It was pleasant, being in a car with Jeff.
At first, he was sure that he was going to regret it. Just putting his bags into the back of the Wrangler and giving Lacey a hug to say goodbye, he started to feel incredibly homesick (or maybe homesick wasn't the word, maybe something more like familiarity-sick, since he wasn't home, but he was leaving the comfort of having his sister there to talk to every night). But still, he wasn't quite ready to go back on his word, especially because Jeff really was such a nice person.
So, if he were to be perfectly honest, at the beginning of the drive, he was a bit tense and uncomfortable. He was leaving what had become something like a home, and with someone he was yes, okay, friends with, but he didn't really know him too well. Not to mention, he had never been in a car with him before, especially not for a long period of time. What if he was a reckless driver, or maybe what if he was just very anxious and stressed and that made the entire ride overall unpleasant?
As it turned out, and Nick should have known to expect this given everything that he had learned about Jeff so far, he had nothing to worry about. Jeff was just as laid back as ever, laughing and joking and even allowing Nick to pick out what they listened to on the radio.
The only annoying thing about being in the car with him was the fact that he wouldn't let on where he was headed. Usually, if Nick asked about their destination, the conversation would go something like this:
"Huh, looks like we've crossed another state line. So, where are we headed right now?"
"That's a pretty good question."
Then there would be a long pause in which Nick would hope (in vain) that he might go on to say something else that was more closely resembling an answer. But he never did, and that made part of him wonder if Jeff himself even knew what the plan was.
A few days passed in this fashion, the two of them just sitting in the car and chatting, sometimes singing along to the radio. Nick learned that Jeff was a pretty great singer, and when he commented on it, Jeff replied that he had been in chorus classes his entire educational career, so he certainly hoped that he'd gotten something out of it.
And of course, as promised, there was definitely the element of just plain old roadtripping that Jeff had promised. Whenever there was something that looked interesting, they would always stop and check it out and maybe take pictures with some of these said interesting things (Jeff was amazing at the art of the selfie).
Until, finally:
"I think I want to stay in this area for a while," Jeff announced, drawing Nick back from the edge of sleep.
Looking out the window and trying to figure out based on signs and licence plates on the cars around them where they were, Nick frowned slightly. "This area being...?"
"Somewhere in Tennessee," he said. "Not too sure where exactly. We can figure that part out once we get a hotel and everything."
"Tennessee?" Nick asked with a soft laugh. "You do remember me telling you that I lived in North Carolina, just next door to here, right?"
"Yeah, yeah, I do. But Tennessee is not North Carolina, so while you have lived close to here, you have not lived here, so it's still new and uncharted, full of possibilities," he said with a laugh. Grinning, he said, "Humor me."
Rolling his eyes fondly, he nodded. "Alright, alright. That's fine."
"Great," Jeff said with a wide smile. "Let's find a place to stay and drop off our stuff, I have spotted a couple of signs that indicate a petting zoo in town."
"A petting zoo," he repeated with a soft laugh, grinning over at him. "That's great."
"I thought so," he said, humming happily. He turned into a Holiday Inn parking lot, parking the car and unbuckling his seat belt. Starting to get out of the car, he said over his shoulder to Nick, "I'll be right back."
Nick nodded in response, sitting back in his seat. He stretched his arms out over his head, grateful to be done with sitting around in a car all day.
Jeff came back out of the lobby doors a few minutes later, getting back in the car. "Okay, so, I know that the past few nights we've just sort of shared a room, so I just did that again, two queens, you know, but if you're not cool with that more longterm, that's fine, too. I can go back in and change it."
"It's fine," he said, cutting Jeff off before he had a chance to continue with his rambling. "I don't mind."
"Okay, good," he said, smiling as he put the car back into drive to move it somewhere more convenient to their room.
The grabbed their bags out of the trunk and made their way upstairs to their room, collapsing onto the beds practically as soon as their things were set down.
"This is good, this'll do," Jeff mumbled from his position spread-eagled over his bed.
"Yeah, it will," Nick agreed with a soft laugh, turning over onto his side to look over at him.
They sat there in silence for a bit, just relaxing laid out on their beds, before Jeff spoke again. "I know that I said we were going to go to the petting zoo, but I kind of want to just... take a nap and order in room service later."
"That's fine by me," he said, nodding. "We can just go to the petting zoo tomorrow instead or something."
"Exactly," he said, opening one eye to look over at Nick and give him a grin. He closed again a moment later, yawning and saying, "Yeah, I'm about to fall asleep."
"Me too," he replied, letting his eyes drift shut as well.
Neither of them moved from where they were to get under the blankets, too tired from the seemingly endless system of highways they had traveled through to get there. They just fell asleep as they were, both fully clothed on top of stiff hotel comforters side by side a couple yards apart.
The next morning, once they had both showered and dressed, they made their way down to the lobby for the continental breakfast.
"Weird request, but could you make the waffle for me?" Jeff asked with a soft laugh, holding the Dixie cup of batter up.
"Sure," Nick said, chuckling as he took the cup.
"I'm just really bad at it," he explained as he watched Nick pouring the batter over the surface. "And before you try to tell me that it's easy because there's that handy little timer there, I know, but somehow I always burn or spill shit anyways."
"Okay," he said with a nod. He laughed softly, closing the lid on the waffle maker before starting one for himself. "I didn't really know that that was a talent some people lacked."
"Wow, way to make me feel good about myself," Jeff said sarcastically, going over and putting bacon on a plate for them. There was still a smile on his face, though, so Nick could tell that he wasn't upset by it.
"Sorry," he said with a laugh, shaking his head. "But I'm just saying, they made these things pretty simple, probably for people like you."
"Then they clearly did not try hard enough," Jeff said, laughing.
"Clearly," he said. As the timer finished on the waffle maker, he opened the lid again and put the waffle onto a plate for Jeff.
"Beautiful," he said with a smile as he took the plate and brought it over to the table.
Nick got his own waffle and went to sit down with Jeff, smiling at him.
"Is it bad that I can't remember the last time that I watched the Today Show?" Jeff asked, gesturing at the TV where Kathie Lee and Hoda were discussing fashion tips.
"I don't think so," he said, shaking his head. "I mean, I don't watch it much, either. There's news on other times of the day, too."
"Yeah, I guess so," he said. "But there's just something very ocmforting about Matt Lauer," he said. Indicating the TV again, he added, "And my kid sister loves these two, so she likes to make me watch it with her."
Nick smiled softly at Jeff's words, nodding. "That's cute," he said.
"Everything about her is cute," he said with a nod.
For the most part after that, the meal was eaten in silence, both of them just watching the TV and laughing to themselves at the appropriate moments. When they were both finished eating, Jeff cleared their trash off the table before taking Nick's hand and leading him out to the car.
After a Google search on Nick's phone and a short drive made longer by a number of wrong turns, they arrived at the petting zoo. Jeff insisted on paying for both of them to get in, as well as getting a cup of food to feed the animals with.
"This is underwhelming," Nick said under his breath to him as they stepped out of the small building at the front of the zoo. There was a wide lawn spread out in front of them with a jungle gym and a few benches in the middle of it, then a bit farther back were fences indicating where some animals, in theory, were.
"Shh, the signs made it sound pretty great, I'm reserving judgement," Jeff replied. He started for the fences, looking around. It was a bit before they saw anything, the area looking more like a worringly fenced-in playground than any sort of zoo. For a bit, Nick was starting to wonder about the legitimacy of this place, and why they had bought such a large cup of food when there were smaller options available. Sure enough, though, after a bit longer, they finally came upon an animal. Jeff broke out into a run when he saw a mini horse, grinning. "Nick! Look!"
He laughed softly as he followed after him, rolling his eyes fondly.
Once they were both standing at the fence, the horse started to stick its face through the fence, clearly knowing that with people came food. Jeff fiddled with the cup to get a handful of food, chattering at the animal happily. "Hello, there, you," he said brightly. "You're very majestic, even if you are smaller than most horses. I don't blame you for that, that's just how you're meant to be, I guess – hey!"
Nick raised an eyebrow at Jeff until he looked down. The horse had seemingly gotten impatient with him, and had reached its neck out as far as it could go and took hold of his shorts.
Jeff pulled the fabric back with the hand that didn't have food in it, frowning and taking a step back. "Rude," he said.
Nick chuckled softly, reaching out and trying to pet the horse. It moved its head out of the way, still eyeing the food in Jeff's hand.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I don't even want to feed you. I'll eat this food myself, you're that rude."
"Don't eat the food yourself," Nick said with a soft laugh. "That's gross."
"I know, but I'd do it," he said, chuckling. "I'd make that sacrifice."
After another attempt at grabbing his jeans, Jeff relented, holding his hand out and letting the horse eat the food off of it.
"Now look what you've done," Nick teased him. "You've taught him that taking your shorts will lead to him getting food."
"Oops," he said, chuckling. "My bad. C'mon, let's go, before he tries again." He gestured for Nick to keep walking, going with him further down the path.
A minute or so later, a deer appeared at the edge of the fence, prancing up to them from somewhere further out. It nosed at the fence, looking up at them with big eyes.
"You're adorable!" Jeff said with a smile, getting a handful of food.
As Nick got some food in his hand to feed the deer as well, he watched Jeff offer up his hand to it.
"Oh," he said, pulling his hand back and looking at it. "He's very drooly."
"I mean, he's probably just hungry, I guess that makes sense," Nick said with a soft laugh as he held out his hand. Sure enough, as soon as he touched the fur on the bottom of the deer's chin, he could feel the drool there. The deer licked the food off of his hand, and when he pulled it back, his skin was slick with spit.
"Wipe it off on him," Jeff suggested with a smile, chuckling softly. He himself seemed to be doing just that, his hand slipped between the fencing and stroking the deer's neck. "He's really soft, and he thinks you're just petting him. I've learned that from having a dog."
"Then don't you have to wash the dog?" Nick asked, chuckling as he took Jeff's advice and wiped his hand off on the deer, who turned its attention back to trying to get food from Jeff.
"Eventually, sure," he said with a shrug, getting more food to feed to the deer. "But dogs are pretty good at just sort of... not being dirty, even when they're dirty, you know?"
"Not really," Nick said with a soft laugh, shaking his head.
"That's a shame," he said, watching as Nick fed the deer again. "Didn't you ever have a dog growing up?"
"Nope," he said, shaking his head. "We had a cat or two, but I guess we just sort of never got a dog. I mean, we moved around a lot, you know, so I guess it just wasn't worth the hassle."
Jeff shook his head. "Now that's just not true," he said. "A dog is always worth the hassle."
"I'm not disagreeing with you," he said with a soft laugh, shrugging. "But as a kid, that decision was definitely out of my hands."
"Unfortunate," Jeff said, shaking his head. "I think that every kid should have a dog growing up. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love cats, too, but I feel like dogs provide something in a kid's life that a cat just doesn't."
"Excitement every time you come home?" he said.
"Exactly," he said with a soft laugh. "Dogs are just so excitable, and that's what makes them great for kids, because you know who else is super excitable? That's right: kids."
"That's true," Nick said, nodding. "So, what kind of dog did you have?"
"A series of golden retrievers," Jeff said with a smile. "The most recent one is... I want to say she's four now. Sweetest dog in the world."
They stayed there for a bit longer, taking turns petting and feeding the deer as Jeff talked and told stories about his dogs (there were at the moment, the probably-four-year-old named Daisy and a seven-year-old named Tucker). Eventually they both declared their hands too saliva-covered and decided to move on, continuing down the dirt path that was the zoo.
Several minutes passed before Jeff sighed and announced, "I am starting to believe that those were the only two animals they have."
"That might be true," Nick replied with a soft laugh, glancing around them. There was mostly nothing but overgrown grass, though a bit further along he could see that there was a pond. "Let's go over there, it might be nice, at least."
Chuckling softly, the blond nodded and started heading over in that direction. "I hope there are fish!"
"Fish could account for some of the animals that they claimed they have," he said with a laugh.
"Very true!" he agreed, grinning. "Though I believe I was told there were goats, which I'm kind of bitter about."
"It's not too late, there could be goats somewhere here."
"I'm beginning to doubt it," he said, sighing as he sat down on a stone bench by the edge of the pond. Looking down, he grabbed a few pellets of food out of the cup and tossed them into the water. Sure enough, after a few seconds there were a couple of large fish making ripples on the surface, snatching up the food.
"Huh," Nick said, chuckling as he watched them. "I wasn't really expecting any fish. Or at least, not live ones."
"Me neither," he replied with a laugh, his eyes still glued to where the fish were still swimming around in a frenzy though the food was gone. "Definitely glad they're alive. I'm pretty sure that no fish would be better than dead fish."
Nick laughed softly at that, nodding. "Absolutely," he said. "In fact, so, when I lived in Ohio, we had a pretty big property, and there was a pond on it. So this one time I took a girl out there—"
"I am already terrified of how this story is going to go," he said, covering his face with his hands.
"It's not... too bad," he said, shaking his head and laughing before continuing. "So, we sat on this little pier, and we were just kind of talking. There was a faint smell of dead fish in the air, but that just happened sometimes. I wasn't about to let it ruin my evening. It was going great, we were having a good time, so a good moment came along, and I decided it would be a great idea to kiss her. So I go ahead and I go for it; I lean in to kiss her. But as soon as I do that, she sees something over my shoulder and freaks out."
"Dead fish?" Jeff asked, looking up from tossing another handful of food to the fish with a raised eyebrow.
"Dead fish," he said, nodding. "She was, understandably, pretty freaked out, and the moment was no longer right to kiss her. She really just wanted to get the hell out of there at that point."
"That's pretty bad," he said sympathetically.
"No, what's bad is the fact that I thought it would be totally acceptable to get a large stick, hook the fish with it, then fling the fish back into the deeper water."
"You did not."
"I did."
"Nicholas," he said, his tone and face practically screaming 'disappointed parent'.
"I know, I know," he said, holding his hands up. "I am fully aware how that was not a great move."
"You could've gone back to deal with the fish after you had gotten the damsel back to safety," Jeff said, still shaking his head in disbelief.
"I realize that in hindsight," he said. "But I didn't think anything of it at the time. Lacey was never bothered by weird and/or gross things like that."
"She grew up with... two, right? She grew up with two brothers," he pointed out.
Nick laughed softly at that, shaking his head slowly as he looked back on the memory. "Yeah, I really could have handled that situation better to make that a better date," he said. "On the plus side, though, she was really nice about it."
"Yeah?" Jeff asked, raising an eyebrow. "Did you go out with her again?"
"No," he said with a slightly self-deprecating laugh. "Never. But she didn't say anything about it to people at school. And it was, like, a tiny school, too, so if she had told anyone, everyone would have known."
"Right," he said, nodding. "I can relate; private school. This one time I threw up on a guy and the next thing I knew, everyone knew about it. But, I mean, everyone was nice about it. You have to be, since everyone has shit like that happen. You never know when it'll be you next."
"Sounds terrifying," he said with a laugh.
"I literally just said that everyone was nice about it, god, Nick, do you listen when I talk?" Jeff teased and gave him a playful shove.
"Nope, actually, all I hear when you open your mouth is... well, it's like when adults talk in Charlie Brown's world," he said, nudging him back.
Ever the dramatic, Jeff threw himself to the ground as Nick's elbow connected with his side. "I have never been more hurt in my life," he said, trying to keep a straight face but proving incapable of holding the laugh out of his voice. "I cannot believe you would wound me like this."
"Sorry," he said with a laugh as he held out his arm to him, letting him take his hand to pull him back up.
Getting to his feet, Jeff turned slightly and looked down at himself. "Oh god, I'm covered in dirt," he said with a heavy sigh.
"Yeah, you really did," Nick agreed. For a second his hand was about to reach out and brush some of the dirt off for him, but then he thought better of wiping dirt off of another man's ass.
"I'm not great at thinking things through," he said, laughing. He glanced around them, sighing softly. "Okay, so, I think we're about done here. Want to leave and swing by the hotel real quick so I can change my pants?"
Part of Nick wanted to tell him that it was just dirt, and that a little bit of dirt never hurt anyone, but he decided against it. After all, he was entirely alright with the idea of leaving. "Yeah, that works," he said, nodding. "We can get some lunch after."
"I like the way you think, Duval," he said with a grin, getting to his feet. He grabbed the bucket of food again, holding it out over the water for a moment before upending it. All of the pellets left spilled into the water, sending the fish below into a frenzy. The two men watched them for a moment and laughed at the antics as some pushed each other practically out of the water in their eagerness, then turned and headed back up the trail together.
Once they were almost to the exit, Jeff stopped in his tracks. "No way."
Nick furrowed his brow in confusion, turning and following his gaze. There, behind a small area of picnic tables, was a smaller trail and a sign which read "Goats" with an arrow below it.
"We're going," he said and turned to go down the trail without waiting to see if the brunette was following (which he was, of course).
After a short walk, they indeed found themselves in front of a large pen full of at least in the neighborhood of two dozen goats, some much younger than others.
"Oh my god, look at that baby one!" Jeff said excitedly, grinning as he walked up to the fence. The goats started to approach the fence as well, the larger ones nudging their smaller and younger companions out of the way.
Nick knelt down to look at the one that he was trying to indicate, a baby goat that was black and white and currently backing away to get out of the way of the larger goats. "I feel bad for him," he said with a small frown as he watched.
"I know," he agreed with a sigh, kneeling down beside him and frowning. He reached out and petted the faces of some of the goats, all the while chastising them, "Stop it with the horns, be polite, wait your turn... No, sorry, no food here, no need to use your mouth... Let the babies come meet Jeffy, too."
Nick moved forward and started to interact with the goats as well, smiling to himself. Some of them seemed conflicted between the two people giving them attention, while others went to Nick until they realized that neither of the two of them had food to offer and quickly lost interest in the human visitors entirely. "If only we'd known to keep the food," he said with a soft laugh, looking over at Jeff.
"Damn us," he said with a sigh, shaking his head. "Those fish didn't appreciate it enough."
Once the trend began of leaving them because of their lack of food, more goats followed suit until there was just a couple of very persistent, grumpy-looking ones.
After trying (and failing) to braid both of their beards, Jeff stood up. "Well, that was fun," he chuckled. "But I guess their furry little cold shoulders mean we ought to go."
Nick chuckled softly as he stood back up, nodding in agreement. He started to turn to leave, actually getting a few steps away before realizing that Jeff was not following. He turned back around to face him, raising an eyebrow.
"I have an idea," Jeff said, putting his hand on the top of the fence.
"What is it?" he asked, though part of him was thinking that he probably did not want to actually know the answer to that question.
In lieu of an answer, Jeff glanced around to check that there was no one around before he started to heft himself over the fence.
"What are you doing?" Nick asked, his voice taking on a hushed tone out of habit when doing something wrong rather than out of any need to be quiet.
"We wanted this to be a thrilling adventure, right?" he asked, looking back at him.
"Well... Yes...?"
"Okay, then. What's more thrilling than stealing a goat?"
"Stealing a goat?" he echoed, frowning.
"Yeah, stealing a goat," he repeated with a nod. He lifted his arm to point, adding, "That's the parking lot over there. Just another fence away. Easy getaway. It'll be great."
Part of Nick wanted to tell him that it was a horrible idea. He wanted to talk Jeff down from committing grand theft livestock and help him back over the fence, but at the same time... He had never done anything like this. He had never misbehaved in any real way his whole life, and this... This really would be the kind of escapade he was craving when he went with Lacey to California.
So he didn't say anything, instead just watching (and keeping watch at the same time) as Jeff went further into the pen past the goats which were beginning to crowd around him again. He went straight for one of the baby goats, a small black and white one, getting close to it and petting it before picking it up. Once he was holding it firmly under his arm, he rushed back to the fence, handing it over to Nick.
"Go over to the parking lot fence," he said as he started to hop back over, his eyes darting around quickly.
Nick did as he was told, carrying the goat over to the fence separating them from the parking lot, with Jeff following after him.
Once they reached the barrier, Jeff once again went ahead and went over it first, then reached back to take the goat from Nick. "You can get over, right?" he asked.
"Yeah, of course," he said. Which he could, though being a bit shorter and evidently less experienced at things such as fence hopping, he took a bit longer, much to his blond companion's amusement.
Jeff did his best to carry the goat as inconspicuously as possible, though there was only so much a person could do when carrying a goat. He fished around in his pocket with his free hand for the car keys, unlocking the car and putting the goat in as quickly as he could.
Through the drive back to the hotel, Nick had to continuously look back at the goat and encourage it to stay calm and stop bleeting.
If Nick were to be perfectly honest with himself, there would be one thing he would have to admit: he had no idea whatsoever he got to the point he was at the night after stealing the goat. The facts he could tell you about that night are as follows: they found a liquor store a block from the hotel that had no qualms with selling alcohol to two boys who were clearly minors, he got incredibly wasted (for a reason he is entirely unsure of), Jeff was an even more likable person while drunk, and goats are incredibly loud creatures.
Because of goats being so loud, they quickly realized that keeping the goat just hanging around in their hotel room would not go well, for reasons that did not end with the hotel management inevitably finding out and kicking them out.
"Which... that'd be kinda cool, you know?" Jeff slurred as he pondered the thought, laying on his back on Nick's bed beside him (part of him thought that maybe this was another reason that he took to Jeff so easily: Jeff and Lacey were remarkably similar people in some ways, such as a lack of care for Nick's personal space). "Like... we'd be outlaws."
"I don't think that I'd like being an outlaw," he replied, shaking his head slowly.
"S'okay," he shook his head. "We'd be hotel outlaws. Not real ones."
"Cool," he said, nodding slowly. He groaned as he heard a bahhh of agreement from the bathroom where they had closed the goat in, rolling over to look towards the room.
There was long moment of silence that stretched out between them before Jeff clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and sat up. "I'm going to give the goat a bath," he announced as he got to his feet, swaying a bit as he made his way to the bathroom. A few moments later, Nick could hear the water cutting on.
He lost track of the next several minutes, and when piecing together all of the parts of that evening, he thinks that he was probably lulled to sleep by the alcohol working its way through his body and sound of the shower. All that he knew for sure, though, was that the next thing he knew, Jeff was back in the bed with him, slightly damp and wearing different clothes than he had been.
"Goaty does not enjoy baths," he said with a soft laugh.
"Surprising," he said, chuckling.
"But he's clean now," he informed him with a bright smile.
"Good," he said. Nick tried to sit up, yawning as he did so. His gaze landed on Jeff's inner ankle, where the edge of something on his skin peeked out from under his sweatpants. Too drunk to care that the action might come across as weird, he reached out and tugged the fabric up to reveal a small tattoo of an elephant holding a bundle of balloons.
"That's my leg," Jeff mumbled, rubbing his hand over his face. "I haven't shaved lately."
For a moment that statement snagged on Nick's brain, but he couldn't hold onto it for long enough to ask, so instead he just said, "Elephant."
"Elephant?" he repeated, confusion clear in his voice.
"Elephant," he said with a nod, gesturing to his ankle.
"Oh! Elephant," Jeff chuckled, nodding. "Got it for Birdy. She loves elephants. So much."
After a moment, he was able to place the name. "Your sister, right?"
"Yep," he said. "Only girl I'll ever love." He chuckled softly, grinning and putting his hand over his heart.
Nick just watched him for a moment, taking in how his hair was falling into his eyes in the front (Nick's hands itched to reach out and push it out of the way) and the way his lips were still pulled back in that warm smile that had captivated him right from the start.
He wanted to find a good way to articulate how interesting Jeff was to him, and how grateful he was to have him in his life. He wanted to tell him exactly how much he meant to him and how he was fascinated by the life he lived and how different it was from his own. He wanted to find the right words to portray the compulsion he felt towards him.
What all of that boiled down to, as it transpired, was a fairly embarrassing, "You're really confusing."
Jeff reached up and grabbed his arm, pulling him back down so that they were both laying on their sides, facing each other. "I'm confusing?" he asked with a soft laugh.
"Yeah, you are," he affirmed.
"Confusing how?"
Nick was silent for a long moment, his hands gesturing uselessly as he once again searched for the right words to convey what he was trying to get across to him. "You're easily the most interesting person I've ever met," he said. "And you bring me into it. There's a goat in the bathroom."
"That's true, there is," he said with a nod, gesturing for him to go on.
"And I really like that," he said, shifting in closer to him with a smile. "You're probably about the best person I've ever met."
"That's probably not true."
"No, it is, I promise," he said, entirely serious as if he had somehow systematically gone through all of the people he had ever met and was able to state with certainty that yes, Jeff took the cake, he was the best out of all of them. He was silent for another moment before adding, "It's weird, you know, because... I know so much about you and I know so little at the same time, and sometimes I get this feeling... I kind of want to kiss you."
That statement sobered Jeff up quickly, and he shook his head, suddenly getting much more serious. "That's not a good idea," he said. He sighed softly, reaching out and stroking Nick's hair gently. "Okay, it's late and you're drunk, let's get you to sleep."
"I don't want to," Nick said, shaking his head slightly even though he was dimly aware of the fact that he was just a few seconds away from falling asleep if he stopped making an effort to stay awake.
Jeff didn't say anything in response to that, just got to his feet and went to turn the light off in the room. He flipped the switch and the room was blanketed in darkness so that Nick couldn't see anything, though he felt the bed dip down as Jeff got back in, apparently having decided to settle in there for the night.
By the morning, Nick remembered nothing of having said any of it, being as half-asleep and still drunk as he was, and needed to be reminded before he remembered.
Nick woke up with his nose buried in blond hair and strong, warm arms wrapped around him. He immediately fell back asleep, pressing his face into Jeff's hair more to block out the sun that was creeping in through the curtains.
The next time Nick woke up, all he was aware for a moment was the fact that the warmth radiating from the body against his was retreating. He groaned, reaching out for him to pull him back in.
"Shh," Jeff shushed him. "I have to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back."
He let himself relax back into the bed, comforted by Jeff's reassurances. Sure enough, his friend was back in the bed after a couple of minutes, and he drifted off again easily.
The third time that he woke up seemed to be more permanent, the clock on the table between the beds telling him that it was about noon. Jeff was half-asleep beside him, waking up more as he stretched his arms out over his head.
"Morning," he mumbled to him.
"Good morning," Jeff said back, yawning and resting his head against him shoulder. They stayed like that for a moment, just looking at each other as their bodies curled up together, before Jeff spoke again. "I'm hungry."
"I don't want to move," he said.
"Me neither."
It was another several minutes before one of them suggested that they call room service to bring them food. With their hangovers, they agreed that breakfast food appealed to them more than anything else, so they called and got probably a ridiculous amount of food.
When it arrived they set it up on the bed between their bodies, eating their fill before banishing the tray and other assorted food trash to Jeff's bed so that they could get back huddled up against each other. They turned the TV on, both of them watching TLC in silence from their positions tangled up in each other.
"Is this weird?" Jeff asked after a bit, his voice soft and sounding almost hesitant, seemingly a foreign concept to come from him.
"No," he replied, shaking his head. "It's just... puppy piles. Me and Charlie and Lacey hang out like this all the time."
(In hindsight, looking back on that moment, Nick might be willing to admit that most of the time his puppy piles with his siblings were decidedly less... affectionate and touchy-feely. Never did he ever nuzzle his face into Charlie's neck.)
"Okay," Jeff said with a small nod, sighing softly and relaxing into him more.
So they stayed like that most of the day, only getting up in order to go to the bathroom and to check up on the goat. There was something just ridiculously enjoyable about being curled up with Jeff, their arms and legs tangled together and holding their bodies so that getting up became more of a task and thus got to be a bit more discouraged.
Laying there like that, Jeff proved to be just as affectionate as he had been so far in their relationship. Just like he never shied away from taking a hold of Nick's hands, he was just as willing to run his fingers through his hair or to run his hand down his side. His touch made a comforting warmth run through Nick, and it allowed him to forget all about the fact that he was starting to get homesick again and how he had an ex-girlfriend possibly pregnant with possibly his baby. Instead, all he had to think about was having a lazy day cuddling and watching TV with a guy that was quickly becoming his best friend.
Well, actually, no, there was one other thing that he had to think about.
"We really should not have kidnapped a goat," he said, breaking the relative silence during a commercial break.
It was a moment before Jeff said anything. "That's true," he admitted with a small nod.
"Like, that, in hindsight, was a really bad idea."
"That's true."
"Do you regret it?"
"Not one bit," he said, looking up at him with a grin. "Do you, Nicholas?"
"Not one bit," he repeated back to him, chuckling softly.
"Alright, great," he said. "Though... You are totally right in the fact that we should not have done it, and we probably need to do something about it."
"Suppose there's a good way to just... return him?" Nick asked with a soft laugh.
"Probably not," he replied, chuckling and shaking his head. "They're probably not too happy that we took the goat in the first place, yet at the same time I just know that they won't be grateful and reward us when we return him."
"We could pretend to be the heroes of the story," he laughed. "Like, say, 'what? No, we have no idea where this goat came from, but we're sure he belongs to you'."
"Sounds like a great plan," Jeff said with a grin, lifting up his hand to give him a thumbs up.
"It is," he said, smiling back at him. "Though I'm not sure that they would agree."
"Well, fuck 'em," he said, chuckling and shaking his head.
"Also a great plan," Nick said.
"I know," he said. A moment later, he shrugged and said, "We could just sneak him back in."
"Same way we got him?"
"Same way we got him," Jeff affirmed with a nod. "But at night, just because, well, one: doing things at night makes those things automatically about five times more awesome, and two: there will be less people around to see us bringing a baby goat back into a petting zoo."
"Yeah, that sounds like an actually good, realistic plan," he said with a nod.
"Wonderful," he said with a grin. "But before we do that, I still want to have a little more time with Goaty."
"Okay," Nick agreed, chuckling. "A couple of days, max, though."
"Of course, of course," he said.
With that decided, Jeff rested his head back down against Nick's shoulder, snuggling into him as the commercial break ended and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo came back on.
Three days, several coffee cups, four room service calls, and a copious amount of selfies with the goat later, the evening fell on the night they had decided that they were going to return him.
"I'm really going to miss this guy," Jeff said with a sigh as he knelt down on the bathroom floor in front of the goat. He pulled at the shirt they had put on him (one of several, as it were, because nothing is funnier than animals wearing people clothes, nothing) to take it off.
"Me too," Nick said with a soft laugh from his vantage point sitting on the bathroom counter watching him.
"Like hell you will," he replied teasingly, glancing up at him for a second. "You barely interacted with him this whole time."
"I so have," he said with a laugh, shaking his head.
"Nope, you really haven't," he said, finally getting the button-up off and tossing it in Nick's face with a grin.
"Yeah, I have," he protested, catching the shirt and setting it down beside him. "Just... Not as much as you."
"Which translates to having barely played with him at all," he chuckled, shaking his head.
"Not true."
This argument carried on through them bringing the goat out into the car and the drive over to the petting zoo, where Nick finally conceded that yes, maybe he had barely interacted with the goat (and, by extension, wasted the precious time that they all had had together).
(In his defense, though, the goat lived in the bathroom. It was terribly awkward to spend time with a goat after it has watched you shower and vomit and other assorted bathroom activities.)
As they got the goat out of the back of the Jeep in the entirely empty petting zoo parking lot, Nick's nerves started to get to him. He hadn't worried about it all too much since they had come up with the plan to put him back where he came from, but now that they were actually doing it, he was getting nervous about what could happen.
Jeff seemed to be able to sense this, seeing as he stopped what he was doing and turned to face him. "Relax," he said. "Look at this place. It's not exactly Fort Knox. There aren't any, like, cameras out here."
Just to be sure of what Jeff said, he had to glance around him to check for himself. There didn't appear to be any cameras, but if the security was good enough, maybe he just didn't see them.
But since Jeff didn't seem too concerned about it, and since he wasn't going to be the one actually carrying the goat back into his home, Nick decided he needed to just relax and let it happen, following after Jeff to the fence they'd jumped over a few days back.
As it turned out, getting back into the zoo was no problem at all. They returned to the pen their goat had been in with ease, putting him back down where he could roam free without a care in the word.
"Just one problem," Nick said with a small frown.
"What?" Jeff asked. "Look how happy he is."
"None of the other goats are outside," he said, gesturing around them. Pointing to a large building in the back of the pen, he added, "If I had to guess, they're all in there."
"Probably pretty cramped in there," Jeff said with a small frown, walking over. There was a door on the front of the building, a lock holding it shut. "Damn, I was hoping that whoever is in charge of this would've gotten lazy."
"Considering they just had a goat stolen, I'm not exactly surprised," he commented, looking at the lock with a small frown. "Got any ideas?"
Looking down at the lock in his hands, Jeff nodded slightly. "Yeah, totally," he said. "I can pick locks." He pulled a pen from his pocket, grinning at Nick before kneeling down.
Nick watched him for a moment before looking back out at the goat, which was wandering around aimlessly, probably overwhelmed by the fact that it was in such a familiar environment but wasn't being pushed around by several bigger and older goats. Beside him, Jeff was making noises of frustration (with the occasional pleased noise thrown in as well) as he fiddled with the lock, and he couldn't bring himself to ask about his skill level at picking locks. Granted, Nick himself was no expert, but wasn't it supposed to be a fairly quick thing?
A loud thud from somewhere farther in the zoo caused them both to jump, then look at each other.
"Does Goaty really need to be in here with all the other goats?" Jeff asked.
"No," Nick said, shaking his head. "He'll be right back with them first thing in the morning."
"Great," he said. "My thoughts exactly." With that, he took hold of Nick's hand and took off, leading him out of the goat exhibit then out of the zoo to their car.
Once they were safely in the car on their way back to the hotel, Jeff laughed and said softly, "You know, that was probably just an animal. Like, Drooly the Wonder Deer was having a moment or something."
"Probably," he agreed, chuckling. "But we had no way to know that."
"If we had stopped to think for a moment, we probably would have reached that conclusion," he said.
"Maybe," Nick said. "You know, honestly, I'm just going to go ahead and give ourselves credit and just assume, regardless of how untrue this assumption is, that there is some sort of night guard that was about to bust us."
"Sounds good," he said with a laugh, nodding in approval. He looked at the road ahead of them, a grin on his lips.
"What's that look for?"
"You've been around me too long," Jeff said. "You're starting to think like I am."
"Oh dear," he said, shaking his head.
Jeff let out a loud laugh. "Dear. Deer," he said.
"Dork," he said, rolling his eyes fondly at him.
"And proud."
They bantered back and forth until they got back to the hotel room, where Jeff flung himself onto his bed and announced with a grin, "I'm not tired at all."
"Which is why you got in bed," Nick said and raised an eyebrow at him, sitting down on his bed facing him.
"It was a soft place to land," he said. He got to his feet, standing on his bed and looking down at Nick. "Are you tired?"
Nick shrugged, shaking his head. "No, not really," he said.
"Great!" he said, jumping from one bed to the other. He leaned down and grabbed Nick's hands, pulling him to stand up with him. "Jump with me."
"You're literally a child," he told him with a laugh.
"That is entirely true," he grinned, jumping and pulling him with him.
Their conversation quickly devolved into just laughter and exclamations of how much fun they were having as they jumped on the bed, going from one bed to the other and stomping all over the sheets that the maid had fixed while they were out earlier in the day.
They kept going until they were both gasping for air in between their laughter, collapsing down onto the bed beside each other.
They laid there like that for a bit before Nick spoke up.
"I want to look at the sky," he said.
Jeff glanced over at him, nodding slightly. "What, this popcorn ceiling isn't doing wonders for the general aesthetic here?"
"Surprisingly enough, no, I'm not really enjoying that," he said, sitting up. He started to get to his feet, grabbing Jeff's hands and pulling him up like he had done to Nick earlier.
They went downstairs and outside, finding a bench outside the hotel in a quiet area. Sitting down on the bench, they both turned their eyes up to the stars sprayed out over the sky above them.
For the next several hours, they just sat there, watching the stars and clouds and airplanes overhead, making conversation. It was easy, words ranging from completely lighthearted (Jeff explaining the game he played with his friends—which was literally just saying "airplane" when you saw an airplane and getting a point for it, though like on Whose Line the points did not matter) to completely serious (Jeff's fears about getting older and having to mature faster than he was ready to; what Nick was feeling about his situation with Natalie). There was something so effortless and easy-flowing about it that Nick really didn't feel like any time was actually passing at all. So it completely caught him by surprise when the sky started to turn pink as the sun began to peek up from the horizon.
"We've been up all night," he said, blinking. He glanced around him, just now realizing that maybe he was a bit tired after all.
"That's true," Jeff said with a small nod, chuckling. "Weird."
"Yeah," he agreed, nodding. "I don't think I've ever pulled an all-nighter, to be honest."
"Well, then, I'm glad I could be here for such a big milestone," he said with a smile.
"I'm glad, too," Nick said, shifting in closer to him and leaning in so that he could rest his head against his shoulder. He yawned, his eyelids growing increasingly heavy. Suddenly facing an onslaught of sleepiness, he let himself fall asleep curled up against Jeff, who just smiled fondly and wrapped an arm around him.