Chapter Text
Dylan had just finished morning announcements over the PA when he heard a knock at the door of the radio tower. When he opened it, a wave of excitement crashed over him. “Hi, Ryan!” he said, attempting not to be super obvious about how ecstatic seeing Ryan made him.
“Hey,” was the only reply given. How just like him, Dylan thought to himself with a slight smirk creeping onto his face.
“So, what brings you to my lair?” he manages to keep some giddiness out of his voice—well, he hopes he does. Ryan reaches into his pocket before answering, pausing his podcast. His phone? Lucky.
“I don’t want Chr—“ he cuts himself off and inhales, “Mr. H realizing I never turned in my phone. Have anything else I can listen to so this isn’t my only source of entertainment?” As he explains this, Dylan just barely registers what he says (mostly focusing on that “source of entertainment” line, thinking some rather obscene things).
“Oh, yeah! I’ve got some CDs and cassettes that I think you’d like,” he flashes his trademark grin to the shorter man.
“You know what I like?” He seems surprised by this (well not really, but Dylan could tell he was), but of course Dylan knows. Every word that’s ever spilled out of his camp crush’s mouth gets absorbed and stored for later in his head. Would he ever admit that to Ryan? Of course not. Not for a while, at least.
Instead, he opts for saying, “Well duh, you have a bunch of band shirts with you. I think, like, all of Hackett’s Quarry knows what you like by now,” he chuckles a little. It’s a plausible enough reason to know his interests, but of course it still tells Ryan he got more attention from Dylan than he knew.
“Oh, yeah. I guess you’re right.” Was Dylan imagining it, or did Ryan seem almost disappointed in the idea of his knowledge just being from his shirts? “So, about those CDs and cassettes?”
“Right! Sorry,” Dylan walks more into the building, leaving the door so Ryan could follow. He begins digging through desk drawers and cabinets and whatever else he can think of, doing his best to find the music Ryan has mentioned. In all honesty, since getting closer during last year’s camp, Dylan made an effort to get music from the bands he remembered hearing in passing from his crush. It was hard, but he did it. Not the only hard thing between summers. Dylan blushed slightly at his own thought, remembering all his fantasies about Ryan and what the two might do together when they reunited. He found the CDs he was looking for and handed them to Ryan, who thanked him.
“Um, is there anything you have that I could use to listen to them? I don’t have a disc man just on me at all times,” he seemed a little sheepish asking about it.
“Yeah, I just need to find it and make sure the batteries work,” Dylan smiles again at him, glad to be able to help his favorite co-worker stay out of trouble. He knew how much it mattered to Ryan, always the teacher’s pet. He let out a quiet snicker at his own mental comment.
“What’s so funny?”
“Oh nothing, just thinking about how I definitely deserve a payment of some sort for being oh so sweet and keeping you out of trouble with your camp daddy.” That earned him a small snort. Score.
“Okay, first, ew. Second, what kind of payment are we talking?”
“I don’t know,” he drags the last word. “Maybe your phone number?”
“Smooth.” It’s said like a joke (for Ryan, at least), but Dylan has some hope that he might actually be considering it. “Well it all depends on if that thing works,” he says, gesturing at the CD player still in Dylan’s hand. He’d forgotten about it, actually, too caught up in their conversation. He reaches his hand out, grabbing at one of the discs in Ryan’s hand, needing to test if everything works. After rolling his eyes, Ryan passes a CD to the other, who puts it into the player and turns it on. After a couple seconds, the music starts.
“It works! That means I get your number now,” he’s trying to hide how excited he is about this, but failing pretty miserably.
Ryan sighs dramatically, feigning annoyance.
“I guess I’ll give it to you, although I do need something to write it on since I happen to be the only one of us with their phone.”
“Speaking of that, how did you avoid turning your phone in?” Dylan grabs a sticky note off the desk as he asks, as well as a pen, handing them to Ryan to write his number.
“Well Mr. H asked me to collect phones since he was busy, I just happened to never put mine in,” he was really trying to make it sound like an accident but Dylan was pretty sure Ryan would’ve spoken up had he actually just forgotten.
Ryan handed Dylan the slip of paper with his number and turned around to leave before Dylan stopped him to ask, “Hey this is random,” when the other turned back around, Dylan’s usually calm and collected demeanor was dropped a little, a small shade of rosy pink creeping onto his face. “I was just curious if you had… you know, anyone special waiting for you at home? Like a girlfriend?” There’s a pause, so Dylan adds, “Or a boyfriend?”
“Not right now, I’m a free agent.”
“Cool. Cool. Me too! Anyways, um, you can go back to whatever you need to be doing right now.”
“Right,” and he’s gone. God how could Dylan be so stupid?! He had the perfect chance to say something cool or flirty, but he beefed it. Why is he so incapable of talking to Ryan like everybody else? Why is he so enamored by his broody, mysterious self?!! Dylan doesn’t know the answer to any of these questions. What he does know, is that he needs to be making sure none of his campers maul each other during breakfast, so he heads down to the mess hall to watch them.