Below the Mythical Surface (Completed)

Escape the City

"Well, what if we-" Link started, pen pressed tightly against pursed lips.

"No," Rhett shot him down without a second thought.

"You didn't even listen to the whole thing, man," Link hissed with a roll of his eyes. This is how their entire morning had been going. Neither of them were happy with any of the ideas that the other had proposed, and it was leading to sour moods and dirty looks.

"Don't have to. Your ideas suck today, baby," Rhett shrugged, without giving Link the courtesy of looking up from his laptop.

"Hey! Yours ain't much better, baby," Link glared and folded his arms.

"You're not wrong."

The two sat in silence for a while, but nothing was coming to mind. After so many shows, it was hard to pump out fresh ideas, and Link was really starting to get annoyed. The constant tapping of Rhett's fingertips against the table wasn't helping either.

There was also the added problem of how they saw each other now that continued to get in the way. Granted the hugs and kisses had been pulled back to an almost painful degree, with worries of being caught, promises to actually get work done at, well...work and Rhett subtly trying to keep at least a small amount of focus back on Jessie since that Sunday. Neither man could seem to recall what they did with their hands and eyes before this started. Now they knew what they loved to do with them, nothing else made sense. Hands were made to slide and caress shoulders, hips and backs. Eyes were for glancing at those same places.

"I can't think straight at all," Link almost shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. The unfortunate pen he had been twirling around in his fingers made comical sounds as it hit the low ceiling and fell to the ground.

"Not thinking straight is a problem we've both have been havin', Neal."

"You're not wrong, either."

Rhett gave a long sigh as he got up out of his small desk chair and headed back to the couch in the middle of their office. Link barely noticed the movement. Where he was more able to sit in one spot to avoid talking about the stagnant atmosphere of work and themselves, Rhett had an almost frantic need to keep his muscles active by milling around. Standing up, sitting down in different spots and looking longingly out of the window.

"You know what we need," Rhett said after another couple of rounds of grumpy half conversations. "We need to take a ride out to the middle of nowhere."

"Take a ride out to the middle of nowhere?" Link parroted, raising a confused eyebrow. "Thought that us killin' each other was off limits...at least until we needed to do it on the show if views started to take a dive."

Rhett smiled in spite of trying incredibly hard not to.

"No, no...I mean take a little road trip. Get out of the city for the day and just...let the ideas come to us without all the dang noise around us. Like we used to do when we were kids. We came up with a lot of creative ideas back then."

Link's blue eyes narrowed at the thought, then widened at a barely hidden dilemma.

"So, are we actually going to just be coming up with creative ideas for the show...or for other things as well?"

Rhett frowned as he shrugged his large shoulders, once again getting up and stretching unnecessarily.

"I dunno...both maybe? Either way we're not talkin' and figurin' out enough the way it's goin' now."

"You're not wrong again."

It didn't take them very long to decide that they needed to go that very day. Needed an escape from the lights, the sounds, the smells, the irritation of the city. Needed to see the stars, breathe air that wasn't tainted by pollution. Pollution that dug deep into their pores and changed them from who they once were. They needed to reconnect with each other, but most importantly themselves.