heat wave
Written for August Fic Challenge 2023, Prompt: Road Trip. Comments and kudos would be awesome. Enjoy!
It is way too damn hot to sleep.
At something close to four in the morning, Bo gives up on the pretense with a frustrated sigh and slinks out of bed in the middle of the night, sweaty and exhausted. Zipper follows him downstairs, and Bo is sure the elderly golden retriever is not enjoying the heat much either.
A heat wave has been slow baking Los Angeles for the last week and a half, with temperatures constantly up near 110 degrees, with hardly any relief at night. They're under heat advisories and water restrictions. It's been causing rolling blackouts and power failures have been plagued their town. Last night had been the worst. It's unbearable.
It does not help at all that he shares his bed with someone who puts off roughly as much heat as the sun, no matter the weather (hell, even when they'd gone to Boston in the dead of winter for his sister's wedding he'd been so toasty curled up in bed with Jimmy that he'd had to turn on the ceiling fan). Now, he is clad in nothing but a pair of boxers and even that seems like entirely too much clothing.
He refills Zipper's water bowl with ice water and gets a glass for himself before he settles on their back porch, reveling in the slight breeze the night air provides. Stares up at the night sky and wills the temperature to drop just a few more degrees. Zipper joins him, flopping down on the cool concrete with a huff.
It doesn't take long before Bo hears the creak of movement inside the house, and when Jimmy appears in the doorway, he is not surprised that he's been tracked down – the heat may not bother him, but Bo's absence always does. Stifling a yawn, Jimmy asks, "Can't sleep?" as he moves to join Bo. He is wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants and looks remarkably unbothered by the weather. Bo finds his choice of attire utterly infuriating.
"Ah, ah," he says, pulling his feet up to block the empty space beside him on the bench. When Jimmy frowns at him in confusion, he explains, "I love you, Jimbo, but I feel like I'm on fire. You keep your werewolf heat far away from me right now, deal?"
Jimmy laughs, leans down to steal a kiss. "I have a better idea."
Reluctantly, Bo allows Jimmy to drag him back into the house.
At Jimmy's vague instruction, Bo packs a bag for a weekend away. Jimmy does the same and then spends a few minutes packing for their dog, as well. They load up the car, Zipper happily settled across the backseat, and take off. The cool chill of the car air-conditioning quickly lulls Bo to a blissfully cool sleep as Jimmy drives them out of LA, the radio playing quietly in the background.
When he stirs several hours later, he finds that Jimmy's gotten them all the way up to San Francisco. It's much cooler 400 miles north of Los Angeles and already Bo feels better having gotten some sleep. "I love you," Bo tells him, slotting himself against the other man's side as they carry their bags into the hotel with Zipper's leash wrapped around his wrist.
Jimmy grins and plies him with a fancy breakfast at some oceanfront café and then a comfortable walk around Fisherman's Wharf. Now that he's not melting out of his skin, he's having a good time, and revels in this spur of the moment adventure with Jimmy. They hit up a few other dog-friendly tourist spots and then retreat back to the hotel for a swim in the pool before they wander out again for an easy dinner. Ice cream follows and Bo enjoys the chill.
When they finally return to their room late at night, Jimmy blasts their room AC as low as it will go and wrangles Bo into bed with him, Zipper sprawled out across their feet, all of them perfectly content.