back nextWhen the plane started to descend, both of Dirt's ears popped so hard that everything became muffled to an alarming degree. He tried yawning a bunch to get his ears to like, correct themselves or something, but it wasn't helping. Against the logic in his brain telling him that this was only temporary and his hearing would go back to normal, Dirt started to panic.
Not only could he barely hear anything, his sinuses also hurt like hell. I am never getting another fucking plane again I'm dying I'm fucking dying my hearing will never go back to normal and now I'm SICK for the love of god please help me!!!! Despite the internal freak out, however, he looked totally normal, and in fact a little bored, to anyone who may have been looking at him. Aside from the anxious jiggling of his leg, he maintained the outward appearance of being totally normal and cool, as he kept trying to yawn to fix his ears.
By the time the plane landed and people were starting to get up and off the plane, his sinus/ear situation hadn't improved at all. His head was starting to hurt even more from the stress of the whole situation. Once he was off the plane and out into the terminal, his anxiety decreased ever so slightly, since he was no longer pressed up against a ton of strangers, and felt like he could breathe again. Still, he couldn't hear and his whole face hurt. He sent a text to Sarah, who he prayed was already in the loading area waiting for him.
12:55PM
me: ok im out the plane are u here
me: fuckin lost my hearing its so scary lol
me: need to grab my luggage then ill be out
sarah: yeah we're here but im not sure if it's the right spot
me: hold on
1:03PM
sarah: everything ok?
me: yeah sorry i fucking hate it here lol
me: airports are stupid
sarah: yeah -_-
1:15PM
me: ok im by a sign that says southwest and a pillar that says 9
sarah: ok let me see.. ill give salem my phone
sarah: HIIIII BABY I CANT WAIT TO SEE YOU!!!!!!
me: hehe hi baby :)
sarah: sarah asks what ur wearing
me: my regular old blue hoodie nothin special lol
sarah: she is making so many sad noises ðŸ˜
me: D: is everything ok??
sarah: yeah she just hates this place lol
me: yeah its the worst lmao
sarah: OH I SEE U
me: oh!
Dirt did a gay little jog over to Sarah's car as soon as he spotted it, slowly crawling along the curb. The trunk was popped and he threw his luggage in before opening the door to the back seat, where Salem obviously was, but so was Brian! He never said anything about coming along to pick them up, and his heart did somersaults upon seeing him unexpectedly.
"Oh my god, hi!!!" Dirt said gleefully. Salem launched himself out of the car, wrapping his arms around Dirt's waist, and Dirt squeezed him around the shoulders. He said something, but it was muffled into Dirt's shirt and also Dirt could still barely hear, especially with all the noise of the people around them. "Ahhh, I can't hear anything! Let's get in!" Dirt got into the middle seat next to Brian, and Salem latched onto Dirt's arm on their other side, rubbing his face against it. "I didn't know you'd be here!" Dirt said to Brian, squeezing his thigh. Brian chuckled brightly and held Dirt's hand. Sarah began to drive towards the house.
Brian said something, but Dirt only made out, "...wanted to see you......back!" and the rest was lost.
"AHHH I can barely hear you!!!" Dirt whined in frustration, "My ears got all fucked up when we landed.." He tried yawning some more, but it still didn't really do anything except make his face hurt, and he whined again in pain.
"THAT CAN HAPPEN?" Salem shouted directly into Dirt's ear, but it was a good thing that he did that, actually, so they could understand what he said.
"Yeah, and my sinuses hurt..." Dirt added, and pried his arm away from Salem so he could rub his face. "Ugh..."
"LET'S GO SEE MITTENS! SHE CAN FIX YOU!" Salem yelled again.
"What? How?" asked Brian.
"SHE HAS HEALING POWERS!" Salem yelled at Brian.
Brian said something that Dirt guessed, from context clues, was, "You don't have to yell at ME!" Salem giggled, and then started explaining catperson powers to Brian in his normal voice. Dirt was in so much pain in his head, and he couldn't understand the conversation that was taking place over him, so they closed their eyes and allowed themselves to just tune it all out.
Despite all of this, however, Dirt felt more calm and comfortable and safe than he had for the past few days. He was finally surrounded by people that he fully trusted. Even though Brian and Salem were making his head pound at that moment, they were still Brian and Salem... It was such a fucking relief to finally be back in their company. He finally felt like he could let his guard down, and just relax.
After an unknown amount of time, Salem yelled into Dirt's ear, "DO YOU WANNA GO SEE MITTENS?" and they got all startled.
"Shit! Uhh.. Uugghhh...." Dirt whined, his head was buzzing and his ears were ringing and he felt like his skull was just gonna pop. "I don't know... It'll go away on its own, I just wanna go home..." he said miserably. Both Salem and Brian tried to comfort Dirt with sweet touches; Salem wrapped himself around their arm again, and Brian held their hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing tight, caressing the back of their hand with his thumb.
Everyone remained pretty quiet for the rest of the ride, for Dirt's sake, and he was very grateful for it.
By the time Sarah was pulling into the driveway, Dirt's hearing was mostly back, but he still had a headache. "Okay.. my hearing is mostly back, but I still have a headache," he said.
"Can you hear this?" Salem said, purposefully being a little bit quieter than his normal volume.
"Yeah," Dirt said, chuckling a little.
"Well let's get outta here, I wanna hug you, man!" Brian said, unbuckling his seatbelt.
"YEAH!" Salem yelled, making Dirt wince. "Oh! Sorry!" he whispered, covering his mouth.
"It's okay." Dirt, Brian, and Salem slid out of the car as Sarah popped the trunk.
"I'll get your stuff," Sarah said, "You guys need to hug," she giggled, as she went around to the back to get Dirt's luggage.
As soon as they were out, Salem used his superior speed to barrel into Dirt and hug him again. "Hey, c'mon, I haven't even gotten to hug him yet!" Brian complained lightheartedly. When Salem refused to move, Brian shrugged, and wrapped his arms over Dirt's shoulders, squeezing Salem between their bodies.
"I could get used to this," Salem said all suggestively, and Dirt and Brian both laughed. It was nice, though, finally being able to hug his boyfriends again. They all had a nice quiet, peaceful moment in the driveway, just basking in each others warmth. God I hope Brian doesn't feel awkward is this awkward? I hope this is okay that Salem is in between us like this.. I *would* like to hug *just* Brian, though... Salem gets way more opportunities to hug me than him...
"Let's go inside," Dirt said quietly. The three of them untangled and went into the house, where Sarah had already left Dirt's stuff in front of his door, and was sitting on the couch.
"I want a hug too!" she said, standing up and doing a little half-jog to Dirt, "I missed you, too!"
"Of course," Dirt chuckled, and hugged Sarah. Hugging her reminded Dirt of his sister, and that everyone in the room still thought he had a brother! "OH!" he yelled suddenly, as he and Sarah separated, which made her jump. "Haha! Sorry for yelling! I almost forgot, something exciting happened back home!" he said. "Uh.. Clay, is uh, a girl! She came out to me last night! Still goes by Clay, but is she/her now," he informed them with delight, feeling proud of his sister.
"Oh, that's awesome!!!" Sarah exclaimed, her face lighting up. "We love to see it!!" she clapped her hands together.
"Aww, nice," Brian smiled.
"Who?" asked Salem.
"What?! My sister! Clay! I told you about her!"
Salem thought for a moment, tapping his chin, which Dirt noticed was getting kinda hairy. "OOOOHHHHHH OKAAYYY... I think I remember you mentioning a sibling, now.. You never told me her name, though, I didn't know!"
"Really? I could've sworn I did!"
Salem shook his head. "Nope! That's really funny though. You're Dirt, and she's Clay? Hilarious."
Dirt chuckled and rolled his eyes, "Yeah, our parents thought so too." I also thought so. "I told her she should come and visit soon, so she can meet you guys!"
"Aww, yeah! I'd love to meet her!" Sarah cheered. Salem and Brian agreed as well, though less enthusiastically than Sarah.
"Man, I need to lay down," Dirt said suddenly, "The flight wasn't even that long, but I'm so tired..." he slumped over, sighing.
Salem gasped excitedly. "Let's go take a nap together!!!" he exclaimed.
"If you're gonna do that, then I'm gonna go do some work," Sarah said, and excused herself to her bedroom.
Dirt, Brian, and Salem made their way to Dirt's room, where he dragged his luggage inside and promised himself he'd take care of it as soon as he woke up. They were already wearing sweatpants, so they just took their jacket off and flopped onto the middle of their bed, sighing in relief as they felt the familiar comforter and pillow.
"Y'all mind if I take my jeans off?" Brian asked as Salem climbed into the bed to the left of Dirt and latched onto his arm, purring as loud as a motorcycle.
"I wouldn't mind if you took off all your clothes," Salem "jokingly" flirted.
"Salem..." Dirt sighed, exasperated. Why does he always have to be so—
"It's fine," Brian chuckled, as he unzipped his pants, "I know he's just jokin'."
"I..." Dirt chuckled tiredly, "I'm not sure that he is!"
"It's like a HALF joke," said Salem. Brian crawled into the bed on Dirt's right, throwing an arm around their waist.
"Yeah, whatever..." said Brian, as he made subtle adjustments to his positioning to get more comfortable.
Is it seriously okay with him??? Ugh I feel like he's so uncomfortable with the way Salem flirts with him and he just doesn't say anything... But also, that's not like Brian to not say when something's making him uncomfortable.. Am *I* the one that's uncomfortable with it? No, I'm just nervous that everyone ELSE is uncomfortable. I've gotta.... talk to them both separately about this.... later....
Thanks to Salem, everyone was sound asleep within minutes.