Give and Take Ch. 01

It wasn't the first time that week that Riley was bored. He lolled about in his chair at his workspace, looking around for something to get on with.

Time was ticking by so slowly. For a Thursday it was dragging, and even though a lot of work had to get done, the unit was up to a full team -- where the term 'many hands make light work' would be appropriate.

He was well aware that the boss wasn't around, and that had been the case for the past thirty minutes that afternoon. Every so often he'd peer up from his screen to have a quick look at the section's door to make doubly certain he wasn't flying back over to his workspace.

"Run out of work?" A familiarly chirpy voice was heard to say behind him before a hand placed itself on his shoulder.

He would've jumped a foot in his chair if it weren't for the fact that he was practically curled up. He sharply peered up to find himself looking into a pair of sparkling green orbs. "R-Ryan," he hazily stated, "you scared me." The shorter blond-haired male smirked playfully.

"Don't worry," he noted. "I won't tell anyone if you don't."

Riley sat up in a more formal position. "You've run out of work too?"

Ryan nodded. "For the past hour." He placed his other hand on his hip. "I don't understand why they don't just let us go home for the day."

"'Cause we're on contracted hours maybe?" The brunette resentfully turned back in his chair, deciding to go back to absent-mindedly completing his half-finished necklace with the paper clips scattered about on his desk.

"But still...it isn't fair. They can't expect us to sit around and do nothing up until the time we go -- can they?"

"Well, they can and they will." He shrugged.

"Got any plans for the weekend?"

He shook his head slowly. "Same thing every weekend," he replied. "We go out on the Friday to get something to eat, do our own thing and go to bed late."

His reply prompted a playful smirk to play upon the blond's lips.

"What's so funny?"

"You're so predictable, Ri," Ryan noted teasingly. "You should live a little."

"I can't," Riley explained, "and you know why."

"I know -- cause of *her*."

"*Her* has a name."

They quickly ceased their playful exchange of words when their boss was seen to storm through the door and make his way back to his desk.

Riley brought up one of the programs on his screen and flitted his gaze back to it when the boss heavily sat down in his chair. He resented the fact that he had to have his obese excuse of a boss working directly next to him. Something caught his eye, and he looked over to see Ryan going away from his workspace and tilting his head towards the department's door -- his way of silently getting across to him that he wanted a word with him. He frowned in confusion.

What could he possibly want at that time? Didn't he know that the boss was...right there...next to him? Drawing in a small sigh, he went away from his desk and followed the blond into the male toilets. "What is it you want?" He asked resignedly. "You do realise that he's come back, don't you?"

"Come out with me," the shorter of the two suggested. "You and me on Friday night."

"No," the brunette suddenly replied, "she'll suspect something."

He had a point, of course. His girlfriend of two years was awfully possessive of him. She simply said it was because she was worried about him -- he secretly put it down to jealousy. He would never cheat on her, but he was hard-pushed to if she was going to keep suspecting him of doing it in the first place.

"You shouldn't care about what she does or thinks," Ryan stated boldly. "It's up to you -- she's not your mother. How old are you now?"

He looked away slowly. "Twenty-nine."

"My point exactly." The blond placed his hands on his shoulders. "You and me Friday night. No one else. Just us."

"To go where?" Riley asked in protest. "And do what?"

He smirked to himself. "To go out together tomorrow night and enjoy ourselves."

****

Friday morning. Riley came into the work's toilets and noticed that Ryan had come in early and was doing something to his eyelashes. He raised an eyebrow at the blond's ministrations but tried to think no more of it. "You're in earlier than usual."

He didn't as much as jump or flinch and he peered over at him. "Hey, Ri," he greeted casually, not at all put off by the fact that the brunette had caught him doing something out of the ordinary. "So are we on for tonight?"

He nodded slowly. "It took a lot to convince her, but she let me go."

"Good." A playful smirk crept across his lips. "I'm pleased about that."

Riley disappeared into one of the cubicles and locked the door.

"I wanna cheer you up," Ryan went on, as he finished wiping the thick mascara off his eyelashes, "and now I can take you to those places where I can do that."

"So we're going on a pub-crawl?"

"Sort of," he replied, "but classier."

The taller male felt a buzz of heat pulse through him after the blond had said he wanted to make him feel good. He knew he meant to cheer him up, but his thoughts turned to something else. Him and Ryan -- it sounded odd and he shouldn't assume that he felt anything towards him.

"I'll pick you up at seven tonight, then," Ryan suggested.

"B-but going on a pub-crawl," Riley suddenly stated, "would mean that we'd be...drinking, wouldn't it?"

He nodded, smirking slightly. "Don't worry," he reassured him amusedly, "I've got this all planned out."

****

Riley had no idea what to wear later on that night. What he had was mainly dark, and he knew full well that Ryan was the sort not to stray away from bright colours. They would make a right pair -- both dressed to clash.

It suddenly made him question why the blond liked dressing so vividly -- even at work the odd splash of colour showed up, and it didn't seem to bother him that as what they did was such a messy job the clothes would've gotten marked with oil. He stuck with black, as did everyone else -- but Ryan was not a conformist.

A pair of brightly set headlights flashed across the road outside, and he inwardly berated the other male for driving even if he was intending on drinking. Ensuring he was set to go, he left his place -- not expecting to see a shiny white limo had pulled up. The driver wasn't even Ryan, but he opened the back door for him to get in. He dimly thanked him, and got a massive shock when he noticed the short blond had made himself comfortable in the back of the limo.

"Told you I had this all planned out," he teased, taking hold of his wrist and pulling him further towards him. He was dressed in a long, sparkly green t-shirt paired with extremely tight black jeans. He wore a pair of long, almost thigh-high black boots and had caked on a fair bit of make-up, which made Riley wonder where he got that. He'd also applied some gel to his fine blond hair and had worked it through the ends to make them spiky. "I hope you're feeling up for it," the blond spoke darkly.

"Up for what?" The brunette frowned, inwardly hoping that Ryan wasn't planning on going to any places dressed like that.

"You'll see."