Chapter Text
Ronan would never admit it to anyone but he actually liked living in the city. He’d followed Gansey here back when he was 19 and made sure everyone within earshot knew how much he fucking hated being forced to leave his family farm. He’d grumbled about the traffic and the light pollution and all the goddamned people. But here he was, five years later, and while he still missed being able to drive fast whenever he wanted, and ached to see the stars at night, some of the people had grown on him. Some of the city, too.
He liked that when he was feeling electric and couldn’t sleep that there was an energy to the urban landscape that matched his own. Even in the darkest hours of the night he could walk or drive and find whatever he needed to soothe his nerves. In the early days that tended to be a bar or a fight or both. These days it could be just the noise of the city, the sirens and garbage trucks and wild, young people spilling out of clubs. Or he could go watch planes take off and land at the airport, or ships get loaded in the harbor. Sometimes it was just walking over the wide, black, silent expanse of the river.
And he liked his work. He’d started off as a bouncer at a small bar/music venue thanks to his well-used fake ID. He’d worked his way up for a couple years, getting close with the owner, his coworkers, some of the bands they booked. And when the owner decided to retire, Ronan used some of the money from his trust fund and bought the place off of her. He hadn’t regretted it a single day since.
He’d also eventually bought a little rundown house close to the campus where Gansey was attending college and not far from the bar. He’d slowly started fixing up the place, adopted a stray cat he named Chainsaw, and even got friendly with some of his neighbors.
That isn’t to say he got along with everyone. He was still Ronan Niall Lynch, quick to judge, slow to forgive. Of course he had an ongoing pissing match with anyone who crossed him even once. The biggest feud was with his next-door neighbor, Barrington Whelk. Even the name made Ronan want to gag. He wasn’t much older than Ronan but he worked at the college and had a stick up his ass as big as a redwood tree. He complained about Ronan’s music, his dandelions, and the fact that Chainsaw shat under his boxwoods. Ronan had pointed out that cats bury their shit but Whelk still yelled at the cat every time he saw her in his yard. Of course that didn’t deter her in the slightest because she was the best fucking cat on the planet.
So, he wasn’t too upset when he woke to the police banging on Whelk’s door one August day, even if it was ass o’clock in the morning. He’d taken his coffee out to the front porch and watched as they read Whelk his rights and handcuffed him. He’d even raised his cup cheerily to him as they ushered him into the back of a squad car. Ronan had gone over to talk with one of the officers that stayed behind, curious more than worried about the charges. He’d guessed it was insider trading or some other douchey, boring crime and was shocked to find he’d been arrested for the murder of his roommate seven years before. He couldn’t help but feel that he and Chainsaw may have dodged a bullet there.
With Whelk no longer around to piss off with his poor yard care, Ronan decided to go ahead and mow his lawn before the heat of the day set in. So he had a front row view when someone new approached Whelk’s front door. It was a college-aged kid but he certainly wasn’t dressed like the privileged fuckers that attended the nearby campus. His clothes were well worn, bordering on ratty, and he looked really, really tired. And beautiful. A weird mix of delicate and determined, downtrodden but elegant.
He stood in front of Whelk’s door and stared at the police tape across it for an awkwardly long time, as if he couldn’t process what he was seeing. Ronan had finished mowing and was using the time it took to wrap up the cord to watch him. When he was done and the kid still hadn’t moved Ronan finally spoke up.
“You looking for Whelk?”
“Yeah..uh… I was supposed to meet him here today. He was gonna help me out.” There was a slight drawl in his voice.
“Well he won’t be helping out anyone anytime soon. He was arrested this morning.”
“Arrested?”
“Murder, apparently.”
The kid just looked at the door again and Ronan wondered if he was okay in the head. When he turned back to Ronan there was a vacancy behind his eyes and when he took a step he faltered and nearly fell, catching himself on the wall.
“Hey. Why don’t you come into my place to sit down for a minute? It’s hot as hell out here.”
The kid nodded but didn’t move until Ronan gestured with his arm for him to follow.
It was thankfully cooler inside and Ronan poured them both some ice water. “I’m Ronan by the way.”
“Adam Parrish,” he replied in a monotone as he slumped down at the breakfast table and gulped down the water greedily. Ronan refilled his cup and set some leftover pizza in front of him. He watched Adam devour it all from where he leaned against the kitchen counter, giving him space.
It took a good ten minutes for Adam to come back to himself. He slowly sat up taller, blinked his eyes a few times and finally seemed to notice the empty plate and glass in front of him. When he looked up he seemed surprised to see Ronan there.
“Thank you for… that.” The drawl was gone and there was a calculating sharpness in his eyes now. “I guess the news just caught me by surprise.”
“Did you know Whelk well?”
“No. Not really. He was my academic advisor and I just met him once this summer during freshman orientation.”
“And he invited you to his house?”
“I ran into some trouble recently. He offered to give me a place to stay and to help me out with some financial issues.”
“Whelk offered that? Out of the goodness of his heart?” Ronan couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his voice. This didn’t sound anything like his self-centered, uptight neighbor.
Adam looked away but not before Ronan saw him scowl and blush. “There were some stipulations involved.”
Ronan shook his head, not wanting to dwell too long on what those stipulations might be. “Looks like you dodged a bullet there.”
“Not really.”
Ronan scoffed. “He’s a murderer.”
“I don’t exactly have a lot of options,” Adam argued.
“Jesus Christ, are you serious?”
Adam’s face went stony cold. “I don’t need your judgement here. You don’t know me. You don’t know anything about my circumstances.”
“So tell me.”
“Yeah, I’ll pass. I appreciate the water and food but I’m going to go.” He stood and Ronan was relieved to see he was steadier on his feet. He wasn’t about to let him head back out into the sun without more of his story though.
“Just sit down and cool your fucking heels. Tell me about your situation and maybe I can help you figure a way out of this without Whelk.”
“And you won’t judge me?”
Ronan rolled his eyes. “Of course I will. I’m a judgmental asshole. But if it makes you feel any better I judge everyone and no one’s been permanently harmed by it. If I can’t help you figure this out you can leave and never see me again and know that you are just one more person in this town that thinks I’m a dick. There’s plenty of you out there already.”
Adam shook his head but there was the faintest glimmer of a smile. “Okay. I guess.”
“Hold on. I need a beer for this.”
“It’s barely noon.”
“Who’s the judgmental asshole now?”
Ronan joined him at the table and listened as Adam spilled his story. It had apparently started two days prior when Adam’s father found the stash of money he’d been squirreling away for the last few years by working three jobs. He’d been accepted into the college with a scholarship that covered his full tuition, but he’d needed his own money to pay for the dorms and a meal plan and books and a laptop and all the rest of the expenses of college life. His dad had taken the money and kicked Adam out. Classes started in a week and there was no way for Adam to make up that money in that timeframe. Whelk had given Adam his card at orientation along with the offer to help him out if he ever needed anything. When Adam had called him, desperate, Whelk had made him an offer. Adam had accepted, and spent the next 10 hours on a greyhound bus only to arrive on Whelk’s doorstep with pretty much just the clothes on his back.
“So he was going to pay for room and board and the rest of that shit?” Ronan summarized.
“Yep.”
“And what were his stipulations?”
Adam dropped his eyes and tilted his chin to the side. “I spend the week with him here…. ‘getting acquainted’ until the dorms open. Then I make myself available to him one night a week for the rest of the school year.”
“So he was going to be your sugar daddy.”
Adam rolled his eyes. “Sure. Yeah. You can call it whatever you want. It was an arrangement I was willing to accept.”
“That’s so fucked up. He was taking advantage of your situation, your powerlessness. He’s a sick fucker.”
“It was a fair exchange of goods and services.”
“It’s wrong.”
Adam huffed out a sigh. “Fine. I’m not going to argue with you about it. It’s not like it’s an option anymore anyway.” Adam’s tone was clipped and resigned.
Ronan took a deep breath. “What if I helped you out?”
Adam looked surprised and dubious. “What are you suggesting?”
“Same deal but without the sex.”
“So you’d just be giving me money for nothing. That’s not a deal.”
“It’s a great deal for you.”
“No, thanks.”
“Why not?”
“I don’t accept charity.” Adam said the word as if it tasted bad in his mouth.
“Oh but prostitution’s okay.”
Adam flashed him an exasperated look. “God! You know what, I’m just going to go.”
“And what? What’s your plan? Go downtown and sell yourself on some street corner?”
“You are a dick, you know that?”
“Yeah, I warned you, didn’t I?”
“I don’t know what I’m going to do, okay? I’ll figure something out. I always do.”
“And what’s so bad about just letting me help you?”
“Look, Ronan. I have very little to my name but I do have my pride and I do get to make my own decisions about my life. This arrangement I had with Whelk was on my terms. I get the money I need and I don’t end up owing anyone anything. You may not understand it, but you can at least respect the fact that it was my choice and my life.”
Ronan squeezed his eyes shut. Fuck this was such a stupid idea. “Fine. I’ll give you the same deal as him. How’s that?”
Adam tucked his chin in, confused. “You just said it was wrong.”
“Not as wrong as sending a kid out onto the streets with nothing but the clothes on his back.”
The look of confusion quickly morphed into a stony mask. “I’m not a kid. I’m 19 and I don’t want your pity.”
“How could I fucking pity you? You’re clearly the stubbornest, smartest, most resourceful person I’ve ever met. I pity anyone that tries to get in your way.”
The stony mask softened a bit. “Do you even like guys?”
“Fuck yeah. The attraction aspect will not be a problem in the slightest. I mean look at you.” Ronan willed his face not to blush. Then something occurred to him. “Wait. Do you even like guys?”
Adam smiled sheepishly, letting his eyes rake Ronan’s body. “I do. And same. But I don’t want you to do something you’re not comfortable with.”
“I’m not some blushing virgin. This will hardly be the first time I’ve made questionable decisions about sex.”
Adam raised a brow.
“I’m clean, don’t worry. I just went through a period where getting drunk and going home with the biggest asshole I could find seemed like the best way to deal with my anger.” He didn’t mention how he stopped that years ago. How he promised himself he’d steer away from meaningless sex that made him feel like shit afterwards. How he promised himself he’d wait for something real and as a result had been celibate for longer than he’d admit to anyone.
He was struggling with how to categorize this, though. It wouldn’t be meaningless, at least to Ronan. He already liked Adam more than was conceivably reasonable given he’d known him barely an hour. But it wasn’t real either. Not the kind of real that he truly wanted. But waiting for the real deal wasn’t exactly working out for him, was it?
He scrubbed his hands over the back of his scalp. “As much as I fucking hate being anything like Barrington Douchebag Whelk, if this is what you’re comfortable with, then I guess I’m okay with it.”
“Okay? Ummm… this isn’t how I thought this conversation would end. But… I’m okay with it too? More then okay. This is…this is more than I hoped for.”
Ronan shook his head in disbelief. “Jesus. I’m a fucking sugar daddy.” He stopped abruptly and pointed at Adam. “And no. You can never, ever, ever call me that.”
Adam’s smile was impish and heart stopping. “It’s a deal.”