherry round the table to hand him over.
Ryan's outstretched arms are indistinctive from Dan's reach for him. "Hey buddy." He tucks Dan into his arms, under his chin, he then sends Sherry a warm smile, "thanks for getting him."
"Any excuse to get to hold him for a bit." Her eyes reflect her adoration. Shane knows he is not going to hear the end of her grandchildren-spiel. She sighs. "He's just so precious, Ryan."
"Thank you. Yeah, he's really growing so fast now."
Dan's left side of his face is squished against Ryan's torso, eyelids not quite shut but his unfocused gaze is in Shane's direction. He blinks at Shane slowly.
A touch to his shoulder almost has Shane jump out from his chair, but it's just his mother, sharing an anecdote with Ryan, "enjoy these precious moments with them, honey. Look at Shane, he was once Dan's size too. He fitted right here in my arms if you can even believe it."
"He's a big boy now," says Ryan.
"He is. All grown up with his own apartment, and his own job." Sherry draws Shane in her gaze the way only a mother can. He has to duck to avoid her picking at his hair.
Shane says, with the baby pawing with his spit coated fist at Shane's work shirt, "I like how Dan is now. But sometimes I can't wait to hear him talk." He lets Dan close his fingers around his thumb. Shane pretends to draw his finger away and Dan's hold tightens on instinct, following Shane's movements. "You gotta wonder what goes on in that teeny head of his, right?"
The lower half of Ryan's face is hidden behind Dan's head. It is his eyes that give away his smile crinkles. "I think he'll just wonder what we're always yapping on about."
"Yeah, you're probably right, he'll learn to tell us to shut up in no time," Shane smiles.
From the corner of his eye, he sees his mother looking between them with a strange look upon her face. Whatever she saw, she bites her tongue for the rest of the evening.
To think Shane was mortified by his mother's questions earlier that evening. Now a part of him is disappointed the topic of him and Ryan is not brought up again.
At least not for now.