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“We’re gonna drive it – and oh my god, Ian, as if. That’s not even funny!”

It didn’t help his case that he was trying to hold back his laughter, and not well, as he said it, giving Ian’s arm a playful punch.

“It would be the perfect crime though… No one would ever suspect little old me… Thanks for the idea!”

He smiled widely, he had been worried about how the trip would go but he was already having fun. It was going to be far simpler, and slower but he wanted to show Ian what he knew; he wanted to share with him something close to him. Even if he hadn’t always liked growing up in a small town, he’d be lying if he hadn’t daydreamed what it would be like to have someone special to go on the trips he went on with friends, to have been able to have had the experiences that they had. It was a bit of a selfish gift in a sense, but he meant well, and he was genuinely excited.

They’d wandered past most of the storefronts now, having come to a small lot filled with all makes of vehicles, none of them particularly new or showy. And even smaller than the lot was the office that Shiloh veered them towards.

“I’ll only be a sec,” he said, giving a quick press to Ian’s arm. He was glad he’d already ventured here the month before as it saved him the trouble of having to explain his hair and everything else to the unenthused guy at the desk inside. Once had been enough, and he’d been able to remember enough of his redneck vocabulary and country politeness to assure him he’d take good care of his rental. He’d even managed to get the guy to run a few errands for him before they’d gotten there, with the help of several green bills that he promptly handed over once inside.

A few moments of conversation was all it took, a signature here and after picking up several bags and another pack over his shoulder, Shiloh squeezed awkwardly out the door, buried beneath all of the stuff.

“It’s the red Ford over there,” Shiloh said brightly, gesturing in its direction with a jingle of the keys. It was a bit beaten up but looked solid, and his excitement only grew. “Your chariot awaits, my prince.”

It was a little funny,” Shiloh admitted, giving into his laughter. “You’re a little funny… Funny lookin’!”

They were a perfect pair, the two of them.

Shiloh followed Ian to the truck, no less enthusiastic but a little more weighed down. “It’s locked, genius,” he teased, pulling down the tailgate and hoisting himself, and the stuff into the bed of the truck. One of the bags looked suspiciously like it might contain some sort of tent, a couple others food and some more without description. He figured they’d hold up okay back there, taking his time in ignoring Ian’s pleas to hurry up, a smile on his face. After needlessly pushing the stuff around, he jumped down, leisurely sauntering over to the passenger door.

“Getting there is the best part,” he said knowingly, bumping his hip affectionately into Ian’s to move him out of the way. “So hold your horses. We can through the duffels back here, behind the seats… Oh, I almost forgot!”

Shoving his bag into the truck, he handed the keys to Ian, and jogged back over to the office.

When he emerged again a few minutes later, it was with a plastic cooler in his arms and he quickly loaded it in the back with the rest of the stuff, pushing the tailgate up and brushing off of his hands.

“Probably good if we had some food, right?” he grinned at Ian.

Beneath his smile he was practically vibrating, he couldn’t believe that this weekend had finally had come, he couldn’t believe they were doing this. Not that it was anything groundbreaking or spectacular in and of itself but to be able to look at his boyfriend, handsome as ever in the climbing sun, his heart swelled and he had to fight every bone in his body not to swoop him up in a great hug and plaster him with kisses. He just loved him so much… But it wasn’t the place, not yet. Ian had grown up in the big city, and the big city afforded certain freedoms that a place where everyone knew your name could never offer. Shiloh had chosen a place far enough that no one would, but the old instinct to not let anyone know came back without thought and he slid to the other side of the truck instead of doing what he wanted, knocking on the driver’s door for Ian to let him in.

There’d be plenty of time for affection later, outside city limits. Shiloh was banking on it.

“Me? Never.”

He, being about as mature as his boyfriend, made a face in return, before making his trip to the office.

Then, once in the truck, he accepted the keys only to clink them against Ian’s roving hand with a laugh, before pushing them into the ignition.

“Uh-huh, whatever you say. What you like to eat is not sustenance, I hate to break it to you but if you want to spend the whole weekend testing your stamina, I mean, I can just pull the truck behind the lot and we can camp out there for the weekend.”

He looked at Ian, his face cheery and anything but innocent. But as soon as Ian had shut his door, Shiloh was pulling his seatbelt on and, after checking to made sure Ian had too, safety first, he put the truck in gear, backing up and out of the lot.

“Off we go, to the wild blue yonder!” Shiloh said along with Ian, in a singsong sort of voice.

He was pumped up as it was and Ian’s behavior was catching, it was silly and wonderful and Shiloh felt a rush of excitement as they pulled onto the road and he pulled off. He reached over to turn on the radio; seeming to know the stations he found a country one, sure anything else would come in scratchy in this locale but also because well, it was the sort of place to have the radio blasting the twang he’d grown up with. With a laugh, he spared a quick glance over at Ian.

“Maybe I should have worn a plaid shirt, you know, tied it up all cute like those girls do.”

They really were heading towards the sunset, at least they would have been had it not been the middle of the day, but westward the truck moseyed on, past the storefronts, past main street, past the town until all that dotted the sides of the roads were houses here and there and a multitude of fields, vibrant green in the summer sun.

He didn’t object to Ian’s hand further, probably because he liked the feel of it there, for reasons both innocent and not. As they settled onto the highway, he let his right hand drift from the wheel, curling it over Ian’s with a squeeze.

“Should have known you’d be all for it,” he laughed, but he couldn’t help but picture it too, with the way Ian was describing it in vivid detail. The only difference was that in his imagination, Ian was the one all done up and he couldn’t help that his face had gotten slightly redder just thinking about it. Or Ian as a wrongdoer… All tied up in his…

He was lost as well, as he forced himself to look at the road ahead and not at his mischievous boyfriend and everything faded to a lull of guitar strings and the passing scenery until Ian spoke again. The fields around them were nothing new for Shiloh, it’d been awhile since he’d been around them but they’d never stopped being familiar. The air smelt like them, like grass and the occasional hint of animals and it was a pleasant smell, one he sometimes missed. Deus never had smells like that, smells of civilization no matter how rural.

Rolling the window down in response to Ian’s question, he switched hands on the steering wheel and leaned his arm out of it, letting it hang in the breeze.

“We’ve got a little bit yet, but not too long,” he promised with a smile. “Still, you might want to get cozy, can’t say the scenery changes too much until we get there.”

And it wouldn’t, especially if Shiloh planned the route right. He turned off the highway at one point, onto some country roads, following them until he hit another stretch of long road, and stayed on it.

All the while the music was playing, and he was grinning as the breeze fed through the window and tousled his hair. Quietly, he couldn’t help but sing along.

“S’in the middle of nowhere… Only one way to get there…”

All things considered, they hadn’t been back together for a long time but their relationship was something Shiloh had found himself slipping into easily, without even realizing how far he’d fallen again.

Any wariness, hesitation, it was melted away with every smile, every handhold, every kiss. It was impossible not to give into a feeling so heady, just being around Ian lifted his spirits, he felt safe and above all, he felt loved. He didn’t need to consider his words around Ian, and he didn’t need to worry what Ian would think of him. He could be himself, goofy and childish with a nose for trouble and still Ian stood behind him, was there at the end of the day to welcome him into his arms. It was that sort of acceptance that made him feel like he could take on the world again, like he could try again to be a better person, to make the world a better place, no matter how impossible the island tried to make such a thing seem.

He smiled down at Ian’s head as his boyfriend leaned against him, and as he turned his eyes back to the road, he couldn’t have been happier.

“You’re cute,” he countered with a soft laugh, reaching over to ruffle Ian’s hair.

The air was warm around them but it seemed to get less humid, less muggy as they drove and Shiloh was glad Ian was preoccupied being half asleep as glimpses of glittering blue water snuck through the trees of the wooded lots separating the highway from the beach.

He could feel the butterflies in his stomach as they drew closer, his excitement growing. They were practically there as he turned down a sandy dirt road but he decided to ignore Ian’s request, not saying anything at all until finally the truck rolled to a stop and he turned it off, glancing down at Ian expectantly.

Outside, Shiloh had pulled the truck up beside a little garage, a few yards away from a little cottage. It was a little rough around the edges but quaint, trees on either side of it separating it from the other little dwellings that dotted this side of the lake. And the lake was there too, just at the end of the lot, past the house, a well-used fire pit and a hammock. There was a small bank of sand, and a dock, reeds poking up around it but the water was clear.

Shiloh leaned over, relenting, and kissed the top of Ian’s head.

“We’re here, love.”

The bugs were just as noisy as they were in town, chirping away in the trees as Ian quietly let himself out of the truck. It was a view Shiloh admired with a bit of pride – it was fun to imagine, to pretend for just a weekend that this was their world, that this was his truck that his boyfriend was sliding out of, that this was their summer getaway. It wasn’t permanent but for now, for what it was, it was perfect.

Shiloh had his hand half on the handle and while he watched Ian round the front of the truck, he didn’t really put two and two together until Ian was pulling the door open and Shiloh nearly toppled onto him, saved graciously by the hands that were already reaching for him.

“Oomph,” he grunted, resting his weight against Ian as he leaned partially off of the seat. His face plastered with a silly grin as he glanced up at Ian, his hands gently closing around the collar of his shirt.

“Imagine running into you here, of all places,” he teased, following his words with a press of his lips against Ian, soft and inviting.

There was no hesitation, and that’s why he’d picked this place. It was the end of summer and he knew most of the residents would have packed in and gone back home and those that stayed were too busy enjoying the last of the holidays to worry about meeting newcomers, especially so late in the season. The lot itself was private, not enough that it was completely cut off, as the view across the lake filtered through the trees, but enough that they didn’t have to worry about anyone or anything, they could be themselves without interruption.

It was exactly like home hadn’t been and yet it was what he dreamed that someday home could be. A place where they didn’t have to worry about anything but the mundane, whether it be the country or city or both, a place where they could live and love and at the end that was all that mattered. It was all that mattered to Shiloh, really. Deus had taught him many things but mostly it had taught him about what was precious.

“It’s good?” he asked, unable to resist one question. “I think there’s a little boat in the garage, if we ever wanted to take it out, or there are definitely canoes kicking around somewhere. It’s really pretty out on the water, we could even go fishing if you really wanted to.”

Shiloh, of course, could think of better things to do with their time, but it felt like the sort of thing he should offer, it being a cottage and the rugged outdoors and all.

They were something he’d been so accustomed to as a kid, the trill of the cicadas announcing the end of summer and the start of fall. It was with surprising ease that he slipped back into the memories, and he didn’t think much of the sounds and the familiarity and sort of comfort they brought, he didn’t even realize he’d gone a whole year without those sorts of sounds.

They were the sounds of things that were alive, things that were normal, bugs that were just bugs and not nightmares. They were the sounds of boats out on the water, not a drill, not a battle but just because they could be, without worry of tentacle or titan. There was yelling, but there was laughter, there was the trill of birds and the croaking of frogs and somewhere a dog barked.

Shiloh took it all for granted, his eyes and ears trained only on one thing at the moment, that thing being Ian. His smile was as wide as could be as Ian assured him it was just right and he could barely contain himself, feeling like he might burst at just how happy and excited he was that Ian liked it, that they could share this together.

Ian lifted him from the truck and he laughed, delighting in Ian’s arms around him. It was a delight that only grew as he found himself not carried towards the cottage but instead pushed against the truck, Ian’s lips silencing his laughter in favour of something far more rewarding.

He was more than happy to accept Ian’s gratitude, revelling finally in the fact that he was here, that he was here with the person he loved and they were all over each other and it was amazing. It was better than he could have dreamed of and when they finally broke apart, he was breathless, his heart pounding in his chest.

“Just us,” he said, grinning. “We can do whatever we want. We can go swimming! And canoeing and we can have a barbecue and a bonfire and we can lie out at night and watch the stars and we can blast the radio and yeah!”

He was giddy, his fingers squeezing into Ian’s sides.

“Help me unpack?”