Yellow

Forty Nine

The journey was only an hour long, but it felt like half a day. They'd had to take two cars, even though it would be easier Carter couldn't bring himself to own a minivan. He and Artemis were both driving, and it felt weird to be going the same place and not having him right next to him. He had never really addressed the dependency issues he had with Artemis, his constant need to have him nearby, he could count on one hand how many nights they had spent apart since he bought the house, since they had moved in. When it was just the three of them back then, just he, Artemis and Noah.

But Artie was the best choice to drive them down to the beach along with himself, his car was bigger than Kits, Noah's or even Carter's and fit all their belongings comfortably, with room to spare.

Carter had Travis, Tye and Riley in his car, Travis was in the front passenger side, with Tye and Riley in the back.

Tye was asleep, the plushie Carter had got him in his lap. He had a habit of holding its arm and he had been so insistent he brought it with him and Carter was never really going to say no to him.

He had found it so endearing how excited Tye was for their trip, he had never really gone on holiday before and looked like a kid on Christmas.

Riley was sat reading the latest edition of national geographic, his favourite magazine series. Carter had seen him checking on Tye several times, making sure he was comfortable.

Travis was watching a YouTube video on his phone, headphones in so as not to disturb the others. It was a theory about some game he liked, Carter wasn't sure which one, but he didn't want to find out until Travis eventually and excitedly explained the entire lore and all the theories to him.

He loved it when he did, although he didn't always follow along or understand, just seeing how animated and excited it made his boyfriend was enough for him.

Tye jolted awake with a gasp.

"Everything okay baby?" Riley asked, looking over from his magazine.

"Ri? Do spiders have teeth?" Tye's eyes were wide.

"Yes, some species have fangs." Riley nodded. "Baby did you have a dream about spiders?"

Tye nodded mournfully, pulling Grimm closer to him. "They were so big."

"They won't hurt you, what got you thinking about spiders?" Carter asked, to his knowledge Tye wasnt even scared of spiders.

"I rescued one from the kitchen this morning." Tye replied, rubbing his eyes. "Guess it was on my mind."

"Spiders don't get very big Tye, and if for some reason one does, we'll protect you." Riley took his hand comfortingly.

"It looked kinda freaky, but the worst thing was that it had human teeth." Tye said, biting his lip.

"Thats why you asked if they had teeth." Carter realised. "Nothing like that love, don't worry."

"That's gonna haunt me for a while." Tye mumbled. "Ri I don't think I can face a spider for a while."

"I'll deal with them for you baby, don't worry." Riley comforted him. He moved his magazine in-between them. "Come look at this."

"A dinosaur." Tye murmured, looking down at it.

"It's a mosasaur baby, they just found a new species." Riley explained.

"Not a dinosaur?" Tye frowned. "But it has saur in its name."

Carter laughed. "You make a good point love."

"Mosasaurs lived entirely underwater." Riley explained. "While dinosaurs lived in land." It was a simple explanation but getting into the depths of the classifications was something Riley didn't fully understand, and he didn't want to confuse his boyfriends by telling them a half understood explanation.