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John Quinn didn't have a particular passion for music, but during the years they'd been together, Rashel had developed a love for it which she'd been quite insistent on sharing with him. Every time they were traveling for Circle business, she would put together new mixes to share with him.
Some of it was awful and some beautiful, most, however, was mediocre and hardly worth mentioning, but there had been one particular song where the singer had lamented waiting as the hardest part which he felt was uniquely applicable to his current predictament and his life as a whole, such as it was.
Waiting was indeed the hardest part.
Waiting for the next battle.
Waiting for Rashel to return from the mission she'd been sent on without him.
So much waiting.
And he had never been a patient man.
It had only been a week since Rashel and a few of the others had left for what leadership had insisted was a simple recon mission and which Quinn was beginning to suspect was actually a test of his very obviously limited patience.
His skills had been deemed unnecessary for the mission and so he had been left to help look after things at their current base of operations. To be a "calming presence" which he really should have found more suspicious when Rashel had mentioned that was why he was being left out, but he'd been distracted in the moment so it wasn't until later, long after she and the others had said their farewells, that he'd thought to question it.
And, of course, Thierry had just kept smiling pleasantly at him and insisting it was true when he finally did question it and him.
It hadn't taken long to begin to suspect that the real reason he'd been asked to stay behind, was far less flattering, and far more particular.
Ash Redfern babysitting duty.
"Listen, Thierry assures me that this is an incredibly important task. One that only we can do. One which is vital to the continued well-being of all those who live here," Ash replied, grinning and gesturing expansively to the enclave's compound or the town as a whole or perhaps to whole world given Ash's dramatic nature.
"Ash," Quinn replied, tone as brittle and cracked as his clearly fraying patience. "I think we both know that is utter nonsense."
"Well, yeah, but come on, aren't you the least bit curious as to why he's asking us, us of all people, to do this?"
"No."
Ash sighed, expression somehow appearing legitimately disappointed by his refusal, "Man, Quinn, come on, just come with me. Don't be such a killjoy."
Quinn frowned, turning the request over and over in his mind, but he still couldn't make any sense of it. Not of the request, not of why they specifically were being asked to complete it, and most certainly not why Ash seemed so invested and willing to go along with it. Perhaps he was simply bored? After all it wasn't as if every day in Harmony was nonstop excitement and he did seem to be in need of near constant distraction with his soulmate also out on a mission. "Fine."
"Awesome! You're driving! The only vehicle left in the lot is that shitty old pick-up truck and I can't drive stick."
Quinn glared at Ash's retreating back with narrowed eyes, ice in his voice as he stepped into the hall and shut the door behind him, "And exactly what, pray tell, are you bringing to this outing?"
"Besides my charming personality?" Ash called back to him, wheeling around to walk backwards toward the exit to the parking lot, a grin stretching his lips wide. "I can reach things on the high shelves."
There was very little chance, Quinn reflected, as Ash spun around again just in time to thrust his palms out to slam the door open, letting the electric glow and buzz of the exterior lights into the darkened corridor, that they would both be returning from this little supply run alive.
+++
As it turned out, what Ash actually brought to the outing was a list of necessities and handwritten directions to something called a "Costco" which Quinn would have found more reassuring if Ash hadn't said the name as if he were sounding out a foreign word, which left him to assume that Ash had no more idea about what this place they were being sent to was than he did. Which was both comforting and unsettling at once and made the drive through the countryside strangely tense and quiet as Ash rattled off directions. Turn here, turn there, no not there, turn there with impatient little flicks of his wrist and often at the very last possible moment and more than once if he hadn't been as old as he was and his reflexes as good as they were, they'd almost certainly have ended up in a ditch.
By the time they arrived in town, Quinn's jaw ached from grinding his teeth and his fingers gripped the wheel so tight that the metal groaned and his fingers ached whenever he pulled his hand free to shift gears.
The "Costco", as it turned out, was a tall, unimpressive grey on grey building fronted by red and blue lettering that proclaimed it "Costco Wholesale" and was fronted by a flock of bright red concrete poles, presumably to keep persons with an axe to grind from driving through glass sliding doors. As defensive measures went, it was better than many Quinn had seen over the years. By the time they had arrived and Quinn had eased the ancient pick-up truck into a spot in the shadows well-beyond the reach of the parking lot's sporadic lamps, it was close to what must have been closing time and only a smattering of cars lingered in the lot. The array of carts parked neatly in front of the building, and the half-dozen more left like discarded refuse throughout the lot put Quinn in mind of all the supermarkets he'd visited over the course of his life which, to be fair, wasn't many. Still, that, at least, was familiar and served to make him feel a bit more confident that this wasn't actually all some elaborate joke one of the many teenagers running about their base of operations had thought up.
"Okay! This is... sure is... something, isn't it?" Ash commented as he fell into step beside Quinn as they made their way towards the bright illumination shining through the glass doors. A soft whoosh of sound accompanied the door on the left as it opened to release a small woman wrapped in a heavy coat, a woolen hat pulled down so long it almost covered her eyes, and a rattling cart piled high with brightly colored boxes and bags.
They passed her by and were greeted by the same quiet whoosh as the door on the right sprang open to admit them into the enormous room.
"See?" Ash called, his voice so intolerably smug it made Quinn want to slap the sass right out of his mouth even before the words he known were coming slipped off his tongue. "I told you that you'd need me for the high shelves."
And the worst part about it was that he wasn't even wrong.
The shelves, if you could even call them that, stretched up towards the ceiling and even though it was obvious that all the goods they were would be expected to purchase would be much further down it was still infuriating that some might not be.
"Hey, grab a cart," Ash ordered and before Quinn could tell him to get it himself, he was already halfway across the empty space between the door they came in from and the counter where a very bored looking girl with bubblegum pink hair was slowly sorting ornaments and clothing into different bins.
Annoyed, but resigned, Quinn jerked a cart from a neat line of them and, while he didn't stomp after Ash, it was a very close thing.
The store was massive.
And confusing.
Televisions, wrapping paper, boxes of medicines, enormous packages of candy and those boxed noodles with the cheese powder so many of the humans in the enclave seemed to enjoy, toys, weights, and hundreds of other items which made little sense to him individually much less in bulk. And almost everything in the store seemed to come in bulk, even the things that made no sense.
Who needed that many donuts?
Would they not be stale by the time they were all eaten?
Would the bread not mold?
There seemed no particular rhyme or reason as to what it stocked or why and while he could, perhaps, understand the utility of such a store, navigating it was proving to be beyond his capabilities. Which, of course, left him at the mercy of Ash and the vest-wearing boy he'd retrieved from somewhere who was leading them about the store to find the various things on the list Ash had shoved at him.
"Paper towels are over here," the boy commented, gesturing down an aisle on their left.
The plastic wrapped package was enormous and already the cart was full and it seemed as if they weren't even halfway through the list.
"Hey, I think we're gonna need another cart," Ash commented, reaching up to pull down another box from a shelf and shoving it under the cart.
Deciding enough was quite enough, Quinn grabbed Ash by the shoulders and firmly turned and shoved the taller man in the direction of the entrance, "Then you should go and get one."
"But Quinn," Ash replied wheeling back around his tone wheedling. "I have the list. Come on, Jeff, next thing on the list is..... dino chicken nuggets? What are dino chicken nuggets?"
Somewhere the speaker that had been playing soft music cut out and a scratchy, staticky voice called out, "The store will be closing in fifteen minutes. Please select your last purchases and make your way to the exit."
Growling, Quinn turned on his heel and did not stomp back across the warehouse to fetch another cart.
When he returned, he found Ash alone standing in an aisle bordered on two sides by parallel lines of tall closed freezers holding an enormous box with pale brown creatures on the front staring down at it absently.
The boy who had been guiding them emerged from the black flap at the far side of the aisle with their cart and didn't so much as give them a glance before turning and disappearing down out of sight with it in the vague direction of the front of the store.
When he glanced back to Ash, Quinn found him smiling broadly as he shook the box in his hands at him, "Hey, you're back! Ready to go? This was the last thing on the list, I had Jeff take everything else up front. So helpful."
To say that Quinn blacked out would be incorrect.
Rather the opposite was true.
He remembered every moment of grabbing Ash by the nape of his neck like an unruly pup and dragging him down the length of the aisle, through the black flap, into the dark, cold room beyond.
If such a thing were possible, he might have considered framing the memory and hanging it on the wall of his room. Certainly Rashel would understand. She had met Ash after all. She knew how the man got under his skin. They'd discussed it many times. Well, perhaps not many times, but often enough certainly.
Once he was certain they were alone, he whirled Ash around and shoved him against the wall of the walk-in freezer.
Ash's back hit the freezer wall with a satisfying crack, the impact shaking free bits of frozen condescation, speckling the shoulders of Ash's jacket with little white flecks. Almost as satisfying as the sound of his back impacting the wall was the widening of his eyes, the look of shock. As if he'd expected to be able to keep pushing and pushing and there would never be a consequence and perhaps, Quinn reflected, that was true, even now, even after years of trying to redeem himself to be kinder, wiser, whatever it was he thought he was becoming by running about doing Circle Daybreak's many errands no matter how mundane or utterly absurd they were.
"I do not know what it is you hope to gain by testing my patience," Quinn murmured, leaning in to speak the words against Ash's ear, against the heat of his skin. "But if you continue I will put you over my knee and take be irritation out on your unrepentant ass."
He was pressed firmly enough against him that he could feel the tremor his words sent through Ash's body just as he could hear it in the barely preceptable waver in the word as he spoke in answer, his voice rough as sandpaper gliding over wood. "Promise?"
And that... that was unexpected.
That was...
In the distance, a voice, "...five minutes. Please bring you purchases to...."
There was likely more, but Quinn did not hear it past the roaring in his ears as Ash took advantage of his brief inattention to turn his face, to nip at his ear. Not quite hard enough to draw blood, but enough to draw his focus back, to narrow it down to the non-existent space between them.
He does not spank him.
But he does kiss him, hard enough to bruise, and he tastes blood, his or Ash's, he is not certain. All he is certain of is that this, this is what Ash was looking for. The whimper in his throat is enough to confirm that, the bend and yield of his body as he sags against the wall, giving his weight over to Quinn's hold.
If they were somewhere else, somewhere more private, somewhere besides a freezer stacked high with frozen pizzas and ice cream, perhaps he would do more.
Or perhaps he would never have done anything at all.
Either way he holds Ash to him, plundering his mouth, digging his fingers into the small of his back for a moment more before releasing him and stepping back.
"The store is now closed."
Ash stumbled forward after him, hand reaching out to grab him though what he intended to do if he caught hold of him Quinn had no intention of finding out. Instead he sidestepped his advance, and slapped Ash upon the ass hard enough that the sound of the impact seemed to echo off the walls of the room, sending Ash back towards the flap through which they had entered. "Get moving, you have dino chicken nuggets to purchase and we should not make the clerks wait any longer." Quinn commented, smiling to himself as Ash mumbled something that he couldn't quite catch, pressing a hand to his rear as he vanished past the flap.
The box of dino chicken nuggets was lying on the aisle floor where it had fallen when he'd swept Ash into the freezer and he was not too proud to own that he enjoyed watching Ash gingerly reach down to pick it up.
And that he wasn't the least bit surprised when Ash turned to glance at him over his shoulder and raise an eyebrow in his direction as he straightened with the box in hand, a smile quirking his lips.
Some men never learned, but perhaps this would be a pleasant lesson to revisit in the future, or at least a reasonable diversion.
Perhaps.