to; all

[hairington]

i've never made one of these so sorry if it's wrong

but if you knew Nero- i know he's been here a long time so there's probably a lot of you. you deserve to know.

he's gone.
and not back home or into the pond or however the other places bring us all here
he's gone gone.
dead. died. not coming back.

just thought everyone should know.
if you need to know details and shit i can tell you
i was there
so
yeah

fuck

Comments

[righteously]

( And then, very abruptly and with incredible passion, he is extremely glad they didn't take the Impala. He jolts, slamming his foot on an invisible brake pedal in the passenger's side footwell, one hand grabbing at the free space along the open window's frame.

He'll grant Steve this: those sad sack thoughts are gone in a freakin' flash, replaced with a rush of adrenaline so strong he very nearly Witchers out by accident. )

What the hell-

( Tires scream on the smooth concrete floor as they drift left, and the garage door just barely opens up enough to allow them clearance to shoot out unscathed.

He makes absolutely no effort to disguise the alarm on his face, shooting furtive, bewildered glances between Steve and the windshield. In his head, a steadying mantra begins to play on a loop: no consequences, this isn't real, no consequences, this isn't real, this teenager can't kill us, no speeding tickets, no consequences-

When they start to slow, his muscles begin to relax, one by one, incrementally, untrusting. He shakes his head, and something just a touch wry starts to creep in with the rest of the assault on his senses. If the kid's grinning, maybe he can let this go. A little. Just this once. )

It's a struggle, but after the heart attack you're about to put me through, it might be a little easier.

[hairington]

[ dean’s reaction really only serves to push steve that much further, that fragile, fraying part of him now feeling free. it’s possible dean’s just over-reacting to get another laugh out of steve, and if that’s the case, it does work. the expressions, the gripping of the car, the panic - and the truth is, steve would have never driven like this if he’d been behind the wheel of the impala. he knows that one’s important, knows what someone’s car means to them.

this one? it’s beautiful, it runs like a dream, but it’s impersonal - like it was taken right from a magazine. and so steve handles it like it’s meant to be handled, even as they slow to a normal highway speed and dean comments on his recent heart attack and steve snorts. ]

C’mon, old man. You’re seriously telling me you’ve got all these cars in great condition and you’ve never really driven them for real? [ he looks over to dean with a kind of you’re not serious expression, shifting gears now that they’re somewhere under the hundred mph range. ] You’re the one who made a face when I asked about taking them out.

[righteously]

( Come ON you guys, what is it with these teenagers calling him old man? He's not even that old. As a matter of fact, technically speaking, thanks to the weird way stupid Abraxas memories ship in from back home, his body's a solid five years younger than his brain, so. Suck it.

Old man shakes fist at clouds.

He won't say this much out loud, but: he is, reluctantly, acknowledging the fact that Steve has some modicum of skill at driving. Like, an ounce. More than Jack had, and arguably better than Castiel has managed to pick up during his few short years driving instead of flapping — nobody tell Cas he said that. )

Hey, look, I've driven them — out there, in the real world, back home. Here, not so much. If I wanna drive, I take my baby, otherwise...

( Big Shrug. What's the point? And then, very abruptly, he backpedals with a scoff and a flounder of: )

Wa- what- You know what- why- why am I justifying myself to you, you tiny baby toddler, shut up and keep your eyes on the road.

[hairington]

[ in this situation particularly, steve's referring to dean's mind, so the description of old still counts. especially with the way dean's currently clutching onto the car like there's anything to even crash into out here.

part of Steve thinks about punching it again, just so he can get out of dean's horizon, so that he can find the winding, forest-thick roads of his own home town. but something about the idea of getting out of this flat country landscape starts to wind tightly around his chest, so he files that away for maybe later.

he's not sure he's ready to break whatever bubble has found itself around them. not sure if he's prepared to really face anything but what's inside this car, inside this little slice of the horizon. ]

Your baby would do better than this would on those drives. [ which... may or may not be true, Steve doesn't know, but if the impala he'd seen is really dean's actual car, he can imagine it feels a bit more real, more grounded, more accurate to how these things are supposed to go.

Steve does actually laugh at dean's backpedaling. ] Nice comeback. [ and then his eyes are back on the road and he's humming briefly to the music as it plays. it feels... almost normal. almost like they're not doing this in some mind-scape version they all share. Steve, despite himself, starts to relax into the illusion of it - like they could be just driving, just road tripping out west, maybe headed to California, just like he'd always planned to do with his own family one day.

he's going to be content to be quiet for a little while, so unless dean has something else to say, they'll be listening to the radio for a bit more. ]

wrapping; 😭

[righteously]

You're damn right she would.

( Let him just eradicate any doubt about what his baby's capable of — we stan the Impala in this house. One day, Steve will see for himself.

But not today. Today, they have time, and no hurry, and nowhere to be but here. Quiet lapses between them, with no pressure to maintain conversation, and nothing instigated on his part except a fond, comforting slap on Steve's shoulder before he settles his eyes out the passenger window again.

The radio plays.
And for as long as Steve needs, there's nothing but peace. )