ryan had been staying at brendon's place for three days, but he had still not met brendon's parents. the couple were out of town for a few days, visiting a relative who brendon hated. but, they were coming back today, and ryan was nervous as all hell.

he had been standing in front of brendon's full body mirror for about ten minutes, being extremely nit picky about what he looked like. "what if they don't like me?" he worried out loud. brendon was sitting on the edge of his bed, the air mattress ryan had been sleeping on next to his bed. well, ryan and brendon had been sleeping in the same bed every night, but they put it there so brendon's parents wouldn't get any ideas.

"they're going to love you, babe," he told him reassuringly, adjusting the volume of the record player, which was blasting blue neighborhood. brendon got up off the bed and made his way over to ryan, slipping his arms around the small boy's waist. ryan leaned back against the taller boy's chest. "they should be home in a few, wanna make out before then?"

"fuck yeah."

-----

the uries came home about ten minutes later, and the two boys didn't live up to their promise of making out before they got there. they were versing each other in trivia crack (and ryan ended up kicking brendon's ass).

"honey! we're home!" brendon's mother shouted and brendon pulled ryan up and off the bed.

he placed his hands on ryan's shoulders. "are you ready?" brendon asked him gently. ryan nodded slightly, leaning into brendon's chest. brendon wrapped his arms around ryan's shoulders. "they're going to love you," he whispered into the smaller boy's ear, kissing the side of his face gently. 

"i'm nervous."

"you don't have to be, believe me, you could be the world's worst person-"

"which i already am."

"-shut up. you could be the world's worst person and they wouldn't give a shit because they just want me to find someone. plus, you're the best person on the planet so they'll love you," brendon told him, kissing his neck quickly. 

ryan sighed and went to the door after quietly muttering, "that's gay."

brendon laughed and held the door for his boyfriend, watching as ryan ducked under his arm and into another room of the one-story house. "mom, dad? are you home?"

"i'm in here, sweetheart!" brendon's mother called out from the kitchen, waving to them. she was sitting at the kitchen counter, reading a cookbook and setting up things for dinner. 

brendon placed his hand on ryan's shoulder, reassuring him that it was okay, and led him into the kitchen. they took seats at the table. "your father went food shopping, who's this? is this the boy you kept telling us about?"

ryan blushed and looked down at the floor and brendon looked down at ryan, smiling. "yeah, this is ryan. ryan, this is my mother."

"it's a pleasure to meet you mrs. urie," ryan said politely, shaking her hand. 

she smiled and retracted her hand, "it's nice to meet you too, ryan, but please, call me grace." 

"okay, well, um, it's nice to meet you grace," ryan stuttered out, clearly nervous. his hands were crossed on the table top, and brendon placed one of his on top of ryan's to try to calm him a little bit. he rubbed his finger across ryan's knuckles slightly.

grace, getting off of her stool, said, "you two can go back into brendon's room, i can call you out when dinner's ready." she smiled. 

"thanks mom!" brendon exclaimed, taking ryan's hand and leading him back into the bedroom.

-----

the next morning, the boys, who were cuddled in brendon's bed, were awoken at 4:37 am by numerous spam texts to both of them, and finally a call from ashley.

brendon unlatched his arms from around ryan and rolled over to get his phone. he tapped on the answer button. "ash, it's four-thirty, what the fuck do you want?"

"brendon, oh thank you you answered, you and ryan need to get down to the tracks right now. jack called an emergency meeting. something happened. get down here right fucking now."

then she hung up.