adam "now he's a spooky 10" lynch (parrish) (tamquam) wrote in valloic, @ 2020-11-04 21:23:00
GANSEY + RONAN + ADAM
“Wait a second. Weren’t you two dorks talking about Adam getting a broom the other day?”
WHAT: While avoiding being banned from the library, the boys discover a Vallo gift inside the Pig. WHERE: Outside the Library of Alexandria WHEN: Late afternoon, November 4 WARNINGS: None! STATUS:Complete!
The library wasn’t Ronan’s favorite place but it wasn’t his least favorite please either. It had its benefits. It had a peaceful vibe and it smelled good. But mostly, Adam and Gansey looked like six year olds who’d just discovered comic books literally every fucking time they set foot inside and Ronan was annoyingly soft for that look.
He watched them now, out of the corner of his eye, his feet propped up on a chair across from him. He’d had a straw wrapper in his hoodie pocket when it sat down and it was in tiny pieces, perfect for wadding up and stealthily flicking at their faces when they were too distracted by a fucking scroll or whatever to see it coming. He aimed one now for the tiny wrinkle of concentration between Gansey’s eyebrows.
It plinked off his glasses instead but that was close enough.
“Two points,” he announced smugly.
Gansey didn’t pick up languages as quickly as either of them did, and as such, that wrinkle of concentration was becoming more and more prominent. They had options - translators, the magical box that Ronan had dreamed - but he was difficult and liked to be difficult and learn things as he went. Which meant Gansey usually had a pen and paper, translations he was writing himself, coded texts and an extra book open next to him whenever Adam located something exciting.
As such, he was definitely not paying attention to Ronan until the balled up paper hit him on the glasses.
He sighed. That oh-so-Gansey sigh, that was practically the word Ronan written in the air. He had known it was only a matter of time before their inattention to him would get the best of Ronan’s patience, and immediately felt guilty for ignoring his best friend.
But when he looked up, the blue eyes of Leonardo Auditore were piercing through all of them, looking more annoyed than any of them had ever seen, and leaving Gansey to openly wince before leaning forward to whisper. “No points, for the love of god.”
Adam was of two minds: one—academic, serious, wildly and earnestly authentic. He found that mind was often bolstered by Gansey's endless quest for knowledge. It was challenged by Ronan's surprising depth of knowledge. Both of the people closest to him caused this mind to constantly question, analyze, and seek out answers. Adam was absorbed in the texts, each new success lit up that curious scientific part of him. Inside the Library of Alexandria? There was no limit to this.
His other mind, the id, was a feral instinctual thing that was easily distracted by the fact that Ronan was across from him, and Adam was desperately trying to nudge Ronan's hip with his foot. To split his attention between the translation on the table and his boyfriend on the other side of it. That was to say he missed the initial shot of the paper, but he did not miss the glare from Leonardo.
"One point, he made contact," Adam said this to Gansey, at an equally low whisper. And then he turned to Ronan, "You don't get two for missing." Adam sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, before checking his watch with only a slight cringe. "We've only been here one—three hours."
He reached across the table for Ronan's hand: to hold it in apology, to keep him from flicking anything else at Gansey, and to maybe play a little dirty as he asked, "Ten more minutes?"
That oh-so-familiar Gansey sigh made a devilish smirk curl the corner of Ronan’s mouth but then Gansey’s attention shifted and Ronan instinctively followed it. There wasn’t a whole lot that could make him feel guilty about being a harmless shithead to his best friend but getting the stink eye from a man that he was now ninety-nine percent sure was the Leonardo da Vinci came really close. He scowled right up until Adam grabbed his hand.
“Maybe I was aiming for his glasses, you don’t know,” Ronan said petulantly. He could still feel Leonardo’s glare on the back of his neck, whether it was resting there or not. But Adam’s touch was supernaturally soothing. Ronan blew out a loud breath and dropped his feet to the floor just as loudly. “Ten minutes is never ten minutes with you two. Give me back the manuscript about gross medical shit.”
“Generous,” Gansey quietly mumbled to Adam as he nudged his friend for giving in on one point. He was in the same side that he hadn’t realized it had been three hours, and checked his own watch to confirm. But there was still a few inches left of the scroll he had in front of him and Gansey’s brain scrambled at the thought of leaving it unfinished. Ten minutes.
He carefully - too careful and slow than what was strictly needed - offered up the manuscript without argument, hoping that playing it nice would earn them a few extra minutes added onto those ten. Just in case.
“Please stop throwing things at my glasses,” Gansey implored, but still winced at every sound he made, between the whispering, the paper sliding on the table, his own watch clinking against the hardwood, and the rustling of clothes. He was distracted now and anxious, and his knee started bouncing absently as he made an attempt to focus on the words below him.
"You can time it," Adam said, squeezing Ronan's hand over the table, and sliding his foot against Ronan's ankle under it. A quick thing, a ten more minutes and this will be more than footsie thing. He turned back to his notebook, determined to make use of his time.
The one downside to having his bond with Cabeswater was that no matter how close he was to Gansey, and no matter how often he tried to keep everything separate, that building anxiety wormed its way in. Adam could feel, almost like it was his own, the nervousness, the apprehension, the inability to focus under a time limit. Adam was positive that holding Ronan's hand and Gansey passing over the manuscript had bought them more than ten minutes, but Adam wouldn't be able to do anything like this.
"Gansey," Adam said, quietly, putting his pencil down, and reaching over to put his hand on his knee to settle the bouncing. But he missed, catching his leg on a bounce up as Adam overcompensated. The whole mess resulted in Adam's hand knocking hard against the underside of the table with a loud crack. It didn't hurt, but it startled him enough to draw both of his hands sharply against his chest, as if he could somehow take the noise back.
His pencil rolled right off the table, clattering to the stone floor, and Adam went still.
Ronan rolled his eyes as he took the manuscript and reached to move his translation box closer to him. He was not nearly as quiet or careful as either of them, but he did handle the paper more gently than most would’ve expected of him. Adam’s touch again took his irritation down another notch and he hooked his foot around Adam’s ankle a little more securely.
Right up until the sound startled him half out of his chair, anyway. When he saw Adam jerk his hand up from under the table, his eyebrows rose comically high. He had to roll through an instinctive wash of jealousy - and something else - but as soon as that ebbed, he could focus on the fact that everyone was looking at them.
A shithead laugh burst up out of him. “Dumbass.”
There was a rush of movement behind him. Ronan tossed a careless glance over his shoulder but even he sat a little straighter when he realized Leonardo was storming towards them. After a brief moment of thought, he shoved loudly to his feet, scraping the chair across the floor on purpose and knocking it against a bookshelf that rocked just so slightly.
“This furniture sucks,” he announced. Better he get kicked out than Adam.
“Oh my god.” Gansey’s exasperation was palatable. He had already felt guilty for the knee - a reminder that him and Adam were even more linked now than ever before - and this was just the cherry on top.
He knew what Ronan was doing, and immediately shot his best friend a panicked and horrified look. They may have never seen him move so fast, with how quickly Gansey pushed his seat back and grabbed his messenger bag and stuffed his own items into it quickly before rounding the table to Ronan’s side just as the inventor-artist reached them.
Gansey made himself look larger, more in charge and the presidential-Gansey look that they’d always teased him over. But it worked, as he flashed Leonardo a winning grin that seemed to work. He still kept his voice low and respectful, for the other patrons. “Apologies, Mr. Auditore. We were just headed out.”
Leonardo gave in, not creating more of a scene as he sighed heavily and shot them all one last warning look before gathering up nearby scrolls that had been set aside. As soon as he had turned away from the boys, Gansey wrapped a hand around Ronan’s wrist to tug it. “We can finish later.”
Adam was mildly embarrassed by the whole sequence of events, but unlike Gansey, he managed to keep his head (and his expression) relatively calm. And he tried desperately not to laugh as Ronan decided to be suddenly louder and more obnoxious than he had been the whole three hours they had been inside. This was for his benefit, and Adam was oddly pleased; his boyfriend was taking the blame for them.
But then Gansey was hastily packing up and Adam took that as his cue to do the same, his attention jumping from the approaching Leonardo to shoving notebooks and pencils into his backpack. As he tucked away the language box on top, Adam paused taking in that glimpse of Richard Campbell Gansey III coming out to smooth over the impending issue. He felt a pang of guilt for forcing that side of Gansey to show.
Adam made a few penitent nods to Leonardo, before shuffling right behind Ronan who was being pulled out of the library by Gansey.
By the time they were outside, Adam was smiling and shaking his head. He touched the small of Ronan's back, looking up at him, charmed. "You're a menace to society." And then he reached across to touch Gansey's bicep, apologetic. "We'll come back. Another time. I'll move around my schedule in the afternoon this week after class and before I head to the shop."
There was a small part of Ronan that tensed up at the arrival of Richard Campbell Gansey III. Not that long ago, it would’ve made him defensive and angry, though, and now it only earned Gansey an exaggerated squint. They were different people now. Ronan was different. And - annoyingly - it worked anyway. Ronan let himself be led out of the library with only a minor dragging of his feet. For stubborn show, mostly.
“I’m a menace?” He leaned into Adam with a taunting smirk. “I hate to break it to you, Parrish, but I’m not the one the librarians think was groping Dick under the table.” With that necessary point established, Ronan was free to glance up towards the library and frown. “I’ll stay away for your next couple visits. Should blow over fine. They like you nerds.”
Gansey sputtered, face immediately flushing. “You’re both--” He just shook his head, even as calming as Adam’s promise was. That did help, and his shoulders fell, even while Ronan was making it worse again. Groping--
He was choking on his own tongue now, and Gansey ran a hand over his blushing face. “Adam’s right, you are a menace.” That gave him a whole new set of worries to be anxious over. Surely they didn’t think-- No. Saying something would just make it worse, so they’d just have to ignore it. Let it pass. Hope for the best. Gansey let his hand fall away and he shook his head at Adam. “Don’t change your schedule, we’ll just work it in for next week. I’m sure it’s fine.”
Adam had squeezed Ronan's side in retaliation, mumbling something about getting handsy with him in the stacks another time, before he caught how red Gansey was getting. It was one embarrassing situation after another, and Adam felt bad to put Gansey on the spot constantly, as he slowly became one with his bright shirt.
He linked his hand with Ronan's, and nodded to Gansey, toward the Pig. "Let's go. If we wait out here any longer, they might realize we should be banned, and I don't want to risk it." And if Adam walked a little bit faster, like he was trying to make a quick getaway because the thought they actually might be barred from returning, he wasn't going to mention it.
By the time they got to the car, Adam was slinging his backpack off, ready to jump into the backseat of the Camaro, as was his standard place—there was no point in trying to race Ronan for shotgun, and Gansey would never willingly let either of them drive it. "Besides, I want to compare my notes with yours on the—what the." Adam's brow furrowed, staring through the window at the broom in the back seat.
Ronan looked smug about turning Gansey into a sputtering tomato. Adam’s quiet promise only intensified the look. But he took pity on Gansey eventually and looped an arm around his head to both hug him and tug him towards the car in a headlock. It was hiding his beet-red face so that had to count for something.
“What the what?” Ronan frowned at Adam’s tone and released Gansey so he could peer inside the car. “Uhhh….hm. Think there’s an invisible witch in there?” He stayed bent over with his eyes close to the glass but lifted his mischievous gaze to Adam then over his shoulder at Gansey. “Wait a second. Weren’t you two dorks talking about Adam getting a broom the other day?”
Gansey had made a strangled noise and let himself get dragged along, the distance not helping make his blush go away. It wasn’t often he heard that tone from Adam, though, and the comment about a witch in the backseat made him do a double take. “There is no-- Why would there be a--”
The question hit him, and Gansey nosed his way in between them so he could peer into the backseat of his car. He laughed, he couldn’t help it. It had been a joke, but one he’d actually been looking into fulfilling at some point - Christmas, probably - only Gansey had a mind to have it actually enchanted to fly, just to mess with Adam.
With another chuckle, Gansey unlocked the car and pulled open the passenger side door so Adam could get a closer look. “I swear to you, I didn’t do this. It wasn’t there when we got here and I didn’t leave to plant it.” With that, he shot Ronan an amused look - the one other person with a key to his car.
"We were, but I wasn't serious," Adam said, hovering over Gansey's shoulder. Then again, Adam should have known better. Joking about anything was bound to be turned into reality; fucking with one another had become an artform between him and Ronan, and somehow getting Gansey involved with said assholishness somehow elevated the depth of their knowledge of one another.
Adam gave Ronan, then Gansey, a suspicious look before he reached in to remove the broom from the back seat and drop his backpack in the car. It felt solid, real, and absent of any invisible witches. Cabeswater wasn't flashing warning signals, only the acute sense that this wasn't just a broom; it was magic touched, magic imbued.
He should have been more careful about grabbing unfamiliar objects, but too late now as held it between the three of them. "The way I see it, we have three options: get rid of it, bring it back with us to see if there's anything that points to where it came from, or—" He glanced to Ronan, for backup. "We forego safety and someone gets on this thing to see if it flies."
Ronan lifted his hands in mock defense when Gansey glanced his way. “If I was gonna sneak into your car, it wouldn’t be to leave a weird ass broom.”
It would probably be to leave a mixtape or to fill the interior with dick-shaped balloons or something. He squinted at the crooked, old-fashioned broom and almost wished he had been creative enough to think of this. It was kind of fucking hilarious. And it would go nicely with his hoverboard as far as ridiculous modes of transportation. If it could fly.
“You’re the closest thing we have to a witch,” he told Adam, moving closer, eager now that there was potential danger. “And you know what my vote is gonna be.”
Gansey held up a hand, “I don’t want to know what you’d put in there.” Before Ronan even offered up any information. It wouldn’t work, if Ronan was determined, but oddly made him feel better. He was still grinning at the broom and the joke as a whole, finding the entire situation amusing - far more amusing than getting kicked out of the Library of Alexandria.
But he was torn. Torn between safety and the excitement of all of this, and weighing out a dozen pros and cons in his brain as his two best friends debated it out. Ronan was like that devil on one’s shoulder, always, and Gansey tried to be level headed and keep things calm.
Usually, it worked. But-- he liked speed and adventure, and his willingness to give in to see Adam ride on a flying broomstick was clearly winning.
“It could be cursed,” he pointed out, needing some semblance of adulting. Gansey ruined it immediately after, with a gentle smile. “But also this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity…”
Adam pointed to Gansey, as if to say see to Ronan. It could be cursed was an excellent reason not to do it. But also being remotely witchy was a good reason to do it. Logically, Adam knew they could stand here debating this for hours and still never arrive at an answer. But there had always been the tiny piece of him, easily coaxed out by Ronan and Gansey, where he gave up finding the solution, and decided that the solution was just to do it.
"Promise you'll chase me down in the Pig if I don't get control of this immediately," Adam said, gesturing for them to move back. The last thing he needed was taking out his boyfriend and his best friend when the broom took off. If the broom took off. Adam was about to look really stupid if nothing happened.
He threw one leg over the broom, both hands gripping the handle and—huh. Adam's expression was confused before he hopped up, taking both feet off the ground, and the broom hovered, unsteady but floating nonetheless.
Adam was so surprised, that he abruptly tried his feet back down in a shaky landing, but the broom refused. "I am suddenly reminded how much I do not like flying."
Despite knowing - personally - how easy Adam was to nudge towards dangerous activities, Ronan was still surprised to see his boyfriend mount the broom. To be fair, he was also distracted. Because even Gansey being a little supportive of something potentially reckless had Ronan grinning dumbly at him. Of course, he hadn’t really expected the broom to lift off either.
“Not gonna lie, I figured we’d just be laughing at you sitting there with a broom between your legs like an awkward dork,” he said, hands automatically reaching up like he could brace Adam if he suddenly fell from a fucking flying broom. “Feel bad I forgot about the flying thing. Just…” He frowned and waved his hands uselessly. “...I don’t know. Show it who’s boss, Magician.”
That made all three of them shocked that it even lifted off, Gansey had swapped between elated and instantly worried with the reminder of dragging Adam into helicopter rides. It was a very sober reminder, and he muttered a choice swear word under his breath as soon as it lifted off. His hands mirrored Ronan’s, as if to help catch, and also to try and sort out just what they could do to stop this if it took off against Adam’s wishes.
“Ah-- Maybe if you lean a little, you could fall into us?” If the Pig was any indicator, vehicles weren’t ones to usually listen to Gansey when he was forced to plead with them, but he still leveled a very stern look at the broom, where it emerged from Adam’s legs, and issued an order. “Stop. It’s time to land now.”
Much like the Pig, the broom showed no signs of listening, and suddenly the promise of having to chase Adam down in his camaro was becoming all too real as it put distance between the duo and Adam. “Oh-- Hell.”
"I think we've established that a broom is currently kicking our asses because we unestimated it," Adam said as he started to rise higher. He tried to lean but that almost felt worse, and he righted himself immediately.
To say that he put a disproportionate amount of hope into Gansey telling the broom what to do was an understatement. Disappointment flashed on Adam's face when the inanimate object didn't listen. But that was quickly replaced by surprise as the broom took off—not fast, but not a speed in which Adam felt comfortable enough throwing himself from.
He scrabbled for Ronan's hand but it slipped free, and Adam pressed his whole body close against the handle, white-knuckling it. He might have looked ridiculous, he was minimizing impact at roughly five miles and hour. "If you have any other ideas, now would be a good time," Adam shouted back to them.
The side of Ronan that was a shithead was poised on the brink of laughter as he watched Gansey try to order a flying broom around and Adam slowly started to coast away. The side that was a protective boyfriend was also poised on the brink of laughter because he’d launched Adam across a parking lot faster than he was currently flying. He still jogged alongside though, sparing glances over his shoulder for Gansey and feeling his worry pick up speed.
But only as fast as the dumbass broom.
“Should I try to tackle him off the fucking thing?” The words came out a little drunk. His emotions just couldn’t pick between concern and giddiness. He picked up speed and held out his hands. “Jump into my arms, Parrish.” Okay now he was definitely laughing.
Oh no. The whole thing was a trainwreck, Gansey keeping up, just behind the broom, face flushed with both amusement and embarrassment. They were passing people on the sidewalk now, a few strange glances, and he waved them off in a friendly way with each passing. “Hello- yes, just-- Excuse us. Pardon--”
“If he jumps off of it, will it fly on its own?” Gansey idly wondered out loud, calling after them. The bad part about having a wild imagination was conjuring up that image so vividly in his head - of Adam launching himself off of the broom and tumbling into Ronan, the broom continuing on in gleeful abandon - that Gansey had to pause a minute, put his hands on his knees and just stop to laugh a full-bodied laugh. “Adam, just--” Nope, no more ideas were coming out, just laughter.
First, it was Ronan's laughter, followed by Gansey's. And on any other day he might have appreciated the bright, rare occurrences—that were less rare the longer they stayed together in Vallo—but right now Adam was picturing whacking the both of them with this broom that refused to stop. If he could only understand the controls. This was where Adam regretted not having Gansey get on it first, with his flight-lessons-by-proxy from Helen. It might have been easier.
But even in his frustration (at himself, for not picking up how to maneuver this sooner) he could appreciate the humor in it. And while trying to remain serious, Adam couldn't hide that annoying little smile that refused to go away. It only got bigger as he noticed that Ronan was jogging beside him.
"I'm willing to take that risk! This broom is a shithead," Adam said, offering up his own apologies to people as the area became more crowded and Adam was about to merge with traffic. In a stunning display of acrobatics, Adam managed to loosen his grip enough to throw himself into Ronan's arms.
The broom, without a passenger, dropped like a stone onto the sidewalk.
“Shit,” Ronan barked, surprise momentarily lifting his eyebrows comically high before he narrowed his focus to not dropping Adam on his head. They still tumbled a number of steps and Ronan ended up on his ass but with Adam securely in his arms. The broom clattering to the concrete next to him drew Ronan’s sharp scowl. It lasted all of a second before laughter rumbled up out of him so strong, it made him wheeze.
“That was just…magic. Hope you got a good view of that, Gansey!” He sat up a bit and reached to brush Adam’s wild hair out of his face. “All in one piece?”
"You're the one that said to jump into your arms," Adam pointed out, but not unkindly. He was worried he had done more damage to Ronan by doing just that, but he closed his eyes and nodded against Ronan's tender touch. "But yeah, all in one piece." He kissed Ronan quick, a thank you, before untangling and getting to his feet.
"That answers the first question I had," Adam said to Gansey as he approached, sounding determinedly analytical despite his previous tumble. "It needs a rider to work. And that one of you is next because I’m not getting back on any time soon."
Gansey had stopped a few short feet away, his phone out and a picture snapped of the pair of them on the ground, before they’d gained footing. He was still laughing, the anxiety of Adam potentially crashing went away with Ronan’s steadfast determination to help him. That had always been comforting for Gansey himself, and apparently even-so watching it second hand.
The pictures to show off later would go well in hand, and he tucked away his phone with an innocent shrug. It gave him an opportunity to sweep up the broom and give it a once over, feeling the weight in his hands. He liked flying, like he liked driving - but wasn’t as much of a thrill-seeker as Ronan was. More a level of practical - and as much as it made him pull a face, more dad-like in his sense of adventure.
That practicality won out as he finally gave a little nod. “We’ll do some testing later, at the Barns. Or in Cabeswater. Someplace safer than uh-- on the street near a great deal of traffic?” Gansey pointed the end of the broom back towards where the Pig was parked. “I didn’t have a chance to lock the car when you took off like the Road Runner, shall we?”
Ronan rolled his eyes at Gansey’s predictably responsible approach to a magic broom and rolled to his feet. He was full of affection at the moment though, so he resisted the urge to give him a ton of shit. Instead, he pressed a hand to Adam’s back as he passed by him to snatch the broom out of Gansey’s hands.
“Sure. Race you.” With that he mounted the broom and shouted go, you crusty old dust magnet. The broom kicked off at a higher speed than the first time, but it flew drunkenly, like it was trying to buck him off.
His jerky, drawn out curse trailed behind him as he jerked back towards the pig.