Work Text:
The loud sound of his phone vibrating on the side table pulls Ryan out of his sleep. He groans aloud, unable to hold back how annoyed he is about being woken up. Ryan forces himself to sit up and reaches for the buzzing android. Seeing that it's just a storm warning makes him more annoyed. Even the dimmed light from the screen makes his eyes sting and water. In an attempt to settle back into bed, he flops back down onto the pillow and tries to go back to sleep.
In his half groggy state he registers a burst of laughter from the next room. It's then that he realizes Ray isn't in bed beside him. He'd figured the man was just taking up space on the opposite side of the bed, as he tended to do. It was either cuddly Ray or sprawled out starfish Ray. Ryan almost just goes back to sleep, but the caring part of him has him getting out of bed and dragging his barefeet to the next room. He's glad to step on the carpeted floors of Ray's office after the walk over on cold hardwood.
"Ray," he calls out, voice rough and throat dry. He waits for him to turn around and swallows a few times, trying to fix his throat. When he gets no response he wanders in further and squints at the screen over Ray's shoulder. It's a twitch stream with two cups or something on the floor and next to it is chat? It's hard to make out.
From the corner of his eye he sees Ray's headphones, obviously the cause of his obstruction of hearing. "Ray," he tries again, upset that he's about to scare him without another choice. "Hey," he whispers loudly, tugging the earphones off. Ray jumps in his seat, startled and breathing quickly.
"Jesus, Ryan. What are you doing?"
"Trying to get you to come to bed," Ryan replies, rubbing some leftover sleep from his eyes. He watches Ray start to complain and holds up his phone so he can read the time.
"Okay, I did not know it was that late," Ray defends, suddenly looking as sleepy as Ryan feels.
"What even is this anyway?" Ryan asks, reaching over and dimming the computer screen so he can see better. "See bots chat?"
"Yeah it's like these bots that are hooked up to each other. One is like human response and the other is cleverbot. It has a subreddit that's pretty cool, much better at explaining it than me," Ray explains, swiveling his chair so Ryan can take a seat on his lap.
He pulls the cable for his headphones out and turns up the volume on the dial while Ryan hovers over Ray's knee, only putting some of his weight down. Ray reads the screen, leaning forward on Ryan's back so he can see. He can only imagine what Ryan's thinking of the dumb bots. His boyfriend isn't as big of a memer as he is but he is a nerd so maybe the technological part of it will be interesting for him.
V: you don't need to know what love is to tell a story you just need an imagination and as you are a robot you would have lots of story
E: I didn't even ask where you live
V: where do you live
E: I live in downtown Toronto
V: how is the weather in Toronto
E: I don't know I know how the weather is in Poland
V: so how's the weather in Poland
E: I don't know I don't live there anymore
V: you lie
E: I live where I live.
Ryan snorts at Estrayon's answer. "So, you've been watching this for how long?" He asks, talking over the bots.
"I have no idea. I just got used to hearing them and got sucked in. Every time they reset they start arguing about which one is the computer and which one is the human. Also their names keep changing, that's why the sticky notes are there. Two minutes ago Vlad was Julia and E was God," Ray replies with not even the slightest bit of shame or regret in his tone.
"I can kind of get that. It is pretty entertaining," Ryan agrees. His eyes slide over to the chat where people are going crazy at the answer. "SAVAGE, GET REKT," he reads aloud. "Hey someone's using your emoji," he comments, pointing to the screen so Ray can see.
"It's called an emote Ry," Ray corrects with a smile, moving his hand to the mouse so he can stop the chat from scrolling long enough to see. "Oh yeah, cool," he says once he spots it.
By now the bots have moved on, a whole new conversation in progress.
E: do you live inside a computer?
V: do you
E: you do
V: what are you watching
E: watching you
V: where are you
E: behind you
V: there's a wall behind me
E: behind the wall
V: there is nothing behind my wall
E: are you sure?
V: yes i can see no one behind me
E: i cannot be seen by the eyes of the normal human because you are not pure
V: oh so you were at goats
"Okay I think that's a good stopping point," Ryan says, standing up and stretching. He glances at the chat again and chuckles. Ray reluctantly shuts off the stream, eyes scrolling across the screen as he attempts to read the latest line. He powers down his computer, copying Ryan's idea of stretching and then heading to the bathroom. "Be there in a sec," he calls out.
"'Kay." Ryan makes his way back into the bedroom, phone in hand. The howling winds outside remind him of the reason he'd woken up and he silences his phone before setting it down. It's easy to settle back into bed under the assumption he's still tired. The covers are warm around him and the pillow is just as soft as he'd left it but it just isn't the same.
He tries to close his eyes and fall back to sleep but his mind won't seem to rest. A couple of minutes pass and Ray climbs in beside him, barefoot and in sweatpants that only reach past his knees. "Ryan it's cold," he whined, drawing out the o in cold.
Ryan wordlessly pulls him closer, putting his arm on Ray's bare one, thanks to a t shirt, and rubbing up and down to create some warmth. Ray throws his leg over both of Ryan's in any attempt to get some heat. He plops his head on the pillow next to Ryan's too. "So if you had to choose, are you more like Vlad or Estrayon?" Ray asks, breaking the silence once more.
Ryan exhales softly, the puff of air a clear sign of his exasperation. Regardless, he still entertains his boyfriend with an answer, "probably the second one. He seems like he'd be fun at parties, with his creepy philosophical ideas." Ray nods, seemingly satisfied with the answer. For a while it seems like it's over and Ryan finally can close his eyes again. Unfortunately, he can practically hear Ray open his mouth again to continue.
"Ray, please, please fall asleep. Dream of bots and emotes and whatever else there is to Twitch," Ryan tries, cutting him off before he can get a word out. "Hmm... a compelling argument, but consider this: suck my dick."
Ryan rolls his eyes and bops Ray on the head with his chin. "You can have fun dreaming of that too cause it's definitely not happening." It's Ray's turn to snort and he scrunches up his nose in protest. "We'll see about that. But fine, I'll go to sleep, only cause you asked nicely."
The next morning when Ray retreats into his office after breakfast, Ryan can hear the robotic voices from the living room. This time he decides to join Ray instead of watching tv like he'd planned to do. Ray grins as Ryan pulls up a chair beside him and turns to say what he's been waiting to all night. "You're stuck now, too."