Find a hotel, they said. It'll be fun, they said.

Zeke had indeed gotten down to searching for nearby hotel rooms. Which had sounded easy enough in theory, until he and Neo had both realized that they were both in the middle of nowhere, on very short notice, and that did sort of limit the selection a bit. The first place had turned them away; the second place had looked so utterly sketchy that they had turned away, speeding out of the dingy parking lot with screeching tires and a few dark figures staring after them. Not that they were scared or anything, just careful. Or at least that was what they would readily tell anyone who asked.

Now they were at the third hostel, their last option before goodness knew how long, and there was another problem.

"Well, guys," the receptionist told them. It was a chubby young woman with pink hair, about college-aged, who was loudly chewing bubblegum and clearly didn't want to be here. "I can give you a room, no problemo. There's just one catch."

Neo rubbed both hands over his tired face, almost regretting the fact that he didn't come away with smudged eyeliner on his palms. Dammit, if only he'd had time to apply his makeup this morning; the gesture would've been so much more dramatic. "What's the problem?" he said.

"I basically already said it. I can only give you a room, singular." The girl blew a bubble with her gum, then popped it again and continued chewing. "We don't have any more free ones."

Zeke and Neo exchanged a glance.

"I don't wanna share with him," Zeke said at last. "It's bad enough that we have to sit in the car together all day."

The receptionist played with one of her piercings. "That sounds like a you problem, bud."

Well, I don't want to share a room with you either! Neo wanted to say, but he thought better of it. An even lower blow, because it would make him look that much better than Zeke instead of stooping to his level. In front of a girl that would be pretty cute if she didn't look so perpetually bored, no less.

"Actually," he said demonstratively, "I don't mind sharing a room with you."

Zeke stared at him like he had grown a second head.

"What?" Neo snapped, feeling his face heat up. "Did I say something weird?"

Instead of an explanation, Zeke reached up and held the back of his hand to Neo's forehead. "You good, man?" he said. "Did you hit your head? Do you have a fever?"

"No," said Neo, stepping away from the cool touch of Zeke's hand. "I'm growing up. I'm twenty-six, I can't keep acting like a child!" And before he could think better of it, he added, "Unlike you."

Zeke didn't look fazed. He just stared at him, then continued staring. Neo squirmed away from his unblinking gaze while struggling to maintain his dignity and probably failing at either task. Damn those eyes and damn that stare. It wasn’t even that Neo disliked Zeke’s eyes; if anything he rather liked them, which was exactly why he disliked looking at them so much. They were a rich shade of green, fizzy and sparkling like carbonated water and just as refreshing; and unlike a cold drink, they had the unnerving habit of making Neo very, very uncomfortable.

"What?" he said. "Anything on my face?"

"You're being weird today." Zeke furrowed his brow. "Nicer than usual."

"No, I'm not."

"Yes, you are. Are you okay? If you're getting sick, does that mean I have to drive tomorrow?"

"I'm fine," Neo replied, turning away, "and hands off the car. Do we take the room or not?"

Zeke looked ready to protest, but whatever he had been about to say was swallowed by a gigantic yawn. "But I take the bed," he muttered.

The receptionist snorted. "It has two beds," she said.

"Oh."

"Yup." She blew another bubble with her gum. "Rooms with just one bed aren't even that common. People always ask for that, do they think we can afford to just put one person in the room or something?"

"Books have lied to me," Zeke muttered under his breath, then he yawned again. "Fine. But then I take the shower first."

Neo flipped him off, but he finished the paperwork, then navigated their way up to their room. Behind him Zeke trotted obediently, hanging his head and sulking; and Neo made a deliberate point to not look at him too much, because otherwise he might just have to acknowledge that the sight made him sad.

~ ~ ~

Many jokes have been made about the word pansexual. Just as many people have wondered where it comes from.

Some people—and even reputable encyclopedias—will tell you it comes from the Greek word for all, or other well-meaning nonsense. This is, in fact, not true.

The pan in pansexual stands for panic.

In other news, Neo was currently sprawled on his bed, glaring at his phone and trying to focus on any of his unread messages. In other, completely unrelated news, Zeke had just come back from the shower without bothering to put his shirt back on, and Neo didn't stare. He just looked. Respectfully.

It was just—well, it was plain unfair, how well-built he was, because Neo had never seen him actually doing much for his build. Zeke had already been on the athletic side when they had first met, at nineteen and twenty-one, respectively; and the past five years had seen him grow into it, from the awkward kid with no self-esteem to an awkward young man with minimal self-esteem and a newfound spring to his step. And attitude, lots of attitude. Neo still hadn't fully decided if that was a good or a bad thing.

"Your turn," Zeke said unceremoniously, flopping down on the bed and instantly wincing. "Ow!" he burst out. "This mattress sucks!"

Tossing down his phone, Neo scrambled to his feet, making a hasty escape to the shower (trying not to look at anything too closely) and splashing handfuls of cold water in his face. It didn't help. He was still panicking, and the fact that Zeke would still be in their shared room when he returned was only making it worse. Which was ridiculous, objectively speaking, because he was around attractive people all the time, even sharing rooms with them, and he never batted an eye. Except the attractive people he usually brought into his room were practically all women, and his ability to handle his attraction to men was cheerfully gathering dust in the closet; and to make it worse, Zeke was his bandmate, and he also didn't like him much. To be honest, Neo didn't really like him either. Or, well, sort of. He didn't like him, but he did, and he'd probably like him more if Zeke weren't always so goddamn annoying.

Tired and grumpy, but at least more or less clean, he padded back into their room. Zeke was still up when he entered, wrapped in the thin blanket like a burrito while the wind and rain howled outside. He looked up when the door opened, then rolled over to lie as far away from Neo as possible.

"Stay in your half," he said from behind the blanket, "I stay in mine. And if you snore, I'm leaving."

Careful to indeed stay in his half of the room, Neo crawled into bed, pulling the covers up to his nose and discovering that left his feet out in the open. With a groan he rolled over and curled up into a ball. Not a comfortable way to sleep, but better than freezing his feet off—

Lightning flashed outside, briefly painting shadows into the room that couldn't logically be there.

Neo shuddered. Yeah, he thought. Leagues better than freezing his feet off or having them get eaten by whatever ghosts lurked inside this old house at night.

"If you snore," he muttered, reaching for the light switch, "I'll just cover my ears and go back to sleep."

Wiggling in his cocoon, Zeke freed one hand from the blanket purely to flip him off. "I get it, you're better than me at everything," he said, sticking out his tongue. "Even being a person. Anything I can do, you can do better…or something."

Neo said nothing.

"And I get it, man! I know." Zeke rolled over again to glare at him. "You may be taller, more talented, better looking and more popular, but you know what I have that you don't? That you never, ever will?"

Your charm? the more sentimental part of Neo's brain provided unhelpfully. Your weirdly cute wandering accent? The ability to learn pretty much anything with barely any practice?

"What?" he said out loud.

Zeke opened his mouth, then closed it again, frowning. "I was gonna say friends, but I don't really have friends either," he said. "So…uh. I was going somewhere with this."

"Okay."

"I was."

"Whatever."

Silence fell. The rain kept pouring. They were both exhausted, but neither of them seemed able to fall asleep.

There was a rumble of thunder, and lightning flashed. The gnarly shadow of a dead tree flickered in and out of the night. Inside the room, both guitarists jumped out of their beds, almost instinctively reaching out for each other.

Then it was dark again, and they blinked, abruptly realizing what they were doing. Neo coughed. Zeke cleared his throat. Both of them crawled back under their blankets with the silent agreement not to speak of this moment again ever.

Their resolve lasted for roughly a minute and a half before lightning struck again, closer by this time, thunder cracking right under their window. The wind was howling around the corners, rattling at the old house, and Neo stared at the creaking window like a sailor staring at a cracked plank, willing it not to break. Heavy raindrops drummed patterns against the glass. The room was getting chilly.

Just outside the door, the floorboards creaked.

Then something knocked on the window.

Screaming in unison, they jumped up, each one of them trying to hide behind the other. There was another creak, then lightning flashed. The thing that had hit the window was nowhere to be seen.

"Ha!" Zeke said with all the smugness he could muster when his voice was still shaking. "You got scared! Ya pussy."

Neo scoffed. "You're the one who's scared," he retorted. "And don't use pussy like that. If you think it's weak, that just shows you never get—"

"Actually," Zeke interrupted him, some of the fear fading from his face, "the insult pussy comes from pusillanimous, meaning timid or cowardly. So it's got nothing to do with that and that means you're wrong."

Neo scoffed. "What are you, Wikipedia?"

"I'm smart," Zeke replied smugly. "I'm smarter than you and that's what I have and you don't—"

Another flash of lightning interrupted him, another crack of thunder, and they were back to clinging to each other and trembling.

"This is dumb," Zeke grumbled, but he didn't let go. "What are we scared of? Ghosts? They're not even real."

"Exactly," said Neo. "This is just a stupid thunderstorm."

"In a spooky house," Zeke added. "In the middle of nowhere."

"Exactly. No big deal."

"Uh huh."

There was an awkward pause.

Then they both exchanged a glance and moved as one to push their twin beds together.

"Since the wittle scaredy-cat can't sleep on his own," said Neo.

"Hey, I'm doing this for you. I'm not the one who screamed like a little girl just now."

They crawled under the covers. Outside, the storm kept raging.

Neither of them would ever admit it out loud, but lying so close together actually did make the whole experience a little less scary.