To: @interabangs From: @mastermind-marius
Yeehaw, Roadtrip! “Eric~” “Eric!” “Eric…” “Gimme an E!” “E!” “Gimme an R!” “R!” “Gimme an I!” “I!” “Gimme a C!” “C!” “What’s that spell?!”
At the same time, Mira and Dio shouted into Eric’s ears; “Eric!” “Bitch!”
Eric covered his ears and sunk into his seat. He’d rather sit in the trunk than between these two.
Dio and Mira high-fived over his head and continued to talk loudly about how stupid this whole trip was, and Mira told stories about some of Eric’s more embarassing moments. He was ready for this to be over with.
He wasn’t the only one.
Gentarou and Delta were lucky enough to be in the front seats; Gentarou driving and Delta in the passenger. But they were still trapped in a station wagon with three bickering, well. Children, basically. And one could only deal with that for so long.
Gentarou had heard Delta mumbling from time to time throughout the drive. He at first thought the old man might be sleeping, but decided he was actively talking to himself instead. Thoughts of jumping out of the car, SHIFTing somewhere else, or just killing Dio.
Needless to say, Gentarou agreed with the sentiment. However, his thoughts were closer to either crashing the car and killing them all, or having Delta drive while he beat up the three in the back.
Intrusive thoughts, am I right?
It was an odd situation that brought them all together; a holiday dinner that originally only Delta had been invited too, since it was his family, the Klims. Then Luna had convinced them to invite Dio, and Diana invited Akane, Junpei, and Carlos. Akane invited Gentarou, and Carlos invited Eric, who in turn invited Mira.
Gentarou still wasn’t fully convinced they weren’t going to poison him. He had done some horrible things when he was younger. He swore he remembered Akane dying, but maybe not…
Somehow, the five assholes had managed to carpool and Gentarou ended up driving. And now he was hoping Akane was going to poison him. Lord help him if he has to drive back with these idiots.
Three hours into the drive, it seemed that there would be a ray of hope. Mira had fallen asleep, and Dio, now that he was without his partner in crime, was significantly more tolerable. Gentarou could breathe, Delta wasn’t threatening to kill himself, and Eric’s headache was fading.
And then the tire exploded.
The car jolted, waking Mira up and causing Dio to shout. Delta braced himself against the dashboard and Gentarou desperately tried to stop the car. they skidded off the road onto the flat desert, slowing to a stop as luggage flew off the roof.
When they finally stopped, there was a moment of dead silence, before Gentarou slammed on the horn to cover his swearing. Everyone else soon joined in on the shouting.
Taking a moment to collect himself, Gentarou ordered everyone out of the car. As he inspected the damage, Eric tried to collect the fallen luggage. Dio collected his own, refusing to let anyone else touch it, but other than didn’t help, and Mira simply leaned against the car and watched, determined to be as little help as possible.
Delta was an old man and nobody really wanted to force him to help, but he went looking for a spare tire in the back of the car and wouldn’t let anyone help him; he was old, not fragile.
Unfortunately, despite being a rental car, there was no spare tire. The five were stranded another hour away from the Klims. An hour by car, that is.
Overly dramatic as always, Dio sat in the trunk of the car with his luggage and groaned. “Can this trip get any worse? First I’m stuck in a car with you guys, then I lose the few bits of entertainment I had, now we’re stranded—”
Dio was abruptly cut off by Gentarou shutting the trunk. “Who’s got a working phone with a Klim’s number.”
Mira was inspecting her nails, and didn’t look up even when Dio started pounding on the window near her. “Pretty sure blondie in there has Luna’s. But his phone died like twenty minutes in.”
Gentarou looked to the older man kneeling beside the exploded tire. “Delta? They’re your family.”
“I don’t own a phone.” He stated. “Too distracting.”
Eric shifted around the several bags he was carrying, trying to find a good way to hold all of them. “Don’t you have Akane’s number, Gentarou?”
“Akane’s number changes almost daily. Also my phone has a habit of not working. And there’s no telling if she’s there yet, thats why I asked for a Klim number.”
“Ah. Right. Cool.”
Eric promptly dropped most of the bags, and Mira sighed, grabbing one of hers and tossing it to Gentarou.
Upon looking inside, he found at least 15 different phones, all of different makes and models.
“At least one of those used to be Phi’s.” Mira told him. “They all still work, just find hers and call her dad or whatever.”
Gentarou paused, fishing one out of the bag. “Why do you have a bag full of phones.”
Mira shrugged. “Finders keepers.”
Eric, likely more out of concern than curiosity, peeked into the bag and gasped. “Mira!” He whipped around to see her getting back into the car. “Half of these phones are mine! I-Is— Ar-Are you why all my phones keep going missing?!”
Mira smirks. “You snooze you lose.” She told him, and then climbed into the car, immediately starting an argument with Dio.
Gentarou tossed some phones to Eric as he leaned against the car. “Help me with this, won’t you?”
Eight phones later, Gentarou frowned, showing Eric a lockscreen. “Isn’t that, uh, Dio’s only friend?”
“Luna?”
“Yeah, her.”
“No, but it is Diana. And I think that’s Phi and Luna and Kyle in the background?” Eric looks closer. “Maybe it’s Sigma’s phone.”
The two guessed Sigma’s password easy enough, found Diana’s contact (labelled “💖❣️Darling Dianya💜💕”), and called her.
Diana was sympathetic, and promised Sigma would come and get them all. Of course, it would still take an hour.
When Sigma got there with a tow truck, he was greeted with the sight of Gentarou in the car, head on the wheel, Mira and Eric lounging on the roof, Delta writing nonsense in the sand, and Dio still locked in the trunk.
He sighed. He hadn’t expected anything less.
Sigma had everyone help him attach the broken-down station wagon to the tow truck, and then everyone piled in and started the drive back. Luckily, most everyone was too exhausted to bother eachother.
By the time they got to the Klim household, dinner had started. But there were plenty of seats at the table.
And Akane didn’t even try to poison Gentarou this time.