Spencer stretched as best he could in a squeaky office chair. Ryan had gotten up a few hours earlier to turn on all of the lights in the classroom and get dinner from the vending machines in the lobby (sour patch kids, fritos and Coke for Spencer, doritos, oreos, a pack of peanut butter m&ms and a Dr. Pepper for Ryan). They'd worked through most of Muse's albums, the first Green Day album, a mix Jackie or Crystal had made of bad 90s pop songs, and part of the Moulin Rouge soundtrack. Spencer was completely done with front page, the local and national news pages, the arts page which had a lot to say about the drama club (Spencer had snickered a bit when he got to Ian's review of the play fest) and one of Jersey's impassioned rants about the genius of David Lynch and how Twin Peaks was the most important show of the 1990s. He was mostly done with the first section of articles about Cash's story and freedom of expression and he'd gotten a good start on the letters to the editor.

Spencer was so close to being done.

He could totally take a break. Ryan had written furiously for about an hour after Jon left before going back to copy editing. Spencer was curious about the new editorial. He'd seen most of the original one, but he was under the impression that Ryan had scrapped most of it. His muttering suggested he had, at least. Spencer had a couple things to finish and he needed to get the photos he'd e-mailed to Cassadee for editing back. Someday the school paper was going to have more than one crappy desktop computer. Then he could call the rest of the staff in the do actual work. Spencer was also waiting for Singer to e-mail him a small fluff piece so there wouldn't be an awkward white space on page four. Those and Ryan's editorial were all that was left. They might be able to get out before midnight.

Spencer admitted defeat and stood up to stretch out properly.

"Hey, Ross, I'm getting a snack. You want anything?"

Ryan made a distracted sound. Spencer walked over, figuring Ryan was in artiste mode and ignoring him. "Ryan, I'm getting food. Want anything?"

Ryan finally looked up. His eyes seemed slightly glazed and Spencer figured he'd been spending way too much time staring at the laptop screen without a break.

"Food?" Spencer prompted again.

"Uh, yeah. Um, get me a...something with caffeine. And like chocolate? I'm really close to finishing this, Spence."

"Awesome," Spencer said as he patted his back pocket to make sure his wallet hadn't fallen out. He called home to let someone know that they were still at school and seemed to be wrapping up. His mom told him to tell Ryan that she'd set up the air mattress in Spencer's room.

"Thanks mom," Spencer said. He started yawning in the middle of it. He contemplated the vending machine choices. He was depressingly familiar with what they offered. His mom told him that there were leftovers in the fridge and to call again at eleven if they were going to be any later.

"I will," Spencer promised as he got himself and Ryan Mountain Dews. He and Ryan spent way too much time at the school working on the paper. Spencer's mom said goodbye and he started back to the classroom. When he got back, Ryan was a little wild eyed and sitting a the desktop.

"What happened?" Spencer demanding, praying the laptop hadn't crashed or frozen, losing all of their hard work.

"I just pasted in Singer's thing."

"What?"

"I finished it."

"What?" Spencer asked.

Ryan broke into a huge grin. "I pasted in Singer's thing. And just got Cassadee's photos. We're done Spence, I finished. Well, we've got to add in Cass' photos and do one final check, but we're basically done."

Spencer beamed. "Awesome! Let's finish this shit and go home, Christ, we've been here for forever. C'mon, move. Let's do this."

It took longer to finish than they'd like. Adding the photos in wasn't a big deal, though Ryan had to adjust a column on one page to make things fit better. Doing the final check for typos and weird placement issues took longer. Still, they were done within the hour. Spencer saved the file, zipped it and attached it the printer's e-mail.

"This is it dude," he said, mouse hovering over the send button.

"Fucking send it already," Ryan said impatiently, smacking Spencer's hand off the mouse and sending it himself. It took a minute to get confirmation that it sent and once it did, Ryan collapsed kind of bonelessly against Spencer.

"And we're done," Ryan said.

Spencer cheered a bit raggedly and Ryan sort of half hugged him.

"Wooo," Ryan said and then kissed him.

Spencer started and knocked an arm into Ryan. He pulled away—

"What the hell Ryan?"

Ryan looked kind of dejected and Spencer realized how that must have come across.

"I just—you didn't have to, if you don't, I. Sorry," Ryan said awkwardly.

"No! No, hang on. I'm not like rejecting you. Well, I mean, if you're offering, I'm not rejecting but if that was just like an expression of like, affection and uh, tired happiness that we're done with this issue then just ignore me. Right now. As I babble and stuff. Um." Spencer wished the universe would oblige him just this once and maybe swallow him whole. Or maybe obliterate this from Ryan's memory if his expression was anything to go by.

"Um," Spencer said intelligently.

"...Can we try that again?" Ryan asked quietly, not really looking at Spencer.

Spencer let out a breath. "Yeah, yeah let's do that again."

They did; Ryan's lips were a bit dry and he was hesitant, way more hesitant than he was with any of the girls Spencer had seen him kiss. Spencer leaned in a bit more and deepened the kiss. He hit Ryan's nose but didn't really care because Ryan's lips parted and then he shifted to better kiss Spencer. He slipped an arm around Ryan's back to guide him closer and into a better angle for making out. Ryan didn't break the kiss as he shifted to straddle Spencer's lap. That was totally awesome (more awesome than kissing Ryan, fuck he was kissing Ryan who was good) until the chair rolled back and hit the table behind them.

Spencer made an undignified sound while Ryan lost his precarious balance and almost fell onto the floor. Spencer caught him and it too Ryan a moment to move into a better position.

"Well this is awkward," Spencer said.

Ryan just looked at him before cracking up. Spencer grinned into Ryan's shoulder.

"So we're kind of stupid," Ryan said.

"We really are," Spencer agreed. "Well, you're a moron. I have been helping out with your stupid paper almost every night since I got to this school. Like, I've given up all of my free time to hang out with you and do editing and layout for three years. I don't even like the paper and I'm doing this for you. I even stayed at school until two a.m. that one time to finish an issue. That was like a grand gesture or whatever and you're kind of dumb if you didn't get that."

"Oh," Ryan said.

"Yeah," Spencer replied.

"...how long have we been basically dating without like, making out and stuff?"

"Fuck if I know," Spencer said. "C'mon. Let's go home. My mom saved us leftovers and insists that you spend the night."

"Yeah?" Ryan said.

Spencer grinned. "Yeah. Grab your stuff. I want to do things we've apparently been missing out on for a stupid amount of time because we're kind of stupid."