Chapter Text
Nova hastily shoved things into her duffel bag. She had laid it all out the night prior but had gotten distracted by working on a new invention and forgot about packing the entire night until she realized the sun had risen. Despite two years free of any Anarchist interactions, aside from visits to see Leroy occasionally as the only Anarchist left in general, she still ran on adrenaline and was used to such a fast paced life. Plan well but be quick had always been the general consensus on how to accomplish something. Nova had twice the time in the day and yet it never seemed like quite enough.
On the upside, she was able to get her things together rather efficiently and grab a random muffin from a box that Oscar had given her as a birthday gift. Unused to something so sweet or fresh, she tended to freeze them to make them last. Food had always been scarce for her growing up and even though she had plenty now, old habits died hard.
Preparation was Nova's number one skill as a human being as she was practically raised for a bloodbath at any given moment. Sometimes freezing things didn't hurt as her microwave beeped, alerting her that her muffin was now thawed as she zipped up her duffel and tossed it over her shoulder. She still had time before Ruby showed up but Ruby was always early and Nova had learned to calculate for that at this rate.
It had been two years. She was learning how to relax and be normal. Going to the beach for a whole week for the summer was part of that. Still, she found it hard to let herself fully have that as the gears in her mind constantly churned and she was always plotting something as Danna liked to joke now that they were on much better terms then before.
As Nova finished her muffin and threw the wrapped our in her trash can, her phone went off with a message from Adrian. They were there. The road trip was going to begin.
Grabbing her keys, Nova headed out the door and to the mini van Ruby was driving. She had saved up and bought it off her parents and Nova had helped fix it up for her free of charge as an apology for everything she had lied about. Ruby had since taken it on several road trips by herself in the past year to see state parks with Danna and had been insisting for the past month that the entire group go down to south to the beaches for a week in the summer.
Inside the mini van was Ruby at the driver's seat of course but Adrian in the passenger spot and Oscar sprawled out in the back. Nova already knew her position was to be crammed into the back with all the stuff they had each packed for the whole journey. She was the smallest and would be driving all night for the road trip anyways as agreed in advance as it was an 18 hour drive down to the beach in Florida.
In the past two years since the Battle of Gatlon, Nova had learned to drive, gotten her own apartment, and had made good strides on learning to be as normal of a human being as she could be. She wasn't fully there. She doubted she ever would be fully there. But it was something and that was better than nothing.
"Are you ready!" Oscar asked cheerfully despite it being 6 am as Nova popped back the middle seat and slipped into the singular available spot in the back row. Nova dropped her stuff by her feet and buckled in before she opened up her duffel to reveal her old portable CD player. She had a phone now but still preferred to use her CDs. It was something physical she owned and she didn't want to ever lose that.
"I'm covered," Nova said, pulling out her headphones after alongside a book of word searches. They all teased her for it and said she had grandma hobbies but she never found herself bored.
"Is that a new word search book?" Adrian asked, knowing Nova had been working for a while on the previous one.
"Yes," She said. "I finished the previous one a week ago and got a fresh one for the trip."
"What are the categories?" Ruby asked as she began pulling out of the parallel parking spot.
"You'll be pleased to hear that there's a puzzle on types of gemstones and one of red objects. Though only the gemstone one mentions rubies."
"I'll take what I can get," She said as she got onto the busy street and navigated her way to Danna's apartment. Both her and Narcissa would be waiting there and were already curb side with their suitcases by the time the rest of them arrived.
Both of them climbed in and Nova arranged their things within the stack of items in the back. The two seemed groggy and already Oscar and Adrian seemed like they were drifting back to sleep though Ruby had always been a morning person and had a energy drink in her cup holder at the moment. It would be Nova and Ruby awake together for a while no doubt as they began the journey down to New Aurora, a small coastal town in Florida that Ruby and Danna stumbled across on one of their road trips to national parks.
They had been visiting the Everglades and decided to explore more for an entire week and loved it there. It was touristy but not super well known according to the two of them which in their eyes made it perfect. And Nova just wanted to go to a place where she wouldn't be easily recognized as much. One of the reasons she lived in Gatlon still after all that had happened was due to the fact that everyone had learned to accept her and never paid her much attention. She had visited other places and had much less luck.
As a result when she showed Adrian her packing list she did have her brass knuckles on it. He had promptly took her pen, scratched it out, and told her that she would not be bringing them alongside a kiss on the cheek. Old habits were still dying hard but at least her boyfriend of the past nearly 3 years humored her.
At first the trip was quiet and Nova just listened to the handful of CDs she brought with her. Then Oscar and Narcissa woke up. Then Adrian. Then Danna. Then everyone was talking and wide awake and multiple stops had been made and Adrian took over driving and Narcissa moved to the front for more leg room and suddenly Ruby, Oscar, and Danna were all bickering over a game.
"That car is not red. I know red," Ruby said. "I am the Mayor of Red."
"It is so red," Oscar argued.
"It's like a purple red. I think it counts," Danna agreed.
Nova simply messed with her hearing aids and tried to ignore them, used to their petty arguments at this point. It never meant anything. If anything it was just a joke. But now that Nova wore hearing aids, when they started to annoy her with this arguing, she would mess with them so she couldn't hear as well.
"Quiet down please," Narcissa asked gently as she turned a page in her book. If Adrian was bothered by the noise he didn't show it, focused ahead on the road as they passed fields of corn and soybeans now that they were well out of the suburbs.
All of them listened to Narcissa and lowered their voices but continued to argue quietly.
"Nova what do you think?" Oscar asked as they pulled into their fourth rest stop, this time for gas and because several people needed to use the bathroom including Nova for once.
"It's not red. I think it has to be a bright red to count if we're talking cars. Do you know how many red cars there are?" Nova said, not even knowing the rules of the game but not agreeing that the car was a true red if it had purple in it.
She pushed down one of the seats and got out of the car and made her way to the bathroom. She wasn't gone long but when she came back out, she couldn't find Ruby's car. It wasn't hard to miss either with all the bumper stickers she had on it.
Nova kept looking, thinking she had missed them or maybe they were getting gas but she couldn't find the car anywhere.
-
As Danna took over the wheel, Adrian scooted his seat back to make things more comfortable for him.
"Nova you're not too cramped back there are you?" He asked, not even looking back. He hadn't seen her get out so he knew she should have been back there. Only, she didn't respond and he knew for certain she wasn't asleep. It may have been two years of progress but she didn't sleep around the team at all due to anxiety over having nightmares. She got them infrequently nowadays but still didn't like to be vulnerable in that way with anyone but him.
Adrian turned to look back, assuming she was focused on a word search and had her music volume up just enough to match her hearing aids. She couldn't fully hear anymore after all the explosions and gunfire she had been nearby and had a habit of turning off her capacity to hear if she wanted quiet or lower volumes around her.
However, Nova wasn't there when he looked back. The seat was empty with her CD player in the place where she should have been.
"Shit," Adrian said. "Nova's going to kill us."
"Why is she going to kill us?" Narcissa asked, looking up from her book as Adrian's phone went off.
He picked it up and put it on speaker.
"Where are you guys? I can't find you all in the lot," Nova said on the other side of the line. Adrian knew she was keeping calm but was probably a little panicked. No one wanted to be stranded at a random rest stop and on top of that, Nova only ever used her phone for emergencies. She never once called Adrian if she wasn't worried and she rarely texted, so unused a phone and not really caring for it in general.
"Fuck!" Danna said. "She is going to kill us!"
"You left me behind didn't you?" Nova asked.
"...Yes?" Adrian replied.
"Turning around now! Tell her I'm turning around now!" Danna panicked as she
"We may be a bit but we're coming," He reassured.
"Good," She said before hanging up. He could tell she was not happy as they all sat anxiously in the car.
"Guess we're doing head counts from here on out," Oscar said.
"Let's just hope she doesn't leave us all at a rest stop in retaliation when it's her turn to drive," Ruby said as she nodded in agreement.
"She won't," Narcissa said as she kept reading, seemingly unfazed. She was closest with Nova and had known her the longest, albeit in a strained relationship. But that being said, she knew how Nova would actually react and while she may retaliate, it would not be by leaving them behind either.
The next 45 minutes to turn around and make their way back to the rest stop were silent and tense and Nova was sitting on a bench in the front glaring as the car pulled up. Adrian got out and pulled his seat back so she could get in and she said nothing but gave him a decent scowl. If he wasn't dating her he would almost be afraid of it.
"You okay?" Adrian asked, turning back to look at her. She was still glowering as she made direct eye contact and then turned down her hearing aids before pulling out her book of word searches.
Adrian took that as a sign to leave her be at the moment and let her cool off. Normally she was good at communicating things with him and never gave the silent treatment but also followed the rule of "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all". This was one of those moments and he was going to respect that and not push his luck.
"Nova has turned her hearing aids down or off," Adrian announced.
"I can still hear, even if they're off you know," Nova said. She wasn't fully deaf after all. Just hard on hearing. She could still hear if they were loud enough.
"I know I'm just announcing so they're aware."
"Thank you," She grumbled.
Nova went back to her word searches after that and then Adrian got roped into a card game with Ruby and Oscar. It was just go fish but they wanted a third player and added in a second deck to make it a longer game.
"Got any 8s?" Ruby asked Adrian.
"Go fish?"
"Where are all the 8s!" She said, jokingly frustrated.
"In the deck," Adrian snorted.
"Got any 6s Ruby?" Oscar then asked.
Scowling, Ruby forked one over much to her boyfriend's delight.
They kept going back and forth at each other, leaving Adrian almost entirely alone and allowing him to collect cards from both of them and when the massive deck ran out and Adrian had the most pairs, they seemed surprised.
There were several more rounds of go fish after and Ruby did try and apologetically get Nova to join. She rejected however and continued this as they pulled into the final rest stop as it got dark so she could take over driving the last 3 hours of the drive. They'd be arriving not super late but they all had been awake since before 6 in the morning and were ready to crash. Driving at night would make them all fall asleep and it was just safer to have a wide awake Nova at the wheel instead.
Nova was still not the most pleased with them all as she took the driver's seat after Narcissa and had to scoot it almost all the way up to the front to see. They all would have poked fun at her for it had they not left her at the rest stop previously.
Adrian got to be in the passenger's seat beside her with Narcissa, Danna, and Oscar in the middle row and Ruby crammed in the back though at that point she had wrapped herself up in a blanket and was fast asleep. He watched as Nova turned up her hearing aids so she could be fully aware on the road and did a quick head count which was now necessarily mandatory.
Danna and Narcissa were curled up together, Danna reading and Narcissa dozing off and Oscar had in his earbuds and was zoned out as Nova began to drive. Adrian was determined to stay awake and keep his partner company as a way to make up for leaving her behind to an extent.
"Are you feeling any better?" Adrian asked as he put in one of Nova's CDs into the insertion slot. He simply took the one she was listening to in her Walkman and popped it in so she could continue listening.
"I'm fine. Can you skip to track 7. That's where I left off," She said, eyes glued to the road ahead of them.
"Fine never means fine."
"Well I mean it sucks but there's nothing I can do about it accept for never let you all live it down," She said, a wry grin on her face.
Adrian smiled back, glad that she was now taking it with good humor. He figured he would as Nova tended to be a sarcastic and mischievous person. But she was also understandably pissed off about being stranded at a rest stop in a random location for nearly an hour.
"You should try and get some rest," Nova said, eyes flickering to the clock.
"We'll be there soon and I don't want to be groggy when we bring things in," He insisted. "Then I'm no help."
"Well no one is going to be much help. Everyone's practically out," She pointed out, nodding her head to behind her where everyone was asleep or half asleep.
"You could use company."
She raised a brow. She probably could tell he felt bad but didn't push him for answers. She didn't exactly need to ask to get them. Nova could read him like a magazine at this rate after knowing him so long and half-way living with him.
They didn't share an apartment, Adrian still lived with his family because he wanted to get to live with Max a bit longer since they never had that growing up. Nova respected this but the plan was that they would move in together at some point since he was over most of the time anyway.
Nova was quiet as they kept driving and even though there was no conversation between them, it was pleasant as they finally made it to the rental house. Like the instructions said, the keys were left in a pass code protected box. One that Ruby groggily punched in before taking the key and opening the door.
"Damn this place is big," Oscar said as they went in. He was correct. It was a giant open floor plan with everything beach themed. There were seashells everywhere and nautical items scattered around and there was even a wind chime on the screened in porch that had seahorses and starfish dangling down from it though they were of course fake.
The kitchen and living space and dining area were all one big room with two bedrooms off to the side and another one upstairs.
"How did you find this place Ruby?" Narcissa asked as she wandered around a bit.
"Lots of planning. Speaking of which because of that I'm calling first dibs on a room and Nova gets second pick because we left her behind," Ruby announced.
"Fair enough," Danna shrugged, not mad that it meant her and Narcissa got the last pick.
Naturally, Ruby went for the biggest bedroom that had the attached bathroom. Nova took the smallest one upstairs and it wasn't necessarily to give Danna and Narcissa a decent pick either. Adrian knew it was because she wanted both access to the roof and more privacy and separation if she did have a nightmare even if Adrian would be there with her.
He didn't mind the smallest room however. It was Nova's decision and whatever made her most comfortable was fine with him.
From the mini van, they brought in the cooler of food and Oscar and Danna unloaded it into the fridge while the rest of them brought in all the beach gear and random group items. Lastly everyone got their bags, Adrian grabbing his and following behind Nova who lead them up.
She tossed her things into a chair and Adrian set his bag on the floor by his side of the bed. He always took the right side and Nova always took the left and that wasn't changing.
"I'm gonna crash for a bit. Wake me whenever Oscar and Danna finish making dinner," Adrian said as he changed into his pajamas, knowing that Oscar and Danna were well rested right now and would happily make dinner like agreed to before. The two of them enjoyed cooking and even though sharing a kitchen tended to make people argue, it was somehow the time they never bickered.
"I told you to rest on the drive," Nova teased, getting into a new set of comfortable clothes herself.
"I wanted to keep you company," He said, flopping onto the made bed and then patting the open spot next to him.
Nova rolled her eyes and curled up beside him anyway.