(FIC) On The Road Again (3/3)
It’s a really good thing we got dressed before going to sleep, because we wake up with the door open and Duke and Ripcord staring at us.
“Are you… cuddling?” Duke asks.
Roadblock and I practically jump away from each other.
“There’s a really good explanation for this.” I say. Of course, I don’t know what that explanation would be… “Roadblock?”
“First of all, we’re back here, because it’s impossible to sleep up there. Both of you snore.”
“I don’t snore.” Ripcord says.
“No, you snore. Tunnel Rat doesn’t snore, but if you don’t hold him down, he tosses. And turns. And winds up kicking you in the face.”
“Hey,” I cross my arms. “I’m pretty sure I never kicked you in the face.”
“No, I pinned you down before you had the chance.” He snorts.
“… Right.” Duke looks skeptical, but he doesn’t call us out on it or anything. Still, pretty sure I know what he’s thinking.
“Remind me never to sleep with Tunnel Rat, then.” Ripcord laughs.
“Never gonna be an issue, my friend. Just because you’re not as loud as Duke and Scarlett doesn’t mean you don’t snore.”
“Whatever. I don’t snore. I call-“
“Shotgun!” I interrupt, darting past him and snagging the front seat. There. Unless Ripcord’s an only child, there will be a good-natured argument over this, and everyone’s mind will be temporarily taken off of this morning’s awkwardness.
Roadblock takes the driver’s seat amidst the crabbing-and thank you, Ripcord, for complaining about being relegated to the backseat-- and we hit the road. There’s cold Chinese food for breakfast, which makes it the best breakfast any of us have had in a long time. There’s less flirting being in the front seat, since we’re no longer behind them-and besides, I like to think I’m not dumb enough to try to distract the driver-and we had one close call this morning already, but that’s fine.
That’s more than fine. We finally had a whole night to ourselves, I can behave myself for as much of the day as I have to.
Midday we stop for a couple minutes to stretch our legs, and Roadblock pulls me aside around the back of the Coyote.
“Can I help you?” I grin up at him.
“Just thinking. Didn’t tell you yesterday how cute you look dressed like a delivery boy.”
“I’m not cute, I am certainly not cute as a delivery boy.”
“Mm-hm. Anything you say, cutie.”
My boyfriend thinks I’m cute. Dignity demands I be less ecstatic about this… Nah, I’m breaking out in a grin again.
“Shut up, you’re cute.” I say.
He just laughs. He is, though. I mean, I think so.
We stand there for a while. It’s a nice day out, and at least for a little while, there’s nothing more pressing than a quiet moment of each other’s company.
Well, all right. There’s sort of one thing.
“Hey,” I look up at him. “What are we gonna do about this, because I don’t know how long we can just let things go… I don’t think Duke’s stupid-I mean, I don’t think Ripcord’s stupid exactly, but some guys just plain don’t see these things, and… And Scarlett knows, and ain’t no way Snake Eyes hasn’t noticed. Dude can recognize people by their heartbeats, don’t think he hasn’t noticed mine speeds up around you.”
For a moment, that gets me a smile. “So we tell them, if that’s what you want to do. If there’s anybody we can trust, it’s them. Wouldn’t want to tell Army brass, and I wouldn’t want to tell the old folks back home, but we’re already putting our lives in their hands, I think… Maybe, if the opportunity comes up…”
“Yeah. If the opportunity comes up.” Again, that is, because yeah, maybe during the whole big DADT talk would’ve been the opportunity. “When the whole gang’s back together. Hey, how bad can it be, right?”
“Can’t be worse than fighting Cobra, that’s for sure.”
“Exactly. We’ve already been into the belly of the beast, we can handle being-- being honest with our friends.”
“Think of it this way-once we come out to the team… once we do that, we’ll have pretty much faced just about every fear there is.”
“Yeah. Coming out won’t be worse than dealing with freaky mind control.” I shudder. Thinking too much about that still gives me the creeps. It’s like living in Invasion of the Body Snatchers…
He squeezes my arm. “Won’t be worse than Scotland, either.”
“Freakin’ Duke scaring the crap out of all of us? Yeah. This’ll be easier than that.”
“Yeah.” His expression darkens for a minute. “That on top of everything.”
“I don’t know, I didn’t mind improvising, weapons-wise. Don’t tell me you didn’t love having a battle axe for once in your life.”
“That wasn’t too bad. I didn’t like having to trust that… the big suits of armor. Not after the last time. I mean, if it hadn’t worked out…”
“It worked out.” I cut him off. Yeah, Chicago. Chicago had been pretty bad, too.
I guess every stop’s been pretty bad.
But hey, that means… I mean, compared to all that…
“We really are going to be okay with all this, right?”
“Yeah.” He gives my arm another squeeze and offers a smile that isn’t too forced. “We will be.”
Optimism has never really been my bag, but hey, who knows-maybe the big guy’s having a positive effect on me, ‘cause I almost believe that might be true. Like we could come out to a couple people and just be fine, and it won’t spread any farther than that, and we’ll get our names cleared and… and things will just be fine.
I don’t know how, and of course nothing stays perfect for long, but at least I believe it could be a little perfect, for a little while.