voxy ficlets

Ryan did not know what he had been expecting when the concierge at the college had told him the Lord Ramsey was occupied in the atrium, but it certainly was not to find him elbow-deep in a dead pig, performing an autopsy in front of an audience of his peers and students. The door fell shut behind Ryan with a decisive clang. All eyes in the room turned towards the noise, and he felt his ears go red. Fortunately, before he could blurt out any ill-considered excuses or make a speedy-yet-rude escape, Geoff turned his eyes on him, visibly lit up, and exclaimed, “Lord Haywood! How kind of you to join us!” waving about a piece of bloodied intestine clamped in a set of silver tweezers. Ryan’s throat closed. “Hello. Um.” “Have a seat,” Geoff said, winking, and Ryan sat down in the nearest bench without a thought. He could wait, he supposed. He had nowhere else to be and Geoff was hardly in a state to accept the book he had come to return. His hands bloodied nearly up to the elbow, obscuring the markings underneath, the edges of his sleeves stained where they were rolled up. With a small nod, Geoff picked up his explanation again, his hands working the medical instruments with competent grace. Ryan settled in to listen. “Do you have a keen interest in anatomy?”Geoff asked, after the demonstration was done and the atrium had emptied. Ryan watched him wash his tattooed hands and forearms in a basin, the water quickly turning a dull red. It took Ryan a moment to realize he was being spoken to, and that he was staring rather rudely. “N-Not keen enough to get my hands dirty,” Ryan replied, not feeling inclined to share that if he were to take an interest in body parts, he wouldn’t be studying dead animals. The flex of muscles in Geoff’s forearms was infinitely more fascinating. “Perhaps your interest is in art, then?” Geoff briskly dried his hands on a cloth and redid the cuffs on his shirtsleeves with only minor fiddling. Ryan let out a soft breath, feeling simultaneously relieved and disappointed. “Excuse me?” Ryan asked belatedly, when he realized he had missed Geoff’s question entirely. “There are not purely scientific advances. The artists have improved wonderfully, thanks to the study of anatomy. They finally know where all the little ligaments go, that the Greeks are so keen on. Your interest is there, perhaps?” Ryan frowned. “I do not think anyone would call me an aesthete.” “Perhaps not, but you appreciate beauty where you see it, do you not? The exact curve of a ship’s hull, a well-proportioned building? A sweetfaced young lady?” Geoff’s eyes sparkled with mirth, which clued Ryan in that he was being teased. Rather than incensed, he felt inclined to share Geoff’s smile. “Beauty like that is purely mathematical.” Geoff’s eyebrows raised, though his eyes didn’t lose their spark. “Even the young lady?” “It is a matter of symmetry and proportion. Pleasing features, I mean.” Ryan felt his face flush. “That is what I have read, at least.” “You read correctly,” Geoff said. He was leaning against the operation table, arms crossed, seemingly unconcerned about the bloody remains of the gutted pig on top of it that Ryan had mostly been trying very hard not to look at for the past half hour. “Though it is a very dispassionate view, compared to some.”       “Perhaps I have not met the right woman.” Geoff’s smile tilted mysteriously into one corner of his mouth. “Perhaps,” was all he said.

Lindsay was wrapped up under the bedcovers with her batteredold cat plushie, curled into the tightest little ball she could manage tryingto press out the pain somehow. Ryan was stroking her hair. Lindsay wasn’t surebut she thought his hand may have been shaking a little.“Fuck,” she cussed as another throb of pain travelled down her lower back, andthat’s how she knew her dad was really worried,‘cause he didn’t even tell her off for it, like, oh god, was she dying? She’d  thought she had a handle on this stuff, therehad been books and that informationalvideo in health class, and they’d had all the proper supplies stocked just incase for the past two years. She might not have had a mom around to reallyprepare her, but her dads hadn’t left her in the lurch: talks had been had,preparations had been made, they’d even offered to have one of their femalefriends come over to talk with her. Which was why it was so frustrating allthree of them were sort of freaking out right now. “I didn’t think it would hurt this much,” Ryan said, clearly distressed by thepain she was in.  “Tell me about it,” Lindsay said bitterly. “Geoff’s looking things up to make it better,” Ryan assured her helplessly.Gavin suddenly appeared in the doorway, wide-eyed and clinging to the doorposta little. “Is Lindsay going to die?”“Nobody’s going to die,” Ryan said. “Geoff!” he called to the other room.“How’s that Google search coming?!”“It’s coming, it’s coming!” There was a loud bang as Geoff presumably kickedthe desk. The computer beeped. Geoff crowed triumphantly. “Yes! Okay, okay, itsays hot waterbottle?! For cramps? Are these cramps, are we certain we are havingcramps?”“I think it’s fair to say we’re having cramps,” Lindsay deadpanned throughgritted teeth. Ryan sped up his frantic stroking of her hair. “It’ll be okay, honey,” he said.He felt so useless. His daughter wasin pain and he couldn’t tell if it was normal for it to be like this the firsttime, if she would get cramps like this every time. He’d never had a girlfriendhe had to help through this, and his sisters had always kept it amongstthemselves, behind their own bedroom doors. He’d done his fair share of readingup on what to expect, but books and statistics just weren’t the same aspersonal experience. They could hear Geoff banging around the kitchen, running through the hallwayto root through the closet, running back. Ryan just hoped he’d found what heneeded.After another minute Geoff burst through the door, holding a hot water bottlealoft like the baby Simba, a victorious grin on his face. “We are in business!I found this baby at the bottom of the closet.” He strode across the room,wrapping the bottle in a towel as he went.Thank God, Ryan thought. Ryan’s eyes fell on Gavin watching with a fascinated kind of horror as Geoffpressed the hot water bottle to Lindsay’s stomach and she briefly went laxbefore curling around it. She let out a long soft noise that Ryan really,really hoped was relief. Geoff sat down on the bed next to Ryan,taking one of his hands in his. He leaned close and whispered, “And I calledBarbs, she should be here in about ten minutes.”Ryan let out a deep breath, feeling some of the rigid tension in his shouldersunknot after what felt like hours. “Thank you,” he said softly. Geoff squeezedhis hand supportively, giving him a lazy wink, and Ryan loved him, loved theway Geoff could take things in stride and roll with them, loved how easy thingsseemed when left in Geoff’s hands. “You still freaking out?” Geoff asked quietly.Ryan ducked his head. “Yeah, a little bit.”Geoff smiled reassuringly. “Rescue is coming.” “Is that going to happen to me too?” Gavin asked, concerned. He shuffledcautiously into the room.Lindsay cracked one eye open to glare at him. “No, but you are going to spunk up your shorts.” “Lindsay!” “What?! It’s true,” Lindsay groaned, rolling on the bed. “Fuck, that’s so notfair. I bet spunking your shorts is more fun than this.”“Look on the bright side, you can have babies,” Ryan teased wryly, rubbing herback. “I had to go to a lot of trouble to get you.”Lindsay glared at him. “Please tell me you know pregnancy is hell.” Ryan suddenly realized what he’d said. “Yes, pregnancy is hell, and you definitelyshould not have any babies for, like, a long time. A really long time.”“Preferably decades,” Geoff threw in from the sidelines, grinning from ear toear.“I don’t know, nine months of not-this is sounding pretty good right now,”Lindsay said, dragging up a grin. She could see Geoff giving her an amused lookfrom the corner of the room.“No babies!” Ryan said, his voice shooting up hilariously at the end. Lindsay laughed. “It’s alright, I’ve already got one anyway.” She winked atGavin.“I’m not a baby!” Gavin erupted indignantly, jumping forward towards the bed. Lindsay grabbed his wrist, stroking it soothingly, and Gavin lost a little bitof his peaked look even if Lindsay didn’t drop the smirk. “You are to me, babybrother.”The doorbell rang. “That should be Barbs.”“I’ll go get the door!” Gavin yelled and took his chance to dash from the room.“Hey, girl,” Barbara said, striding into the bedroom carrying a box. Gavinfollowed after her, hovering on the step again. Barbara sat down on the bed onthe other side of Lindsay from Geoff and Ryan. “How are you holding up?”“Is it too late to change into a boy?” Lindsay asked, face buried in Ryan’sthigh. “I could be a boy, I can take Michael at judo.”“That bad, huh? Poor kitten.” Barbara patted Lindsays back. “Not to worry, I’mhere to show you the good part. I picked up some of the essentials on the way,”Barbara said, tipping the box to show what was inside. Just at first glance,Ryan spotted a giant box of bonbons, a pair of pink fluffy slippers, a tub ofice cream, a fleece-covered heating pad shaped like a penguin, and a stack of predominantlypink DVDs. None of that had been in the books.“Now,” Barbara said, “I think your dads and brother should go make some tea,and we’ll get set up.”Ryan opened his mouth to protest.“Tea will help.” Barbara put a hand on his shoulder. “And it will be easier totalk, just us girls, huh, Linds?”Lindsay was torn for a moment. She didn’t really want Ryan to stop stroking herhair – it was so lovingly nervous and daddish in a slightly annoying but reallysweet way, it reminded her of when she was little and would fall asleep in hislap for hours, feeling safe as could be – but she also had an idea of the kindof things Barbara wanted to talk about, and she really didn’t need an audienceof her two concerned dads and little baby brother as Barbs explained how to usea tampon, so. She lifted her head from Ryan’s thigh.“It’s alright, dad.” She exchanged another amused look with Geoff, who pulledRyan up by the wrist. “Come on,” Geoff said, pulling him from the room. He held out his hand to Gavin.“You too, Gavin, come on.”When Lindsay turned back to look at Barbara, her eyes were sparkling and shewas holding up the pink slippers with a grin. “So, are you ready to learn thesecrets of the universe?”  *****Barbara slipped out the bedroom an hour later, after Lindsay had fallen asleepin the middle of Legally Blonde. Ryanand Geoff were waiting in the hallway. “She alright?” Geoff asked. Barbara silently closed the door behind. “Fell asleep, poor thing. It’s notunusual, the pain makes you sleepy, after it passes,” she explained.“So, pink bunny slippers?” Geoff grinned. “That wasn’t in the literature.” “No, and I’ve got some more advice, for you guys.” She giggled as she could seeRyan basically snap to attention in the hallway, assuming a loose parade rest. Shehalf-expected him to take out a notebook and start scribbling. “Okay, first ofall: chocolate stash. There always needsto be a chocolate stash. Get some bars, put them in a box or a high shelfsomewhere, just for emergencies.”“Emergencies?”“You do not want to cross a woman on a chocolate hunt, Ryan, and you definitelydon’t want to be one when there isn’tany around. It leads to crying and broken furniture. Now, secondly, do you havea closed bin in the bathroom?” “No?” “Get one.”“Why?” “Just trust me on this, okay? Get a small bin with a lid, preferably a pedalbin, always put bags in.” “Okay, bin, bags, got it. Anything else?”“Yes,” a vicious twinkle appeared in Barbara’s eyes, and both men almost took astep back, “if you ever pull the PMScard on that girl, I will personally come to your house and stab you.” Ryan actually almost honest-to-god saluted her; she saw his arm go up to do it.“Yes, ma’m,” he said stiffly. Geoff snickered behind his hand.“And Ryan?”“Yes?”“You can calm down now,” Barbara chuckled.  

Ryan's couch was really comfy, Geoff thought idly. Ryan was stretched across his lap, knees on either side of Geoff's hips as he pressed Geoff into the couch. Geoff opened to it easy, letting his head tip back against the pillows and letting Ryan invade his mouth. Ryan kissed him languidly, holding his face and exploring his tongue and palate, taking his time. It was still early in the evening: they'd only sent the kids to bed an hour ago. A number of other inane thoughts floated up at the back of Geoff's mind - about the deplorable state of Ryan's jeans, and how the fuck was Mufasa's death still so sad after all these years - along with all the unprintable ones about what he'd like to do to Ryan if he could get him off this couch and out of those jeans. Geoff slid his hands up from Ryan's hips to under his shirt, stroking along the soft skin and delicious musculature. The kiss was just starting to get heavy when a small noise followed by the sound of skin slapping skin made them jump apart. Geoff turned to look over the back of the couch and felt his heart lurch into double time as he spotted the kids standing in the doorway. Lindsay had both hands covering Gavin's face, one across his mouth and one covering his eyes. Gavin was trying to squirm away, hissing, "Let me go, what is it-" in his squeaky four-year-old voice. Ryan was frozen on top of him, tensed like he was ready to run and Geoff worried for a moment before he felt Ryan make himself relax and he sat back on Geoff's thighs. They shared an embarrassed smile, both red in the face. "Hey kids," Geoff said tentatively. He'd never been in this situation before. Was it bad that the kids had caught them making out? Were they too young to understand what was going on? Everyone still had their clothes on, and the shock had done for his boner for sure; it couldn't be that bad, right? "Hey," Ryan said, scooting off Geoff's lap to knee onto the couch. He leaned over the back of the couch and held out his hands. "You guys should be in bed. What's wrong?" Lindsay had released Gavin - or he had squirmed away, Geoff had been too caught in his panic for a moment there to pay full attention - and they trundled over, eager but sleepy. They were both dragging along stuffed animals, Gavin his familiar stegosaurus and Lindsay the Nyan-cat plushie Geoff had gotten her for her birthday. She was a bit young to grok internet memes but the combination of a flying cat with a rainbow had been very well-received, which was why he'd gotten it. It didn't hurt that it meant Ryan had to deal with people doing the song at him wherever she went with it. The kids piled themselves into Ryan's arms and he lifted them up over the back of the couch, settling them against his chest. He had one jean-clad leg dangling off the couch, the other leaned against the back cushions, so that both Geoff and the kids were sort of settled between his legs. Geoff rubbed Gavin's small back, trying to soothe. “Hey, bud, what’s up?” “There’s a hyena under my bed.” “A hyena?” “Yes,” Gavin said, the corners of his mouth trembling a little. “Under my bed.” “And yours too, huh?” Ryan jostled Lindsay against his chest, making her giggle. Lindsay lifted her chin. “No. Gavin was scared of the stairs so I walked him down.” Geoff smiled. “U huh, and that’s why you’ve got your plushie with you, right?” Lindsay narrowed her eyes at him, looking like she wanted to inflict the tiny vengeance of God.   Geoff ruffled her hair. “It’s alright, kid, nothing to be ashamed of. One time, when I was little, I thought there was a tiger under my bed and when I looked down to check it pulled me out of bed.” Lindsay’s eyes widened. Gavin let out a little yelp. “There was a tiger under your bed?!” “No, it was my friend Jack,” Geoff laughed, “he pulled me down but we knocked heads and then we were both lying on the ground bleeding out our noses. I definitely screamed like a little girl though.” Geoff didn’t feel the need to mention that he hadn’t so much been little as in college, and that both he and Jack had been drunk off their asses. “Anyway, what’s got you both so hung up on hyenas, huh?” “It’s the neighbors’ dog,” Ryan sighed. “It’s got a really yelpy bark.” Now that Ryan mentioned it, Geoff could hear the occasional high-pitched wail coming from behind the house. “Huh.” “Well, hyenas aren’t scary, they’re pretty dumb and funny,” Geoff said, lying egregiously. Hyenas were actually pretty terrifying when you got down to it. They had jaws that could snap bone and Geoff did not even want to think about the mating thing he’d read on 9gag once. “Just think like in the Lion King, yeah?” Lindsay gave him an unimpressed look. “They ate Scar.” Geoff flushed, one hand scratching the back of his neck in embarassment. Ryan laughed. “She’s got you there, Geoff.” Ryan pet the top of Lindsay’s head, a satisfied smile appearing on her face. “Alright, fine, hyenas are scary, but there’s no hyenas here.” “You want us to check under the bed?” Ryan asked. “I will do you one better,” Geoff said. “It’s the neighbors’ dog, yeah? Let’s go say hi.” The kids looked at him dubiously. “Come on, whaddaya say? We’ll just sneak out and wave at the bugger from the yard, and then you’ll know it’s not hyenas for sure, just Fido with delusions of, like, being an opera singer or something. I’ll let you jump on my back, don’t even gotta put your shoes on.” Gavin, always up for an adventure with Geoff, almost leapt into his arms. “Oof! Hey, there,” Geoff said, cradling the little boy in his arms. “What about you, Linds? You wanna stay with Ryan?” Lindsay seemed to consider for a moment, weighing the comfort of being cuddled against her dad against the dog-waving mission. “No, I’ll come,” she said after a moment, and climbed down off the couch. Geoff offered his hand. “What about you?” Geoff asked, looking at Ryan. “You look like you’ve got this,” Ryan said, grinning. He turned to the kids. “Alright, you guys go outside with Geoff, and when you come back I’ll have some warm milk for you and then you’re going back to bed, okay?” “Okay,” the kids said in unison. They went around the house, Geoff with Gavin sitting on his shoulders and Lindsay, who had elected to put shoes on, on his hand. The neighbors’ yard was dark, what they could see of it. Geoff blinked into the darkness. “What’s this dog’s name?” “Mitchell.” “Alright.” Geoff cupped his hands and hissed through the fence, trying to be loud enough to catch the dog’s attention, but not so much as to attract anyone else’s. “Mitchell! Hey, who’s a good boy?” There was a rustle of leaves and then they could see a slender dog streaking towards them. It was a running dog of some kind, maybe a whippet or a greyhound. It bounced in front of the fence, yelping and barking excitedly. “Hey, buddy.” The dog nearly overturned itself in its excitement at having visitors and the kids laughed. “Here, see, not so scary now.” “No,” Gavin said softly, and Geoff smiled. They stayed with the dog for a little while, watching it wuffle and sniff at the fence and pull at the sticks they put through the wires.   “Let’s go see your dad about that warm milk, huh?” Geoff said eventually. Inside, Ryan was waiting for them with two steaming mugs, as promised. Lindsay went up to him, letting her father lift her onto the kitchen counter and press the mug into her hands with care. "Did you say goodnight to Mitchell?" Ryan asked, amusedly watching Geoff maneuver Gavin down from his neck onto his hip, where Gavin clung like a monkey. Geoff took the mug, absently checking the temperature with his finger before handing it to Gavin, his other arm securely around Gavin's back. They looked so at ease with each other it made Ryan feel warm. Lindsay was a little more reserved and would stick closer to Ryan when she could, but on balance seemed to adore Geoff almost as much as Gavin. She leaned against his arm on the counter, big eyes gleaming knowingly as she watched Ryan watch Geoff. "You were kissing on the couch," Lindsay said, softly enough that it was just for Ryan. Geoff and Gavin were too busy having a quickly escalating tickle-fight to hear anything over Gavin's happy crowing laughter. It struck Ryan that it was a question, though it hadn’t been framed as such. The kids had seen him and Geoff kiss around the house plenty of times: kisses on the cheeks, on the mouth, even with tongue a few times. They had been making out pretty heavily on the couch, though, and Lindsay seemed to be struggling to put the kiss into a category. "Yes, we were kissing," said Ryan. He turned more towards her, careful not to dislodge the supporting brace of his arm as he did so. "Does it bother you?" he asked gently. Lindsay considered this for a moment. "No." "Alright." "It looked different. Than normal." "Yes." "Sometimes you do more than kiss?" This time, it was definitely a question. "Yes," Ryan confirmed. Lindsay was still pretty young, but it didn't really surprise him that she'd started to catch on to some of the hints in movies. He'd been planning on having a talk about it pretty soon. "But not on the couch," he added with a smile. The corner of Lindsay's mouth pulled up, only half-comprehending, but pleased with the promise. She looked like she was mentally outlining a new box in her understanding of kissing, setting it on the line somewhere between a French kiss and the nebulous vagaries of "something more". Ryan realized Geoff had caught on, and was watching out of the corner of his eye as he talked at Gavin, cajoling him into drinking his milk and asking about his little league team. "I think," Ryan said, addressing the family at large, "it's time we have a little talk." Both Geoff and the kids got briefly alarmed looks on their faces, but they followed Ryan to the couch willingly, mugs in hand, and plopped down. They sat together in awkward silence for a moment. The kids wriggled nervously between them. "Is there anything you wanted to ask me or Geoff? About what you saw, or anything else?" Ryan had turned mostly to Lindsay, as Gavin was starting to droop sleepily against Geoff's chest, one hand curled in the thin fabric of his t-shirt, but surprisingly it was Gavin who answered. "Geoff?” Gavin turned his face up to look at him, his eyebrows pressed together in a small frown. “Do you love us?" Geoff smiled, which tipped up the corners of his mustache, his face going soft. "Yeah, buddy, I do." "Do you love our dad?" Lindsay asked. Geoff felt himself go a little breathless, though it wasn't the first time he'd said it. His eyes caught Ryan's over the kids between them. "Yeah, I do." Lindsay hummed thoughtfully and Geoff burst into a grin. Gavin squirmed in his arms, standing in his lap so he could face Geoff. "Are you going to stay?" Geoff hugged him, the tiny body in his arms making him feel an intense protective softness he'd never really felt before he met Ryan. "Yeah, I'll stay as long as you and your dad will have me." Ryan spoke from the other end of the couch, his voice cracking a little. "That could- that could be a while." Geoff flushed, feeling a little like a marshmellow that'd been left in the microwave too long, bubbling over with happiness and in danger of exploding. He carefully booped Gavin's nose. "See, you won't get rid of me." Gavin gave him a happy grin and threw his arms around Geoff's neck, hugging him with all the force his tiny body could muster. Geoff's eyes went a little watery. "Alright, any more questions?" Ryan asked. Lindsay had climbed into his lap too now, listing sleepily. She shook her head. Gavin did the same. "Well, in that case, I think it's time for bed." The kids didn't protest. It was after ten by now, way past their bedtime, and they were falling asleep on the couch. The hyenas had been forgotten. As they carried the kids up the stairs, Lindsay grabbed the front of Ryan's shirt. "Why doesn't Geoff live here?" Ryan stuttered to a halt. "I- Well. He could. If-" He cast a look towards Geoff, who had paused bumping Gavin's bedroom door open with his hip, eyes wide. "I'll have to talk to him about it." They met in the hallway after putting the kids to bed. Ryan looked like his brain was concentrating really hard on something; Geoff suspected it wasn't rocket science. He held out his hand, lacing his fingers with Ryan's. "Did your crazy kids just move me in?" Ryan went a delightful shade of red. "...I think so? You don't have to, they'll understand.” "What about you?" Geoff asked, ducking his head a little shyly. "I like having you around." "Yeah?" "Yeah, I do." Geoff swung their entwined hands between them, nodding his head decisively. "Alright, let's do it." "You don't have- Just because the kids-" Ryan sputtered, though he sounded reluctant to protest. Geoff pressed a smiling kiss to his lips. "I'm really not that attached to my apartment, Ryan. I'd like to live with you." "I-" Ryan seemed momentarily struck speechless before grabbing Geoff in a rough kiss. They stumbled back into the wall with the force of it to an audible bump. The noise made them jump, cautious of the kids sleeping in their rooms. "You make things- You just make things so easy," Ryan whispered against Geoff's lips, as if in wonder, "when you're around. I want to wake up with you and keep waking up with you. I love you." "I- You, too." Geoff kissed him urgently, Ryan’s jaw dropping open against the pressure easily. "I think we should take a page from the kids' book and go to bed." “I think,” Ryan’s mouth spread into a slow grin, “that’s an excellent idea.”

Later, lying in the bed Royston had not shared with anyone since the start of the year, Hal pressed a kiss to his chest and said, “Do you think we could make it happen? If we tried?” Royston didn’t have to ask what he was talking about. He stroked the back of Hal’s neck; the tips of the Hal’s shaggy hair tickled his knuckles. He revelled quietly in the weight of Hal on his body, the grounding pressure of Hal’s thigh thrown across his. “Maybe, in a few years,” he said cautiously. He could not see anything happening as long as Nico presided over the Academié Board, but he had sensed a growing unrest at the top the past few years. These things, perhaps, could change. “I think it would be important,” Hal said. “I think if I’d seen-” he paused, either to find the words or to control a strong emotion, Royston couldn’t quite tell. “It would have mattered a lot,” he said finally.   Royston stroked a thumb down the angle of Hal’s cheekbones, pushing the messy bangs back from Hal’s forehead with his other hand. “Let’s finish out your season first,” he said gently, leaning up for a kiss. It would not be easy. The Academy was about as conservative as they came. Hell, even Le Sacre was still considered provocative and it had been a hundred years since its debut. But Hal was right too, that it would be important, that it was. And he felt - for the first time - confident that it might be worth the inevitable scandal to try.

Ryan just kissed him again, soft and deep in a way that felt like hope. “We have time,” he said.