Joel has always liked the bittersweet smell of rain.
The way the concrete streets start to get damp, had been the only thing Joel knew as a kid, accompanied with the sounds of rain drops hitting roofs and vehicles; he wondered how little him would've reacted if he knew that future him still liked the rain, but instead of being trapped inside his house and watching the cars from the windows, he's in one.
And he's driving to his favourite restaurant, with a man who he could call his. He was sure tiny Joel would find it awesome, except for the love part, because he wasn't so sure of himself when he was young.
The thought was humorous to him but a small part of himself bloomed; he knows himself now, and he was with someone he loved, in a car, out in the rain and he's himself more than he's ever been.
He didn't know when he was pulled out of his thoughts, unironically as he had been so stuck wondering where his life took such a bright turn, but was still aware of the way his hands turned the steering wheels — absentmindedly tapping against the heated leather surface, the way he hummed out the tune of the song playing on the radio on lowest volume — but all he knew that he was glad, or he could've missed that beautiful smile on his lover's cheeks that he swore was being pointed at him.
"What're you smiling at?" He asked, taking a moment to look at him, exchanging between them a secret smile of their own, an expression that was just theirs in the moment — before turning his attention back to the road. it wasn't but a mere 3 seconds, but Fwhip had given him such an exasperated look like he had committed a scandal.
"Don't look away from the road!" He warned, and Joel nodded with a knowing smile, as he had been told off by him before. Just like this, in the same moments, in love have they been in all those bits of pieces now a memory in the past as they spent another one like the other.
Bickering, Smiling when the other knew they were doing so, Fighting lightheartedly over the songs they should play next; Many days were spent like this. The two in their own little comfortable world, only achievable in the confines of Joel's car, a different sort of bliss that they return to over and over again.
"Okay okay, but what were you smiling at?" Joel asked again, and the same sort of dazed smile crawled itself back onto Fwhip's face and he was sure it would take a million years, or more for him to get sick of it. Lovestruck; was this feeling called.
Fwhip shook his head. "Nothing," He responded, yet Joel gave him time to continue, because there was no such thing as nothing with him, Fwhip could say a thousand words, and all of those words, Joel knew — were surrogates for the three simple words I love you. He was talkative to his core, and Joel loved him for it.
"I mean, You were the one stuck in your head with that dopey little smile of yours, I feel like It should be me who asks what's up." Fwhip had said to him with a smile, bringing his left hand up to lightly nudge against Joel's shoulders, and that made Joel laugh. Had he been so lost in his head, recalling and remembering things so sweetly, that he had not noticed that he — himself, was smiling into a distance, too?
Fwhip smiled. "What were you thinking about?" and Joel thought, for a second; two seconds; until it delved dangerously to a minute. They had hit a red light, and that gave Joel the time to turn towards his lover to see him waiting still — patiently. It bordered on a minute, then it had been a minute and 5 seconds since Joel failed to answer.
"You," He said quietly, and Fwhip couldn't have fallen any deeper.