Hi and welcome to my 2017 Reverb collab with l0chn3ss! She came up with a brilliant concept and let me stretch it out into this monster. Bless her for accepting me, though she should have known better. Don't forget to check out her work on tumblr! Each chapter is a new day in a ten day long journey through Nevada (and Star and Mak's feelings). Buckle up and enjoy!
Day 1: you can take the girl out of Nevada but
The flight from Vegas is a short one, but the small 12 passenger aircraft it uses always makes Maka a little nervous. The Battle Mountain airport is tiny and doesn't consist of more than a single terminal and runway. With such a small waiting platform, she could see from the top of plane's stairway the bright shock of blue hair she was looking for. It takes only a few minutes to cross the tarmac and suddenly she's swooped up in a quick hug from her best friend.
Blake Sterling was an eclectic guy, able to fit right in at a college rager, a rodeo, and Starcraft gameathon- all on the same weekend. Most of his friends called him 'BlackStar' because of his gaming handle, but Maka had called him 'Star' long before he'd ever had a hand on a controller. In a story their fathers loved to retell, she had adorably tripped over his last name when trying to scold him for taking the last cookie. Instead of being put down by her use of his full name, baby Blake had latched onto the word 'star' and never let go, though up until their teenage years (when he earned the money for a GameCube by doing yard work), she'd been the only one allowed to call him that.
"Welcome back to Cowboy Country, Mak!" he grins, grabbing her lone suitcase and digging for his keys. "Why didn't you tell your dad you were coming back from your internship today? And why did I have to keep my mouth shut?"
"Ugh, you remember what happened when I left, right?" She watches the memory replay in his eyes as his face starts to twist into an evil grin.
"What, you didn't want a grown man crying and shouting? I'm sure for your return he would have brought out a banner and confetti like when we came back from summer camp that one year." The reminder of the glitter and paper shavings taking forever to pick out of her hair and finding pieces of it in every corner of her house for the next year comes quickly. "Ahahaha you should see the look on your face right now!"
She grumbles as she climbs into the front seat of his car. He hops in after depositing her suitcase in the trunk and elbows her lightly as he fires up the ignition.
"Welcome home, Maka."
Maka holds her boots and socks in one hand and a duffle bag in place on her shoulder as she pads near the settled parts of the floor out of her house. It's the crack of dawn and while her father was surprised to the point of foaming at the mouth last night, it's time to go. Part of the reason to even come back earlier than she said was because of the road trip she'd planned with Blake to make up for not being home the summer after their college graduation.
"Good morning, Maka."
She shrieks and slips, crumpling to the ground with her bag and boots. "Papa?! What are you doing up?"
"I was so excited by your arrival last night I couldn't sleep. Going somewhere?" Spirit Albarn sits at the dining room table, hands wrapped around a cup of coffee with cream and sugar. At her stunned silence, he sighs and gets up to move into the attached kitchen. "I guess you're at that age. I don't like you hanging out with boys- don't give me that face, I'm supposed to say that, I'm your father! -but I guess… if it really had to be someone, Blake is fine." He hands a paper bag to her. The sticker tips her off that it is the one bakery in town that would be open at this hour of the morning.
"Thanks, Papa," she says, noting that the bag is still a little warm. "We'll be gone ten days. Sid knows."
"Yeah, he seemed to be the only one… well, don't forget to text when you get places with service and don't do anything I would!" Her father's smile is a tad self-depreciating, but mostly filled with trust in her, something he hadn't really displayed before she left for her internship, trying to keep her as close by as possible. Maybe her absence this summer and this trip were helping solidify that she was her own person to him.
In a wave of affection for her father, Maka leans up and pecks him on the cheek before making a beeline for the door. When he calls after her to use protection and to not canoodle with strange men, she yells back. "Not necessary!"
The Barrett-Sterling home is just down the street and Maka's bare feet make short work of the well known path. Blake, who normally wouldn't be awake before noon on a free day for anything, is there, leaning against his old beat-up Jeep in the early daybreak. The car is scratched and scuffed, but it got the two of them through high school and undergrad. She stuffs the pastry bag into his hand in greeting as she tosses the duffle in the back. The paper rustles as she waves at his adoptive father Sid through their kitchen window.
"We're not packing a whole lot for a ten day trip, you know… your list was kinda short."
"Morning to you, too, Mak. Ooh chocolate croissant!" He pulls the pastry out and crinkles the bag closed before tossing it. She bobbles it as he grins. "I've got everything else we need already so get in. Time to take the baby on one last adventure."
There was really no reason to leave as early as they did, but Maka savors the rising sun's increasing warmth on her skin as they cruise east on the highway. To her, it looks like they're driving straight into the ball of gold and white light. Blake had left the Jeep's paneling off for this stretch and the wind whips through her hair as she reaches for the volume dial. Blake's iPod is plugged in through the auxiliary and a quick scroll finds a list he's labelled 'Road Trippin''. She snorts and presses play, listening to the familiar opening to LMFAO's Party Rock.
"This is my jam, hot damn!" he yells, pounding on the steering wheel.
"Of course it is! You made this playlist, idiot!"
Either way, they burn through songs, Blake pretending to complain about her voice, but making even worse impressions of the singers than she did, putting on a horrible falsetto for any female vocals. Their destination for the day is Elko for an event Sid used to take them to as kids: the Silver State Stampede. The rodeo is the oldest in Nevada, having started in 1913, and showed off the best cowboys Nevada had to offer. Bull riding, ranching technique and a trade show were the main attractions, but the food stands were abundant and live music filtered through the area all afternoon into evening. After they drop their bags off at the motel for the night, Maka digs out a flannel from her bag and wraps it around her waist for later.
The Stampede is just down the road so they walk slow towards the venue, chatting about their jobs over the summer. Blake was hired right out of college to work as a backend programmer for an energy company, optimizing their code and specs behind the scenes. The job didn't require him to be in person or work during particular hours of the day since the company was nationwide, giving him some leeway to work as the night owl he was. Her own work was as a junior architect and she'd decided to get a little experience with site management on the ever changing skyline in Vegas before shipping out for her graduate work in California. Before they really got into what they'd done up until their reunion, the entrance ticket booth came into sight.
"Time to see if summer in the city drained all the wild out of you…"
"Hey! It was only three months!"
Tickets paid for, Blake makes a beeline for the food stands, picking out the fry bread vendor immediately. Traditions were traditions and Maka had plenty of fond memories of eating the sugary treat at the rodeo. As was usual, they got the white powder everywhere and patted their hands free of the sugar dust when they were done. Blake slings his arm over her shoulder and they make their way to the stalls showing leatherworking and beading. Silver filigree and artisan crafted spurs showed their best wares. Blake got himself a new cowboy hat, the brim dipping low over his face as he tipped it at her playfully. She just laughs at his ridiculousness and challenges him to a target game.
"Sure thing, little lady, but don't get cross when I whoop your ass."
"Like you've ever beat me at this… you may be good with a gun in Halo, but this is something else altogether," she says as they line up next to each other with the toy rifles. "I'm gonna win that hat off your head."
"Oh? And what do I get if I win?"
"Doesn't matter." The targets begin to move. "You won't."
Two minutes later, Maka snatches the hat off his head, tugging on her pigtails until they're low enough for the hat. "Told you so!"
"I'm gonna say I didn't have proper motivation. How can I want to win if I don't even know what I'm winning?"
"Don't be a sore loser, Star." Her arms are stuck trying to pull her flannel on when he grabs her around the middle and starts off for the stadium.
She fumbles for the hat and to get her arms all the way into the sleeves as her legs flail when she's tossed over his shoulder. He pinches the back of her leg and she yelps and smacks his back when he just laughs out, "Who's sore now, huh?"
By the end of the night, they're covered in dust from the arena and a little hoarse from cheering on their favorite riders of the night. The banter flows and Blake steals the hat back from her as they head back to the hotel. When he pulls on one of her pigtails, she kicks dirt at him and he starts running. They push each other on the way through the door and collapse on the nearest of the two mattresses. Maka shoves a pillow in his face and guns it back for the bathroom, snagging her bag on the way. The lock clicks just as Blake's hand bangs on the door.
"Maka, I have to piss!"
"Go in the lobby!"
"You suck!"
When they're both dirt-free and in their pajamas, the excitement of the day catches up to them. They brush their teeth in relative peace, reaching around each other to spit into the single sink and grab floss. The today was fun is unnecessary and left unsaid as they bade each other 'goodnight' and Blake flicks the light off.
"Hey. ...Mak." Some rustling greets his ears. "You up?"
"Am now."
"I'm… uh. Still hungry?" more rustling and joints cracking respond as Maka lifts her arm and slams it down on the alarm clock on the nightstand between their beds. She groans at the red numbers that reflect off her eyes.
"It's 2:03 am, Star…"
"So?"
Ten minutes later finds them in the diner across the street, open 24/7. They're still in their pajamas, though the athletic shorts and hoodies don't make it obvious. Maka has her hood over a messy bun of hair and Blake orders from the waitress as they take their seats. Normally, she'd be mad about someone ordering for her, but because Maka's mouth still feels cottony from sleep and they've done this more times than she can count, she doesn't take it personally. Slouched in the booth across from each other, they wait in sleepy silence until a plate of fries and two shakes are placed between them.
The chocolate one is hers and the cookies and cream is for Blake, but as always, it doesn't stop them from dipping the fries or sipping from just one. They eye each other suspiciously whenever one shake gets lower than the other. After one particularly generous dip of four fries, Maka swipes her shake away from Blake's reach. He just grins and sticks his tongue out, chocolate-dyed fry mash coating his tongue. She squeaks with disgust and throws a fry at his face. He chokes around his laughter and the food, grinning after he swallows it. They slurp the final dregs of milkshake around 3 am and leave cash on the table. The lone waitress on duty waves back on their way out and the pair roll themselves back across the street, passing out immediately once greeted with facefulls of pillow.
