FicWad

When Spencer and Jon fell through the door the next morning, more than a little hung over, the first thing they noticed was Brendon asleep on the couch. Spencer figured it was late enough that he should be up, and besides, he needed somewhere to sit down, so he crossed to the couch and shook Brendon's shoulder.

"Wake up, Brendon, you slob," he said, eying the wrappers strewn across the couch next to Brendon's head. Said boy groaned tiredly and swatted Spencer's hand away.

"Go 'way. I'm sleeping."

"Don't make me get Jon to wake you up," Spencer warned.

"You wouldn't." Brendon muttered, pulling a pillow over his head and tucking the corners in around his ears pointedly.

Spencer smirked. "Oh, I would."

Jon was notorious for his graceless wake-up calls. You could consider yourself lucky if you just got drenched with ice water, which Brendon knew all too well, so he grumpily pulled himself into a sitting position, yawning loudly and slumping against the arm of the couch.

Spencer flopped down next to him, glancing around and suddenly noticing something, or someone, was missing.

"Hey Bren, where's Ry?" he asked suddenly.

"Dunno... 'sleep, I think," came the muffled reply.

"Still? I thought you were the only one who could sleep until noon."

The only response was a grunt. Spencer sighed. Brendon was definitely not a morning person.

"So how did the interview go?" he asked, ignoring the fact that Brendon was attempting to go back to sleep. He heard soft snoring.

"Bren!" Spencer said loudly in his ear.

"Huh? What?" Brendon jumped up, staring around wildly.

"Interview."

"Oh."

"How'd it go?"

"Oh... you know, the usual. Are we all buddy-buddy with Pete and the guys, what kind of music is going to be on our new album... whether me and Ry are queer."

"Ah. Sounds pretty standard. And what did you say?"

"Same thing I always say, Spence. They just don't listen, or they don't believe me, or something."

"Well, you can't really blame 'em," Jon said from the kitchenette, where he was shoveling Captain Crunch into his mouth, "they might not ask so much if you were capable of keeping your hands off of Ryan for about 2 seconds."

"Hey! I can keep my hands off of him!" Brendon said indignantly, "I just... choose not to."

Jon snorted and went back to eating his cereal.

"In any case, we've got a show tonight, and we've got some last minute tweaking to do. I better wake Ry up," Spencer said after a minute, standing up and making his way to the bedroom through piles of notebooks and guitar hero equipment.

Five minutes later, he emerged followed by Ryan, who looked like a train wreck. He hadn't bothered to remove his eyeliner the night before, so it was streaked in lines down his face, and his messy hair stuck up at odd angles.

"Hey Ry, you okay? You look pretty pale, dude," Brendon said, looking over at the other boy.

"Yeah, m'fine," he responded unconvincingly, eyes lingering over Brendon a heartbeat longer than necessary. Brendon felt a strange thrill through his body under Ryan's unexpected scrutiny and turned away quickly.

Jon and Spencer exchanged glances, feeling the atmosphere in the room thicken uncomfortably. That is, until Spencer's second trip past the Guitar Hero box, when he tripped over it and landed unceremoniously in a pile at Brendon's feet.

"Dude," he said, nose wrinkled, "when was the last time you took a shower?"

Chaos ensued.

*