It was really hot. Beyond hot. ‘Can’t-touch-the-car-buckle’ hot. And Allen, needless to say, was suffering. Like he usually did when it got over seventy degrees.
Except this time, it was almost a hundred degrees and Allen was confined to the inside of a hot car, no air conditioner, all windows rolled down.
At least they’d be out of there quick, right? As soon as Alfred got back from in the gas staation -the only one they’d found in this hell desert- they’d be in a cooler, less desolate state soon.
They’d been on the road for a few days now, a few days filled with switching spots between the drivers side and the passenger’s, a few days belting musical numbers together, and a few days of driving through cornfields wondering if there really was a God in emptiness that was Midwestern America. The two of them eventually decided that there wasn’t when they crossed into the hottest place that Allen had ever been in. He was a Northerner, what do you expect?
Finally Alfred returned, pulling the door open and tossing a bag of snacks over into Allen’s lap.
“I got you those little squishy snack cake things you like so mu- hey, get your feet off my dashboard!” The blonde swatted Allen’s feet off his dash for nearly the third time on this trip, much to the other man’s complaint. “It’s just a car..” He muttered, diggimg into the bag, to locate that sweet junky road trip food meant to keep you going. “Thanks, babe.” He glanced over to grin at Alfred thankfully and was met with his boyfriend unfolding a map on the steering wheel.
He was immediately suspicious.
“What’s the map for?”
“Uh…For finding the next gas station. In case we get low on gas again.” Alfred laughed, and it was one of those ‘I’m lying but I don’t want you to know’ laughs that Allen knew so well.
“That’s a map of the next few states around us, babe,” Allen pointed out and then proceeded to groan softly. “…We’re lost, aren’t we?” Now it made sense why Alfred wanted to find a gas station so badly when the gas wasn’t even that low, he had no idea where they were.
“No, we aren’t. Just a but turned around, I’ll figure it out.”
“Oh my God. We’re so lost, we’re gonna die out here in this desert wasteland. I don’t know if I can take going through the corn hell-maze again.”
“Allen, please. I’ll figure it out!” Alfred insisted with that sweet, heart-melting grin of his and Allen couldn’t help but give in with a slow, reluctant sigh.
“…If we burn up out here in this heat do I get the rights to ‘I told you so’?”
“Sure, because it’s not gonna happen. I promise!”
Allen just groaned and slunk back into his seat more. Welcome to Hell.