Work Text:
All things considered, things have gone well so far.
Bob and Helmut had been on the road for just over four days now. They’d not managed to make it to Sacramento the first night like planned, mostly due to Bob never having been in a car for more than an hour and a flat tire the second they crossed the border. Helmut had made the executive decision to take their time, despite Bob’s guilt-fueled protests about their schedule. According to Helmut, they now had a moral obligation to take as many detours to shitty truck stops or tourist traps as humanly possible so Bob could get the authentic experience. This included about 5 crappy gift shops, (and five crappy magnets), a bigfoot sighting tour (Where Bob found out via the scrub oak that he did actually exist, he just lived in Idaho), a memorable experience accidentally breaking an exhibit at Confusion Hill, and spending an entire day around some redwoods off the 101 because they were so glad to have someone who could actually hear them around they’d made Bob sit around and listen to stories for a solid 7 hours.
After the first very awkward night sleeping in the van, they’d gotten a cheap motel room with the money Bob got selling the truck and had decided to stay a couple of days to stock up on some necessities in addition to seeing the local sights (yes, the dancing cactus that goes on the dashboard is a necessity, Bobby) before moving on and continuing with their trip. Today, they were on course for Sacramento. It should be smooth sailing down the highway from their last stop, with no interruptions or delays.
“I’m so excited to see Sacramento, I’ve heard it’s awesome, and I haven’t been in a big city since Portland!” Helmut says excitedly from his spot in the driver’s seat. Bob hums from the passenger seat, watching the forest start to fade away. He waves out the window as the trees shout their goodbyes at the van.
“I haven’t been in a big city at all,” he comments. Helmut snorts, a sound Bob wonders not for the first time how he manages to make cute.
“You haven’t been to any city, Bobby. It’ll be awesome! Your first time in a place with more than one grocery store!” Helmut laughs, making Bob laugh as well.
“I know, it’s hard to imagine,” Bob jokes, rolling his eyes lightly as he watches out the window. They’re not even that far from home but the landscape already looks so different from the little valley he’d grown up in. It’d terrified him on that first day, how different everything was. He’d had a shameful moment of weakness where he almost begged Helmut to take him home. He’d managed to muster up the courage to stay, largely due to his companion, but the rest of that day was still filled with unease and uncertainty. Bob found he quickly got over the worst of it though, once he took the time to appreciate what was around him. It was all new, yes, but that didn’t make it bad. There was so much he had never seen, so much beauty and wonder that existed outside of his greenhouse back home. Even just the cut-through rock faces bordering the highway were exciting simply because he’d never seen anything like it before. The more he saw, the more he thought about seeing. The more he thought about seeing, the less he found himself missing home, and the more excited he was for something new.
“Is Sacramento near the ocean?” Bob asks, tilting his head back towards Helmut. Helmut ponders it and grabs the slightly crumpled and coffee stained highway map off the dashboard, shaking it open and looking at it while still driving. Bob instinctively grips the armrest a little tighter.
“Not really, no,” Helmut says, tapping the star on the map with his finger, “It’s sorta in the middle? Probably a couple hours drive to the nearest beach, at least.”
“Oh,” Bob replies, forlorn. Helmut glances over at him, waiting for an explanation. Sometimes Bob just doesn’t elaborate on anything, which isn’t really helpful.
Helmut flicks him in the thigh. Bob glares at him lightly, “We’ll get to the coast eventually, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I’ve never seen the ocean before,” Bob says, “I’ve only ever seen blurry photos from my parent’s honeymoon and some old books.”
“You’ve never seen the ocean?!” Helmut exclaims, genuinely surprised.
“Remember the whole ‘never left the valley’ thing?”
“Well, yeah, but still. Really? Your state has a coastline!”
“Helmut, I have never seen a body of water bigger than the pond at the park.”
“Oh my god,” Helmut laments. Bob gives him a blank, unamused stare. “That’s awful!”
“Didn’t you also grow up landlocked?” Bob asks. Helmut shrugs.
“Technically, but we had the great lakes! And I drove the entire coastal highway on the east coast! I can’t believe you’ve never seen it, that’s missing out on so many cool life experiences.”
“Stop making fun of me,” Bob grumbles, going back to looking out the window. Helmut winces.
“I’m not! I swear I’m not. The ocean is- Well it’s incredible. I can’t really describe it, but it’s amazing. I think you’d really love it,” he says, hoping Bob can tell he’s serious. Bob sighs, the momentary tension draining from him as he relaxes against the door again.
“Well, I’ll see it eventually,” Bob says, wistful, “I wonder how different the west coast is from the east coast?”
“We could just go find out, you know.”
“We have places we need to be, Helmut. Another time, okay?”
“But-”
“One thing at a time.”
“Fiiiine, jeez.”
Helmut pouts, settling back into his seat. Bob settles back against the door and they drive on with only the sound of Glen Campbell streaming through the speakers. Helmut taps his fingers against the steering wheel, once again with the weird feeling that always stirs in his gut when Bob talks about the things he hasn't done. It bothered him, the idea of Bob being stuck so closed off and hidden from the rest of the world. There's so much he hadn't seen, so much he deserved to see. Helmut would show it to him, if he was willing.
It bothers him as well to think about what would have happened if he'd left Bob back in the valley. He knows that Bob's an isolated person, he doesn't trust easily, he doesn't reach out, and Helmut knows he's got a family problem with alcohol and depression. He would have locked himself back in that greenhouse and that smile Helmut had spent days trying to get out of him would fade again. The more Helmut thinks about it, the more protective he feels and the more he thinks he would have turned around and dragged Bob along with him regardless.
He watched the highway exit signs fly by, and he got an idea. Tiny waves crashed in the space around his head as his grin grew.
Bob was jerked out of his half sleep by the van abruptly swerving to the right.
"Wh- Helmut!" he shrieked, "What the hell?!" Helmut laughed in response.
"It's a detour!"
"Detour to what??"
"You'll see!" Helmut laughs, his grin infectious as he hits the gas and Bob's anxiety starts to dissipate despite himself, "Just trust me, Bobby!"
So Bob does.
-
They drive on for about three hours or so, enough time for Bob to vaguely process that they're heading west. At one point he steals Helmut's sweater to use as a pillow and learns that the combination of the smell of wool and patchouli knocks him out quicker than a nightcap does, falling asleep against the window for the remainder of the drive.
Helmut doesn't mind, he's used to driving in silence and Bob's light snoring is a fantastic change of pace from talking to himself for hours. It's late afternoon by the time they reach their destination, Helmut smiling to himself as he spots it from in between the hills. He pulls off at a wooden sign onto a dirt road, driving slowly to try and keep the van from bumping along and waking Bob up. He didn't want him to see it until they were there.
Helmut parks the van a short ways away, and after he swats at the images of waves and fish floating around the dashboard away he gently shakes Bob awake, ignoring how his heart twists when Bob sleepily rubs at his eyes.
"Where're we?" he mumbles, half awake. Helmut just smiles and winks, getting out of the van. He stretches his arms over his head, deeply inhaling the fresh air. It'd be good to walk around after driving so long, it'd be a nice added benefit to their excursion. Bob shakes himself awake more, cracking his neck and rolling his shoulders as he puts Helmut's sweater back and climbs out of the van.
The first thing he notices is that the air feels different than the rest of California has so far. There's a sort of crispness to it, a sharp smell to it as he breathes in the cool breeze. It's relaxing, somehow.
"Sooo, what're we doing out here?" he asks, walking over to where Helmut stands by a path leading off through the rocks and trees. "Have you finally decided to kill me?"
"Bob, please, if I was gonna kill you I'd have done it in the redwood forest," Helmut jokes back, both of them chuckling quietly. "Nah, come on, you'll like it."
"Tourist spot?"
"Nope, at least I don't think so. I doubt it given the lack of paved roads down here."
Bob's footsteps falter slightly as he follows Helmut down the path.
"You haven't been here?"
"Nope! Fun, right?"
"Oh god, are we lost? We're gonna get kidnapped or eaten by bears or something aren't we?" Bob asks, looking around at the trees in concern. They send waves of gentle reassurance back to him, promising that there's no danger here. He's not sure if he believes them, and is about to tell them so when Helmut's arm lands heavily across his shoulders.
"We're not gonna get lost, I wrote down all the exits I took to get here, and we have plenty of maps. Everything's gonna be just fine, okay?"
There's a split second of Bob being too distracted to answer that makes Helmut worry he'd crossed some sort of line before Bob thankfully leans into him and stays there for a moment before pulling away to keep walking.
"If you say so... If we get lost and die out here, I'm blaming you."
"That's completely fair, yeah."
Bob idly chats with the various trees and bushes and grasses they pass as they walk, translating what they say for Helmut so he's not left out of the conversation. It never ceases to amaze Helmut, both the ease at which Bob handles communicating with something inhuman and the static it sends racing through the base of Helmut's skull when he does. Bob had explained it as being able to feel someone else's psychic abilities being used. He'd grown up feeling it around his sister and his mom, and said it made sense for Helmut to be unfamiliar with it since he was the only psychic out of his siblings. Bob assured him he'd stop noticing it after a while, but if Helmut was being honest, he didn't want to. To him, that sensation was comforting. It meant that he wasn't alone in the world, that he wasn't some sort of outcast or freak of nature, but that he was just a person who could do some different things, and that Bob was too. The electric purple static felt like a physical tether anchoring him in reality and keeping him out of his own head. It was a nice change, to not feel like his abilities are something that makes him wrong, somehow.
He doesn't notice that there's hearts and leaves floating around until he hears Bob's laughter lighting up yellow next to him. He quickly tries to swat the images away like annoying, emotionally compromising flies.
"Sorry," he says, giving Bob a sheepish smile. Bob shakes his head.
"Don't be, it's endearing to be able to see what you're thinking about," he replies, delighted at how Helmut's smile softens around the edges.
"You gossiping with the plants is pretty endearing too", he says, hoping his ears aren't turning pink. Bob's responding giggle sounds a little embarrassed, and they continue their walking and talking with smiles on their faces. When they come out of the trees, Helmut abruptly stops their previous conversation to excitedly grab Bob's arm.
"Oh! We're here!" he exclaims, making Bob stumble a little with how enthusiastically Helmut shakes his shoulders, "Okay, cover your eyes."
"...You really did bring me out here to kill me, didn't you?" Bob says, giving him a deadpan stare. Helmut lightly socks him in the arm.
"Shush! Do it!"
Bob sighs, acting very put out, and covers his eyes with his hands. He taps his foot, and is about to say something sarcastic when Helmut grabs one of his wrists, pulling that hand away and moving the other one to make sure his eyes are fully covered. He has to remind himself to breathe as Helmut takes his unoccupied hand in his own. It takes a small tug for Bob to get with the picture, letting Helmut lead him along the last thirty feet or so upwards. They go carefully, Helmut making sure Bob doesn't trip over any loose rocks. He can feel the grass giggling at him.
Helmut stops and drops Bob's hand, unable to stop himself bouncing on his heels in excitement.
"Okay, you can look!"
Bob drops his hand. The comment he was about to make dies in his throat as his eyes widen, taking in the scene before him. The two of them are standing up on a small cliff, and beyond that lies the vast and unending waters of the pacific ocean. His hands fall limply to his sides and all he can do is stare. The salty sea breeze blows his hair around his shoulders as the sound of gulls down below fills his ears alongside the crashing of waves.
"Woah..." he whispers, his voice syrupy with wonder and awe. Helmut wishes he had a camera to capture the look on Bob's face as he slowly walks closer to the cliff's edge. His eyes wide, his mouth slightly open, his hair gently floating around his jaw in the breeze. He looked absolutely beautiful, his smile growing as he fully processed what he was looking at. Helmut kept quiet, smiling to himself and letting Bob have his moment without interruption. Bob pivoted in a circle, taking in everything around him with a disbelieving laugh. He looks to Helmut with the most radiant smile Helmut's ever seen, one that would have taken his breath away if Bob didn't knock it out of him first, throwing his arms around Helmut's neck with a delighted giggle.
"This is so much better than being stranded," Bob laughs, the sound like a chorus of bells. Helmut snickers and hugs him tight enough to pick him up off the ground.
"Anything like you imagined?" he asks, setting Bob back down. Bob shakes his head, that bewildered smile still on his face.
"No! Nothing like I imagined! It- it's, wow it's big, it just keeps going!" he says, gesturing wildly with his arms at the glittering water below them. Helmut can't stop smiling watching him.
"C'mon, I think there's a way down to the beach over here, one of those desire path things," he points over his shoulder. There's a path through the rocks that leads downwards, clearly visible by decades of footprints from countless other couples coming here for a secret getaway, wearing their stories into the rock and sand. Bob is the most excited Helmut had ever seen him, talking their entire way down to the beach.
"I used to have this book about pirates when I was a little kid," he says, "And I was always fascinated when it described the ocean. It seemed so fantastical at the time but I still couldn't ever picture it being bigger than a lake until I saw a picture of it in high school, but even then you can't really grasp how it just goes on and on, and I remember seeing that picture and thinking about pirates and spending all my time daydreaming about sailing around the seven seas."
"You wanted to be a pirate?" Helmut asks, delicately picking his way down the rocks. It's not super precarious, but it does require some caution. There's probably a reason there's no one else at this particular beach since getting to it seems to be a bit of a hazard.
"No! Well, okay, yeah I did. I thought it sounded so cool! Just sailing around from island to island in a giant ship in the Caribbean sounded like a dream. Have you seen the Caribbean?"
"Nope, I've only seen the Atlantic," Helmut answers, helping Bob over a particularly large rock.
"Oh. Do you want to see the Caribbean? Maybe we could go one day!"
Helmut's heart skips a bit at the thought of 'we'.
"That'd be a fun vacation! We could go scuba diving."
"We could! Oh, wait, I uh..."
Helmut hops down the last few feet to the sand, turning back to see Bob with a very uncomfortable look on his face.
"Yeaaah?" he asks, drawing it out with a tilt of his head. Bob winces.
"I um. I don't know how to swim," he says, bracing himself for the comments or snide laughter. Just like always, it doesn't come, instead Helmut laughs softly and gives Bob that gentle smile that makes him feel like he's melting.
"Well yeah, I'm not surprised by that. The valley didn't really seem to have many opportunities for it," he says, once again catching Bob off guard with how casually comforting he manages to be. Helmut leans down to pull off his boots, Bob following suit with his loafers.
"You don't want sand in your shoes, trust me," Helmut says, walking out onto the warm sand with a sigh of relief. Bob follows him, concentrating on the feeling of sand beneath his feet. It's not much different than dirt, he supposes, but it's also very different, and new, but in a way he finds he really likes, digging his toes in as he walks along beside Helmut.
Helmut stops about twenty feet back from the water, dropping his shoes to the ground. He puts his hands on his hips and observes the sea for a second before nodding to himself. Bob places his shoes on the ground, careful to keep the sand out of them, and when he looks up Helmut is halfway through pulling his shirt off.
"What are you doing??" Bob squeaks, eyes wide. Helmut gives him an odd look and a raised eyebrow before yanking his shirt the rest of the way off, dropping it unceremoniously on the ground on top of his jacket.
"I don't want to get my coat wet," he says, as if it's the most obvious thing in the world and he isn't standing there naked from the waist up in front of Bob who is trying so so hard not to stare at him. It's not like he hasn't seen Helmut in various states of undress before, it's impossible not to when your shared living space is a tiny van with exactly one room, but that was always quick, half second glances while changing. This is different, and Bob's definitely not staring at the way his hair just barely brushes his shoulders that Bob's realizing have freckles on them, or the light dusting of red hair across his chest and arms, or the soft folds of his back and the gentle curves of his stomach and chest and Bob is definitely not doing this and thinking about how if he wasn't sure he was into men before he definitely is now.
Helmut coughs awkwardly, a bit uncomfortable under Bob's stare and crosses his arms over his chest. Bob immediately looks away, feeling a flush across his cheeks as he studies the sand under his feet. It's a solid twenty seconds of awkward silence before Helmut rubs at the back of his neck.
"Sooo, are you coming?" he asks. Bob quirks an eyebrow.
"Coming where? We're already here."
"Swimming, obviously. You don't come to a beach and not get in the water!" Helmut says, reminded of his previous goal and leaning down to roll his pants up to his knees. Bob pales slightly.
"Oh I uh, I dunno. It looks...Deep. I'm not really interested in drowning."
Helmut shakes his head as he straightens.
"You'll be fine! It doesn't just immediately drop down, it's a slow slope, and you don't have to go any deeper than your knees if you don't want to. But it'd be a crime to see the ocean for the first time in your life and not go in, right?"
His smile is so encouraging that Bob can't help but smile back, despite his nerves. Helmut seems to sense he needs a minute to decide and gives him a thumbs up before running off towards the water. He watches Helmut with a fond smile, turning to a laugh at Helmut’s high pitched shriek of surprise and the shout of
“FUCK, it’s COLD” the second his feet hit the water. He hops back and forth from one foot to another, swearing to himself, and Bob rolls his eyes with a grin.
“You wanna come back now?” he says, crossing his arms over his chest. Helmut turns around to glare at him.
“No way! It just surprised me!” Helmut shouts before a mischievous grin crosses his face, “You just have to get used to it!”
With that, he walks backwards until the water is around his thighs, salutes Bob, and promptly falls backwards and disappears beneath the waves.
Bob's breath catches in his throat as he waits for four terrifying seconds before Helmut pops back up above the water with a laugh. He exhales in relief. Helmut shakes his hair out with a look of childlike glee on his face.
"C'mon Bobby! We didn't come all the way out here for you to sit on the shore!" he whines, bobbing up and down with the waves. Dammit. Bob makes him wait another beat, at least, before he starts unbuttoning his shirt with slightly shaking hands. Helmut whoops in victory, ducking beneath the water again and resurfacing closer to the shore. He patiently waits for Bob to carefully take off his button down and fold it before placing it on a rock and setting his glasses on top. He tries to ignore his own nerves as he walks over, stopping just short of the lapping waves.
"Are you sure this is safe?" he asks, feeling more and more apprehensive as he watches the water crash into the rocks surrounding their little beach.
"Of course I am! You'll be just fine," Helmut replies enthusiastically. "Just get in!"
"Didn't you say it was cold?"
Helmut gives him a blank stare, leans down, and swipes his hand through the water, splashing Bob with a spray of salt water. Bob shrieks, stumbling away a step.
"Hey! What the hell!"
"Now you know what it feels like!" Helmut laughs. He holds a hand out, "Just trust me, Bob, I'm not gonna let you float away."
Bob sighs, and takes his hand. The initial chill when Helmut leads him into the water makes him break out in goosebumps, but the further they get in, the less it bothers him. He keeps a death grip on Helmut's hand, concentrating on the feeling of gravel and sand beneath his feet and definitely not squealing when a chunk of seaweed wraps around his ankle. When they get deep enough that the water's around their waist, Helmut stops.
"Hey, look at you! You went in the ocean and didn't die!" he laughs. Delightfully, Bob laughs too.
"Yeah, I guess so. It's actually nice."
"Does it live up to your fantasies?"
"There's more stuff floating around than in my fantasies but, yeah, it does," Bob says, lifting his free hand out of the water to display the kelp wrapped around it. Helmut snickers.
"Yeah, there's a lot of seaweed. Can you hear it?"
Bob tilts his head in that way he does when he's concentrating, a small flare of purple static kicking up.
"There's... Something out there, deeper in. It's hard to tell through the water, but it sounds like there's living stuff down there. The stuff floating around us is dead."
"Gross."
"There's dead stuff everywhere, Helmut."
"Double gross! C'mon, maybe you'll be able to hear it if we get deeper in."
"Oh, uh, I think I'm good here. Actually. Where the waves can't knock me over."
Helmut gives him an exasperated smile, but it's a fond one at the same time.
"I'm taller and heavier than you. Just hold onto me," he says, leaning away from Bob just enough to get the momentum to pull him further in. Bob makes a strangled noise in protest, grabbing at Helmut's arm.
"Hey-"
"Let yourself bob up and down with the waves, keep an eye out for the bigger ones and you'll be just fine," Helmut says, his grin doing little to reassure Bob. Bit by bit, they get deeper, until the water is up to Helmut's chest and Bob's shoulders.
"I'm not gonna be able to touch the bottom," Bob whines. Helmut gently pulls Bob's hand, the one not in his, off his arm and places it on his shoulder. Sure, maybe he shouldn't be stressing Bob out like this, but he knows there's nothing to worry about. If Bob shies away from everything that scares him, he would have never gotten out of that greenhouse. It's good for him, and it gives Helmut a fantastic opportunity to admire how pretty the rich brown of his eyes is, how thick his eyelashes are, and how up close he has just the faintest dusting of freckles on his nose. He's handsome, even with the dorky mustache, and even when he's freaking out and nearly getting slammed by a wave because something brushed up against his leg again.
Helmut rights him with a laugh, pulling Bob closer with a hand on his hip. He lets himself believe that the warmth in his cheeks is just because the water's cold. Bob clings to his shoulders, trying his best to follow Helmut’s directions of moving with the waves.
“Hey! Now you’re getting it!” Helmut encourages, his smile bright. Bob smiles back, kicking his feet a little bit to test his buoyancy. It’s not...As bad as he thought it would be. It’s actually pretty easy, though that’s probably most thanks to his helpful human anchor. Now assured he’s not going to just sink down and die if his feet aren’t on the bottom, Bob can pay attention to other things, like the fact that Helmut is very, very close to him, that the bare skin of his freckled shoulders is astonishingly warm against the cold of the water, and that his eyes are the most brilliant shade of green he thinks he’s ever seen.
"-Hear anything?" Helmut's voice breaks through his train of thought, Bob blinking in surprise.
"Huh?"
"I said can you hear anything? Any cool kelp gossip?"
"Oh, uh..."
Bob focuses, reaching out as best he can while also concentrating on staying afloat. This close, that static charge feels like a tether, something that Helmut can feel wrapping around the base of his skull and further inward and down into his very soul. It occurs to him, not for the first time, that Bob's probably much more powerful than he tells himself he is. He wonders if the proximity has something to do with it, if being this close to Bob means it's easier to feel it. It almost makes him gasp when it abruptly gets stronger, in time with the furrowing of Bob's brow as he concentrates. He doesn’t think that Bob can feel it like he does, given how little he reacts, so maybe for Helmut it’s...Heightened, somehow? Maybe it’s because he hasn’t ever been around another psychic. Or maybe it’s just because it’s Bob. If he focuses on it, it’s almost like he can hear what Bob hears, like he can feel the whispers from the deep himself, or maybe it’s just his overactive imagination.
Bob hums, closing his eyes with a small smile, and Helmut smiles in return. He’s unable to stop himself from taking in every detail of Bob’s face that he can. It’s not like they’re never close to each other, Helmut’s a tactile guy and they’re sort of living in a very small van right now, but this sort of extensive closeness has only happened once. On the night before Helmut was about to leave, when the two of them stood there for as long as they possibly were able, clinging to each other like a life preserver that was thrown out to sea, trying not to sink again when they’d just finally found solid ground.
“They’re saying...” Bob mumbles, tilting his head a bit with a semi-frustrated noise, “It’s hard to make out, but I think they know I’ve never done this before, somehow. It sound like they’re saying ‘don’t be’-”
Bob opens his eyes, and he and Helmut both realize in that moment that their faces are mere inches apart from each other. Helmut blinks in surprise, but makes no motion to move. He didn’t realize that he’d pulled Bob so much closer.
“ ‘Afraid...’ “ Bob whispers. He tightens his grip on Helmut’s shoulders, Helmut’s gaze drops to his lips. The world around them seems to go completely silent. Both of their hearts start beating faster, almost in unison. Bob uses his grip to pull Helmut closer, their noses just barely brushing. He hears Helmut inhale in shock, feels the hands on his waist tighten just so slightly. Bob tilts his head, leans in, and then-
A large wave hits them, sending them crashing into the water and yanking them out of each other’s arms. Panic swarms Bob’s mind as he urgently claps a hand over his mouth, scrabbling with his free hand and kicking blindly towards what he hopes to god is the surface. Bob breaks the surface with a gasp, frantically swinging his arms out in a bad approximation of a paddle closer to shore. His feet hit the gravel and he shoves himself upright, water around his chest, spinning in a circle with wide eyes.
“Helmut? Helmut?!” he shouts, his voice going up in pitch as fear tightens in his throat. He’s the only one above the surface, Helmut’s down below, Helmut’s going to drown and it’ll be his fault and-
There’s a splash from behind him. Bob whirls around to see a red mop with kelp stuck in it come up above the water. It grins wide, his red hair plastered over his eyes as Helmut spits out the seawater in his mouth directly at Bob. Bob blinks in shock, his eyes wide. Helmut wipes his hair out of his eyes, bursting into laughter.
“You- You son of a bitch.” he says as Helmut stands up straight, trying his damndest not to laugh as well. He settles for launching himself at Helmut and tackling him into the water instead, remembering to hold his breath this time. They both surface with hysterical laughter, the kelp now stuck in Bob’s hair. Helmut grins like a shark, wrapping his arms around Bob’s waist and scooping him up. Bob shrieks, kicking his legs with a giggle as Helmut effectively suplexes him, dropping them both back under the oceans waves. The two of them play around like they're reliving a childhood they didn't, splashing and swimming around and laughing so much it makes it hard to breathe, which isn’t the best for messing around in the ocean. After some time, exhausted and laugh-drunk and freezing, they make their way back towards shore. They’re both thoroughly exhausted to the bone, collapsing onto the warm sand side by side.
Bob settles himself down on a rock, while Helmut first shakes his hair out like a dog, before he collapses flat on his back in the sand.
“You’re gonna get sand everywhere,” Bob chuckles, “I’m not vacuuming the van out.”
“Shoosh, it’s warm, I’m gonna lay here and bake myself like a casserole,” Helmut says, closing his eyes with a contented sigh as he soaks up the sun. He absently pats the sand beside him. “Get down here, Bobby.”
Bob rolls his eyes, but does it, gingerly sitting down next to Helmut. He starts drawing mindless swirls and shapes in the sand. Helmut props himself up on his elbows, gazing at Bob with a fond smile. He looks so relaxed, a soft smile on his face, his skin slightly flushed through his soaked tank top. It’s a good look on him, rather than the nervousness that tends to follow him. It follows Helmut too, he just hides it better.
“So, worth the detour?” he asks with a lazy grin. Bob’s shoulders shake with silent laughter.
“Yeah, definitely worth it.”
“Even if we’re not gonna make it to Sacramento today?”
“...Yeah, I guess so,” Bob says, his voice turning to more of a mumble. Helmut sits up properly, looking at him with concern.
“You guess so?”
“It’s fantastic, and I’m so glad we came here, but...” Bob sighs, pulling his knees up to his chest, “...Why do you keep doing this?”
“Doing what?” Helmut asks. Bob hesitates, so Helmut gently puts a hand on his shoulder.
“Doing this. Doing things for me, even though you have a schedule and a plan and better things to do,” he says. Helmut blinks in surprise.
“Because you deserve to have some fun in your life,” he explains, “and it’s fun for me too.”
“But why?” Bob insists, “I don’t- What makes me worth that? Why would you go out of your way to continually do all of this stuff for me and show me all of these amazing places when I’m just a wrench in your plans?” His voice sounds thick, and it breaks Helmut’s heart. He scoots closer, nudging Bob with his shoulder.
“Is it really that hard for you to believe that I like you? Or that I care about you?” he asks, gently. Bob huffs.
“Kinda, yeah. It’s not like you’re getting anything out of this arrangement,” he mumbles, tucking his knees closer to himself. Helmut purses his lips and flicks Bob in the ear.
“Quit that,” he says, “None of your self deprecation stuff.”
“Not really something I can turn off.”
“Bobby- Jeez, listen, okay? Being around you...” Helmut sighs, trying to figure out how to word it. Little storm clouds float around him, intermingled with shadowy blobs and a few tiny images of a little kid with red hair. “You make me feel more like a person than I’ve ever really felt. I’ve always been sort of... Separated from everyone, because of who I am and the whole psychic thing and the, y’know, all of it. But you... You make me feel like I’m not alone anymore. I’ve been on my own for the last six months and it’s been fun, and freeing but it’s been really, really lonely. But then I met you, and suddenly I can’t picture myself continuing this whole journey without you being a part of it.”
As he speaks, the storm clouds turn into white, fluffy ones, and the shadows turn into smiling suns. The small images turn into a young man with a patch covered jacket and a smile on his face. Bob smiles slightly watching them, something indefinable twisting in his chest that he simply sums up as ‘everything at once’.
His silence makes Helmut worried again that he was too much, but Bob doesn't seem bothered, just like he doesn't know how to react.
"Y'know, when I was a kid I used to be scared of the water," Helmut muses in an attempt to change the subject, gazing out over the waves. When Bob looks up, the water is illuminated by the setting sun, and so is he. Bob thinks it makes his hair look like fire, vibrant and warm and terrifying in a way.
"It's hard to imagine you being scared of anything," Bob says. Helmut laughs.
"Ahh, I'm scared of plenty of stuff. I got over the water thing, though."
"What scared you about it?" he asks, voice soft.
"Drowning, kinda," Helmut says, tilting his face to the sky, "It's gonna sound ridiculous, but when I was a kid I had this nightmare about being stuck at the bottom of the lake. For years, any time my family would go on a trip to the lake in summer I refused to go in the water past my knees because I thought I would just sink straight to the bottom."
He chews the inside of his cheek, embarrassed by how ridiculous it sounds when he says it out loud.
“I’m scared of heights,” Bob says, smiling slightly at Helmut. It’s always so obvious when he’s uncomfortable, which is nice because Bob isn’t the most skilled at reading people. Helmut snorts.
“Really? The guy who was making friends with the redwoods?”
“Well I wasn’t up in them, was I? I hate heights, I blame my mom reading me Jack and the Beanstalk as a kid. Can’t go higher than 3 stories without freaking out now.”
“Well there go my plans to take you on a rollercoaster,” Helmut says, the smile obvious in his voice, “That’s not bad though, lots of people are scared of heights. I think the very specific drowning one is just a ‘me being weird’ thing.”
Bob hums, thinking. He digs his toes into the sand and exhales through his nose.
"...The woman who ran the grocery store told me I had agoraphobia," he mumbles, embarrassed to say it out loud, even though Helmut had just admitted an odd fear of his own. Helmut tilts his head curiously.
"Is that where you're scared of going outside?"
"Yeah, kinda. I guess it sorta kicked in after mom died, I didn’t really leave the house much. It was just easier to stay inside, away from everything, and I think I kinda forgot how to exist in the world for a while,” Bob explains, fighting not to let his voice warble talking about it.
"But you're out right now, existing in the big wide world," Helmut says, trying to be encouraging. Bob shrugs.
"Yeah, and I'm still scared of a lot of it. But... It's easier, with you around."
Helmut ignores the way his heart clenches in his chest, a swirling mixture of sadness and joy in his stomach.
"Well then I guess I gotta stick around, huh? Seems like we'd be kinda screwed without each other."
Helmut hears Bob laugh before he sniffles a bit and rubs at his eye, and then Bob’s scooting closer and laying his head on Helmut’s shoulder.
“...Thanks,” he says, relaxing against Helmut’s side, "For being here with me."
Helmut rests his head against Bob’s hair, only wrinkling his nose slightly at the wet feeling against his cheek.
“Mm, I think I should be thanking you for the same thing, really.”
“Nah.”
“Yea-huh.”
“Nope.”
“I will win this argument Bob, I have so many siblings.”
That makes Bob settle into quiet with a soft laugh. The only sounds are their breathing, the crash of the waves, and the calls of seagulls flying overhead. It’s peaceful, and Helmut once again revels in the fact that it doesn’t feel like there’s a time limit on it anymore. He doesn’t know how long Bob will travel with him, but he meant it when he said he can’t imagine doing this without him. For someone to become such an important part of his life in such a short amount of time, it’s like something out of those cheesy romance novels his sister reads. But it’s true, entirely, and Helmut wishes he knew how to make Bob actually, really believe him when he says it.
It's something he wants more than anything, to be able to show him that different perspective. He exhales slowly, and wishes for a way that he could show Bob how he sees him. He feels that purple static in his mind again, absently wondering what Bob's talking to. But Bob's quiet, and the feeling grows stronger, feeling like it's spreading through his entire brain.
When Helmut blinks, the whole world has shifted. He startles upright, looking around wide eyed and concerned at a world that's nothing like what he's used to. Helmut's world is filled with bright colors and swirling sounds, vibrant and alive, but his view now is dulled, like the saturation of everything has been turned down. The viewpoint turns, even though Helmut's staying still, and then there's a being in his vision that's bright enough that it shines like a sun, surrounded in an aura of color and warmth. The area around the being is more colorful, like it's adding vibrance to the world just by existing. When the view focuses on its face, Helmut abruptly realizes that the being is himself, his own startled expression framed in a halo of gold and sunlight.
He jerks back, and the worldview shifts back so abruptly that it gives him vertigo. Helmut falls backwards onto the sand as his head throbs with a sudden, piercing ache. He presses the heels of his hands to his eyes and whines, and then he registers Bob saying his name.
Bob had no idea what the hell he just felt. For a second it felt like water in his ears, and the feeling pushed behind his eyes and then Helmut jerked upright and stopped moving. He'd been concerned, obviously, but that odd sensation spread to his entire head, then Helmut blinked, and it vanished, replaced by a dull headache. Now Helmut was making pained noises on the ground and Bob was distressingly confused. He shakes Helmut's knee.
"Helmut? Hey, Helmut! What the hell just happened?" he asks. It seems to take Helmut a second to process that Bob was talking, peering out from under his hands.
"What- ow, my head, what was that?" he asks. Bob stares at him.
"You just did... Something to me. I don't know what, but my head felt weird, like there was something else in it."
Helmut blinks, thinking to himself, then quickly sits up.
"Holy shit," he says.
"What?"
"Holy shit!"
"What?? What did you do?"
"I think I just saw what you see!" Helmut exclaims, excitedly grabbing Bob's shoulders, "I was thinking how I wanted you to see yourself from my perspective and then I got this really weird feeling and I blinked and I think I saw me from your perspective!"
"...You were in my head?" Bob asks, panic swelling in his stomach.
"Yeah! Well, maybe? I don't know how it works or how I did it but it's like I wasn't looking through my eyes, and then I saw myself in this, like, technicolor rainbow type situation, and I think I was seeing the world through your eyes!"
Helmut’s ecstatic, until he sees the look of horror on Bob’s face.
“You...Were you reading my mind?” he asks. Bob’s voice cracks.
“No, I don’t think so. I didn’t like, hear your thoughts? I just...Saw a different view, I guess?” Helmut shrugs, “Is that a psychic thing? I don’t know if that’s a
psychic thing.”
“It might be, but I couldn’t tell you what. My family only ever did the plant stuff,” Bob says, settling down after hearing that Helmut wasn’t actually in his thoughts, “I didn’t know you could have multiple abilities.”
“Yeah...” Helmut says, his voice far off. It’s weird to think about, “I don’t know how to do it again, but my head hurts so much I don’t really want to try it.”
“Hm,” Bob hums, rubbing a hand over his mouth and chin like some sort of old world philosopher, “We could always experiment with it, see if we can figure out what triggered it and make it happen again? It could be some other part of your little picture thing you didn’t know about.”
“Yeah, maybe,” Helmut replies. It is cool, not gonna lie, but he’s really not sure if the migraine’s worth it. He looks out at the ocean and immediately regrets it as the setting sun reflects off the water and directly back at him in a way that makes his headache throb even worse. He squeezes his eyes shut with a wince. “I think I’ve had enough excitement for today, though.”
Bob watches as distressed looking little static clumps materialize and circle around Helmut’s head.
“Yeah...Me too. I need a nap now, is swimming always so exhausting?”
He gets to his feet, shivering at the feeling of his still wet clothes shifting around on him. He nudges Helmut’s leg with his foot and holds a hand out when he looks up. Helmut takes it gratefully, pulling himself up with Bob’s help.
“I mean, it’s physical activity, man. Isn’t that always exhausting?” he asks, rolling his shoulders and wrinkling his nose at the feeling of sand falling off his back. Bob, ever helpful, gives him the “I told you so” look and does nothing else.
“I’m not vacuuming out the van,” Bob says, smug as he puts his glasses back on and grabs his shoes and shirt.
“Yeah yeah, shoosh. You’ve got sand all over your ass too, so don’t act all high and mighty,” Helmut jokes, sticking his tongue out when Bob flips him off. Helmut grabs his clothes and they make their way back across the beach and up the rocks, unconsciously sticking closer and closer together as they go. When they reach the top of the path, and the end of the road leading back to the van, Bob stops and looks back at the sea. Helmut stops and looks back at him. Bob gets that ‘everything at once’ feeling in his chest again, so intensely he finds himself reaching up to wipe away the tears that abruptly started welling up.
“I uh,” he starts, swallowing around the sudden lump in his throat. Helmut knows that tone of voice, it’s the one Bob gets when he’s struggling to reconcile
something within himself. Emotions are rough, he knows. He keeps his distance, but stands close enough that Bob knows for sure he’s there. Bob looks at the sky and takes a deep breath before turning around. He forces himself to make eye contact with Helmut, who gives him a reassuring smile.
“Thank you. For this,” he manages, “Not just the ocean thing, I mean yes, thank you for the ocean thing but also just for, y’know.” Bob gestures vaguely in the air between them, unable to find the words.
“I know,” Helmut replies, his own voice starting to wobble. He knows, he absolutely 100% knows, and he doesn’t know how to say it either. Just that whatever this is, whatever’s going on with them, it feels like the universe looked at them and said ‘here, this one’s for you, to make things better.’ Helmut knows this, and he thinks Bob does too. Bob smiles gratefully, wiping at his eyes. Helmut slings an arm over his shoulder as they start back towards the van.
“Next stop, Sacramento?” Bob asks.
“Yup, but with one more detour,” Helmut answers.
“What, seriously? Where else could we possibly go?”
“I’m gonna have to find a gas station and vacuum the sand out of my van.”