'Road Trip'

Characters: Jonathan Crane, Edward

Synopsis: Jonathan discovers that the young stranger he picked up on an aimless trip away from Georgia might be just the thing he didn't know he was looking for. An extension of this and yellowcandy of Tumblr's very convincing argument that Jonathan owns an ancient pickup truck.

Jonathan is driving away from Georgia; he doesn't know where he's going, he just knows that he needs to go. After a week or so he tries to leave a rest stop only to discover his truck won't start and that's going to be impossible. Jonathan curses his bad luck, as he doesn't exactly have the money to fix it nor the knowledge to do it himself.

He's standing there staring at the smoking engine in annoyance when a young man comes up to him; uninvited, the young man says his name is Edward, he's hitchhiking down from Canada, and he'll fix Jonathan's truck if Jonathan will give him a ride.

"I'm not going anywhere," Jonathan says, believing that price higher than any amount of money.

"Neither am I," Edward says, and Jonathan merely closes the hood and walks away.

Jonathan goes into the stop to figure out where he is and how he's going to get out of there, and when he comes back out Edward is sitting on the concrete block marking the space next to Jonathan's truck. He smiles and stubs out his cigarette and says, "It's probably even not that big of an issue, you know. I'll fix it in about two minutes and you take me to the next major city, two hours from here. You're probably going by there yourself, so it's not out of your way."

"I told you, I'm not going anywhere," Jonathan snaps, and he slams the door of his truck after he's climbed in.

The following afternoon Jonathan finds himself being told he has to move by the authorities, and of course Edward is nearby, listening. When the officer leaves Edward says, "Look, I hate to see a guy in a tough spot like this, so tell you what. I'll fix it for nothing."

"Really," Jonathan says doubtfully, never having known anyone to do something for free.

Edward shrugs. "I'm bored."

"How do you even know you can fix it?"

"Never found something I couldn't fix. Well… almost. Do we have a deal?"

Jonathan gives no answer but Edward gets up anyway, shoving the hood of the truck to open and inspecting the engine block with eyes Jonathan can't help but notice are a striking shade of green.

Edward tells him he just needs to 'rehydrate the truck', as he puts it, so when Jonathan brings him back some water he does just that. "Try her now," Edward says, and when the engine turns over he gives Jonathan his crooked smile and waves and walks away. Jonathan hesitates.

"Aren't you coming?" he asks, though he doesn't know why.

"Just waiting for an invitation," Edward answers, and for some reason Jonathan clears off the passenger seat so he has someplace to sit.

As he was afraid of, Edward attempts to start a conversation several times. When he doesn't answer, Edward merely talks at him instead, telling Jonathan about some of the people he's ridden with so far.

When they arrive in the city, Jonathan does have to stop, if only to stretch his legs. His body is not designed for vehicles. Edward holds up a hand in farewell after they both disembark and starts whistling as he walks off, and Jonathan calls out, "Edward."

He looks behind him.

"That's your name, right?"

"Yeah."

"Perhaps you can tag along a bit longer. In case the engine acts up again."

Edward smiles.

"Sounds good to me."

Jonathan doesn't know, exactly, what he's thinking just then, only that it feels like the appearance of this boy has been the first good thing to happen in a long, long time.

Edward is slumped in his seat, head pressed against the dusty window, hands gently folded in front of his stomach. Jonathan is envious of how easily his compact body fits into the seat. The chairs in the truck do not go back all that far, and Jonathan's legs have been crammed beneath the steering column for near a week and a half. He needs to find someplace to go, and soon, before he loses feeling in his legs altogether.

He is envious, too, of the depth of Edward's sleep. Jonathan did a little reckless, but experimental, driving to find out if he were really asleep or only pretending to be, but Edward had not so much as sighed for any of it. He had long since been lulled to sleep by the steady cadence of the truck's tires against the pavement.

Sleep was the only reason Edward would stop talking. He had not tried to engage Jonathan in conversation since they'd left the rest stop, though his speech was peppered with openings in case Jonathan changed his mind. And he almost had, a couple of times; Edward talked mostly of things he knew, and he seemed to know a great deal. All of it could have been bogus, made up in an attempt to impress, but he spoke with a conviction Jonathan thought with surety was real.

And Jonathan knew no more about Edward now than he had when he'd met him. To speak for hours and yet reveal nothing about oneself was a skill, and intentionally exhibited. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered why someone with such obvious intelligence was wandering around a country he didn't know with any stranger who would pick him up. It felt familiar.

Perhaps he was running from something. Just as Jonathan was.

That would cease for the time being, however. The lines on the road before him are beginning to blur together a little too often and he is starting to blink too much. There is also the sign of a horrible pain beginning in his left knee that he knows will crawl down to his ankle if he doesn't get out of this chair soon. The next stop is ten minutes from where he is now.

Once he has pulled in and taken a second to hang his legs out the side of the truck he reaches over and gives Edward a hard poke in the forearm. His breath shudders a moment and then nothing.

"Edward," Jonathan says, repeating the poke. Edward's eyes crack open. He has no idea if this means anything.

"I'm stopping for a few hours. In all probability you'll still be asleep when I leave, so if you've anything to take care of, best do so now."

Edward's face remains downward. "It'll wait until we get to the next city."

"That's quite a few hours from here." Not to mention Jonathan hadn't really planned on stopping there.

"That's fine."

"Very well." Jonathan had woken him up, so he may as well have even if he had previously intended to wait, but he wasn't about to argue. He stands outside and is about to close the door when he hears Edward mutter, somewhat bitterly if he is doing so correctly,

"How stupid do you think I am."

Jonathan is under no obligation to respond but he says, evenly, "I wasn't remarking on your intelligence. I was making an attempt to be considerate. I don't sleep long and I'll be leaving shortly after dawn."

"Oh," Edward says. "I did think that would have been a weird coincidence."

"What would have been?"

Edward sits up, pressing his back into the seat and his eye closed. "The last person I got a ride with did that. He said we'd be stopping for twenty minutes so I should take the chance to walk around for a bit before we returned to driving. I was back in ten minutes but he was already gone." He shrugs, as if it's no big deal, but his brow is set. "I don't make the same mistake twice."

Jonathan closes the door on the conversation, quite literally; he needs to get something to drink and go to sleep before this onset of fatigue fades back into insomnia.

Once he has returned he seats himself in the bed of the truck after lowering the gate, pressing his back into the metal body behind him. There's a rumpled rough blanket crumpled in a dark corner, intended for use at picnics he believes, and he'll use it in a little while. Once he drinks some of this water. He can't remember the last time he drank any.

A few minutes later Edward comes climbing up the back of the truck, somehow incredibly loud despite his size. Jonathan takes a long breath. He hadn't intended this. He had really wanted to be alone for a few hours. He could not deny the niceness of company, but… he had left in the first place in search of peace.

Edward is next to him now, absentmindedly spreading the blanket across them both with one hand while eating a granola bar with the other, and Jonathan's new plan is to wait until he falls asleep and then return to his seat. It would be cramped, yes. But Edward's aim here was not clear and Jonathan was unsure he wanted to be caught up in it. For someone so distrustful, he was awfully… close.

"You were more concerned I would abandon you at a rest stop than that I would murder you on the highway," is a thought that he decides to voice.

He can feel the other man's eyes on him, though he doesn't look. "You don't have the strength to kill me."

Jonathan can't keep his brows from lowering.

"That bottle of water is the first thing you've consumed since I got in your truck," Edward continues. "You have the energy to drive, but not much else. I could always kill you, if that were something I was here to do. But it's not. I just…"

"Just what," Jonathan prompts, having now had a glimpse into Edward and not being satisfied with the brevity of it. Edward folds the empty wrapper from his snack into his pocket and folds his hands together.

"I know what you're doing."

Jonathan does look at him now.

How could he possibly know what Jonathan was asking for?

"You're running from something. Looks like you had it with being a farmer and took off. You don't know where you're going because you didn't mean to leave yet. It was spontaneous. Probably the first such thing you ever did."

"Perhaps I'm just on a road trip," Jonathan says in annoyance, mostly stemming from Edward's coming a little too close to the mark.

"You didn't bring anything with you. No suitcase, no duffel bag, not even a backpack. You climbed in this truck and took off. No one on a road trip does that."

"I'm not a farmer," is all Jonathan can come up with against that. Edward is too intelligent and Jonathan is beginning to wonder if picking him up was a mistake.

"All signs point to farmer."

"I am not a farmer."

Edward shrugs and twists off the cap of his bottle of water. "Sorry. But you're dressed like a farmer, driving a pickup with 'farm truck' license plates, and to be quite honest you sound like a farmer too. That accent isn't quite gone from your speech."

"I don't." He really was toying with leaving Edward behind now. Jonathan could take a lot – he'd had to, over the years – but this was just uncalled for.

"I don't care if you're a farmer. But you seem to, so I'll drop it."

Something compels Jonathan to say, "You are right about one thing."

"The running part," Edward says.

"Yes." He takes a drink himself. He isn't sure why he hasn't gotten up yet. "Is that why you waited for me to take your offer, rather than find another ride?"

"It's harder than it looks to find a lone driver who doesn't look suspicious."

"Did the man who abandoned you look suspicious?"

"No," Edward says after putting aside his emptied bottle. "He had a nice car. Had a nice amount of money in his wallet, too."

"I don't have any in mine, in case you were wondering."

"I know you don't." Edward slides downward a little. "I pick all my cars depending on what I want at the time."

"And what was it you expected of me?" He keeps his voice soft, inviting, in accordance with Edward's lowering eyelids; Edward is smart, to be sure, but fatigue draws words without deceit like nearly nothing else.

"Nothing," Edward answers. "I was just getting tired of going nowhere. I figured… if I was going nowhere I might as well do it with someone else."

The words are oddly reassuring.

He wakes up with a bit of a start; it's not light out and he sees no one, and he looks around in annoyed confusion until he realises Edward's head is against his shoulder. Jonathan's surprise is eclipsed by the incredibly odd thought that Edward's body is soft and warm.

When was the last time he knew either of those things?

It was ridiculous. When had he ever wanted them to begin with? He went to shove the boy away, except that… except that it was difficult to want something he had never had, never known.

Some way, somehow, two strangers wandering wherever the road would go in order to avoid what was behind them had come together. It sounded like the plot for a terrible, sappy drama, but it was his life now.

If he wanted it to be.

There was nothing stopping him from shoving Edward out of the truck and disappearing, never to be seen again. Edward was young. He'd get over it, learn from it. And Jonathan would be rid of this talkative, conniving, intelligent young man who was only going to disturb his peace at every possible moment.

It seemed an easy decision.

Edward is incredibly hard to wake. Jonathan has been trying for the last twenty minutes off and on to no avail. Sometimes it seems his eyes are about to open, only to remain closed all the more firmly. Jonathan rubs at his forehead with a callused palm. Perhaps this wasn't the best idea.

"Edward, seriously," he says, in an unintentionally stern voice, and that of all things turns Edward's head towards him. He rubs clumsily at his eyes.

"What."

"I want to leave now. If you've anything to take care of, do it."

Edward sits slowly, shoving the blanket off his legs. "What time is it."

"Dawn. It doesn't matter. It's time to go."

"Dawn," Edward mutters, and he falls off the bed of the truck in his attempt to leave it. Jonathan is alarmed despite himself, but Edward only sits there and rubs the crust out of his eyes.

"Please tell me you're going to move faster sometime soon."

"Gimme a break. I've never been up so early in my life." He stands up eventually and makes his way around the side of the truck, trailing his fingertips along the dusty metal, and reaches through the passenger side window for his backpack. Jonathan considered going through the battered thing several times, but had ultimately decided not to for a reason he hadn't worked out.

It took Edward another twenty minutes to… do whatever it was he was doing, which Jonathan could not deduce given that he had not even shaved. Granted, there isn't much to shave, but Jonathan was having a hard time imagining what on earth else could have taken him so damned long.

"Do I have your permission to leave now?" Jonathan snaps once Edward has slung himself into his seat. Edward looks at him, some tiredness in his face that Jonathan knows has nothing to do with his early rising.

"I had to take care of… something."

Jonathan shakes his head and grinds the key in the ignition. He's regretting his decision. He should have left. He should have just left.

Edward falls back to sleep after only a few minutes, which only irritates Jonathan all the more. He knows half of this is due the fact he doesn't know why he's committed to continue on with this boy instead of just letting him make his own way someplace far away from Jonathan.

Oh, he does know, but he doesn't want to think about it.

Edward wakes up some hours later but, surprisingly, doesn't say a word. He just looks out the window at the passing highway, where Jonathan is sitting in his habitual centre lane position. After a few minutes the silence from him is actually jarring.

"I believe I know where I'm headed now," he says, and it may just about be the first time he's ever started a conversation on purpose.

"Where?"

"Gotham City, I think. In New Jersey. Have you heard of it?"

Edward shifts and sighs a little in his seat. "I heard it's good for disappearing in and not a whole lot else. That place is a mess."

"I know," Jonathan says. He decides not to mention disappearing is exactly what he wants to do right now.

"If you can let me off in Trenton, that'd be good."

Jonathan taps a finger on the steering wheel.

"Actually," he pronounces slowly, "I had a proposition."

"Which was?"

"Come with me to Gotham. You said you were tired of travelling."

"I did say that, but – "

"You were partially right, about… the farmer thing," Jonathan interrupts. "I wasn't a farmer. But I did live in the country."

"And this has what to do with me."

Jonathan firms his hands around the steering wheel and resolves to keep his temper. Edward isn't being obstinate; he's being cautious. In addition, Jonathan is more or less a stranger to social interaction and getting worked up over everything is, quite frankly, counterproductive. Not to mention ridiculous. "I would benefit from your insight. You come from the city. I've never lived in one before."

"Hitchhiking with you is one thing. Living with you is entirely another."

"Not forever," Jonathan says, in his best soothing voice. "Perhaps only a month or so. You don't have to stay there. But doubtless you have things to take care of, since you have been on the move since you left Canada."

Edward's hesitation is palpable. He wants to do it, wants to believe this is a good idea, but… just what is holding him back?

"I… suppose Gotham would be an ideal place to get documents forged."

Jonathan waits, to see if he'll talk himself into it without being pushed. Jonathan would benefit enormously from Edward's knowledge, but it really must be Edward's decision. Anything else would cause terrible uncertainty and tension in the future. When he doesn't speak further, Jonathan adds, "I'm not trying to kidnap you. I –"

"One is only kidnapped if someone cares they're missing."

Jonathan looks at him, drawn by the bitterness injected into his words.

"I understand," he says, softly. Far more softly than he would have done on purpose.

It's another hour before the silence is broken between them, by Edward saying, "I'll leave next place we get. Okay?"

Jonathan frowns, wondering what brought this on. "If you really want to."

"Better than you kicking me out."

Jonathan spends a moment running through their sparse conversation of the last twelve hours and comes up with nothing. "I don't recall expressing that wish."

"You're winding me up so you can let me down later. I know that trick and I'm not falling for it. No stranger drives someone else across the country and then offers to house them for a while just for the hell of it."

Jonathan stares down the road and waits for an answer to present itself. When it doesn't, he says, "I was raised in a boarding house. I don't at all find my offer to be unusual."

"That's… unusual," Edward says blithely.

The quiet returns for a few minutes, until Jonathan is asked, "Did you like living in a boarding house?"

"I hated it."

"Not a fan of people coming in and out?"

"No."

"So why would you attempt to recreate that situation with me?"

It's an excellent question Jonathan doesn't have an answer to. "I'm not," he says finally. "Sharing a space with one person is completely different."

"It really is," Edward murmurs.

They neither stop nor speak until nightfall, at which time Jonathan has to pull over for a while. He'd spent the last few hours trying to remember when he'd last eaten and also trying to convince himself it had been recently, but he couldn't ignore the telltale ache in his muscles for much longer. It is a different kind from the one that plagues his legs. When he finishes finding something to eat and walking around for a bit he returns to the truck to find Edward has disappeared. He squints into the darkness surrounding the asphalt, but he doubts he'd be able to find him now.

It's probably for the best, really. He's getting the sneaking suspicion he made the offer to Edward because the younger man reminds him of himself, somehow, and perhaps it's not a good idea for the two of them to keep company much longer. God knows he doesn't need more reminders of his past self.

He wakes with the sun, as usual, to find Edward draped across the hood of the truck with a cigarette in his mouth. He hasn't lit it, but seems about to, judging by the lighter his left hand is toying with.

"So you didn't leave after all," Jonathan says.

Edward plucks the cigarette with two fingers and answers, "I was going to."

"But you had a change of mind." He had been about to say 'change of heart', but he got the impression Edward tried not to make decisions with that. Jonathan certainly did the same.

"I was curious," Edward tells him, and now he sits up and brings the flame to his cigarette. "You're being pretty damn nice to me, considering I'm a complete stranger. Why is that?"

Jonathan eases himself onto the hood as well and leans forward, hands clasped in front of his knees. His feet are almost touching the ground, which he does his best to disregard. "You offered kindness first."

Edward rolls his eyes, Jonathan can feel it. "I told you. I was bored."

"I suppose I'm bored too, then."

"That doesn't even make any sense! You're bored so you want me to live someplace with you?" He snorts. "There are easier ways to stave off boredom."

"No. I told you. You know how things work in the city. I'm from the country, with no money and a degree that may or may not be useful in acquiring a job. Something I have never had. I've never so much as moved out before. This is the most independent thing I've done in my entire life."

"A degree," Edward says, tapping away some of the ash on his cigarette. "In what?"

"… psychology," Jonathan answers. He doesn't want to. But getting Edward on his side will remove a hell of a lot of headaches. He won't be doing that if he holds out too much.

"Better be a Master's."

"A doctorate."

Edward raises his eyebrows.

"You went for a doctorate and had no plan on what to do with it?"

Jonathan's thumbs press against each other. Of course he knew what he wanted to do with it, but he wasn't looking to have a heart-to-heart conversation about his future just then. Or ever. "That's straying from the point."

"You must be elbow-deep in student loan debt."

"Yes."

Edward sighs and tosses the remains of his cigarette into the dust in front of the truck. "All right. Let's do it. I'll come to Gotham City with you and help you out for a while. Until I get my documents, at least. We'll see how it goes from there. Deal?"

"Deal."

Edward more falls than dismounts from the hood, and Jonathan almost smiles. Almost.

Now when was the last time he did that?

"I can drive for a while if you want," Edward offers, brushing the dirt off of his scuffed brown dress pants with a hand Jonathan has not noticed until now has incurred some sort of damage. He can't tell what kind from a glimpse so brief. "I have my license."

Jonathan only nods and climbs into the other side of the truck. Edward has to spend a minute or so getting the seat to pull forward enough that he can reach the pedals, which Jonathan decides not to remark on but finds amusing nonetheless. Jonathan isn't the owner of the truck and yet has been the only one to drive it in a good many years, and he doesn't think the seat has moved once in all that time. He's a little surprised it does so at all.

Edward reaches up for the rearview mirror and remarks, "So if I've agreed to move in with you do I get to know what your name is? Or do I have to steal your wallet too?"

Jonathan hadn't realised he didn't know.

He had been asking more of Edward than he'd thought all this time. He certainly wouldn't have gone anywhere without that piece of information from Edward.

"It's… Jonathan," he says slowly. This may possibly be the first person he has truly, voluntarily given this information to. It's not exactly a huge secret, nor anything important, and yet… it's significant.

"Really?" Edward is looking at him in a slightly disturbed way.

"Yes."

"Your parents weren't all that inspired, were they?" He turns the engine over and pulls the steering column down.

"No." He really didn't want to talk about that.

"I'm going to drive this truck faster than you do."

"Go ahead."

He concentrates on merging onto the highway, which isn't difficult at this hour, and once he's done so he holds up a finger and says, "I got us a map."

Jonathan supposes he should have thought of that. "In your bag?"

"Yeah. Front pocket."

Jonathan has to resist the urge to rifle through the rest of it, glimpsing what he thinks might be a set of very small screwdrivers, but removes only the aforementioned. "I'm sending you in the direction of New Jersey, then."

"It's a tourist map, doesn't go that far. Just to the next state. I just have to know which highway will take me east."

Jonathan sets to figuring that out, frowning down at the tangle of lines printed onto the creased paper, and Edward starts humming to himself and tapping a finger on the steering wheel. Jonathan can't decide if it's annoying or a relief. He knows the quiet and somewhat sullen person Edward was yesterday was not typical, but he is very… active. It will take getting used to.

"Hey, Jonathan."

"What," Jonathan says, even though he can't listen to Edward talk and read a map at the same time.

"Picking me up was a pretty good idea, eh? Aren't you glad I thought of it?"

Jonathan toys with a corner of the map using his index finger. "I'm not sure yet."

Edward laughs and Jonathan feels inexplicably… lighter, somehow, in a way which feels like some burden he's been carrying all his life has been shared. The thought occurs to him that perhaps Edward similarly, though he banishes that as ridiculous. They can't possibly be that alike.

"Can I put the radio on?"

"Don't put it on too loud."

"I can…" Edward's fingers are poised around the dial. "It's that or I'm going to talk."

"That's fine," Jonathan says absently, having no idea what he's hedging around this time.

"Really?"

Jonathan sighs and puts down the map. "It would be appreciated if you just said what you want to say."

"Well…" He rubs a thumb up and down the side of the radio. "I mean, I get it if you're over me talking, but…" He inhales and swallows. "I suppose if we're roomies now, you should know silence makes me nervous."

"Silence is something I was never able to have," Jonathan tells him. Edward is opening his mouth. "But I've not had much in the way of conversations either."

Edward bites his lip.

"You sure sound lonely, for someone who lived in a boarding house."

Lonely. Maybe. He'd never really thought about it before. It explained a lot, now that he was doing so.

"So tell me about your research."

Jonathan doesn't have the ability to speak for a long minute. "My… my research?"

"Yeah." Edward waves a vague hand. "What did you do your thesis on?"

"Psychology."

Edward rolls his eyes. "I gathered that. What were you studying."

"Primal… primal fears, but…"

"Hm?"

"No one has ever asked me that before." Or about anything he'd ever cared about, for that matter.

"Well, now someone has. Educate me."

Jonathan looks out the window. Edward drives in the left lane, where all the cars alongside look like they're riding the brakes. Jonathan can derive from this that Edward likes to move into things quickly, to proceed with them full-tilt once he's worked them out. It's possibly arrogance, possibly… possibly just an eagerness to see what lies at the end. Jonathan has rarely been eager for anything, anything at all. He's beginning to feel as though he's missed a great deal of significant things that Edward can explain to him. That he needs to be explained, suddenly, because he's realising he doesn't know what was happening in the world all that time he'd spent buried in his books. He hadn't exactly had a choice at the time and yet…

"Yes," Jonathan says.

"To… what?"

"Picking you up was a good idea."

Edward smiles. "I have a lot more where that came from."

Jonathan doesn't doubt that in the least.

"You should definitely tell me about your research, though. I'm not going to steal it. I'm more of a hands-on kinda guy than an academic. And if by some weird turn of fortune I ever write a paper, it'll be about computer science. Artificial intelligence and machine learning. Which y'know…" He runs a hand down his face thoughtfully. "You could tie that into psychology if you really wanted."

Jonathan had no idea what Edward was talking about, and that realisation was… exciting. The people he'd known were so content to remain ignorant, to know nothing but the immediate world around them, and with Edward… he was the one who didn't know. And perhaps it should have been upsetting, or frustrating, but it wasn't. It was… exciting.

"Tell me," Jonathan says, giving Edward his attention because he wants to and not because he has to. Listens to a boy explain a subject he doesn't care about in a field he's never heard of. It's fascinating.

"Haven't lost you yet, have I Jon?" Edward asks after a few minutes.

"You haven't." Actually he had, back when he had started talking, but Jonathan believed questions were to be left after the lecture.

"When I do, let me know."

He had never expected to find a like-minded friend on the side of the road.