Heath Slater is snug in bed when Wade Barrett returns home from the New Years edition of Raw early Tuesday morning, leaning in to kiss him cheerfully. Heath blinks, only just waking up enough to kiss him back before he breezes off to place his bag in the closet before he returns. "Ya know, you've been in an oddly good mood since Christmas Eve," he tells him. "One of these days you'll have to tell me why."
"How about now?" he asks, running a hand through Heath's hair with a smirk. As the younger man sits up, rubbing blurrily at his eyes, Wade's smile softens. "I'll be right back." Heath watches, beyond perplexed, as he gets off of the bed and kneels next to it, the click of a lock reaching Heath before Wade returns with a huge pouch full of... something.
"Uh, Brit," he mutters as the other man drops it in his lap. Heath's floored further when he unzips it and what looks like millions of small bills dump onto his lap, change raining down onto the bedding as well. "What the hell, man? Did you break into a coinstar machine or somethin'?"
"You watched Raw last week," he says simply, leaning back against the headboard and looking every inch of a man of a leisure. Heath gapes at him, remembering in a rush and stuck on the illegality of it all for a moment before he begins to talk again. "Now I have an idea of what to do with this money that the charitable people of Texas so kindly gave, but..." He rests his hand on Heath's knee, squeezing softly. "It means we have to leave in, say, five minutes."
Heath blinks. "What are we doin'? What you got going in that crazy head of yours, Wade?"
He grins, which only adds to Heath's worry.
Less than five minutes later, they're dashing for the car, Heath carrying a pile of winter clothes for them both and looking disheveled as he clutches the money in the folds of his jacket, close to his chest. "I can't believe you talked me into this," he mumbles. "New York, really?"
Wade waits until they're on the road, Heath unable to secondguess their plans now, before he turns to look at him. "You always told me the one thing you've wanted to do but haven't been able to was seeing the ball drop in Times Square. Seems ridiculous to me, but when this money fell into my lap..." He sneers. "It seemed as good an idea as any other."
Heath stares at him for a long moment before smiling, deciding just to embrace Wade's very rare impulsive action. "Thanks, Brit. Lemme know when you want me to drive, I know you prolly didn't get a lot of sleep on that red eye."
"Yes, fine," he says. "In the meanwhile, you should get some sleep yourself, Ginger. So when I do let you drive, you don't wreck us halfway there."
"Yessir, Brit, Sir," he teases, curling up in the passenger's seat. "Wake me if you need anythin', or get lonely or something."
After a long, nearly eighteen hour drive, where they switch off driving every four hours or so, they finally arrive around 5 PM and Wade just manages to find a parking garage, both of them glad to leave the car and walk to Times Square, the sights and sounds of the crowd immediately overwhelming them when they're still a few minutes away.
Heath squeezes Wade's hand and smiles slightly as he mutters under his breath, not liking the chilly weather nor much else about this. The only good thing is Heath's warmth against his side and he grimaces, wrapping an arm around the ginger to keep him close as they walk through security checkpoints and are directed to an area to stand. They're not all that close, but they have a decent view of the tower, and Heath is grinning, so Wade's content enough, even though the thought of standing here for the next few hours makes him shake his head in exasperation.
Even so, all of this is for Heath, who hasn't had the best month, so he keeps his mouth shut and takes in everything while keeping a close eye on the easily excited ginger by his side. The weather seems to grow colder as the time passes, but he doesn't complain- much-, this weather minor in comparison to some that he'd endured in England over the years. When people begin passing out streamers and party hats, Barrett grits his teeth and bears it as Heath stands on his tippy toes and presses one of the brightly colored things to his head, pausing long enough to make sure it won't fall off before he presses his own to his head, not even minding when it clashes violently with his hair.
Wade stares at him and rolls his eyes, muffling his chuckles by kissing Heath. When they pull away, their breaths fogging the air between them, they grin at each other and turn back towards the tower, midnight finally approaching. The last bit of time goes by quickly, thankfully, and the light of the ball atop the tower reflects against Heath's eyes even at this distance. The taller man smiles and tugs at his hand, wrapping an arm around his shoulders as it makes its decent, the crowd counting back from ten to herald in 2014. As soon as the countdown ends, Heath faces him and smirks as Wade leans in like he's about to kiss the younger man, pulling away just before he touches his lips. Heath pouts but moves quickly, gripping him by the back of the head and pulling him back down, not giving him an opportunity to pull away again as he kisses him, longer and more affectionate than earlier. "Happy New Year," he says against Wade's lips, seeming satisfied now.
"Happy New Year," he replies, feeling more than a little dazed as he leans in for another kiss, eyes half-lidded when Heath grins and meets him halfway.