Close to Nowhere (Larry Stylinson)

two

...

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Well isn't this just dandy," Louis said dryly, adding a smile for the sake of it.

It didn't make any difference because Harry wasn't even looking at him. He was too busy twisting the keys in the ignition repeatedly. Each time rewarded nothing but a dissatisfying click.

"How far away are we?" Louis wondered, unclicking his seatbelt.

"Like, five miles. Fuck."

Interesting. They both got out of the old car at the same time. While Harry went around to open the hood, Louis stood off to the side and stretched his limbs. He was pretty stiff after sitting in a cramped space for so long.

He raised his arms over his head and watched Harry lean over the open hood, fiddling with something. Harry cussed when he touched a hot piece of metal, drawing his hand back with a hiss.

"Fuck. We have to wait for it to cool down before I try to fix it."

"Alright."

There was a beat of silence. When Louis glanced over at Harry, he was met with a face of mild curiosity. Harry looked kind of stupid standing there, vaguely dumbfounded in front of the background of Appalachian mountains, the cows in the distance.

"Really? You're not gonna complain about the fact that we have to wait?" Harry wondered.

"Don't act like I complain about everything. Besides, I saw this coming."

"No you didn't."

"Yes I did! Remember how I said I had a vision about our drive going horribly? I definitely said that!"

"You didn't see anything, you were just being an asshole. You only said that so I would stop and buy you a milkshake."

He wasn't wrong. Still, "You don't get to decide what I did and did not see."

"Whatever. I can't believe neither of us foretold this. Two clairvoyants and we can't predict our rental car breaking down."

"Psychics," Louis corrected. "We're psychics." He knew Harry hated the term, and only ever called himself a clairvoyant even though both words meant the same thing. So Louis made sure to say psychic as often as possible.

Harry grimaced. "God, you're so annoying."

Louis ignored him in favor of sitting on the grass on the side of the road. They had a nice view of the mountains from here, since they were essentially at the lowest point and the land rose up all around them. On the drive here, they passed countless farms in the hills, each separated by a vast distance. The chance that there was any sort of human life between their broken down car and Ashland ranch was very, very small.

Still, Louis could only hope for a nice little cottage with a landline and a working bathroom somewhere between here and their destination.

As Harry got to work trying to fix the car, Louis flopped back on the grass. He held his phone up in the air, wondering if he could get service.

Eventually he gave up and closed his eyes, deciding to search the other realm for a bit because he was bored. Given the lack of human life around here, there wasn't much going on in the spirit world. It seemed everyone who passed away here passed away peacefully.

That was comforting, at least. If he died right here and now, he probably wouldn't come back to haunt this little piece of land. At least, given the odds.