Archive of Our Own ^beta

„Next one right.“

„…I can’t take the next one right, it’s a one-way street.”

“What? No, but here it says that you have to turn right…”

“Are you /sure/?”

“Just keep driving. “

James sighed heavily but drove on. His glance jumped over to John who had maps scattered all over his lap and was once again wearing James’s reading glasses. He said he could read better with them. James was certain he only wore them because he thought they made him look ‘hip’. Whatever that meant.
“Are you sure you have the right map?”
This time it was on John to sigh. It had grown dark outside and James was sure they were driving in circles.
“No, I am /not/ sure. You have too many.”
“Maybe you’re just too fucking stupid to read them.”
John glared.
“You know, we wouldn’t have that problem if you’d stop being a pretentious prick and make use of a satnav instead, like normal people do.”
James clenched his hands around the wheel, knuckles turning white beneath the skin as he scowled at his annoying company.
“If you wouldn’t have spilled coffee all over yourself, we would have had more time to take a proper look at the maps before leaving.”
John Silver gasped like the drama queen he was, looking utterly offended and betrayed.
“Me? It was /you/ who spilled coffee over me! You ruined my best shirt!”
Flint huffed and then rolled his eyes, turning left at the next turn without actually knowing whether this was the right street.
“It’s not my fault that you can’t balance yourself on your own two le-…”
Too late he realized his mistake. John fell silent and even without turning his head to look at the other, James recognized the tension in the younger man’s shoulders and jaw.
He sighed, softer this time.
“I am sorry.”
Silver merely nodded, focusing on the map in his hands, or at least pretending to do so. After a moment of silent driving, Flint grinned.
“It was fun though.”
There was a pause of confused silence in which John frowned while staring at the other man and then suddenly his eyes widened, jaw dropping.
“You did not….the coffee was /hot/! I could have injured myself!!”
James couldn’t suppress his amused expression, not that he really tried to.
“You screamed like a little girl.”
Silver was glaring again but there was obvious amusement tugging at the corner of his lips, pulling them into a smile.
“That’s the wrong street.”
James was so distracted replaying the earlier scene in his head – yes, he had bumped into Silver on purpose but his face had been totally worth it – that he missed out on the next turn.
“Fuck, shit!”
The car came to a halt with a squeak and Flint wheeled it around into the opposite direction right in the middle of the street.
The other man was grinning but before James could complain about him again, John’s hand was on his thigh, drawing circles and meaningless patterns with his thumb. And, oddly, this was enough to calm James down. He leaned back in the driver’s seat and smiled at his partner.
“Maybe a satnav isn’t such a bad idea after all.”
It was no big thing, nothing important, and yet John smiled as if he’d just received the greatest gift in the world.
“Told you.”
James rolled his eyes again, watched how the other man leaned forward to switch on some music.
“Why are we going to that party again?”
With a sigh of relief Flint acknowledged the fact that John had apparently picked out a CD instead of playing the radio. Both of them were convinced the other had a bad music taste but nothing was worse than listening to the radio. And John /did/ listen to the radio. Usually.
But not in the car. Flint’s car – Flint’s rules – Flint’s music.
“Because we were invited.”
John huffed, not satisfied with the answer and after a moment Flint added:
“Or maybe I simply like seeing you in a suit.”
Despite the dark of the night James managed to catch a glimpse of the other’s reddened cheeks and his nervous fingers, adjusting the bowtie he was so unused to wearing.
This time John didn’t have a clever answer.

It took them about an hour to get to their destination. They were forced to stop several times to take a look at the map and argue a little more over who of them was the one incapable of finding the right street. Eventually, however, they found what they were looking for and James even managed to spot a parking space for the car. It was only when John already rang the doorbell that he looked up to meet James’s eyes and asked: “Did you take the gift?”
Flint startled, looked at his own hands and then back into the dark into the vague direction of where he had left the car.
“Fuck.”