Title: As The Rains Come
Fandom: High Rollers (Aerois campaign)
Rating: G
Length: 2174 words
Content notes: Modern/human AU, Quill/Lucius, fluffy hurt/comfort. Inspired by this tumblr post. Title comes from After The Storm by Mumford and Sons.
Author notes: Did I write myself this absurdly sweet AU as a self birthday present? Yes, I 100% did ;)
Summary: Driving to a camping trip, Quill and Lucius get caught in a storm.

Quill looked up from the map he'd spread over the bonnet of his car, double-checking the places and distances listed on the road sign they'd stopped by. Yes, he'd found the right crossroads on the map, they couldn't be anywhere else. "Well, the good news is I know where we are now... the bad news is we're miles away from where we should be, I don't know what time we'll get to the campsite."

"I'm sorry, I'm not good with paper mappies," Lucius apologised again. "I got all turned around."

"It's not your fault, we'd have been fine if it hadn't been for that road being closed off, and these country lanes are really confusing!" Quill said, trying to reassure him. "I got mixed up too. We should be fine now, anyway, we'll just be driving for a while." Then he grinned mischievously. "But isn't it a good thing I have a paper map after all?"

"I will never make fun of your mappies again," Lucius replied, smiling back. "I blame Aila, she's the one who wanted to go camping in the middle of nowhere - I should have realised it would be somewhere not even phones could find!"

"I'll tell her you said that," Quill mock-threatened, and Lucius shuddered dramatically. "Come on, we should get going - oh, and could you text the others? So they don’t worry about us not arriving."

Climbing back into the car, they drove on, chatting lightly, Lucius playing music from his phone to keep them entertained. Privately, Quill had to admit he didn't really mind that they'd got lost all that much. It gave him the chance to spend more time alone with Lucius, after all. Since their little group first met (all stuck at an airport due to bad storms, waiting for the same flight), Quill had been nursing a growing crush on the other man. It was part of the reason he'd agreed to come on this camping trip in the first place, and he'd been secretly thrilled when things worked out so that he would be driving himself and Lucius while Aila took Sentry and Nova.

A couple of hours later, Quill frowned, noticing the light was changing. It shouldn't be getting dark yet, surely? It was late, but it was also summer, and they were in Scotland - it should be light for a while still. He glanced around in all directions, and his heart sank. Those were storm clouds, weren't they? Building up on the left?

"Is something wrong?" Lucius asked, looking up from where he'd been fiddling with the radio, trying to find a station he liked.

"Do those look like storm clouds to you? Over on your side?" Quill said, doing his best to sound casual. The concerned look Lucius shot him, before turning to look out of his window, told him it hadn't worked.

"I'm afraid so," Lucius finally replied, after scrutinizing the sky. "How far do you think we are from the campie? Could we make it there, or do you want to try and find somewhere else to stop and wait it out?"

"I'm not sure... I'll stop a minute."

Pulling over, Quill examined the map again. They were still quite a way from their destination, but it didn't look as if there was anywhere else much closer - certainly nowhere that was even remotely on the way. He looked up at the dark clouds, trying to estimate which way and how fast they were moving. Were they coming closer, or was it just his own fear playing tricks on him?

"Let's keep going," he said at last. "It doesn’t seem to be building up that fast, and there's nowhere nearby to go really. We can always pull up somewhere and wait it out if it gets bad, I guess."

"It’s a shame Aila took all the tents, or we could have just found somewhere to camp for the night, and kept going in the morning," Lucius remarked.

"I mean... I'd rather be in a car than a tent if it's going to storm, really," Quill said quietly. If he could pick anywhere to be, it would be in a windowless room with a pillow he could bury his head under, but if his only choices were car or tent he'd far rather have the former.

Lucius reached out and placed a comforting hand on Quill's shoulder, squeezing gently. "I'm sorry, I didn't think. We'll be fine in the car, if there even is a storm - it might miss us entirely."

Unable to find anything coherent to say, between his worries about the weather and the thrill of Lucius's touch, Quill just nodded and started the car again, driving a little faster than he had been. With any luck, they'd be able to escape the storm.

In a very short time, though, Quill was pulling into the dubious shelter of an angled mountain wall, straining his eyes to see through the rapidly increasing rain. Worse, he could hear occasional rumbles of thunder, distant but growing closer.

"I think this is the best we can do," he said, killing the ignition. "We didn't pass anything better, and I don't know what's up ahead, and the rain's getting worse - "

"This is fine, don’t worry," Lucius interrupted his increasingly panicked rambling. "I don't know much about driving, but that doesn't look like anything we should keep going in! We can wait here."

Quill nodded, trying to slow his breathing while not showing he was doing so. To have a panic attack in front of his crush - again, and without Sentry to help ground him this time as she had at the airport - was the last thing he wanted. If only the lightning would stay at a distance... As if to mock him, a flash lit up the world, and he jumped, then jumped again as the thunder boomed.

"Birdie!" Lucius moved as close as he could, and put an arm around him. "It's ok, we're safe, I'm here."

Quill froze, torn between trying to fight through it, and giving in to his need for comfort. Then a jagged bolt of lightning split the sky, much too near them, and the last shred of his control gave way. Twisting round, he buried his face in Lucius's shoulder, shaking. Lucius hugged him tightly, rubbing his back and murmuring soothingly in the breaks between the crashing thunder.

Gradually, the lightning passed over, though the rain continued to pour down. At last, Quill took a deep breath and pulled away, blushing.

"Thank you, Lucius. I'm sorry..."

"Don't be silly, Birdie, there's nothing to apologise for. How are you? Is there anything I can do?"

"I'm fine, don't worry - "

"Quill." Lucius was looking at him with the most serious expression Quill had ever seen from him. "How are you?"

Quill sighed, and answered honestly this time. "I'm... shaken? I - I will be okay, really, I just need a moment. Thank… thank you for being here."

"Where else was I going to go?" Lucius teased him gently, and Quill gave a shaky laugh.

They sat in silence for a bit, Quill staring out into the growing darkness - made even darker, he realised, by the inside light; Lucius must have turned it on at some point - and concentrating on his breathing, trying to calm down. From the corner of his eye, he could see Lucius, leaning back in his seat but turned towards him. Normally, being watched would have made him more anxious, but somehow his friend's presence was soothing. He wasn’t fussing over him, or staring, he was just… there, and it helped.

Eventually, his panic faded away enough to let him start thinking about other things. Like how Lucius had held him - no, no, don’t start thinking about that. He scrambled for something else to focus on, and landed on the still-torrential rain.

“I think we may be stuck here for a while,” he said, turning to Lucius. “It doesn’t look like this rain’s going to stop any time soon, and I don’t want to drive in it… I’m pretty tired, too.” That was an understatement, he felt completely exhausted.

“That’s fine,” Lucius said with a smile. “I don’t really want to get to the camp in the rain, Aila would probably makes us put up our tenties in it!”

Quill chuckled, appreciating Lucius’s attempt to brighten the mood. “She just might! It does mean we’ll have to sleep in the car, though…”

“Why don’t we move to the back seat, then? It’ll be more comfortable, and we shouldn’t get too wet if we’re quick.”

“I’m pretty sure there’s an umbrella in the glove compartment, actually, can you look? Oh! And I have a travel blanket in the boot! I was worried someone might be cold so I put it in at the last minute, it should be easy to get at.”

As he spoke, Lucius had been rummaging through the glove compartment, and now pulled out the umbrella. “Shall I go and get it?”

Quill stiffened for a moment, but no - Lucius hadn’t even glanced at his prosthetic arm. He hadn’t meant that. “I’d better, I know exactly where it is. You could open the boot for me, though, that would help - it’s that button,” he added, pointing, as Lucius looked blankly at the dashboard.

In the hurry to do everything as fast as possible, it wasn’t until he was tossing the blanket into the back seat after retrieving it that Quill realised just what was going to happen. Just what he’d enabled to happen. They’d be sharing the same seat, sharing the same blanket… oh God. What should he do? What could he do? Should he confess his feelings now? If Lucius didn’t feel the same way, would it be worse to do it now or later? What if he ruined their friendship entirely? Maybe he should just never say anything?

“Is something wrong?” Lucius called out, opening his car door a crack to look at Quill worriedly, and Quill nearly jumped out of his skin.

“No, sorry, coming!” he called back, hurrying over with the umbrella.

Lucius climbed out at once - and he was so close, would they be this close all night, how would Quill survive? At least Lucius didn’t seem to notice anything, clearly thinking only of getting out of the rain as quickly as possible. Thankful for small mercies, Quill followed suit, and they both scrambled into the back of the car, shutting out the weather behind them. Quill shoved the umbrella under the front seat to be out of the way, while Lucius began unstrapping the blanket.

“You’re prepared for everything, aren’t you, Birdie?” he said, smiling at Quill. “I’m afraid I’ve been pretty useless.”

“No you haven’t,” Quill said instantly, distracted from his growing nerves by the unusual note of self-deprecation.

“You’ve been doing the driving, and the map-reading, I just got us lost.”

“We both got lost,” Quill insisted. “And you’ve been doing the music!” Not to speak of helping him through the lightning, but he didn’t want to bring that back.

“Yes, the music was fantastic and indispensable,” Lucius replied, putting on a haughty tone, then laughing.

Quill laughed too. “Well, there’s no-one I’d rather be here with.”

He’d spoken almost without thinking, and froze as he realised what he’d said, his face heating. Should he just gloss over it, say something else, anything else, quick? But - Lucius looked startled too, he’d obviously noticed Quill’s reaction. No, it was too late to distract him from it…

“There’s no-one I’d rather be here with either,” Lucius said slowly, his eyes fixed on Quill’s, then flicking down to his lips. “Quill… I… can I…?”

He was leaning towards Quill as he spoke, and they were already so close. It was suddenly the easiest thing in the world for Quill to lift his hand and slip it into Lucius’s long blond hair, pulling him closer still. So close their lips were barely a breath apart, and Lucius leant that bit further forwards, closing the gap. After a few seconds, they broke apart, but only to pull each other into a tight hug.

“I guess it’s obvious now, but I really like you,” Lucius murmured into Quill’s ear.

“I really like you too,” Quill whispered back.

They stayed like that for a short while, both more than a little overwhelmed. Eventually, Quill found himself stifling a yawn, as the stress and excitement of the day caught up with him.

“We should sleep,” Lucius said, pressing a kiss to his hair.

Reaching back, he grabbed the blanket he’d let drop when Quill pulled him in, and spread it over them both, then stretched forwards to flick off the light. As he settled back into place, Quill reached up, feeling for Lucius’s face in the darkness, cupping his cheek and running his thumb across his lips. Lucius breathed in sharply and bent his head down, his mouth finding Quill’s for another gentle kiss. And like that, curled up together, they finally drifted off to sleep.