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They had just gotten out of Atlas’ dingy Ford focus when Morgan sighed and turned to look at him, “I thought you said you booked a good hotel.” He muttered.
Atlas met Morgan’s eyes with a nervous smile. “I’m uh.. sure it looks better on the inside? I mean, the place had 3 stars, that’s good! Right?”
Morgan’s eye twitched. “And how many reviews were there, exactly?” He said with the painfully fake smile he usually gives Atlas when he says something monumentally stupid.
Atlas stares at him for a moment before pushing his palms into his eyes and groaning. Why couldn’t things go his way for once. He really should have known better. “M’stupid, I get it.. look it’s just for the night, I’m too tired to drive and the next room-for-rent is like 20 minutes from here”
Morgan scoffed, kicking a piece of loose asphalt. “Whatever. I’m booking from now on.” He gave Atlas a challenging look. As if he was gonna fight that! Less responsibility for him.
“We might want to leave our stuff in the trunk, it’ll be a hassle to bring it in since it’s only for the night. I don’t *think* we’ll get robbed, but fingers crossed..” He gave his best reassuring smile. Morgan did not look amused.
They retrieved their room key from the lady at the front desk who, in Atlas’s personal opinion, should consider not drinking on the job. (Seriously, who’s okay with looking like that in public?)
Morgan kept giving him judgmental looks, it’s not Atlas’s fault that Morgan’s a bit spoilt.
There. Were. So. Many. Bugs. Piles of dead flies and moths on the windowsills. They checked the sheets and there are fucking bedbugs, what is this, France?
He thinks he saw a roach.
He’s never going to hear the end of this. Scratch that, he’s not gonna make the rest of the trip because if Morgan keeps looking at him like that he fears he might drop dead.
“It’s better on the inside, huh”
“If you don’t stop, I *will* start crying.”
“Why did you get a single king bed. There’s no way this place was booked up.”
Atlas let out a strangled noise, he didn’t meet Morgan’s eyes and he mumbled a response.
“Pardon?”
“I couldn’t afford a bigger room..” Morgan admitted, pointedly looking away, bracing himself from what potential yelling he knew this statement would earn him.
He blinked an eye open at the strange silence, maybe Morgan was waiting for his defenses to fall?.. What’s with the expression on his face?.. Oh.
“I have eno-“
“Doesn’t that mean you’re too broke to afford this stupid roadtrip?” Morgan interrupts gleefully, his eyes shining with hope.
“I couldn’t afford it when I booked the room.” Atlas clarifies, watching as Morgan’s expression dropped almost instantly into a pout.
“Cant you get a refund?” His companion pleaded. Atlas resisted the urge to laugh at his behavior
“Even if I could, which I wouldn't. I'm too tired to drive anymore.” Atlas smiled innocently as Morgan glared at him before groaning in frustration.
“This is to spite me! You're a terrible friend!” He whined
“Whatever do you mean, darling light of my life? I would never do anything to-”
“I don't need to get a license! I don't want to go anywhere!”
Atlas leaned forward, clearly that wasn't the case now, was it? He watched smugly as Morgan glared at him, before sighing.
“Well I guess you'll just have to suck it up princess! Because we aren't going anywhere until I get my beauty sleep.” He declared
Morgan groaned, sitting on one of the chairs and flooding his arms to his chest. “We’re going to be here forever then.” he mumbled.
“What was that?” Atlas side-eyed
“Nothing. Can you figure out how we’re going to sleep? You can actually be okay with being eaten by bugs.” Morgan huffed.
God he was demanding, why did he have to care so much about the social well-being of an asshole again?
Atlas ran a hand through his hair and looked around the small room. The bed was taking up a lot of the space. He hummed and started moving some of the furniture up against the wall, electing to ignore the heckling coming from the sidelines.
He’d managed to clear a small space for them on the floor, grabbing one of the spare blankets from the closet. Atlas figured they would be fine, seeing as it looked like they hadn’t been used much. He laid one out on the floor and put another one on top of it, then grabbed some of the pillows from the closet and tucked them under the second blanket.
Atlas stood back and did a little gesturing motion “Ta-da! One sleeping space for his majesty.” He said with faux cheer.
“Why is your pillow so close to mine?”
“Stop whining.”
They eventually laid down after getting done with their night routines. Atlas stared up at the ceiling, he felt.. Guilty. This trip was supposed to benefit them both, more so Morgan, yet its already making them miserable. He took a deep breath, thinking about how he was going to articulate his words before speaking
“Hey, I'm- sorry for how this is turning out.” He apologized
Morgan turned to look at him, his face scrunched up for a moment. Atlas wished he knew what he was thinking, it would make everything so much easier.
“Its not your fault. Im just..” he paused “ Difficult. I guess.”
“That's not true.” Atlas scolded, despite it being sort of true. Morgan was hard to understand, he shared very little. He never could predict how he would react to anything really.
“It's- I've been really rude today.. I know you really mean well but.” Morgan trailed off
“It's difficult for you, I know. You don't have to apologize for that. I haven't been very considerate-”
“Atlas, I really appreciate that, actually.” Morgan cut in, looking away
“If you respected everything I said all the time, Id.. never do anything.” He murmured
Atlas frowned “There's nothing wrong with doing what you're comfortable with Morg'.”
“I'm not comfortable with most stuff.” He huffed a laugh.
“That's true.” Atlas admitted, smiling fondly.
They stared at each other for a few quiet moments, before Morgan spoke again
“Thank you for doing this Atlas. Even if I'm miserable the whole time.” He said softly.