Ryan McCormick (mediumwell) wrote in remains_rpg, @ 2017-02-15 19:51:00 |
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Entry tags: | # 2020 [02] february, leo russo, ryan mccormick |
Who: Ryan McCormick and Leo Russo
Where: The Russo abode
When: 2/5/20, evening, after Burgatory closes
What: Some employer/employee lines are crossed.
Anyone with ears or two working eyes were fully aware of the fight that the owners of Burgatory had had. The very public fight. Not only that, but anyone who had lingered after the fact (or like Leo had to finish out a shift) were intimately familiar with the snipping the two had directed towards each other after the fact. The slightly acidic tones the two of them were using had been a new experience for Leo. In the last month and a half he had begun to equate a solid and strong friendship with Violet and Ryan. Though he supposed even the best of friends would bicker if one meddled where they maybe should have -- granted it wasn’t Leo’s place to decide if Violet’s love life should or shouldn’t have been any of Ryan’s business. Still, as the host he and tried to be a welcoming and friendly face both for their patrons who had been present for the blow up and for those that came afterwards. As the clock ticked towards close Leo could admit he had already started to form a plan -- maybe not a good plan -- but a plan. He would invite Ryan over to his place. The guy could use a pick me up after the day he had had. Leo was just being friendly, it had nothing to do with the fact he found his boss attractive. Nope. That would be crossing a boundary line, right? “Hey, so do you have plans tonight?” Leo asked casually as he and Ryan were finishing up a couple of things in the kitchen. Ryan turned, surprised at the invitation. He and Violet had split up pretty quickly after the front doors closed to dinner guests, both of them busy in their own corners of the restaurant as they went through the typical closing procedures; he was glad she wasn't around now, though he already missed her. "Not really," he said, a small smile coming to his face despite all of the drama of the day. "Unless you count trying to figure out how to make up with Violet. I had plans, but I had to cancel." He didn't think things with Sasha would be best served by him coming over in a grouchy mood. "What about you?" Leo felt like he had won a small victory as that small smile crept onto Ryan’s features. It might have been the first smile he had seen on the other man’s face all day, and yeah, there was a little bit of pride in knowing he had put it there. “Not a single plan in sight,” Leo replied not even the least bit ashamed by his open schedule. “Unless you count me inviting you over as plans? I could even offer to help you with your Violet issue,” he paused as a small smile appeared. “Or help distract you from it.” Leo was toying the line of flirtation again. While he felt badly for the poor soul that Ryan had had to cancel on, Leo could admit he was a little pleased -- if those plans hadn’t been cancelled, well, he wouldn’t have the opportunity to invite Ryan over. "I could count that as plans," Ryan allowed. He was all too aware that the invitation may have some ulterior motive, considering the way that many of their previous interactions had ended up turning out with Ryan almost on the defensive, trying to maintain boundaries when in any other setting, he'd be reciprocating. It took a beat for Leo to wipe the surprise off of his features. As in many of their previous interactions he had half expected Ryan to maintain the level of professionalism that kept them squarely behind their boundaries lines, but tonight he didn’t and Leo could say he definitely wasn’t disappointed by that fact. “Well, in that case I’d say we have plans,” Leo replied with a ghost of a grin playing at the corners of his mouth. He didn’t want to put Ryan on the defense before the other man had even left the restaurant. Nor did he want to give him the opportunity to regret accepting his offer. "All right. We have plans." Ryan looked over the restaurant once more, nodded in the direction of the back door. "And maybe distractions would be better than trying to fix it tonight." “A little distraction from a current problem never hurt anyone,” Leo agreed, though he was someone to be saying that. His ‘little distraction’ had turned into a full blown problem that had cost him first a relationship and then later a job. The kind of distraction he was talking about though wouldn’t lead Ryan down that path, it really was just a distraction for the night, not forever. "Hopefully you're right." As much as he wanted to make sure the two of them would be okay, they'd never fought that hard; Ryan was sure he wasn't the only one who'd need space. Besides, they could fix it tomorrow. He hoped so, anyway. "You live nearby?" With a glance out the front windows, Leo nodded. “Yeah, I live just a little ways that way,” He waved a hand towards the east, indicating where his house was with Marc -- who he hadn’t given a heads up to about any of this. “Do you want to ride separately?” "Yeah, that works." Violet had left separately, even though Ryan was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to know about it, so he was in charge of their truck. He itched to text her and make sure she'd gotten home all right, but he at least had the presence of mind to know that would backfire. So instead he gestured towards the door and added: "I'll follow you over there?" The drive from the restaurant to the Leo’s place was a short one -- that was half the reason he had taken the job at the restaurant to begin with -- and it hadn’t taken much effort to usher Marc out the door either, a fact Leo was also grateful for. So now he and Ryan had the place all to themselves and Leo found himself wondering if Ryan might rebuff his advances as much here as he did at the restaurant. “Hey, so I’m sure you’ve already guessed there’s no alcohol in the fridge, but can I get you something else to drink?” Leo asked as they both sat in the living room on the couch -- Leo maybe closer to Ryan than he needed to be -- where they had settled once Marc had left. “And if you haven’t eaten we might even have something in the house to eat,” He continued with a sheepish smile. “Though it won’t be as good as something from your restaurant, obviously.” "Some water would be nice," Ryan said, turning to face him slightly. He probably should eat, too -- it had been a while since his last meal -- but after all of the emotional turmoil of the day, food was the last thing on his mind. This was a rare state for him, and realizing it worried him even more. "Thanks. I think that's all for now, but I'll let you know if I end up feeling hungry." It was an entirely different situation, but Leo was more than familiar with the kind of empty feeling and lack of appetite that came with a shake up in one’s life. Which was exactly why Leo didn’t push Ryan to eat something, but instead gave a brief nod and an “Okay,” in response before he rose up from the couch and returned with water just minutes later. “Here you go,” Leo passed off the water and if he purposefully brushed his hand against Ryan’s, well, he wasn’t above taking an opportunity when he saw one. “So, do you want to talk or just get your mind off of today?” He knew what his reply would be had he been in Ryan’s shoes, but considering he had barely known the man more than a month and a half he wasn’t going to make assumptions. Still, Leo had a couple of ideas in mind as to how he could distract Ryan. Ideas he was very well aware crossed so many employer/employee boundaries. "Probably not talk about it, if that's okay." Things with Violet felt too private to talk about, especially to someone he barely knew -- and someone they worked with. Not that Ryan was being all that professional at his employee's house right now, even if this was as proper as any conversation they'd ever had. “It’s your personal life, not mine, so it’s more than okay with me,” Leo replied honestly. God only knew he had a whole closet full of skeletons he didn’t talk about. Though he also couldn’t recommend how he had dealt with them either. Getting lost in the bottom of a bottle hadn’t been healthy or wise. Tonight wasn’t about Leo walking down memory lane with his own issues though, so after a moment he turned his attention back on Ryan and shoved his own trouble thoughts aside. "Thanks," Ryan said, appreciating the acceptance. Other people would've been much more pushy. He paused to take a sip of water, wondering if there was anything he could do to be less awkward, before settling on: "Um… Do you like to read?" If Ryan felt awkward Leo hadn’t noticed it and he had to smile softly at Ryan’s attempt at a conversation starter, if only because it was probably better than what he would have done. “I don’t not like to read, if that counts?” Leo began as he shifted closer to Ryan. “I always struggled to sit still for hours on end, even if the story was good. That’s probably why I became a --,” he cut himself off before he said fireman and then for a moment his mind raced on how to end that sentence without it looking too suspicious. “Gym rat, it was the only way I could burn off all my energy.” "Some people like audiobooks," Ryan suggested after a moment, fully aware of how they were suddenly closer to each other. It gave him plenty of opportunity to notice the fact that he was indeed in quite good shape, something he'd always been vaguely aware of at work but never fully considered. He smiled, attempting valiantly to stay on track. "You can listen to the story and still go about your day. I like listening to them when I'm cooking, for example, or you could listen to them while you run or lift weights or… whatever it is that you like to do." “Both, actually,” Leo replied with a bit of a wolfish grin and if he shifted in a way to flex his muscles just a little when he caught Ryan’s gaze, well, he was shameless really. “What kind of audiobooks do you like to listen to?” To be honest the idea had never crossed Leo’s mind to listen to books instead of reading them. But that didn’t mean he was against the idea and the topic seemed to be keeping Ryan occupied and that had been his goal in inviting the other man over -- or one of them at least. With a grin still in place he added. “Wait, don’t tell me, you’re secretly a romance novel kind of person?” "No," Ryan said with a laugh, shaking his head. He'd been told that his tastes in literature were a bit pretentious, and he was self-aware enough to know that had truth to it. Pretentious or not, the topic and the easy way that the other man was going along with it made him feel more comfortable settling back against the couch and turning to better face him. "Um, I actually run the book club with the Lending Library over at the LBJ district. We read a pretty good variety of things, but I don't think we've gotten a chance to read romance novels yet. Why, do you like romance novels?" Turning slightly, Leo leaned in towards Ryan with a smirk turning up the corners of his mouth. “Would you be shocked if I said yes?” he asked in a joking tone. They had already established that Leo wasn’t much of a reader, so it didn’t imagine Ryan would believe him if he had said yes. Keeping the conversation on this topic was nice though, he enjoyed watching how engaged Ryan was with the topic, and how the other man seemed to open up in a way he hadn’t seen before. “Are you prejudice against romance novels or just haven’t made it to that genre on your list yet?” While he spoke he moved that much closer to Ryan, eating up what space there was between them bit by bit. So slowly that if a person wasn’t paying attention they might not have even noticed his movements. "Fairly prejudiced." Ryan's gaze dropped again, this time taking in the distance -- or lack thereof -- between their shoulders. He tilted his head slightly, noting almost as though it were for the first time that they were equals in height, and raised his eyebrows. Whatever he was intent on here, Ryan wasn't sure he wanted to put a stop to it just yet. Maybe that was a mistake, but he couldn't help but be curious. “And honest,” Leo replied as a smug grin toyed at the edges of his mouth when he noticed the way Ryan glanced down. “I like that.” He wasn’t going to dig too deeply into the fact that he himself was in comparison could not be nearly as honest back. Tonight really wasn’t about that, or even about him. Tonight was supposed to be about distractions, not dwelling on things. Ryan couldn't help but smile at the compliment. "It's not that I'm against romance," he said; suddenly this seemed important to specify. "I just think it's often poorly-written and clichéd." Now that they were this close, it was easy to forget that he'd had other Valentine's Day plans until a few hours ago. "That's all." “Are you saying that Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey are cliche and poorly-written?” Leo tried to act scandalized by Ryan’s reply, but even to his own ears his he didn’t sound nearly as horrified as he had been attempting to. “Or are you simply saying you want a romance that isn’t textbook?” he continued as he shifted so that their shoulders were touching -- finally -- and waited to see what the other man’s reaction might be. "What about all of the above?" Ryan was starting to wonder just how far this game of inadvertent chicken would go; he was doing his best to not make any moves, especially considering that the other man was doing enough of that himself, but he wasn't entirely uninterested. His gaze dropped to the man's lips despite himself, though, and he added, "I'm just interested in things that aren't cut and dry, mostly. No matter the scenario." It did not slip Leo’s notice the way Ryan’s gaze had dropped just a little and he couldn’t help but let his mouth turn up in a smile. “So,” he started, “What you’re saying is you like the unexpected?” Leo was phishing for some kind of unspoken confirmation that he wouldn’t land himself with a black eye or worse if he made a move on Ryan just now. He was ninety-nine percent sure that he was reading the other man’s signals right -- at least when it came to there being some level of returned interest -- but to be entirely honest Ryan was a hard book to read to some degree and he wanted to be completely positive before he did more than just sit too close to him on the couch. "Unexpected may not be the right word." Ryan wasn't exactly the most spontaneous person, but he did enjoy the give-and-take of this accidental vocabulary-centric flirting. That was what it was, wasn't it? Ryan was out of practice, and the right words felt like they were eluding him more often than not, but this was flirting. Flirting between an employer and an employee, technically, but flirting nonetheless. "Just something… different." “Different,” Leo started. “So you like something that’s unique and maybe leaves you guessing a little?” He questioned, very aware of the fact that this had turned into a flirting -- which was new for him -- usually Leo went the physical route far quicker than this. But he enjoyed this, even if he was well aware that they were toeing a line. “Or just something that isn’t cookie cutter?” With each spoken word Leo leaned in a little further to Ryan, pushing the envelope of just how close they were. "The latter," Ryan replied after a moment, vaguely aware that he was leaning in even closer, too, in response to the way the other man was calmly working his way through what remained of the space between them. "I don't like feeling on edge, necessarily, but I don't want something that everyone else has." He felt better, too, now that they'd been able to work through a bit of putting what he wanted into words. Somewhere a little voice in Leo’s head pointed out that Ryan wasn’t leaning away from him, but was in fact leaning closer. That had to be a good sign, maybe even a sign to go ahead and leap over that line he had been toeing practically since the day he started at Burgatory. Hell, if he read the signals wrong all he had to lose was his job, right? He hadn’t come back to Austin to work really, so it wasn’t his top concern in making his next move. “I think I can do something that’s different from what everyone else has,” Leo remarked in a low tone as he leaned in, his hand settling at the base of Ryan’s skull as he pulled the other man into a kiss. It wasn’t heated, Leo was just testing the water here, but it also was not your typical peck on the lips and then retreat kind of kiss either. Nor was the kiss brief; Ryan reciprocated eagerly, reacting reflexively to deepen the kiss, one hand coming up to cup Leo's face and jawline. And then he remembered just who he was kissing and pulled away, a look of horror on his face. The look Leo gave him in return was a mixture of bewilderment and a frown. Even if his employee had been the one to make advances on him, though, Ryan felt he only had himself to blame for actively taking him up on it. "We shouldn't do this," he said, though they were still so close; he pulled away belatedly, a slight frown on his face. "I'm sorry." “Just because I’m an employee?” Leo questioned as his frown remained and deepened as Ryan pulled away. He was maybe a poor judge of whether workplace romances should happen or not, after all he and his fiancee had both worked in the same Engine company. Still, he wasn’t going to push Ryan if he was uncomfortable with it. "Crossing managerial lines is never a good idea," Ryan explained, though he wasn't quite able to shake the regretful look from his face. If they had been on the same level, he would be more amenable to the idea, but he wasn't sure this was a complication he wanted to take on. “Then I guess it’s a damn shame that line exists between us,” Leo remarked honestly. “I’m going to respect your wishes here if you really do want to stop this,” he continued as he leaned back and gave Ryan more space. “We can just go back to talking and forget about what was a pretty damn good kiss,” Leo said with what he was trying not to make a flirtatious smile, but he was fairly certain he fell short of accomplishing that. "I appreciate that," Ryan replied, trying a smile of his own. It was a shame, too; it really had been a good kiss. “I’m a flirt, not a jerk,” Leo remarked, glad that Ryan was smiling again. Even if he couldn’t act on the attraction he felt, he could enjoy the way he looked when he smiled. After all, there wasn’t any managerial line crossing by just looking right? At leat that’s what Leo hoped as he put a little more distance between them, wanting to make Ryan more comfortable again and alleviate the frown on his face, Leo continued. “What’s your all time favorite book?” "Oh, wow. I don't even know. Give me a couple of minutes to think about it." As if on cue, though, Ryan visibly relaxed at the question and the shift away from the obvious tension between them. For now, things were back to normal, but he was vaguely aware of the fact that curfew had slipped. For better or worse, he would be sleeping over that evening. |