Age of The Understatement

Part 15 - Gas Dance

Johns Lake, CO

The rest of the night was filled with wine-drunk love making and celebration; of course without any question, Alex enthusiastically said yes to Miles' proposal before throwing himself into his arms.

Alex laid his head in the small divet in between Miles' shoulder and chest, his bare skin almost melting into Miles' as a small blanket laid over the two of them. The wine had been drunk, and the skillet cornbread had been eaten. Both full and happy, Alex held out his hand out to examine the silver ring that perched on his pinky finger. A little unorthodox ring placement, but Alex didn't care– this simple ring held so much love and power. Something tangible that symbolised Miles' affection and devotion to him.

"What does 'death ramps' mean?" Alex asked, still staring at the ring.

"The shop keeper said it must've been from some mob. I'm honestly not sure. We can make something up for it, can't we?" Miles replied, gently stroking Alex's long unwashed hair.

"I'll think on it." Alex said in a sigh, snuggling into Miles' chest as he closed his eyes. His fingers trailed along Miles' small patch of chest hair.

Miles gazed up into the night sky, his heart full as his eyes bounced from star to star, Alex's heart beating softly against his side. Trying to keep his mind off of what would follow in the next few days, Miles focused on the now– his worried mind being soothed by the sensation of Alex's slow breaths against his chest. Although their relationship would never be officially confirmed by law, this was enough. For once in his life Miles felt whole. As Miles' mind continued to simmer on the thought of spending the rest of forever with his lovely brown eyed boy, he eventually let himself close his eyes. Swiftly, the two fell off into a nice deep sleep. The continuous sound of frogs, crickets, and loons rocked them to sleep.

7:10 am
Johns Lake, CO

As the sun rose, Miles' eyes fluttered open to find Alex still in the same position, his dark hair falling gently into his face. His shallow breaths moved his hair so softly, tickling at Miles' bare chest. Miles carefully bent down and pressed a small kiss onto the top of Alex's head. With only about fourteen hours of travel time left until they were in Cripple Creek, Miles wasn't rushing to wake Alex up. Truly, he was worried. This wasn't like those small towns they robbed. This would be much more complicated. With full police forces and security measures in place, this could end up being a lot more chaotic than originally planned. But, with money running thin and this being the last stop until their big move to the east, it was necessary.

Miles gently pushed Alex's hair out of his face, allowing some light to shine onto his eyes. Miles gazed at his lover, his sweet sleepy lips and rouged cheeks illuminated by the morning sun. Alex groaned as the light hit him, quickly nuzzling his face into Miles' chest.

"Mornin' doll." Miles cooed as he traced his fingers along Alex's exposed back.

"Hmnph.." Alex murmured into Miles' soft skin.

"Lots of travel ahead baby, maybe we can stop in the next town and grab some early lunch?" Miles said, still keeping his voice nice and soft for his sleeping beauty.

Alex covered up his face with one of his hands as he turned his head to face Miles, his eyes just barely cracked open.

"I could go for some food." Alex groggily said, his eyes fighting to stay open.
"With all that wine last night, I could use a few more winks though.." Alex nuzzled back into Miles' chest.

Unable to hold back a wave of overwhelming love and emotion from how absolutely darling Alex looked, Miles swiftly embraced him and smothered him in a tight hug, placing kisses all over his head. Alex giggled in response to Miles' action, he couldn't possibly be upset at him for waking him up.
Miles pressed his forehead to Alex's, a smile still lingering on his lips.

"Just think about it: a week or two from now we will be out East in our own home, with a large comfy bed. And you can sleep in as long as you want." Miles whispered, pressing a quick kiss onto Alex's nose.

"Well then, daylights a-wastin'. Longer we lallygag around the longer it'll take for us to get out East!" Alex replied enthusiastically.

Miles placed a small kiss onto Alex's lips, which he happily returned. Alex swiftly pulled himself on top of Miles and stared down at him, cheeky grin plastered onto his face. He woke up quick.

"What about.. a quick one for the road, fiancée?" Alex said suggestively.

Miles' cheeks blushed. Fiancée.
"Once again, reading my mind Al." Miles replied with a grin as he wrapped his hands back around Alex's neck, pulling him back down for a string of kisses.

A little after noon
4 Miles outside of Walsenburg, CO

Another hot day. In thinking Colorado would be on the cooler side, they were obviously very wrong. As the two men rode beside each other the sun beamed down. Beads of sweat trickled down Miles' back, his cowboy hat hardly giving himself enough cover from the scorching heat. Alex was irritable and Miles was ready to just pass out. Thankfully with the short amount of travel left, they had some water from the lake to keep them at bay.

"I told you we should've left earlier." Miles groaned as he wiped the back of his arm against his forehead.

"You're saying you didn't want your dick sucked?" Alex sassily replied, just as annoyed with the heat as Miles was. Not to mention his stomach was about to eat itself.

"Don't go puttin' words in my mouth, you know I'd never turn you down– thing is we should've been in town hours ago." Miles said as he squinted ahead of himself, seeing thin rows of cabins just past the mirage on the path.

"Just up ahead." Miles extended his hand out to point out the buildings to Alex but before he knew it, Alex had taken off into a full gallop.

Miles quickly took off after him, hoping to catch up before making it into town completely. They needed shade. Bad. And probably few glasses of coke to go with it.

As the two made it to the town entrance, they finally slowed their horses and made their way into the town center. Alex's eyes quickly scanned the buildings looking for anything with a sign promoting food or any type of beverage.

"Over here Al." Miles called out, gesturing over to a small building that looked to be some sort of cafe.

Alex quickly hopped off his horse and tied it to the nearest post to the building, tapping his foot impatiently as he waited for Miles to get himself together. Eventually, Alex and Miles made their way into the building and quickly ordered themselves corned beef hash and cokes and took their seats. The building was a typical cabin style build. No funny business or extra decorations, just the necessities were laid out. A few tables and chairs scattered the room and a loud kitchen clanged and clamored from behind the front counter.

"I'm so fucking hungry." Alex murmured as he twiddled his thumbs in attempt to distract himself as he waited what felt like forever for his food.

"I can tell." Miles sighed as he took off his hat, sitting it down onto the table in front of them. "Once you get some food in you, I wanna talk about the plans for the next few days. We'll need to get this shit figured out before we just run into cripple creek."

Alex nodded.

"We need this plan to be tight, I don't want neither of us getting killed." Miles said, staring right at Alex who was avoiding eye contact like the plague.

Thankfully, the waiter had finally come by and placed the platters of food in front of the two men. Miles politely thanked the waiter just as Alex started devouring his food.
Cripple Creek was creeping closer, tension was running high. They couldn't fuck this up.