“So, look, man, about the Journey thing.”
Mar. 7th, 2004 09:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hackthis_archiveI’ve had an inquiry or two about my status on some The O.C. fiction, to which my inner-writer basically said ‘eh?’ So, um, yeah. Not feeling terribly inspired. I rilly like(d) Teresa, however, her “Newport-over” made her eerily look like Lana Lang, and I was afraid for several minutes. Also, all that best-friends-with-exes thing was just weird to me.
Theoretically, however, if you catch me on the right day, in the right mood, there’s no telling what I’ll do... The title is for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lalejandra since she’s got me on an Oasis renaissance.
The O.C.
It‘s Good to be Free
1.
Ryan’s never done the ’friend’ thing with a girl. He’s done the girl thing and the single thing, but he’s never really done the girl friend thing. He’s been between girls and before girls -- but it was always just a limbo thing while he was with someone else or Teresa was with someone else. Now, though, there’s no Teresa and there’s no Marissa. There’s not even Anna, who really was the closest Ryan’s ever had to a girl friend. But now she’s gone back to Pittsburgh, and even when they were friends, Ryan was keeping tabs on her. Not when she was with Seth, of course, but just because Anna was smart and sarcastic, and Seth. Well, Seth was Seth.
Now, though -- now Ryan has girl friends, and he can’t actually think about it - them - without stressing one part of the equation or the other. Girl friends. Girl friends. He can’t even put the two words together anymore, and what’s worse is that when he thinks about them, because it is a ‘them’, he has to call them his girl friends.
Even his conscience can’t refer to them as just ’friends’, which is really hard on his brain.
If he’s being honest, which is generally is, he can’t even really think of them as his friends -- if only because they’ve all exchanged bodily fluids. Which is not something Ryan’s even done with any of his other ’friends’ -- well, except for a few. But. If he’s really going to make an effort here to be friends with Marissa and Teresa, then he’s going to have to start thinking of them just as friends, despite their gender, because he’s friends with Seth, and he doesn’t call Seth his boy friend.
No.
Seth is just his friend that happens to be a boy, and when they get older Seth will still be his friend -- his adult male friend. Which sounds a lot like a wanted ad in OC Weekly. But that’s not really the point. The point is that Seth is a big influence on Ryan’s life, because even Ryan’s brain is starting to ramble on, a lot like Seth ’s mouth. Seth’s pink, wet, constantly moving mouth, which is pretty much irrelevant to the subject at hand, because Seth is just Ryan’s friend.
Because Ryan doesn’t already have enough friends.
2.
“So, look, man, about the Journey thing.”
“What Journey thing?”
“You and Journey…”
Sometimes Seth speaks a language all his own. And even if his voice sometimes pops into Ryan’s head when Ryan is not thinking about Seth, that doesn’t necessarily mean Ryan always understands what it’s saying.
“In the car, Ry. On the way to the airport.”
“Oh. Right. What about it?”
“I just, man, I did not know that you swung that way. I mean here I am, trying to indoctrinate you into the greatness that is the Shins and Death Cab and Bright Eyes, and you’re -- you’re an 80’s man. That’s -- that’s… I mean that’s on par with Air Supply and Chicago and Steve Winwood. I admit he was good back in Traffic, but -- “
“Seth, was there a point you were trying to get to -- today, maybe?”
“I’m not sure what -- it’s just, it seems a little minty to me.”
“Minty. Journey is minty.“
“Um, yeah.”
“You are calling me minty?”
“What? No. No! That’s not -- I just meant the music choice, it seems a little not in keeping with the whole Marlon Brando/James Dean/ wifebeater and chinos - did you notice the pun thing when I said chinos? - so, um yeah, just not really in keeping with the whole Ryan Atwood mystique.”
“’Mystique‘, Seth?”
“Yeah. Yes.”
“And you’re calling me minty?”
“Again with the no. Clearly you are not listening to me here, but that’s okay, because you listen to 80’s music, and at least I know that means there’s some New Order in there. A little early Prince. Maybe a little Wacko Jacko before he wasn’t quite so wacko. I may get a little afraid if you start singing Wham! songs to me, but that’s okay, because you know, it’s you.”
Ryan can’t even think of a reply.
Friends don’t call friends “minty“, do they?
3.
Ryan will be the first to admit that his definition of friendship is a bit skewered. Unorthodox. He suspects that most people haven’t fucked a lot of their ‘friends’ - Teresa, Cindy A., Arturo, Matt D., Bethie and Stacy (together), Traci (with an ’I’), Cindy J. - but Ryan‘s from Chino.
Maybe it’s just how he was raised.
Perhaps he can only be friends with people after he’s seen them naked, which would explain a lot about the Marissa issue, but not so much about the Seth issue. Because Ryan and Seth are most certainly friends, it’s just that sometimes Ryan wouldn’t mind seeing Seth naked, and the whole Seth & Summer virginity thing has really thrown him. Seth is his friend. Which doesn’t mean Seth can’t be friends with other people, it’s just that everything with Seth seems to be an issue. Summer. Videogames. Anna. The Legion. Captain Oats. Sex.
Not that Ryan’s been thinking about sex with Seth. That much.
He has to stop fucking his friends.
4.
It took Ryan ages to figure out how to upload his CDs into Seth’s iPod, but now that he knows the tricks of the trade, he’s much happier with the lack of TV in the poolhouse. As long as he can listen to Peter Gabriel and Toto without too much emo in the middle, he’s happy. He’s not so happy when Seth bounces onto the bed next to him and pulls the earpiece out of his ear.
“So, how’s that 'friend thing' working out for you, man?”
When their friendship fails Seth will only have himself to blame.
“Which 'friend thing'?” Ryan says.
“The Marissa 'friend thing'. As opposed to the Teresa 'friend thing', which I’m thinking wasn’t such a good thing, if, you know, she left town. Not that that’s your fault -- but I should shut up now,” Seth declares at the slight twitch of Ryan’s eyebrow.
“It’s fine.”
“Fine.” Seth says ‘fine’ like most people in Newport say ‘Chino'.
Ryan nods, and there’s a long moment of time where they’re looking at each other expectantly. Seth’s expecting Ryan to tell him to back off, and Ryan’s expecting Seth to say something else without the benefit of thinking, first.
The earpiece of the iPod dangles from Ryan’s ear, and Peter Gabriel’s hangs between them, tinnily crooning ‘In Your Eyes’
Seth’s downward glance says it all.
Ryan can‘t help the tiny smile. “It is not minty.”
“Whatever you say, dude.”
“It’s not.”
“Uh huh.”
“Peter Gabriel is not minty.“ Ryan pulls the other earpiece away and tosses the iPod to the foot of the bed. “This is minty,” he says grabbing a fist full of Seth’s Transatlanticism shirt and kissing him.
Ryan’s lips are slightly dry, and Seth’s mouth is very tense before it goes slack and he decides to get with the program. Ryan only closes his eyes after Seth does, and it’s not the most passionate kiss Ryan’s ever had, but when Seth makes a little noise in the back of his throat and begins earnestly kissing him back, it doesn’t really matter.
When Ryan pulls away, Seth’s eyes are still squeezed shut. They only open after Ryan runs his thumb over Seth’s bottom lip as a sort of reality check, and Seth’s brain gears up.
“Yeah, no, not really minty. More like coffee. Did you just have coffee, because you know, maybe coffee is good, and also, um, you just kissed me? *You* kissed *me*. Do you do this to all your friends, because if you do, I can’t understand why you’re not like the most popular guy ever?”
“I only do it to friends I really like.”
“Huh. I never do that with my friends -- which is probably why I don’t have many friends. And also, um, that’s okay, because hey, I have you. And um, Summer, but can we, like, not talk about her now? I mean, especially since friends never want to hear about the girlfriend anyway, and --”
“Seth, shut up.”
“Right. Right. So, um, I‘m going to shut up, really, I‘m just wondering, if this is what you do with your friends, and if so would you say we‘re friends, and that‘s all -- or we‘re really good friends and maybe we could do that again, or the kind of friends that can do this like all the time?”
Ryan’s grin says it all. “I think we can do this more -- I mean isn‘t that what friends are for?”
-end-
Notes: None of this would be possible with*out*serialkarma who poked and prodded and gave me something to work with. Thank you, sweetie. And for Mr/Mrs Anonymous, who managed to catch me on the right day, at the right time, in the right mood… which is rarer than a virgin in a bordello.
Theoretically, however, if you catch me on the right day, in the right mood, there’s no telling what I’ll do... The title is for
lalejandra since she’s got me on an Oasis renaissance.The O.C.
1.
Ryan’s never done the ’friend’ thing with a girl. He’s done the girl thing and the single thing, but he’s never really done the girl friend thing. He’s been between girls and before girls -- but it was always just a limbo thing while he was with someone else or Teresa was with someone else. Now, though, there’s no Teresa and there’s no Marissa. There’s not even Anna, who really was the closest Ryan’s ever had to a girl friend. But now she’s gone back to Pittsburgh, and even when they were friends, Ryan was keeping tabs on her. Not when she was with Seth, of course, but just because Anna was smart and sarcastic, and Seth. Well, Seth was Seth.
Now, though -- now Ryan has girl friends, and he can’t actually think about it - them - without stressing one part of the equation or the other. Girl friends. Girl friends. He can’t even put the two words together anymore, and what’s worse is that when he thinks about them, because it is a ‘them’, he has to call them his girl friends.
Even his conscience can’t refer to them as just ’friends’, which is really hard on his brain.
If he’s being honest, which is generally is, he can’t even really think of them as his friends -- if only because they’ve all exchanged bodily fluids. Which is not something Ryan’s even done with any of his other ’friends’ -- well, except for a few. But. If he’s really going to make an effort here to be friends with Marissa and Teresa, then he’s going to have to start thinking of them just as friends, despite their gender, because he’s friends with Seth, and he doesn’t call Seth his boy friend.
No.
Seth is just his friend that happens to be a boy, and when they get older Seth will still be his friend -- his adult male friend. Which sounds a lot like a wanted ad in OC Weekly. But that’s not really the point. The point is that Seth is a big influence on Ryan’s life, because even Ryan’s brain is starting to ramble on, a lot like Seth ’s mouth. Seth’s pink, wet, constantly moving mouth, which is pretty much irrelevant to the subject at hand, because Seth is just Ryan’s friend.
Because Ryan doesn’t already have enough friends.
2.
“So, look, man, about the Journey thing.”
“What Journey thing?”
“You and Journey…”
Sometimes Seth speaks a language all his own. And even if his voice sometimes pops into Ryan’s head when Ryan is not thinking about Seth, that doesn’t necessarily mean Ryan always understands what it’s saying.
“In the car, Ry. On the way to the airport.”
“Oh. Right. What about it?”
“I just, man, I did not know that you swung that way. I mean here I am, trying to indoctrinate you into the greatness that is the Shins and Death Cab and Bright Eyes, and you’re -- you’re an 80’s man. That’s -- that’s… I mean that’s on par with Air Supply and Chicago and Steve Winwood. I admit he was good back in Traffic, but -- “
“Seth, was there a point you were trying to get to -- today, maybe?”
“I’m not sure what -- it’s just, it seems a little minty to me.”
“Minty. Journey is minty.“
“Um, yeah.”
“You are calling me minty?”
“What? No. No! That’s not -- I just meant the music choice, it seems a little not in keeping with the whole Marlon Brando/James Dean/ wifebeater and chinos - did you notice the pun thing when I said chinos? - so, um yeah, just not really in keeping with the whole Ryan Atwood mystique.”
“’Mystique‘, Seth?”
“Yeah. Yes.”
“And you’re calling me minty?”
“Again with the no. Clearly you are not listening to me here, but that’s okay, because you listen to 80’s music, and at least I know that means there’s some New Order in there. A little early Prince. Maybe a little Wacko Jacko before he wasn’t quite so wacko. I may get a little afraid if you start singing Wham! songs to me, but that’s okay, because you know, it’s you.”
Ryan can’t even think of a reply.
Friends don’t call friends “minty“, do they?
3.
Ryan will be the first to admit that his definition of friendship is a bit skewered. Unorthodox. He suspects that most people haven’t fucked a lot of their ‘friends’ - Teresa, Cindy A., Arturo, Matt D., Bethie and Stacy (together), Traci (with an ’I’), Cindy J. - but Ryan‘s from Chino.
Maybe it’s just how he was raised.
Perhaps he can only be friends with people after he’s seen them naked, which would explain a lot about the Marissa issue, but not so much about the Seth issue. Because Ryan and Seth are most certainly friends, it’s just that sometimes Ryan wouldn’t mind seeing Seth naked, and the whole Seth & Summer virginity thing has really thrown him. Seth is his friend. Which doesn’t mean Seth can’t be friends with other people, it’s just that everything with Seth seems to be an issue. Summer. Videogames. Anna. The Legion. Captain Oats. Sex.
Not that Ryan’s been thinking about sex with Seth. That much.
He has to stop fucking his friends.
4.
It took Ryan ages to figure out how to upload his CDs into Seth’s iPod, but now that he knows the tricks of the trade, he’s much happier with the lack of TV in the poolhouse. As long as he can listen to Peter Gabriel and Toto without too much emo in the middle, he’s happy. He’s not so happy when Seth bounces onto the bed next to him and pulls the earpiece out of his ear.
“So, how’s that 'friend thing' working out for you, man?”
When their friendship fails Seth will only have himself to blame.
“Which 'friend thing'?” Ryan says.
“The Marissa 'friend thing'. As opposed to the Teresa 'friend thing', which I’m thinking wasn’t such a good thing, if, you know, she left town. Not that that’s your fault -- but I should shut up now,” Seth declares at the slight twitch of Ryan’s eyebrow.
“It’s fine.”
“Fine.” Seth says ‘fine’ like most people in Newport say ‘Chino'.
Ryan nods, and there’s a long moment of time where they’re looking at each other expectantly. Seth’s expecting Ryan to tell him to back off, and Ryan’s expecting Seth to say something else without the benefit of thinking, first.
The earpiece of the iPod dangles from Ryan’s ear, and Peter Gabriel’s hangs between them, tinnily crooning ‘In Your Eyes’
Seth’s downward glance says it all.
Ryan can‘t help the tiny smile. “It is not minty.”
“Whatever you say, dude.”
“It’s not.”
“Uh huh.”
“Peter Gabriel is not minty.“ Ryan pulls the other earpiece away and tosses the iPod to the foot of the bed. “This is minty,” he says grabbing a fist full of Seth’s Transatlanticism shirt and kissing him.
Ryan’s lips are slightly dry, and Seth’s mouth is very tense before it goes slack and he decides to get with the program. Ryan only closes his eyes after Seth does, and it’s not the most passionate kiss Ryan’s ever had, but when Seth makes a little noise in the back of his throat and begins earnestly kissing him back, it doesn’t really matter.
When Ryan pulls away, Seth’s eyes are still squeezed shut. They only open after Ryan runs his thumb over Seth’s bottom lip as a sort of reality check, and Seth’s brain gears up.
“Yeah, no, not really minty. More like coffee. Did you just have coffee, because you know, maybe coffee is good, and also, um, you just kissed me? *You* kissed *me*. Do you do this to all your friends, because if you do, I can’t understand why you’re not like the most popular guy ever?”
“I only do it to friends I really like.”
“Huh. I never do that with my friends -- which is probably why I don’t have many friends. And also, um, that’s okay, because hey, I have you. And um, Summer, but can we, like, not talk about her now? I mean, especially since friends never want to hear about the girlfriend anyway, and --”
“Seth, shut up.”
“Right. Right. So, um, I‘m going to shut up, really, I‘m just wondering, if this is what you do with your friends, and if so would you say we‘re friends, and that‘s all -- or we‘re really good friends and maybe we could do that again, or the kind of friends that can do this like all the time?”
Ryan’s grin says it all. “I think we can do this more -- I mean isn‘t that what friends are for?”
-end-
Notes: None of this would be possible with*out*
serialkarma who poked and prodded and gave me something to work with. Thank you, sweetie. And for Mr/Mrs Anonymous, who managed to catch me on the right day, at the right time, in the right mood… which is rarer than a virgin in a bordello.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 09:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 09:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 03:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 09:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 10:07 am (UTC)can you add me?
no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 10:44 am (UTC)*rolls*
and that is why I love Ryan Atwood. :D :D :D thank you for sharing this with us, it was adorable. <3333333
no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 03:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 10:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 10:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 11:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 08:31 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 11:34 am (UTC)AhHAhahah!
That rocks.
Y'know, I don't even get The OC where I am (Philippines). The only reason I know of its existence is because I saw the ads for the pilot when I was in the US last summer. Oh, and the squeeing on my friendslist. That too. Am so not surprised that it became the next big fandom.
So yeah, I get my OC secondhand from LJ, but it's pretty damn nice for secondhand. This fic is funny even if I don't know what anyone--except Ryan and Seth--looks like. Rock on.
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Date: 2004-03-07 11:35 am (UTC)That made the fic for me. Hee.
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Date: 2004-03-07 11:43 am (UTC)Also, umm, a question. I'm new to the OC fandom, and I've been trying desperately to find some good writers. I've got you and
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Date: 2004-03-08 08:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 11:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 12:00 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 01:46 pm (UTC)*squawks* Ordinarily I try not to point out typos once something's been posted, but--but--hey!
“Again with the no. Clearly you are not listening to me here, but that’s okay, because you listen to 80’s music, and at least I know that means there’s some New Order in there. A little early Prince. Maybe a little Wacko Jacko before he wasn’t quite so wacko. I may get a little afraid if you start singing Wham! songs to me, but that’s okay, because you know, it’s you.”
Ryan can’t even think of a reply.
Friends don’t call friends “minty“, do they?
*dying* I *love* this. LOVE. And Ryan listening to Toto, and "In Your Eyes" and grabbing Seth and kissing him and not knowing if it's possible to just be friends with girls. And I just watched When Harry Met Sally again last night too.
I have missed your Ryan and Seth. Not that I haven't enjoyed your other stuff, but I have missed these boys. Thank *you* sweetie.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 08:33 am (UTC)*dies* It was early. I was hungover. Cut me some slack. It couldn't be done with you or without you. *tries to shut up the U2 song*
*dying* I *love* this. LOVE. And Ryan listening to Toto, and "In Your Eyes" and grabbing Seth and kissing him and not knowing if it's possible to just be friends with girls. And I just watched When Harry Met Sally again last night too.
I have missed your Ryan and Seth. Not that I haven't enjoyed your other stuff, but I have missed these boys. Thank *you* sweetie.
For you, I will play in the sandbox some more. Give me something you want to see and I shall do my best to make it happen.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 01:56 pm (UTC)But yes. I liked that.
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Date: 2004-03-07 02:05 pm (UTC)I love the mental voice you've got going for Ryan, and the gradual way he pieces together what sort of friend he wants Seth to be.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 08:35 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-07 07:55 pm (UTC)I'm Ms. Anonymous, and suddenly it feels very odd being unidentifiable. You're really the only person I respond to at live journal, but I'd like to change my nameless status. Can you tell me how to do that?
no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 08:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:W00T!
Date: 2004-03-08 12:08 am (UTC)This was great. Word and much love to Ryan being into Peter Gabriel and Toto! *happy sigh* And in the same vein, big ups to your icon; Seth is an elitist music bitch.
But we still love him. Mostly. Despite the emo shit I'll never really get. Really. ^_^;;;
Re: W00T!
Date: 2004-03-08 08:39 am (UTC)But we still love him. Mostly. Despite the emo shit I'll never really get. Really. ^_^;;;
*laughs* The icon is actually for me. I had it made after Seth came out as firmly emo; I'm firmly anti-emo.
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Date: 2004-03-08 04:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 03:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 09:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 12:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 10:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 03:13 pm (UTC)Thank you, ma'am.
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Date: 2004-03-08 12:44 pm (UTC)Ryan and I are going to team up and throw down on Seth.
Seth says ‘fine’ like most people in Newport say ‘Chino'.
HA.
This is a lovely and refreshing change from sad Hobbits! Way to go. :)
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Date: 2004-03-08 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 12:49 pm (UTC)I guess that makes me minty. Ah, well.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 02:22 pm (UTC)Dude, I wrote it like that, didn't I?
*thinks*
*has small brain haemorrage*
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 01:01 pm (UTC)all that best-friends-with-exes thing was just weird to me
I used to be with you on that one, except now I'm actually friendly with all my exes (or at least i don't run screaming in the opposite direction when I see them)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 02:25 pm (UTC)I used to be with you on that one, except now I'm actually friendly with all my exes (or at least i don't run screaming in the opposite direction when I see them)
Thankfully, I don't live in the same country or the same state as the majority of my exes.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-08 02:46 pm (UTC)I was so wrapped up in this that Ryan kissing Seth didn't register for me right away and I had to reread the line again.
Anyway, I loved it!