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When Keel interrupted his lunch and insisted that he and the rest of Sodalitas Quaerito (aka just Paul and Evie) travel to Virginia immediately to look out for "ghost light weather", Paul hadn't expected that he'd end up camping in Keel's car for 3 nights straight, actually looking for these ghost lights. Evie was lucky enough to not need to come to Virginia due to Matty's birthday party. (Oh how Paul envied her during the whole 10 hour car drive.)
Paul was tired, hungry and incredibly sweaty (he really needed a shower) and he swore that if Keel asked him "did you see anything?" one more time he might actually go insane. Or at least go a little mad.
"How can it be a hundred degrees at three in the morning?" asked Paul, exhaustion clear in his tone as he continued to stare straight ahead hoping to spot… whatever he and Keel were searching for just to put an end to this… torture.
Keel, not even sparing a glance at his partner replied in a calm — but equally as exhausted as Paul — voice "It's not the heat. It's the humidity."
"It's both."
"You see anything?" questioned Keel for what felt like the 500th time that night in lieu of replying to Paul's comment. Paul suppressed the urge to groan and instead glared at the other for a quick second as he let out a shaky sigh before bringing the binoculars up to his eyes, hoping to see something just to put an end to this torture. After looking through them for a second and seeing nothing, he dropped the binoculars back onto his lap as he told the other "No".
Paul continued to stare at the forest in front of him as Keel asked him "Are you sure?"
Paul blinked one, two, three times and inhaled as slowly as he could, trying to calm his nerves.
"Seems like the same story for the past three nights…" added Keel "I don't understand." he continued.
"Well maybe because there isn't anything to understand!" snapped the other, turning around to face the man in the driver's seat as he talked to him. Keel turned to Paul, his eyes slightly more wide — more awake — shaken by the other's unexpected reaction.
"What—" tried Keel to question before Paul cut him off.
"We've been sat here for ages, doing the same thing for the past 3 nights which is staring at these goddam trees and we haven't even seen anything! You insisted we drive from Boston to Virginia for 10 hours, to spend 3 nights staring at nothing, hoping that we'd see… ghost lights? Whatever those are!" ranted Paul as he moved his gaze away from Keel to look outside of the car's windshield not wanting to see the other's face as he let his emotions take over. He huffed as he crossed his arms and continued ranting and letting his anger out.
Keel just stared at him, eyes wide, trying to take in the sight of Paul being so affected by the (boring) investigation.
Maybe had Keel been more well rested and less stressed he wouldn't have blurted out "You're so pretty when you're mad" while Paul was in the middle of complaining about the Chinese takeaway they've been eating while camping in the other's car. Maybe Paul wouldn't have stopped in the middle of a sentence to snap his head towards his partner's direction and stare at him as if he grew 2 additional heads.
Paul was… shocked to say the least. He did not expect Alva Keel, the founder of Sodalitas Quaerito, former professor of comparative religions at Harvard, his boss and the man who he had a rather complicated relationship with to say that (if you couldn't tell by Alva's stalking, keeping of secrets or the way both of them fought back in New York when that house amplified Paul's negative side)… he looked pretty when he was mad?
Out of all sentences, all sequences of words, Paul would've never predicted those in a million years. Nor would he have predicted the way Keel's cheeks would redden as his blue eyes widened even more after he realized what he had just let slip out of his mouth.
The two men stared at one another in silence for what felt like hours — but was probably just a minute or two. Paul felt his face heat up yet he wasn't sure if it was because of the heat in the car (which he did complain about earlier) or the blood rushing to his face because of the other's comment.
The younger of the two opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying and failing to form a sentence, to come up with a response as he continued to stare at his boss' horrified face.
"Paul… oh my… I'm so incredibly sorry. That was so incredibly unprofessional of me." tried Keel to apologise, trying to be as professional as possible considering the situation they were in. Paul tried to make eye contact with the other however he noticed that now the other was looking at anything but him.
"Look me in the eye " said Paul suddenly.
"Huh?"
"Look me in the eye when you are apologising to me" cleared up Paul, his eyes full of determination as he looked at Keel, hoping to make eye contact with his boss.
"Right, uh..." started Keel, as he continued to avoid eye contact with the other man. He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath. Paul's eyes were locked onto the older man as he let out a breath before he opened his ocean blue eyes which quickly darted around the rather cluttered car. Keel then shyly glanced at Pauli's face before making eye contact with the other.
Both of them kept staring into each others eyes, ocean blue eyes staring into warm brown eyes as those eyes started back. Neither of them dared to utter a word, afraid to disturb the other or maybe afraid to bring back the awkward tension Keel brought with his convention.
Neither Paul nor Keel realised that the two started simultaneously moving closer to one another, the space between them closing slowly as they were approaching the other over the car's centre console. But just an inch shy of the two touching lips, Keel stopped. He slightly moved away as he broke eye contact with Paul, before trying to say:
"Paul, I'm so incredibly sorry about—"
"Oh, for fuck's sake…" interrupted Paul before smashing his lips to Alva's. The older man was surprised for a quick moment, allowing the other to kiss him before he started returning the kiss with as much energy as the other — which was shocking considering the fact that the both of them have barely slept or eaten properly in the past 3 days.
Paul's right hand sneaked towards Alva's head to thread his fingers into the dark hair, just holding on for a while as the two men kissed. His left hand rested on his shoulder, his thumb stroking the area there, not bothered by the collar of his boss' dark grey shirt. Meanwhile, both of Alva's hands made their way to Paul's waist, grabbing and holding on to it unsure on whether he should pull the other man closer or if he should just rest them there — probably a result of Alva's lack of experience in the make out department (or maybe he should've pushed him away, Alva was Paul's employer after all and kissing employees is surely not morally okay…)
The two's lips moved against each other. Paul made a quick note on how Alva's lips were slightly chapped — likely because the other hasn't been drinking water properly, choosing to focus on camping in his car to search for some ghost lights or whatever. However he didn't let that bother him as he continued to kiss the other, as he pushed himself closer to Alva, tightening his hold on the other's dark locks and trying to pull his head even closer.
Alva tightened his hold on Paul's waist and when the other began to move closer, attempting to climb over the car's centre console and into his lap, Alva made it easier by pulling the other towards him and into his lap without breaking the kiss for even one second. As Paul straddled the other's thighs, he arranged his arms' positions now wrapping his left arm around the other's neck and grabbing a better hold onto the other's hair with his right.
The men kissed until they felt the need to part for fresh air, but even then Paul lightly bit and pulled at the other man's bottom lip as they separated, a devious look in his brown eyes as they stared into Alva's tired blue ones before resting his forehead against Alva's and keeping close to the other, practically inhaling the other's breath as they both silently panted. The older man was trying to gather his thoughts and process what just happened, but all he could focus on was Paul's breath on his lips as the other panted, the other's forehead against his and the feel of Paul's light grey shirt underneath Alva's hands as he continued to hold the other's waist while he sat in his lap, both completely oblivious to the approaching sheriff car.
Paul smirked as he looked at the other, and moved in to give the other a chaste kiss on the lips. "I hope you don't do this with all of your employees" he giggled.
Alva became impossibly even more red, his blush travelling down under his shirt collar as his hold on the other's waist tightened a bit.
"No… No… You're the only one." The older replied, incredibly flustered as he looked away, now avoiding Paul's stare as he instead looked at the passenger seat which was now empty.
Paul chuckled at the other's reaction, and right as he was about to move in to continue making out with the man, a knock came from Alva's side. Both men looked startled towards the car window where they spotted a sheriff.
The younger jumped off Alva's lap and into the passenger seat as the other quickly rolled down the window, both being as red as tomatoes by the fact that they got caught making out in a car during the middle of the night like teenagers.
"Gentlemen, I hope I'm not interrupting anything" greeted the sheriff, amused at the situation he found the two grown men in.
"No, sir. You aren't… interrupting anything" said Alva, avoiding the sheriff's eye, choosing to instead focus on the wheel in front of him.
"If that is so. You two wouldn't mind stepping out of the car for a quick chat, would you?" asked the sheriff, his tone still full of amusement.
Before Alva could respond, Paul replied "No, no we wouldn't mind" as he opened the car door on his side and quickly got out, avoiding eye contact with both the sheriff and Alva. The older sighed and got out of the car after the sheriff moved out of the way, and made his way to the front of the car where Paul was standing awkwardly as he waited for his boss and the sheriff to join him.
After a minute of silence between the three men, the sheriff started:
"So what are you two doing here? From the state of the car I'd reckon you have been camping in your car for a few days, and I really doubt you two have been just making out — I do recommend getting a hotel room next time you two want to do that, wouldn't want someone more hostile finding you two and making his hatred your problem." he said as he started at the two men who were both avoiding his gaze, clear embarrassment radiating off them.
Alva cleared his throat with a stilted cough "Well you see… me and my… partner over here work for an organisation—" and with that Alva started talking about ghost lights or something, Paul tuned him out the moment the other said 'organisation' but not before blushing furiously at his boss's use of 'partner'. Paul crossed his arms and started staring as his shoes, as if something interesting was going on down there. He didn't even notice that the two other men were silent until sheriff broke the silence.
"You're lucky I've heard about the ghost lights you mentioned, because if I didn't I would've thought you were bullshitting me just so you can get away with making out like teenagers in the middle of the night, and I would've fined you two for being here." he sighed "now get back in the car and continue your search for these ghost lights. And try not to make out, I wasn't lying when I said you two should get a hotel room for that. Good night, gentlemen" and with that the sheriff made his way back to his own car and drove off but not before Alva and Paul could mutter some uneasy goodbyes.
The two men made their way back into Alva's car, the air between them so tense even Evie would've felt awkward — the difference is that Evie would've tried to find a way to lessen the tension but alas she wasn't there thus she couldn't do that (Paul really wished she was here now). The two sat in silence for what felt like an enternity but was more like a minute or two.
"How about we ignore what just happened now, we call it a night and talk about it when we're less sleep deprived?" suggested Paul.
"Yeah I think that would be a wonderful idea" and with that Alva started the car and drove off, making his way to the cheap motel he rented for him and Paul, both wishing now ore than ever that they could afford separate rooms instead of being forced to sleep in the same room due to SQ's budget restrains.
Both hopped they wouldn't have a problem sleeping in the same room after this night.