Will's POV

It was the warmth of the sun streaming through the window and cold feet pressed against my back that woke me the next morning. When I cracked open my eyes I was staring into Nico's sleeping face, his mouth ajar and his eyes still shut. Throughout the course of the night he had pulled the blankets tightly to his body so they bunched around him like a nest, his head poking out of the mass. His gentle breathing made the hair on his forehead flutter and for a few minutes I couldn't take my eyes off of his angelic face until he kicked me in the stomach in his sleep and the magic was gone.

I stood up, stretching as I surveyed the room. We hadn't brought much with us, and all that was lying on the floor were our clothes in a messy heap. As I was putting my jeans back on my stomach gave a loud rumble, and I was suddenly reminded of breakfast. I was ready to pick up and leave but Nico was still asleep, snoring quietly in the bed and I didn't want to wake him so I climbed back into the bed, my back up against the headboard as I listened to the sound of his breathing fill the room.

It didn't take him long to wake up and soon he was giving me a sleepy smile, sitting up and resting his head against my chest. "How long have you been awake?" he murmured, his voice thick with sleep.

"Not long," I said. "We should go soon, though. There isn't much to do here, and you must be hungry." Nico nodded, sliding out of the bed and throwing on his rumpled tee shirt from the floor. 

"So, what do you have planned?" he asked once we were both fully dressed and the covers were hastily pulled over the bed. 

"I was thinking Denny's," I said. "There's one up the road if you want. We just have to check out first." Nico nodded and once we were checked out we were back in the car, driving down the road. I hadn't known what time it was but the sun rising over rolling hills in the distance told me that it must have been early, or at least early for a high school student to wake up on the weekend. I supposed it was a consequence of going to sleep so early last night, and I wasn't unhappy. When I looked over at Nico he was smiling at the sky, his head resting on the window pane and the sunrise reflecting in his eyes. The road was quiet as we drove, and we only passed a few cars as the wheels propelled us down the highway. 

The parking lot was abandoned when we reached the Denny's but the lights were still on, a warm yellow glow spilling out of the windows. We climbed out of the car and it felt like the newly risen sun was pushing us inside the doors as we walked inside, sitting on opposite sides of a booth, supported by cherry red cushions. We were greeted by a cheerful waitress, an order pad tucked inside her checkered apron. "What can I get you kids?" she asked, a wide smile taking over her face. 

"I'll have a coffee, black," Nico said, peering at the menu in front of him. 

"And I'll have one with five creams and five sugars," I said. 

"Any chance you're ready to order?"

"Yeah, I'll have the french toast," I said. The waitress was scribbling something down on her order pad. 

"I'll have the stack of pancakes," Nico said. "Thank you."

"You're welcome, sweetie," she said, holding her hand out for the menus. Once she was gone, I turned on Nico. 

"How can you even think about drinking black coffee?" I asked. "It's impossible. It's disgusting. It's as bitter as my seventh grade science teacher."

"It's good," Nico argued. "You load your coffee up with so much junk it's not even coffee. It's just cream and sugar with a little bit of caffeine in there."

"It's good," I snapped. "You can't judge something that you've never tried." 

"Well, that's exactly what you're doing," Nico said. Our eyes met and we broke out into laughter. 

"I can't believe we're fighting over coffee," I said, grinning. "I think this is the first thing we've ever had that comes close to a fight."

"That's a good thing, isn't it?" Nico asked. "That the only thing we're ever going to fight about is the right way to drink coffee?" When I looked into his eyes I could see genuine happiness, the kind of happiness that only came when something big was happening, something that could change a person's life for the better. Or, maybe it wasn't quite happiness. Maybe it was more like love.

Our food arrived, steaming heaps of bread coated in maple syrup, butter melting off of the sides. "Enjoy," our waitress said, apparently oblivious to the shocked look on Nico's face. 

"What?" I laughed, cutting easily into the soft french toast. "You look like you saw a ghost."

"They're huge," Nico said, lifting one of the plate sized pancakes and watching as a drop of maple syrup fell off. "I can't eat all of this!" 

"Well, you're going to have to," I said, prodding at the bottom one, the tongs of my fork sinking in. "I swear, you're like a five year old sometimes." Nico rolled his eyes, slicing off a piece and sticking it into his mouth. 

"Happy?" he asked, shoving in another piece. 

"Yes," I said. "Are they good?" He nodded.

Nico had been wrong about not being able to finish the pancakes. Fifteen minutes later found us sitting in front of plates licked clean of extra crumbs and maple syrup, and a check lying on the table. "I can pay, you know," he said. "I feel bad."

"Don't," I said, lying my card across the check.

"But-" I cut him off with a maple syrup flavored kiss. I was leaning across the table, my finger up against one of the plates and after a few seconds I could feel Nico's hand covering mine, giving it a small squeeze. When we broke apart he was breathless, his face flushed. 

"Are you going to let me pay?" I asked. He nodded and I smiled. "Good."

We didn't know where we were going when we began to drive but after an hour and a half of endless talking we rolled into a tiny town, the main street nearly deserted, although light still spilled out of the windows of the shops lining the streets. "What are we doing here?" Nico asked. "There's not gonna be anything to do here."

"Let's just see," I said, peering out the window. An elderly couple passed us on the sidewalk, cups of steaming coffee in their hand. "There might be something here, you just don't know it yet."

There was something in the town. On the corner connecting main street to oak we found a movie theater, a faded sign out front advertising a movie I had never heard of in big, blocky lettering. A man was sitting in the ticket booth, flipping through a rugged book that had probably been read dozens of times. "Two, please," I said, handing over the ten dollars that was charged for two tickets. It was shockingly cheap, half the amount it would have been closer to the city.

"Have fun, boys," he said, handing us ticket stubs. "It'll be a rare treat, to have the theater to yourselves. It truly is a beauty."

The man had not been exaggerating when he called the theater a beauty. In the middle was a small grouping of chairs which extended out to the back of the theater, a large screen taking up the front, with two couches at the head of the room. Lavish gold filigree danced around the deep chestnut walls, making the room appear as elegant as it was comfortable. Nico and I settled into a couch at the front and we instantly sunk into the soft material. His head was on my shoulder as the movie started, our bodies so close together it was like we were the same person. 

As it turned out it was an old horror movie, a black and white image of a pretty girl being attacked by a monster taking over the screen. I found my hand slowly inching closer to Nico's throughout the movie, grabbing it at a jump scare and not letting go for the remainder of the movie. It was long, just over two hours and after, walking out into the sunlight seemed strange, the only exposure to light we had gotten in the past couple of hours the movie screen. "Where are we going?" Nico asked. "Are we staying here longer?" I glanced around at the streets but they were still empty of both people and activities. I pulled out my phone to see that it was already twelve twenty. If we were going to get where we needed to go, we would need to do it fast. 

"We should go, actually," I told him. "I have something planned for tonight, but we're going to need to get there first." 

"What is it?"

"It wouldn't be a surprise if I told you," I said. "Come on, let's get back to the car."

"Come on," he complained. "What is it?"

"You'll see," I insisted. "It's going to be a little bit of driving, but we can stop wherever you want on the way. We just have to make sure we get there by seven twelve." Nico furrowed his brows. 

"What's at seven twelve?"

"You'll see at seven twelve," I said. I could sense his confusion but I only smiled, slipping into the driver's seat without another word. 

Seven hours later I parked the car on the side of the road, the pavement stretching on and on and not a car in sight. It was still light but I could see the colors begin to emerge, the reds and oranges telling me that the sun would soon be gone. I pulled our picnic out of the back seat, a loaf of french bread and slices of cheese and meat. "What are we doing here?" Nico asked, climbing out after me. I grabbed a bag from the car, stuffed full with heaps of soft blankets. 

"We're watching the sunset," I explained, stepping onto the sprawling field in front of us. The grass was short, waving in a light breeze. I rolled out the blanket out in front of us, laying down with my head tilted up to the sky. Nico joined me, our bodies touching as the sun sank below the horizon until the colorful scene in front of us had been replaced with a glittering blanket of stars. 

"Where are we sleeping?" he asked, his voice quiet so as not to disturb the silence that had settled over the field. 

"Out here, if you want," I responded. It wasn't cold but pleasantly warm and I spread a second blanket over us and just like the previous night he curled up against me, but tonight we weren't protected by the walls of the motel. Tonight it was us, alone in the middle of nowhere, like we were the only two people in the world. 

Hi guys, I hope you liked that one!

Nina