A Little

by velja

Pairing: Chyan

Rating: K or PG (something Disney would actually approve of)

Word Count: 405

Disclaimer: Neither HSM nor The Princess Bride belong to me. I just love them both.

Author's note: I was unable to write a summary for this. It's more than a drabble (word count wise) but it's less than a story. The best summary I could come up with would be: "Chad muses about Ryan's choice of words."

The idea for this came to me yesterday (in bed of course) after watching HSM2 in English for the first time. I thought a lot about Ryan's modest answer to Chad asking him before the baseball game if he got game ("A little" – hence the title of this). And a few days ago I'd been watching "The Princess Bride", one of my favorite movies, and that's why I started connecting those two I guess. This is what came out of it. Hope you enjoy.

It wasn't a secret that Ryan loved "The Princess Bride" though no one really knew why. Even Ryan couldn't tell the reason. All he knew was that ever since watching the movie for the first time he'd been fascinated by Wesley the farm boy and his beautiful Buttercup. And by their adventures of course.

It wasn't a secret to anybody. Even Chad Danforth knew about Ryan's enthrallment with that particular movie.

When the jock had listened to Ryan talk about it for the first time, shortly after they'd become friends in the weeks following their summer at Lava Springs, he'd made a little fun about Ryan's obsession. Hearing the Drama King quote the characters at the oddest of times had simply made Chad laugh, especially since Ryan couldn't even express properly why he was so fascinated by the movie in the first place.

But a few weeks further into their friendship Chad had stopped mocking his friend and instead had silently watched Ryan's eyes glow and cheeks go aflame with passion. And he'd found it suddenly cute.

He'd also found cute that Ryan seemed to have adopted one particular trait of his favorite character.

While Wesley the farm boy always answered to his beloved Buttercup with "As you wish" when he really meant "I love you", Ryan had taken over the habit of saying "A little" when he really meant "Hell, yes!"

One evening at Gabriella's, when the gang had all been hanging out together, Chad had asked if Ryan liked Mrs. Montez' Brownies. He'd gotten a mumbled "A little" from the blond boy and the words had translated themselves into "Hell, yes" by the amount of Brownie crumbles flying from Ryan's grinning mouth.

After that Chad had suddenly remembered the staff baseball game at Lava Springs.

"You got game?" Chad had asked then.

"A little," Ryan had shrugged indifferently.

Replaying the awesome game in his head Chad had found his theory proven just too true.

Whenever Ryan said "A little" you had to brace yourself for a hell of a lot more than just that. Whatever followed Ryan's casual statement usually turned out to be grand.

Chad had come to know that.

So when one day he finally worked up the courage and eventually cornered Ryan to ask him if he, maybe… you know… LIKED him that way, Chad wasn't disappointed by Ryan's:

"A little,"

Because the kiss that followed definitely meant:

"Hell, yes!"

I hope you liked it. Let me know, please.