It was cold in the summertime.
Not nearly as harsh or as drastic as actual wintertime, but there was a chilling breeze in the air that just...didn't quite match the warmness it used to. It was hard to get used to, when you've lived in Nevada for as long as Sanford had, he had been used to the naturally warm air.
The effects of the disaster really had taken the world by storm, even though things had been...moderately rebuild at this point, there would always be remnants of what had happened, and what would always affect this world. Places where grass just couldn't grow, or the broken down look of buildings, rustic places that had been hit by bombs they could've never prepared for, bullet holes that could never be fixed.
It was something one had to get used to.
But that all could be fixed. You could mend almost anything with a little construction work and time, but nothing could change the things Sanford had to witness.
Sanford didn't enjoy going outside anymore. He used to, a long, long time ago, before the War ever happened...but now, now he just preferred to keep to himself. He didn't like spending time with almost everyone at this point, only having to make himself have the occasional smalltalk with the cash register or store clerk, but that was it.
Well, there was at least one person he still spent time with, that he spent all his time with.
Deimos.
Although it would've been hard to ignore him or distance himself from him otherwise, had he not already been living with him. He did still see Hank every now and again, but it was only in passing...Hank just wanted to be alone these days. Something about retirement.
Today, Deimos had pushed him to get out of the house more, and he didn't really feel like arguing. He had simply thrown on a jacket and braced the cold weather as he walked outside.
Soon after, they ended up in town together, hand-in-hand, as Deimos had his head resting on Sanford's shoulder, walking slowly down the otherwise quiet town. Despite how cold it was, it was contrasting harshly with the sun beaming down harder than it usually did, making Sanford wish he had brought his sunglasses.
"I'm telling you, this food truck makes the best sweets. Way better than the stuff you'd get at a bakery, it's all made with careful precision." Deimos said with a soft smirk, sure of himself as he continued down the street.
At this, Sanford could feel the corner of his mouth perk up a bit into an involuntary smile. "What is it with you and greasy food-chain restaurants?" He inquired stealing a glance at Deimos for a moment. "I swear, if I hadn't picked the place we went to on our first date, I'm half-convinced you would've just taken me to a trash can next to a table at a live show."
With a scoff, Deimos retorted quickly. "That is so not true! I would've gone all out, baby." He defended himself, annunciating his point with a pointed finger. "You already know I would've paid top dollar to give you a good time."
"That's sweet, Deimos, but you already know that-"
"-That you would've gladly eaten out of the dumpster as long as I was there with you, I know." Deimos smiled at him coily, eyes half lidded.
Sanford blinked for a moment, face dropped of any emotion. "No, I was gonna say that you already know you would've never been able to dress yourself properly enough for a fancy restaurant."
Deimos playfully, but still roughly, smacked Sanford's shoulder, before he returned to his spot on Sanford's shoulder, the former couldn't help but smirk slightly at his own jape. He had gotten better at telling the occasional joke every now and again, finally being able to overcome his need to hide any emotions behind a wall of anger and monotone voice.
Just as they turned the street corner, they could both very clearly make out a large truck that was parked outside on the street, a relatively small line of customers in front of it, different kinds of foods being handed out to by a slightly older, but still optimistic looking man.
"This is the food truck I was talking about." Deimos announced, parting away from Sanford's side as he started to pick up the pace and approach the truck, waving gleefully at it's owner.
At that moment, Sanford couldn't help but take a moment just to admire Deimos' outward friendless, even with people he barely knew. The technician had been through so much, he had quite literally been through hell itself, but he still found a way to smile every day, even though he had been so tired now, especially in his older age.
Sanford couldn't help but envy that.
For a few moments, he just stood there from across the street, watching as Deimos made distant conversation with the food truck owner, laughing sometimes in between, and just...watched him, eyes mapping out every detail of his face, a slow, warm smile spreading to his face.
When Deimos finally turned heel and came back towards him, however, he couldn't help but avert his eyes and pretended he wasn't staring at him, embarrassment kicking in.
"I got you blueberry, babe." Deimos announced, handing him what was a large blueberry cookie, freshly baked, white wrapping encasing it. Sanford smile once again creeped back onto his face as he took it from Deimos' hands, nodding softly.
"Thank you." He said in a soft tone as he brought the confection to his lips, giving it a small, experimental bite. It was very warm, but not scolding hot, and had a very soft, light sugary taste to it all, the sweet taste of blueberry overriding his taste buds with a warm amora of sugary sweetness practically overriding his senses. It was heaven.
His eyes fluttered opened to see that the shorter man was staring at him with an expectant grin. He rolled his eyes for a second. "Okay, yeah, you're right, it's a lot better than the bakery down the road."
"Told ya!" Deimos said, taking a bite out of his own cookie, as he once again took Sanford's hand in his own. "Fuckin' delicious, what'd I tell ya."
"What flavor is yours?" Sanford asked, taking another bite from his own cookie.
"Chocolate. I got it the same last time, but man, it is so worth the second eat." He swallowed the rest of it down, and then noticed his boyfriend's increasing interest, prompting him to finally ask the question, "You want a taste?"
Sanford paused, his eyes flickering from the chocolate-flavored cookie to Deimos, he thought about the question, and wanting to seize the opportunity.
Quickly leaning forward, he pressed his lips against Deimos, who reacted with surprise. They kissed for a good, solid few minutes before Sanford pulled back, tasting the flavor at his lips with a lick.
Deimos was standing there, a dumbfounded look on his face before it slowly melted into a very, embarrassed flustered one. He sputtered, though it was mostly incoherent.
"You're right, it is good." Sanford said, the smallest hint of a smile on his face. "I'd say it's worth that second taste."
"Fuck," Was all Deimos could finally manage to get out before he dissolved into laughter, pressing his face against Sanford's shoulder. "I didn't even think you were gonna do that, you really planted it on me."
"I learned a few of your tricks, I'll admit."
"So the student has become the master…"
They both laughed, as the grip between their hands tightened, they set off for home. The sun would be setting in a few hours, and the sky was starting to melt into a monochrome orange.
Maybe, just maybe Sanford could start changing his mind about going outside.
After the sun had peacefully gone down, the sky was now a brilliant shade of a calming purple and dark blue contrast, the stars were warm, and there was a crescent moon nuzzled inbetween it all in a perfect contrast, not a cloud in the night sky was present, and the moon subtly lit up the world.
The town was quiet, not a voice could be heard outside, as everyone had packed up and headed home for the night, nothing but the sound of brisk night air, combined with cicadas chirping loudly was all that could be heard for miles.
Sanford and Deimos were inside of their shared home, sitting on the couch together. Sanford sat with his face resting in the palm of his hand, elbow pressed against the armrest of the couch.
Deimos, on the other hand, was laying across the couch with his face resting on Sanford's lap, both of them watching TV, a somewhat dramatic film being broadcasted in real time on the TV.
Although they were both paying attention to the TV, Sanford was kind of drifting in and out of paying attention to it and getting lost in his own head, hand mindlessly petting and twirling small tufts of Deimos' blonde hair.
It cut to commercial break, some sort of advertisement for washing machine playing, when Deimos finally spoke up. "This movie sucks!"
Sanford rolled his eyes for a moment. "You say that about almost every movie we've watched in the past week."
"Yeah, cause most of them suck." He raised his head from Sanford's lap, making eye contact. "This guy has known this girl for, what, three days, and already he's telling her she's the love of his life."
Sanford stared back at the TV, the ad was still playing. "It's supposed to be romantic, you know, love at first sight."
"It's creepy is what it is." Deimos paused to sit on his knees, adjusting a bit until he was comfortable. "I sure as hell didn't fall in love with you after three days."
Curiosity peaked his interest. "How long, then?"
"Three years." Deimos' face was straight for only a second before he snorted, laughing at his own joke. "Kidding, kiddin'."
"Honestly, even if you weren't, I wouldn't blame you." Sanford said as he rested his arm back onto the couch. "I was kind of a pain in the ass when we first met."
Deimos smile stayed, but it was less cocky. "Kind of? You were an asshole." He leaned back onto the couch and folded one leg over the other. "I mean, it wasn't that bad, but man those first few days of being partners in the AAHW were not the most flattering, I gotta tell you."
At the sudden influx of memories of the old days, Sanford internally cringed at how he used to act. Deimos had a point, he was even less open with interacting with other people then he was now, he was a very angry and shut-out of a person, and tended to boss Deimos around and abuse his authority as the rank above him.
It took a real kick in the ass for him to ever admit that he was a stubborn jerk back then, but he's glad that he managed to get past that and just try to relax.
"You were no prize either." Sanford glanced back at him, eyes slightly playful.
Deimos let out a fake, dramatic gasp. "How dare you! Have I not always been a lovely and overall amazing person to know?" The sarcasm couldn't be more apparent.
"You threw a tantrum when you found out they weren't serving mashed potatoes in the cafeteria anymore."
A very accusatory finger was pointed directly at Sanford's face. "Correction, I started a revolution and changed history. They would've never brought back those mashed potatoes had it not been for me."
Sanford couldn't help but chuckle just the slightest. "More like you annoyed the Sheriff until he couldn't take you protesting outside his office anymore."
"Rome wasn't built in a day." Deimos flopped back onto the couch, staring back at the TV with a slight annoyed look that commercials were even still playing. "Anyway, my point still being that this movie sucks major ass."
"Well, if you don't like it that much, we could just go to bed." Sanford said, leaning forward to rest his arms on his knees.
There wasn't an immediate response from Deimos, however, and Sanford saw the slow, cocky grin on Deimos' face as he raised his eyebrows.
Sanford frowned, flustered. "And go to sleep."
The smile instantly dropped and Deimos had an overdramatic look of defeat. "Aww…"
After a pause, the smile still returned, however. "Nah, I actually do wanna see how this ends. Can't wait for them to have a falling out and then run through the rain to be with each other while a shitty 80's song plays so loud I can't hear myself think."
Sanford raised an eyebrow. "You watch romance movies a lot?"
Deimos coughed. "N...no. It's just, yknow, my mom, she used to leave them on all the time when I was a kid, and, I saw bits and pieces." He scratched the side of his face, avoiding eye contact. Then he made a dismissive hand wave. "Whatever, the point is that I know how these things work out, okay?"
After he said that, as if on cue, the movie had finally returned after the long commercial break, and the two's attention was instantly caught back to the screen.
The only taste in Sanford's mouth was the sting of toothpaste that, although advertised to taste like strawberries, just tasted like very tangy mint. The taste subsided as he spat it out into the cracked sink, turning on the cold water to rid his mouth of the prominent flavor.
After that, he brought the hand towel up to his mouth and slowly wiped his mouth, eyes focusing on the mirror.
Despite the fact that Sanford was much happier with the person he was now, there was nothing that he despised more about his own appearance then the long scar across his face. It started at his forehead and ended at his cheekbone, and was right where his right eye was.
Thankfully, the attack had never done anything to damage his vision, although opening that eye was a pain in the ass for a while, he could work past that. That didn't do anything for the fact that he hated looking at it, how it had evolved into a long, discoloration on his face.
Sure, he wasn't too thrilled or obsessed with his own looks to begin with, he never was that kind of person, but he couldn't deal with the fact that the scar was just another thing he had to deal with. There wasn't a lot he could do, but he couldn't help but tear his eyes away whenever he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror.
He placed the small towel back onto its rack, and stepped back into his bedroom. The lamp had already been flickered off, so the room was entirely dark besides the light from the moon illuminating from their thin curtains.
Sanford flickered the light from the bathroom off, and quietly made his way to the bed the best he could, with Deimos facing the window away from him. He tried not to stir too much, as he thought the other was already asleep, but was pleasantly surprised when Deimos immediately flipped onto his side and made eye contact.
"We should go out again tomorrow." Deimos looked sleepy. "Today was really nice. I'm enjoying retirement as much as the next guy, but just cause the war is over doesn't mean our lives are over, yknow?"
Sanford laid down onto the bed next to Deimos, pulling the comforts of the blanket over himself as he rested his face onto the side of the pillow, brushing some of the hair strands out of his face. "Maybe...but I don't know what we'd do."
"Oh, I'll think of something." Deimos' eyes fluttered shut for a moment, nearly falling asleep. "Y'know me, I got like, connections and shit."
"Your connections can wait until tomorrow." Sanford inched closer to Deimos, and kissed him once again momentarily. "Goodnight, Deimos."
"Goodnight, San." Deimos pressed his face against the pillow. "Love ya."
"I love you too."
After that, Deimos had peacefully drifted off to sleep, with Sanford joining him soon after.