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“Oh. Wow.” Fitz puts his suitcase down and frowns. “This is …”
“Hell!” Hunter groans, “This is definitely hell. Should have known when the receptionist asked if we want to be woken up for breakfast at half past six in the morning. Who the bloody hell wants to leave bed for breakfast at half past six?! Look at that. I think they made a mistake and gave us the room for the grandparents.”
He grimaces at the wall which is an ugly faint yellow. Everything in the room looks old. From the dusty pictures of landscapes on the wall to the little green armchair in the corner that looks like a cat scratched on it furiously. There’s no tv and the shower is so small Hunter is sure not even two people will fit in. Which is … inconvenient, to put it mildly. The floor creaks under every step and for some weird reason, he smells a combination of old cheese and wet wood.
“It’s not that bad,” Bobbi remarks. But she sounds doubtful. Her eyes roam through the hotel room and stick to the horrible old deer head on the wall. It watches them with empty black eyes. Her lips start to twitch. “It just … requires getting some used to, I guess.”
“There are two beds, Bob. Two! I said on the phone we only need one. I definitely said so, right Jems?”
“You did,” Jemma nods, scrunching her nose. “Well. Now we are here. We have to make the best out of this. We can push the beds together.”
Fitz nods eagerly and already goes to do so, while Hunter is still making a face, grumbling to himself, “Bloody mountains. I know why I voted for Las Vegas. In Las Vegas, this would have never happened!”
Bobbi snorts. “In Las Vegas, you would have lost all our money and would have started to wager your shoes. Again.”
“That was one time! I’m good at poker! I have an amazing poker face.”
“You are horrible, Hunter. You are even worse than Fitz.”
“Hey!”
“It’s true, mate. Your right eye twitches when you think you have a good set.” Hunter smirks. The bickering lightened up his mood. A bit. He’s still pissed because this hotel room doesn’t even look a bit like what he saw on the internet. He helps Fitz to push the two rather narrow beds together and shakes his head. “This is going to be uncomfortable. And how are we supposed to sleep with only two blankets? We have a notorious blanket thief with us.” He nods his head at Fitz, who doesn’t even try to defend himself. He’s too occupied with frowning at the rough looking pillows, his arms crossed.
“You’re stealing blankets too,” Bobbi says mildly. “This is only one thing, Hunter. Don’t let it ruin all the fun.” She kisses his nose. Hunter sighs. He’s trying. But at the moment, it seems like this vacation – they rarely get those, so they are supposed to be perfect! – is going to be a disappointment.
But then Jemma opens the dusty white curtains and light falls into the room, making it look friendlier almost immediately. The view is spectacular. Mountains in the distance, the tops covered in snow. A silver lake, snaking its way through the valley. The meadows are bright green and the sky has the colour of cornflowers. There’s almost no cloud.
They all stare outside, transfixed.
Okay, Hunter thinks. That is actually nice. Very nice. He can already imagine them sitting on one of these meadows, having a proper picknick. With pie. A lot of pie.
Bobbi smiles at him knowingly and takes his hand. “So, do you still think this is hell?”
“Alright,” Hunter sighs. “You’re right. I’m not letting one thing ruin this for us. We can still make it nice. And hell, we are used to sleep in a heap anyway, right? I can’t count the times I woke up with Fitz draped over my chest and Jemma hugging my foot.”
Bobbi’s answer is another kiss. This time, on his cheek. “Right. I promise, it’s going to be amazing. You’re not even going to notice it’s two beds. We’ll make you forget.” She lets her fingers trail down his spine in a suggesting way, and Hunter shivers pleasantly.
“I don’t want to destroy the mood,” Fitz chimes in. “But … Can we please put down that deer's head? I don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night, seeing it staring at me.”
“Yes,” Bobbi says immediately. “It has to disappear.”
“And the spiders?” Hunter asks, after discovering a big web in one corner.
Bobbi shrugs.
Jemma, who is still looking out of the window, makes a surprised noise and they all look at her. “I have just seen a rabbit!” She says, her eyes sparkling in excitement. “Oh I’m sure we’re going to see so many animals here!”
Hunter smiles at her. He feels the love for everyone of them glowing warm and strong in his chest.
A place where all his loved ones are gathered around him can’t be hell, no matter how terrible it might look on first sight.