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It's been about a year since the almost end of the world.
The town of Kepler, West Virginia has been slowly, but surely, recovering from the scars the Reconciliation group left behind. The General Store has reopened, the Pizza Hut finally put a sign back up, Amnesty Lodge has had decent enough crowds, and The Hornet's Nest is reopening on Halloween with a costume party for the town's adult crowd to attend.
There were a lot of details that probably went into it, permits, people donating their time to rebuild, a sheriff begrudgingly helping with said permits, but Dani didn't really know all of that first hand. No, what Dani knew was that she and Aubrey were expected to go to this party, along with everyone else from the Lodge, and they were going to be required to dress up and neither of them had a costume.
A detail Aubrey neglected to tell her about until the day before.
"I can't believe we have to drive a whole-ass hour and a half, last minute, to go find a costume," Dani mutters as Aubrey turns onto the highway to start their journey.
"We could have just gone with my idea and worn blue shirts with a sign that says 'I'm blue—'"
"That's a dumb costume, even for you."
"Well, then why didn't you just go as a vampire? I could go as a god and--"
"Feels a bit like appropriation, but okay, go off I guess."
"How can you say that when Stern is literally going as Bigfoot?”
"Because he's dating Bigfoot and Barclay said it was fine. I say it's not, so I'd hope you'd respect me enough not to"
"Of course I do!" Aubrey says at a decibel far too high for such a small space. "That's why I'm driving an hour and a half one way to get a freaking couple's costume with you!"
Dani goes quiet, a bit chagrined from Aubrey's statement.
"Sorry," she says, looking out the passenger window at the mismatched trees flying past them.
They'd been fighting an awful lot lately. She wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe it was all of the stress that came with sudden surge of politics in Sylvain. Or maybe it was because Mama'd given Aubrey a letter her father had left for her. Or maybe it was because Dani's reunion with her family hadn't gone smoothly. Or—
"No." Aubrey lets out a short breath. "No, don't apologize. I shouldn't have yelled. It's not your fault or anything. I'm just…"
"Stressed?"
Aubrey laughs.
"We probably need to take a break or something," Dani muses.
She nearly slams her head into the glass when Aubrey swerves the truck onto the side of the road and then parks it.
"Jesus, Aubrey!" Dani looks around wildly for whatever might have caused her girlfriend to swerve. "Was it a deer? Or a tire?"
"No."
Aubrey's strangled tone catches Dani's attention. She's gripping the steering wheel so tightly Dani isn't sure if she's going to accidentally rip it off or something. Aubrey's eyes are trained on the road ahead. They’re hard to make out, but Dani's pretty sure she sees them shimmer a bit.
"Aubrey what's wrong?"
Silence is her only response.
"Did I say something wrong?" Dani asks. "If you don't want to take a break then you don't have to. But I think we could both use it. Especially away from Alexandria. I love that girl like a little sister, but I swear she's glued to your hip or something."
"Can you—" Aubrey clears her throat. "Can you clarify what you mean by 'a break'?"
"Sure?" Dani's pretty sure it's straight forward, but perhaps it means something else for her. "I mean like us spending some time, just us, somewhere. Maybe it's selfish of me to want that, but I don't think we've had any 'just us' time until today.
"Oh," Aubrey says, the tension falling off of her almost immediately. "I thought…"
"Thought what?"
"It's… nothing."
Dani crosses her arms.
"Aubrey, it was obviously something. It really upset you."
"Well… For me 'take a break', in a relationship context, usually means that a couple wants to 'break up.' Y'know… like end their relationship?"
"Oh, honey, of course I don't want to do that," Dani says, leaning across the middle of the seat to plant a kiss on Aubrey's cheek. "I'm sorry I scared you like that."
Aubrey picks up one of Dani's hands and kisses it. "It's okay. We talked about it and now we understand each other!"
"Yeah."
Dani unbuckles her seatbelt and moves to the middle seat so that she can be closer to Aubrey, buckling the center seatbelt as an afterthought. Aubrey signals her return to traffic once she’s settled. And then they’re back on the road.
They stay like that for a while, Dani resting on Aubrey's shoulder as her girlfriend holds her hand with her right hand and drives with the left. Dani starts dozing after a while, but Aubrey speaking again pulls her out of her almost-asleep state.
"Hey, Dani?"
"Yeah?"
"How much trouble would we be in if we didn't come back to Amnesty Lodge until after the Hornet's Halloween party?"
"If we do it without telling someone, probably a lot. If we call Mama, probably not at all."
"Cool… cool.. "
She falls silent for a bit, though Dani stays awake this time.
"Hey, Dani?"
"Mmhmm?"
"Do you wanna stay the night in a motel after we get our costumes?"
Dani smiles as she leans up and kisses Aubrey's cheek.
"I like that plan a lot." She pauses. "Though I don't know if I have enough money for that."
"That's okay. Duck slipped me some cash before we left."
Dani arches an eyebrow. "Why's that?"
Aubrey opens her mouth, but then looks quizzically at the road as she second-guesses her answer.
"Gas? I think? I don't know, he didn't really say anything besides 'have fun and stay safe.' So, that probably means to use the money however we want to as long as we're having fun and staying safe right?"
"I guess?" Dani laughs. "Did he want any change?"
"No. Definitely said keep whatever's left over. Despite the fact that we weren’t supposed to be there long enough to use all of it."
"We could save whatever's left over for the next time we visit…"
"You're right. Which means you should hold onto my wallet 'cause I was definitely thinking about getting some toys for Dr. Harris Bonkers."
"I'll guard it with my life."
Aubrey laughs.
Quite a few miles go by before Aubrey picks up Dani's hand again and brushes her lips over her knuckles.
"I love you, Dani."
"I love you, too, Aubrey," Dani says, pulling Aubrey's hand to her so that she can reciprocate the gesture.
Dani won't remember what costumes they chose, a witch and a fairy, for very long. But what she will remember is how nice it is to spend time with Aubrey away from everyone else. She knows it won't always be feasible…
But she's looking forward to the next chance they get.