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Tommy grabbed Buck’s wrist and pulled him around, pressing a finger to his lips at the same time. Buck grinned and bit his tongue so he wouldn’t start to laugh at Tommy’s a little stupid request. They had spent the most part of the last two hours of their hike in comfortable silence, after all, so asking him silently to be quiet was so very silly.
But then, with the sound of them walking falling away and their breathing evening out and getting quieter, Buck could hear it, too. The murmuring of the creek they had just reached, the whisper of the wind in the leaves, the chirping of the birds, the claws of some animal scratching over the bark of a tree.
Buck closed his eyes and made the one step separating him from Tommy to lean against his boyfriend. For a little while they just stood there and took in the undisturbed sounds of the forest. It was the first day of their five-day hike tour, and since they had left the lodge where they had left their car and their phones, they hadn’t met a single person. Which was exactly the reason why they had come here.
Eventually, Tommy said quietly, “Let’s take a proper break.”
Buck nodded and turned his head to steal a quick kiss. They hadn’t stopped at a good place to reach the creek, but just a little farther down the path they found a flat, sandy area leading to the creek with a couple of big boulders they could comfortably sit on. Buck pulled out some snacks from his own backpack while he watched Tommy fill his bottle with the integrated filter in the creek.
“It’s beautiful here,” Buck said. “And the best part is that no one is around to disturb us!”
Tommy grinned and shook his head. “The best part is nature and being here with you. That we’re alone comes in a close second, though.”
Things at home had been hectic over the past couple of months, and they had both felt they just couldn’t have a moment to themselves as long as they were in LA. So Buck had suggested they just get away for some time, and Tommy had brought up a hiking tour in the middle of nowhere while abandoning all electronics. They were carrying an emergency beacon in each of their backpacks, of course, just because the job had taught them that they should always be able to call for help. But those were the only electronic devices they had taken with them.
Buck stretched out his legs and curled his toes as much as he could inside the boots while watching the creek. The water wasn’t deep and crystal clear, splashing over big, round rocks. “We have time, right?”
Tommy raised his brows. “Sure. It’s at most another three hours to our campsite. And another six hours or so of daylight.”
“Great!” Buck grinned and pulled his feet back to open his shoelaces.
“What are you doing?” Tommy asked, sounding amused.
“The water will barely reach halfway up to my knees,” Buck said. “Have you ever walked through cold water after a long hike?”
“I have,” Tommy said slowly, and for a moment Buck thought he would point out they were really only a little over halfway through their hike of the day, and on the first day of a five-day hike, instead of the end of some long hike. But then he bent down and unlaced his own boots as well.
A minute later they were carefully wading to the middle of the creek. The water wasn’t quite as cold as Buck had expected, but it was still just as refreshing. When Buck turned to Tommy, his face and chest were hit by a splash of water.
“Hey!” Buck called out in protest, and Tommy’s answer was loud laughter and another splash of water.
With his eyes half closed against the water running down his face, Buck hit the water with both hands, shoveling as much of it in Tommy’s direction as he could. They descended into unrepentant laughter as they kept splashing water at each other until they were both soaked and started to shiver despite the warm temperatures.
“I don’t even remember when I had my last water fight!” Tommy said breathlessly when they were both lying down on the big rocks, waiting for the warm air to dry them up.
“It’s been years.” Buck grinned widely and turned his head to watch his boyfriend. “Didn’t remember how much fun that is. Even though we’ll have to change now before we keep walking.”
Tommy shrugged. “The clothes will be dry before we reach the campsite. Very much worth it.”
Buck rolled over and propped himself up on one arm, leaning over Tommy. “Do you think we can trust that there shouldn’t be any other hikers here to disturb us?”
The whole track they were on was advertised as a silent retreat. The park service had created campsites along the trail that were spaced out to be a comfortable day’s hike apart from each other. To reach the trail, you had to pass by the lodge from where they had started, and you had to book your time on the trail well in advance. There really shouldn’t be anyone on the trail who could stumble over them by accident because the next group wouldn’t start until the next day.
Tommy’s only answer was to grab Buck in the neck and pull him down for a kiss.
***
The last night of their hike, their campsite was at the shore of a small mountain lake with a fast meadow between the forest they had spent most of the past four days in and the lake. The place for their campsite was, as it had always been along the trail, a wooden platform. They had put up the tent, mostly because at this point they had no idea about any kind of weather forecast anymore, and their backpacks were stored inside the tent to keep them dry should they be surprised by a rain shower.
Tommy and Evan had rolled out their sleeping bags outside the tent, though, and were lying on top of them, with just a thin blanket covering both of them. It was too hot to sleep in the bags, and as long as it wasn’t raining during the night, they both enjoyed just sleeping under the canopy of the trees and now under the open sky.
“I always forget what the sky looks like at night without any lights of cities nearby,” Evan whispered.
They were both lying on their backs, staring up at the sky that was so full of stars, their shoulders pressed together and fingers tangled. Once they’d drift off to sleep, Evan would turn on his side to snuggle up to Tommy, and if the experience of the past couple of nights held, Tommy would wake up on his side with Evan spooning him. Somehow, their sleeping habit here had turned out to be the exact opposite of how they slept at home.
“We should do something like this every year,” Tommy blurted out.
He had been pondering that thought since the very first evening, maybe even since their water fight that first day. It wasn’t the first time Tommy had been on a silent retreat like this one. Until this trip with Evan, the most success he’d had with finding the peace and recreation promised had been when he had gone hiking alone. Finding people who he could be comfortable with while they let the silence between them just be was difficult. With Evan it had been easy since the very first time Evan had allowed himself to be silent with Tommy—something that Evan had needed to learn in the very beginning—and this trip had just underlined how important and relaxing that was.
Of course, being alone with your boyfriend for five days while you could trust not to be disturbed by friends or strangers was its own kind of special experience. They had both taken advantage of their secluded situation every time the mood had come up. That was an experience Tommy hadn’t had in the past, and he was glad to be able to share that first time with Evan.
“Your next shift is in four days, right?” Evan asked. “Mine is in five. We could just get a hotel on our way back home for two more nights before we have to return to reality. But yeah, we’re definitely doing something like this again next year.”
“There is a small place just outside of LA,” Tommy said. “It’s just a small guesthouse, run by an elderly lesbian couple. Usually, when I’m recovering from some injury, I’ll go there for a couple of days.”
Evan huffed. “And you haven’t taken me there yet?”
Tommy grinned. “I’m offering to take you now!”
“How much time would it take you to get from there to Harbor?”
Tommy turned his head with a confused frown. “Why?”
Evan shrugged, still looking up into the sky. “If it’s just an hour or so, we could stay there until the morning you have to go to shift. I’ll drop you off at Harbor and drive home afterwards.”
“You really don’t want this vacation to end, do you?” Tommy said softly.
Now Evan turned his head to look at Tommy. “Do you?”
Tommy shook his head. “No.”
“Maybe we should do this more than once a year. When we have four days off at the same time, we can just drive a couple of hours away from LA so no one from home can disturb us.”
“We’ll do that,” Tommy promised.