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Brian already knows who it’ll be pulling in as soon as the gravel crunch hits his ear. He’s out on the porch, screen door banging shut behind him before Rome even has the chance to honk the horn and wake the whole neighborhood. He flashes the headlights when Brian crosses in front of them to get his shot in anyway.“What you got going on here?” Brian’s half curious about where Rome swiped the car from, because last he checked Rome just went over to Tanya’s house with his brother tonight, but he’s going to get the full story eventually. For now he’s more interested in what it means that Rome’s showed up instead of telling him about it tomorrow. Some kind of plan is cooking in that bald head of his.“Hop in and find out.” Rome answers without really answering, which is almost as endearing as it is annoying. One arm dangles through the open window, with the other hand loose and overly casual on the wheel.“What, you scared man?” Roman grins from ear to ear, showing off obnoxious bright teeth. If he wasn’t safely behind the wheel Brian would knock him over to wrestle that stupid look off his face.“Nah, I could shove you out the car and drive if I needed to. You’d land fine with that hard ass head of yours.”“Get in asshole.”Brian swings in through the passenger side window, since Rome doesn’t want to unlock the door for him while he's busy puffing up like a peacock. The interior is full suede, which is pretty nice. It’s also bright yellow, which is less nice, and Rome's pinched sour look when he catches Brian laughing makes it even better.“Flashiest thing you could get your hands on huh?”“You’re doing an awful lot of complaining, so let me remind you I don’t need to bring your ass anywhere. You can stay home all night while I go out in this sweet ride of mine,” Rome gripes, but he’s still smiling, shoving at Brian’s shoulder as if he’d actually let him out again without kicking up a fuss and then cold-shouldering him for two days.“Not quite yours,” Brian can’t help but cut in.“It is for tonight. Now we doing this or what?”Brian shrugs, loops his hands behind his head casually. “I was waiting for you to decide when you wanted to stop crying and start driving.”“You're about to see some crying bro.” Is the warning Brian gets before Rome shifts hard and swerves out of their dead end street. It takes about thirty seconds of Rome taking corners as close as possible for Brian to give up on playing it cool and grab for the headrest and oh-shit handle breathlessly."Yeah that's what I thought!" Rome calls over the air rushing past."Fuck off!" Brian sends back but he can't shake the smile off his face to pretend he means it.Almost no one else is out this late in their neck of the woods. They pass two other cars in a cloud of dust before Rome breaks off and turns down an even stretch of road they like to use for testing the mileage on borrowed rides. Nothing new. Until Rome slows enough to make Brian look over, easy thrill and confusion blending together.He’s calm at first, because Rome doesn't seem worried at all, and then suspicion immediately sets in because he’s got to be up to something."You thought this was good so far, I'm about to blow your mind," Rome brags, and tightens his fingers on the wheel. "Watch and learn pretty boy." And then the car's slamming back into motion when Rome floors it, eyes still locked on Brian's, not even glancing at the road.This is the safest spot Rome could pull a stunt like this, and that doesn't mean a thing when Brian's heart is jammed into his chest, pounding hard enough it's another backdrop of noise against the rush of wind and roaring engine. He can see the road whipping past them in his peripheral vision, and he wants to look, but breaking this moment is impossible.The streetlights’ glow through the window behind Rome spotlights him like a halo. His eyes shine through in the dark, and if Brian hasn’t been able to look away yet then neither has Rome. If they crashed, he still couldn’t take his eyes off Rome. It’s more than a possibility, considering this road dead-ends into a stand of straggling trees and littered cigarette butts from previous joyrides and the visits from others.Just off the edge of too-late; they coast to a stop so smoothly Brian almost doesn’t notice. If his heart wasn’t still racing, he could have thought they were just cruising through late afternoon traffic.Now Rome breaks away, shoving the gears into park and jerking his hands away from the wheel like it’s burning him. He turns to Brian with the worst, smuggest grin he’s ever seen on Rome. Brian would fuck with him about it if it didn’t match the wild incredulous smile that feels like it’s splitting his face too."Yeah, how'd you like that? That's what I thought, finally shut your ass up-" Rome manages to get out before Brian reels him in with a hand on his shoulder and then one behind his head, lips smacking together to shut him up. Their teeth knock together briefly, but Brian's not worrying about it in the rush to get as close to Rome as possible."Where the fuck did you pick up a trick like that?" He asks, laughing against Rome's mouth, breathless from lips on his and the adrenaline high. Brian's half a step away from climbing over the console and cramming himself into Rome's lap."That's one hundred percent bonafide Roman Pierce magic, baby. I've been practicing any time I could sneak off. Didn't take a whole lot of practice though," Rome brags, lying through his teeth. A whole lot of previous nights spent dicking around by himself click together and make sense now."That was awesome." It was. Brian's already turning over when he's going to get around to trying it out for himself. Probably not in a lemon suede monstrosity like this one, something cooler, a little less eye-searing."Yeah, I figured you'd say that once you got over yourself." "I take it back, you're the worst.""Too bad, you're stuck with me." "Wouldn't have it any other way." And Brian leans in again, cutting Rome off from any more smart comments.