"Why"
It wasn't even a question anymore, three hours into this road trip to Satan's-figurative-asshole and Aleks had given up all hope of getting out of this hopefully-figurative-train-wreck.
Jordan had came up with this 'good idea' (why do we even do this to ourselves anymore, Jordan is a melting pot of bad ideas) that meant instead of 'wasting' money on a plane trip for the group to RTX they would drive.
All almost 13 hours.
Together.
"Why"
Aleks had his face pressed up against the window on the passengers side of the car. His mostly quite objections had gone ignored by his fellow prisoners. Eddie sat next to him, on his left, thumbing away at his phone with his headphones on and a tired smile on his face. Kevin, who had flown down to Colorado (but not to Texas, unfortunately for him) was driving with James sat next to him in the passengers seat. Jordan, Dan, and Seamus were somewhere in a different car ahead of them, along with all of their luggage and equipment.
"Wh-"
"Will you shut the fuck up back there?" James yelled over his shoulder to the backseat, "No one wants to hear your fucking whining."
"Will you shut the fuck up, no one wants to hear your voice" Aleks replied hotly, his voice slightly muffled by the glass.
There was a beat of silence and James stretched to turn around and better yell at Aleks.
"What the fuck is your problem? Just shut the fuck up and fucking deal with it, you little shit. All you have to do is sit there. Sit there for 10 hours and don't say a damn thing, can you do that?"
Aleks groaned loudly and pressed his face closer to the glass, "Your face just needs to fucking deal with it."
By this time Eddie had stopped scrolling through his phone and removed his headphones. Kevin chuckled quietly to himself but made no move to stop the brewing verbal battle.
"What the fuck did you just say to me, you motherfucker?", James growled out, almost completely turned around in his seat to glower at Aleks who, at this point, had his whole face pushed uncomfortably against the glass. James reached out his arms and grabbed at the purple hoodie Aleks was wearing. The Russian went limp as his face was pulled away from the glass and towards James'.
"You wanna say that shit again, hm."
It wasn't even a question anymore and the irony was not lost on Aleks, who just wanted to go back to his house in Colorado and maybe sleep without the constant movement of a car for about three years.
"Fight, fight, fight!", Kevin crowed, breaking the tension, from the front seat.
"Kiss, kiss, kiss!", Eddie cheered, giggling loudly.
For some reason Aleks thought the quickest way to get this situation over with was to close his eyes and pucker his lips. Eddies laughing increased and Kevin spared a glance backwards (almost driving off the road in the process) then grinned wildly while loudly whispering, "Gaaaaaay."
James rolled his eyes at all of this but threw Aleks back against the car with a rough shove, "Fuck you that was cheap."
"Your face is cheap"
This, of course, sent Eddie into another fit of loud giggles which sounded pretty good, Aleks thought with his eyes closed and body slumped forward again, when it was mixed with Kevin's deep chuckle.
"What the fuck are you smiling about, you smug fuck?" James 'asked', his body still turned around in his seat.
"You-"
"Wait, wait I got this" Eddie sprang forward in his seat and into the conversation. He had to try for about five minutes to sober up and stop laughing but every time it seemed like he got a hold of himself he would open his eyes, glance at Aleks (who puckered his lips again), and burst into an unstoppable fit of laughter yet again.
"Your face", Eddie finally, somehow, managed.
"Dude that was so worth, though" Kevin said from his place behind the wheel with a large grin.
"Can I change cars? You fuckers drain the will to live out of me, damn" James muttered to himself, sliding back into his seat.
"Why"
Four hours later and seven hours into their descent into madness everyone (besides Kevin) was passed out in their seats. Kevin hummed lowly to himself and he glanced at the clock. It was only 7 in the evening and these fuckers were already laid the fuck out due to the constant rumbling of the car.
Eddie snored loudly and James snored along with him in almost perfect unison while Aleks drooled and fogged over the window his face was pressed up against again.
Ahead of them Kevin could see the twinkling lights of a quickly upcoming town. Jordan's car, which was a little ways ahead of them, slowed down slightly and flashed their lights. Kevin had no idea what the fuck kind of secret code was Jordan was trying to communicate in and reached for his phone with one hand. He skillfully punched a simple 'What' text into his phone and sent it to Dan, who he assumed was in the passengers seat next to Jordan. Dan called him back almost immediately (to which Kevin cursed to himself, fumbling to answer it before his loud ringtone could fill the car and wake the beasts) and Kevin could hear Jordan whining in the background about how he wasn't doing the code talk right. Dan quickly informed him that they, mainly Seamus, wanted to stop at the next diner and eat or restock on snacks. Kevin grunted his approval and followed behind Jordan as he drove through the small town. Both cars pulled into a clearly old-fashioned diner complete with bright neon lights and overstuffed plastic seating. Jordan, Dan, and Seamus climbed out of the car and stretched before walking over to Kevin's car (Jordan quickly skipped over to the diner, though, with a great need to pee). Dan and Seamus peered into the car and Seamus wrinkled his nose at the mess Aleks had made on the glass.
"How long ago did they fall asleep?" Dan asked, tapping against James' window.
"Ahhhh," Kevin groaned as he stretched his muscles, "About an hour ago, not to long."
"Should we wake them up or...?" Seamus yawned then glanced over at the diner with mild anticipation which only Seamus could pull off.
James had already stopped his snoring competition with Eddie and was blinking slowly due to Dan's tapping. Kevin opened Eddies door and he jumped to life immediately when he felt the warm air hit him mid-snore. Seamus shrugged, yawned again, and opened Aleks' door. The Russian nearly tumbled out of the car and would have hit his face against the gravel road if he weren't wearing a seat belt. Aleks stayed in that position and blinked sleepily at the gravel for awhile before grumbling, "What the fuck" and pulling himself into a sitting position.
"Get up, we're gonna go eat", Seamus prompted already moving away from the car to join the others who had already groggily stumbled in front of the diner and were making their way slowly inside.
Jordan had already peed and was sitting in the biggest circle booth he could find. He sat there thumbing through the small menu while the tired group, minus Aleks, filed in and squeeze into the tight space.
Seamus, Eddie, and James seemed to want to eat everything on the menu and ordered quickly while Jordan and Dan choose their meals carefully. Kevin claimed to not even be hungry and excused himself from the diner and walked out back into the warm evening.
Aleks was leaning against the car with his eyes closed and his arms draped over the top of the car behind him, over his head. His hoodie was pulled up a bit and a sliver of skin was exposed to the warm summer air. Aleks could feel the car shift slightly as Kevin propped himself on the side of the car right beside him with a sigh.
"I kinda stained the window" Aleks sniffed, eyes still closed.
"Good thing its not my car", Kevin snickered to himself looking at the white smudges of dribble that dried onto the car's glass.
"Aren't you hungry?"
"Are you?"
"Nah, Eddie brought a shit load of food and kept 'sharing' with me and by that I mean he took one bite of something and gave the rest to me. Why don't you go eat, though? You've been driving since we left Colorado"
"I'm good dude, you don't need to worry about me." Kevin sniffed and lifted his head to watch the endings of the sun set.
Aleks popped open one eye and peered at Kevin quietly observing him take in the dark orange sky. It was pretty, he had to admit. The desert, or wherever they were fucking at, clouds stretched into long wispy lines and the dipping sun painted the sky in dark oranges and deep reds.
"It's pretty, huh?" Aleks murmured, almost to himself, after a brief pause.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. It's alright. I wouldn't exactly call it pretty" Kevin said looking sideways at the Russian.
For some reason Aleks felt his face heat up slightly but he blamed it on the fact that he had eaten four bags of gummy bears and slobbered over the backseat window. He did, however, blame Kevin for making his face grow even more red when he brought his hand to his face and held it there as if to gauge his reaction.
"Why"
Kevin laughed loudly, this time not holding back (Aleks liked this laugh the most), and let his hand drop from Aleks' face.
"Just wanted to see what you would do"
Aleks furrowed his eyebrows and turned to look at Kevin who was still looking ahead of him at the painted sky. "Why what'd you want me to do?"
Kevin stayed silent and shrugged his shoulders a bit, finally turning around to look at the confused Aleks. He moved his head quickly towards Aleks' face and pressed his lips against his forehead then pulled away just as quickly, turning his head back to look at the now darkening sky.
Aleks was stunned. Like literally. He couldn't feel any part of his body except for the warm throbbing on his forehead where Kevin's lips had touched. "Why", he finally whispered.
Kevin turned slightly just in time to watch Aleks pull his face closer to his and almost press his own lips onto his cheek. Aleks had stopped just an inch before making actual contact, mostly to gauge his own heart and make sure he wasn't going to pass out (four bags of gummy bears could kill a man), but also to give time for Kevin to reject.
It didn't look like he was going to reject at all, the way his eyes stared back at him in a slight challenge.
Aleks pushed his face forward and roughly crushed his mouth onto Kevin's cheek. He wasn't quite sure where all of this was coming from, but to be completely honest, it felt right. Like all of the choices he had made were made to lead up to this one moment. He felt like this is where he should be and that was all he needed. Aleks pulled away slowly then pressed his lips back onto Kevins face just at the corner of his eye softly.
Kevin chuckled, a soft rumbling in his chest, and shoved Aleks' face away from his. "Dude stop being so gay"
"Dude what the fuck, you're the gay one.. you gay"
"Nice." Kevin reached his hand out for Aleks to fill.
"Shut the fuck up" Aleks smiled and took a hold of Kevin's hand just as the group had started exiting the diner.
"Time to get the show on the road again people we have like seven hours to Austin and we need to be there by tomorrow. Let's go!" Jordan clapped his hands together and was already starting to his car, quickly followed by Dan and Seamus.
Kevin and Aleks peeled themselves away from the car they were leaning on and looked at Eddie (who looked like he was just ready to conquer the world with as much energy as he had) and James (who looked about ready to punch whoever gave him a dirty look with all the food that was stuffed inside of him). The two looked at each other and Kevin asked Eddie if he could take over the driving. Eddie agreed and jumped into the drivers seat and James slowly climbed into the passengers seat besides him with a loud groan about how people should tell him not to eat so much.
Kevin and Aleks somehow managed to squirm their way into the backseat without losing their hold on each other and Aleks could swear he saw Eddie wink at him from the rear view mirror.
Aleks looked at Kevin and smiled briefly as the tall man brushed his fingers over his knuckles.
Seven more hours.
Together.
Seems easy enough.
