Title: Stones to Throw

Author: Heath07

Rating: R- slash, language, sexual situations (subsequent chapters)

Summary: Ryan/Seth (eventually) Wherein Seth has feelings and decides to do something about them. Things don't go as smoothly as they should.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything...

Notes: There will be four parts to this fic and it is Seth/Ryan.

Stones to Throw - Chapter 1/4

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Seth hadn't been sure of his gayness until his dad brought home a stray kid from Chino that was mind-bogglingly hot. Though he tried to fight every natural instinct, Ryan just made it impossible for him to deny his feelings any longer.

So he had owned up to his feeling - to himself at least. He was going to tell Ryan, really, he was. Only Ryan was straight and the last thing Seth needed was to lose the only friend he had over a crush. The friendship was more important to Seth than his raging teenage hormones -and they were raging. Every time he saw Ryan in one of those blessedly small white tanks tops, impure thoughts sprang to his mind and he had to leave the room. The bathroom had become his oasis. Even so, there was only so much torture one boy could take...

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Seth was in Playstation nirvana when the doorbell rang. Choosing to ignore it the first two times, he grumbled and paused his game on the third buzz. Outside the door, he could see the outline of someone leaning against the doorframe, a kind of cool, rebel pose. It reminded him of Ryan. He sighed, fondly.

Seth opened the door and the stranger turned to greet him. Seth cleared his throat. Six feet, one inch of wholesome male stared back at him. "Hello?"

He met the stranger's eyes, deep green eyes with tiny blue flecks when the light hit them at a certain angle. If Seth hadn't been sure before, he now knew, one hundred and fifty percent, he was gay.

The man looked fresh out of University with still a glimmer of boyish immaturity set in his jaw. His smile was warm. "Hey! You must be Seth."

Seth concentrated on his mouth. He had red lips-almost artificially so, like he'd just put on a thin sheen of lipstick and very full. His teeth were perfectly straight and the clean white of childhood. The guy's cheeks were high and as if they'd been crafted out of marble. The same could be said for his chin, too. Seth shook his head realizing the guy was still talking and hoping like hell he hadn't noticed he had been checking him out.

"Uh, what?"

He chuckled and it was a heady, echoing sound. "I said: your dad talks about you all the time. He even has this one picture of you in the bathtub."

Seth squinted from the sun coming into his line of vision in the foyer. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

The guy shifted a folder, Seth had been too busy to notice, to his left hand and offered his right hand to Seth. "Oh, yeah, sorry. I work with your dad-I'm a file clerk at his law office-name's Nathan Avery Mulroney, but most people just call me Nate." He shrugged and a little cherub smile filtered onto his face. He was a little tease. Yeah, Seth was in trouble, big time.

Seth took Nate's hand and shook it, dismayed by the tingling feeling that came over him. He chalked it up to numbness from too much video games or masturbation, because obviously he wouldn't be lucky enough to get another gay male, with James Dean-ish qualities, dropped on his doorstep just for him to date. He'd just have to play it cool.

It seemed that his gaydar had yet to kick in. Although he was hoping it would soon, because he was so sick of making Ryan watch The Fast and the Furious and trying to gauge whether he got off on the homoerotic subtleties...well, actually it wasn't all that subtle. Macho guys and fast cars...or was that fast guys and macho cars? He wondered if someone had written Homosexuality for Dummies, if not, someone needed to, soon.

"Okay, Nate," he said, smiling, "now, what's this about a picture of me in the bathtub? It's not the naked one, is it? 'Cause I thought I burned all of those."

Nate's face contorted into a sly half-smile. "Technically? Yeah, I'd say you're pretty naked, but it's the cutest thing, you can't be more than three and you're holding this little sailboat in front of you."

Seth could feel his face flushing. "He's a dead man."

Nate touched his arm, a move that surprised Seth and he jumped back a little. And ding, ding, ding! Gaydar is on and in perfect working order.

"Relax, your dad's pretty cool."

Seth looked at him incredulously. "My dad? Average height, medium build, eyebrows that look like hairy caterpillars? That guy?"

Nate chuckled. "Yeah, that's the one. He talks about you and Ryan all the time, you know? He's really proud of you."

Seth scratched behind his ear and turned nervous eyes to Nathan. For some reason he needed to hear that. As much as he gave his father a hard time, he wanted to make him proud, he just hadn't realized it until being confronted with the truth."He is?"

Before Nate could answer Sandy came in, rubbing his hands on a towel and then clapped Nate on the back. "Nate!"

Nate smiled shyly. "Hey Mr. Cohen, I just stopped by on my way home to drop off the Desovich file. You left it on your desk." He handed over the file and placed his hands in his dress pants. Seth noticed and scanned up and down Nate's body. It was a nice body, outfitted with a tailor made suit and a silk tie. Seth had never been into the conservative look, but Nate really pulled it off with style. Then again, Nate oozed confidence and could probably pull off any look, Seth surmised. He wondered how he would look in a wife-beater... Huh.

Sandy's grin grew. "That was nice of you. Thank you. I see you've met Seth."

Seth could feel Nate's eyes on him as they washed over his skin as if he'd touched him."Yeah, we were just getting acquainted."

Seth snapped to attention and turned his eyes on his father. "Yeah dad, and he told me about the little picture you have in your office."

Sandy knocked Nate's shoulder and laughed. "You sold me out!"

Nate took his hands out of his pockets and turned them, palm side up, out. "Sorry."

Seth peered at Sandy through half-closed, sceptical eyes. "How the heck did you get it? I was sure I burned them all."

"Negatives, son." Sandy winked.

"Ahh, I see. Duped by my own father. You do realize I'm going to have to tell a bunch of embarrassing stories about you as payback." Seth's eyes were no longer on his dad, they were holding onto Nate's and not letting go. If Sandy noticed, he didn't say anything.

"Sounds fair, but I'm keeping the picture up," he said, pointedly.

Seth waved his hand in the air, a grand gesture, even bigger than normal. "No, no no."

Sandy snapped his fingers and smiled. "A deal's a deal. Hey, Nate, why don't you stay for dinner?"

Nate shifted from foot to foot. "Uh, I dunno. Are you sure there'll be enough?"

Seth, in a move that surprised himself, put his arm around the other boy/man and started to lead him into the house. "Yeah, we were just about to order it. Trust me, you picked a good night to stop by. If you'd been here last night you would have had to listen to my mom try to pass off her burned casserole as Cajun."

Nate laughed. "Okay."

"Seth, why don't you go take Nate to meet Ryan and I'll go tell your mother?"

"Sure, pops," Seth said, letting his arm drop from Nate's shoulders and skimming his fingers against his pant leg by accident.

Nate followed Seth through the kitchen and out toward the pool house. Seth had his hand poised to knock. He turned to Nate in explanation, "Sometimes Ryan likes to study naked."

Nate's eyebrows lifted and Seth swore he saw him lick his lips. Yep, gaydar was a good thing. Too bad Ryan was still playing for the wrong team.

"It's a Chino thing," Seth went on, then checked to make sure they were alone. His voice dropped to a virtual whisper. "Well, not really. See, it's like a code for my parents. If I say Ryan's studying naked, it really means he's got a girl in there with him."

"Oh, too bad," Nate said, casually.

"Too bad?" Seth asked.

"That he likes girls," Nate clarified.

"Dude, tell me about it." Seth banged his palm against his forehead, opening one eye to look at Nate. "Pretend you didn't hear that?"

He smiled, and shrugged. "No problem."

Seth took a deep breath and felt the sweat dripping down his back. Apart from Nate making him into a bumbling idiot, it was also hot outside and the combination of the two weren't working well for him. "It's not that I don't like girls, because I do, it's just..."

"You like guys, too," Nate finished.

Seth turned shy eyes to him. "Well, yeah."

"And you like Ryan." It was a statement, not a question.

"Dude, am I that obvious?"

"Just a hunch." Nate smiled, white teeth gleaming in the sun. There was a Gap ad just waiting for Nate somewhere, Seth was sure of it.

"Oh. So you're not like clairvoyant or anything? 'Cause I would really like to find out if Ryan will ever see me as anything but his friend, or worse as a brother. Do you think that makes me sick? Because that sounded awfully disturbing saying it out loud just now. I feel like I need to be on Jerry Springer all of a sudden."

"Hey," he said. Nate's warm hands came down on Seth's shoulders. Seth snapped his head up and caught Nate's eye. "You can't help who you fall in love with. It's not like he's your real brother -now that would make you one sick puppy," he joked, "and I doubt you've ever thought of him that way anyway, so give yourself a break, huh?"

Seth nodded in agreement, mesmerized by the warmth of Nate's skin and eyes.

"Just... my parents don't know and neither does Ryan and I'm so sick of pretending."

"I know the feeling."

"Does my dad know?"

"What, that I'm gay?"

Seth nodded.

"I guess, it's not like I'm hiding anything. I talk about my boyfriend all the time, so I don't see how he couldn't know."

"Great, you have a boyfriend. There goes my plan to seduce you. Oh and I wasn't even going to be subtle about it. There were going to be flowers and candy, the whole works. Wait, do gay guys even give each other flowers and candy? Anyway, your loss, dude."

"Seth, it wouldn't take much to be seduced by you," Nate responded.

Seth felt his face heat up and he was sure his skin was the colour of one of those leftover lobsters Ryan was always bringing him after working at the Crab Shack.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well, yeah, no...that's cool. That's nice of you to say, 'cause, as you can tell, I'm really bad at this."

"No, you're not. You're adorable."

Seth's mouth hung open. He was about to respond when the door to the pool house whooshed open and Ryan came barrelling out. Seth could feel his palms going sweaty, hoping against all hope Ryan hadn't heard their conversation.

Ryan looked between the pair in confusion.

Seth cleared his throat and stepped forward. "Hey, Ryan, this is, ah, Nate. He works with my dad and he's staying for dinner."

Ryan offered his hand. "Hey man, how's it going?"

"Not bad," Nate said, shaking Ryan's hand. He winked at Seth when Ryan turned. Seth looked on in confusion, trying to figure out the gesture.

"Have you seen my notes for English?" Ryan asked Seth.

Seth rubbed his neck and turned guilty eyes toward Ryan. "Oh, yeah about those..."

Ryan's eyes narrowed. "What did you do?"

Seth squirmed under Ryan's scrutiny. "I sort of borrowed them."

"Borrowed them?"

Seth put his hands out in front of him to stop Ryan's other questions that were sure to follow.

"Yeah, but don't worry they're upstairs drying and you can't even tell they fell into the pool, or that I got jam on them or that..."

"Seth!"

Seth took a step back, pushing his hands out in front of him. "Okay, so maybe a few of the words rubbed off, but don't worry I totally filled it in with what I thought you were going for. Except for the back of the second page, I kinda doodled a sketch of Wolverine piercing through all this food instead of using a fork. Yeah, it was really cool, too. On one of his metal claws there's an olive and the other is, like, a strawberry or something...I can't really remember...and there's this little speech bubble that says: 'It's called fondue, bub!'... Oh oh and then I drew one of Rogue touching..." Seth's tongue stumbled to a stop. "Uh, never mind... I can see you're not finding this amusing."

Seth could see Ryan's jaw clench.

"What I was going for? Doodles? Seth, why didn't you just ask before you took them? I would have made you copies, instead they're ruined and I'll have to get the notes from Marissa."

Seth rolled his eyes. "Oh, like that's some big sacrifice on your part."

Ryan crossed his arms and a muscle in his jaw ticked -never a good sign. "What? What's that supposed to mean?"

Seth took a defensive stance. "I'm just saying, maybe you should be thanking me, I just gave you another excuse to hang out with Marissa, while I rot away with boredom, all by myself."

"What's your problem?"

"Boys, Nate, food's here," Kirsten called from the patio doors, oblivious to the rising tension in the backyard.

Ryan grumbled and slipped past them.

"That went well," Nate said.

Seth moved his hand to the back of his neck and roughly scrubbed. "I don't know why I do and say things like that. It's like I can't help myself. I know all the tests said I didn't have ADD and OCD, but I think they switched my file. I should be medicated, with, like, a lot of heavy drugs that will prevent me from making a fool of myself every time I breathe."

"You are so cute when you babble like that."

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Yeah, I did. I just thought maybe I was dreaming or instead of cute, you said something like pathetic loser -because then I would totally belief you."

Nate shook his head. "You're not a loser and you're not pathetic."

"Well, thanks. For that. I guess."

"And you know what else?"

"What?"

"Ryan? Not so straight...he just doesn't know it yet."

"No way. Believe me, I've hinted. I've suggested. I've let him catch me watching Queer as Folk -by the way, Brian? Complete hottie. I've all but stuck a sign on my chest that says 'I'm here. I'm queer. Do something sexual to me.'"

Nate doubled over with laughter. "Starting a gay revolution in your living room isn't exactly the way to get the guy out of his shell."

"Think I should try liquor?"

Nate shook his head no.

"Then what do you suggest, oh wise, nineteen-year old?" Seth asked, hinting at how old Nate was with all the subtly of a tomcat in heat.

"First of all, I'm twenty."

"Ah, an older man. How close are you and that boyfriend? You know what they say: once you go Jewish, uh...you never get flu-ish... You know, 'cause we know how to make chicken noodle soup and therefore keep you healthy all the time or something..." Seth looked up sheepishly. "Yeah, that didn't work so well for me there. Just put that one on the 'forget I said that' list, okay?"

"Sure," Nate said, once he'd recovered from laughing. "Anyway, if you want real advice, just start at the truth, you can't go wrong there."

Seth scrunched up his nose. "That sounds difficult."

"It will be, but at least you won't have to walk around on eggshells anymore. Why do you think he's so pissed at you for ruining his papers? I bet he doesn't even give a shit about those, he only got really mad when you brought up that girl."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying, he's just as frustrated as you are, only he has more to lose."

"What does he have to lose?"

"Everything. You. Your parents. A home. You see where I'm going?"

"The picture has gone from black-and-white to colour, but could you turn the volume up a little? I still seem to be missing something."

"Your parents are always going to be your parents and they're always going to love you because you're their son, Ryan's not. You and I both know Sandy wouldn't kick him out, but I bet he doesn't know that. You think you're going through something, think about him and what he must be going through. I've been where you're both at and it's not a pretty place, but I promise you it gets better."

Seth shrugged, not all that inclined to believe that the situation was going to get better. Worse, he believed. Better? Not so much.

"Come on, let's go eat before it's all gone."

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To be continued....