Title: What You Didn't Consider
Fandom: The O.C.
Spoilers: Season 3, Episode 1
Pairing: Ryan/Seth.
A/N: After I saw the first episode of the new season, I knew exactly what I was going to write. Almost to the point where there were people talking in my head. Not that I mind.

A/N2: Lol! If your vagina is too sandy to notice that this fic is M rated slash, it's not my problem. Hahahaah thanks for the laugh, anon.

Seth quietly closed the glass door behind him. A narrow band of light from the pool house reflected off the surface of the pool, dancing with the moonlight. His bare feet unconsciously carried him to the door of the pool house. As he opened the door, the light inside went out.

"You can't sleep either?"

An affirmative "Mmm" from the direction of the bed. Ryan was sprawled on top of the covers, only in his boxers.

"Care to talk about it?"

Ryan half-sighed, and shifted restlessly. Seth shut the door and blindly made his way over to the bed, sitting down next to Ryan.

They sat in easy silence for a while. But as the seconds, and then minutes dragged on, he could feel the air thicken with the growing tension. If it didn't break soon, it would become unbearable.

"Look...Ryan. You're better off without him."

"What're you-"

"Dad already told me."

"...Seth, I..."

"Dude, you shouldn't feel sorry. I mean, after what he's done...him being here was nothing but trouble. He'll get a new start, and leave it all behind him. We know he can take care-"

"Seth. You don't understand."

"No, I think I do. I'm-"

"Do you know what it was like? He'd fight with her, and I'd watch, helpless. Then he'd run away, if it got really bad. I'd stay up every night, wondering, Ten hours? Two days? A week? And now, Seth? After what happened?"

"Ryan...you'll see him again."

"But you said it yourself. I'm better off with him gone. He is. We all are."

Ryan sat up, eyes fixed on a suddenly very interesting corner of bed sheet.

"So now...he's gone. He was all I had left, and I lost him."

"Ryan, you-"

"Face it, Seth. I'm alone. And now with the trial, who knows what's going to happen to me. Or Marissa."

Ryan's eyes had gradually shifted from staring blankly at the bed to meeting Seth's fixed gaze.

"Ryan, I-"

"She could go to prison. And me?" A derisive snort. "Look at my record, I'll probably be torn apart by the prosec-"

He was abruptly silenced as Seth's lips met his. Drastic times, drastic measures. Seth's eyes opened as they parted. Ryan's face was a mixture of shock and confusion.

"You'll always have me, Ry. No matter what. I'll always be here for you. I'll always...love you."

Ryan's head reeled. He had considered it, something like this happening. But it had been long buried on Marissa Cooper's front lawn. And now, he could feel Seth's breath on his cheek, his hand in his hair. He fell backward as Seth pushed him down, straddling his hips. Ryan returned their next kiss, which quickly became a jumble of lips and tongues.

Suddenly, Seth jerked upright, like he'd been burned.

"I'm sorry, Ryan, I had no idea what I-"

Ryan pulled him back down for another spectacular kiss.

"And Marissa?" Seth breathlessly inquired.

"Will never know me half as well as you."

They resumed with almost desperate speed. Seth's hands were splayed on Ryan's chest, his tongue wandering aimlessly on his abdomen.

Ryan flipped them over, inhaling sharply as he ground his erection against Seth's. There was no doubt, no hesitation. Soon one bathrobe and two pairs of boxers were on the floor, as Seth relished in Ryan's heat on top of him.

Ryan began to thrust eagerly. The friction tightened the knot in his groin. He was already close.

"Seth, I'm..." Ryan gritted his teeth. His breath came in short pants. The knot grew impossibly tight, then snapped and unraveled as his orgasm flooded through him, and he came all over himself and Seth.

He slumped against Seth, whose aching member was still insistently pressed against his thigh. Seth reversed their position, grinding his pelvis against Ryan's in circular motions. Soon his cock was gliding against Ryan's come-covered stomach. How could he possibly be this hard? He moaned as his orgasm added to the sticky mess.

Spent, he rolled off Ryan, who was wiping Seth and himself clean. Together in a post-coital daze, they drifted off into what was the first untroubled sleep for both of them in quite a while.

finis