Honestly, Ryan should have learnt by now that any physical ‘punishment’ he was capable of carrying out and [i]willing [/i]to carry out in response to Brendon being a little shit/annoying bastard/fucking asshole/et cetera was- not really a punishment. Brendon, though not exactly a stereotype, was- submissive. Dismally so. To say the least. The things that always used to get to him when they were less fine tuned at not killing eachother were the verbal insults- things very rarely ever escalated beyond that, anyway, but Ryan knew just how to push his buttons and push him over the edge that way. Now, when they were on much better terms, and had a much more physical and intimate side to their relationship? Ryan’s ‘punishments’ for Brendon’s (admittedly childish) behaviour were never exactly- effective. [i]Well.[/i] That depending on what exactly Ryan wanted to achieve. If he wanted to turn Brendon on past the point of calming down, then he was golden- if he wanted to actually teach him a lesson about something, not so much. But Brendon wasn’t about to apologise. He’d like to invite Ryan to step into his shoes and get shoved against the side of a bus by a man, like, five inches taller than him, and see what his reaction was- remorse or an erection.

Anyway- it wasn’t a punishment, per say, but Brendon was clearly affected, stood at an angle with his back pressed still against the metal, his body sloping intentionally just so. Another person might’ve been embarrassed by how one kiss had him looking and acting like he’d just run a marathon, but Brendon had no dignity left. He was smirking blatantly, eyebrows slightly raised, eyes dark, watching Ryan intently as he shoved his hands into his pockets and rolled his eyes. Honestly, what did the man expect? [i]Clearly nothing is a good punishment for you.[/i] Brendon laughed, raised his eyebrows and tilted his head back as if he was genuinely thinking about it. [b]”Actually,”[/b] He began, levelling a clearly irate Ryan with his gaze, [b]”That was a real fuckin’ good punishment for me. Please punish me more often.”[/b] He was the devil, in person. Brendon was grinning, still breathing hard, obviously very confident in the belief that things were going and would continue to go his way this evening. From where he was standing, his genius plan had worked and the primary goal on his brain now was to get to either of their hotel rooms as fast as was possible without being suspicious or blatantly obvious to the others.

Of course, that was with the presumption that Ryan actually wanted to do that. From what he’d seen from the poor man over the last few weeks, he was feeling kind of antsy. Brendon couldn’t imagine him turning down the opportunity, because he was coming from a similar place- a fundamental flaw in his scheme was that by depriving Ryan, he was also depriving himself. Interestingly, he’d had some internal conflict over that- they weren’t official or together or exclusive, so Brendon could find someone else and have a clear conscience afterwards, but- he didn’t want to. Ryan was the only one on his mind. He’d written [i]Hurricane[/i] about Ryan, for fuck’s sake. He was just as obsessed as Ryan was- it just wasn’t as obvious and it showed up in different ways. Anyway, Ryan was blushing, Brendon was smirking, but then his ex bandmate threw him for a loop. [i]Are[/i] you [i]serious? You thought being an asshole to me would work to accomplish that.[/i] Perhaps. Just to drive his offer home, Brendon then casually allowed Ryan a looksee into his current fantasy and it was obvious it was somehow effective because Ryan’s jaw all but dropped.

And he was flushed- how cute. Brendon had folded his arms loosely across his chest and was stood there, proud and self-satisfied. He was just waiting for Ryan to accept his invitation. [i]For starters, you won’t be, so.[/i] A spell of confusion passed over his features but then he nodded as if in sly understanding, like they were on the same page. They weren’t. [b]”That’s okay, baby, I’ll do whatever you ask me to. I’m just, uh. In the mood- for that.”[/b] He wasn’t kidding. Brendon was about to pipe up and be annoying yet again when Ryan once again invaded his space (he was more than welcome to do so), hooking his fingers into Brendon’s belt loops and pulling him close, away from the side of the bus. [i]If you apologised, told me you wouldn’t do anything like that again, maybe I’d forgive you.[/i] Hm. Maybe Ryan really was delusional- apologising was a thing they only did for eachother on outstanding occasions, like Seattle or after Ryan kicked off about Ian or when they were being soft and vulnerable in the early hours of the morning. 

Naturally, Brendon was about to strike up a deal that benefited him perhaps a little more, but Ryan wasn’t done and Brendon shut up, staring with fascination at his mouth. [i]I’d fuck you[/i] sense[i]less if you did that for me.[/i] Oh. Oh, he was serious. It was Brendon’s turn to flush as he rapidly weighed this dilemma- if he apologised, he’d get dick, but his pride would suffer a hard blow. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t get any dick, but his dignity would remain intact. Fragile, but intact. Sullen, he glanced at his feet and cleared his throat. [i]”I, uh- fuck. Okay. Ryan, I.”[/i] Brendon bit down on the inside of his cheek, hard. [b]”I’m sorry. I won’t- I won’t do anything like that again. Promise.”[/b]