☆ starter: @raydnarvaezjr !
It isn’t terribly comfortable or luxurious, but it’s what the boys managed to patch together as their home: a stolen van in a hideous forest green, a clean mattress picked up street-side, cheap blankets and pillows swiped from unlocked apartments and dollar stores. With the addition of it being mobile and rent-free, he can’t complain. It gets sweltering in summer and freezing in winter, but on this fall evening on the east coast the chilled air feels like a blessing as it kisses Michael’s hot, freshly-bruised cheek.
Parked in a wooded area outside the city, he’s got the back doors cracked and lets his legs hang out into the air. The remains of their campfire make the air smell crisp and like burnt wood. Homey. Crickets sing, leaves rustle, and far off, the highway whistles with cars. His socks lay on the makeshift bed next to him in a crumpled lump, arms laying comfortably on his belly, eyes closed as the wheezing, struggling hum of their mini-fridge urges him to get a nap in.
Ray had popped out to take a piss outside--or that’s what Michael assumed anyway. He didn’t ask as the younger climbed out a few minutes prior; he was just listening, waiting to hear him come back in. Or call for Michael, whose fingers get itchier with each passing moment for the guns stowed under their shared mattress.