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It wasn’t the most pleasant drive so far.
Charlie had turned down the music when he realised Shayne had fallen asleep with his arm curled against the door and his head resting in the crook of it. Charlie might have resented any other passenger for falling asleep and leaving him to his own thoughts as he drove, but these days he was relieved to see Shayne sleeping at all.
There wasn’t much traffic on the road at this time of day; they’d set out just early enough in the afternoon to beat the onslaught of commuters. So no, it wasn’t traffic that was making the journey uncomfortable for Charlie.
It was the dried-out lump of chewing gum he was listlessly rolling between his teeth and over his tongue.
It had long since gone stale. He’d have taken it out if he’d had anything to spit it into, but the tissues were on the back seat, and the only person available to reach over and get them was currently unconscious. His mouth was dry, his saliva becoming thicker by the minute, and he was starting to feel really crappy. Bubbles of air kept getting trapped in his oesophagus, too weak to form actual burps, but uncomfortable enough to make him rub just below his ribs every so often.
One attempt to relieve the pressure made his stomach growl under his fingertips.
If he hadn’t turned down the radio for Shayne’s sake, he mightn’t have heard it, but he’d surely have felt it; a deep pang crept from just above his belly button to just below his ribcage. A plea for something other than the air he’d been relentlessly swallowing as he tolerated the tasteless chewing gum. He hadn’t even realised he’d gotten hungry, his jaws had been so preoccupied. Clearly, his belly had gotten preoccupied, too, trying to digest something that wasn’t even there.
A little movement to his left made him glance across to the passenger seat. Shayne had adjusted his head slightly so he could see over the dashboard, and he briefly met Charlie’s eye too.
“Hey.” Charlie swallowed, warmth gathering in his cheeks. Did he hear that too? Was it loud enough to actually wake him?
“Mmm.” Shayne rubbed at his eyes with the heel of one hand. “Hi.”
“Could you do me a favour and grab a tissue from the back for me?”
Shayne gave a deep sigh as he straightened up and reached back between the seats, feeling around until his fingers caught hold of a tissue he could pull loose. As Charlie lifted a hand to his lips to remove the gum, Shayne held the tissue out flat, already having guessed why Charlie needed it.
“Thank you,” Charlie smiled shyly as he placed the gum in the tissue. Shayne rolled it up several times and put the tissue into the cup holder, where hopefully one of them would remember to take it from later.
Meanwhile, Charlie rubbed at another twisting ache that rose up in the pit of his stomach, flinching when the pain instantly dissolved and resulted in a deep, empty rumble that crawled from just below his ribs to the hollow spot behind his belly button. He pressed his palm flat to his belly and it instantly growled again, deep and angry. The pressure didn’t stop the rumbling and his hand didn’t block the sound very well, so it filled the car and made Charlie wish he had some kind of paper bag with eye holes that he could pull over his head. He could feel himself really blushing now, all the way to the tips of his ears.
A nervous smile pulled at his mouth. “That was so loud. I’m so embarrassed, I’m sorry.”
“Mmm.” Shayne slumped a little lower in his seat again. And then, almost inaudibly, he mumbled, “It’s okay, I’m getting kind of hungry, too.”
Charlie’s heart leapt into his throat, all thoughts of his rumbling belly momentarily forgotten. He took his eyes off the road for a dangerous number of seconds as he looked over at Shayne, wondering if he possibly could have heard that right. In all of his time knowing Shayne, he had never heard him say those words.
“Yeah?” he asked, trying to keep from smiling too much. He turned his head again, lips parting wordlessly. Shayne didn’t meet his gaze, and was instead staring down at the footwell, but Charlie was positive he knew what this meant. “Do you want to stop and eat something before we get to my parents’?”
“I don’t know.” Shayne yawned and stretched his arms up over his head and around the headrest, lengthening his body like a cat. “Ugh. I don’t think I’m as hungry as you are, so you should decide.”
“No, no, don’t make me decide,” Charlie laughed, though inside he was going yes, yes, yes, barely containing a squeal of excitement. His mood had gone from dull annoyance to sheer joy in just a few moments. For Shayne to actually tell him that he was hungry, it must have meant he – he really trusts me! Oh my god, I need to act completely normal right now or it’s going to scare him, but holy shit –
The moment of giddiness was cut short by a sharp belch that rumbled all the way up Charlie’s chest. Charlie pressed a fist to his mouth just as his cheeks puffed out, full of acidic air from his empty stomach.
Shayne looked up, either at the sound of the burp or the hand to the mouth. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” Charlie laughed, his voice deep from the air still trapped in his belly and chest. “I swallowed a lot of air, and… oh my god, shut up,” he hissed as his stomach squeezed in on itself, sending vibrations through his entire abdomen. He grimaced and let the sound ring out.
Shayne raised an eyebrow. “We’re yelling at our organs now?”
“It started it.” Charlie bit his lip, continuing to focus on the road and feeling a little awkward now. Everything was silent for a moment before he whimpered and rubbed one hand over his belly, so the other one could keep steering the car. His stomach was constantly churning and squeezing around the air trapped inside, begging for something solid.
As another painfully empty growl started up, Charlie felt Shayne’s hand slip under his arm, cupping the front of his belly. The sound tapered off with a twinge of discomfort, followed by brief silence inside the car. Shayne had probably felt that as well as hearing it, Charlie realised, and he couldn’t figure out why he only felt 20% embarrassed by this; the other 80% was a feeling akin to butterflies in his stomach, but not quite the same.
“I think that was your decision being made for you,” Shayne said, referring to the growl. He gently removed his hand from Charlie’s stomach and stretched in his seat again, this time working his jaw until it popped. “So where are we stopping for food?”