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John wiggled around in his seat for the umpteenth time since they’d gotten in the car, and for the first time, Stuart huffed at him. “John, what the fuck is going on?” he snapped, and John jumped a bit. “You’ve been moving around for like two hours. Are you hurt or something?”
“No,” John said, turning his head to look out the passenger window. “Nothing’s going on. Just ready to get there.”
Stuart knew that was a lie. John had never acted like this before, and excitement to get to Paris was not going to change that. But he could also tell that John seemed very uncomfortable talking about it, so he dropped it. “Why are you so excited, then?”
“I dunno.” In his peripheral vision, he saw John squirm again, and he rolled his eyes. “Do you think we can stop somewhere?” Stuart opened his mouth to respond to John’s question but closed it again when he looked over at John, he saw how much he was blushing.
“Of course.” A strange feeling ran through him, making him feel almost uneasy. It was strange to see John like this, all embarrassed. “Yeah, of course.” John grunted, crossing his legs. “Are you sick?”
“No, Stu. I said it’s nothing. Just wanna stretch my legs. That’s all.” With a huff, he looked back out of his window. He took in a sharp breath and stuck his hands underneath his thighs, and Stuart kept an eye on him.
“John--”
“What do you want?” he muttered angrily, wiggling around again.
“Do you have to… take a piss, John?” Stuart kept his eyes on the road, but John’s lack of response wasn’t lost on him. “Johnny? I’ll pull off at the next exit, yeah? Just hold out until--”
“I don’t have to piss,” John protested, and Stuart glanced over at him, not fully convinced. “I just need to stretch my legs, okay?” Stu rolled his eyes and continued driving.
As John moved around some more in his seat, Stuart pulled further over to the side of the highway, ready to pull off, and John noticed, getting nervous. When the car pulled into a rest stop, though, John huffed.
“I’m gonna go take a leak,” Stu said, hoping that in saying so, it would give John an easier time to admit that’s what he needed, but he just shrugged. “Do you want to come? We’re gonna be in the car for a while longer.”
“I don’t have to go,” he said again.
“I know, but this is the last stop for a while.” John rolled his eyes when Stuart started getting out. “Might be good to stretch your legs, you were saying.”
“M’fine, Stu. Just go piss.” Stu sighed and closed his car door. He’d done all he could’ve to get John to just use the loo, and he was just being too difficult. He went into the old, dirty bathroom and relieved his own bladder before walking back to the car to find John still in the car.
He got into the driver’s seat and glanced over at John. “John, really, maybe you should just go. I’ll wait out here if you want to have more privacy--”
“Stop it! I don’t have to, and I’m not going to!” He crossed his arms and turned the other way once again, and Stuart had no choice but to start the car and drive back off into the highway.
-
An hour later, John was squirming so much that Stuart had to do his very best to ignore it. They’d been backed up in traffic for at least thirty minutes, which neither of them had expected, and that only made the atmosphere more tense.
When Stuart looked off into the distance, he saw that there was no way they were getting out of this anytime soon, and he leaned back in his seat. “John, I know that you need the toilet, okay?” John blushed.
“I don’t--”
“You do. I’m not stupid. We’ve been in the car all day, and you haven’t been.” No words came from John’s mouth. “I’ve been ignoring it, because we’ve been close to other places to stop if you needed to, but now we’re stuck in the middle of nowhere in between lanes of traffic.”
John looked down, hands shaking. “I’ll be fine…”
“There’s nowhere to stop, John!” Stuart shouted. “Just… how badly do you need to go? Because if you can’t wait a couple of hours, we’re gonna have to deal with it.” John exhaled sharply through his nose.
“I told you--”
“John Lennon, I need you to be honest with me right now. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. That’ll only make things worse.”
“Stuart--!”
“John!” He whipped his head around angrily. “It’s fine if you can’t wait, but I need to know so that we can figure something out.”
John shrugged. “I-I really don’t know. I’m sorry.”
Stuart bit his lip. “It’s fine.” He put his blinker on, despite the fact that nobody was moving at all, in an attempt to get off the highway in time for John. “I’m gonna stop as soon as I can. You can try to find a bottle or something if you want, but please let me know if it gets to be too much.”
“I’m not gonna piss myself, Stu,” he whispered embarrassingly.
“I didn’t say that.” Stuart glanced behind them when a small gap opened up next to him, but as he started to change lanes, the man in the other lane honked at him. “Fuck.”
John sighed and grabbed his crotch, seeming to finally admit to himself how bad the situation was. “Hey, Stu…?”
“Mhm?” he asked, still distracted by the cars around them.
“W-what if I can’t… what if I don’t make it?” Stuart stilled and looked over at John with a plain expression. “I-I mean, if I…”
“Erm… that’s alright. Whatever happens, it’s fine.” He gulped.
“Just because… I don’t… how long until we can stop?” He let out a shaky breath, and dug his hands further down into his crotch.
“S’fine,” Stuart mumbled. He was upset that it had come to this and that John hadn’t just gone when they were stopped. He’d told him to, and now they were most likely going to be stuck dealing with a mess that was preventable. And in his car, too.
“I really am sor-- ah!” Stuart paled when he heard a soft hiss from the seat next to him. It cut off after a few seconds, but he turned his blinker off, anyway. “Mmm, fuck.”
“John, I think it’d be better if you just went…” He turned his head away from the man struggling with the last of his control in the other seat.
“I’m-- shit!” A longer hiss followed, cut off again by another groan. “Stu, your seat…”
“Don’t worry about it.” As soon as he said that, it was enough for John to lose it. Stuart closed his eyes, face red with second hand embarrassment as the sound of piss splattering against John’s jeans rang through the car. “Shit,” Stuart mumbled to himself. Cleaning this was going to be awful.
For a few seconds, the awkwardness went on, and then John let out a sigh. “Sorry,” he muttered softly, but Stuart didn’t move his eyes, humming. John didn’t dare say anything else. He shifted uncomfortably in his puddle and looked back out his window.
“It’s okay,” Stuart said coldly after a few seconds of silence, and that was the only conversation between them for the rest of the ride.