Issue 1 Downtime

Ryan set down the stack of papers next to him as he leaned back against a tree, looking around until he found a rock big enough to weigh them down as he got his notebook set up. Lesson plans were his least favorite thing these days, but they had to get done. And coming outside beat the hell out of squeezing into one of their tiny offices. He looked around for Steph before he shrugged and got started while waited for her.

"Hey there, handsome," Steph grinned, setting her backpack down and taking a seat next to Ryan.

Ryan chuckled a little, looking up at her. "Well, someone's in a great mood for being stuck doing lesson plans for bratty kids," he joked. He shifted his bags around to make room for her. He frowned for a second, like something was nagging at him, but quickly shook it off.

"I'm not stuck in that broom closet, and I'm trying to focus on the positives lately...so no sense being upset about a little planning for our favorite shitheads," she smirked.

That did make Ryan cock his eyebrow as he smirked. "I thought that was my line. Is it my turn to be the responsible one defending their character? I don't want to go shirking it or anything," he teased.

"Only if you promise to cry like a little bitch in your office, then I buy you Chinese and cheer *you* up,"

"Can I skip the crying in favor of aggrivated moping? Crying wasn't really my thing," he joked. "And do I need to start getting pissy over swearing? Or are we just letting that go for now?"

"I'll allow it," she grinned toothily. "And yes. One of us has to be proper, and I'm tired of it. Now I'll just have to seduce that gorgeous French girl and our roles will be truly switched,"

"That'd make one of us," Ryan said dryly. "She's gotten... weird since our last date. I've seen the signs before." He opened another notebook. "So we're still ruling out a surprise Sentinel simulation, right?"

Steph conveniently ignored that question and focused on what was actually interesting her. Ryan would notice a certain feral gleam in eyes, which had been yellow for most of the times they'd seen each other lately, come to think of it. "Oh? Things not working out?" she frowned sympathetically.

"Yeah. Karma's a bitch, right?" Ryan said, smirking. "I've done my share of fucking over, now it's my turn to get fucked over. You can gloat if you want."

"...I'd rather not. I'd rather do something else entirely, actually..." she said moving suddenly with impressive speed to straddle Ryan's legs, grab his shirt with both hands, and pull him in for a long, hard kiss.

Did Ryan see it coming? Possibly. He at least had an inkling. Did he do anything to stop it? Stop the girl that he always harbored a thing for from coming at him in the rare moment when they were both relatively strings-free? Hell no. He kissed her back just as hard, thought briefly banished from his mind. There was one thing, though, that finally pushed through into his head. He knew Steph, after all, and what might pass by one person wouldn't escape his notice. So he finally met her eyes when the kiss broke. "What's going on?" he asked quietly, his gaze fixed on those yellow eyes. He was growing increasingly suspicious that Steph wasn't exactly calling the shots in favor of Her.

"Just doing something that we needed to do years ago..." she said breathlessly.

Part of him wanted to let it stay at that. That was exactly what he wanted to do, exactly what he'd wanted for... well, quite a while now. He knew how he felt about her, it was a bit of an elephant in the room for both of them for quite a while now. But that didn't mean he didn't have a conscience. Or maybe he didn't just want to rush and screw things up again. Either way, he couldn't just ignore what he knew about her, or ignore that weird feeling that something was just wrong. "And what about when she goes back to sleep?" he asked, hating every word. Just kiss her, you idiot. It's what you always want to do...

"I've stopped trying to make her go to sleep...we're a part of each other and trying to fight a part of yourself is just foolish. We know what we're doing..."

do we?

Ryan wavered for a moment. Something still felt off to him, nagging at him. But maybe it was just paranoia? Something always went wrong... either she was seeing someone or he was, either he put things off or she did. When was the last time they were both here, no strings tying them down, both ready to face what was glaringly obvious? A damned long time ago

He was only human. She was one of the few people he trusted absolutely, and if he had to be honest about how he felt... He snapped out of his train of thought and grabbed her behind her head, taking the initiative this time to pull her in for a hard kiss.

Steph offered no resistance and returned the kiss eagerly, the lesson planning (and surroundings, with possible observers) completely forgotten.

"Maybe we should have done the plans in the office," Ryan joked, somewhat breathlessly. "Wouldn't be the first time the furniture was broken..."

"Easier for people to hear things there," she growled seductively. "Not many prying eyes or ears in the woods though..."

"Well, I do remember how... Interesting you can make being in the forest," Ryan added, a wicked grin crossing his face as he decided 'the hell with it.'

"Why don't we find out just how interesting things get," she whispered breathily into his ear.

"You know that I love the way you think, right?" Ryan whispered back. He kissed her, hard, starting to push her back, reflecting for a bit on the fact that it was nice to have some time in the forest where nothing was trying to eat him for a change.

Steph allowed herself to be pushed backwards slightly, rising up smoothly, and offering her hand to Ryan to help him stand up. "So...what's a girl got to do around here to get swept off her feet and flown into the woods?"

Ryan smirked wickedly, pulling her up against him with his arm around her waist. "Now this takes me back," he said, wings forming on his back. Now if I can just not screw up this time.... With a surge of his wings he took them into the air. He could have just flown without the wings, but using them was... More nostalgic.

"You haven't lost your touch," she grinned, gazing at the grounds from high up in the air.

"Some things you never forget," he said, sparing his gaze from his path to meet her eyes for a moment. Oh for god's sake, have some self control, Ryan... Your flirting isn't usually this cheesy.

Steph clung tightly to him. She knew he'd never drop her, and honestly a fall wouldn't kill her, or even injure her for that long, but it was still a bit scary.

Ryan couldn't help smiling as they came up on the forest. "You never did get used to this, did you," he teased. "We'll have to finally fix that." As he came in toward the forest, his wings dissipated into motes of light, and he glided, a bit more upright, under his own power until he came to a rest on a thick tree branch. "Hm... we could stop up here," he teased, the nostalgia even stronger now. "But I remember you not liking me being in the trees very much..."

"I'm never ever going to live that down, am I?" she smirked.

Ryan grinned. "Well come on. Who doesn't like love bites?" It was a good story, after all.

"Now you're just asking for it," she grinned.

What if we made him like us.... a small voice at the back of her mind asked.

"That's the idea," he agreed, then he quickly pushed her back against the trunk of the tree and kissed her. His balance up here was much better than hers, but he liked keeping her a little off balance. Things had always been more... 'interesting' when they each had to fight back a little (plus, he knew he could keep her from falling in a pinch).

Steph didn't resist the kiss, but did cling to him a bit harder as she was pushed back. She broke off the kiss after a moment only to lean her forehead against his while she ripped his shirt open and then kissed his neck and shoulder breathily. She playfully bit into his shoulder, which under normal circumstances wouldn't do anything...but her canines were much better described as fangs at the moment.

This made Ryan jump a little. Biting? That was nothing new to him. Biting with sharp teeth? He did his best to not think about things like, well, vampires trying to eat him, or werewolf maulings in the woods. "Hey, now, what's the big idea," he said, trying to chuckle a little. What was getting into her? "I thought you liked me in one piece," he teased, not quite being as rough with her clothes as he started pushing her shirt out of the way.

"Sorry," she grinned, "been a while...just excited..."

FTB?

FTB

Ryan leaned his head back against the trunk of the tree, holding onto Steph so that neither of them would fall off... though he wasn't trying to think about where any discarded clothes had ended up. He'd take care of that soon enough. "You know... way my luck has been going lately? If we had any invisible students I'd be positive that we were on the school network already." As it was? He couldn't see any other shoe that was ready to drop, thankfully.

Steph chuckled, "I'm glad we don't. Rumors are one thing, video evidence is another thing entirely."

"Then the jealous assassination attempts start happening a few days later. Yeah, quiet is better," he decided, nodding seriously. This is a dream. You don't get second chances when you fuck up like I've fucked up.