Safe and Sane

Since Ry was Ry, it was just in his nature to sometimes show up at his friends' place with Ben & Jerry's and determination to cuddle. Especially when his friends had recently become single again, which was always pretty traumatizing and demanded ice cream and cuddles at regular intervals.

In Ryan's case, it was one Ben & Jerry's and one vegan ice cream, which he was sure tasted nothing like real ice cream should and anyway, nothing was better than Ben & Jerry's, but hey, it was Ryan's decision.

He rang Ryan's bell, bouncing on his heels a little.

Once Ryan and Ven were both feeling more settled and had left the scening room, Ryan bid Ven farewell, and had decided to stay at the club for a while. Maybe gather himself together, maybe use one of the free scening rooms for some yoga. First, though, he needed some more water, and headed out to the common room to get some, still barefoot.

He cracked the bottle open, and noticed a young man sitting alone, and approached slowly. "D'you mind some company for a while?"

It felt like eternity since last time Ryan had scened with Ven. He'd managed to concentrate on finishing his class, waiting for the last of his students to leave before going through the familiar rituals, showering, setting his piercings, loose, comfortable clothing and added a warm coat and scarf before walking the couple of blocks to the club. Once there, his coat and shoes went into his locker, and he returned to the common room barefoot to fetch himself a bottle of water, sipping it slowly as he waited for Ven to arrive and tried to keep the mix of nerves and anticipation under control.

It had been a long day in the studio, and Ryan had called on Ven - again - for reaons deeper than not wanting to spend the evening alone. Reasons he wasn't looking into besides acknowledging that he was lonely and Ven was one of his oldest friends. Someone he knew, someone who knew him, someone he trusted. Someone who was happy to see him show up with food.

After they'd eaten, Ryan collected the dishes, stacking them to start taking them through to the kitchen. "You're gonna get sick of me one of these days."

"My name's John and I'm an alcoholic. My current drug of choice and distraction is work and currently unavailable. I am about to crawl out of my skin and being soundly beaten sounds pretty fantastic. If you're not interested in that I'll take company and distraction." Pause. Speaking of company and distraction.... "Wanna learn to waltz? Foxtrot? Tango? Yodel? Go climb a mountain? I'm really, really easy."

That John was easy was not news. Neither was the blurt of what was probably TMI to whoever it was who happened to be in the path of that particular outburst.

Jon leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and moaned.

Theatrically.

He was in a heavy reclining chair in the lounge, which was the only way he could get away with how he was throwing his body back like that.

Without opening his eyes, he inquired, "Tell me there's coffee."

Another Wednesday, another munch night. Evenings were beginning to draw in, with fall nipping at the air, temperatures beginning to drop as soon as the sun had sunk below the horizon. The cafe had responded with a range of spiced coffees, hot soup, and cookies and muffins still warm from the oven.

And, of course, the infamous chili spiced hot chocolate.

Seven days.

Seven interminable days since Brae had gone. Seven days of mechanically going to the studio and teaching his classes. Seven days of feeding himself because he was reminded when he fed Kali. Seven days of failing to find any peace or serenity in meditation.

Seven nights of restless, broken sleep.

Seven days and nights of feeling more alone than Ryan could remember ever feeling in his life. No, not alone. Lonely. Heavy coldness settled permanently in his chest and an odd numbness that carried him through the days and deserted him at night.

Seven days since Ryan had contacted anyone beyond work, of that fucking cellphone sitting there on his kitchen counter like a mocking reminder of the reason he'd bought it, first used it.

Seven days of turning to say something and finding the space next to him empty.

Seven days before he finally braced himself, picked up the landline, and dialed Ven's number.

Someone in the cafe definitely had a resource of obscure holidays. This Wednesday fell on National Aviation Day, and one of the members of staff had obviously decided it was a good idea to mark it, but hadn't been quite sure how. Several model airplanes sat on top the counter and were suspended from the ceiling, swaying gently in the draft from the AC vents, with no explanation at all.

The weather seemed to be doing its best to make up for the week before, and in response, the doors to the cafe were firmly closed to keep the heat out, and the airconditioning in. At least, until the aircon broke down, at which point doors were propped open, fans distributed around the cafe, and extra ice stockpiled behind the counter.

One member of staff was detailed to stand by with a mop to wipe up any wet floors resulting from people throwing ice at each other.

It was time. The cakes were laid out, the coffee machine was on, the tables were set out and clean. A few relatively discreet prints adorned the walls, and a small display cabinet in the corner showcased the sort of goods that would later be on sale downstairs.

Flyers described the plans for the store, the library and the gallery, and as a last minute remembrance that she wasn't in London and the weather would be terribly nice most of the time and some people would, after all, want to smoke, Beth had arranged a couple of tables in the tiny courtyard at the front of the store, with large, bright parasols shading the strength of the sun.

Now she simply had to cross her fingers and pray that people would turn up.

Brae eased himself off Suzy and ran a hand over his hair, ruffling it up after being under a helmet. Grinning, happy to be home in Boulder, he bounded into the club, hanging his helmet on a peg and managing to grin even wider, a feat in itself, when he saw Ryan lounging on the couch.

It wasn't a stretch to say he leaped onto Ryan's lap in a single bound and happily wriggled on it, leathers creaking, peppering Ryan's face with kisses. "Thought you might be here when you weren't at yours. Missed you."

Wednesday again, and another munch night. The cafe was increasingly quiet as layoffs took effect on household finances, and the board behind the counter was scattered with offers.

Quite why anyone would want to buy two coffees and get a third free, or whether it was a good idea for the majority of munch attendees, was anyone's guess.

The time they'd agreed to meet gave Ryan plenty of time to shower and close up the studio after class, set his piercings back in place, and get to the club with enough left over to grab a bottle of water from the bar and settle on the couch. Purposely not engaging with anyone else he knew, he just sat, tried to relax, and waited on Stuart's arrival, not sure if he'd show up from the outside door or the inner one that led from the scening rooms.

Ryan really didn't have a problem living in cities. He'd spent most of his life living in cities, apartments, surrounded by traffic and people and noise, and most of the time, loved it. When he needed to get out, though, he had somewhere to go now that wasn't just out in the mountains, and given the forecast of thunderstorms, it was a damn good thing.

Which was why he was showing up on Ven's doorstep in the early evening, belatedly realizing that he could have called first but he still wasn't used to carrying a cellphone. And he still missed the days of just dropping round to see his friend.

He rested his head against the side of the porch for a moment, hefted his bag on his shoulder, and rang the doorbell.

Stuart remained in the doorway of the club's common room for a few moments, quite simply admiring the arse of whosever head was currenly stuck in the fridge, undoubtedly looking for something arduously hard to find. Then the person straightened up and Stuart smiled as he recognised the profile.

"Darling, have you been avoiding me?"

It had been a long time since John had been in a yoga class. That absence combined with the nature of John's workouts for the past few months, and the tension he was carrying around from the mess his personal life was in, led to a less than fantastic 'performance'. It was still good to be there, and he felt better coming out of the class than he had going in.

He hung around until the last student had left, then flashed Ryan a smile. "Hey, you. It's been, what? Forever?"

Wednesday. Munch night at the cafe. Coffee, cakes, and kinksters gathered together.

Mardi Gras might have been the day before, but the cafe had declared Shrove Week rather than Shrove Tuesday. A rather harried looking member of staff had been declared official pancake tosser, and pancakes were being sold with a number of imaginative fillings.

Rupert had been on set until the wee hours of the morning. He didn't normally mind night scenes but preferred them when the weather was, well, warmer. He had the day off to make up for it though, so he was contemplating forgiving his director.

He headed toward the club, dressed down in old jeans, a beat up leather jacket and a fedora to shield his face. Once inside, he headed straight for the coffee pot behind the bar.

"Can I get you something?" he asked as someone else approached.