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By the time they had finished their set, Brendon's head was still pounding painfully. Right after they went offstage, he quickly made his way towards the dressing room to search his bag for painkillers. It didn't take him long to take out a white, longish pill out of a small box and to swallow it with a gulp from his bottle of water. Then, he walked over to the vanity table and looked at himself in the mirror.
His right temple was swollen from where the bottle had hit him earlier. Brendon lifted his hand and touched it, wincing at the sharp pain. There sure were some crazy people at this festival. Panic! had just gotten onstage and started playing "The Only Difference..." when the first bottles had been flying onto the stage. Brendon had done his best to swat them away from Ryan and Jon at first because they had had to play their instruments but he had ended up getting hit by himself. Suddenly, everything had gone black around him at that moment when he hit the ground and he had woken up staring right into Zack's concerned face.
He winced again when he touched his eyelid, cursing slightly. He wasn't bleeding anymore, at least, but it still hurt as hell.
"You know, we could've just cancelled the show. Nobody would've blamed you."
Brendon's glance shot up to meet eyes with the figure leaning onto the doorframe. He wasn't surprised to find that it was Ryan. The other boy had his arms crossed, expression unreadable but Brendon noticed he was slightly tense. He nodded.
"Yeah. It wouldn't have been fair to the fans though." All the people who had come to see them perform at this festival... And then it would have been for nothing just because this one, stupid idiot had knocked Brendon out. No. Brendon hadn't wanted to be that guy who blew off a concert because his head stung a little.
He watched Ryan's blank expression fall to be replaced by a worried one. The guitarist pushed himself off from the doorframe and nipped over to Brendon, coming to a halt behind him. He lifted his hand like he wanted to touch him but then let it fall to his side again.
"How are you? Does it still hurt?"
"A bit", he admitted, chuckling slightly. "I'm still alive though."
"I can see that." Ryan's tone sounded cheerful but his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. Brendon turned around to face him in person. For a moment, he let his gaze wander over the other boy's small frame, the dark, pin-striped vest he was wearing, the turquoise eyeshadow he wore with so much confidence and pride. To Brendon, he was absolutely gorgeous - even in rage. Earlier, when Brendon had woken up from his blackout, he had seen Ryan pacing unsettledly and muttering furiously under his breath.
"Fucking bastards... stupid asshats... could have injured him seriously..."
Throughout the show, Ryan's anger had only slightly faded. Brendon had noticed the boy had strummed his guitar maybe a bit aggressively and his words he had adressed towards the crowd had been short and brief. His reaction had surprised Brendon since Ryan was a guy who usually was hiding his feelings. Nobody knew exactly what he was thinking - except Spencer maybe.
But here he was, in front of Brendon, staring into his face, all cards open on the table. Brendon took a sharp breath and closed his eyes when Ryan suddenly streched out his hand and caressed his cheek. His head started wheeling like everytime Ryan touched him. At this very moment, he felt electrified.
"Let me see", Ryan requested, voice soft and gentle. Brendon nodded, tilting his head to give Ryan a better view. When Ryan pushed the few strands of hair away from his temple, Brendon flinched.
"Sorry."
"It's fine, don't worry."
His fingers were cool and scraggly from playing guitar. Brendon always had found a liking for them - they were long and slim and when Brendon and Ryan were entwined with one another, Brendon had found out that they could do incredible things.
Ryan's hand eventually came to a rest, thumb still brushing over Brendon's cheekbone and Brendon opened his eyes, staring into Ryan's face that was only a few inches away from his own.
"I'm going to kill this guy", Ryan mumbled. He sounded calm but his gaze that wasn't fixed on Brendon's eyes seemed dangerously mad and Brendon also noticed that his jaw was clenched tightly.
Brendon chuckled. "Please don't. I don't want to play our shows from jail."
He tried to take Ryan's hand that was on his cheek into his own but Ryan snatched it away. Almost immediately, Brendon felt the loss of warmth and he couldn't help the corner of his mouth dropping at that.
Ryan sighed, seemingly annoyed and brought his fingertips to his own temples, like Brendon had suddenly given him a headache. "Brendon, can't you ever take anything seriously? If it had hit you harder, you possibly wouldn't be standing here talking to me."
"Now you're exaggerating." Brendon frowned. "It's not like I would have died or something."
"You don't know that", Ryan snapped and Brendon could tell it was harsher than Ryan had originally planned to let it sound because Ryan took a deep breath and repeated, calmer this time: "You don't know that."
Brendon's mouth curled into a smirk. "Worried much about me, aren't we, Ross?", he teased. Ryan snorted and rolled his eyes.
"Just thinking about the band. You're the lead singer. We need you. Your death would bring Panic! to a premature end."
The words sounded desinterested but Brendon could have sworn he saw a slight blush under all that makeup the older boy was wearing. A premature end, yeah right. That would be unfortunate, yes, but Brendon could tell it wasn't the reason why Ryan was so worked up. Plus, his expression told Brendon everything he needed to know. He didn't point that out to Ryan, simply raised an eyebrow, still smiling.
"Uh-huh."
Sighing once more, Ryan folded his arms but he stayed silent.
Brendon turned his attention to the mirror again, starting to wipe off his own stage makeup. He was aware of Ryan, still standing behind him, watching him intently. It was making him nervous. God, he was so close that Brendon could smell the scent of the vanilla deodorant that Ryan was always wearing. Amber eyes following every movement he made, him removing the eyeliner that Ryan put on him before the show with shaking hands, him rubbing at his right eye after some of the remover got smeared into it. When Brendon could half-decently see again, he undoubtedly caught Ryan staring at his slightly parted lips, swallowing hard. Okay. That was enough. Brendon put down the cotton pad onto the vanity table and span around with a look on his face that he hoped was annoyance, a final try to not lose himself right here on the spot.
"What, Ross?"
For a moment, Ryan didn't move at all, just stared at him with an unreadable expression. Then, he kicked into movement, cupping Brendon's cheeks and crashing their mouths together, kissing him desperately. Brendon responded almost immediately, bringing his hands to the guitarist's narrow waist and pushing his tongue into his mouth. God, that was good. That was what he was craving.
He was being pushed against the vanity table roughly which made the equipments on it fall over but right now he couldn't bring himself to care about that. He hopped onto the counter, allowing Ryan to step into the space between his legs, bringing him closer, always closer... Their teeth clicked and Brendon could have sworn he tasted blood. Fuck, they were so needy... He bit down on Ryan's lower lip, making the older boy groan in pleasure. Brendon could feel his hands twisting in his hair, pulling lightly which then again made him moan. That fucking bastard. He knew exactly what drove Brendon crazy.
Brendon hooked his leg behind Ryan's back and pulled him towards him, even closer, so that there was no space between them. The singer was incredibly hard already and he could feel now that Ryan was too. Knowing that it turned him on even more. Appearantly Ryan too - his breath hitched for a moment and then he kissed Brendon even harder, mouth wandering from the younger's lips to his jaw and neck, hands slipping under his shirt.
"So, only the band would be affected if I died?" The words were supposed to sound smug but there still was a light tremble to his voice when Brendon spoke them.
"Shut up", Ryan grumbled, sound muffled by Brendon's skin. The younger boy smirked triumphantly.
"I knew it, Ross. I knew that you - ow!" Disbelievingly, Brendon stared at Ryan who had just bit his collarbone. "What the fuck, dude!"
And that prick was smiling. "I told you to shut up. So this is what you get." Brendon could feel Ryan running his teeth over the spot. Then, he started sucking hard and Brendon threw his head back, breathing erratically, his hands tangled in Ryan's hair. There would definetly be a bruise later and the singer could only think about how hot that was. Looking in the mirror and seeing what they had done...
With a pop Ryan detached his lips from Brendon's skin, bringing them to the younger's mouth again, kissing him longingly and rubbing circles onto his hips under his (now crumpled) shirt. Brendon moaned and bucked his hips involuntarily, pressing their crotches together. Obviously encouraged, the guitarist started roaming his hands now all over Brendon's back. Brendon felt electrified, Ryan's hands over his bare skin.
"Ry...", he groaned and pressed their forheads together, their shallow breaths mixing. "I- I need you right now. Inside me."
Luckily, Ryan seemed to agree. He tugged at Brendon's shirt. "That thing needs to come off." Yes, yes, yes, Brendon's mind screamed, already reaching for the hem but suddenly, there were voices outside the dressing room.
"And then I said dude, she's totally messing with you..."
Quickly, Brendon pushed Ryan off of him, hopping off the counter and trying to cover up the large bruise that was forming on his collarbone. He tried to straighten his hair and picked up the cotton pad again so that he could act like he had been removing his makeup all the time. Right then, the door opened and Jon and Spencer entered the room.
"Hey guys." Jon waved at them and Brendon glanced at Ryan nervously. The other boy kneeled on the ground, rummaging through his backpack, probably pretending to look for something. From what Brendon could see his face was still flushed and his lips swollen.
"Uh, hey", Brendon greeted back and violently rubbed at his face in an attempt to disguise his features. Why did they have to come here now? Couldn't they have stayed away ten minutes longer?
"How's your face, Bren?", Spencer asked, geniunely concerned and Brendon immediately felt bad for having such thoughts.
"Still hurts a bit but I'll manage, thanks", he answered and smiled at him, brightly.
"You still killed it, dude. Show still went great", Jon said while walking over to him and offering him a hand to high five. "You're the greatest."
Brendon smacked his hand against Jon's and grinned at him. "Thanks, man."
"You really are", Spencer confirmed, letting himself fall into one of the big armchairs. "I would suggest we should celebrate that but I think you should give your head some rest first."
Yeah, Spencer was probably right. Brendon nodded. "Okay."
"Good. So I'm going to take a nap", the drummer announced, already making himself comfortable in his armchair.
"And I'm going to take a shower." Jon already was on the way to the bathroom. Brendon simply hummed and continued removing the eyeliner. He was so focused that he winced when suddenly a body pressed against his back - undoubtedly Ryan, Brendon could tell from the faint vanilla scent. And holy shit, he was still so hard. Brendon let out a low groan but Ryan covered his mouth, pointing at the dozed off Spencer.
The guitarist pressed his mouth against Brendon's ear, his breath sending shivers down his spine. He whispered: "See you in my bunk."
And off he went, leaving an excited and very turned on Brendon at the vanity table. If getting hit by a bottle gave him that then maybe he had to try that more often.