As the squat cabin rolled into view, an invisible air of anxiety began to lift. It was as if reaching the destination verified and solidified the fact that they were going to be spending the week together. Alone.

Julian sighed. "There it is," he announced.

Julian had gotten that familiar squelching feeling in his stomach as soon as he saw Noel exit his apartment across the street. He had been loading supplies into the trunk of the car, and Noel emerged, toting a rolling suitcase that almost reached up to Noel's chest.

"One suitcase, Ju!" he called, waving. Julian had nodded, diverted his gaze quickly down into the jam-packed trunk. He felt a bit foolish now, bringing so much junk. But as he grew older, Julian found himself less and less tolerant of discomfort. Discomfort seemed to follow him wherever he went, and any opportunity to avoid it was becoming the default option.

The two of them stood around for a few minutes, neither willing to point out that it was time to leave, neither quite willing to leave.

Eventually, though, Julian said a final goodbye to Julia and the twins and the boys were off.
The first half of the ride had been shaky. Loads of nervous laughter and averted eyes and fiddling with the radio, but none of the squabbling and teasing Noel had missed so much between them. He felt he needed to tiptoe, feel things out.
But as soon as Noel settled on Kings of Leon, Julian began grumbling, and Noel began poking fun back, and somehow it was back to normal. Noel was flooded with all the bands he had been meaning to show Julian and, amping his phone's feeble speakers up to full volume, he skipped from song to song. "Oh, this one is genius! Oh, he's got this other song – yeah, this one I saw them do live, it was brilliant!"

Julian injected an insult here and there, and about half of the songs were utter shit and most of the others were simply thoroughly mediocre. But truthfully, he was more than glad to listen to Noel's
endless babblings.

But even once the ball got rolling with conversation, there was a feeling in the air that it was going to end. Like they were taking a nice drive in the woods, and eventually they would take a right and pull back into the apartment-lined London street they both lived on.

But after an hour and a half, they were pulling up to the cabin Lliana's friend had leant them for the week.

Noel pretended help Julian drag the mounds of stuff in from the trunk, picking up one object at a time and slowly walking it to the front room, all the while teasing the older man. "It was a lot of work, whittlin' it down to just one suitcase! Whatcha gonna use a blender for, anyway?"

When the contents of the car was finally dumped in a large pile on the floor of the cabin, Julian immediately set to work organizing things into piles. For the kitchen, the bedroom, the toilet...

Noel crossed his legs, watching Julian unpack. He was going on about something to do with the bus schedules in their neighborhood.

"Why don't you just take a cab or a private car," Noel asked when there was a pause in Julian's monologue.

"Too much money," Julian muttered.

"Money? Aren't you getting the same royalties as me? If not, we've got to make some phone calls, mate."

Julian glanced at Noel with that old amused annoyance and Noel instantly felt several times more relaxed. He sunk into the couch and let Julian's argument for investments and savings and insurance wash over him like warm water.

"Yeah, well, s'easy for you, when you wear shoes like those," Noel commented, stretching lazily.

"What's wrong with my shoes, then?"

"What's wrong with 'em? What's right with them? How much did they cost you?"

"Cost doesn't mean that much."

"As if! You can't buy clothes without about three thousand dollars and a blowjob to the cashier!"

This produced a snuffle of laughter from Julian. Though he was not done with unpacking, he strode over to the couch and settled next to Noel.

"Yeah, well I'm a simple man, Noel. A simple man with simple tastes."

"Right, like jazz fusion is simple."

"Well... that's different. Jazz fusion is an experience. It's a lifestyle. It's a possibility of life beyond the life we know..." As Julian waxed lyrical about fusion, Noel leaned closer to Julian. Now he could feel the familiar warmth Julian constantly exuded like a space heater.

"Alice Cooper talks about life beyond the life we know."

"Look, I don't care about Alice Cooper."

"Have you ever heard Alice Cooper?"

Julian gave a fake hesitation, knowing it would make Noel smile. It did. "Yeah, I've heard 'im. Just... awful. Couldn't take it. Had to soothe me furrowed brow with a bit of Coltrane just to keep from jumpin' the ledge."

There was a pause and Noel worried Julian might remember the unpacking and leave again. Instead, he twisted his neck to look at Noel.

"Wait, since when do you know anything about jazz fusion?"

Noel felt a twist in his stomach. "What?"

"You said 'jazz fusion is complicated,'" Julian said, a satisfied smirk on his face.

"I did not!" Noel squawked with fake-offense, sitting up a bit to look Julian in the eye. Julian's eyes were warm, soft, comfortable.

"Or something like that, anyway."

Noel almost put up a fight, but instead sank down into Julian's shoulder again. To his surprise, Julian lifted his arm and allowed Noel to slide in against Julian's chest. Here it was even warmer.

"Well," Noel murmured, "What can you expect from bein' around you so much? It seeps in, I can't prevent it. It's a tragedy, really."

"Mmm," Julian said. He had lost interest in the conversation now that Noel was breathing against him. He hoped Noel would be quiet for a moment, just for the sake of enjoying the silence.

Thankfully, he did, for a whole five seconds. Then, he said, "I missed this."

Julian clenched his jaw. He squeezed Noel's shoulder. "Me too."